|
 The
Black Soul lives, Denounce the UN slaughter in Site Soley
**********************************************
Stop the Un troop's Genocidal attacks on
Site Soley:enounce the Dec. 22, 2006 UN slaughter of mostly civilians
in Site Soley. Write, call your civic organizations, your churches,
your local, national and international media. Ask that they take
a position, denounce the UN killings of civilians in Haiti
and demand that UN soldiers respect Haitian life and livelihood.
We are what we
stand for, what we fight for, what the Ancestors fought for.
Contact information for US local, national and international media
is on our
website, and/or at: http://capwiz.com/wa/dbq/media.
***********************
The Black soul lives:
Stop the UN troop's Genocidal attacks in Site Soley
December 22, 2006 - Another UN slaughter in Haiti
"Black Soul" was written in 1947 by "one of Haiti's
most brilliant writers," Jean Fernand Brierre. But it gives
us a point of reference for today and especially because Haiti
is currently under occupation and a few days ago, on December
22, 2006, 400 UN soldiers opened fire on the residential community
of Site Soley. More Site Soley residents lost their life during
this UN invasion, it is being reported, than on July 6, 2005 where
60 Haitians were slaughtered by UN troops in their hunt to execute
Haitian freedom fighter, Emmanuel Dred Wilme.
Site Soley citizens are reporting that the area's nearest hospital,
Saint Catherine hospital, is overflowing with victims from this
massive UN military attack. Residents also report that the UN
deliberately blocked the Red Cross' access to the area to treat
the injured and severely wounded, including Red Cross access to
the many wounded innocent children, men and women who died on
the streets or in their homes for lack of the immediate medical
treatment the Red Cross could have provided. (See AHP report below).
According to these eyewitnesses, the UN attack followed the burning
of a UN tank that had rammed into a house on Bwa Nef, on the main
road leading into Site Soley. Eyewitnesses on the scene believe
the tank was purposely left abandoned, filled with arms to entrap
the population and provide a pretext for the UN attack. The UN
soldiers completely destroyed dozens upon dozens of homes, several
small vendor
businesses and a school, the private school Collège Diecee.
This is what many Haitian residents of the area are reporting.
As the struggle for Black liberation continues almost 504 years
since the first African captive set a chained foot on the land
of the Tainos in Haiti and as Haiti's poor face, this day, over
and over again, the white settlers' corporate army proxies, HLLN
honors the fallen from December 22, 2006 in the name of Jean Jacques
Dessalines, Kapwa Lamò, Marie Jeanne, Defile, Toya, Toussaint
Louverture who also lived to bring into
application the Haitian motto: live free or die.
The UN's stated objective for the Site Soley December 22, 2006
attack was to stop the recent wave of kidnappings in Haiti's capital
and to recover the principal route that leads to Bwa Nèf
that allegedly was the turf of the Belony gang.
(http://www.minustah.org/articles/104/1/Operation-
conjointe-MINUSTAH-et-
PNH-a-Cite-Soleil/PIOPR299FRA2006.html ).
Although this objectives continues to single out and accuse Haitian
residents in the poor and populist districts of being responsible
for the kidnapping epidemic in Haiti, most objective observers,
even including Haitian police sources insist that kidnappers as
well as their victims come from all social strata of Haitian society.
Nonetheless, it is the people of Site Soley and the poor areas
of Haiti who where singled out by the UN on December 22, 2006.
No warrants or efforts where made to arrest anyone. The UN troops
went in to execute in contravention to all moral, domestic, international
laws and in contravention to their own peacekeeping mission mandate.
(See also, excerpts of AHP news below: "The
campaign against kidnappers must be prepared to go wherever the
kidnappers are, not just to the most deprived neighborhoods,"
(Excerpts from AHP News, Dec. 15 to 20, 2006)
The official UN press on this operation reports UN troops exchanging
fire with Haitian residents but their press releases still indicate
the UN cannot pen down the number of Haitians that where killed.
Various international medias are reporting from 10 to 30 dead,
countless civilians wounded and that hundreds of Site Soley residents
are demanding an end to the violence and withdrawal of the 9,000-strong
UN occupation force in Haiti.
The struggle continues. The names of those confirmed dead include
these Black man who carry forth Anba dlo, Lan Ginen: Ti
Bos, Johnny, Gerald, Kesnel, Ti Rasta, and Vieux TIRUS.
We extend our condolences to their families and grieve the waste
of precious life. Their bodies may be gone, but their souls, Haiti's
Black soul lives and cannot be shot, raped, kidnapped or colonized.
It was forged indomitably too long ago and continues to be forged
by the rivers of blood out of Site Soley people, by Haiti's poor,
since February 29, 2004. As the Haitian poet, Jean Fernand Brierre
wrote in 1947 of the Black soul, so it is today: Out of the darkness
you leap into the ring:
champion of the world,
and with each victory you sound
the deep-voiced gong that sings the claims of your race... You
are
waiting for the next call,
the inevitable call to arms.
Your war knows none but a temporary truce,
for there is no land where your blood has not been shed,
no tongue in which your color has not been cursed.
You smile, Black Boy,
you sing,
you dance,
you rock the cradle of the generations
that are still coming, that keep coming
onto the battlefields of work and suffering...
Ezili Danto
December 25, 2006
Zanset yo e ti moun yo vini
***********************
Black Soul
by Jean-F. Brierre
I have met you in the elevators
in Paris.
You would say you were from Senegal or the Antilles.
And the oceans you had crossed would foam at your teeth,
haunt your smile,
sing in your voice as in the hollows of the rocks.
In the broad daylight of the Champs-Elysees
I would suddenly pass your tragic faces,
and your masks would speak out their centuries of pain.
At the Boule-Blanche
or in the bright lights of Montmartre
your voice,
your breath,
your whole being oozed joy.
You were music and you were dancing,
but at the corners of your lips remained,
uncoiling with the movements of your body,
the black serpent of misery.
We have spoken to one another aboard ocean liners.
You knew the brothels all over the world
and how to make love in every language.
Every race had fainted away
under the strength of your embrace.
And if you didn't shrink from opium or cocaine
it was only to try to put to sleep
in the depth of your flesh the bite of the whip,
the humbling gesture that cracks the knee
and, in your heart,
the dizziness of silent suffering.
