Bon Ane 2007! New Year's message from President Jean Bertrand Aristide, from Pretoria, South Africa (Kreyol audio) December , 2006

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At least 10 people died and 20 were wounded Friday in a Un peace-keeping operation in Haiti's capita, Port-au-Prnce, a UN official said

"They came here to terrorize the population," said Rose Martel, a slum dweller, referring to the police and UN troops. "I don't think they really killed the bandits, unless they consider all of us as bandits." (regarding UN assault on Dec. 22, 2006 on Site Soley residents)- Reuters

Blowing Away the stereotypes: Site
School and student wins top 2006 academic honors in Haiti: Jean Claude Bien Aime, Laureate of Laureates in the 2006 national exams

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Massacre in Haiti by Jafrikayiti
(Jean St. Vil)

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Martin Luther King and the Man on the Road to Cite Soleil : The cry is always the same "we want to be free" by Jafrikayiti (Jean St. Vil)
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NGOs in Haiti counterproductive

Demand A stop to the foreigners violence in Haiti and the Release of all political Prisoners

1. Boukman's Prayer (English and French)

2. On Working with While Liberals by Maya Angelou

3. HLLN comprehensive contact list

4. Also go to:Remembering July 6, 2005 and the UN massacre of innocent civilians from Site soley: Demand UN soldiers stop killing innocent Haitian civilians and brutalizing the Haitian public, Demand Justive for the UN Victims from Site Soley (also Apèl Pou Aksyon in Kreyol) by Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network, Haitian Perspectives, June 28, 2006 ; and

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DECLARATION OF THE INDIGENOUS WORLD URANIUM SUMMIT, Window Rock, Navajo Nation, USA
December 2, 2006
Video feed for the reading of the Declaration

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Dessalines' Law
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"- I want the assets of the country to be equitably
divided" - Jean Jacques Dessalines
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Three Ideals of Dessalines
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What Haitian-Americans Ask of Congress and the New US President --"...Void grossly unfair free trade deals and ineffective initiatives such as - the Caribbean Basin Initiate, "Investment Support" through the Investment Incentive Agreement provided by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation ("OPIC"), or the Special Export Zones ("SEZ") under the Hope Act which bans trade unions to protect workers' rights, or other such sorts of agreements - pummeling, bullying and beating Haiti into the dust of misery, debt and poverty. And, instead, support Haitian food production and domestic manufacturing, job creation, sustainable development and a good working culture. After the storm emergency, calibrate food aid so to assist and not further destroy Haiti's food production..."
(What Haitian-Americans Ask of Congress and the New US President)

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Haitian Activists on new US legislation to "help Haitians:" Enriching the few at expense of the many is not "HOPE" but fueling more despair
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HLLN Press Release
December 16, 2006

For Further Information Contact: Eugenia Charles at eugenia@fondasyonmapou.org
or Marguerite Laurent, Esq. at erzilidanto@yahoo.com

Haitian activists point out the lack of worker protection in the recently passed US trade legislation that adds a new provision to the Caribbean Basin Initiative, entitled the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement Act (HOPE), which allows duty-free treatment for certain products from Haiti.

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Statement of Haitian Activists on the HOPE legislation passed by Congress, December 16, 2006:

Fondasyon Mapou, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN) and Democracy for Haiti do not support the Haiti trade provision (Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement Act of 2006 (HOPE) that was part of the tax-and-trade bill passed by the 109th session of Congress before it adjourned for the New Year.

The Haiti provision was also strongly challenged by some Southern lawmakers, who said it would further erode jobs in their states' textile industries. However, Haitian activists' objections are on altogether different grounds.

HLLN, Fondasyon Mapou and Democracy for Haiti reject the legislation's Haiti provisions because it fails to imposes labor standards and imposes patronizing, and burdensome conditions on the Haitian people.

The newly passed HOPE Act makes Haiti eligible for new trade benefits, in addition to those it currently receives under the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI). Under current law, apparel imports from Haiti qualify for duty-free treatment only if they are made from U.S. or Haitian fabric. "The HOPE Act will also allow apparel imports from Haiti to enter the United States duty free if at least 50 percent of the value of inputs and/or costs of processing are from any combination of U.S. FTA and regional preference program partner countries. The quantity of apparel eligible for duty-free treatment under this provision is subject to a limit in the first year equivalent to 1% of overall U.S. apparel imports. This limit will expand gradually over five years, reaching 2% in the fifth year.

The Haiti provision also removes duties for three years on a specified quantity of woven apparel imports from Haiti made from fabric produced anywhere in the world. Finally, the HOPE Act will allow automotive wire harnesses imported from Haiti that contain at least 50% by value of materials produced in Haiti, U.S. FTA or regional preference program countries to qualify for duty-free treatment.

Although the undersigned Haitian activists welcomes the US bipartisan desire to assist Haiti with job creation that is evidenced by the passage of the legislation, we continue to denounce the legislation's neoliberal conditions that enrich only the few while further impoverishing the many; its failure to ensure labor standards, workers' rights, enforcement and employer accountability.

Background:
The Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement Act of 2006 (HOPE), introduced by Congressman William Thomas of California is the same as the HERO Act. In 2004 this bill was introduced in the House of Representative by Congressman Conyers and the Senate by Senator DeWine. We at HLLN, fondasyon Mapou and Democracy for Haiti, along with our Network partners abroad and in Haiti giving voice to the plight of voiceless Haitians, did not endorse it then, and we wish to reaffirm our position now that the legislation has been passed. HOPE was combined to follow the path of AGOA, a preferential treatment bill which supposedly should have worked wonders for the African economy. AGOA has done little for the African worker and domestic economy, so why will it be any different in Haiti. HOPE formerly known as HERO is its identical twin and the concept behind it remains the same.

