News
and opinions on situation in Haiti |
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| 6/5/05 |
A call to mothers and grandmothes around the world & An Prensip by Brian Concannon |
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A call to mothers and grandmothers around the world, Free Haiti political prisoner SÚ Anne on Mother’s Day An Prensip, By Brian Concannon Jr., t r u t h o u t | Perspective ****************************************************** Free Haiti political prisoner SÚ Anne on Mother’s Day A call to mothers and grandmothers around the world Help free political prisoner Annette Auguste, So Anne, illegally imprisoned since Mother’s Day 2004. Annette Auguste, known as SÚ Anne, is a 63 year old grandmother, popular Haitian singer, community organizer and pro-democracy activist. Last Mother’s Day weekend US Marines use plastic explosives to enter So Anne’s house in Port au Prince, Haiti. They came in the middle of the night in direct violation of the Haitian constitution and arrested So Anne without a warrant. During the arrest they killed her two dogs and cuffed and hooded all members of her family, including four minors under the age of 15. The Marine’s initially claimed that they had received information that she was stockpiling weapons in her home and collaborating with a local mosque in a plan to attack US interests in Haiti. Since that time the authorities managed to produce a back dated warrant based on bigoted allegations of witchcraft, and unsubstantiated accusations that she participated in violence at a demonstration on December 5, though many witnesses can attest that she was in the recording studio at the time. Although no weapons were found on the premises and despite the fact that she has never been formally charged due to a lack of evidence against her, she continues to be held at the Petionville Penitentiary. Last November Kofi Annan specifically called for justice in the case of So Anne insisting that she either be charged and tried or released. To date his words have not been heeded by the US installed government, nor has Annan backed up his demands with concrete action. The truth is that So Anne, like hundreds of others, is imprisoned because of her continued calls for a return to constitutional authority, her outspoken criticism of the US-backed interim government, and her powerful organizing potential. So Anne’s arrest came just months after the US-sponsored overthrow of Haiti’s democratically elected government amid a wave of politically motivated arrests. During the past year Haiti’s prisons have been filled to overflowing. Human rights groups estimate that in the National Penitentiary alone there are 1054 prisoners and only 9 have been tried and convicted. Haitis justice system has been hijacked by an interim government intent on silencing dissent and there is no semblance of due process for those identified as Aristide supporters. Here are So Anne’s own words: “From my cell I am given hope by the many voices being raised against the injustice the people of Haiti are being forced to suffer today. I am grateful to Congresswoman Maxine Waters and countless others who have stood up in solidarity with the Haitian people, in order to stop the bloodletting and help the outside world to know the truth and reality we are faced with today. I send you all my love and gratitude for remaining strong in separating the lies from the truth in Haiti’s current situation. I send you all my blessings as a free Haitian woman fighting for the rights of the impoverished majority in my homeland. They may imprison my body but they will never imprison the truth I know in my soul. I will continue to fight for justice and truth in Haiti until I draw my last breath.” – Annette Auguste, Petionville Penitentiary, Port au Prince Haiti May 23, 2004 The poor communities that So Anne worked with prior to her arrest have not forgotten her courageous activism nor has one year in prison dampened her commitment to social justice. So Anne holds regular literacy classes in the prison, continuing her efforts to improve the lives of those around her. And on the outside, her friends and supporters continue to mobilize weekly for her release. On Saturday April 30, despite tremendous repression, thousands of people marched to So Anne’s house demanding the release of all political prisoners. Please join the Haiti Action Committee, the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti and other labor, religious, and women’s organizations (see endorsements below) in calling for the immediate release of So Anne and all prisoners in Haiti held solely for their political beliefs. For more information on So Anne’s case and the ongoing human rights crisis in Haiti please visit the websites for the Haiti Action Committee (www.haitiaction.net) and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (www.ijdh.org). To