24034: Haiti Progres (news) Fw: "This Week in Haiti 22:43 01/05/2005 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

> "This Week in Haiti" is the English section of HAITI PROGRES
>
> newsweekly. For the complete edition with other news in French
>
> and Creole, please contact the paper at (tel) 718-434-8100,
>
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> Also visit our website at <www.haitiprogres.com>.
>
>                            HAITI PROGRES
>
>               "Le journal qui offre une alternative"
>
>                        * THIS WEEK IN HAITI *
>
>                         January 05 - 11, 2005
>
>                           Vol. 22, No. 43
>
>
>
> HAITI: DÉJA VU
>
> by Brian Concannon Jr.
>
> January marks the beginning of Carnaval season in Haiti - every Sunday
> afternoon the bandes-B-pied (literally, bands-on-foot) and their
> followers take to town and city streets, strutting their stuff in
> preparation for les trois jours gras - the three fat days - of
> celebrating before Ash Wednesday. The bandes-B-pied are eventually
> joined by better-financed bands on chars - trailers piled high with
> loudspeakers - and by dancers dressed as Indians, actors poking fun at
> politicians and Chaloska - usually men, with savage-looking masks,
> snarling at the young and the timid in the crowd. Chaloska comes from
> General Charles-Oscar Etienne, Port-au-Prince's police chief in the
> first half of 1915.
>
> Etienne's boss, President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam, seized power in
> February of that year, pursuant to negotiations with the U.S. and
after
> paramilitary groups had chased his predecessor from power. Lacking
> electoral or constitutional legitimacy, President Sam procured an
> insurance policy for his rule: starting in March he rounded up
potential
> political opponents or their family members, and packed at least 200
of
> them - from Haiti's most privileged families - into the Penitencier
> National. They were held not by court order - there were no arrest
> warrants, no evidence in their files or trips to see the judge. They
> were held by a Presidential directive that Charles Oscar Etienne
should
> kill the political prisoners when he heard the first shot fired
against
> the Sam regime.
>
> That first shot hit the National Palace before dawn on July 27, 1915.
By
> 8:30 a.m., President Sam had been nicked in the leg with a bullet, had
> jumped over the wall separating the National Palace from the French
> Embassy, abandoned his presidency and written his police chief to "do
> what your conscience dictates." If this message was meant to spare
lives
> or Guillaume Sam's reputation, it arrived too late: in the Penitencier
> Charles-Oscar Etienne had already made his name synonymous with
> despicable acts of savagery by shooting, hacking and spearing his
> hostages, executing between 160 and 200.
>
> Almost 90 years later, Haiti is again ruled by a Prime Minister who
> seized power in February, following paramilitary attacks on the
> government. Where President Sam rode his horse into Port-au-Prince
after
> President Théodore fled to a Dutch steamer, Prime Minister Latortue
> jetted in from Miami after the U.S. had kidnapped President Aristide
to
> the Central African Republic. Likewise lacking electoral or
> constitutional legitimacy, Mr. Latortue procured a similar insurance
> policy: he started rounding up potential political opponents in March,
> packing them so tightly into the Penitencier National that some need
to
> wait a turn to sleep on the floor.
>
> Prime Minister Latortue does not fear Haiti's most privileged
families,
> but its least privileged, so his captives are from the poor
> neighborhoods of Cité Soleil, Bel-Air and Martissant. Like their
better
> fed predecessors, today's political prisoners were arrested without a
> warrant, there is no evidence in their files, and they are rarely
> allowed into court. The Catholic Church's Justice and Peace Commission
> estimated there are 700 political prisoners in all. They are kept in
> conditions so willfully wretched that the United Nations' official
> assigned to help improve them quit in November, when the government
> refused international offers of help.
>
> On Dec. 1, 2004, shots rang out near the National Palace during U.S.
> Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit. Later that day Penitencier
> National inmates protested their mistreatment by breaking out of their
> cells. No one was hurt in the protest, but special police teams were
> called in, and they started shooting. No one says the prisoners shot
> back - the government claims they attacked guards with sharpened
> toothbrushes and other improvised weapons - but the police kept
> shooting.
>
> Officials say ten people were killed. Witnesses who do not work for
the
> government estimate from several dozen to over 100. A month later the
> government has still not released the names of the deceased, even to
the
> families. There is no evidence that the Dec. 1 massacre explicitly
> targeted political prisoners, or of a link between the shooting in the
> prison and the shooting near the National Palace. But the Latortue
> regime appears to have something to hide. Not only will it not tell
> families whether their fathers, sons, husbands and brothers are dead
or
> alive, it prohibits journalists and investigators from talking to
> prisoners and guards. Prison officials beat at least one prisoner
before
> his release on Dec. 3, threatening him with worse if he spoke to the
> press.
