23514: Esser: The Forgotten Coup: Violence Erupts in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser <torx@joimail.com>

Democracy Now!
http://www.democracynow.org

October 19, 2004

The Forgotten Coup: Violence Erupts in Haiti, Activists and Political
Leaders Arrested


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Political violence leaves scores of people dead in Haiti as activists
and top Lavalas leaders are arrested. We speak with Rep. Maxine
Waters and we go to Haiti to hear from Bill Quigley, lawyer for
Father Gerard Jean-Juste who was arrested last week and Miami to hear
from Haitian community activist Lucie Tondreau.
South Africa has rejected accusations that it let ousted Haitian
president Jean-Bertrand Aristide incite violence in Haiti from his
place in exile.

Haiti's unelected Prime Minister Gertard Latortue accused South
African president Thabo Mbeki Sunday of allowing Aristide to direct a
violent campaign in Haiti. Aristide was ousted in February in what he
calls a modern-day kidnapping in the service of a coup d'etat, backed
by the United States.

South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad responded by saying
"South Africa cannot be used as a scapegoat for failure by the
interim Haitian authorities to bring about peace and stability."

Haiti has been rocked by violence since September 30th after
demonstrators took to the streets demanding the return of Aristide
and condemning political persecution of his Lavalas party. The
protest came on the 10th anniversary of Aristide's first return from
exile in 1994. Police reportedly opened fire on the unarmed
demonstrators. At least 55 people have been killed in widepsread
violence since then. The bloodshed comes just weeks after storms and
flooding left more than 3,000 Haitians dead las month.

Top Lavalas leaders and activists have been arrested in recent weeks.
Three Haitian politicians allied with Aristide surrendered to police
after barricading themselves in a radio station for six hours.

Last week, Catholic priest Father Gerard Jean-Juste was arrested as
he was feeding 600 children from his church in Port-au-Prince. The
government accused him of inciting violence. Haitians took to the
streets in Port-au-Prince and Miami to protest the arrest.

Guests:
• Rep. Maxine Waters, Democratic Congresswoman from California. She
is the former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.
• Bill Quigley, law professor at Loyola University in New Orleans. He
is one of the attorneys on Father Gerard Jean-Juste's legal team. He
joins us on the phone from Port-au-Prince where he had visited Father
Gerard Jean-Juste in prison.
• Lucie Tondreau, Haitian community activist in South Florida. For
years she co-hosted a radio show with Father Gerard Jean-Juste that
provided a forum for discussion between Haitians living abroad and in
Haiti. She joins us on the phone from Miami.

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