24377: (news) Holmstead: Z-Net News- Police open fire on Nonviolent march (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: John Holmstead     <cyberkismet5@yahoo.com>

Z-Net News

Haitian Police Open Fire on Nonviolent March for
Democracy
February 28. 2005

*************
by Bill Quigley, Loyola University New Orleans School
of Law.� Bill is in Haiti on a visit as a volunteer
attorney with the Institute for Justice and Democracy
in Haiti� quigley@loyno.edu
*************

One year ago today, the elected government of Haiti,
led by President Jean Betrand Aristide, was forced out
of office and replaced by unlected people more
satisfactory to business interests and the US, France
and Canada.

Today there was a large nonviolent March for Democracy
called for the neighborhood of Bel-Air (Beautiful
Air).� I attended with Pere Gerard Jean-Juste and
others from St. Clare's Parish.� We started with
prayers in the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in
the center of Bel Air.� After prayers we joined the
larger crowd outside marching and singing through the
streets of the old and quite poor neighborhood.�
Thousands of people were walking and dancing to the
beat of drums, loudly chanting, "Bring Back Titi
(Aristide)!!!!"� in Creole, French and English.�

Fr. Jean-Juste has become one of the main voices for
democracy in Haiti since his release from prison
several weeks ago after 48 days in jail with
no�charges.� He was interviewed two dozen times by
local and international media during the walk with the
crowd.� It all seemed�like a peaceful unorganized
mardi gras parade until I noticed the Reuters
correspondent was wearing a bullet proof vest.
MINUSTAH, the UN security presence was all
around.�The giant moving party continued down Des
Cesar Street.� The street was packed from side to
side with people carrying signs, umbrellas, and
handmade cardboard posters all calling for the return
of democracy and Aristide.�Neighborhood people
joined in or clapped and danced from their front
steps.

Suddenly, at the corner of Monsiegneur Guillot Street
and Des Cesar, there was a loud boom from very close
by. People started screaming and running.� Another
boom, then another.�As people fled, I slipped on�a
pile of�fruit and tried deperately to hide behind a
very small tree.� As people rushed past and dove
into an opening in a concrete wall, the booms
continued. I�then dove though the wall and hid
behind a one foot wide concrete pillar. The booms
continued. People were down in the street.� I saw a
big white official looking truck hurtling down the
street as the booms continued.� Others saw police
in�black uniforms, helmets, ski masks, and large
guns shooting into the crowd.� People around me were
huddled under stairs and crying. The group from St.
Clare's pulled me into a corner and we we rolled into
a ball until the booms stopped.

Out on the street a man was down and�unconscious.�
Fr. Jean-Juste knelt over him and prayed.� Down the
street others were carrying injured people on their
backs.� The crowd screamed that the police were
coming back and we�ran down an alley into a small
home. Children were screaming, adults were crying,
everyone was in fear.� We waited, dirty and drenched
in sweat,�until the growing UN presence made it safe
to leave.

Early reports document several people shot, at least
one killed.�Others were beaten.�Two men showed
me�where the police wounded them.

As we drove slowly out of the now deserted
neighborhood, the faces of the people on the porches
who were so happy minutes before, were now somber,
many crying.���

As we rode back to his parish, Fr. Jean-Juste said:�
"The Aristide supporters were such a big number, it
was very difficult to have a proper estimation of the
crowd.� The message is clear.� Our vote has been
counted.� It still must be counted.� There is no
other way for Haiti to go forward�but�with�the
return of constitutional order, the release of all
political prisoners,�and the physical return of
President Aristide."

Though the march for democracy in Haiti was halted by
police shooting into the unarmed crowd, the people I
talked to said their march for the return of democracy
in Haiti will continue.






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