23427: radtimes: Resistance grows in wake of flood disaster (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

Haiti under occupation
Resistance grows in wake of flood disaster

http://www.workers.org/ww/2004/haiti1014.php

By G. Dunkel
Oct. 14, 2004

Opposition in Haiti to the U.S.-installed regime of Gérard Latortue has
grown more intense with the severe crisis caused by recent deadly flooding
from Hurricane Jeanne.

Shouting "Down with Bush! Up with democracy! Return Aristide!," thousands
of Haitians from the poorest neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince took to the
streets for three days, beginning Sept. 30. They were demanding the return
of popularly elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from U.S.-imposed
exile. A group affiliated with Fanmi Lavalas, Aristide's political party,
organized the demonstrations.

Sept. 30 is the anniversary of the first coup against Aristide in 1991.

Previous demonstrations called by Fanmi Lavalas have generally been
peaceful, though militant. These were different. Demonstrators threw rocks,
blocked the streets with barricades of burning tires, and exchanged gunfire
with the cops. At least 14 people were killed, including four cops,
according to various press reports.

Then on Saturday, Oct. 2, Port-au-Prince was shut down in a general strike
called by the leaders of the earlier protests.

While the general strike was going on, Sen. Yvon Feuillé, Sen. Gérard
Gilles and Deputy Rudy Hérivaux, all members of Fanmi Lavalas elected to
the legislature, were arrested while speaking on Radio Caribe in
Port-au-Prince about the violence which had broken out on Thursday. Evans
Paul and Himmler Rébu were also present, giving the government's side. They
are both prominent supporters of Latortue, the puppet prime minister put in
place by Washington.

Shortly after the program began, cops and heavily armed SWAT teams
surrounded the station, saying they had come to arrest Feuillé, Gilles and
Hérivaux for criticizing the government. After a six-hour standoff, they
broke the station's locks and took the criticizers off to jail--without a
warrant, despite their parliamentary immunity to arrest and the freedom of
speech guaranteed in Haiti's constitution. Even Paul and Rébu complained
that the cops "overreacted."

Firing from Cité Soleil, a very poor neighborhood in the northern part of
the city, still could be heard on Sunday night, Oct. 3. (Associated Press)

Tension in Haiti, already high, is sharpened by the failure of Latortue's
government to do anything significant for the people of Gonaïves and
northern Haiti, who were overwhelmed by Tropical Storm Jeanne in mid-September.

Some 200,000 people in Gonaïves--80 percent of the population--were still
homeless two weeks after Jeanne struck Haiti. People are drawing their
water out of pools filled with the carcasses of dead animals. Mud still
fills the streets. The hospital in Gonaïves was destroyed in the floods
following Jeanne; the only medical care is provided by a team of UN
doctors, mainly from Argentina, and 66 medical workers from Cuba. The
United Nations, which currently holds the mantle of the occupying power in
Haiti, has managed to provide food and water to only 25,000 people--10
percent of the people living there.

It took 750 UN troops to provide the security for the distributions that
have taken place. People are desperate. They realize that if they don't get
what is being handed out, they and their families can starve or get sick
from filthy water.

There is another reason for such heavy security. The armed gangs, mainly
former Haitian soldiers, who have controlled Gonaïves with the blessing and
praise of Latortue--he takes his cue from Wash ington and calls them
"courageous freedom fighters"--want their cut of anything that is
distributed. That's why they showed up, first with 150 men in uniform and
arms, then with 20 or so more with just a few weapons, in front of the UN's
warehouses. They could pretend they were providing "security" while
pressing their case for a payoff and checking out which local residents
received aid.

These armed gangs control most of the small, heavily populated villages and
cities that spread out from Gonaïves to the Dom inican border. No one knows
how badly they have been affected, though Haitians in New York with
relatives in that area report numerous deaths and disappearances. The
figures of 2,000 people known dead in Gonaïves, and 900 missing and
presumed dead, is likely to go much higher.

The Civil Protection Office (CPO) set up under Aristide was disbanded by
Latortue in his hunt for Lavalas supporters. This disaster preparedness
agency had stockpiled supplies and warned communities about approaching storms.

Cuba has equivalent organizations that worked very effectively when the eye
of Hurricane Ivan--the area of most intense wind and rain--passed over
Cuba. Nobody was killed there, a handful were injured and 1,500 homes had
been rebuilt just two weeks after the storm.

The United States and France bear much of the responsibility for the
disaster in Gonaïves. They allowed the CPO to be disbanded, their troops on
the ground didn't disarm the gangs that control the city and most of
northern Haiti--gangs which they organized, supplied and trained--and they
replaced a democratically elected president with one they selected.

Latortue must be replaced with someone the people have chosen. Aristide
must return to Haiti before a similar disaster, with much graver
consequences, strikes Port-au-Prince.

.