take action on So Anne’s behalf please sign the online petition and call, email, write or fax the following contacts: Online petition: www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/263040597 ** please note the petition is currently addressed to Colin Powell, Secretary of State. The petition was started in August and we are currently unable to change the target online. We do plan to redirect the petition to Condoleeza Rice and the Haitian Government. US contact: Ambassador Anne Patterson Head of the US delegation on the recent UN Security Council mission to Haiti 8th Floor US Mission to the United Nations 140 E. 45th Street NY, NY 10017 Fax: 212-415-4053 Haitian Government contact: Mme Adeline Magloire Chancy Minister for Women’s Rights 011-509-249-5912 MINUSTAH (UN) contacts: please send emails to all of the following addresses: Gender issues: Nadine Puechguirbal – puechguirbal@un.org Or send letters to any MINUSTAH contacts at: MINUSTAH 385 Ave. John Brown You can also support So Anne’s legal defense fund by purchasing a copy of her newest CD: Thank you Endorsing Organizations: * Haiti Action Committee, CA * Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, OR * Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network, CT * Marin Interfaith Taskforce on the Americas, CA * Code Pink Women for Peace, CA SF Women in Black, CA * Haiti Justice Committee, MN * Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, CA * Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, CA * Jewish Voice for Peace, CA * Justice for Palestinians, CA * Sacramento Coalition for Democracy in Haiti, CA * Fondasyon Mapou, D.C. * East Bay Sanctuary Covenant Haiti Committee, CA * International Socialist Organization, CA * Campus Peace Action California State University Sacramento, CA * St. Joan of Arc Haiti Committee, MN * Peace No War Network * Progressive Democrats of America Sacramento Chapter, CA * San Francisco Bayview Newspaper, CA * Interfaith Women for Peace, CA * Fanm Lakay, NY * Konbit Ayisian Kakola, NY * Veye Yo, FL * Fanm Veye Yo, FL * SEIU 715 African American Caucus, CA * Lake County Amnesty International, CA * Welfare Poets, NY * Out of Control Lesbian Committee to Support Political Prisoners, CA * Cape Codders for Peace and Justice, MA * April6Vt Citizens Lobby, VT * Nicaragua Center for Community Action, CA * Ecumenical Program on Central America and the Caribbean Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, DC * Haiti Solidarity Committee, FL * Quixote Center/Haiti Reborn, MD * Haitkaah Social Justice Center, MA An Prensip When Haitians say “an prensip” (in principle) to explain how something should work, “an pratik,” how it works in actual practice, is rarely far behind. An prensip, the bus leaves in ten minutes, an pratik the driver will wait for the seats to completely fill up, squeeze several more people in, then pop the hood or go looking for gas. Haiti’s current Minister of Justice, Bernard Gousse, contrasted the principle and practice of justice in a June 2002 paper titled “Judicial Independence in Haiti” that he wrote for IFES, an American non-profit that runs U.S. government-funded projects in Haiti: “The Haitian Constitution … contains the democratic principles of separation of power and the rule of law for all Haitian people – including the principle of judicial independence. However … the Haitian justice system in practice has never followed either the letter or spirit of the Constitution [and] … has almost always been effectively subject to the administrative, budgetary and personal whims of an overly-dominant executive.” The paper was written almost eight years into Haiti’s longest-ever stint of democracy. Mr. Gousse was a law school dean and consultant for IFES’s judicial independence program. Professor Gousse was critical of the elected governments’ pratik, but noted that: “Despite the circumstances and the unfavorable environment, some judges throughout the judicial hierarchy should be commended for showing a great degree of courage and independence.” One of the judges who had shown both courage and independence was Jean-SÈnat Fleury, who had worked his way up through the judicial hierarchy from rural justice of the peace to become Haiti’s most respected Juge d’Instruction or investigating magistrate. He distinguished himself with impartial investigations of the country’s most complicated and controversial cases. When he felt he was being pressured to act contrary to the law, he would wag his finger, shake his head, and say “No way. I’m a judge, I don’t do politics.” Not long before Professor Gousse published his IFES paper, Judge Fleury was caught in the crossfire of prensip and pratik when he searched the house of a suspected drug dealer who was also a client of the then Minister of Justice. The