=?x-unknown?q?29062=3A__Potemaksonje_=28News=29_Persecuted_Hait?==?x-unknown?q?ian_Photojournalist_Speaks_Out=3A_Jean_Ristil_&?==?x-unknown?q?_Cit=E9_Soleil__=28fwd=29?=

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: pote mak sonje <potemaksonje@yahoo.com>


http://www.upsidedownworld.org

"If the world is upside down the way it is now, wouldn't we have to turn it 
over to get it to stand up striaght?" - Eduardo Galeano





PERSECUTED HAITIAN PHOTOJOURNALIST SPEAKS OUT: Jean Ristil & Cité Soleil

Written by Eric Feise and Jeb Sprague, Photos by Jean Ristil
Wednesday, 30 August 2006


At 5pm on September 9, 2005 Haitian Photo-Journalist Jean Ristil, working for 
the Associated Press, and Pacifica Radio journalist Kevin Pina were arrested, 
carried away by masked SWAT members of the Police Nationale d'Haiti (PNH). The 
police claimed they were searching for "weapons" at the church where 600 to 800 
children are fed daily, but the journalists felt it likely that they were 
planting weapons in an attempt to frame the church’s outspoken liberation 
theologian Father Jean-Juste.

Over the days following their arrest, activists and journalists mobilized for 
the freedom of the two journalists who had been placed into a tiny jail cell 
with seven other inmates. Organizations such as the Committee to Protect 
Journalists (CPJ) spoke out against the arrest, while the Associated Press 
reported, "In a letter to Haiti's justice minister on Monday, the head of the 
Association of Haitian Journalists questioned the judge's decision to arrest 
Pina and Ristil." On September 12, 2005 Ristil and Pina were released. 
Following his release Ristil continued on with his work photographing and 
documenting the repression and violence against his community in Cité Soleil 
while continuing to work with children in his community. In November of the 
same year he would be arrested again, this time undergoing torture at the hands 
of the interim government’s police. Ristil is one of the few, possibly the 
only, photojournalist to live and work within Cité Soleil on a daily basis.


Your illegal arrest by the PNH in 2005 made international news. Tell us about 
what happened?

Ristil: I was first arrested on September 9, 2005 and held until September 12, 
2005. The second time, I was arrested in November of 2005 upon the order of the 
Central Headquarters of the Judicial Police (DCPJ). Well I was arrested twice, 
both for filming and photographing the results of a MINUSTAH massacre and for 
filming the PNH attempting to plant weapons at the church of Father Jean-Juste. 
The first time I was arrested after I filmed them arresting another journalist, 
Kevin Pina. But following my release the PNH and MINUSTAH came after me. After 
they knew I had footage and photographs from Cité Soleil showing the results of 
their operations they came after me. They wanted no one to see the images of 
the people they had murdered and killed in Cite Soleil. When I was arrested 
again in November PNH officers threw me on the ground after picking me up by my 
arms handcuffed behind my back. They grabbed me from the street and threw me in 
a car. They destroyed my motorcycle with
 a gun burst of six shots and they broke all my cell phones. Today I cannot 
afford to fix my motorcycle. I received all these problems for the images I 
took of the 2005 July 6th massacre by MINUSTAH. At one point they offered me 
money so I would not release them to the public. They made a big effort to stop 
the release of these photos. They tortured and interrogated me.

Tell us about your home, Cité Soleil.

Ristil: These people living in Cité Soleil had jobs before the coup; some had 5 
or 6 kids who they could pay for school. Each person with a job helped benefit 
20 or 30 people around him. But after the coup these people were cut off, they 
had no more money. No money for his home, no money for his family. So when he 
could not pay for his family to live, he had another idea. Before these people 
would get 5,000 gourdes a month they could take care of their family, mother, 
father, kids. This is the reason of the Chimeres. The society is corrupt 
because the state and church are failures they do nothing for the people. A 
MINUSTAH tank can cost several million dollars. If you did social work with 
this money you could change the situation of Cité Soleil. When Aristide was 
President it was better because people were working and all those who were not 
working still had help. They had potable water. People had access to food. Many 
handicapped people got food and a fund each month. Now
 things are horrible. For 100 gourdes people get sexual relations. People have 
no money making it difficult to live. They destroyed our lives. Many children 
have no fathers now.

Dread Wilme said before he died that Labanyè, another of the gang leader’s in 
Cité Soleil, "was doing the work of Andy Apaid and Charles Henri Baker" coming 
out to shoot at demonstrations, etc.

Ristil: Yes. The American soldiers when they first arrived after the coup tried 
to bring about disarmament. They took away weapons from many people in Cité 
Soleil. But after this had happened the bourgeois sector immediately began 
financing several groups in Cité Soleil, such as Labanye and his partisans. On 
September 30, 2004 Labanye killed several peaceful Lavalas demonstrators. His 
partisans and the PNH would attack peaceful demonstrations. For all his crimes 
Labanye was given a police uniform. This sector made the violence. They gave 
big guns to Labanye’s partisans who went on to destroy many homes. They 
targeted Lavalas organizing as well, shooting up local centers. Labanye worked 
for the bourgeoisie he did many crimes against the population in Cité Soleil. 
So the population killed him. The people of Cité Soleil now got a break from 
the repression of Labanye. Gerald Latortue answered that he was very sorry for 
the death of Labanye, Latortue saw Labanye as a good
 militant in Cité Soleil. I have the courage to say that the United States and 
Canadian embassies are accomplices in the verbal violence done to Cité Soleil 
they have provided exile to Labanye’s partisans. After Labanye’s death the PNH 
and MINUSTAH reacted with violence. This eventually transpired in the death of 
Dread Wilme. MINUSTAH looked for Dread Wilme’s body but they could not find it. 
His body will always be in Cité Soleil . He died but his memory lives on in 
Cité Soleil as a good memory.

How can peace be achieved?

Ristil: First of all Preval has to end the mandate on wanted people in Cité 
Soleil. They could not go to recent presentations for peace that were made. 
Money should be spent on social work instead of MINUSTAH assaults upon Cité 
Soleil. The community needs back the jobs and programs that aided it. MINUSTAH 
must stop its assaults into Cité Soleil.

**********



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