SEVEN QUESTIONS for Jean Saint-Vil

Seven Oaks Magazine





November 23, 2004

Derrick O'Keefe


•1) Lots of attention is already focused on U.S. President Bush’s

November 30 visit to Ottawa. Prime Minister Martin has, with less

fanfare, recently visited Haiti. What is Canada’s current role with

respect to the regime in power in Port-au-Prince?


Well, Canada continues to play the same role it had begun to play

since a few years back in the demise of the elected government of

Haiti. As you can see, within the three countries which are often

mentioned as being involved in the ouster of the elected government –

the United States, France and Canada – the head of state that has

first conducted that trip is Canada’s. Whereas France sent their

minister of foreign affairs, and the United States had a visit by

lower-level officials. But, you know, Canada sent its prime minister.


One of the comments that was made by Denis Coderre after Martin’s

visit, was that the visit’s objective was to give legitimacy to the

de facto government that they had installed there. So Canada

continues to play the role of agent of U.S. foreign policy in Haiti.


• 2) What is the situation on the ground in Haiti under the Latortue

government? Is there increasing resistance to this occupation?


Yes, there is increasing acts of resistance, but there is more than

that. We are actually quickly approaching a situation of chaos,

generalized chaos. Many are saying that this was exactly what was

being set up, so that you have violence taking place, some of it

clashes between police and people in the impoverished neighbourhoods

who are resisting the coup. But you also have the gangs, that the CIA

had trained to overthrow the legitimate government, who are now

turning against Latortue.


For instance, one of these gang leaders, whose alias is Ti Will, went

on a shooting rampage in Gonaives, because apparently he was jealous

of some guy who was dating the same guy as him. And he just started

shooting a lot, and apparently a nine year old little girl got

killed. Now the de facto government tried to go and arrest him, and

there’s a standstill now in Gonaives and we don’t know what’s going

to happen.


So I would have liked to have just said it’s a matter of resistance,

but it’s much more than that. There is no real governance. And that’s

one of the things that Canada, the U.S. and France are trying to hide

by propping up these puppets in Haiti.


• 3)What’s the status of efforts to have an investigation of the ouster

of Aristide earlier this year?


Well this has not gone anywhere, because the countries that raised

that are South Africa, the CARICOM nations, and the U.S.

Congressional Black Caucus raised that as well. But there was a lot

of pressure put on the countries of CARICOM when they were trying to

introduce that resolution in front of the United Nations. And of

course they quickly realized that this wasn’t going to go anywhere

because – you know, we talk about the United Nations as if it’s some

kind of impartial institution, but really it’s the Security Council

that makes the final decisions. And who sits on the Security Council?

It’s the same “usual suspects,” the United States, France, etc. And

they have veto power over anything. So there was not going to be any

investigation.


So they went the route of the Organization of American States (OAS)

and that’s when a lot of threats started to happen against Jamaica,

in particular. There was an embargo against Jamaica because they were

still pushing the idea that there should be an investigation into how

France and the United States in particular had participated in the

illegal overthrow of Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Haiti. And we just

never heard anything.


• 4) Why do you think there is so little outrage internationally about

what is happening in Haiti, is this the impact of so many layers of

racism at play?


There is racism, for sure, in the sense that it was easy to demonize

the progressive movement in Haiti, and to make people believe that

the president who was popular was some kind of a dictator. As I’ve

commented many times before, you rarely hear anybody refer to

Vladimir Putin as a dictator, whereas any Black leader anywhere can

be demonized in the foreign press. They easily accept this story,

coming from the Euro-centric perspective.


But there’s also the fact that we live in societies where everything

is centred around the powerful people, so the story never gets told

from the other perspective. Therefore people here cannot be blamed

for not knowing what’s going on in Haiti, anymore than they know

about what’s going on in Bangladesh, about what’s going on in The

Philippines. I believe it’s the responsibility of people involved in

the peace movement to educate people, to let them know.


• 5) On the topic of the peace movement, you’re in the Ottawa-Gatineau

area. What’s being prepared there to “welcome” George Bush?


Well, I cannot pretend to know all of what’s being prepared to

welcome the Emperor.


There’s the No War-Paix organization. There’s going to be

demonstrations on November 30 – it’s still not clear when Bush will

be arriving here, whether the main activities will be on the November

30 or December 1. But people are getting ready. There was already a

demonstration last Saturday here, over two hundred people were on

Parliament Hill. We’re expecting much more than that. In addition to

the demonstrations, there are also seminars and workshops on

different related issues.


So, I think that with the re-election, or re-selection of George W.

Bush, people are realizing right now – especially with the way they

ousted Carolyn Parrish from the Liberal Party here in Canada – that,

more and more, we are moving to the far right all over North America.

People are realizing that they have to get to the streets, they have

to get their voices heard, before it gets too late.


• 6) How has Kerry’s defeat affected people in Haiti? Were some people

putting their hopes in the U.S. election?


Well, in Haiti, the puppet government immediately congratulated

George Bush. This is what they were expecting and they are happy

because they know now that the U.S. will continue to support them.

And, immediately, the puppet prime minister went to Florida to meet

with Jeb Bush and congratulate him. On the side of the people, the

message was that the resistance will only continue and that they

weren’t expecting much from the U.S. system in any case.


• 7) Tell us about your website, and other places that people can go

on-line to find out more information about what is really going on in

occupied Haiti?


Well, the main website for information in http://www.haitiaction.net. It’s

based out of California, but it has a lot of up-to-date information.

My site is http://www.jafrikayiti.com.


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