News
and opinions on situation in Haiti |
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| 06/01/05 | Haiti News Roundup 6/1/05 |
******* Canada plays big role in propping up Haiti regime People's Weekly World Newspaper Author: Tim Pelzer tpelzer@shaw.ca January 6, 2005 News Analysis VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The Canadian government is taking a leadership role in propping up the U.S.-installed regime in Haiti and keeping Fanmi Lavalas, the party of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, from returning to power. While the Canadian government currently promotes a message of reconciliation and advocates the peaceful reconstruction of Haitian society, it quietly supported the U.S. overthrow of democratically elected President Aristide. Despite denials from the Ministry of External Affairs, journalist Michel Vastel reported in the Quebec-based magazine L’Actualite that Canadian officials secretly met with U.S., Latin American and French diplomats to plan Aristide’s overthrow. He also reported that Canadian and French officials discussed placing Haiti under UN guardianship, similar to Kosovo, in January 2003. The U.S. funded the country’s anti-Aristide opposition that destabilized the Lavalas government. U.S. marines then apprehended Aristide and flew him out of the country and into exile on Feb. 29, 2004. After the U.S. deposed Aristide, the Canadian government, without uttering a word of criticism of the Bush administration’s actions, sent soldiers and police officers to join the United Nations Stabilization Mission (MINUSTAH) occupying Haiti. This force, led by Brazil, has been supporting the government’s campaign to repress Lavalas supporters, accompanying police raids into pro-Lavalas neighborhoods. Human rights monitors have complained that MINUSTAH forces have failed to stop police who carry out brutal acts of retribution against Lavalas supporters. The UN Police Commissioner in Haiti is Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer David Beer, who had previously been in Iraq assisting counterinsurgency efforts against Iraqi guerrillas. The government of Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin is promising $180 million in aid to Haiti over the next two years. In contrast, it provided only $23.9 million from 2002 to 2003 when Aristide was in power. Martin visited Haiti in November where he spoke with political leaders. Alluding to widespread demands in Haiti for the return of Aristide, Martin stated during his stay that reconstruction in that country should not be based on “nostalgia for the past.” On Dec. 10 and 11, the Canadian government organized a conference in Montreal where Canadian and Haitian officials discussed the rebuilding of Haiti. Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue along with other officials met with Martin, External Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew and other Canadian government leaders. The Lavalas party was not included in the meeting. Martin announced that Canada would play a leadership role in reconstructing Haitian society. While he called for “national reconciliation involving all of the players in Haitian society, including the Lavalas party,” his government failed to invite Lavalas - the party that enjoys the support of the majority of the country’s population ‚Äî to the conference. Those persons who attended the meeting claiming that they represented Lavalas were, according to Mario Dupuy of the party’s Communication Commission in exile, “falsely representing the party.” He told the World that the Canadian government did not invite his party to the conference. The Canadian government, along with the U.S. and France, has been pressing UN forces to participate in the crackdown on Haiti’s population, according to General Augusto Heleno Ribeiro, the top Brazilian commander of the UN military force. “We are under extreme pressure from the international community to use violence,” he told a congressional commission in Brazil. “I command a peacekeeping force, not an occupation force. ... We are not there to carry out violence.” Prime Minister Martin is also a strong advocate of holding elections in Haiti later this year that will most likely exclude the Lavalas party. To this end, he is promising a major infusion of technical and financial aid. However, while he has said that he wants Lavalas to participate, he is currently backing a government that is violently repressing that party. Human rights monitors report that the Latortue regime has killed and jailed many Lavalas members, supporters and leaders, and forced many others into exile. Lavalas has said it would like to participate in the elections but cannot do so because the authorities will not allow it to hold meetings or rallies. PWW: pww@pww.org 235
West 23rd Street ******* Jean-Bertrand Aristide Advocates Dialogue, Liberty and Peace for Haitians Agence Haîtienne de Presse - AHP January 4, 2004 Jean-Bertrand Aristide advocates dialogue, liberty and peace for Haitians and affirms that the spirit never forgets the way home Port-au-Prince, January 4, 2005 (AHP)- In a message for the new year, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide wrote poetically of the necessity for dialogue, liberty and peace for all Haitians. