Roger Annis, Vancouver
Eighteen months after an imperialist invasion that served the overthrow of the elected government of Haiti, a ferocious repression continues to rain down on the people of that country. The three invading countries — the US, France and Canada — appointed an illegal coup regime and have armed and trained rightist gangs and police agencies to enforce its rule.
The coup regime and its armed gangs now rule the streets and countryside of Haiti, together with a United Nations-sponsored occupation force. They are carrying out a bloody campaign to cripple the vast movement of Haitian people opposed to the coup.
The repression is targeting, above all, the Lavalas movement of the overthrown president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was elected in 2000 by a vote of 92%. Two of the latest killing sprees took place in the capital city, Port au Prince, on August 10 and 21.
On August 10, the Haitian National Police entered the Bel Air district accompanied by plain-clothed thugs armed with machetes. As many as 10 people died from police bullets and machetes.
On August 21, police entered a soccer stadium filled with 5000 people and halted a match sponsored by the US government aid agency US Aid. The crowd was ordered to lie on the ground, then police and plain-clothed thugs went through the crowd shooting or hacking with machetes those deemed to be supporters of Lavalas. People who tried to run from the stadium were shot or hacked to death. The death count of this attack is as high as 50 people.
UN attacks
An international outcry followed an operation by United Nations troops in the Cite Soleil district of Port au Prince on July 6. At 3am, UN troops sealed off two neighbourhoods with tanks and troops. Two helicopters flew overhead. At 4.30am, troops went on the offensive, shooting into houses, shacks, a church and a school with machine guns, tank fire and tear gas.
Eyewitnesses reported that when people fled to escape the tear gas, UN troops gunned them down from behind. Journalists and human rights workers who entered Cite Soleil in the hours and days after the attacks also reported bullet holes in the roofs of buildings, confirming eyewitness accounts that the helicopters had fired.
At least 25 people were counted dead in the hours and days after the attack. Witnesses also saw UN forces carting away bodies that could not be found and counted.
Film footage and eyewitness accounts of the assault were shared with a labour and human rights delegation from the US that entered Cite Soleil the following day. The delegation was sponsored by the San Francisco Labor Council and had been in Haiti to attend the Congress of the Confederation of Haitian Workers (CTH) and to interview Haitian workers, farmers and professionals about the current labour and human rights situation in Haiti.
Seth Donnelly, a member of the delegation, spoke to the Democracy Now radio network on July 11: "We went to the local hospital that serves people from Cite Soleil. It's run by Doctors Without Borders. It doesn't charge a fee, so very poor people can go to that hospital ... Their records show an influx of civilian casualties. Starting at 11am on July 6, there were 26 people alone from Cite Soleil that came in, suffering mostly from gunshot wounds. Out of that 26, 20 were women and children."
The target of the July 6 operation was Lavalas supporter Dread Wilme, who was assassinated by UN troops.
Thousands of political prisoners languish in Haiti's jails or are in internal exile. Among those in prison since last year are prime minister under Aristide and longtime politician Yvon Neptune; former interior minister Jocelerme Privert; and well-known singer-songwriter Annette Auguste.
Catholic priest Gerard Jean-Juste was apprehended and imprisoned on July 21. He is one of the most well-known figures to oppose the post-coup regime and has travelled and spoken frequently in the US about human-rights violations in Haiti.
Sham election
The foreign occupation forces in Haiti are preparing to stage three rounds of elections — municipal, national legislature and presidential. They hope this will give legitimacy to their neo-colonial rule. They are working intensely, and spending millions of dollars, to create a rightist political party with credibility — if not in Haiti, then at least abroad.
But so far, these elections fall short of having the appearance of legitimacy. Tens of thousands of Haitians have demonstrated for the return of their constitution and their elected government. They have shown they will not accept a sham election. Only 20% of the population, 840,000 out of 4 million people of voting age, have submitted to the occupiers' voter registration. Municipal elections that were planned for October 9 have been postponed to a later, unspecified date. The legislative and presidential elections have been scheduled for November 20.
The Lavalas movement threatened to boycott the elections unless a series of minimal conditions are met. These include the release of political prisoners, an end to the repression, disarming of rightist gangs, and a commitment for the withdrawal of foreign troops and police. One thousand people demonstrated for these demands on August 21 in Cap Haitien, Haiti's second largest city. Their demands also included the resignation of the coup regime and the right of return of all exiles, including Aristide.
An intense discussion is underway among supporters of Lavalas about the election and these pre-conditions for running.
As in Iraq, the occupation authorities have failed to bring improvement to the lives of ordinary Haitians. In fact, life has become much harder. Poverty and unemployment are nearly universal. Violence is endemic, coming directly from the actions of police, rightist thugs and UN forces, or indirectly from desperate social conditions and the breakdown of the judicial system. Many social services have been dismantled.
The imperialist powers invaded Haiti in order to crush the popular movement that backed Aristide and brought him to power. The Haitian people used Aristide's election in 1990 and again in 2000 to try to improve their lot. That spirit animates the continued protests against the coup regime and the demands for the return of the ousted government and constitution.
Aristide's first government bent to the pressures and threats of imperialism. It accepted important concessions in economic and social policy as a condition of Aristide's restoration to power in 1994, following the first coup against him in 1991. But these concessions were not good enough for Haiti's neo-colonial lords in Washington, Paris and Ottawa. They refused to accept the results of the election in 2000 and embarked on a course to overthrow Aristide's government. Aid money was sharply cut or eliminated.
Growing solidarity
There is a growing awareness of, and movement in solidarity with, Haiti. On July 21, protests against the July 6 massacre were mounted in 13 US cities, five Canadian cities, and in Paris and Brazil. Many of the protests targeted embassies or consulates of Brazil because of that country's role as leader of the military component of the UN occupation force. Solidarity committees across the US and Canada are gaining support and awareness as they campaign in support of the basic demands of the Haitian people.
A focus of this work is demanding the release of political prisoners. Twenty-nine members of the US Congress have signed an appeal to the US government, stating "We write to express our profound concerns about the unjust imprisonment of Father Gerard Jean-Juste in Haiti. We urge you to take action at once to seek his immediate and unconditional release from prison."
In an August 31 statement from exile in South Africa, President Aristide called the release of Jean-Juste and all other political prisoners a precondition to the holding of any elections in Haiti.
[Roger Annis is a Haiti solidarity activist in Vancouver, Canada and a member of the International Association of Machinists.]
From Green Left Weekly, September 14, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.