You would come from the galley
and toss a loud rippling laugh at the sea
like an offering of pearls.
But when the liner shook
with opulent laughter and luxurious joy,
your shoulders still bent with the burden of the day,
somewhere back in a corner you sang for yourself alone,
to the sad twang of the banjo's lament,
the music of loneliness and love.
You built oases
in the smoke of a filthy cigarette
that tasted like a clump of Cuban dirt.
In the night sky you would show the way
to a seagull lost and chilled
in the thickening fog
and you would listen, tears in eyes,
to its last sad farewill
from the shadow's edge.
Sometimes you would stand at the prow, bronze god,
moon-mist shining in the diamonds of your eyes
and your dreams would come to rest in the stars.
Five centuries have seen you with weapons in hand
and you have taught the races that exploited you
the passion for liberty.
At Santo Domingo
you staked out with suicides
and paved with nameless stones
the tortuous path that opened out one morning
onto the triumphant road of independence.
And you have held above the baptismal font--
grasping in one hand the torch of Vertieres
and with the other shattering the chains of slavery--
the birth of Liberty
for all of Spanish America.
You built Chicago
while singing the blues,
built the United States
to the rhythm of your spirituals,
and your blood ferments
in the red furrows of the star-spangled banner.
Out of the darkness
you leap into the ring:
champion of the world,
and with each victory you sound
the deep-voiced gong that sings the claims of your race.
In the Congo,
in Guinea,
you pitted yourself against imperialism,
fighting it
with drums,
with strange melodies
moaning out in wave upon wave
the chorus of your centuries of hate.
You lit the world
with the light of your fires.
In the dark days of a martyred Ethiopia,
you ran from every corner of the globe,
chewing out the same bitter notes,
the same fury,
the same cries.
In France,
in Belgium,
in Italy,
in Greece,
you stood up to danger and death. . .
And on the day of triumph,
after the American soldiers had chased you
out of a Paris cafe
with Rene Maran,
you were sent back
in boats
where they already rationed out your space
pushing you back to the galley,
to your tools,
your broom,
your bitterness,
in Paris,
in New York,
in Algiers,
in Texas,
pushing you behind the savage barbed-wire fences
of the Mason Dixon Line
of every country in the world.
Everywhere they stripped you of your weapons.
But can they strip the weapons from a black man's heart?
If you have laid aside the uniform of war,
you have not given up your countless wounds,
and their closed lips still speak to you in a low whisper.
You are waiting for the next call,
the inevitable call to arms.
Your war knows none but a temporary truce,
for there is no land where your blood has not been shed,
no tongue in which your color has not been cursed.
You smile, Black Boy,
you sing,
you dance,
you rock the cradle of the generations
that are still coming, that keep coming
onto the battlefields of work and suffering,
that will be coming tomorrow to lay siege to the bastilles
and bastions of the future
to write in every tongue,
on the bright pages of every sky,
the declaration of your rights,
ignored for five long centuries and more,
in Guinea,
in Morocco,
in the Congo,
and wherever your black hands
have left on the walls of Civilization
their prints of love, of beauty and of light. . .
Source: Norman R. Shapiro (ed.) Negritude: Black Poetry from Africa
and the Caribbean. New York: October House, 1970.
(Sent to Ezili's HLLN on Dec. 25, 2006 courtersy of Dr. Alvin
wyman Walker, PHD, PD)
_______________________________________________
JEAN-FERNAND BRIERRE (Haiti),
one of his country's most prolific men of letters was born on
September 28, 1909, in the town of Jeremie, birthplace of many
other eminent Haitian poets. After a religious and secular education
culminating in agricultural studies, he spent a brief time as
a teacher and administrator in the rural schools of the area.In
1933 he was appointed secretary of his country's Paris legation.
Returning to Haiti, he studied law, and subsequently filled numerous
governmental posts, among them Under-Secretary of State for Tourism,
Cultural Attache in the Department of Foreign Affairs, and Ambassador
to Argentina. He also came to the United States to study at Teachers'
College, Columbia University, in 1942-43.
Eventually, however, after a distinguished career in both letters
and public service, Brierre ran afoul of the Duvalier regime.
As organizer of an opposition newspaper, La Bataille, he found
himself in and out of prison on frequent occasions, and for terms
ranging up to fifteen months. Since 1965, after several years
of exile in Jamaica, he has been living in Dakar, where he is
an important member of the Senegalese Ministry of Cultural Affairs.
He was an active participant in the World Festival of Negro Arts,
held in Dakar in 1966.
Brierre has written extensively and in several genres, contributing
to various Haitian journals, including Conjonction, the oran of
the Institut Francais d'Haiti. After a few early collections of
rather traditional verse, his production from the mid-Forties
to the present has been steeped in the ever-growing racial awarenes.
. . .
The lengthy poem Black Soul, which has been substantially revised
and augmented, is translated here in the entirety of its 1947
version. In it one can detect the influence of Langston Hughes,
as the author readily admits. (The two poets had come to know
one another during Brierre's stay at Columbia). Extracts from
Black Soul, have appeard frequently in collections; among them,
Leopold Sedar Senghor's well-known Anthologie de la nouvelle poesie
negre et malgache de francaise (Paris: Presses
Universitaires de France, 1948, 1969).
Source: Norman R. Shapiro (ed.) Negritude: Black Poetry from Africa
and the Caribbean. New York: October House, 1970.
***********************
Some AHP News - (English
Translation in the form of extended headlines
for December 22 - 15, 2006 - Unofficial). Source:"Mike Levy"
<mlhaiti@cornernet.com> For complete articles in the official
French version, please see www.ahphaiti.org. *
"The campaign against kidnappers...must
be prepared to go wherever the kidnappers are, not just to the
most deprived neighborhoods"
*Haitian police seized three people, including two police officers
as they attempted to kidnap three people in Delmas. At least one
of the officers is said to be a member of the BLTS (Office of
anti-narcotics operations). The suspects had already had time
to abduct three people, but a fourth, whom they were attempting
to abduct not far from a police station, had time to call for
help. The police immediately ran to the scene and overpowered
the kidnappers who fired their weapons in an attempt to escape.
