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Hope
and Humiliation: HLLN’s analysis of May 18, 2006 and
the Inaugural of President Rene Preval by Marguerite Laurent
by
Marguerite Laurent, Haitian Perspectives,
May 18, 2006
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Dessalines Is Rising!!
Ayisyen: You Are Not Alone!
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"...on that May 18, 2004 day, this anonymous Haitian woman,
refused to give up the fallen body....She took off all her clothes,
staring down the US Marine tanks and guns, to show them she was
not armed. Then, she wrapped her naked body up in a large Haitian
flag, hoisting up the dead man upon her back, walking off with
him on her back, daring the “peacemakers” to shoot
her.
This exemplifies Haiti’s “to live free or die”
motto. It is why Haitians celebrate Flag Day. It is why today,
we too...hoist on our backs the 20,000 dead since the coup d’etat,
the thousands still in prison, the 33 coup d’etat’s,
the 200 years of containment-in-poverty and before that, the 300
years of slavery. Haitians are a strong people and hoist all of
this on our backs. We may bend* down under the weight - nou pliye,
nou pa kase* - but we shall NEVER reconcile with injustice...."
*Note: Strong winds may bend the
bamboo tree all the way down to the ground. But it snaps right
back up. It doesn’t break, no matter how strong the wind.
So, Haitians have a saying – “Nou se rozo. Nou pliye,
nou pa kase “ - like the bamboo tree, we bend but we don’t
break; like the flexible bamboo tree we-Haitians use even the
momentum of our falls to stand back up..." From, Hope
and Humiliation: HLLN’s analysis of May 18, 2006 and the
Inaugural of President Rene Preval by
Marguerite Laurent,
Haitian Perspectives, May 18, 2006
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Hope
and Humiliation: HLLN’s analysis of May 18, 2006 and the Inaugural
of President Rene Preval by Marguerite Laurent
Today, May 18, 2006 is Flag Day in Haiti. It's a time to remember
why the African general, general Jean Jacques Dessalines took the
tri-colored French flag, ripped out the white and threw it into
the sea, leaving our flag, blue, and the red. It's a time to remember
why the emblem engraved in the coat of arms of Haiti is "L'union
Fait La Force" – “in unity lies our strength”.
It's a time to remember that after 300 years of European barbarity
in Haiti – Haiti, the first place Africans where transported
as European captives for the "New World" - that on May
18, 1803, after beating the armies of Great Britain, Spain, France
and the embargo and arms of the US white settlers, the Africans,
who became "Haitian," in the land of the Taino-Arawaks
Amerindians had, with this great feat even Spartacus couldn’t
achieve, liberated the sons and daughters of Africa, eviscerating
the white men's fatalistic idea that the child of a Black woman
was lesser than that of the white men.
HLLN created a flag for the FreeHaitiMovement which represents this
Haitian struggle against tyranny that continues to this day, May
18, 2006, some two centuries later.
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/solidarityday/infoforsponsors.html
We take this opportunity to thank all those who have ANSWERED THE
CALL and joined the list of sponsors to the FreeHaitiMovement.-
Dessalines Is Rising Worldwide
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/law/res2006.html
.
Today, May 18, 2006 and throughout the rest of the month, in countries
in Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas, decent people worldwide
will stand in solidarity with the people of Haiti against the Coup,
the de facto protectorate and the foreign occupation of Haiti.
There will be teach-ins, rallies and lectures before and on May
18, 2006 about Haiti's historical accomplishments; vigils, pickets
outside embassies and U.N. buildings; audio and video streaming
for internet and DVD distribution of testimony from victims and
resisters of the 2004 coup d'etat; the wearing and flying of the
blue and red colors of Haiti; and, the sacrilege of the 2004 bicentennial
coup, shall be remembered as Africans and friends of Haiti worldwide
commit to fax, call-in and deliver to French and US Embassies and
Consulates worldwide the People of Haiti’s demand that France
pays back the 22 Billion dollars it extorted from Haiti, and the
US pays back its portion of this illegal slave-trade debt which
was “refinanced” by the US in 1914 (enforced, through
a 19-year occupation), the final payment made in 1947 to the United
States, after Haiti’s people had broken the chains of racial
slavery to win their independence.
The year, 2006, also marks the 200th anniversary of the death of
Haiti's liberator, general Jean Jacques Dessalines. Pro-democracy
Haitians worldwide shall continue to call on the vision of Dessalines
for Haitians as we struggle to liberate Haiti of its current France/US/Canada
and UN occupiers. HLLN will culminate our year-long celebration
of the life and works of Dessalines, on Oct 17, 2006, the day marking
the first coup d'etat in Haiti and Dessalines' assassination.
