by Greg Dunkel
Every time the drums of La Troupe Makandal sounded, the speechmaker’s words became a call to action, a demand for redress, for reparations. The audience was alive with anger over the U.S. and French role in the Feb. 29th coup against President Jean Bertrand Aristide and wanted to express its pride in the Haitian people’s rich 200 year history of resistance to racist repression and repeated occupations. People voiced their fury loudly and often.
The rally, entitled “The Truth Behind the Haiti Coup,” at Brooklyn College’s Whitman Theater April 7, in the heart of the Haitian community in Brooklyn, was a full house, around 2,000 people, predominantly Black and a majority Haitian. The theater was so full that campus security did not let latecomers in until someone else left. And this was on a weekday night.
After the well-known African American actor Ossie Davis read from Frederick Douglass’ 1893 speech on Haiti, Kim Ives, a journalist with Haïti-Progrès and member of Haiti Support Network, set the focus of the rally. “The government set in place by U.S. Marines in 2004,” he said, “just as the one in 1915, is illegal, illegitimate and foisted on the Haitian people.” He went on to outline the role the United States played in organizing and implementing the coup.
Ives was one of the delegation that first made contact with Pres. Jean- Bertrand Aristide in Bangui, Central African Republic, and also was one of the delegation from the Commission of Inquiry that went to the Dominican Republic the week of March 29 to investigate the role that country played in the coup.
Dr. Luis Barrios, active in Puerto Rican and Dominican community in NY, an Episcopal priest and professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, was another member of the Commission that went to the Dominican Republic.
He presented their preliminary findings: “Our investigation has established that the territory of the Dominican Republic was used for the training and arming of the so-called Haitian rebels with the knowledge of the Dominican government.” Pres. Hipolito Mejia controlled and protected Guy Philippe, who operated on Dominican territory from 2000 to 2004 when he led an armed band into Haiti.
The depth of support for Haiti among African Americans in the United States was revealed, when two senior members of the Congressional Black Caucus spoke, Rep. Major Owens (D-NY) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Cal). Rep. Owens’ district includes the site of the rally. He promised to keep the Feb. 29th coup a live issue in the U.S. Congress and to keep on pushing for a UN investigation.
Rep. Maxine Waters talks to Pres. Aristide every day and was part of the delegation that picked him up in Bangui and accompanied him to Jamaica. She started her speech, saying “I am a member of the Congress of the United States and I support Pres. Aristide. I support Haiti.”
She witnessed a lot of the negotiations and activities in Haiti during January and February of this year, and commented on how Aristide was willing to compromise but opposition leaders, like sweatshop magnate André Apaid, Jr., was not. She felt that the U.S. removed Aristide because he would not run away.
She ended her talk saying “Ayiti se maman libète” (Haiti is the mother of liberty), which brought the audience to its feet.
Ben Dupuy, general secretary of the National Popular Party (PPN) and co-director of Haïti-Progrès, said “U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell calls investigations into the latest Haitian coup, even that called for by CARICOM, a waste of time. This shows how much they fear the truth getting out. To add insult to injury, the U.S. is promoting diversionary investigations into Aristide’s alleged drug trafficking, human rights abuses and corruption. Meanwhile, to carry out their coup, Washington is collaborating with death-squad leaders and soldiers universally recognized as corrupt drug-dealing human rights abusers. Even U.S. government officials, from former President Clinton to Powell, have called them criminals and thugs.” He compared the attempt to find drugs and drug-money in the National Palace to U.S. attempts to find “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq.
The PPN offered critical support to Aristide’s Lavalas Family party in the months leading up to the coup and continues to lead resistance. It was part of the broad movement, at the time called Lavalas and symbolized by Aristide, that emerged after Jean-Claude (“Baby Doc”) Duvalier fled Haiti in 1986.
Dupuy told the Haitian community not to feel discouraged.”We have to remember that in 1802, when Toussaint was kidnapped, the struggle really started,” he said.
Mario Dupuy, Secretary of State for Communications and Aristide’s personal representative to the meeting, asserted that “we are facing a new challenge, like the one in 1802-1803. The Haitian people must now confront a coup-napping,” in other words a coup carried out by means of kidnapping.
Teresa Gutierrez, who went to the Dominican Republic as member of the Haitian Commission of Inquiry’s delegation, pointed out “George Bush says he wants to fight terrorism, but in Haiti the U.S. urged terrorist groups to overthrow Aristide and to take over the government.” She also highlighted the irony that “in Cuba, for over 40 years the U.S. has given support to terrorists working ... right out of Miami.” Gutierrez is a member of the Committee to Free the Cuban Five, the Cuban undercover agents Washington has now jailed for life for infiltrating and monitoring the terrorist movement in southern Florida.
Sara Flounders, co-director of the International Action Center, which sponsored the rally along with the Haiti Support Network, denounced the U.S. occupation of Haiti and Iraq. “All the U.S. plans for Haiti are unraveling because people are so outraged at this criminal act [the coup] ... With great publicity Colin Powel announced a new aid package for Haiti of $9 million for the 8 million people of Haiti. That equals $1.10 for each Haitian. ... A billion dollars a day was spent to bomb Iraq. There is endless money for war and conquest. But no money for people’s needs here or anywhere in the world.”
She called for an urgent march on Washington because the same U.S. tanks used in Falluja and Baghdad are used in Port-au-Prince.
Poet and dancer Marguerite Laurent and members of the compas band Phantoms thrilled the hall with sterling performances.
Among the other prominent speakers were former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, WBAI Radio’s Don Rojas, Bernard White, host of Democracy Now Amy Goodman, Haitian unionist Ray Laforest, and Alina Sixto, coordinator of Fanmi Lavalas in the New York Tri-State area.
