REPRESSION IN HAITI MOUNTS

In the name of making Haiti safe for “democratic” elections, the U.S.-backed de facto government of Haiti has stepped up its repression of independent voices. It has:

• Allowed the United Nations military forces to kill with impunity at least 23 persons in the pro-Aristide shantytown of Cité Soleil, many of them women and children, wounding at least 26 others and destroying homes and property.
• Arrested July 21, well-known leader in the movement for Haitian democracy and advocate for the poor, Fr. Gérard Jean-Juste, whom Amnesty International is calling a “prisoner of conscience, detained solely for the legitimate expression of his opinions.”
• Arranged for Dominican authorities to arrest and deport Paul Raymond July 21. Raymond is a prominent Haitian grassroots leader, in exile in the Dominican Republic since the ouster of Aristide. Mario Exilhomme, a Haitian refugee visiting Mr. Raymond was also arrested and deported.
• Attempted to muffle the voices of two of the few remaining independent media organizations through the delivery, July 28, of a legal summons to the office of Georges Venel Remarais, director of the Haiti Press Agency and Radio Solidarité, directing him to appear in court to respond to accusations of “criminal association” and fraud. Mr. Remarais was not present and the summons was not accepted. The summons comes on the heels of a chilling July 20 communiqué issued by the Ministerial Council asking for “appropriate measures” to be taken against any media giving “bandits” airtime. (De facto government officials consistently refer to Aristide supporters as “chimères” or “bandits.”)

“What's happening in Haiti is a monstrous crime – an all-out war on the poor majority,” said Dave Welsh, with the Labor/Human Rights Delegation just returned from Haiti. “The US has prepared the crime, and now the National Police and UN forces are committing it – slaughtering people in the poor neighborhoods that support Aristide, arresting respected grassroots leaders like Father Jean-Juste and Paul Raymond, and trying to shut down the few remaining independent media like AHP and Radio Solidarite.”

Background: In February 2004 the democratically-elected president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was ousted in a U.S.-orchestrated coup and replaced with an unelected government supported first by U.S. Marines, then U.N. forces. Under this government some 1,000 Aristide supporters – and those believed to be his supporters – have been thrown in jail without charges. Among the best known are Aristide’s prime minister, Yvon Neptune, and singer, Aristide supporter, Annette Auguste (known as Sò Anne), both jailed for more than a year. Other Aristide supporters have been killed, many by the Haitian police; still others are in hiding.

“While our delegation was in Haiti, we interviewed and filmed over 100 workers, peasants and professionals from many parts of Haiti,” Welsh said. “They told us there is no democracy in Haiti today, that the sham elections set for this fall are just an attempt to legitimize the illegal coup regime, terrorize the poor majority, lock up their grassroots leaders, and choke off the independent press – this is the program of the US-backed regime.”