30008: Ayiti Chanje (news) The terrible truth about Martissant (Deibert Op-Ed) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Ayiti Chanje <ayitichanje1804@hotmail.com>


> From ayitichanje1804@hotmail.com:

Haiti : The terrible truth about Martissant

mardi 13 février 2007

By Michael Deibert [1]

Submitted to AlterPresse on February 12, 2007

http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article5681

Haiti’s Commission Episcopale Nationale Justice et Paix recently released a 
report [2] covering the human rights situation in that impoverished Caribbean 
nation of 8 million from October until December 2006. The report therein 
concluded that 539 people were killed by violence in the Port-au-Prince 
metropolitan region alone in 2006, and especially noting the southern 
Port-au-Prince district of Martissant, where citizens have been at the mercy of 
warring gangs with varying political affiliations engaged in sustained conflict 
since June 2006. A freelance Haitian journalist Jean-Rémy Badio was murdered 
[3] in his home, evidently by gang-affiliated gunmen from the area, last month.

There have recently been attempts by some - writing, as always, from the safety 
of the United States - to exculpate one of the gangs in Martissant, the Baz 
Grand Ravine loyal to the Fanmi Lavalas party of former Haitian president 
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, from involvement in the appalling violence terrorizing 
the community there, instead attempting to suggest that the bloodshed comes 
only from one side, the Lame Ti Manchèt (The Little Machete Army), affiliated 
with the Ti Bois and Déscartes districts of the neighborhood, and said to be 
loyal to a former Haitian police captain and other political elements. Simply 
put, these statements would appear to be intentional fabrications by the 
writers, conceived with the intention of deceiving the public, and ignoring the 
fact that, since the August 2005 slaying of at least a dozen people at a soccer 
match in the district, and indeed long before, all armed groups in the 
neighborhood have been implicated in the grossest human rights violations by 
residents fleeing attacks speaking to Haitian and foreign journalists brave 
enough to venture there.

Last summer, the American photojournalist Thos Robinson, a Haitian radio 
reporter (whose perilous work dictates that he remain nameless) and I spent 
several days traveling through and interviewing residents of Martissant [4], 
during which time we were subject to extremely aggressive and unpleasant 
questioning by the gangs. The terror we saw that had been created by all the 
gangs, regardless of political affiliation, killing and burning the 
neighborhood, was truly an outrage to behold, and we left convinced that the 
Baz Grand Ravine, like the Lamè Ti Manchèt, was just another group cloaking 
their criminality and disregard for the community in the thinnest veneer of 
ideology, and were guilty of terrible human rights violations.

Our conclusions were by no means unique. In fact, they merely reinforced two 
years of on-the-ground reporting by Haiti’s courageous journalists that the 
wealthy foreign supporters of one of Haiti’s political factions would seek to 
willfully hide from the English-speaking public. Of course, well-to-do 
activists in North American will point to the fact that many of Haiti’s radio 
stations are owned by some of the wealthier elements in Haiti’s stratified 
society and therefore, by implication, the reporting of the brave, 
working-class journalists there, conducted in Haiti’s native Kreyol in the 
slums before the reporters return to humble homes often lacking electricity or 
running water, is somehow worthless. Don’t believe it. In addition to the 
bald-faced hypocrisy of ignoring their own privileged place in the world 
economy, these first-world apologists do a great disservice to individuals who 
have consistently, through coup and junta and street violence from many sides, 
displayed what their detractors lack : the courage to report from the ground. A 
few of the more relevant examples of their work (recast by the stations in 
French for international comprehension), reporting from the scene of the 
violence are as follows :

A 23 August 2005 broadcast [5] from the capital’s Radio Kiskeya stated 
"inhabitants of various districts of Martissant (a southern slum of 
Port-au-Prince) launched an S.O.S to the authorities on Monday so that they 
would forcefully intervene in a zone infested with heavily-armed gangsters. 
These inhabitants, the majority of them young people coming from 4th and the 
5th Avenue Bolosse, describe the reactivation in the district of groups armed 
under the regime of Jean Bertrand Aristide which have made their residence in 
the Grand Ravine zone of Martissant."

