23683: (pub) Esser: San Francisco Protests U.S. Support for Haitian Death Squads (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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

San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center
http://www.indybay.org/


San Francisco Protests U.S. Support for Haitian Death Squads
by Ben Terrall

October 30, 2004

Latortue regime, installed by Bush regime, intensifies terror
campaign against Lavalas; San Francisco says no more!


Dozens of people gathered in downtown San Francisco at Powell and
Market streets Thursday afternoon to protest U.S. support for the
current murderous coup regime in Haiti. Given the key role Bush
Administration officials, including Secretary of State Colin Powell,
played in orchestrating the February 29, 2004 ouster of
democratically-elected President Aristide, the explicit call of the
action was for people to “take your anger to Bush and Powell.” The
demonstration was organized by the S.F. Bay Area-based Haiti Action
Committee and endorsed by Global Exchange, United for Peace and
Justice, War Resisters League West, East Timor Action Network/San
Francisco and Media Alliance.

Haiti Action Committee co-founder and respected local activist Pierre
Labossiere described close ties that Bay Area churches and schools
have had with projects in Haiti begun by peasant organizations under
President Jean Bertrand Aristide. Now that the U.S.-backed death
squads which forced President Aristide into exile have control over
much of the country, many of the activists previously in close
contact with friends in the Bay Area have either been killed or gone
into hiding; Labossiere gave powerful descriptions of the heightened
terror campaign against supporters of Aristide and his Lavalas Party,
and pointed out that in Haiti, “Unless you vote for the elite or
military thugs, it’s a crime, in effect to vote. Those who voted for
Lavalas now have a death sentence over their heads.”

As demonstrators hoisted signs painted by local artist Miranda
Bergman reading “End the occupation in Haiti, Iraq, Palestine and
Everywhere,” “No U.S.Coup in Haiti, Bring Aristide Home,” and, on a
vibrant, beautiful painting of a peasant under siege, “Haiti: The
struggle continues,” East Bay educator Doug Spalding kicked off the
march with bullhorn chants, starting with “U.S. Out of Haiti” and
moving on to include Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and the
Philippines, reflecting the spirit of international solidarity which
animates Lavalas, Aristide’s political party. Demonstrators also
carried cardboard coffins and crosses to symbolize the thousands of
Haitians who have been killed by the U.S.-imposed government of
“interim” Prime Minister Latortue.

As the march proceeded up Powell Street, the solidarity continued in
stops to support locked out hotel workers at pickets in front of the
Saint Francis, Crowne Plaza and the Grand Hyatt Hotels. Both hotel
workers and Haiti solidarity activists were visibly charged up by the
mutual support, and by the time the march approached the intersection
of Bush and Powell, the march was around 100 strong.

After activists circled the intersection several times, pumping signs
into the air to the appreciative honks of San Francisco drivers,
Dominican Sister Stella Goodpasture, who recently visited Haiti as
part of a human rights delegation, described last week’s arrest of
activist priest Gerard Jean-Juste, who was beaten and dragged away
from his church, where he was feeding hundreds of poor children. The
lack of a warrant for the arrest did not prevent officers from
shooting three children present at the church, including a boy who
was shot in the head.

Brother Jahahara Amen-Ra Alkebulan-Ma'at, a longtime activist most
recently with the American Friends Service Committee, also described
his experiences in Haiti to the demonstrators amassed at the four
corners of Bush and Powell. He noted that one of the rarely reported
aspects of President Aristide’s last few years in office was his
campaign to push France to pay $22 billion in restitution to Haiti.
That sum is a calculation of the amount France stole from Haiti in
the 1800s as “compensation” for giving up “property” (i.e. slaves who
rebelled and founded the first independent black republic). Brother
Jahahara recalled that the Haitian children who gave him a bookbag
adorned with Aristide’s picture said they wanted their President
back, adding that those children are also entitled to the full $22
billion France was willing to help oust Aristide to avoid paying.

This demonstration was part of a national campaign to restore
democracy in Haiti and end the wave of state-sponsored repression of
pro-Democracy leaders. Other actions were held this week in New York,
Boston, Washington, Miami and Orlando.

See http://www.haitiaction.net for more information.
.