They were taken to the police station along with their hostages.
An enraged crowd arrived at the scene and demanded that the kidnappers
be turned over to them.
The police spokesperson refused to comment on the incident.
There has been a dramatic increase in kidnappings over the past
three weeks in the Haitian capital. Residents of populist districts
are increasingly accused of being responsible for the abductions.
However police sources insist that kidnappers as well
as their victims come from all social strata.
AHP December 20, 2006 12:35 PM
*****************
* Justice officials plan an important meeting for December 20
at the Justice Ministry to discuss the strike by judges triggered
by accusations of corruption made by the director general of the
police at the graduation ceremony for the 18th class of police
cadets. Attendees expected at the meeting include the Justice
Minister, the president of the Court of Cassation and many judges.
The courts have been at a standstill since Monday in response
to the allegations of corruption. Some judges have advocated mass
resignations. They say they are upset because Mario Andresol has
declined to provide evidence to back up his corruption allegations.
Relations between judges and the police have worsened ever since
a warrant was issued against former judicial police head Michael
Licius, accused of involvement in kidnappings by Judge Napla Saintil,
who is now off the case, while Licius has been dismissed from
his position. Judge Napla said at the start of the week that he
has thus far been unable to obtain any information about a group
of individuals he ordered detained on allegations of kidnapping.
AHP December 20, 2006 12:35 PM
*****************
AHP News - Extended headlines for December 19, 2006
An AHP editorial discusses the wave of kidnappings and asks whether
the motive may be to justify calls for a return of the abusive
Haitian army. The level of kidnappings is not far from that under
the Latortue regime, the editorial asserts.
It is even said that the son of a kidnapper was kidnapped and
assaulted for hours last week before his father arrived to obtain
his release.
The article urges that effective solutions be developed that look
beyond the stereotypes to identify the true perpetrators, those
behind them and their motives. Many now believe that the strategies
for actions against the kidnappers have been unsuccessful because
people behind the development of these strategies are deliberately
leading people on a wild goose chase.
This leads some to believe that the real objective is not to catch
the kidnappers but rather to annihilate a certain category of
individuals for very concrete reasons. Those who feel this way
also see the campaign to reinstate the death penalty for kidnappings,
in violation of the Haitian Constitution, as part of the same
thinking, especially when those who call loudest for the death
penalty say nothing in protest
when the kidnapper turns out to be Mr. X, who is one of the untouchables.
There is a lot of talk about kidnappings by ex-convicts, street
gangs, and corrupt police officers, but the reality is that most
of the bullets are fired toward the most deprived neighborhoods
and the shantytowns of the capital. How many times has the UN
been asked to pound these neighborhoods, no matter the cost in
terms of "collateral damage", the editorial asks. These
wretched people who are responsible for all our problems can simply
be compensated or relocated, this reasoning goes. But
by covering up the tracks, the situation grows worse; kidnapping
is now a many-headed phenomenon whose perpetrators and their patrons
are spread out wide and far. The campaign against kidnapping must
be prepared to go wherever the kidnappers are, just as during
any epidemic, the medicines must be administered everywhere there
are documented cases of the disease...
------------------------------------
AHP News Extended Headlinesfor December 18, 2006
*Judges strike in Port-au-Prince to protest allegations of corruption
made against them by police director general Andrésol.
Close to 50 judges held a closed meeting that lasted four hours
at the courthouse to discuss Andrésol's statements. Several
judges said as they emerged from the meeting that the work stoppage
would continue until further notice. Investigative Judge Durin
said that measures will be taken that will be "proportionate
to the gravity of the outrage" experienced by the
judges.
* Investigating Judge Napela Saintil has been asking APENA officials
at the National Penitentiary to provide him with a list of the
prisoners who have been incarcerated on kidnapping charges based
upon his orders. The judge wishes to learn whether some of them
may have escaped recently. There are reports that several of the
prisoners who were involved in the case with which former judicial
police director Michael Lucius was associated, which was being
investigated by Judge Saintil, may have been among those who escaped
from the prison. Judge Saintil deplored that he has received no
response to his request made several days ago. He said it was
incomprehensible that it was so easy for prisoners to escape from
the country's largest prison facility. He also said he doubts
the case against Lucius will go anywhere because the judge who
has been assigned the case after he was pressured to step aside
is close to
Lucius.
Several judges attending Monday's closed meeting to discuss their
work stoppage said that it is strange that the sectors exerting
pressure to beef up the campaign against kidnapping are doing
nothing to call for the truth to be revealed in the case against
Mr. Lucius.
December 18, 2006 12:05
PM
-------------------------------------
AHP News Extended Headlines December 15, 2006
AHP Editorial: What if the sole objective of the kidnappings is
to bring about the departure of Prime Minister Alexis? For the
past two weeks or so, kidnapping targets have been sensitive groups
such as children, school children and schools themselves, causing
great emotion and indignation. This is like a flashback to December
3, 2003, when a university rector was seen carried on a stretcher,
his legs reportedly broken,under troubling and confused circumstances.
A foreign diplomat confirmed Thursday, December 14 that several
people are eyeing the position of Prime Minister Jacques Edouard
Alexis, especially after he he repeated a statement by President
Préval expressing a preference for holding talks with alleged
bandits and people possessing illegal weapons from all sectors
as a means to achieving peace.
Heavy weapons and other illegal arms are not found solely in the
hands of slum-dwellers. The practice of negotiating with leaders
of armed groups, ex-convicts and other "freedom fighters"
was common under the Latortue regime. Did Préval and Alexis
make the mistake of imagining that they would be allowed to continue
that practice?
"Listen! These escaped prisoners and ex-convicts are a different
sort of bandit. They are on our side", one can almost hear
the critics of Alexis say, as they remain mute when their people
are accused of violence and kidnapping.
Violence and kidnapping must be fought in
a comprehensive manner, otherwise, any discrimination in this
effort will doom it to failure.
Utilizing the "yoyo" of insecurity as a means of forcing
the departure of a top government official in these dangerous
times is a serious risk to take.
And who would replace Alexis, and to what purpose?