The 19 November 2005 article [6] "Nouvelle montée de tension à Martissant" from 
the Haitian media outlet AlterPresse stated "The tension went up of a notch 
these last days within Martissant, in the southern sector of the capital, where 
confrontations have occurred between rival bands, residents told AlterPresse. 
Clashes have occurred on several occasions during the last 8 days between the 
armed bands from Grande Ravine and the Lamè Ti Manchèt, leaving at least 2 dead 
and several casualties by bullets."

A 6 November 2006 statement [7] by the president of Haiti’s senate, Joseph 
Lambert, himself a member of the Lespwa party of Haiti’s popularly-elected 
president René Préval, where Lambert directly referred to the violence in 
Martissant as being part of "Operation Baghdad II," in reference to a fall 2004 
explosion of violence by Aristide partisans, and went on to say that "Operation 
Baghdad 2 takes the form of a means for a sector to politically pressure the 
executive (branch) in order to find employment."

A 4 December 2006 broadcast [8] from Radio Kiskeya which stated that "according 
to residents (of Martissant) a local gang called Base Pilate was responsible 
for four murders. The leaders of this armed group are insane with rage after 
the death of a police officer considered to be one of their allies...The Base 
Pilate is committed, under the umbrella of the armed gangs of Grand Ravine, to 
fight without mercy against the Lamè Ti Manchèt, another rival band based 
within Sainte-Bernadette lane."

An 8 December 2006 broadcast [9], again recorded on the ground in Martissant, 
from Radio Metropole, stated "Heavy shooting was recorded in the zone of 
Martissant yesterday ; witnesses confirm that gangsters of Grand Ravine 
associated with the gang Base Pilate tried to launch an attack against the 
districts of Déscartes and Martissant 1. Residents of Déscartes and Martissant 
1 affirm that 2 people were killed and several others wounded yesterday 
evening. "

A 19 January 2007 broadcast [10] from Radio Kiskeya, which stated that "A wild 
war has been underway for several months among gangs called Base Pilate and 
Lamè Ti Manchèt, which imposes the law of the jungle on Bolosse, Grand Ravine 
and Ste-Bernadette."

Likewise, the links of the Aristide government with armed gangs in the capital 
and elsewhere in Haiti are well-known and long-standing, and have been covered 
by, among other reporters, National Public Radio’s Gerry Hadden, The Boston 
Globe’s Steven Dudley, The Miami Herald’s Marika Lynch, my own reporting from 
Haiti [11] and, of course, Haiti’s own embattled press.

Reporting in a 10 February 2004 piece [12] for National Public Radio entitled 
"“Haitian Gangs Combat Demonstrators," Hadden reports how a gang leader dubbed 
Francois "strolls through his filthy fiefdom, several armed lieutenants 
following behind. Most passersby avoid his eyes, appearing uncomfortable. 
Francois does not have a real job, though he says he’s tried to find one. He 
says he got the money for a rape victim from the government in exchange for his 
primary work, defending President Aristide in the street...On a recent morning, 
students marching downtown were once again stoned by young mean claiming 
allegiance to the government."

In a 19 February 2004 article [13], Dudley described the armed gangs that 
formed the core of Aristide’s latter-day supporters thusly : "Their leaders 
have ominous names like ’One Shot to the Head’ and ’Caesarean Section.’ They 
have up to 30 men in each group, many of them teens, patrolling neighborhoods 
across the city with M-4 carbines and Beretta 9mm handguns with which they 
enforce their own justice. They allegedly traffic drugs, extort money from 
locals, and steal cars. Still, they insist they aren’t gangs ; they call 
themselves "popular organizations" or OPs, and they form the core of President 
Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s governing party, Lavalas."

Recounting the aftermath of a massacre of government opponents in the Haitian 
town of Saint Marc in a 24 February 2004 article [14], Lynch writes that "St. 
Marc has been under a terrifying lockdown by the police and a gang of armed 
pro-Aristide civilians called Clean Sweep...The two forces are so intertwined 
that when Clean Sweep’s head of security walks by, Haitian police officers 
salute him and call him ’commandant.’"