search was legal but the Minister was angry, so the Judge was accused of stealing from the house and suspended, illegally. A few months later – too slowly, but surely – the democratic system corrected itself: the Minister was gone and Judge Fleury was back on the bench. Last November, Judge Fleury was handed another controversial case, that of Rev. GÈrard Jean-Juste, a Catholic Priest and political dissident. By that time the government chosen by Haiti’s voters had been replaced by one chosen by the U.S. government and Haitian elites. Mr. Gousse was Minister of Justice, and the architect of a campaign of repression against supporters of the ousted Lavalas party. Hundreds, if not thousands, of pro-democracy activists had been killed. The Catholic Church’s Justice and Peace Commission estimated that over 700 political prisoners joined Fr. Jean-Juste in Minister Gousse’s jails. The Minister, his prosecutor, and the Prime Minister insisted in press conferences that the priest was linked to terrorist attacks and murder. But when the case reached Judge Fleury’s courtroom, no one could produce a single witness, document or other evidence linking Fr. Jean-Juste to illegal activity. So Judge Fleury threw the case out. Just before Christmas, another judge, BrÈdy Fabien, released several high-profile dissidents when the government could produce no evidence against them after 10 months of illegal detention. Minister Gousse quickly demonstrated how much justice was “subject to the administrative, budgetary and personal whims of an overly-dominant executive” by instructing the chief judge to immediately take all of Fleury and Fabien’s cases away from them. This was a clear violation of the prensip of judicial independence, enshrined in Haiti’s Constitution and described in Mr. Gousse’s IFES paper. Judge Fleury once again showed courage and independence: he chose to resign rather than do the Minister’s politics. In 2002, Professor Gousse noted that: “The subordination of the judiciary is further demonstrated by the lack of enforcement of judicial decisions, which require the Government Commissioner to submit an order of execution for approval by the executive. Throwing your political opponents into a Haitian prison does not just shut them up, it can kill them as well. In January, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals found “no doubt” that Haitian prison conditions “are indeed miserable and inhuman.” Tuberculosis and other disease is epidemic, healthcare and food are in short supply. Some cells are so crowded that prisoners must take turns to sleep on the concrete floor. The misery is intentional: last November, the official running the UN Development Program’s work in Haiti’s prisons quit because the Haitian government refused to accept international help to improve conditions. The killing can be intentional too: on December 1, as Colin Powell was visiting Haiti’s National Palace, police responded to a non-lethal prison protest with sustained automatic weapons fire into the cells. The government admits to ten prisoners killed, but independent human rights groups and journalists report many times that number. The struggle between pratik and prensip is not confined to Haiti. America’s government has its own principles about judicial independence and respecting democracy. IFES commits itself in its mission statement to “government by the people and for the people,” an prensip. But according to a January report by the Center for the Study of Human Rights at the University of Miami Law School, an pratik, IFES used millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to undermine the government elected by Haiti’s people. The report, based on interviews with IFES employees and research on the IFES website, documented a vast network of groups that IFES created and funded to oppose Haiti’s Constitutional government, including student groups, business groups, media organizations, human rights committees and bar associations. Some of these groups engaged in violent, illegal protests. IFES employees were even required to attend anti-government protests and submit reports. Many officials of Haiti’s illegal interim government, including Minister Gousse and Prime Minister GÈrard Latortue, worked for this program, effectively obtaining their jobs by throwing out their elected predecessors. IFES employees conceded that Gousse himself even coordinated with the rebels who launched an armed insurrection in February 2004. In February 2005, members of the U.S. House of Representatives invited the author of the University of Miami report and IFES to a hearing, where some members expressed outrage at IFES’s undermining of Haitian democracy. IFES, which advocates the prensip of transparency in government, responded by cleaning up its website. The Haiti Program description no longer even mentions