“The success of tonight’s event shows how deep and broad the opposition to the February 29th coup is,” said Ives after the program. “The huge response to the April 7th rally should give both Washington and the Haitian putschists pause.” Clearly, future demonstrations and protest can be built on this success.
Legal Delegation Produces Scathing Report on Haiti
(First of two installments)
From Mar. 29 to Apr. 5, the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) sent a three-member delegation to investigate the current human rights situation in Haiti. It was the first phase of an investigation which will continue in Haiti’s north this month.
On Apr. 11, the delegation issued a report which found Haiti’s human rights situation “grave,” citing “overwhelming evidence” that Lavalas partisans are being targeted and killed in numbers far larger than reported by the press. The delegation also found anti-Aristide human rights groups like the Lawyers Committee for the Respect of Individual Liberties (CARLI) and the National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR) complacent and even dismissive of the violence.
The delegation consisted of Thomas Griffin, a human rights and immigration lawyer from Philadelphia, Judy DaCruz, a human rights lawyer from Mauritius based in Haiti, and Edward Carlson, a journalist and immigration advocate in Philadelphia. They visited Port-au-Prince, Petit Goâve, Grand Goâve and Les Cayes, in southwestern Haiti. The delegation also spent time in Fond des Blancs, a remote southwestern village that typifies life of the Haitian peasantry.
Here, in the first of two installments, we will reproduce most of this important summary report, authored by Griffin. A more detailed report, with photos, will be issued soon.
Summary Report of Haiti Human Rights Delegation - March 29 to April 5, 2004
by Thomas M. Griffin
April 11, 2004
In general, the delegation found the human rights situation grave. The conditions are especially precarious and evidence little hope for improvement due to the almost total lack of knowledge about, and media attention to, the human rights abuses taking place. Layered upon the gravity, there is a general sense in the people of insecurity due to, among other things, (i) killings, (ii) curfews, (iii) the lack of police or any form of working judicial system, (iv) patrols of private, heavily-armed militias, (v) the doubling or tripling of food and fuel prices, (vi) the fall of the Haitian currency against the U.S. dollar, (vii) an abnormal lack of electricity in the cities, and (vii) the unauthorized return of the uniformed and armed soldiers of Haitian Army that President Aristide had decommissioned in 1994 for its historical oppression of Haiti’s poor.
Although a 3,600 member multinational military force (U.S., French, and Canadian marines) is present, its patrols are confined to the city of Port-au-Prince and, within Port-au-Prince, it is generally seen only in the poorest of the crowded slum neighborhoods (e.g., Cite Soleil, Bel Aire, La Saline).
Finally, the delegation found overwhelming evidence that the victims of the threats and violence have been supporters of the elected government of President Aristide and the Fanmi Lavalas party, elected and appointed officials in that government or party, or employees of the government, including police. Many are in hiding in the mountains or in Port-au-Prince, others have been beaten and or killed. Many of their homes have been selectively destroyed, mostly by arson.
What follows are bullet-point findings of the delegation’s first phase. A more detailed report will follow.
I. The Situation in Port-au-Prince
a. General Information
- 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. curfew enforced by HNP and multinational force.
- many neighborhoods without electricity or water since Feb. 29th (water flow depends on electric pump)
- gas prices doubled since Feb. 29th, hindering private and public transportation
- U.S. dollar trading for 7.5 to 8.0 Haitian dollars
- people generally unaware of who government is, what the near future holds, and generally unaware of human rights abuses taking place; all aware that it is not safe to be on the side of the elected government or to be known as a Lavalas member, associate, or supporter
b. Repression of Popular Organizations
- Leaders of almost every popular organization (“OPs”) (dozens of grassroots groups throughout the country that formed to work with the elected government to address basic community needs) have been threatened or killed.
- None of them are living at home. Those from outlying areas have gone into hiding in Port-au-Prince, and have not seen their families since March 1, 2004. Others have gone into hiding in the mountains, taking spouses and children.
- Former militaries and opposition supporters continue to visit the homes of OP leaders that have not been burned to keep them from coming home and to intimidate neighbors.
- Many have had their homes destroyed by arson. The majority of the arsons took place in the first week of March, but continued during our delegation. The threats have been carried out by former militaries and FRAPH members as well as other supporters of the opposition.
- All OP leaders who have sought asylum at the U.S. Embassy have been turned away. They have also been turned away by the embassies of Canada, France, Mexico, and Venezuela.
- All government funding and other support to the OPs has been summarily cut off. This includes the closing of literacy programs, food and shelter programs, and orphanages.
- All OP leaders pleaded with the Delegation to ask the current government to provide security to return to their homes with their families, to return to schools and jobs, or, in the alternative, to open the path to asylum.
c. The Multinational Military Force
There is a general tension in the people of the city due to the intermittent presence and patrolling of marines. They typically spend hours standing in small groups in targeted neighborhoods in full battle uniform, holding automatic rifles. In the evenings, they will occasionally select a city street and walk it with pairs of soldiers slowly walking in one direction on both sides of the street, followed by two or three patrol vehicles full of soldiers bringing up the rear.
Some believe that the marines have killed approximately 8 people in Port-au-Prince to date, though the Delegation had heard reports of more than five times that amount. There remain questions as to whether the actions by marines, including arrests, and home searches, violate the Haitian constitution. Families do not feel confident to refuse a home search.
Marines interviewed by the delegation stated that they are not a “police force” but are merely maintaining security in the city until a permanent U.N. peace force takes over.
(To be continued)
Topic: Haiti, this week!
