Author: leonid ilijc brezhnev Date: Subject: [Cerchio] Esser: Repression in Haiti (fwd)
>ZNet | Haiti
>http://www.zmag.org/lam/haitiwatch.cfm >
>Repression in Haiti
>by Kevin Pina and Dennis Bernstein
>
>A Flashpoints Radio Interview
>http://flashpoints.net/ >
>October 25, 2004
>
>Bernstein: Today we continue our drumbeat coverage of the situation
>on the ground in Haiti. While its difficult to get a clear picture
>of the extent of the killings, arrests, kidnappings, torture and
>general intimidation, we know that the death toll is rising for
>members of the pro-democracy movement and many more Haitians are
>going into exile or at least trying. Theres clearly a plan afoot on
>the part of the U.S. installed puppet government to purge the Lavalas
>movement - the majority party that elected President Jean Bertrand
>Aristide in the last election in a landslide. Aristide, in exile in
>South Africa, denied accusations that he was fomenting the violence
>from South Africa and implored the puppet government of Latortue to
>stop the lying, stop the killing. We now go again to Port au Prince
>where we are joined by our special correspondent Kevin Pina. Kevin,
>welcome back to Flashpoints.
>
>Pina: Thanks Dennis
>
>Bernstein: Alright Kevin we have been daily as we do this weve been
>checking in, in terms of father Jean-Juste, one of several priests
>kidnapped; he was kidnapped as he was attempting to serve food to
>poor children; while he was doing that he was surrounded and
>kidnapped by people who call themselves police who wore masks. Hes
>now I guess hes surfaced again in prison?
>
>Pina: Hes currently held at the National Penitentiary. The situation
>there is no better for him. Its not a great place to be, believe me
>Dennis. The conditions there are terrible, its overcrowded.
>Apparently, as I told you yesterday, the U.S backed government has
>made the official charge public disorder which actually according
>to the penal code is a $0.40 fine in U.S. dollars and no jail time.
>Of course the government has yet to bring him before a judge. Hes
>been in jail now for 8 days and it doesnt look as if they are going
>to move on his case at all. His attorneys are doing their best to
>try to force the justice system, but the more that they do the more
>threats that they receive. His lead attorney, Haitian attorney Mario
>Joseph was just [mentioned] today in a special alert by Amnesty
>International; someone whos life is in danger due to the innumerable
>death threats that hes received in the last couple of days alone
>
>Bernstein: Youre listening to Flashpoints on Pacifica Radio thats
>our correspondent Kevin Pina talking to us on the ground in Port au
>Prince. Alright Kevin sum up, if you could, the atmospheric pressure
>now and some of what you can tell us beyond Jean-Juste in terms of
>the conditions for pro-democracy activists or what do we know about
>this ongoing collaboration between the UN peace keeping forces headed
>up by the Brazilian General and their collaboration with the illegal
>police and death squads that have now been welcomed back into Haiti.
>
>Pina: Well I mean this is the first time in my adult life that Ive
>ever seen the United Nations actually be used in a manner to prop up
>an undemocratic government, an unelected government while it was
>exercising such a widespread campaign of repression against the
>majority political party. I cant remember any example during my
>adult life where thats been the case - certainly not on this level.
>
>There have been reports that I corroborated today that 25 people were
>arrested in Bel Air again just yesterday. The police have begun these
>massive sweeps again through the poor, pro-Aristide slums. They will
>create a dragnet if you will on any young male, even if youre just
>walking down the street it does not matter; any young male is
>thrown into the back of the truck and taken away to jail. They are
>just massive sweeps - indiscriminate and arbitrary arrests that
>theyre carrying out throughout all the poor neighborhoods thats
>Martissant, Grande Ravine, Cite Soleil, and of course, Bel Air. On
>the other front you know that the United Nations finally lifted the
>13-year embargo that was imposed against Haiti after 1991 for the
>purchasing of arms. The U.S imposed arms embargo was lifted yesterday
>by the United States. It appears as if theyre program for disarming
>the country is to allow the Haitian Police to buy more arms. How that
>can make sense mathematically, I guess it does make sense
>politically, but mathematically a lot of people on the ground are
>shrugging and scratching their heads wondering how thats going to
>make Haiti anymore of a safe place given that the police already seem
>to have more than adequate weapons to carry out this campaign of
>repression in clear collusion with United Nations forces on the
>ground.
>
>Bernstein: Alright lets just come back to Father Jean-Juste for a
>moment because if they can take this man hes a 69-year old priest,
>hes legendary in Haiti and outside of Haiti working with the tenth
>department of Haiti - which are those that were forced out of the
>country over so many U.S supported dictatorships and coups and a
>consistency of U.S policy that undermine the will of Haitian people.