Haitians have live through and survived 33-such coup d'etats as
part and parcel of the legacy of struggle against Euro/US debt,
domination and dependency.
The February 29, 2004 coup d'etat against Haiti's democratically
elected president, Jean Bertrand Aristide continues to this day,
as Haitian sovereignty continues to be humiliated by the white saviors
and their Black overseers in Haiti - Haiti's morally repugnant wealthy
few.
The imperialist and their Black overseers say Haiti is a failed
state and they will save us. 20,000 Haitians have died, over 4,000
are in prison, there are children jails now in Haiti, something
Haitians have never had before. And though the people of Haiti continue
to resist this tyranny, have elected and fought for the speedy installation
of President Rene Preval to office. The repression continues.
One only has to analyze the May 14, 2006 Presidential inaugural
events to understand how both hope and humiliation still vie for
a place in the Haitian psyche.
Hope, of course, is represented by the Haitian peoples' courage,
commitment and living legacy as pioneers in the human rights struggle
for life with dignity. Humiliation as represented by the presence
of foreign troops to Haiti to install the Latortue death regime.
Humiliation as represented by the fact that these Neocon fascists
even controlled the inaugural day of the people's new president.
Humiliation as represented by the fact that since the ouster of
Haiti's democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
there has been systematic repression of the people and their voice
in Haiti. Humiliation in that, even as President Preval officially
took power, two months after his election, the claws of the coup
d'etat vampires are so deep inside the backs of the Haitian poor,
Haiti still cannot liberate Yvon Neptune, So Ann, Jacques Mathelier
and thousands of others who have languished in Canada/US/France-supported
indefinite incarceration on Dessaline's land.
Even though President Preval has taken power, there is still a gun
to Haiti's head. A gun held by the coup d'etat governments of the
US, France, Canada, with the UN as their "peacekeeping"
cover. There is no justice in Haiti. For Haitians cannot forget
all of Latortue’s human rights violations, will not forget
the 20,000 Haitians slaughtered since Feb. 29, 2004 and 4,000 in
prison, mostly all political prisoners; cannot forget the multinationals,
NGOs, foreigners and IFCs’ fleecing Haiti these last two coup
d’etat years and calling it “bringing development, justice
and democracy.”
It wasn't an easy job for these folks to turn Haiti back to this
miserable level. But, as President Preval stated in his inaugural
speech - and HLLN takes the liberty of forgetting the double entendres,
high-society proprieties and diplomatic protocols, to say what a
manacled President perhaps cannot and even may not have intended
to say – but we, HLLN say, on behalf of the people of Haiti
who were not INVITED to the inaugural of the President they elected,
that "it wasn't easy but the illegal Boniface Alexandre, Gerard
Latortue, their cabinet members and their illegal Provisional Electoral
Council did EVERYTHING they could to undermine the people of Haiti,
so Haiti could get to this point of humiliation, this point of insanity,
bloodshed and chaos that it is today.” It was not easy, but
they had powerful US/Canada/France/UN guns behind them to push Haiti
to here:
HERE where Prosper Avril, a former general who
escaped two years ago from the National Penitentiary where he was
being held as a threat to national security, had a front row seat,
while Rene Civil, who HLLN is told, allegedly had a letter of invitation
in his hand to attend the inaugural, was illegally arrested, on
the Friday (May 12, 2006) before the inaugural, at the border of
the Dominican Republic.
So, at Preval’s inauguration, Proper Avril was out of prison
and in a front row seat of the Legislative Palace. So Ann, Yvon
Neptune and thousands of political prisoners, with no human rights
violation records, still languish in jail.
That’s where we-Haitians are.
HERE where we hear an unconfirmed report that even
Louis Jodel Chamblain attended the inaugural.
HERE where the Haitian people’s duly chosen
President has no control of the police force, the UN soldiers, not
even the National Palace.
BUT, but, in spite of all of the Boca Raton regime and their powerful
Western supporter’s undemocratic efforts, the people of Haiti
still won back the presidency.
This folks, is how the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network explains
the comment made by President Rene Preval at the inaugural that:
“…President Boniface Alexandre, Prime Minister Gerard
Latortue, cabinet members [applause], you have done EVERYTHING you
could so Haiti could get to this point. It was not easy, but we
got here. [Applause]
Members of the Provisional Electoral Council, your job was not easy,
either. Since 1987, elections in Haiti have been trouble. The first
one ended in blood. Most of the others ended in challenges. These
elections also had their problems, but everybody acknowledges that
there was no violence. The people participated en masse, and
everybody acknowledges the results. [Applause] “
Our work at HLLN is to give voice to the voiceless people of Haiti,
a voice not often found in the mainstream press or the powerful
citadels of power on this planet. That the Boca Raton regime did
everything to destroy justice, democracy and anyone associated with
the Constitutional governement of Haiti is undisputable. Fortunately,
like the Haitian people outside the inaugural halls, who came to
make their presence known, their grievances heard, HLLN also has
no diplomatic need or practical reasons to couch this truth behind
double entendres or diplomatic protocols.