This newly passed legislation amends the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (formerly the Caribbean Basin Initiative) that already provides for Haitian apparel to enter the U.S. duty free but on a temporary renewable basis. The Haiti (HOPE) Act makes the current duty free agreement permanent and subjects it to new onerous conditions. The HOPE legislation requires the U.S. president to certify to Congress that Haiti has established or is making progress in establishing a ‘free trade’, market-based economy that rules out subsidies, price controls and government ownership of economic assets; that eliminates barriers to U.S. trade and investment by creating an environment conducive to foreign investment protecting intellectual property rights and resolving bilateral trade disputes.

In 2003 the Inter-American Dialogue organized the conference, which led to the language of the HERO Act; then, the stakeholders of HOPE had an opportunity to seek the input of Haitians workers. Unfortunately, none of the major Haitian unions’ leaders were invited to voice the concerns of the workers; however, if Haitian workers had a chance to speak they would have most likely addressed some of the following issues and suggested that any trade agreement to help Haiti must include provisions to require that Haitian factory owners must:

- Respect and obey the local minimum wage laws

- Have health care facility within the vicinity for workers usage

- Respect workers’ rights to join and/or form unions

- Set reasonable and achievable quotas rate for workers daily

- Establish an environment for workers to work in humane conditions

- Not solicit sexual favors from workers in exchange for maintaining jobs

- Not relocate Haitian peasants from fertile land in order to build factories

- do an act of goodwill by building schools for the destitute children in the area where they do business

Recently Rep. Kendrick Meek of Florida was quoted in the Miami Herald saying that “the average Haitian garment worker earns $4 a day,” when in fact a Haitian factory worker’s day consists of 10 hours of work for 70 gourdes per day, which is roughly $2 US dollars (current exchange rate is 37.50 gourdes to $1 US); a worker is not allowed to leave the factory until he/she has completed the quota for the day. The worker spends 30 gourdes on transportation and 15 gourdes on food per day. Overall a Haitian worker takes roughly 25 gourdes home. Garment workers get paid bi-weekly. Often time they have already borrowed from friends more than what they earn within the two weeks period in order to survive.

This HOPE legislation completely ignores the sweatshop conditions and well-documented employer abuses and exploitations endured by the Haitian workers. We want trade agreements that take labor standards, worker rights and enforcement seriously, not just tiny Haitian job creation trade agreements that benefits the wealthy Haitian employers while leaving Haitian workers in the same near-slavery working conditions, without union protections, labor standards, or that ignores how the Haitian factory owners oftentimes end up not even paying the Haitian workers their wages at all, even though Haiti already has the lowest wages in the
Western Hemisphere.

U.S. legislation purported to "help Haitians" must consider and provide for these realities and inequities, otherwise they are useless to helping the majority of Haitian workers and Haiti's best interests.In essence, this so-called "HOPE" legislation will not assist the people of Haiti; it was drafted and promoted by factory owners for the benefit of the owners at the expense of the workers. Several labor unions in Haiti had rejected the bill, in its various forms, since its inception in 2003.

Therefore, Fondasyon Mapou, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN) and Democracy for Haiti herein give voice to the Haitian workers in rejecting this newly passed Haiti legislation or any other U.S. legislation that specifically ignores the plight of the majority of Haitian workers in Haiti vis-à-vis the sweatshop kingpins well-documented worker abuses.

Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
Fondasyon Mapou
Democracy for Haiti

The Black Soul lives: Denounce Dec. 22, 2006 UN slaughter and terror attacks in Site Soley
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Stop the Un troop's Genocidal attacks on Site Soley:enounce the Dec. 22, 2006 UN slaughter of mostly civilians in Site Soley. Write, call your civic organizations, your churches, your local, national and international media. Ask that they take a position, denounce the UN killings of civilians in Haiti
and demand that UN soldiers respect Haitian life and livelihood.

We are what we stand for, what we fight for, what the Ancestors fought for.

Contact information for US local, national and international media is on our website, and/or at: http://capwiz.com/wa/dbq/media.
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Nwèl Nan Site Solèy,
travay Anthony Leroy, Dec, 2006

NWÈL NAN SITE SOLÈY
*(audio)*

Pou sa ki pedi lèspwa
Sa kap pote yon kwa
Sa ki pran nan twawa
Me nouvèl la gaye:
Nwèl nan Site Solèy

Pou sa ki pa janm fete
Pou tout timoun san jwèt
Sa ki grangou sa ki toutouni
Pou je ki pa janm seche
Jou pa nou an rive:
Nwèl nan Site Solèy

Pyebwa lèspwa leve
Lap donnen, lap donnen
Nan tè ki pou abitan
Rekòt pwal konmanse
Tout moun pwale manje
Tanbou lajwa gen pou frappe:
Nwèl nan Site Solèy

Tonton nwèl blan mannan
Ape bwote dyakout manti
Li di timoun Site Solèy
Pa ka èspere jwèt
Tout jwèt li elèktrik
Ayiti san kouran
Tout moun konnnen li pa janm vle
Nwèl nan Site Solèy