It would be simply out of a desire to open a new period of uncertainty
in the country, as if there weren't enough worries already. It
is often said that the lure of power drives people mad and that
politicians and political types are often puppets dangling from
the strings of those who manipulate them.
Many say that these maneuvers aimed at upsetting the apple cart
some six months after the constitutional government took office
have intensified after rumors about a possible worsening of the
illness of President Préval.
Indeed, even though the president explained his state of health
upon his return from Havana on Sunday where he underwent tests
five years after he had a prostate operation, some people continue
to wish at any cost that he be very sick.
Haitian websites are full of articles speculating on who is going
to replace President Préval. And of course a prime minister
from a certain crowd is just the thing to pave the way when the
time comes that the president becomes incapacitated, isn't it?
However, it just might be a long wait, a very long wait, and above
all, very tiring.
**************************
UN Operation in Cite Soleil leaves at least 10 killed, dozens
others injured during the night of Thursday December 21
(AHP News, www.ahp.org)
UN spokesperson Sophie Boutaud de Lacombe claims the operation
was aimed at apprehending kidnappers in Bois Neuf and bringing
them to justice. However local residents say the victims were
ordinary citizens whose only crime was that they live in the targeted
neighborhood. Detonations could be heard for miles. De Lacombe
denies that a UN armored vehicle was seized by bandits.
Some radio stations in the capital have been justifying the attack
in Cite Soleil by the fact that local residents had set fire to
a UN tank that had been abandoned by UN soldiers who had fled.
In addition to the dead and injured, residents report very serious
property damage and there are concerns that a critical water shortage
may now develop because water cisterns and pipes were punctured
by the gunfire.
The UN attack follows heavy pressure on the government and the
UN to conduct heavy weapons operations in this district, which
has been identified by certain sectors as the sole bastion of
the kidnappers.
On Wednesday, December 20, Haitian police, assisted by MINUSTAH
soldiers violently clamped down on hundreds of demonstrators who
were outraged over a police officer caught in the act of carrying
out a kidnapping and who is a member of the anti-narcotics unit,
and were demanding that the officer be turned over to them.
Many see the MINUSTAH operation as an attempt to appease sectors
calling for the UN to leave Haiti, such as students who were considered
to be the spearhead of the 2003/2004 anti-Aristide GNB campaign,
who are now preparing to take to the streets once again.
During their most recent demonstrations, some of these students
attacked UN soldiers, smashing windshields on some of their vehicles.
Many suspect, however, that these new demonstrations are not necessarily
aimed at MINUSTAH, because it was the government put in office
through the efforts of the GNB movement that originally asked
for the UN presence in Haiti. The real objective of these students
now, who are not working alone, according to some diplomats stationed
in Port-au-Prince, is instead the creation of a situation that
could force the prime minister to step down.
AHP Dec. 22, 2006 12:00 PM
(Translator's note: the MINUSTAH website contains a press release
describing a joint MINUSTAH/PNH operation conducted at dawn on
December 22 in Bois Neuf and Drouillard as an anti-kidnapping
operation also designed to re-open the main road leading to Bois
Neuf, labeled as the "fiefdom of the Belony gang."
The press release notes that an exchange of gunfire occurred for
several hours and that there were no casualties among MINUSTAH
or PNH personnel. "It is not yet possible to establish the
toll of injuries or deaths of armed gang members", the MINUSTAH
website states. The website quotes spokesperson de Lacombe as
saying "It is possible that there were injuries or deaths
among the criminals or their supporters".
The MINUSTAH press release also reports that for the entire week,
MINUSTAH and the PNH have planned security operations in the "red
zones" aimed at arresting kidnappers.)
------------
* UN soldiers prevent the Haitian Red Cross from providing first
aid to children injured in Cite Soleil during the night of December
21st, according to the Red Cross coordinator. The Haitian government
is asked to intervene to allow Red Cross access. Pierre Alexis,
Haitian Red Cross coordinator in Cite Soleil, deplored the fact
that UN soldiers blocked Red Cross vehicles from entering Cite
Soleil. There are many children suffering very serious injuries
who require medical attention, he said.Local residents were outraged
that MINUSTAH soldiers refused to allow medical care to be provided
to people they had injured, including children.
AHP December 22, 2006 1:00 PM
**********************************************
Forwarded by Ezili's Haitian Lawyers Leaders
****************************************
Demand
A stop to the UN slaughter in Site Soley
**********************************************
Denounce the Dec. 22, 2006 UN slaughter
of mostly civilians in Site Soley. Write, call your civic organizations,
your churches, your local, national and international media. Ask
that they take a position, denounce the UN killings of civilians
in Haiti
and demand that UN soldiers respect Haitian life and livelihood.
Contact information for US local and national media is:
http://capwiz.com/wa/dbq/media
Ayisyen, Zanmi dwa moun toupatou, leve kampe!
URGENT, URGENT, URGENT:
It's obvious to us, given the overwhelming evidence of UN depravity
in Haiti (including, as recently noted by a BBC report, its soldiers'
rape and sexual assault on Haitian children) that the UN is continuing
its long legacy of oppression on behalf of the former enslavers
and colonizers on this planet. (See, The
UN complicity in neocolonialism, assassinations and violence in
Africa: An Interview with Ludo De Witte hosted by Walter
Turner, Africa Today, KPFA, Nov. 27, 2006 (Mp3
audio); The
UN is Not For Africans by Magalie X Djehouty-Thot,
Haitian Perspectives, May 2,
2006; and What
colonial education did to Africans - Ayi Kwe Armah)
Since 2004, under the UN's foreign tutelage of Haiti on behalf
of the coup d'etat powers, tens of thousands of other innocent
Haitians have been slaughtered, terrorized, raped and brutalized
and thousands more illegally jailed for no good cause. This is
the "justice and democracy" of the UN Security council
and it's powers for Haiti. It is justice denied.
It is equally obvious that concerned Haitians and all human rights
advocates MUST do something beyond appealing to the very oppressors
and "their local African quislings" for help to stop
the UN slaughter of civilians in the poor neighborhoods of Site
Soley and to open the prison doors and free the remaining 2004
political prisoners and hundreds to thousands of Lavalas sympathizers
jailed, without charge or trial, for almost 3 years now. Latortue
may now be relaxing back in retirement in Boca Raton, but Latortue's
jails remain overflowing in Haiti and the 2004 coup d'etat assassins
continue to exert power and brutal influence, as evidenced by
the December 22, 2006 brutal assault on the people of Site Soley
in the dead of night.