>I think you need to talk a little bit more about who Jean -Juste is
>and why its so important for them to take this guy, this priest, and
>what it means that the world community, the major media even though
>we did get a statement from Amnesty International the rest of the
>world seems to turn a blind ear to this slaughter. What does it mean
>that theyve got this guy and theyre silencing him and theyre
>willing to take him in?
>
>Pina: Well what it means is if this U.S installed government can get
>away with taking a priest and arresting him with virtually no charges
>and in violation of the Haitian constitution, it means that they can
>get away with it with anybody and they have been getting away with it
>with anybody they want. The police just published another so-called
>arrest list where there is often $20,000 Haitian rewards for
>approximately 32 individuals. The list when it was originally
>published a few months ago was 37 but they managed to kill 5 on the
>list already. A lot of people know that this is not actually an
>arrest list; its a hit list basically. So someone of Jean-Juste's
>stature, who survived the military coup of 1991, who refused to go
>into exile, who confronted the military with non-violence, urged
>others to do so if they can take him that means they can and they
>are taking anyone that they wish.
>
>And it was exactly that kind of climate and witch-hunt which created
>the first powder keg which was sparked by the police firing on the
>unarmed demonstrators September 30th. It was that context that had
>led to that harsh reaction by the population because their leader had
>been kidnapped, theyd been imprisoned, theyd been forced into
>exile, there have been mass arrests, there have been arbitrary
>detentions, there have been murders and assassinations carried out by
>the Haitian police. The Haitian police meanwhile had been militarized
> the former military integrated into them. Today the new office of
>military integration was open inside the prime ministers office.
>Theyre going to incorporate another 200 on top of the ones that have
>already been brought into the police force. It was this situation
>that created that powder keg that was sparked by the police firing on
>those unarmed demonstrators on September 30th. So now what are they
>going to do? Theyre going to continue the pattern; theyre going to
>continue building up the pressure among the popular neighborhoods
>because Aristide and Lavalas still have tremendous support among the
>majority of the population, who are the majority of the poor. And the
>more they squeeze, the more they tamp that down, the more likely
>there is that this will blow up in their faces again. Its not a
>question of if, its a question of when.
>
>Bernstein: Is the resistance in Haiti now, is the pro-democracy
>movement arming itself? Is there a growing resistance movement? Are
>people fed up to the point where theyre going to give up the
>peaceful struggle?
>
>Pina: I think its closely reaching, unfortunately, in my opinion,
>its been forced to that place by Bush policies, by this
>ill-conceived regime change, by the repression of this Bush-supported
>government. I believe and I regret what I am saying, but I believe
>that it is reaching that phase of the beginnings of a popular
>insurrection against yet another U.S backed government in this
>hemisphere. Of course youre going to see that portrayed in the
>press, theyre going to be portrayed as terrorists, as bandits,
>as popular movements always are that face down a U.S installed, U.S
>backed government in this hemisphere. Theres a long history of that.
>
>But the point is you can portray it anyway you want but even they
>know the truth on the ground here. The United Nations and the Bush
>administration know the truth and thats that theyre not confronting
>small, isolated groups of bandits and terrorists. What theyre
>doing is confronting entire communities. And like I said the
>situation, especially with the lifting of the arms embargo, the
>militarization of the police force, the continuing witch hunt,
>arbitrary arrests, etc, - all its going to do is tap down that
>powder keg again and its just going to take another spark - and its
>not a question of if but when this is going to explode again
>their face.
>
>Bernstein: And just to be clear and they, if the government, this
>puppet government supported by the U.S coup-makers if they are to
>carry out their plan, if theyre going to be successful in whatever
>their vision is, theyre going to have to kill, and exile and arrest,
>and torture a lot of people because this is a big majority movement.
>Is that about right?
>
>Pina: Its going to require an action on their part tantamount to
>genocide.
>
>Bernstein: Thats the voice of Kevin Pina. I want to tell you that
>Kevin is coming to the Bay area for those of you in the Bay area. Im
>really glad that Im going to have a chance to be with him on October
>29 at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at (Cedar at Bonita).
>Then hes going to be speaking at the First United Methodist Church
>in San Rafael on October 31, and the he will be appearing at the
>Bissap Baobab restaurant in San Francisco [Ed. See
>http://www.haitiaction.net/Events.html for details]
>
>This is one of those stories that the mainstream simply doesnt seem
>to care about. Theres a lot of racism here, and theres a lot of
>power on the part of the U.S. government to silence this show. The
>mainstream press, most of my friends at NPR, have dropped the ball
>and it is sickening. Kevin, we will stick with this
>.
