HLLN Statement
July 17, 2005

Jacques Roche's kidnapping and death used by "Council of Wise" as pretext for further criminalizing and slaughtering Lavalas supporters and further disenfranchise the poor masses in Haiti.

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Demand a Stop to the killings in Cite Soleil
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Jacque Roche's kidnapping and death used by "Council of the Wise" as Pretext for cracking down on the poor in Haiti and justifying sham elections by Marguerite Laurent for HLLN | Haitian Perspectives, July 17, 2005

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The kidnappings in Haiti for political and economic purposes began with the kidnapping of Democracy by the powerful Coup D’etat nations of the US, Canada and France, intent on imposing privatization and neoliberalism in Haiti, no matter the will of the people, the nation nor its duly elected representative.

Last Thursday, July 14, 2005, Jacques Roche, a well-known cultural and sport news reporter for Le Matin, and television host of a show on "civil society" issues for Group of 184, who had been kidnapped on July 10, 2005, was found dead. His tortured and bullet ridden body was found still handcuffed.

The UN/MINUSTHA spokesperson Damian Onsès Cardona, members of Group 184, Minister of Culture Magali Comeau Denis, the US-backed "Wise Council!” Raoul Peck and a whole host of the treasonous gang who helped to, without apology, bring Haiti under foreign occupation and Latortue dictatorship, are, uniformly and very publicly lamenting the death of their
own, wily nily and without proof DECLARING that the Lavalas sector was responsible for the murder of writer-journalist Jacques Roche. Never once have these death regime adherents, ever publicly denounced the slaughter of the civilians in Cite Soleil on July 6, or, the thousand of poor Haitians slaughtered and arbitrarily incarcerated since their Coup D'etat began.

Isn't each Haitian life equally important, equally deserving of our activism and outrage. Where was their outcry, on January 14, 2005, for journalist Abdias Jean, murdered by the Coup D'etat "police" in the poor neighborhood of Village de Dieu?

Back then, a human rights activist and eye witnesses said police executed Haitian radio journalist Abdias Jean after Abdias Jean saw them kill three youths. In fact, at that time the Coup D'etat police acknowledged killing several “bandits” in the raid.

With the Abdias Jean execution, we see how the people of Haiti have suffered untold agony in the poor neighborhoods due to police brutality of the Coup D'etat regime, UN occupying force and systemic dehumanization of the poor majority.

But as with the death of Jean Dominique, the sad death of Roche is fast becoming a right-wing handle, another excuse, another opportunity for the Coup D'etat regime to cry crocodile tears while pushing their political agenda for solidifying the foreign occupation of Haiti and denying the masses the right to participate in their own country's affairs. They are simply using Jacques Roche's death to not only cover-up who may be responsible for his death, but to cover-up the UN slaughter in Site Soleil, continue the scapegoating and justify the witch-hunt and lynching of Lavalas and the poor masses.

It's not the numerous articles or even poems that have already been written lamenting Roche's death which are significant, but how this compares to the deafening SILENCE by these same Group 184 sectors on the thousands of deaths, some of known journalists, but who lived in poor neighborhoods and didn't write for the right-wing "Le Matin." Their silence
on the death of civilians in Site Soleil, Bel Air, Delmas 2, Martissant, Village de Dieu, et al, says a lot!. Too much.

This silence is but a conspiracy designed to obscure the summary executions and other abuses committed in recent weeks in the populist districts, especially on July 6, 2005 where upwards to 50 civilians are reported slaughtered by UN soldiers.

It illustrates the writers’ complicity with this death regime and dictatorship. For, no one who cares about participatory democracy, transparency, true justice and equal rights would selectively choose to denounce only the death of people belonging to a certain sector, the Group 184 sector, and, no one else. As if the three Haitian children, ages - 9, 5 and 4 - who where just summarily executed, while in their own homes, by UN troops in the Boston part of Site Soleil on the very same day Roche's body was found, are not human, not visible, not Haitian, not worthy of the same justice, the same uniform public outcry. (See, "5, 000 in
Haiti protest UN Massacre in Cite Soleil" - Kevin Pina, Flashpoint interview, July 14, 2005
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignone/testimonies/soleilmassacre.html)

This was a massacre, a slaughter. A 4-year-old and a 5-year-old, mere babies, were executed by UN soldiers, in the early hours of the morning as they lay sleeping in their own mother's bed! Where are the poems on their behalf by the so called "poets and Haitian intelligentsia" in Haiti, like Raoul Peck who are so terribley torn-up about Jacques Roche?