IFES’s creation of the network that was so proudly displayed in January. Nor does it link to Professor Gousse’s analysis of attacks on judicial independence, which now looks more like his Ministry’s strategy plan than a critique. For 200 years, American policy makers have been throwing up their hands and calling Haiti a basket case, doomed to failure despite our best efforts to save it. But for 200 years we have been installing, supporting and protecting leaders like Minister Gousse, no matter what they did to the Haitian people, as long as they also did our bidding. When Haiti’s leaders resist our dictates, as the Lavalas government did, we replace them with someone more compliant. Haitians will never enjoy the stability and prosperity that Americans take for granted until we abandon this tradition, and allow Haiti’s leaders to actually represent their citizens. Until, in other words, our pratik in Haiti matches our democratic prensip. Brian Concannon Jr. directs the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH). Both the University of Miami Law School report and “Judicial Independence in Haiti” can be found on the IJDH’s website, www.ijdh.org ******* “Men anpil chay pa lou” is Kreyol for – “Many hands make light a heavy load.” See, The Haitian Leadership Networks’ 7 “Men Anpil Chay Pa Lou” campaigns to help restore Haiti’s independence, the will of the mass electorate and the rule of law. Please circulate our mailings and posts to your mailing list and e-mail contacts. Subscribe by writing to: Erzilidanto@yahoo.com Read, adopt and circulate the Haiti Resolution (see below) from the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network and/or the Porto Alegre Declarations on Haiti adopted at the World Social Forum in 2005: www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/declaration.html Circulate the human rights reports, especially the latest Miami Law Center report: Do Press Work: Join our letter writing campaigns to help free the political prisoners in Haiti, stop the persecution of Haiti’s most popular political party and restore Constitutional rule. Write a letter, call the media, fax, – See our Press Work page for sample letters and contact information: HLLN Networkers are urged, in addition to the general writing campaigns and e-mail circulations, to also consider volunteering as primary coordinators/contributors to one of our seven campaigns: www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaigns.html Support our lawyers in Haiti and HLLN projects, such as, our partnership with AUMOHD, the young human rights lawyers in Haiti who are defending the defenseless poor whose only crime is that they voted for Lavalas, supported Constitutional rule or are resisting a return of the bloody U.S.-trained Haitian army and US-sponsored dictatorship. For information on AUMOHD, go to: www.april6vt.org/ Support the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Haiti Resolution: 1. Demand the return of constitutional rule to Haiti by restoring all elected officials of all parties to their offices throughout the country until the end of their mandates and another election is held, as mandated by Haiti’s Constitution; 2. Condemn the killings, illegal imprisonment and confiscation of the property of supporters of Haiti’s constitutional government and insist that Haiti’s illegitimate “interim government” immediately cease its persecution and put a stop to persecution by the thugs and murderers from sectors in their police force, from the paramilitaries, gangs and former soldiers; 3. Insist on the immediate release of all political prisoners in Haitian jails, including Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, Interior Minister Privert and other constitutional government officials and folksinger-activist SÚ Anne; 4. Insist on the disarmament of the thugs, death squad leaders and convicted human rights violators and their prosecution for all crimes committed during the attack on Haiti’s elected government and support the rebuilding of Haiti’s police force, ensuring that it excludes anyone who helped to overthrow the democratically elected government or who participated in other human rights violations; 5. Stop the indefinite detention and automatic repatriation of Haitian refugees and immediately grant Temporary Protected Status to all Haitian refugees presently in the United States until democracy is restored to Haiti; and 6. Support the calls by the OAS, CARICOM and the African Union for an investigation into the circumstances of President Aristide’s removal. Support the enactment of Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s T.R.U.T.H Act which calls for U.S. Congressional investigation of the forcible removal of the democratically elected President and government of Haiti. |
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