Looking
for Haiti's Feedom on May 18, 2007
A nation's flag is the primary symbols of its freedom. Haiti's flag
was created in a Haitian town called Arcahaie on May 18, 1803.
In Haiti and for Haitians in the Diaspora, May 18 is Flag Day and a
major moment to celebrated the Haitian Ancestors' great feat of securing
independence from European enslavement and colonialism.
But Haiti has been under foreign occupation since February 29, 2004
with the
Bush-sponsored regime change with UN multinational soldiers acting as
the US’s military proxy. (See, the February 22, 2006 protectorate
agreement signed with the UN by the US-imposed Haitian prime minister,
Gerard Latortue.)
On May 14, 2006, a duly elected Haitian president, President Rene Preval,
was
inaugurated. But Preval is a president elected while Haiti is occupied
and while all relevant democratic structures were suspended, destroyed
or obfuscated; the people being terrorized by the rule-by-force UN/US/and
their de facto Haitian representatives.
Two recent news events summarize the impotence of the Preval/Alexis
government in Haiti today and illustrate the injustices currently being
metered out in Haiti today under this legitimate but trapped Haitian
leader.
(See news articles: "Haiti
Immigrants Angry With Boat Sinking," Associated Press,
May 11, 2007 -
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/writings/capsized.html#blood;
Haiti’s Emmanuel “Toto” Insists He Has No Fear Of
Deportation," Hardbeatnews, May 17, 2007 -
https://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/ezilidanto/2007-05/msg00003.html
and
Emmanuel Constant prêt à revenir en Haïti, ignore
les graves accusations
portées contre lui, Radio Kiskeya, May 16, 2007 -
https://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/ezilidanto/2007-05/msg00004.html
. )
The
sights and sounds of Haiti's misery,
grief and agony
A few weeks ago 91 Haitian migrants drowned as their boat capsized while
being towed by police from the Turks and Cacos Island. I wrote then
what
immediately came to mind : “The way they were forced to live,
to die, tear us alive. Now, they suffer no more. They left that part
to us. To consume us
now, to tear us to pieces. They're hope gone, pain gone, suffering gone.
All
those parts - left to us now.”
Yet, as we look for Rene Preval’s “Lespwa” –
Hope; as we look for May 18,
2007 from the perspective of a boatload of 91 Haitians drowning and
lost at
sea on the Turks and Cacos Island; as we look at last year's inaugural
of
President Rene Preval on May 14, 2006....we see, feel, have experienced
mostly humiliation, not hope. (See last year's Hope
and Humiliation
http://www.margueri telaurent. com/pressclips/ humiliation. html).
What is there to say...except to point out that in Rene Preval's current
UN-occupied Haiti, Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, just like Louis
Jodel Chamblain, has no fear there will be consequences for the terror
they've wrought on the
people of Haiti during the first Bush, Sr. coup d’etat (1991-1994).
As first
and second in command of the coup d'etat death squad, FRAPH, Toto Constant
and Louis Jodel Chamblain were responsible for the deaths of over 5,000
Haitians and rape of Haitian women became a systematic political tool
and
weapon. But in UN-Haiti, Louis Jodel Chamblain was set free after a
sham
trial and is treated with respect.
U.S. authorities, had reservations about executing a deportation order
against coup d'etat death squad leader, Emmanuel 'Toto' Constant from
1994 to 2004. But now in 2007, under occupied and US-embassy-run Haiti,
they have no such qualms about pushing for the deportation to Haiti
of CIA asset Emmanuel “Toto” Constant to freely roam Haiti,
just as Jodel Chamblain has been
rewarded freedom since he helped Bush, Jr.’s administration secure
Haiti’s
regime change in 2004.
(See, Hardbeatnews, May 16, 2007 article, stating that "...Constant,
the once
feared leader of the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti
(FRAPH), yesterday told a judge in Brooklyn he has no fear of being
returned to his
homeland. In state Supreme Court in Brooklyn, where he appeared for
sentencing in a mortgage fraud case, Constant told Justice Abraham Gerges,
"I have no fear to be deported to Haiti" even though he faces
charges of murder
and torture there."
https://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/ezilidanto/2007-05/msg00003.html
)
Emmanuel Toto Constant has no fear that his poor Haitian victims, the
over
5000 tortured, raped, slaughtered under the first Bush regime change
(1991-1994), will be able to get justice and put him in jail, because
his US
bosses disenfranchised and disempowered the masses in Haiti with the
2004
bicentennial coup d'etat and are running Haiti through their leftover
2004
coup d'etat judges, police, municipal administrators, foreign ministry
and
under the protection of UN soldiers acting as proxy military enforcers
for
the Washington-led repressive agenda for Haiti's Black majority.