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was forced to leave the country on February 29, 2004 and who is now in exile in South Africa, declared that the cigar of slavery must be extinguished by the waters of dialogue and peace. "The cigar of slavery is lit from both ends. Lighting it is one thing, smoking it is another", declared Mr. Aristide, denouncing the overthrow of the democracy machine, now deprived, he said, of driver, brakes and headlights. Mr. Aristide denounced murders that claimed the lives of more than 10,000 innocents, he said, since the kidnapping of February 29, 2004. More than 1,000 Haitian compatriots are languishing unjustly behind prison bars while corruption transforms itself into fertilizer, he said, to fuel the poverty in Haiti. "In order for 2005 to be a good year for Haiti, it would have to be good for all Haitians living in the country as well as those living abroad", he wrote. " Those who are in prison, in hiding or in exile must be able to return to their homes", he asserted, adding that the year 2005 must also be as good a year for the majority as for the minority. Mr. Aristide recalled that it was in South Africa that Gandhi had begun his series of peaceful mobilizations before he went on to liberate India, his own country, in 1914. The supporters of slavery assassinated Toussaint Louverture and Jean Jacques Dessalines but have never succeeded in extinguishing the spirit of liberty that guided the ancestors. "A spirit never forgets the path that leads back to his home" declared Mr. Aristide, expressing hope that this spirit of love will transform itself into a flood of love during the year 2005. "Love for Haiti in good times as in bad. Love for the Haitian people who stagger under the weight of suffering to find the path of deliverance", wrote President Aristide, wishing Haitians courage for the year 2005. ****** UN occupies Haiti slum January 7, 2005 UN occupies Haiti slum Haiti Information Project (HIP) Port au Prince, Haiti (HIP) – Hundreds of Brazilian soldiers and special units of the Haitian National Police stormed the pro-Aristide neighborhood of Bel Air in the early morning hours of January 5. Residents were surprised and frightened by the armed incursion as gunfire broke out. Witnesses reported that five persons were killed as the operation unfolded. Bel Air is a slum in the capital of Port au Prince that has served as a launching site for demonstrations demanding the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Aristide was ousted last February 29th amid charges he was kidnapped by U.S. Marines and remains in exile in the Republic of South Africa. The Bel Air slum had been under siege by police since violence erupted last September 30th after police opened fire on unarmed demonstrators. Following the military operation, UN peacekeepers were seen providing photo opportunities to the press as they fixed a few water pipes and cleared the carcasses of burned out vehicles blocking the road. One resident who refused to give their name fearing reprisals stated, “Do you think we want to live like this? We are more afraid of the police coming in here and killing everyone than we are of the rats and the garbage. Those wrecked cars were our security because it stopped the police from coming in here at night and shooting us. Now that the UN has opened the door for them we don’t know what is going to happen to us. Look what they did in Cite de Dieux yesterday.” The UN incursion came one day after Haitian police were accused of committing another deadly raid in a neighborhood close to Haiti’s National Theater. In Cite de Dieux the police reportedly killed six people including a 16 year-old girl and later justified the slaughter claiming they were bandits. An unidentified representative of Aristide’s Lavalas party commented on the situation, “If the UN is really going to provide security to our communities then they must stop the police from murdering our citizens. We all want peace but you cannot blame people for wanting to defend themselves while the UN allows the police to commit murder and fill the jails with political prisoners. Last October 28th the police executed four young men they thought were Lavalas and the UN did nothing to stop them. The UN cannot on one-hand say they are bringing security while on the other they claim to be assisting the police as they kill us, beat us and arrest us. It is a contradiction they must resolve or there will never be peace. They must control the police and stop the killing! They must support us in releasing all the political prisoners filling our jails! For now, it appears the UN are equally responsible for this partisan campaign to exterminate Lavalas that is clearly meant to silence our opposition to the coup of February 29, 2004.” ===== The Haiti Information Project (HIP) is a non-profit alternative news service providing coverage and analysis of breaking developments in Haiti. Contact: haitiinformationproject@yahoo.com **** Two people, including a 13 year-old girl, killed during Police Sweep in Port-au-Prince Agence Haîtienne de Presse - AHP January 4, 2004 Two people, including a 13 year-old girl have been killed at Cité l'Eternel during a police sweep in the area Port-au-Prince, January 4, 2005 (AHP)- Two people were killed and several others arrested this Tuesday at the Cité de l'Eternel located along Bicentenaire Street. The killings were carried out by police officers dressed in black and camouflage. According to area residents, the dead are Jean Ferres Nazaire, age 28, and Angela, a girl of 13. The residents of Cité l'Eternel are accusing the police of displaying a revolting lack of professionalism. "When the police storm into a neighborhood they have a tendency to shoot everything that moves and that's what is behind the tragedy of January 4", they protested, affirming that the two people who were shot dead had nothing to do with the violence prevailing in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. ****** Wives of Haitian Political Prisoners Announce a New Sit-in Agence Haîtienne de Presse - AH January 5, 2004 Wives of political prisoners announce a new sit-in to be held January 6 in Port-au-Prince and call on the interim