But, true also, is the fact that, even as there is hope today in
Haiti, we are still being humiliated as a people, a nation. That
is why when HLLN ponders at what point are we-Haitians in the struggle
today for self-determination, self-respect, self-defense and national
sovereignty, we singled out the noted paragraph from President Preval’s
inaugural speech and ask:
Is President Preval being held prisoner in plain sight without the
bars, for instance, locking in So Ann and Yvon Neptune? Is Preval
unable to freely speak? Is that what we fought for? Or, in the alternative,
if President Preval meant to freely praise the Boca Raton regime
for “doing everything” to get us “to this point”
- to this repression point that continues right up to this very
moment, is that what we all fought for?
It doesn’t take much thinking to figure out why the double
entendre. Why President Preval, who is hobbled by the events of
the coup d’etat, the presence of a police force trained by
Haiti’s enemies, backed by UN guns, is limited. The humiliating
part we are in right now as a nation is that Haiti is under domination
and pretending to be electing a president, hoping we can transform
the dynamics of the situation: buy ourselves breathing room, stop
the killings, free the political prisoners, get the return of President
Aristide, alleviate the people’s total repression since the
2004 coup d’etat.
The inaugural of President Rene Preval is one step in this direction.
For that hope, Haiti has paid with the lives of over 20,000 of its
sons and daughters and continues to pay, as at least 12 political
prisoners are reported to have been killed by the defacto police
with UN firepower cover just hours before President Preval’s
inaugural.
Haiti’s humiliation continues this May 18, 2006.
But Haitians know how to fight US/Euro containment-in-poverty.
Those of us who stand without shackles, like the Haitians in the
Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network, owe our success and survival
to this legacy.
We teach our children, the example of Prime Minister Yvon Neptune,
that NO, it is not alright to reconcile with injustice. We teach
our children what Dred Wilme and the people of Site Soley, Bel Air,
Solino, Martissant and all over Haiti have taught the world these
last two nightmarish years, NO, it is not acceptable to "get
along on our knees" rather than telling the truth because that
would mean risking losing a job, a social status, even prison or
a bullet in the head.
On this May 18, 2006, Haitians worldwide will continue teaching
these values, celebrating our roots, Dessalines legacy, Catherine
Flon’s flag and the Ancestors “live free or die”
principle and heavy example. Our ancestors would not reconcile with
injustice. Even if they died for this, they would not accept injustice.
Are today’s Haitians to live in discord with the legacy the
African Ancestors left us in Haiti? No. Haitians cannot and still
BE “Haitian.”
There is a humiliation still to be erased in this current coup d’etat
struggle. President Preval has begun the process on behalf of the
people of Haiti at his inaugural.
THERE, he made three critical points.
MINUSTHA was clearly informed Haiti prefers tractors and bulldozers
to MINUSTHA’s heavy weapons, armored vehicles and war tanks.
The speech was entirely in Kreyol. This is a first for Haiti, has
never been done before to anyone’s memory and is CRITICALLY
significant to Haitians. BUT, equally and the most satisfying action
of President Preval at the inaugural, what made us-Haitians feel
he is OURS, was the way President Preval dexterously and without
fanfare, skipped “the propriety” of having Boniface
place the presidential sash on him. This says much to Haitians and
pro-democracy advocates. It rejects them and soothes our many wounds
since Feb. 29, 2004.
Still, the repression continues and is suffocating us. Haiti is
still not free. That is why today, May 18, 2006 is also International
Solidarity Day with Haiti. And why people of conscience worldwide
will be flying the blue and red colors of Haiti’s liberty
to support our struggle and let the poor majority in Haiti know:
YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
Today May 18, 2006 is better than the last two flag days we have
had, in 2004 and 2005. Again, this year we remember the Haitian
woman who faced-off the US Marines’ guns and refused to give
them the body of the unarmed Haitian demonstrator that was shot,
in cold blood, in front of said “peacekeepers” with
impunity. We remember how, on that May 18, 2004 day, this anonymous
Haitian woman, refused to give up the fallen body of this demonstrator.
She took off all her clothes, staring down the US Marines tanks
and guns, to show them she was not armed. Then, she wrapped her
naked body up in a large Haitian flag, hoisting up the dead man
upon her back, walking off with him on her back, daring the “peacemakers”
to shoot her.
