International Protests This Week Against Imprisonment of Supporters of Lavalas and Democra

It has been a crime for Haitians to express their solidarity with President
Aristide since the February 29, 2004 coup, a crime punishable by summary
execution in thousands of cases. Those who aren¹t killed are often put in
jail just for expressing their support for Lavalas [Aristide¹s party], even
for wearing Aristide t-shirts in peaceful demonstrations. Their continued
imprisonment underscores the US government¹s disregard for Haiti¹s people
and its constitution, and is evidence of the complete dissolution of free
speech, association and press in Haiti. This situation has kept Prime
Minister Yvon Neptune, Minister of Interior Jocelerme Privert, and Lavalas
activist Annette Auguste, jailed in miserable conditions along with hundreds
of grassroots activists, labor leaders and residents of poor neighborhoods.

The plight of the prisoners, dramatized by Prime Minister Neptune and
Minister Privert¹s recent hunger strike, is urgent. Both Neptune and
Privert are now in a UN hospital due to complications from their fasting.

On Monday, March 28th at 4:30PM in San Francisco¹s UN Plaza, the Haiti
Action Committee will hold a rally and vigil to call for the restoration of
the legitimate government of Haiti, and to protest the continued
incarceration of at least a thousand Haitian political prisoners.

In Haiti, on Tuesday, March 29, 2005 Father Gerard Jean-Juste will lead a
peaceful march in commemoration of the 18th anniversary of Haiti¹s
constitution. Ftr. Jean-Juste, who was arrested without charge and released
due to international pressure, has been unrelenting in his solidarity for
the political prisoners still in Haitian jails.

³With this anniversary of the constitution,² Fr.
Jean-Juste said, ³we call on every Haitian and every
person in every nation to help us support our
constitution [Š] we in
Haiti must stand up to uphold and respect and protect
our Constitution. Therefore, we call for the return
of our constitutional government, for the physical
return of our constitutionally elected President
Aristide, and for the release of all political
prisoners.²