23612: Esser: Repression in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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

ZNet | Haiti
http://www.zmag.org/lam/haitiwatch.cfm

Repression in Haiti
by Kevin Pina and Dennis Bernstein

A Flashpoints Radio Interview
http://flashpoints.net/

October 25, 2004

Bernstein: Today we continue our drumbeat coverage of the situation
on the ground in Haiti. While it’s difficult to get a clear picture
of the extent of the killings, arrests, kidnappings, torture and
general intimidation, we know that the death toll is rising for
members of the pro-democracy movement and many more Haitians are
going into exile or at least trying. There’s clearly a plan afoot on
the part of the U.S. installed puppet government to purge the Lavalas
movement - the majority party that elected President Jean Bertrand
Aristide in the last election in a landslide. Aristide, in exile in
South Africa, denied accusations that he was fomenting the violence
from South Africa and implored the puppet government of Latortue to
“stop the lying, stop the killing.” We now go again to Port au Prince
where we are joined by our special correspondent Kevin Pina. Kevin,
welcome back to Flashpoints.

Pina: Thanks Dennis

Bernstein: Alright Kevin we have been daily as we do this we’ve been
checking in, in terms of father Jean-Juste, one of several priests
kidnapped; he was kidnapped as he was attempting to serve food to
poor children; while he was doing that he was surrounded and
kidnapped by people who call themselves police who wore masks. He’s
now I guess he’s surfaced again in prison?

Pina: He’s currently held at the National Penitentiary. The situation
there is no better for him. It’s not a great place to be, believe me
Dennis. The conditions there are terrible, it’s overcrowded.
Apparently, as I told you yesterday, the U.S backed government has
made the official charge ‘public disorder’ which actually according
to the penal code is a $0.40 fine in U.S. dollars and no jail time.
Of course the government has yet to bring him before a judge. He’s
been in jail now for 8 days and it doesn’t look as if they are going
to move on his case at all. His attorney’s are doing their best to
try to force the justice system, but the more that they do the more
threats that they receive. His lead attorney, Haitian attorney Mario
Joseph was just [mentioned] today in a special alert by Amnesty
International; someone who’s life is in danger due to the innumerable
death threats that he’s received in the last couple of days alone

Bernstein: You’re listening to Flashpoints on Pacifica Radio that’s
our correspondent Kevin Pina talking to us on the ground in Port au
Prince. Alright Kevin sum up, if you could, the atmospheric pressure
now and some of what you can tell us beyond Jean-Juste in terms of
the conditions for pro-democracy activists or what do we know about
this ongoing collaboration between the UN peace keeping forces headed
up by the Brazilian General and their collaboration with the illegal
police and death squads that have now been welcomed back into Haiti.

Pina: Well I mean this is the first time in my adult life that I’ve
ever seen the United Nations actually be used in a manner to prop up
an undemocratic government, an unelected government while it was
exercising such a widespread campaign of repression against the
majority political party. I can’t remember any example during my
adult life where that’s been the case - certainly not on this level.

There have been reports that I corroborated today that 25 people were
arrested in Bel Air again just yesterday. The police have begun these
massive sweeps again through the poor, pro-Aristide slums. They will
create a dragnet if you will on any young male, even if you’re just
walking down the street – it does not matter; any young male is
thrown into the back of the truck and taken away to jail. They are
just massive sweeps - indiscriminate and arbitrary arrests that
they’re carrying out throughout all the poor neighborhoods – that’s
Martissant, Grande Ravine, Cite Soleil, and of course, Bel Air. On
the other front you know that the United Nations finally lifted the
13-year embargo that was imposed against Haiti after 1991 for the
purchasing of arms. The U.S imposed arms embargo was lifted yesterday
by the United States. It appears as if they’re program for disarming
the country is to allow the Haitian Police to buy more arms. How that
can make sense mathematically, I guess it does make sense
politically, but mathematically a lot of people on the ground are
shrugging and scratching their heads wondering how that’s going to
make Haiti anymore of a safe place given that the police already seem
to have more than adequate weapons to carry out this campaign of
repression in clear collusion with United Nations forces on the
ground.

Bernstein: Alright let’s just come back to Father Jean-Juste for a
moment because if they can take this man – he’s a 69-year old priest,
he’s legendary in Haiti and outside of Haiti working with the tenth
department of Haiti - which are those that were forced out of the
country over so many U.S supported dictatorships and coups and a
consistency of U.S policy that undermine the will of Haitian people.
I think you need to talk a little bit more about who Jean -Juste is
and why it’s so important for them to take this guy, this priest, and
what it means that the world community, the major media – even though
we did get a statement from Amnesty International – the rest of the
world seems to turn a blind ear to this slaughter. What does it mean
that they’ve got this guy and they’re silencing him and they’re
willing to take him in?