Tonton nwèl sa li fou
Li soud, epi lavèg
Konman li fè pa konpran
Malere toupatou ap sanble
Pou yo fè pwòp fèt pa yo:
Nwèl nan Site Solèy

Adje me tout malad ap gaya
Lopital ap pouse
Toupatou kon djondjon
Fòn di viv lasante
Nwèl nan Site Soley

Pèp la leve kanpe
Kidnape lamizè
Ak tout politisyen ranyon
Voye yo ale byen lwen
Avèk tou Minoustha
Se yon jan, se yon mannyè
Pou li rive genyen
Nwèl nan Site Solèy

Vanyan yo monte yon gwo krèch
Klere ak limyè rezistans
Lymyè sa a tèlman fò
Menm solèy ront leve
Lè nap gade anlè
Nan yon syèl nèf nou ka wè
Ekri an gwo lèt rouj:
Nwèl nan Site Solèy !!!
Nwèl nan Site Solèy !!!
Nwèl nan Site Solèy !!!

Anthony Leroy

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La MINUSTHA,
Un cadeau empoisonné

Les derniers rayons d’un soleil jaunâtre qui avait déjà disparu, balayait l’horizon. Il était 6:30 heures du soir environ. La route 9, région nord-ouest de Port-au-Prince et un des 34 quartiers de Cité Soleil, était bien tranquille. Les habitants du quartier se promenaient calmement sur le macadam. Des fillettes jouient aux “osselets” devant ce que nous osons appeler leur maison, alors qu’un goupe de petits garçons, se servant chacun d’un morceau de bois, en guise de pistolets, jouaient aux “Cow-boys”. Sur un score de un à zéro, d’autres jeunes, une équipe au torse nu, ruisselant de sueurs, l’autre à chacun son t-shirt, achevaient, avec fair-play, une partie de foot-ball sur l’autre côté de la route, tandis que les marchands de “fritailles”, de cannes à sucre, de surettes, de “bega” …etc s’étaient entourés de gens qui s’achetaient leur souper pour quelques gourdes qui avaient du mal à sortir de leurs poches presque vides. Des parents rentraient du marché.

Un imposant poster, à l’éfigie de Emmanuel Wilmain, dit Dread Wilmain, “bandit” pour les faiseurs de coup d’état, héros national 2004, pour les habitants de Bois Neuf et des autres quartiers populaires, assassiné, comme Charlemagne Péralte, par les occupants, suivait, imperturbable, la scéne. “Son ombre veille sur nous”, disait le jeune Edouard qui avait perdu ses parents lors de l’attaque du 6 Juillet 2005.

En ce 21 Décembre 2006, tout a commencé au moment où 6 blindés des troupes d’occupation ont laissé la base de la MINUSTHA au marché de Cité Soleil et sont venus, en ligne de combat, se positionner en face de la petite ruelle qui débouche sur le quartier de Bois-Neuf. Inquiets, les riverains suivaient, du coin de l’oeil cette parade de Noel d’un mauvais gout, mais sans savoir que cela allait être leur cadeau de Noël, un cadeau empoisonné. L’atmosphère était devenue subitement maussade.

Soudain, une des mastodontes, paresseusement se détacha de la “flotille” et pour une trés rare fois depuis l’occupation, s’engagea dans la petite ruelle de Bois-Neuf. Un groupe de jeunes y compris des enfants s’y opposèrent et se mirent à bombarder la mastodonte de pierres et de bouteilles vides et d’injures. Après quelques minutes, de la fumée commençait à sortir de l’intérieur de la masse de feraille, tandis que les canons ds 5 autres blindés crachèrent le feu sur tout ce qui bougeait. En un clin d’oeil, quatre soldats de la MINUSTHA, des uruguayens, disent lers gens du quartier, ouvrirent les portes du blindé déjà en flammes, en tirant et en s’enfuyant, couvert par un tir nourri provenant des gros canons des 5 autres blindés qui leur ont donné refuge.

Amputé d’un blindé, le reste de la flotille repartit vers la base alors que l’autre mastodonte abandonnée, continue de brûler, La population de la zône en fit le reste. Tout le monde alla se coucher, un oeil fermé, un oeil ouvert. Les gens se rappelèrent le massacre du 6 Juillet 2005 qui a couté la vie à enfants en bas age, femmes et hommes dont Dread Wilmain.

Cette nouvelle hécatombe des occupants débuta réellement le lendemain vers 3:00 heures du matin lorsque le crépitement des balles réveilla en sursaut les gens de Bois-Neuf et de ses environs. Ce fut la pagaille, ce fut le carnage. Des gens couraient en toutes directions. D’autres essayaient de s’abriter derrière des murs incapables de résister à ces projectiles de fort calibre. Un hélicoptère immatriculé: UN (Nations Unies) survolait Cité Soleil, alors qu’au moins une quinzaine de blindés et des troupes à pied de la MINUSTHA tiraient sur hommes, femmes et enfants. Des gens qui, généralement, commencent tôt leur activité, étaient déjà dans les rues. Ils ont été surpris par l’attaque qui s’est poursuivie une bonne partie de la journée du 22 Décembre 2006.

