25711: Ives (announce): July 16 demonstration at UN to protest Cite Soleil massacre and UN Occupation of Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: K. M. Ives <kives@toast.net>

Coalition against the US/UN Occupation of Haiti
P.O. Box 100614, Vandeveer Station, Brooklyn, NY 11210

For Immediate Release: Contact:
July 15, 2005 Jacques Dossous, 917-337-6702
                                                                                               Kim 
Ives, 718-434-8100
                                                                                               Jan 
Estefèn, 718-629-4050

NEW YORK HAITIAN COMMUNITY TO PROTEST UN MASSACRE IN CITE SOLEIL

Haitians and their supporters will demonstrate in front of United Nations 
headquarters at Ralph Bunche Park at 42nd Street and 1st Avenue in Manhattan on 
Saturday, July 16, 2005 from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. to protest the July 6 massacre by 
UN troops of over 60 Haitians in the capital's shanty town of Cité Soleil. The 
demonstrators will also be calling for an end to the UN's military occupation 
of Haiti and the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was kidnapped 
from his home by U.S. soldiers on Feb. 29, 2004 and sent into exile.

"Some 300 UN troops with helicopters attacked the population of Cité Soleil in 
the dead of night last Wednesday and carried out the bloodiest massacre in 
Haiti since the coup 16 months ago," said Jacques Dossous of the Lavalas Family 
party, one of the organizations calling the demonstration. "Mothers , infant 
children and old people were killed in their homes. We lay the responsibility 
for these deaths on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's doorstep."

The groups sponsoring the demonstration also includes Ajoupa, the Association 
of Haitian Teachers, Fanm Lakay, Haiti Action Committee, Haitian High School 
Students, Haitian Initiative for Democracy, Haïti Progrès, Komite Chalo Jaklen, 
Koze an Fanmi, the National Popular Party (PPN), Patizan Jezikri, Radyo Pa Nou, 
and Vwa Lakou Lakay.

Since last September, human rights organizations say that the U.S.-installed 
government of de facto Prime Minister Gérard Latortue has killed thousands, 
illegally jailed hundreds more and driven the vast majority into unprecedented 
poverty, all with the UN's collaboration.
"The foreign military occupation of Haiti must end immediately," said Berthony 
Dupont of the Haiti Support Network, another demonstration sponsor. "The UN, 
under Washington's direction, is trying to repress the resistance of the 
Haitian people, but their bullets and tear-gas are just like gasoline on a 
fire."

UN troops also carried out an assault on the slum of Belair on June 29, killing 
nine civilians. The demonstration is part of nationwide actions - from San 
Francisco to Miami - which are protesting the July 6 massacre and the UN 
occupation of Haiti in general.
"We want an end to the massacres and we reject the sham elections that 
Washington, the UN and the de facto government are trying to organize this 
fall," said Jan Estefèn of KAKOLA.

North American organizations such as the ANSWER Coalition and the International 
Action Center (IAC) are also supporting the demonstrations.

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