On this May 18, 2007, the hope Haiti had last year at Preval’s
inaugural has
significantly dimmed with so many political prisoners still in jail,
with so many Haitian women being systematically raped and with thugs,
thieves, terrorists and assassins like Guy Phillip, Lame Timanchet and
Louis Jodel Chamblain still free, while democratic and peaceful dissenters
are ostracized, isolated, pacified, indefinitely detained.The 2004 bicentennial
coup d'etat is continuing under the new Rene Preval administration,
and is being consolidated, not reversed.
Haiti's flag is upside down, this May 18, 2007.
Our work is to use democratic means to turn it back into Dessalines
and Catherine Flon's upright symbol of freedom for Blacks in the Western
Hemisphere – the symbol of the abolition of slavery and colonialism.
Preval's reign saw the release of the major-named political prisoners
(ie. Yvon Neptune, So Ann, Mathelier, Jean-Juste, et al.) Also, there
has been less systematic slaughter of Haitian civilians under the Preval/Alexis
government. But, there’s been no accounting of the monies allegedly
misused or stolen from Haiti by Bush’s Boca Raton regime. No public
report of the almost one billion ($965) in foreign aid still unaccounted
for from the time of the Latortue regime, including an alleged $70-million
from the Foreign Ministry under Ray Joseph’s tenure as Haiti’s
de facto ambassador.
Rene Preval was reported to have ordered an accounting upon taking office.
But there has been no follow through on making this public accounting
available to Haitians. Many observe that if this report was made public
it would embarrass the US/Euro powers purportedly “developing”
Haiti – showing how US/France/Canada appointed/supported Haitian
technocrats have fleeced Haiti and stolen from the poorest of the poor.
More than a year after Rene Preval's inaugural, the Haitian public still
has no clue or itemization of all contracts signed by the de facto regime
or whether any of said contracts will be voided by a duly elected Haitian
administration, including the Latortue Feb. 22, 2006 protectorate contract
signed with the UN.
And what about Latortue's heedless claim that France may consider the
Haitian
demand for the independence debt void? That too is ignored by the Preval/Alexis
administration. Haiti is under occupation and when, for instance, the
Preval/Alexis government objected to the massive US deportation of criminals
to Haiti, the US government threatened to withhold aid if Haiti did
not accept the criminal deportees. (The US Embassy has since denied
it threatened to withhold aid in this manner.)
Thus, it is no surprise that a year after Rene Preval's inaugural, the
innocents who were murdered, injured, and otherwise destroyed by the
2004 coup d’etat have no hope of redress, as everyday they see
coup d’etat assassins such as Guy Phillipe, Louis Jodel Chamblain
strolling free and with the power and backing of US/UN approval and
succor.
The injustices, corruptions and inequities of the 2004 bicentennial
coup d'etat continue and are more disturbing under Preval precisely
because he was duly elected. That Rene Preval rules for the de factos
and Haiti's blan peyi elites makes a mockery of his popular mandate.
That freedom is denied the innocent but rewarded to criminals is the
highest of depravities. (See, Ezili Danto's Update
on Site Soley; Michael Lucius,
top Haitian police officer indicted for kidnapping,
then resigns to roam free in Haiti with no pressure to face
justice or do jail time; also, Boca
Raton Regime's representatives accused of stealing Haiti's underwater
treasures, go un-investigated, some keeping their jobs doing
this Preval first year in office. See also Expose
the Lies for more reports of the plundering of Haiti's resources
by the de facto regime that still goes unpunished by the Preval government.)
Moreover, instead of continuing to ask that the MINUSTHA soldiers get
rid of their heavy weapons and high caliber, automatic war rifles and
guns, replacing them with tractors, engineers, sewage facility work,
new roads constructions and community policing as he did immediately
upon his election, last week, on an official US visit to Washington,
President Rene Preval of Haiti was heard lauding MINUSTHA without any
of his initial precision as to the more positive role they could play
to assist Haiti’s majority; praising them without any on his initial
reservation that Haiti’s street crime problems is a police, a
social, an economic, not military issue. No. Preval went to Washington
last week and insisted to all and sundry that the occupying UN soldiers
and the Haitian police have taken the necessary steps, since his inaugural,
to make Haiti one of the safest places to live now.
In these recent Washington pronouncements, Rene Preval blithely ignored
the thousands of UN bullets that have found their way into the flesh
of innocent Haitians living in Site Soley and the other populous neighborhoods;
ignored the internationally reported rapes of Haitian women and children
by the UN soldiers, insisting very loudly in George Bush Jr. fashion,
and in perfect step with what we have heard from the coup d’etat
folks, that the UN's presence in Haiti is a necessity to help preserve
security and anyone who objects is “against us.”
The Preval/Alexis government has also, this last year talked a lot about
new business opportunities in Haiti at all levels, particularly in energy,
tourism, import and export, etc. In Washington last week, President
Rene Preval indicated that Haiti is ready for investment and most barriers
to open a business have been removed to attract more foreign investors.