One site soley resident put the
attack in perspective for the world this way :"They
came here to terrorise the population," said Rose Martel,
(a Site Soley resident), referring to the police and UN troops.
"I don't think they really killed the bandits, unless they
consider all of us as bandits."
Though the residents of Site Soley have suffered the most during
this coup d'etat, losing countless of theirr sons and daughters,
including Emmanual Dred Wilme in the July 6, 2006 UN massacre.
They are still not bowed. They evidence every day how Haiti's
Black soul lives and cannot be raped, shot, bombed, terrorized
or detained indefinitely under Bush's regime change in Haiti.
They call us to action. Haiti's liberation rest squarely in the
able hands of the Haitian people and like it or not, we live free
or die.
HLLN therefore appeals again, directly to the HAITIANS in Haiti,
actually
given those prison keys to hold, to stop following orders or “doing
their
jobs” and, instead, do the righteous, moral and ethical
thing: Take positive
action and OPEN THE PRISON GATES. Stop the death of innocent prisoners
in Haiti. All the political prisoners NEED to be released immediately.
It’s time for the law to be brought into application. It
is time, as President Jean Bertrand Aristide just urged, for moral
action to reign in Haiti.
Call, write your local and international
media. Denounce the Un killing of civilians in Site Soley, demand
a stop to the UN terror, military assaults on civilians and the
slaughter of the residents of Site Soley.
"They
came here to terrorise the population," said Rose Martel,
a slum
dweller, referring to the police and UN troops. "I don't
think they really killed the bandits, unless they consider all
of us as bandits." Reuters, Dec,
22, 2006
Contact information for US local, national and international media
is on our
website, and/or at: http://capwiz.com/wa/dbq/media
HLLN ACTION REQUESTED FROM OUR INTERNATIONAL
NETWORK AND HAITIANS:
We are asking for our Network, especially Haitians and those who
speak
Kreyol, to immediately call the newspapers, television stations
and radio
stations IN HAITI. (See list below)
The PEOPLE OF HAITI abroad and at home, must let the world know,
as loudly as
they expressed their determination to have the Feb. 7, 2006 vote
be counted,
that innocent Haitians are dying senseless, pointlessly and to
apathetic
reception from our UN "saviors", for no good reason
whatsoever, in the
International's (Bartholomew De La Casas') new "Aristide-free"
Haiti.
Ayisyen, nou pa kapab ap ret chita tann "GWO MOUN" lan
etazini e lan lonu, oubyen lòt kote, pou ede nou. Fok Ayisyen
leve kampe pou sove lavi ti pèp la, e, tout prizonye politik
yo jodi a menm!!!
Kriminèl ki lage kidnapè Stanley Handal ak asasin
Louis Jodel Chamblain yo pa
p pè touye ti bebe, manman e papa lan Site Soley.
We must defend our own, ourselves. We are our own liberators.
HLLN urges
Haitians to call the Haitian radio stations in Haiti. Let them
know that too
many Haitians have died since Haiti's democratically elected government
was ousted by the Ottawa Initiative coalition.
At this critical juncture, even as I write this next line, a Haitian
child,
mother, father, faces imminent death in the within the International's
supervised prisons in Haiti, and the concentration camp these
new Natzi's have turened Haiti into. We ask the Haitian people
to flood the media in
Haiti and in the Diaspora. Take to the streets la sosyete. Agitate,
agitate,
agitate and the gates will open and our liberation will come.
The suffering peoples of Haiti deserve our help more, our actions
MORE.
Ayisyen, stand up for what's right, please. Remember Boukman's
Prayer and
make a phone call, write a letter, make your protest know peacefully
and with
determination.
"Speak your righteous message not to these “long rotted
ash” but address your
message, my people, to the living and look only to Dessaline’s
descendants
worldwide. His legacy is liberty. Speak to liberty lovers. Empower
the
world’s lovers of liberty........."
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/kangamundele.html
Boukman's Righteous Prayer
"The god who created the earth; who created the sun that
gives us light.
The god who holds up the ocean; who makes the thunder roar. Our
God
who has ears to hear. You who are hidden in the clouds; who watch
us from
where you are. You see all that the white has made us suffer.
The white
man's god asks him to commit crimes. But the god within us wants
to do good.
Our god, who is so good, so just, He orders us to revenge our
wrongs. It's He
who will direct our arms and bring us the victory. It's He who
will assist us.
We all should throw away the image of the white men's god who
is so pitiless.
Listen to the voice for liberty that sings in all our hearts."
Boukman's Prayer at
the Bwa Kayiman Vodun ceremony, the call to action that launched
the Haitian
Revolution, on August 14, 1791.
*
BOUKMAN'S PRAYER (in Kreyol)
Bon Dje ki fè la tè. Ki fè soley ki klere
nou enro. Bon Dje ki soulve lanmè. Ki fè
gronde loray. Bon Dje nou ki gen zorey pou tande. Ou ki kache
nan niaj. Kap
gade nou kote ou ye la. Ou we tout sa blan fè nou sibi.
Dje blan yo mande krim.
Bon Dje ki nan nou an vle byen fè. Bon Dje nou an ki si
bon, ki si jis, li ordone
vanjans. Se li kap kondui branou pou nou ranpote la viktwa. Se
li kap ba nou
asistans. Nou tout fet pou nou jete potre dje Blan yo ki swaf
dlo lan zye. Koute
vwa la libète kap chante lan kè nou.
See
Boukman's prayer in the Excerpt from Ezili Danto's Bwa Kayiman
Play
Liberation Theology: These Vodun words inaugurated the concept
of liberation
theology in Haiti. The African warriors, inspired by this Vodun
prayer, became
"Haitian" in the land of the Taino/Arawaks, leaving
an indelible mark on Haiti
and the entire world.