government not to forget that all forms of excess are harmful Port-au-Prince, January 5, 2005 (AHP)- Wives of political prisoners who have been imprisoned for several months in various detention facilities in Haiti announced plans Wednesday to hold a sit-in this January 6th in front of the annex of the Court of First Instance to continue to demand the release of all the political prisoners. This sit-in, to be organized by the GDP (Group for the Defense of the Rights of Political Prisoners), will be a forum for seeking in particular the release of four Lavalas activists who, despite the fact that a court has ordered their release, continue to be held in prison. These prisoners are Pétion Rospide, Paul Keller, Jacques Anthony Nazaire and Harold Sévére. The wives of the political prisoners have accused the authorities of committing abuses and arbitrary acts considerably worse than all they accused previous governments of doing. The women asked the authorities not to forget that all forms of excess are harmful. GDP Secretary General Ronald St-Jean also accused the interim authority of having intensified its repression since the beginning of 2005. We are facing a totalitarian government that utilizes repression and arbitrary action in its effort to silence its political adversaries, asserted Mr. Saint-Jean. ****** Nine arrested during a MINUSTAH incursion into Bel-Air Agence Haîtienne de Presse - AHP January 5, 2004 Nine people have been arrested during a MINUSTAH street clearing operation in Bel-Air and Saint-Martin Port-au-Prince, January 5, 2005 (AHP)- Nine individuals were reportedly arrested this Wednesday in the populist district of Bel-Air during an intervention by a a contingent of soldiers from the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) to clear the streets of barricades and debris. Some 400 soldiers of the UN force were deployed in Bel-Air and Saint-Martin for this operation, which consisted of removing tons of garbage and wrecked vehicles that clog neighborhood streets. Upon their arrival, the UN troops were met with gunfire from a group of armed men who believed that this operation's objectives were to arrest or disarm them. The soldiers returned fire and made several arrests. According to Bel-Air residents, at least five members of the public were killed during the shooting by MINUSTAH soldiers. However an officer with MINSUTAH's Brazilian contingent, Lieutenant Colonel Puchalsky, would only confirm that nine people were arrested, without providing any information concerning the reports of fatalities from the operation. The Brazilian colonel said he was pleased with the welcome expressed by the people of Bel-Air toward the clean-up operation. Residents of Bel-Air did in fact express satisfaction with this initiative by the UN force. "It was high time that these tons of garbage be removed; we have had enough of living in filth and exclusion" said several residents. However they denounced the brutal conduct of the Haitian National Police (PNH) who only understand the language of violence and guns. Officers of the PNH remained on the sidelines at the scene of this MINUSTAH operation, due to the hostility felt toward them by Bel-Air residents. The residents say the police, due to fear and a lack of professionalism, fire their weapons at anything that moves every time they conduct a police operation in the populist districts. When the UN soldiers come here, they talk to us, but the police are brutal people, they complained. For their part, the activists of Bel-Air declared that they will remain mobilized until the return of constitutional government in Haiti. "We will not be intimidated by the criminal acts of the National Police and the brutal interventions of MINUSTAH", asserted the grassroots activists of Fanmi Lavalas, who affirmed that no serious election can take place in this atmosphere of injustice and political persecution. ****** The De-facto Prime Minister Promises Elections and Speaks Out Against 'Proliferation of Political Parties Agence Haîtienne de Presse - AHP January 5, 2004 The interim Prime Minister promises that elections will take place no matter what happens this year and states that he would like to see eight political parties run candidates in the elections Port-au-Prince, January 4, 2005 (AHP)- Interim Prime Minister Gérard Latortue declared Sunday that the elections will indeed go forward this year, despite, he said, the insecurity prevailing in Haiti. The next elections will be free, honest and democratic, he said. Gérard Latortue reaffirmed that February 7, 2006, will be his last day as Prime Minister. "It is out of the question for me to remain even one hour longer", he promised. Mr. Latortue spoke against the proliferation of political parties in the country because, he said, that constitutes a threat to the success of the elections. The head of the government declared that he regrets that the OPL party (organization of the People in Struggle) has withdrawn from the Grand Socialist Party being put together by parties on the left. Gérard Latortue said he hopes that no more than eight political parties will take part in the next elections scheduled for this year. ****** Forwarded by the Haitian Lawyers' Leadership Network ****** "Men anpil chay pa lou" is Kreyol for - "Many hands make light a heavy load." See, The Haitian Leadership Networks' "Men Anpil Chay Pa Lou" campaigns to help restore Haiti's independence, the will of the mass electorate and the rule of law. See, and http://www.margueritelaurent.com/law/lawpress.html or, http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/newsessaysreflections.html ******* To subscribe or unsubscribe, contact Erzilidanto@aol.com |
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