>
> The government has named its own investigative commissions, and
promised
> to find the truth about the massacre. A sincere effort to investigate
> would show results: the events took place in a well-defined area over
a
> defined period of time, and there are hundreds of known witnesses,
their
> names listed in prison and guard registers. Determining responsibility
> for injuries is simplified by the fact that, from all accounts, one
side
> did all the shooting, the other did all the stabbing with
toothbrushes.
> The investigation will therefore test the government's will to find
the
> truth more than its investigative capacity and resources.
>
> The most disturbing part of the massacre is that whether or not those
> killed were targeted for their political beliefs, most of them never
> should have been in the Penitencier in the first place. Only one in 50
> prisoners there has been convicted of a crime, only a small minority
> have ever had a judge say they should be held for trial. For the rest,
> their killings were the last in a long line of violations of their
basic
> human rights.
>
> It is too late to spare the lives of the men killed, but not too late
to
> establish the truth about their deaths, or to prevent other needless
> deaths by releasing the remaining political prisoners. President Sam
> waited to instruct his police chief to "do what your conscience
> dictates," and both suffered harsh judgments from the hands of their
> compatriots and the words of history. Prime Minister Latortue has the
> chance to learn from history, and the opportunity right now to do the
> right thing. He should take full advantage of both.
>
> (From Haitiaction.net, expanded from an article in the Boston Haitian
> Reporter, January 2005)
>
> Brian Concannon Jr., Esq. directs the Institute for Justice and
> Democracy in Haiti, which issued a report on the prison massacre
>
>
>
> "HOW PAPA NOEL FORGOT HAITI":
>
> THE POLITICS OF CHRISTMAS
>
> by Margaret FéquiPre
>
> "How Papa Noel Forgot Haiti" is a lovely musical, written and directed
> by Paul Uhry Newman, about a GonaVves family coping with economic
> hardship and the devastating impact of Hurricane Jeanne, which ravaged
> Haiti's northwest last September.
>
> Paul Uhry Newman along with Jean Jean-Pierre and Mapou Productions
> deliver a highly political play about Haiti's culture and current
> events, mixed with a bit of history. So far, there has only been one
> performance on Christmas Eve at Lincoln Center in Manhattan.
>
> Dancers wearing traditional white costumes and performing folkloric
> Haitian dance routines open the play with a narrator introducing the
> story. It is a happy, chaotic, and fast-paced scene until the young
sick
> child named Magali, played by Danika Silencieux, sings Haiti's most
> popular and beloved Christmas song, Petit Papa Noël. Ms. Silencieux's
> powerful voice captured the audience.
>
> Magali is sick and her only desire is to put together a lantern that
> will shine so brightly that Papa Noel can find his way to Haiti. The
> country, wracked by economic woes, political turmoil, and natural
> disasters like Hurricane Jeanne, sorely needs him. Papa Noel, played
by
> Hollywood actor Danny Glover, expresses his esteem for the Haitian
> people and their on-going struggle for freedom and development. But he
> allows himself to be caught up in a political web created by Haiti's
> so-called "friends," powers like the U.S. and France.
>
> Tant Viktwa (Carole Alexis), the narrator and Magali's neighbor, tells
> us that children are dying all over the island from preventable
> diseases. Magali, she explains, is a survivor thanks to the financial
> generosity of an aunt living in Miami.
>
> When the generous aunt, Celina, played by Myriam Barthélus, comes for
a
> visit, the play takes a humorous turn. Celina's arrival highlights the
> comic but thorny tensions which have developed between Haitians living
> in the diaspora and those in Haiti. Haitians in the audience were
> particularly delighted with the cultural clashes portrayed.
>
> The play's message, of course, is about the true meaning of Christmas
> and Santa Claus, or Papa Noel. As in most Christmas plays, we learn
that
> the season is about altruism and solidarity. Different characters
> present this, from a Cuban doctor tirelessly giving his services in
> Haiti's hills to Magali's generous aunt.
>
> As her family and friends pull together to help Magali through her
> illness, we are reminded that the true meaning of Christmas is not
about
> Papa Noel bringing gifts but rather about how Papa Noel lives within
> each and every one of us based on what we do throughout the year to
help
> our fellow human beings. For Haitians living in the diaspora, it is
> about working hard in a country that is not yours and finding the
means
> to help support family members back home. This musical will resonate
> especially with immigrants, as it depicts their struggles.
>
> Although the actors delivered fine performances, the acoustics of the
> hall at Lincoln Center were terrible. Key scenes became
unintelligible,
> such as that where Papa Noel's helper, Watson (Emmanuel Obas), tells
the
> history of Haiti and the finale, when the Cuban doctor and other
> characters deliver the play's closing message.
>
> All articles copyrighted Haiti Progres, Inc. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
>
> Please credit Haiti Progres.
>
>                             -30-
>