Call, call, call, write, email your local, national and internatioanl
news outlets as well as the Haitian Radio and TV Stations IN HAITI:
***************
Urgent Action Alert: Ayisyen, Zanmi dwa moun
toupatou, Leve Kanpe!
Men sa nou kapab fè pou ede pèp Ayisyen:
Leve vwa nou byen WO.
Sak enpòtan anpil se ke nou pa bliye PLIS, ekri MEDYA Ayisyen
e medya
entènasyonal yo. Di yo fè travay yo. Montre le mond
antye depi koudeta 2004 la, pa
gen jistis ditou ditou an Ayiti e moun ki pa san wont wè
sa. Se MAGOUY kap
fèt sèlman. Rakonte yo sa ki fèt pase lan
Site soley desanb 22, 2004. Esplike yo koman pòv yo k ap
mouri kom poul lan lakay yo menn pou anyen. Mande
respè pou la lwa e Konstitisyon Ayisyen an.
1. Ekri medya nasyonal e lokal (Kontak pou medya Ayisyen yo nap
jwen anba a,
lan e-mail sa. Ekri espesyalman CNN, New York Times, Washington
Post, Miami
Herald)
2. Pou medya entènasyonal, ale wè: US Local, national
and international media
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/contactinformation/local-national-media.html2.
3. Pou moun lan Diaspora a - Ekri Kongrèsman e Senatè
pa w yo:
Contact US Congress
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/contactinformation/uscongress.html
Canadian Contact info for Canadian citizens: Click
here
*
HLLN e Diaspora Ayisyen an mande tout gouvènman ki genyen
twoup yo lan
MINUSTA pou yo pase twoup yo lòd PA TIRE sou pèp
yo ki pral pran lari a pou
mande respe dwa moun yo, et pou lage prizonye politik yo. Leve
kanpe manifestan yo LEJITIM e legal. Sedemokrasi e jistis yo yap
eseye bay fos e vwa.
HLLN e Diaspora Ayisyen an mande Lonu, MINUSTHA, Mèriken,
France, Canada
respekte la lwa, respekte Konstitisyon an, respekte lwa entènasyonal,
respekte
pèp Ayisyen.
Kenbe fèm Ayisyen, pa lage. Ede pèp nou, se konsa
n'ap byen ede tèt nou.
******************************
Contact information for US local and national media is:
http://capwiz.com/wa/dbq/media
*************
**Fighting for Liberty,
A Haitian legacy********
- At
least nine killed in Haitian slum raid,
by Joseph Guy Delva, Reuters
, Dec. 22, 2006
- Five die in Haiti slum violence | Opposition to the UN peacekeepers
is growing amongst slum dwellers |Friday, 22 December 2006, BBC
News
- Nine dead in Haiti violence, December 23, 2006| Dominican Today
- Five killed in Haiti slum raid, Sat. Dec. 23, 2006, Aljazwwra.net
- At least 10 people died and 20 were wounded Friday in a UN peace-keeping
operation in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, a UN official said.
http://www.playfuls.com/news_
10_6145-At-Least-10-Dead-
In-UN-Peacekeeping-Operation.html
***********************************************
At least nine killed in Haitian slum raid
22 Dec 2006 23:09:57 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Joseph Guyler Delva
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Dec 22 (Reuters) - At least nine people
were killed in Haiti's largest slum on Friday during a raid by
security forces targeting armed gangs blamed for a recent surge
in kidnappings and other crimes in the capital Port-au-Prince.
It was one of the worst outbreaks of violence in the chaotic Caribbean
country in more than a year and came hours after the U.N. chief
envoy to Haiti, Edmond Mulet, said the go
vernment had given the go-ahead for a crackdown on areas controlled
by gangs.
About 400 U.N. soldiers in armored vehicles, backed by Haitian
police forces, stormed a district called Bwa Nef in the volatile
slum of Cite Soleil in a move to dislodge heavily armed gang members
led by a young man known as Belony.
A Reuters photographer counted nine bodies
from the clashes that ensued and eyewitnesses counted four others
dead.
As many as 30 people were wounded,
humanitarian aid workers said. All of the
casualties were believed to be civilians.
"The foreigners came shooting for hours without interruption
and killed 10 people," Johnny Claircidor, a resident of Bwa
Nef, told Reuters. "Then Belony's gang members started to
exchange fire with them", he said. "I personally counted
10 bodies," Claircidor said.
The spokesperson for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti, Sophie
De la Combe, declined to provide a toll.
"No one was killed or injured on our side, but it's difficult
for us to know for now how many bandits could have been killed
or wounded," said De la Combe.
The U.N. operation, conducted jointly with the Haitian police,
was launched at about 3 a.m. and was led by Brazilian peacekeepers.
"The operation was conducted to address the current insecurity
caused by the recent wave of kidnappings in the capital Port-au-Prince,"
said Jean Saint-Fleur, the director of Haiti's Administrative
Police.
He too said he was unable to give an official death toll from
the Cite Soleil fighting.
"They came here to terrorize the population," Rose Martel,
a slum dweller, told Reuters, referring to the police and U.N.
troops.
"I don't think they really killed the bandits, unless they
consider all of us as bandits," she said.
AlertNet news is provided by Reuters
******
Five
die in Haiti slum violence
Opposition to the UN peacekeepers
is growing amongst slum dwellers |
Friday, 22 December 2006, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6205037.stm
At least five people have been killed in clashes between UN troops
and armed gang members in a Haitian shantytown near the capital,
Port-au-Prince.
The UN mission said the confrontation began early on Friday morning,
but were unable to comment on casualty figures.
They said a UN vehicle was also burnt in the clashes at the Cite
Soleil slum. UN peacekeepers - in Haiti since 2004 - have stepped
up patrols amid worsening security in the area, but opposition
to their presence has grown.
They were sent to maintain order after a revolt ousted the former
President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Gun battles
A UN statement said its troops had launched a joint operation
with Haitian police as part of an effort to fight a recent upsurge
in kidnapping and other violence by gangs based in the slum.
Eyewitnesses said several victims were taken to hospital, and
local residents showed reporters the bodies of five men who, they
said, were killed by UN fire.
Residents had previously accused UN soldiers of firing indiscriminately
during gun battles with gang members.