The reality is President Rene Preval said very little about social,
economic and judicial advancements made for the people of Haiti this
last year. Nothing about schools built, health clinics established,
jobs created, nutritional or literacy programs reinstated. Some Haitians
observe that it seems paying the salaries of all those leftover Latortue
de factos in the justice, police, foreign ministry departments and in
the legislative branches seems the main priority of the Preval/Alexis
government.
As long as these foreign supported folks are carrying forward the initiatives
of the Internationals and their multinationals, than, for them, Haiti
is “secure and stable.” Meanwhile, none of the promised
investigations into human rights crimes are prioritized. No social development
has been made because there's no monies prioritized for this. Preval's
plan for Haiti is to create jobs from the multinational sector that
traditionally fleeces the poor. That and not drawing the fire of the
US powers seems to be the Preval plan for Haiti's development. But on
the plus side of affording Haiti more latitude for development, the
Preval/Alexis administration has managed to keep a relationship with
Venezuela, Cuba and Taiwan over the objections of Washington. This is
one clear indication of the exercise of independence and is an authentic
sign of leadership.
That leadership fails in other quarters, perhaps not because of intent,
as much as to do with the realities of geopolitics/ neoliberalism/ globalization
and Haiti's lack of any real allies amongst the major imperialist powers
vying for client-states in the Southern Hemisphere.
Without monies and due to the ravages of the coup d'etat it is difficult
for the Preval administration to perhaps have taken significant steps
towards Haiti's economic development.
The humiliation of Haiti, of Haiti's freedom is evidenced in many ways.
The Preval Administration, for instance, is obligated under the Haitian
Constitution, to certify to Parliament its own slate of foreign ministers,
consuls and ambassadors. Yet, for a year now, the Preval/Alexis administration
has ignored the Haitian Constitution, keeping Latortue's foreign ministry
fairly intact without asking the legislature to ratify or recertify
these "hold-over" de facto appointments as his own, with Constitutional
certification, as required.
Yes, indeed, with Haiti's children being raped by U.N. soldiers with
impunity, with more than 400 of Haiti’s Black youths arrested
since January 2007 and with the pacification of Site Soley - the area
in Haiti known for holding strongly against the coup d’etat and
foreign incursions into Haiti’s freedom and independence, with
this area and sector seemingly pacified and Haiti's youth warehoused
in their own neighborhoods, if not in prisons, foreign investors are
guaranteed that the US pacification program for Haiti is going very
well indeed under the Preval government.
What’s clear on this flag day, May 18, 2007, is that Haiti voted
for Rene Preval in order that the slaughter by the UN and Haiti’s
coup d’etat police would end and justice be done; in order that
all the political prisoners would be release and all the 2004 exiles
and deported out of Haiti would return; in order that the Haitian police
would be restructured to deny a place to criminals, assassins and rule-by-force
folks; in order that the people could breathe without fear; in order
so that folks like Louis Jodel Chamblain and Toto Constant would never
feel welcomed in Haiti and so that the excluded Haitian majority could
have hope towards freedom from containment-in-poverty, their children
be able to eat, go to school, find jobs. Not for this. Not for this
upside down flag that secures the interests of Haiti’s morally
repugnant economic elite, allows for the slaughter of Haiti’s
children, such as 7-year old Stephanie Lubin and 4-year old Alexandra
Lubin shot by the UN in their beds while asleep without so much as a
murmur of objection from the duly elected Haitian authorities. Haitians
did not fight the greatest superpowers on earth in order that their
elected president would dishonor them while honoring the leftover Latortue
de facto appointees with job security, political legitimacy. Haitians
did not resist UN guns and the coup d’etat police terror to elect
Rene Preval so that he could summarily ignore the cries and interests
of Haiti’s majority poor to please Washington, France and Canada
and their Haitian agents.
What's equally clear on this flag day, May 18, 2007, is that Haiti will
not be moved out of dependency, debt and domination by just one duly
elected Haitian administration. It will take vision, brilliance, gumption
and the efforts of every Haitian to do what Preval/Alexis and every
duly elected Haitian President have been prevented from doing. It is
up to all of us to, through democratic means, push the Preval/Alexis
government to do the right thing. It is up to all of us to also protect
the February 7th vote and assure Rene Preval finish his full term without
an illegal ouster. It is up to all of us to be clever enough to give
the Preval/Alexis government options and openings that diplomacy will
not allow that politicians safely make. In sum, it is up to all of us
Haitians whether Haiti ever exist again as a sovereign, Black ruled
independent nation.
Marguerite 'Ezili Dantò' Laurent, Esq.
Founder and Chair, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
May 18, 2007
|
Little
Girl 