This exemplifies Haiti’s “to live free or die”
motto. It is why Haitians celebrate Flag Day. It is why today, we
pro-democracy Haitians, we too hoist on our backs the 20,000 dead
since the coup d’etat, the thousands still in prison, the
33 coup d’etat’s, the 200 years of containment-in-poverty
and before that, the 300 years of slavery. Haitians are a strong
people and hoist all of this on our backs. We may bend*
under the weight - nou pliye, nou pa kase* - but we shall NEVER
reconcile with injustice.
On Flag Day 2004, at least 9 unarmed demonstrators were shot dead
fighting for Haiti’s liberty. On Flag Day 2005, Sanel Joseph
lost his life, along with many others. Today Flag Day 2006, we hope
no Haitian life is lost. We hope that the inaugural of President
Preval will mean Haitians will stop getting killed by organized,
state-sponsored forces.
At Preval's inaugural the crowd outside were chanting “arrest
Boniface and Latortue” and remembering how, after the September
30th killings of unarmed demonstrators, Latortue said “We
shot them, some of them fell, others were injured, others ran away…”
We-Haitians who commit to protect the Feb. 7th vote, who discount
the polemics aimed at “the gallery,” and international
community during the inaugural, we who congratulate President Rene
Preval for safely traversing the dangerous coup d’etat gauntlet
set for his team to bridge at the inaugural, we find, May 18, 2006
is a good time to ask, “Did you hear Mr. President, the PUBLIC
CLAMOR for the arrest of Boniface and Latortue? When, sir, will
the political prisoners be free? “
The people of Haiti voted for President Preval in order to wipe
out the humiliation of Feb. 29, 2004. The crowd outside told the
world, at Preval’s inaugural, what must be done for Haiti’s
humiliation to be assuaged.
It is wonderful that President Preval has officially been inaugurated,
taken power.
But, according to the wishes of Haiti’s majority, who elected
President Preval to office, justice must be done. Some request the
arrest of Boniface and Latortue. All ask for the release of the
political prisoners and that MINUSTHA, along with the Haitian police,
stop killing the people. But, for Haiti’s humiliation to be
assuaged, for that to be done, the return of President Aristide
to Haitian soil is the only event Haiti’s majority poor FEEL
will BEGIN to erase the total humiliation Haiti has suffered, at
the hands of the US, Canada, France and the UN, since 2004.
Respect,
Marguerite Laurent, Esq.
Chair and Founder, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
May 18, 2006
Nou se rozo, nou pliye nou pa kase
*Note: Strong winds may
bend the bamboo tree all the way down to the ground, but it snaps
right back up. It doesn’t break, no matter how strong the
wind. So, Haitians have a saying – “Nou se rozo. Nou
pliye, nou pa kase “ - like the bamboo tree, we bend but we
don’t break; like the flexible bamboo tree we-Haitians use
even the momentum of our falls to stand back up. |
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Dessalines
Is Rising!!
Ayisyen: You Are Not Alone!
"When you make
a choice, you mobilize vast human energies and resources which
otherwise go untapped...........If you limit your choices only
to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself
from what you truly want and all that is left is a compromise."
Robert Fritz
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| HLLN's
controvesy
with Marine
Spokesman,
US occupiers |
| Lt.
Col. Dave Lapan faces off with the Network |
International
Solidarity Day Pictures & Articles
May 18, 2005 |
| Pictures
and Articles Witness Project |
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_____________
 Drèd
Wilme, A Hero for the 21st Century
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Pèralte
Speaks!
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Yvon Neptune's
Letter From Jail
Pacot -
April 20, 2005
(Kreyol & English)
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| Click
photo for larger image |
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| Emmanuel "Dread"
Wilme - on "Wanted poster" of suspects wanted by the
Haitian police. |
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Emmanuel
"Dread" Wilme speaks:
Radio Lakou New York, April 4, 2005 interview with Emmanuel "Dread"
Wilme
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The
Crucifiction of Emmanuel
"Dread" Wilme,
a historical
perspective
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Urgent
Action:
Demand a Stop
to the Killings
in Cite Soleil
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Sample letters &
Contact info
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Denounce Canada's role in Haiti:
Canadian officials Contact Infomation
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Urge the Caribbean
Community to stand firm in not recognizing the illegal Latortue
regime: |
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| Selected
CARICOM Contacts |
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Key
CARICOM
Email
Addresses |
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Slide
Show at the
July 27, 2004 Haiti Forum Press Conference during the DNC
in Boston honoring those who stand firm for Haiti and democracy;
those who tell the truth about Haiti; Presenting the Haiti
Resolution, and; remembering Haiti's revolutionary legacy
in 2004 and all those who have lost life or liberty fighting
against the Feb. 29, 2004 Coup d'etat and its consequences |
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