The Site Soleil UN massacres certainly weren't done by the "Lavalas sectors" that the death regime's Minister of Culture, Magali Comeau Denis, is denouncing as responsible for "all the violence in Haiti". Why isn't the killing of babies - just 4 and 5-year-old innocents, in the Boston section Cite Soleil by the UN soldiers, called "murder" and, as The Fusion of Socio-Democrat Party leader, Serges Giles, says of the Jacques Roche murder, also "a villainous and revolting crime that questions national conscience." Why? (See, AHP July 14, 2005 article below "Reactions and condemnations after Jacques Roche’s murder")

It is also very relevant to note how all these folks, Noriega, Raoul Peck, Group 184, the imposed Latortue death regime, U.S. Ambassador Foley and the "Council of the Wise," who don't support authentic electoral democracy, or the Haitian masses' right to self-determination, blame EVERYTHING on exiled President Aristide. But, let's continue to mobilize
and raise the truth to greater light.

Let's begin by questioning WHY Jacques Roche was killed?

In sum, Roche's death is the fruit of a poison Coup D'etat-tree that must first be uprooted before justice can ring in Haiti. It's the fruit of an ongoing international crime of kidnapping democracy begun with the kidnapping of President Aristide from Haiti.

As a friend wrote to me today:

"The handcuffs (left on Roches body) already told us WHO did it. I can't imagine slum dwellers possessing handcuffs, and if they did, having enough to leave them on a dead body. We are dealing with really evil people."

Moreover, according to an AHP news report "People close to the cultural journalist condemned his execution and declared that if they had received support from some sectors they didn’t name, to complete the ransom, the victim’s life would have probably been saved....One of his collaborators, Roudy Sanon, who was involved in the negotiations with the kidnappers, declared that it was his work colleagues who helped to get the 10.000 dollars given to the kidnappers. He also deplored that the Police General Direction did not help to get Jacques Roche’s release, despite the fact that it had enough clues to help, he said. "This authority of the police is therefore responsible on this level of his death, Roudy Sanon said on a private radio station of the capital." (Emphasis added.)

So, even as Jacques Roche's own friend, Roudy Sanon, tells the world who he believes shares part of the responsibility for this death, Raoul Peck, the imposed puppet regime, Group 184 and their apologist intentionally remain deaf, dumb and blind. Why?

Perhaps because to admit otherwise would not serve their political purposes.

Despite all the facts above-mentioned showing the possible involvement or neglect of the police, group 184 sectors, and pointing out it may be people-with-means, perhaps the elite sectors -someone like a Jerry Narcius and his EHM gangs, who can well afford handcuffs not the poor - who may be responsible for the death of Jacques Roche, still, it is the Lavalas Party, exiled President Aristide and the starving and hunted poor in Haiti who are openly being blamed for this kidnapping with no proof or any circumstantial evidence whatsoever.

Jerry Narcius, arrested a few weeks ago by the Haitian National Police for his presumed implication in acts of kidnapping in Port-au-Prince, is known as the son of a powerful Haitian entrepreneur and a resident of Thomassin 12, a very affluent neighborhood near Petion-Ville. Have Raoul Peck, Roger Noreiga, Ambassdor Foley and other anti-Aristide psychopaths apparently bringing impunity, rule-by-force, occupation and dictatorship to Haiti, but telling everyone their doing otherwise, also gotten selective amnesia or what? http://www.bigboston.com/haitikidnapper.htm

Mr. Roche death is a tragedy, part of our current post-Coup D'etat Haitian agony. Yet, the twist, the uses of his death are even more diabolical: The unconstitutionally convened and U.S.-backed-"Council of Sages," citing Jacques Roche's death and accusing the Lavalas party of it, this Saturday, July 16, 2005, announced they would bar the Lavalas party from the upcoming sham elections. These are all maneuvers to begin to explain to the world why less than 3% of the electorate is set to participate in the upcoming Coup D'etat elections. Twou menti pa fon.