The UN has denied this, saying peacekeepers only open fire when
they come under attack.
The Brazilian-led UN force includes more than 8,000 soldiers and
police
supported by some 1,000 civilian personnel.
**********************************************
Nine dead in Haiti violence,
December 23, 2006| Dominican Today
http://www.dominicantoday.com/app/article.aspx?id=20871
PORT-AU-PRINCE.- A confrontation between members of the United
Nations peacekeeping force in Haiti (MINUSTAH) and armed gang
members has left
at least nine people dead and several dozen more injured in the
north
of the Haitian capital.
Reporters on the scene saw nine dead bodies and estimated that
30 people had been taken to Cité Soleil’s St. Catherine’s
hospital. Several local media outlets confirmed that they had
seen three dead bodies and 22 injured at
the hospital.
A spokesperson for MINUSTAH stated that the UN troops had suffered
no casualties, but that one of their armored cars was set on fire
and completely gutted.
The confrontation took place in the notorious Cité Soleil
slum neighborhood during a MINUSTAH crackdown on the wave of kidnappings
in the Haitian capital, according to UN spokesperson Sophie Boutaud
de la Combe. The MINUSTAH spokesperson said that six hostages
had been released and 24 people detained as a result of the UN’s
joint actions with the Haitian police.
****************************************
Five killed in Haiti slum
raid |Sat. Dec. 23, 2006, Aljazwwra.net
At least five people have been killed in Haiti's largest slum
during a raid by security forces targeting armed gangs in the
capital Port-au-Prince.
The raid came hours after Edmond Mulet, the UN's chief envoy to
Haiti, said the government had given the go-ahead for a crackdown
on areas controlled by gangs.
About 400 UN soldiers, led by Brazilian peacekeepers and backed
by Haitian police forces, entered the Bwa Nef district in the
slum of Cite Soleil at 3am local time on Saturday.
As many as 30 people,
were wounded in the raid, humanitarian aid
workers said. All were believed
to be civilians.
Shootout
"The foreigners came shooting for hours without interruption
and killed 10 people," said Johnny Claircidor, a resident
of Bwa Nef." Then Belony's gang members started to
exchange fire with them ... I personally counted 10 bodies."
In past gun battles in Haiti's crowded, maze-like slums, people
have been struck by crossfire from both sides so it was not possible
to immediately confirm who was responsible for the killings.
Sophie De la Combe, the spokesperson for the UN peacekeeping mission
in Haiti, declined to provide a toll.
"No one was killed or injured on our side, but it's difficult
for us to know for now how many bandits could have been killed
or wounded," he said.
Insecurity
Jean Saint-Fleur, the director of Haiti's administrative police,
said:
"The operation was conducted to address the current insecurity
caused by the recent wave of kidnappings in the capital Port-au-Prince."
He also said he was unable to give an official death toll from
the Cite Soleil fighting.
"They came here to terrorise the population," said Rose
Martel, a slum
dweller, referring to the police and UN troops. "I don't
think they really killed the bandits, unless they consider all
of us as bandits."
***********************
At least 10 people died and 20 were wounded Friday in a UN peace-keeping
operation in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, a UN official said.
http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_6145-At-Least-
10-Dead-In-UN-Peacekeeping-Operation.html
The operation was aimed at disarming one of the armed bands in
the poverty district of Cite Soleil, according to Sophia Boutaud,
spokeswoman for the United Nations Mission for the Stabilization
of Haiti (MINUSTAH).
According to eyewitnesses, armed criminals attacked a patrol being
carried out by MINUSTAH and local police. After the clashes, hundreds
of residents demanded an end to the violence and withdrawal of
the 8,000-strong UN troops.
The UN stabilization forces are policing the democratization process
in Haiti, which has been rocked by unrest for decades.
Armed gangs terrorize the capital, demanding that ex-president
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, ousted from office in 2004, be returned
to power.
**********************************************
Forwarded by Ezili's Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
**********************************************
**************************
CKUT
Radio: Haiti - A Rough 2007
http://aaron.resist.ca/node/105
Listen to an interview
with Patrick Elie, a long-time human rights activist based in
Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Here, he comments on the latest UN massacre of December 22, 2006,
and gives an overview of the current Haitian political landscape.
-->To download or listen
to this report, visit:
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=21076
In the early morning of Friday, December 22nd, 2006, starting
at approximately 3 a.m., 400 Brazilian-led UN occupation troops
in armored vehicles carried out a massive assault on the people
of Cite Soleil, Port-au-Prince, laying siege yet again to the
impoverished community. Initial reports have put the body count
as high as 40, mostly civilians, or in the UN's terms, "collateral
damage".
I spoke on the phone with Patrick Elie at his home in Port-au-Prince,
Haiti. Elie comments on this most recent massacre in the slum
of Cite Soleil, but also on what he calls a "new coup d'etat".
In Elie's words, even though the popular president Rene Preval
came to power this year, the outside forces (ie. Canada, France,
and the USA) that sponsored the violent overthrow of Jean-Bertrand
Aristide nearly 3 years ago are preventing the Haitian people's
agenda from being put into place. As a result, key popular demands
have still not been met: Aristide remains in exile in South Africa,
political prisoners remain behind bars, and the UN continues to
lay seige to Haiti's poorest communities. Elie says that if Preval
doesn't start to build a security force FOR the people and not
AGAINST the people, 2007 will be a rough year for Haiti.
For more information on the latest events in Cite Soleil, and
for other news and updates from Haiti, see:
http://haitiaction.net/News/HAC/12_25_6.html
www.haitisolidarity.net
www.canadahaitiaction.ca
www.ckut.ca
**************************
**********************************************
Urgent action alert from the Haiti
Action Committee - December 24, 2006 | The UN’s Christmas
present to Haiti -- A pre-dawn, heavy-caliber assault on the men,
women and children of Cite Soleil
In the early morning of Friday, December 22nd, starting at approximately
3 a.m., 400 Brazilian-led UN occupation troops in armored vehicles
carried out a massive assault on the people of Cite Soleil, laying
siege yet again to the impoverished community. Eyewitness reports
said a wave of indiscriminate gunfire from heavy weapons began
about 5 a.m. and continued for much of the day Friday --
an operation on the scale of the July 6, 2005 UN massacre in Cite
Soleil. Detonations could be heard for miles, AHP reported.
