25543: Simidor: Haiti's National Archives threatened with arson (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: daniel simidor <danielsimidor@yahoo.com>

The barbarians who ordered the burning down of the
CRESFED research center in Port-au-Prince are at it
again.  Founded by Gerard Pierre-Charles, Suzy Castor
and other intellectuals from the anti-Duvalier
opposition, CRESFED had been among other things a
unique repository of papers and original documents for
a future history of Haiti?s socialist movement.  The
Lavalas bigwigs who ordered its destruction in Dec.
2001, in blind retaliation for a paramilitary attack
against the palace, wanted no doubt to fortify the
notion that history begins and ends with them.  The
arson at CRESFED and other locations was carried by
so-called Chimères and young rogues, but dissident
Lavalas senator Dany Toussaint claimed to hold
photographs of two important Lavalas parliamentarians
at the scene of the crime.  Embarrassed by the
national and international outcry in the wake of that
senseless act, Aristide tried to dissociate himself
from his subordinates and agreed to some compensation
to be paid out of the country?s meager budget.

This time it is the National Archives in
Port-au-Prince that the barbarians are threatening to
burn down.  The National Archives are in the Sans-Fil
neighborhood, near Bel-Air, one of the bastions of the
Lavalas gangs. Unidentified gunmen have already opened
fire against this institution and stolen one of its
vehicles.  Haitian chief archivist Wilfrid Bertrand
has gone on Haitian radio to plead for reason with the
bandits, arguing that the National Archives are ?a
sacred patrimony that transcends conflicts and wars.?
But as usual the silence of the Lavalas bigwigs speaks
louder than words, in terms of their complicity.  To
be sure the actual deed will be carried out by armed
children and Chimères, but the real barbarians are
those who already have or are about to commission such
a crime.

How many of the bleeding heart Lavalas supporters on
and off this list will speak out, while there is still
time, against this horrific crime against a people?s
history and culture?   How many of the Lavalas bosses
hiding out in the Dominican Republic, Florida and
Canada will make that phone call to dissociate
themselves from this barbaric act?  How many of the
Aristide lobbyists, lawyers, so-called human rights
groups and compilers of phony reports will make the
case to their boss in South Africa that burning down
popular markets and libraries, and other odious crimes
of that nature, are against his own best interest?

Daniel Simidor
July 2, 2005


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com