29295: Holmstead (fwd) Re: 29290: (reply) Chamberlain (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

FROM: John Holmstead

Here's something I dug up on Pina's arrest. Seems this
stuff is easily found if that's really you're
intention.

Chamberlain had challenged me in an earlier thread to
give proof about those who claimed Aristide had given
Toussaint orders to kill Dominique. I forwarded
several articles to the list that clearly showed RSF,
AI and others had made much of that accusation at the
time. Then I asked why the same proponents of that
theory remained silent when Toussaint waged a very
public election campaign for the presidency in Feb.
2006. There was never any response from Chamberlain
after posting those articles in the thread. I can post
them again along with others I have discovered since
if it will help.

John


Coups, killings and Canada

Filmmaker and journalist Kevin Pina blames the West
for Haiti?s misery


by CHRISTOPHER HAZOU

?Haiti is not an easy beat, particularly if you?re
covering human rights abuses,? says American
journalist and documentary filmmaker Kevin Pina.

Pina should know. Having reported from Haiti for more
than 15 years, he?s received death threats, been
seriously beaten by an off-duty police officer and,
earlier this month, was arrested on bogus charges and
spent the night in Delmas 33, a notorious jail in
Port-au-Prince.

On Monday, Oct. 3, Pina will be in Montreal for the
screening of his latest film, Haiti: The Untold Story,
which details the complicity of the United Nations and
other Western governments in the coup that ousted
Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in early
2004.

Over the phone from Washington D.C., where he?s
testifying at the International Tribunal on Haiti, a
conference organized by activists hoping to expose the
UN?s and North America?s role in Haiti?s dire
situation, Pina describes his night in jail as a
harrowing, almost surreal experience, punctuated by
abusive guards, a manic-depressive judge and
overcrowded, cockroach-infested cells. He tells of
seeing one guard violently cup the ears of a young
prisoner, then force him to breakdance as Pina watched
the ?sadistic ritual in terror.?

?The next day I was taken out alone by a cop with a
gun who dared me to run,? he says.

After declining the offer, he was quickly brought
before a judge who, as it happened, was the same judge
who ordered Pina?s arrest in the first place, claiming
he had been personally assaulted by Pina, a charge the
journalist dismisses as nonsense.

Facing strong pressure from U.S. consular officials
and Pina?s American lawyer, the judge had no choice
but to let him go, but not before screaming at him and
crying in a bizarre courtroom outburst.

?The judge broke down and cried, [and] said I was
ruining his reputation,? says Pina. ?Ten minutes later
he signed the release. Go figure.?

Pina is scathingly critical of Paul Martin?s
government, whose actions he describes as
?particularly galling? and ?reprehensible.? Since the
coup, Haitian police, which Canadians are training,
and UN forces have been accused of serious human
rights abuses resulting in the deaths of scores of
civilians. In one incident earlier this summer, UN
forces raided the slum of Cité Soleil, a stronghold of
Aristide?s Lavalas party, killing or wounding dozens
of civilians in the process.

?This is a government that represents the morally
repugnant elite,? Pina says of Haiti?s current regime.
As for upcoming elections, Pina?s not optimistic,
believing they will be used to ?justify the carnage.?

?[There will be] no peace in Haiti until the
fundamental problems are addressed: the disparity
between the rich and the dirt, piss-poor,? he says.

Until then, he predicts more ?mayhem, death and human
rights violations covered up by the Canadian
government, the U.S. and France.?

As for Pina himself, he?s already at work on his next
film, Haiti: The Betrayal of Democracy, which will
complete a trilogy that began with 1997?s Haiti:
Harvest of Hope.

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