Pina: Well what it means is if this U.S installed government can get
away with taking a priest and arresting him with virtually no charges
and in violation of the Haitian constitution, it means that they can
get away with it with anybody and they have been getting away with it
with anybody they want. The police just published another so-called
arrest list where there is often $20,000 Haitian rewards for
approximately 32 individuals. The list when it was originally
published a few months ago was 37 but they managed to kill 5 on the
list already. A lot of people know that this is not actually an
arrest list; it’s a hit list basically. So someone of Jean-Juste's
stature, who survived the military coup of 1991, who refused to go
into exile, who confronted the military with non-violence, urged
others to do so – if they can take him that means they can and they
are taking anyone that they wish.

And it was exactly that kind of climate and witch-hunt which created
the first powder keg which was sparked by the police firing on the
unarmed demonstrators September 30th. It was that context that had
led to that harsh reaction by the population because their leader had
been kidnapped, they’d been imprisoned, they’d been forced into
exile, there have been mass arrests, there have been arbitrary
detentions, there have been murders and assassinations carried out by
the Haitian police. The Haitian police meanwhile had been militarized
– the former military integrated into them. Today the new office of
military integration was open inside the prime minister’s office.
They’re going to incorporate another 200 on top of the ones that have
already been brought into the police force. It was this situation
that created that powder keg that was sparked by the police firing on
those unarmed demonstrators on September 30th. So now what are they
going to do? They’re going to continue the pattern; they’re going to
continue building up the pressure among the popular neighborhoods
because Aristide and Lavalas still have tremendous support among the
majority of the population, who are the majority of the poor. And the
more they squeeze, the more they tamp that down, the more likely
there is that this will blow up in their faces again. It’s not a
question of ‘if,’ it’s a question of ‘when.’

Bernstein: Is the resistance in Haiti now, is the pro-democracy
movement arming itself? Is there a growing resistance movement? Are
people fed up to the point where they’re going to give up the
peaceful struggle?

Pina: I think it’s closely reaching, unfortunately, in my opinion,
it’s been forced to that place by Bush policies, by this
ill-conceived regime change, by the repression of this Bush-supported
government. I believe and I regret what I am saying, but I believe
that it is reaching that phase of the beginnings of a popular
insurrection against yet another U.S backed government in this
hemisphere. Of course you’re going to see that portrayed in the
press, they’re going to be portrayed as “terrorists,” as “bandits,”
as popular movements always are that face down a U.S installed, U.S
backed government in this hemisphere. There’s a long history of that.

But the point is you can portray it anyway you want but even they
know the truth on the ground here. The United Nations and the Bush
administration know the truth and that’s that they’re not confronting
small, isolated groups of “bandits” and “terrorists.” What they’re
doing is confronting entire communities. And like I said the
situation, especially with the lifting of the arms embargo, the
militarization of the police force, the continuing witch hunt,
arbitrary arrests, etc, - all it’s going to do is tap down that
powder keg again and it’s just going to take another spark - and it’s
not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’ this is going to explode again
their face.

Bernstein: And just to be clear – and they, if the government, this
puppet government supported by the U.S coup-makers – if they are to
carry out their plan, if they’re going to be successful in whatever
their vision is, they’re going to have to kill, and exile and arrest,
and torture a lot of people because this is a big majority movement.
Is that about right?

Pina: It’s going to require an action on their part tantamount to
genocide.

Bernstein: That’s the voice of Kevin Pina. I want to tell you that
Kevin is coming to the Bay area for those of you in the Bay area. I’m
really glad that I’m going to have a chance to be with him on October
29 at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at (Cedar at Bonita).
Then he’s going to be speaking at the First United Methodist Church
in San Rafael on October 31, and the he will be appearing at the
Bissap Baobab restaurant in San Francisco…[Ed. See
http://www.haitiaction.net/Events.html for details]

This is one of those stories that the mainstream simply doesn’t seem
to care about. There’s a lot of racism here, and there’s a lot of
power on the part of the U.S. government to silence this show. The
mainstream press, most of my friends at NPR, have dropped the ball
and it is sickening. Kevin, we will stick with this…
.