Le bilan est lourd. Enfants, hommes, femmes, dont certaines enceintes sont tombées sous la vague de cette violence sans commune mesure. Des journalistes sur place dénombrent une quarantaine de morts emmenés ça et là soit dans des morgues privées, soit à l’hopital. Ils étaient visiblement choqués par ce déchainement de violence. Selon ce que rapportent des témoins, empêchés par les soldats de la MINUSTHA, les journalistes n’ont pas pu voir une quarantaine d’autres cadavres qui ont été emportés par des riverains pour être enterrés sur place. Il faut signaler également que les soldats eux-mêmes ont ramassé certains cadavres et sont partis avec eux, on ne sait où.Une centaine de blessés sont allés se faire soigner soit en cachette, soit dans certains centres santé de la zône, soit à l’hopital Sainte Catherine, tenu par MSF, Médecins Sans Frontières. Une cinquantaine de maisonnettes ont été soit détruites soit endommagées. Les cadavres n’ont pas été retrouvés avec des armes à leur côté. Donc, il n’y avait pas d’échange de tir ou d’affrontement comme le disent les médias de haine.

Le Coordonnateur des activités du CICR, Comité International de la Croix Rouge et du Croissant Rouge, à Cité Soleil, Monsieur Pierre Alexis a publiquement dénoncé le comportement des soldats de la MINUSTHA qui ont empêché son équipe d’aller porter assistance à des personnes grièvement blessées qui avaient sollicité de l’aide. “Cette attitude de la part des Forces de la MINUSTHA, Force de l’ON U, Institution Internationale dont la mission est de promouvoir la paix et le respect des droits de l’homme dans le monde, est intolérable et inacceptable,” selon un communiqué publié après le massacre par le CARLI et signé de son Secrétaire Général Maitre Renan Hédouville, Comité des Avocats pour le Respect des Libertés Individuelles. Le CARLI rappelle l’article 20 de la Convention de Genève du 12 Août 1949, relative à la protection des personnes civiles en temps de guerre: “Le personnel régulièrement et uniquement affecté au fonctionnement ou à l’administration des hôpitaux civils, y compris celui qui est chargé de la recherche, de l’enlèvement, du transport, et du traitement des blessés et des malades civils, des infirmes et des femmes en couche, sera respecté et protégé.”

A part le CARLI, des dénonciations publiques ont été émises par d’autres organisations des droits l’homme, comme la CONODH, Coordination Nationale des Organisations des Droits de l’Homme, La Fondation Trente Septembre, organisation regroupant des victimes de violence organisée, qui a effectué une première visite d’évaluation, avant d’organiser au début de la nouvelle année une journée de solidarité avec les victimes de la MINUSTHA à Bois Neuf .

Néanmoins, pour bien comprendre, dans toutes ses dimensions ce qui s’est passé en cette nuit des 21 et 22 Décembre 2006, il importe de se rappeler certains faits. Qui prouveront que cette attaque est préméditée et a été psychologiquement et soigneusement préparée. Elle est la manifestation de la volonté de poursuivre le génocide contre la population pauvre d’Haiti.

Comme éléments au niveau des préparatifs, nous retrouvons, le service de communication des occupants, la presse de l’ANMH, des membres de l’ancienne opposition, certains, par concours de circonstances, au pouvoir actuellement, d’autres au parlement.

A travers différents communiqués et plusieurs points de presse, le service de Communication des Forces d’Occupation de la MINUSTHA n’a jamais manqué de fustiger les habitants de Cité Soleil. Récemment, pour combattre l’insécurité grandissante à la Capitale, la MINUSTHA a annoncé le lancement d’une série d’Opérations dénommées ”Opération Crimes Majeurs” qui ciblent Cité Soleil. Ce quartier populaire est à l’avant garde de la lutte contre l’occupation du territoire national.

Plusieurs manifestations publiques et pacifiques, rassemblant des milliers de personnes, ont déjà été organisées par les habitants de Cité Soleil pour demander le départ des occupants. Cité Soleil a été à plusieurs reprises victimes de la barbarie des forces de la MINUSTHA. D’aucuns pensent que ce déchainement de rage sur Cité Soleil est surtout du au fait que les habitants de ce quartier de la capitale sont également à l’avant garde de la lutte pacifique pour le retour immédiat du Président Aristide.

Une bonne partie de la presse haitienne qui s’était raliée la cause des putchistes et kidnappeurs du 29 Février 2004, s’est rendue compte qu’elle s’était trompée et a commencé à changer son fusil d’épaule. Les plus récalcitrants, au nombre de 4 ou 5, pas plus, tiennent le haut du pavé avec leur campagne désuètte, parce que ne faisant plus école, contre le peuple haitien qu’ils continuent de dénigrer et d’affubler d’étiquettes injurieuses et dégradantes comme: Chimères, Bandits, Kokorat, kidnappeurs…etc. Ces médias de haine comme on les appelle, accusent les habitants des quartiers populaires de tous les maux du pays. Un Proverbe créole dit: “ Se sou chen mèg yo wè pis.”

Bien que membres du gouvernement, des postes clés de l’administration publique, ministères et directions générales, ayant été confiés à des membres de l’ancienne opposition, celle-ci a depuis un certains temps repris ses critiques acerbes contre le pouvoir. “Le pouvoir doit résoudre immédiatement le problème de l’insécurité, ou il doit partir. S’il ne veut pas partir, nous allons l’y obliger” déconnait un Paul Denis, ex-Sénateur, qui était pressenti pour être le Directeur Général du FAES ( Fonds d’Assistance Economique et Soiale). Des rumeurs persistantes veulent que l’OPL (Organisation du Peuple en Lutte), le parti de Paul Denis rêve, à travers ses représentants au parlement, de donner un vote de non confiance à l’actuel Premier Ministre haitien, l’Agronome Jacques Edouard Alexis, sur le cuisant dossier de l’insécurité. Leur objectif est de pousser, grâce au support de l’occupant, le nom de Paul Denis comme Premier Ministre, pour qu’il puisse être en bonne position au cas où le pire arrive au Président de la République l’Agronome René Préval, dont l’état de santé, à tort ou à raison, a fait couler beaucoup d’encre et de salive ces derniers temps.

