26226 Blanchet from Guy Antoine: For Kevin Pina, Jean Ristil, and the others...

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Max Blanchet <MaxBlanchet@worldnet.att.net>


From: Guy S. Antoine

For Kevin Pina, Jean Ristil, and the others...

What was said again about press freedom prior to February 29 2004? Could
someone remind me?

By now, I am sure that Robert Ménard of Reporters Sans Frontières must have
demanded that the Bush administration freeze the assets of the interim
government and cancel their visas? Am I right?

Those attacks against the press in Haiti, the threats against Guyler Delva
(Reuters), the massacres (or were they genocides?) at Cité Soleil, Bel Air,
Solino, Delmas must have the human rights organizations in Haiti in a snit!
And Roger Noriega must surely be wishing he were back in a position to
orchestrate a coup against the Latortue government!

And what is Timothy Carney and his (former) colleagues at Haiti Democracy
Project going to say about all those rights abuses? Surely, they must be
organizing a meeting in Washington, DC right now to denounce the undemocratic
judicial processes in Haiti, the oft-repeated acts of arresting political
opponents without charge and keeping them in jail INDEFINITELY?

And surely the Canadian government MUST BE sending government ministers to
Haiti to assess how bad the situation really is and come up with a plan for
ridding Haiti of bad governance!

I imagine that Dominique de Villepin must be livid at this singular spectacle
of ungovernability in the former colony of Saint-Domingue (if Haiti had ever
been, à proprement parler, such a colony in the first place). And the French
Ambassador in Haiti must be once again making dire predictions about the
storms that are about to batter the island.

I wonder what Messieurs Curran and Foley must be thinking right now about the
extraordinary results of their extraordinary efforts to bring political
stability and the fruits of democracy to Haiti. Are they crying in their
bubbly?

And what about Latortue, Abraham and Co. sacrificing their reputations and a
comfortable life in Boca Raton, Florida in order to save the nation... and
they saved it from what, exactly???

And we must surely pray for the sanity of our Conseil de Sages! I can't
imagine them being able to sleep with the country being ravaged by such acts
of judicial arbitrariness and unending pursuit of retribution and political
persecutions.

What a nightmare Haiti must be today for all those good people who saved the
Nation on February 29, 2004 and made it into the sorry example that it is
today!

With Haitian police agents distributing machetes for the killing
of ... ... ... (could it be chicken for the poor?)

With attendants of a soccer match sponsored by the United States Agency for
International Development ordered to lie down on the ground at half time and
getting shot point blank by HNP (Haitian National Police) agents in what must
qualify as one of the most macabre soccer matches in History...

as removed as could be from "the beautiful game" of Stars from Brazil, the
aspiring superpower in charge of "peacekeeping" in this soccer-starved
country, whose Prime Minister feels so passionately about the game that he
could not wait to hear Haitians cheering against their own team and for the
Brazilian superheroes...

Are they still cheering, Mr. Prime Minister or has death muffled their cries?


And now we have judges issuing warrants for searches of already detained
political prisoners' places of residence and simultaneously supervising their
execution??? How brilliantly efficient! One wonders whether the judicial
system of New York City should not be traveling to Port-au-Prince and learn
about some techniques from our technocrats! Haiti has received the benefit of
so much consultancy that it is now ready to export some of it back to its
benefactors! It's like the School of the Americas in reverse.

And the rather unsurprising arrest of American journalist/film maker Kevin
Pina who recently finished a tour of the United States, showing footage of the
August Massacre of Cité Soleil residents by United Nations Peacekeepers... How
totally embarrassing, Mr. Annan! How distressingly humiliating, Mr. U.S.
Ambassador! We are ready to observe how quickly you will surely come to
protect one of your citizens... especially when he manifested the desire to
talk to a person from your office so that his rights as an American citizen
would be respected. You will surely grant him that protection, won't you Mr.
Ambassador... or is that not part of your function in Haiti? Your function in
Haiti... I am tripping over those words. Could you tell us what it is,
exactly?


And, Mr. Policeman, explain to us the arrest of journalist Jean Ristil. Was it
for his daring to do his job as a journalist? I do not quite get it, but
perhaps you were simply trying to protect him, as you protected Father Jean-
Juste earlier last month with your own brand of tender loving care?


Oh... Vive la Démocratie! A la USA! A la Canada! A la France! But where does
Haiti fit in today in this worldwide convergence or should I say orgy of
democratizing forces? What does it have to show on September 10, 2005 for your
acts of friendship?


Guy S. Antoine
September 10, 2005