Lynch’s account is confirmed by that of human rights researcher Anne Fuller 
[15], a Haiti veteran fluent in Kreyol who spent two and a half days in St Marc 
in late March 2004 looking into the killings that were reported to have 
happened there the previous month.

"Compiling the available information, I believe at least ten and possibly 
twelve people were killed in the La Scierie neighborhood and on the nearby 
mountainside that February 11," Fuller writers "Some but not all were RAMICOS 
(anti-government) members and sympathizers but they were mostly lightly or not 
at all armed."

"I count a definite 27 people killed before February 29 and seven from Bale 
Wouze after," Fuller writes, referring to "Clean Sweep" by their Kreyol name. 
"There may well have been somewhat more than this, their names and identities 
lost."

Indeed Haitian journalist Nancy Roc, recipient of UNESCO’s Jean Dominique Prize 
for Freedom of the Press in 2002 and the Freelance International Press’s Best 
Radio Journalism prize in 2004 has written that "a major part of Aristide’s 
heritage was the financing and creation of heavily-armed gangs. Violence in 
Haiti may be partially due to social injustice indeed, but it is also...highly 
political, commanded and co-opted by the old regime."

Those of us who have followed Haiti for many years also recall that from 2000 
until 2002, the most powerful gang in Martissant was run from Grand Ravine by 
Felix “Don Fefe” Bien-Aimé, an Aristide loyalist who orchestrated the murder of 
at least thirteen people when his faction conducted a ghastly siege of the 
neighboring Fort Mercredi district in June 2001. Following the murders, 
Bien-Aimé was reported to have met with Aristide at the National Palace along 
with what was left of a local Fort Mercredi gang, where the gangs signed a 
joint statement declaring their conflict over. No one was ever arrested for the 
killings. Bien-Amié eventually scored a patronage job as the director of 
Port-au-Prince’s main cemetery, and was also said to have been involved in the 
disappearance of the newborn baby of Nanoune Myrthil from Port-au-Prince 
General Hospital on February 29, 2000. In September 2002, apparently having 
outgrown his usefulness (a pattern that would be repeated many times). 
Bien-Amié was arrested by Haitian police officers and "disappeared," his 
abandoned car later found burned out at Titanyen, once one of the favored 
dumping grounds for victims of political murders by Haiti’s previous 
dictatorships. The veracity of Bien-Amié’s involvement in the massacre as well 
as the circumstance of his disappearance, has been noted in a 25 June 2001 
broadcast from Radio Haiti-Inter [16], a 9 June 2005 release from the Réseau 
National de Défense des Droits Humains (RNDDH) human rights group [17] and a 
2003 release by Amnesty International [18]. Bien-Amié’s alleged involvement in 
the disappearance of the Nanoune Myrthil infant was reported in an August 2003 
interview [19] with former deputy mayor of Port-au-Prince Jean-Michard Mercier.

Though I have often written that I have far more sympathy for some elements of 
Haiti’s gang culture than I do for the corrupt politicians who cynically use 
them [20], [21], now, more than ever, the international community must demand 
human rights for all in Haiti, without distinction for political affiliation, 
as it is truly the only way forward. With so many lives lost in Haiti over the 
last several years, with so many thousands orphaned, burned out of their homes 
and clinging with their fingernails to the economic wreck that the ship of 
state has become, Haiti’s friends at home and abroad owe the Haitian people at 
least that much. It is what those who genuinely care about Haiti, not guided by 
narrow political ends nor co-opted by the extravagant financial largess of the 
country’s various political actors, need to keep pushing for.

.................................................



[1] Michael Deibert is the author of Notes from the Last Testament : The 
Struggle for Haiti (Seven Stories Press). His website is 
www.michaeldeibert.com.