Dans cette guerre contre les pauvres, nous retrouvons en première ligne des parlementaires comme Joseph Lambert, Sénateur du Sud-Est, Président du Sénat, très critiqué, Gabriel Fortuné, qui a fait tous les partis politiques, Sénateur du Sud, tous deux partisans farouches de la peine de mort, pour disent –ils, les kidnappeurs (entendez les habitants des quartiers populaires). Plusieurs voix se sont élevées pour demander la démission du Président du Sénat parce que celui-ci a appelé publiquement à la violation de la constitution.

Comme fer de lance de cette campagne contre les pauvres, le nom de Youri Latortue, retient particulièrement notre attention. Nul n’ignore les subterfuges du parachuté de l’Ambassade étasunienne à Port-au-Prince au sein de l’apareil électoral, Jacques Bernard pour hisser Youri Latortue, sinistre figure de la répression durant les deux années du coud’état de 2004 au parlement en tant que 1er Sénateur de l’Artibonite.

Ce trio mène également au nom de la même ambassade une campagne pour le retour des ex-Forces Armées haitiennes ou la formation d’une force militaire haitienne parallèle à la PNH , (Police Nationale d’Haiti) que contrôleraient les tenants de l’occupation. On se souvient que le journal français le Figaro, après une enquète menée en Haiti autour du trafic de la drogue, du crime organisé et de la corruption en Haiti durant les deux ans du régime de facto en Haiti a pointé du doigt ce neveu de l’ex Premier Ministre de facto Gérard Latortue et l’a même appelé: “Monsieur 30% .” Il recevait 30% de toutes les tractations du régime de facto et des affaires louches et ténébreuses.

Ensuite vient le nom du moins connu, Pasteur Andris Riché, Sénateur de la Grand-Anse qui s’est fait remarquer par un subterfuge monté de toute pièce, il y a 2 semaines: La zône et le scénario étaient déjà choisis. Il ne manquait plus que les acteurs. Soudain arrive un truc dénommé la caravane parlementaire venant dont ne sait quelle mission louche et obscure. Tout ce que nous savons est que ce truc tient son financement de l’occupant.

Avant d’atteindre la zône de Ti Tanyen, le cortège parlementaire manque deux voitures, celle de Joseph Lambert et celle d’Andris Riché. Non loin de là, et dans lbscurité, les phares allumés, les voitures du cortège s’immobilisèrent pour attendre les fameux retardataires. Après quelques instants, en trombe, la voiture de Joseph Lambert dépassa le reste du cortège immobilisé. On apprenait plus tard que la voiture du Sénateur Andris Riché aurait été interceptée et les passagers dont le Sénateur ont été kidnappés. Que fit son chauffeur? Que firent ses agent de sécurité armés? Qu’est devenue sa secrétaire qui était dans la voiture? Disposaient-ils de radios communication? De téléphones cellulaires? On ne le saura jamais peut-être. Mais, l’on sait que du fond de l’obscurité, au milieu des kidnappeurs et de la végétation sauvage caractéristique de cette zône, le Sénateur Andris Riché s’est héroïquement échappé des mains de ses ravisseurs. Il existe plusieurs versions légèrement différentes les unes des autres de ce scénario qui est comme un puzzle dont on a du mal à retrouver tous les morceaux. Pourtant, dès le lendemain de ce coup de théatre, le Sénateur Joseph Lambert apparaissant comme le vrai metteur en scène du coup, ne s’est pas ménagé de citer le nom de Bélony, comme étant le principal instigateur de ce soit disant kidnapping. Bélony est un leader populaire de la zône de Bois Neuf.

Après cette mise en scène, la presse rapporta l’histoire de plusieurs scène de kidnapping, dont des autobus détournées qui auraient eu lieu dans cette zône et dont les auteurs sont des personnes montées à bord des autobus depuis la ville de Saint Marc, bastion du violent groupe de l’ex opposition des 184, le RAMICOSM (Rassemblements des Militants Conséquents de Saint Marc), dont les membres sont devenus depuis un certain temps les plus surs alliés et hommes de main d’un puissant Sénateur de l’Artibonite.

D’un coup des organisations estudiantines comme le FEUH, la Fédération des Etudiants et Universitaires Haitiens, le GRAFNEH, le Grand Front National des Etudiants Haitiens sont montés au crénau pour lancer des mots d’ordre de manifestation contre l’insécurité, qui ont rassemblé une trentaine de personnes. Alors qu’ils ont déjà organisé quelques petites, mais violentes manifestations contre l’occupation, ils appelent les soldats des forces d’occupation à assurer la sécurité de la population.

C’est dans ce contexte qu’il faut comprendre que le nouveau massacre des soldats de la MINUSTHA à Bois Neuf, un quartier de Cité Soleil est un cadeau de Noël, mais un cadeau empoisonné qui s’inscrit dans la droite ligne du complot de trahison, un complot ourdi par les tenants de l’occupation pour faire disparaitre Fanmi Lavalas, c’est à dire cet outil que s’est donné les masses populaires pour luttre contre l’exclusion bi-séculaire.