Initial press accounts reported at least 40 casualties, all civilians.
According to community testimony, UN forces flew overhead in helicopters
and fired down into houses while other troops attacked from the
ground with Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs). People were killed
in their homes. UN troops from Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Bolivia
took part in the all-day siege, backed by Haitian police. UN soldiers
once again targeted the Bois Neuf and Drouillard districts of
Cite Soleil -- scene of the July 6th massacre.
While reports are still coming in, this is what we do know right
now:
* A Reuters photographer "counted 9 bodies, and eyewitnesses
counted 4 others dead. As many as 30 people were wounded, humanitarian
workers said. All of the casualties are believed to be civilians."
(Reuters)
* One Haitian human rights observer personally counted at least
17 dead bodies on the ground. This eyewitness also reported:
+ A woman 6-months pregnant was shot in the stomach, killing the
unborn child.
+ A man and his 8-year-old boy were in their beds when a helicopter
rained bullets into their house, wounding both.
+ A man named Jacquelin Olivier was killed in his bed when bullets
pierced the walls. He leaves a wife and 3-year old boy.
* "The foreigners came shooting for hours without interruption
and killed 10 people," said Bois Neuf resident Johnny Claircidor,
quoted by Reuters. "They came here to terrorize the
population," Cite Soleil resident Rose Martel told
Reuters, referring to UN troops and police. "I don't think
they really killed any bandits, unless they consider all of us
as bandits."
* Agence Haitienne de Presse (AHP) said Cite Soleil "residents
report very serious property damage and there are concerns that
a critical water shortage may now develop because water cisterns
and pipes were punctured by the gunfire."
* "Local residents say the victims were ordinary citizens
whose only crime was that they live in the targeted neighborhood."
(AHP)
UN soldiers block Red Cross vehicles from coming to aid
the wounded -- According to Pierre Alexis, the Haitian
Red Cross coordinator for Cite Soleil, the UN soldiers prevented
the Haitian Red Cross from treating children injured during the
assault. Alexis said that many children were suffering serious
injuries, but that UN soldiers blocked Red Cross vehicles from
entering Cite Soleil. AHP reported that "residents were outraged
that [UN] soldiers refused to allow medical care...for people
they had injured." Despite this, St. Catherine's Hospital
in Cite Soleil reported receiving many wounded.
Why this latest assault on the people of Cite Soleil?
-- UN occupation authorities in Haiti claim it is part of their
fight against "bandits" and "kidnappers,"
scapegoating the 300,000 residents of Cite Soleil. However, it
is widely known throughout Port-au-Prince that kidnappers are
coming from all sectors, including corrupt police officials and
the wealthy. Does the UN lead military assaults on affluent neighborhoods
where kidnappers are known to operate? Of course not.
A more plausible explanation comes from grassroots activists in
Cite Soleil. They argue that this is "punishment" for
their ongoing protests demanding an end to the UN occupation,
restoration of full democracy, return of President Aristide, and
the release of political prisoners. Additionally, the people of
Cite Soleil have been vigorously protesting the December 3rd municipal
elections, in which there were widespread allegations of fraud
and many from the popular neighborhoods were prevented from voting.
Just recently, on December 16th, the people of Cite Soleil led
a massive protest throughout Port-au-Prince marking the anniversary
of Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s first election as president
in 1990. [They marched despite the UN shooting up the district
the night before, in what was widely viewed as a UN attempt to
intimidate the populace on the eve of the march.] In the week
following the march, tensions continued to escalate, culminating
in the December 22nd assault by UN forces under Brazilian command.
Enough is enough! Join us in denouncing the ongoing UN
terror attacks on the Haitian people!
Now is the time for people in the US and throughout the world
to step up our solidarity efforts with the people of Haiti. Our
protests, calls and letters after the UN massacre in Cite Soleil
on July 6th, 2005 -- and the many UN attacks since then -- need
to be updated, expanded, intensified. Demand an end to the UN’s
repeated, brutal assaults on this besieged community.
Email or fax the UN official below. Keep it brief.
*** Denounce the massive, heavy-caliber
assault on the citizens of Cite Soleil by UN occupation forces
on Dec. 22, 2006.
*** Demand reparations for the victims and their families.
*** Demand prosecution of the UN officials, commanders and soldiers
responsible for this latest UN atrocity in Haiti.
TO: Edmond Mulet, UN Special Representative in
Haiti -- mulet@un.org fax 011-509-244-3512
cc to: Thierry Fagart, UN Human Rights chief
in Haiti -- fagart@un.org fax 011-509-244-9366
cc to: Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights -- ngochr@ohchr.org fax 011-41-22-917-9011
For more information: 510 483 7481 or email haitiaction@yahoo.com
www.haitiaction.net and www.haitisolidarity.net
****************************************
http://aaron.resist.ca/node/105
**********************************************
‘Freedom is not something that anybody can be given.
Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they
want to be.’
--James Baldwin
**********
**********************************************
"Transformation
is only valid if it is carried out with the people,
not for them. Liberation is like a childbirth, and a painful one.
The person
who emerges is a new person: no longer either oppressor or oppressed,
but a person in the process of achieving freedom. It is only the
oppressed
who, by freeing themselves, can free their oppressors."
- Paulo Freire, from Pedagogy of the Oppressed
***********************
Those
who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it:
See, the first US occupation and administration of Haiti
and how, then too,
President Wilson of the US called the US. marines exploits on
behalf of New York
bankers and multinationals, an exercize in "civilizing"
and "developing" the "corrupt,"
"failed" and "inept" blacks of Haiti....Charlemagne
Pèralte Speaks!
-
Inquiry into Occupation and Administration of Haiti," The
U.S. Senate
Investigates the Haitian Occupation
interview Haitians about marine conduct
in the guerrilla war against Haitian resistance.
- ******************
See Also:
Conclusions
and Recommendations by the Commitee of Six Disinterested
Americans
The
People Were Very Peaceable": The U.S. Senate Investigates
the
Haitian Occupation
The
Truth about Haiti: An NAACP Investigation
**************************
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