HLLN, July 17, 2005

BACKGROUND INFO:

- Council: Bar Aristide Party From Election, | AP | Leonardo Aldridge, July 17, 2005

- Sad ending for cultural and sport news reporter Jacques Roche who was kidnapped Sunday in Port-au-Prince | Port-au-Prince, July 14, 2005 (AHP)

- Reactions and condemnations after Jacques Roche’s murder

- The interim government accuses Lavalas of responsibility in the death of cultural journalist Jacques Roche - AHP

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Council: Bar Aristide Party From Election
Sunday July 17, 2005 1:16 AM
By LEONARDO ALDRIDGE
Associated Press Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - A U.S.-backed advisory council that oversees Haiti's interim government recommended Saturday that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's political party be barred from upcoming elections, accusing the party of encouraging violence.

The seven-member Council of Sages, which picked the interim government, accused Aristide's Lavalas Family Party of promoting violence, including the slaying of a well-known Haitian journalist whose body was found with signs of torture Monday.

``Political groups who identify themselves with the Lavalas Family Party, and particularly with Mr. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, continue to promote and tolerate violence,'' the council said.

The council urged the interim government to ``make the bold political and beneficial decision to disqualify the Lavalas Family Party from theelectoral process.''

But Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council indicated that all political parties would be welcome in the October and November elections.

``The election is for all political parties of Haiti,'' said electoral council spokesman Rosemond Pradel.

Lavalas is Haiti's most organized political force, with much of its support coming from sprawling slums in Port-au-Prince. Aristide was ousted in a bloody, three-week rebellion in February 2004.

Lavalas party members, who have said they will boycott the elections unless Aristide returned from exile in South Africa, have denied involvement in violence that has killed more than 700 people in the capital of Port-au-Prince since September.

U.N. peacekeepers have intensified offensives against armed pro- and anti-Aristide gangs, who dominate parts of the capital's slums. Lavalas leader Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, a Roman Catholic priest who is considering running for president, said the interim government feared
Aristide supporters would win the elections.

``They are scared of us,'' Jean-Juste said. ``They are afraid we are going to win.''

Jean-Juste, whose sermons electrify worshippers who have urged him to run for president, said he would consider doing so if his party asked.

``I will consider it, but it is not my intention to run for president,'' the priest said.
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AHP News July 14, 2005

Sad ending for cultural and sport news reporter Jacques Roche who was
kidnapped Sunday in Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince, July 14, 2005 (AHP)-

Writer-news reporter Jacques Roche was found dead this Thursday in Delmas, after he was kidnapped Sunday, July 10th, in the populist neighborhood of Nazon in Port-au-Prince, where he lived.

Mr. Roche’s body (40 years old) had traces of bullets, blows and burns. This tragedy created dismay among almost all sectors of society since Jacques Roche was known in different places.

An amount of 10,000 US dollars had been given to the kidnappers for his release, on an amount of 250,000 that had been demanded. Even though it is condemned, the practise of giving ransoms is respected even by foreigners whose relatives have been kidnapped in Port-au-Prince. It was the case of the Canadian citizen, Huguette Goulet, who was kidnapped last month.

Jacques’ family had unfortunately not been able to get together the other 240 thousand dollars demanded by the kidnappers.

People close to the cultural journalist condemned his execution and declared that if they had received support from some sectors they didn’t name, to complete the ransom, the victim’s life would have probably been saved.

Jacques Roche hosted a show of the civil society on National Television, was responsible of a literature column in the daily newspaper Le Matin, and co-hosted a sports show on Radio Ibo. One of his collaborators, Roudy Sanon, who was involved in the negotiations with the kidnappers, declared that it was his work colleagues who helped to get the 10.000 dollars given to the kidnappers. He also deplored that the Police General Direction did not help to get Jacques Roche’s release, despite the fact that it had enough clues to help, he said. "This authority of the police is therefore responsible on this level of his death, Roudy Sanonsaid on a private radio station of the capital.