Cependant par voie de conséquence, il nous faut comprendre que se mobiliser, lutter contre la trahison, c’est également se mobiliser et lutter contre l’insécurité et le kidnapping, c’est également se mobiliser et lutter contre l’occupation de notre pays et le projet de sa mise sous tutelle, c’est aussi se mobiliser et lutter contre le kidnapping du 29 Février 2004 et de toute les autres formes de kidnapping, c’est lutter contre le retour des ex-Forces Armées et contre la mise en place de ce qu’ils appellent la gendarmerie, pour que jamais le kidnapping ne se reproduise plus en Haiti et que nous puissions arriver au retour réel de la démocratie dans notre pays

New-York, 27 Décembre 2006
Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine

NGOs in Haiti counterproductive, says activist

By Ashley Joseph
Oct 02, 2008, The McGill Daily

Haiti’s long history of international interference has crippled the country’s ability to sustain itself in times of disaster, according to Montreal writer and political activist Yves Engler.

After Haiti was pounded by four tropical cyclones last month, Engler – speaking Tuesday night at a conference on the environmental devastation in Haiti, organized by QPIRG Concordia and Haiti Action – examined the role that the U.S., Canada, and France have played in Haiti’s ecological crisis.

“Our analysis is that it’s not a natural disaster,” Engler said. “It’s a human-made disaster.”

Since government coup of 2004, an operation organized in Ottawa by the Canadian, American, and French governments has had the bulk of public services for the country being left in the hands of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

As a result, the Haitian state has been dwarfed in its capacity to provide public services to the country. Of the country’s $95-million budget, $85-million is provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and ends up in the hands of NGOs that constitute 80 per cent of Haiti’s governmental services, Engler said.

“There has been a plan from Washington and Ottawa to implement a neoliberal program of downsizing the state, and at the same time channeling what money goes into the country into NGOs,” Engler said. “[NGOs are] eroding the legitimacy, will, and capacity of the Haitian state, weakening Haiti’s capacity to build itself.”

Colonial and imperial interference in the country has, over time, stripped the land of 99 per cent of its forests, and left Haiti exponentially more vulnerable to natural disaster, Engler claimed. He said deforestation began with exports of mahogany to Europe in the colonial period, and worsened when Haiti’s plantations took over the economy.

Seventy-five per cent of Haiti was forested when colonizers first arrived; 25 per cent in 1950; four per cent in 1994. Today, a mere 1.5 per cent of the country is forested.

Since no other fuel is available, Haiti’s peasantry continues to cut down trees for charcoal. According to Engler, they know that cutting down trees will have serious long-term consequences, but still do it anyway.

“Desperation means that people have to cut down trees...just to have some food today,” he said.

According to Engler, the destruction of the countryside fits into the IMF’s economic plan for the country.

“The IMF has long seen Haiti’s advantage as a place of cheap labour,” Engler explained, “so one of the positive effects of destruction of the agricultural sector is that it pushes people into cities.”

He explained that rural migrants are willing to work for low wages in the city, and that many find themselves producing t-shirts in factories for less than a dollar a day. Montreal-based t-shirt producer Gildan, which capitalizes on cheap labour in Haiti and Honduras to keep its production costs low, was one of his examples.

According to Paul Farmer, founder of Partners In Health, a non-profit healthcare organization whose largest and oldest project is in Haiti, the country needs to invest in infrastructure and forestation. In the short term, he argued, Haiti needs relief from disaster – water, food, shelter, and boats.

“People were already living on the edge and dying on the edge before these storms,” Farmer said in an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now. “The storms may actually wake people up to the gravity of the situation.”

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Thieves steal donated food in Haiti, mayor says
Tue Sep 30, 2008 8:07pm EDT

By Joseph Guyler Delva

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Food donated for Haitian storm victims was stolen and put up for sale, according to authorities who seized three storehouses full of illegally diverted food aid on Tuesday.

In the western city of Carrefour, Mayor Yvon Jerome said authorities acted after residents complained about the sale of donated rice.

"A lot of people were buying the rice because it was much cheaper compared to prices on the regular market," Jerome told Reuters. "You can read on the bag 'Donated by Taiwan' and on some other bags we read 'U.S. Rice.'"

The storehouses full of stolen food were placed under seal and the food will be redistributed to the needy, said Jerome, who called the diversion of desperately needed aid an outrage against humanity.

"There are so many people starving and desperate for that food," said Jerome. "And to see people that are better off trying to steal it goes against all sense of humanity and charity."

Haiti was hit by four tropical storms and hurricanes -- Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike -- in about a month. The storms triggered flooding and mudslides that killed at least 800 people, including 534 in the hardest-hit northern town of Gonaives, which was almost entirely submerged.

The Haitian government, donor countries and humanitarian groups are struggling to feed hundreds of thousands of flood victims in dire need of help.

Judicial authorities were looking for several suspects in connection with the depots in Carrefour, which neighbors the capital of Port-au-Prince, but it was unclear how widespread such thefts were.

The World Food Program said the misery index is rising daily in Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, and the situation will require a massive effort to help people stave off hunger and save lives. (Edited by Jane Sutton and Vicki Allen)

© Thomson Reuters 2008. All rights reserved.

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Plan Mexico in the Caribbean: Payday for Haiti Coup Co-conspirators

Posted by Kristin Bricker, Narcophere, September 29, 2008

This is part three in a series that analyzes the recently released spending plan for the Merída Initiative, also known as Plan Mexico. Part one analyzed Plan Mexico's funds for Mexico, and part two discussed Plan Mexico in Central America.