[2] "Vyolans nan lari zòn metwopolitèn nan 3 mwa : oktòb pou rive desanm 2006," 
Komisyon Episkopal Nasyonal Jistis ak Lapè (Commission Episcopale Nationale 
Justice et Paix), 25 January 2007. http://www.forumcitoyen.org.ht/jilap/.

[3] "In Haiti, photographer gunned down after receiving gang threats," 
Committee to Protect Journalists, 25 January 2007. 
http://www.cpj.org/news/2007/americas/haiti25jan07na.html.

[4] "Storm of Killing in Neighbourhood Has Wide Implications for Nation," 
Michael Deibert, Inter-Press Service, 2 August 2006. 
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp ?idnews=34213.

[5] "Situation de terreur à Martissant," Radio Kiskeya, Port-au-Prince, 23 
August 2005. http://www.radiokiskeya.com/spip.php ?article1166.

[6] "Nouvelle montée de tension à Martissant," AlterPresse, 19 November 2005. 
http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php ?article3610.

[7] "Critiques contre les violences des groupes armés," Radio Metropole, 
Port-au-Prince, 6 November 2006. 
http://www.metropolehaiti.com/metropole/archive.phtml 
?action=full&keyword=Critiques+contre+les+violences+des+groupes+arm%E9s&sid=0&critere=0&id=11945&p=1.

[8] "Quatre personnes assassinées à Port-au-Prince," Radio Kiskeya, Port-au- 
Prince, 4 December 2006. http://www.radiokiskeya.com/spip.php ?article2866.

[9] "Nouveaux affrontements entre les gangs de Martissant, 4 morts ," Radio 
Metropole, Port-au-Prince, 8 December 2006 
http://www.metropolehaiti.com/metropole/archive.phtml 
?action=full&keyword=Nouveaux+affrontements+entre+les+gangs+de+Martissant%2C&sid=0&critere=0&id=12071&p=1.

[10] "Une nouvelle victime des gangs à Bolosse/Martissant," Radio Kiskeya, 
Port-au-Prince, 19 January 2007. http://www.radiokiskeya.com/spip.php 
?article3062.

[11] "Aristide’s Tinderbox : Haitian Militants Losing Faith in President’s 
Promise of Reform" by Michael Deibert, Village Voice, August 28 - September 3, 
2002. http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0235,deibert,37823,1.html.

[12] “Haitian Gangs Combat Demonstrators,” Gerry Hadden report for National 
Public Radio‘s “All Things Considered,” 10 February 2004. 
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php ?storyId=1669612.

[13] “Militias’ might key to Aristide’s grip on power,” by Steven Dudley, 
Boston Globe, 19 February 2004. 
http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2004/02/19/militias_might_key_to_aristides_grip_on_power/ 
.

[14] “Town taken from rebels feels heat of reprisal,” by Marika Lynch, The 
Miami Herald, 24 February 2004. 
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/haiti/reprisal.htm.

[15] "The La Scierie Massacre," by Anne Fuller, Le Nouvelliste, 17 April 2005. 
http://www.haitipolicy.org/content/2938.htm.

[16] "Radio Haiti Inter, Port-au-Prince, 25 June 2001, BBC Monitoring Service" 
http://www.webster.edu/ corbetre/haiti-archive/msg08259.html.

[17] "RNDDH calls the public’s attention to certain areas of the 3rd District 
of Port-au-Prince," Réseau National de Défense des Droits Humains (RNDDH), 9 
June 2005 http://www.rnddh.org/article.php3 ?id_article=227.

[18] "Haiti : Covering events from January - December 2002," Amnesty 
International, 2003. http://web.amnesty.org/report2003/hti-summary-eng

[19] "Radio Vision 2000, Port-au-Prince, 13 August 2003, BBC Monitoring 
Service" http://www.haiti-info.com/spip.php ?article436.

[20] "Ballots instead of bullets," by Michael Deibert, Newsday, 6 November 2005 
. http://www.michaeldeibert.com/articles/newsday/article7.html.

[21] James Petit-Frere and his child, Cité Soleil, summer 2002. 
http://michaeldeibert.blogspot.com/2006/12/james-petit-frere-and-his-child-cit.html.

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