Hundreds of people from all Haitian social classes as well as foreign citizens have been kidnapped these last few months in Port-au-Prince.
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AHP July 14, 2005 11:40 AM

Reactions and condemnations after Jacques Roche’s murder

Port-au-Prince, July 14, 2005 (AHP)- MINUSTAH spokesperson Damian Onsès
Cardona deplored Thursday the murder of writer-journalist Jacques
Roche.

Damian Onsès Cardona invited Haitians to unity and reconciliation to put an end to this situation of violence. This crime should serve as a catalyst, he said, to mobilize all sectors against violence.

The Fusion of Socio-Democrat Parties declared it was filled with dismay with the journalist’s murder. A leader of the Fusion, Serges Gilles, considered that this was a villainous and revolting crime that questions national conscience. Serges Gilles declared he showed solidarity to Jacques Roche’s family and to the press in general and calls Haitians to mobilization to say no to terrorism.

Jacques Roche’s family had not been able to get together the 250,000 US dollars demanded by the individuals who had kidnapped him Sunday in the district of Nazon.

The Protestant Federation of Haiti (FPH) expressed his indignation in regards to what it considers a degrading act. The General Secretary of this organization, Edouard Paultre, considered that this murder can be seen as a message sent to the media. He brought the attention of intellectual authors and executors of these crimes on the fact that this path
is not the best one and that it will only lead the country to destruction.

The political organization Fanmi Lavalas also condemned Jacques Roche’s tragic disappearance. An executive of the party, Senator Yvon Feuillé, considered that it was time to make a chain of solidarity to save the country from violence and from this new scourge, kidnapping.

"It is a hard blow for Jacques Roche’s parents and for the country in general who just lost a talented young man", Feuillé declared. He called all sectors to bury the hatchet, bury injustice, revenge and social exclusion, to take the path of legality and unity. "The real way cannot be that of violence, of social exclusion, of armed confrontation or of kidnapping", he also declared, mentioning a document signed by several former parliamentarians and Lavalas executives.

The Lawyers Committee for the Repsect of Individual Freedoms CARLI declared it was also filled with dismay with Jacques Roche’s murder. "Once again, a member of the civil population, a young man with hi suture before him, is killed because of the fact that the right to security is not guaranteed by governmental authorities who have that responsibility", the CARLI wrote in a press note. According to the organization, when the State does not protect its citizens from violations by others, it shares responsibility with the authors for the damage caused.
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AHP July 14, 2005 12:30 PM

The interim government accuses Lavalas of responsibility in the death of cultural journalist Jacques Roche

Port-au-Prince, July 14, 2005 (AHP)- Minister of Culture Magali Comeau
Denis declared Thursday that the Lavalas sector was responsible of the
murder of writer-journalist Jacques Roche.

The police and justice haven’t announced any investigation yet to find
the authors of this murder. The minister affirms that it is the Lavalas
sector that killed Jacques Roche, the poet who wrote against torture
and the citizen who committed himself in the construction of civil
society.

"This crime is political", Magali Denis Comeau declared. She asks all
Haitians to make the whole world hear their cry of revolt against the
authors of this crime. She said the transition government has the firm
intention of using all means to stop violence.

"We systematically tried to involve the Lavalas sectors in all our
steps to build democratic institutions and now we know that it does not
wish to associate with these procedures, Mrs. Comeau said, reading a
communiqué from the interim government. The transition government is ready
to welcome all sectors who want to renounce to violence and commit
themselves into the reconstruction of the country but it will never accept
to negotiate and to do politics with murderers, she also declared.

"Our true friends will accompany us or we will stay alone in our
refusal to negotiate with murderers", Magali Comeau Denis warned.
AHP July 14, 2005 3:30 PM

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Forwarded by the Haitian Lawyers' Leadership Network
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