Narco News has made the entire Merída Initiative spending plan available.

In February 2004, Haitian paramilitaries left their bases in the Dominican Republic and marched towards Haiti with the goal of ousting democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide for the second time. When they arrived in Haiti, many were wearing Dominican Republic National Police uniforms.

The paramilitary forces were well prepared. For two years prior to the 2004 coup, about 200 US Special Forces members had trained them in the Dominican Republic with funds from the National Endowment for Democracy’s International Republican Institute.

They trained on Dominican federal government property with the knowledge and permission of the Dominican Republic’s then-president Hipolito Mejia. In order to avoid suspicion, the Haitian militiamen dressed in Dominican Republic National Police uniforms.

During this two-year training period, the Haitian paramilitaries ran frequent cross-border raids into Haiti to attack Aristide supporters, always retreating back into their Dominican bases afterwards.

After the coup leaders took control of the Haitian government as a US-backed “transitional government,” chaos reigned in the streets of Haiti. The World Bank estimated that by March 2004 about 1,000 people had died as a direct or indirect consequence of coup-related violence.

Supporters of President Aristide and his Lavalas party quickly mobilized in the streets to defend democracy. In one such action on April 27, 2005, Lavalas supporters rallied near the United Nations Mission headquarters in Bourdon, Port-au-Prince. According to Amnesty International, the Haitian National Police severely repressed the peaceful demonstration. Police fired into the crowd of demonstrators, killing nine people and injuring many others, including bystanders.

On August 20, 2005, at a US Agency for International Development-funded soccer match, masked Haitian National Police accompanied paramilitaries armed with machetes and hatchets in carrying out a massacre in the stadium. Police and the paramilitaries entered the stadium, ordered all in attendance to lie on the ground, and then selectively killed suspected Lavalas supporters. Anyone who attempted to escape was shot or hacked to death. By the end of the massacre, police and paramilitaries had murdered fifty people in front of 5,000 soccer fans.

In an attempt to bring the post-coup violence under control, the Brazil-led United States Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) arrived on the scene on June 1, 2004.
Its official mandate was “to assist with the restoration and maintenance of the rule of law, public safety and public order in Haiti….” According to MINUSTAH’s website, it was in Haiti “in support of the Transitional Government, to ensure a secure and stable environment within which the constitutional and political process in Haiti can take place.” MINUSTAH got right to work supporting the transitional government by gathering intelligence on activists at protests.

In an effort to “stabilize” the tense political situation in Haiti, MINUSTAH carried out two military operations in Cite Soleil, the poorest neighborhood in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and a bastion of Aristide support. According to the Haiti Information Project:

In the early morning hours of July 6, 2005, more than 350 UN troops stormed the seaside shantytown of Cite Soleil in a military operation with the stated purpose of halting violence in Haiti. When the shooting stopped seven hours later, more than 26 people, the majority of them unarmed civilians lie dead with scores more wounded….

An ‘After Action Report’ submitted to the US Embassy by the UN states that the UN attack on the crumbling civilian neighborhood was intense, prolonged, and carried out with heavy artillery and weaponry that UN officials knew could cause extensive collateral damage and the death of innocent victims.”

The July 6 bloodbath apparently did not succeed in “stabilizing” Haiti, so MINUSTAH carried out a second raid in Cite Soleil on December 22, 2006:

According to the After action report, ‘...the firefight lasted over seven hours during which time [UN] forces expended over 22,000 rounds of ammunition... [An official] with MINUSTAH acknowledged that, given the flimsy construction of homes in Cite Soleil and the large quantity of ammunition expended, it is likely that rounds penetrated many buildings, striking unintended targets.’… Although many were likely killed behind thin walls, the video evidence of the disproportionate number of victims felled by single shots to the head from high-powered rifles lends credence to the testimony of survivors following the deadly raid.

The Haiti Information Project has extensive photographic evidence of extrajudicial executions carried out during the July 6 MINUSTAH raid (warning: some photos are extremely graphic).

Plan Mexico: More of the Same in Haiti and the Dominican Republic

Plan Mexico’s $5 million in anti-narcotics funds to Haiti and the Dominican Republic hardly constitutes a significant change or expansion of US hegemony in either country. Rather, it should be considered a continuation of existing US foreign policy in the region.

For decades, the US government has armed, trained, and funded the police forces that will receive resources under Plan Mexico. It’s no surprise, then, that with the exception of the Haitian Coast Guard, all of Plan Mexico’s law enforcement recipients in the Caribbean willingly played important and deadly roles in repressing democratic resistance to the US-supported 2004 coup in Haiti.

It’s not clear that the US government made new funds available for either country as a result of Plan Mexico. It appears to have simply moved around existing funds so that the Dominican Republic and Haiti are included under the Plan Mexico rubric.

Haiti’s $2.5 million in anti-narcotics funding under Plan Mexico constitutes only 22% of the country’s overall International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement (INCLE) funding for 2008. What’s more, Haiti’s 2008 INCLE funding constitutes a 23% decrease from 2007’s funding levels.

While the Dominican Republic’s $2.5 million in Plan Mexico anti-narcotics funds marks the first year that the country will receive INCLE money, it is not the first time the recipient, the Dominican National Police, will receive US support. The Dominican National Police’s predecessor, the Dominican National Guard, was created in 1918 as a US initiative following a US Marine invasion of the Dominican Republic. According to William Blum in Killing Hope, “The US placed [the National Guard] under the control of a young officer it had trained named Rafael Trujillo,” who later became the most notorious and brutal dictator the Dominican Republic has ever seen. Trujillo was so brutal that the US found it necessary to plan and participate in his assassination in order to prevent a leftist revolution such as the one that occurred in Cuba.

When the Dominican National Guard was disbanded and turned into the Dominican National Police, it was the US that stepped up to support the transition to a civilian police force. Rather that including any new initiatives for the Dominican National Police, the Plan Mexico spending plan states, “The Merída Initiative funding will be used to continue supporting the transformation of the Dominican National Police into a professional civilian law enforcement agency.” It will do this though “technical assistance, capacity building and equipping the National Police to support transition in areas of basic police training reform, strategic planning, internal affairs, and communications systems.”

The Haitian National Police, despite its numerous outstanding cases of human rights abuses such as the massacres it carried out during the coup, will continue to receive US aid under Plan Mexico. The resources provided under Plan Mexico, which include intelligence training and equipment and the construction of a new pier, hardly constitute the most insidious US aid to the Haitian National Police. In recent years the US government has given or sold millions of dollars in arms to the Haitian National Police.

Plan Mexico will allow the US to continue to leverage control over the Haitian National Police. According to the spending plan, “The Merída Initiative funding will be used to continue supporting the transformation of the Haitian National Police into a professional civilian law enforcement agency through expanded communications and intelligence capabilities; to increase the number of successful prosecutions of major criminals; to enhance Haiti’s capability to monitor, detect, and interdict illegal shipments of narcotics, firearms, and human smuggling in priority areas; and to improve cooperation between Dominican Republic and Haitian public security and judicial authorities.”

The US has supported “the transformation of the Haitian National Police into a professional civilian law enforcement agency” since its creation. President Aristide created the Haitian National Police in 1995 after disbanding the military in an attempt dismantle its political control. The goal of creating the Haitian National Police was to bring public security under civilian control, but high-ranking members of the military have consistently controlled it.

Being the poorest country in the hemisphere, Haiti lacked the resources necessary to train the new police force in civilian policing techniques. So, despite the US role in the 1991-94 coup that temporarily ousted Aristide, Haiti turned to the US Department of Justice’s International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) to train the National Police. ICITAP training for the Haitian police included crowd control, the operation of firearms, and the use of force. The results of this training were apparent in the Haitian National Police’s actions during the 2004 coup.

Plan Mexico will also give the Haitian Ministry of Justice more control over law enforcement by funding the installation of “a secure Ministry of Justice-controlled network which will interconnect rule of law activities, specifically law enforcement operations, investigations, prosecution case management, records and case activities of the Judiciary, and inmate/detention management.” The Ministry of Justice’s actions following the 1991-1994 coup demonstrate its lack of commitment to the rule of law.

According to an article by Diego Hausfather and Nikolas Barry-Shaw on Znet, “The Ministry of Justice has organized sham trials for ex-army officers like FRAPH [Front for the Advancement of Haiti’s Progress] leader Louis Jodel Chamblain accused of carrying out massacres or assassination [sic] during the 1991-94 coup. The defendants have unanimously been acquitted in proceedings described as ‘an insult to justice’ and a ‘mockery’ by Amnesty International.” FRAPH leaders may have enjoyed such leniency because some of them were on the CIA payroll during the coup.

Plan Mexico will also support the work of MINUSTAH, again, despite numerous allegations of human rights abuses and massacres carried out by MINUSTAH soldiers. One of MINUSTAH’s mandates in Haiti is to improve security on the Dominican Republic/Haiti border, so Plan Mexico will provide Dominican and Haitian security forces with joint trainings.

Missing the Mark
Haitian and Dominican residents will most likely not notice any change in their day-to-day lives and interactions with security forces as a result of Plan Mexico. Plan Mexico is a drop in the bucket compared to existing US aid to the region, both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Plan Mexico represents a continuance of twisted US priorities in the region. Death and violence in Haiti will continue as long as its government is at the mercy of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Thus far, any attempts to free Haiti from the international financial institutions’ grips have resulted in coups. The 1991-94 coup was a period of privatization frenzy in Haiti from which the nation never recovered.

The US government would be most successful at reducing violence and death in the region by providing real economic development to Haiti in the form of reparations for its support of the Duvalier regime and its role in two recent coups. Reparations combined with debt forgiveness might allow Haiti to recover from the environmental damage wrought by decades of clear-cutting its rich mahogany forests to pay its illegitimate external debts. Clear-cutting has resulted in soil erosion to the point where much of Haiti’s land is agriculturally useless. Furthermore, clear-cutting has caused mudslides that, combined with poor Haitian residents’ flimsy housing, have led to much higher storm death tolls than in the neighboring Dominican Republic.

While Plan Mexico does not currently represent a significant policy change in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, activists should keep it on their radar, because Washington is obviously keeping the two Caribbean nations on its radar. Washington has made a conscious effort to draw the Caribbean into the Plan Mexico zone. Given that the US government has moved from promoting Plan Mexico as a defined amount of aid over a set number of years to a potentially limitless amount of aid without an end date, there is always room for the expansion of the Caribbean’s role within Plan Mexico.

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"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

Pèralte Speaks!

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The
Crucifiction of Emmanuel "Dread" Wilme,
a historical
perspective

Urge the Caribbean Community to stand firm in not recognizing the illegal Latortue regime: