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They Will Kill Me. I am in Hiding. I can no longer go home"
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From Jean,
Report from the streets of Haiti| Ezili Danto Witness Project
*

“They will kill me…I am in hiding. I can no longer go home” Mayday, Mayday! -
Report from Jean from the streets of Haiti by Jean for the Ezili Danto
Witness Project, translated from the Kreyol audio recording by Frantz Jerome
*
May 31, 2005

Jean: Greetings to all honest and upstanding Haitians living in the Diaspora
who accept the fact that they are black, as well as the non-Haitians who are
black, let’s unite to rescue Haitian blacks currently facing a Calvary of
grief.

We ask all honest and upstanding whites wishing positive changes in Haiti, to
join us. I remember on International Press Day Augustin (…inaudible) asked
that the freedom of journalists to practice their profession be respected and
that they not be threatened in any way. I, while acting to fulfill the
functions of my profession, since 10 o’clock this morning, using my moped,
have been monitoring the situation on National Route #1, where there was
immeasurable levels of tension and at times panic.

Popular organizations were demonstrating to demand the end of the ruthless
and lawless Latortue defacto government. I was there when the national police
along with MINUSTHA troops started shooting in all directions. Still using my
moped, I was moving around to find out what was happening. I witnessed a
young man riding his bicycle on national route 1; this student at the
National Pilot Center was hit by a bullet in the head and died.

I took some shots of the body and sample the surrounding sounds and moved on
towards Drouillard cemetery. When I reached a gas station in the area, I saw
about five police cars stationed at a barricade. They stopped me and told me
to move the burning tires, with my bare hands. I informed them that I was a
journalist and could not fulfill their request. They retorted that time would
tell whether or not I would comply. An original inspector who used to be
attached to the national route 1 precinct in Site Solèy allowed me to go and
not face certain death, since threats were coming from many police officers.

I escaped and went on my way. I do not know whether or not one of them called
ahead and asked that I be intercepted. Still, as I reached the corner of
Drouillard I stopped to call a journalist from Le Matin, his name is Evens.

Police officers grabbed the phone from me and asked why I was talking to a
journalist. Evens informed them that I was a journalist as well. They tried
to find out from Evens what we were discussing. I was shaken up when they
told me that had it been a bit later they would have taken me away. Where
would they have taken me? When I asked them where they would have taken me,
they told me I would find out soon enough. Once in the car I would have found
out the destination. They seized my camera. Fortunately, I had the presence
of mind earlier to take the cassette out ….

When they noticed that the camera was empty, the officers got very excited,
they started to pressure me and shout horrific threats. Many guns, big
calibers like M-14, M-16, were put at the ready and directed at me. I was by
myself in the middle. They were about to lay me on the ground but instead put
me in a pickup, placing the moped on top of me.

Thank God for the fact that there are a few good ones among the bad police
officers. One of the police officers said “no, he is a journalist; he is not
involved.” One asked me why I had two phones. I replied that in my line of
duty, he could not ask me such questions. He then promised that sooner or
later he would get me.

Therefore, my rights as a journalist are threatened. They are threatened
because I tell the truth. In Haiti, they don’t want people to tell the truth.
Nonetheless, I know that no menace can stop me from telling the truth. Only
when I find myself in my grave will I stop from telling the truth. As long as
I can breath, I will tell the truth. So I ask all honest and upstanding
Haitians to also tell the truth, the way things are.

Today, I am threatened in Haiti and I am in hiding. Indeed, ever since May
3rd, the police had an alert on me, and I was stopped by the Brazilian
soldiers. Could it be they are lusting for blood? I could not tell but still
…(inaudible). I told them: “ I can not believe that your actions are
consistent with the freedom of the press you were talking about. Does freedom
of the press mean that a journalist can be threatened? What is the purpose of
your actions?” I was hurt and realized that I was in grave danger. But I
believe in God and the bible. I say to all honest and upstanding people
aboard that Haiti is climbing a ladder backward. Why are they persecuting me?
Is it because every time they are spilling innocent blood in popular
neighborhoods the police can see me reporting? Is it because in popular
neighborhoods, like yesterday in (….) where (….) Mitil died. I don’t know
whether that’s the reason. Clodi, Lik, Janpiè who is a student from Tètilien
Gilbo who caught a bullet in his foot while he was calmly sitting. I don’t
know if it’s because they spilled blood in Rue St Martin where a retailer
name Maristil received a bullet in the head on her way to Kwabosal to
replenish her stock of cookies. I don’t know if it is because while
committing this act the police saw me on the spot, shooting images of their
deed.

I don’t know if that’s the reason why I am threatened today in
Port-au-Prince, capital of Haiti. I promise all upstanding Haitians who want
to see positive changes that I, as a journalist, though facing threats, I may
have to go into hiding but I will always seek the truth. I will always
continue my work, unless they kill me. They (the police) promised that at the
first opportunity they will kill me…

Ezili: Jean …Jean, this is Ezili Danto, Marguerite, I needed to ask you, did
they take the camera? Did they give it back?

Jean: At first they took the camera and wanted to confiscate it, but later
after I demanded that they gave me my camera, they gave it back to me. Still
they were very upset that they could not find the cassette of the dead body.
They are the ones who shot him and they did not want the press to know that.
Ezili: OK. How do you feel now? Do you feel that you can go home now or do
you feel that it is not safe?

Jean: I do not think it is safe for me to go home right now. I am currently
hiding at a friend’s house.

Ezili: Did you take the picture or the name of the police officers who
threatened you?

Jean: I don’t have the police officers’ name, but I have images of the dying
man. This is what they want since they are the ones who shot the man. I got
images of the last tremors of life leaving his body on video. I also have
images where they are shooting. I got the whole thing on video. That is why
they are after me. They wanted to get the cassette from me.

Ezili: Jean, what would you like to say to the international community, right
now, as part of this report that you are giving?

Jean: I want to tell the international community, especially the United
Nations that claims to be promoting stability in Haiti, let’s make it clear
to the international community in its entirety that the United Nations is not
solving any problem in Haiti. The only thing that the United Nations has
succeeded at is the promotion of bloodbaths. They have facilitated the
spilling of blood in popular neighborhoods. That is why I am asking everyone
in the international community who say that they want Haiti to change, I know
Abdias Jean [another Haitian reporter ] died and I know that I, as well will
die. I will tell the international community that I may die but will do so
telling the truth. I will die because everywhere the police is involved in
dishonest acts, I am also there, and that is why I will die.

I am asking the international community to stand in solidarity with me,
because my life is in danger. The defacto regime threatened me, they are
trying to intimidate me. As I am talking to you, I am in hiding, asking
people aboard to help me face this most imminent danger. I am in hiding, I
can no longer go home.

Ezili: Jean, stay safe. This very moment we are going to call the UN and
other members of the international community and relay this report.

Jean: OK, I’ll be here!

(END OF REPORT)

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June 7, 2005
Ezili Danto’s Note:

We shall soon have a link up on our website to the Kreyol audio recording of
this report. The breathing, living, blood of anxiety and grief in the voices
from Haiti we talk to almost everyday is something that only those of us who
experience it can know. Surely no human being should be so traumatized and so
relentlessly, so unmercifully. But the Haitian poor are being crucified in
Haiti by the proxies of the world's greatest and richest powers.
Why are the world’s decent peoples so paralyzed? Please help us contact other
journalist and human rights organizations worldwide to assist the journalists
in Haiti facing death for telling the truth about this
U.S./Canada/France-sanctioned slaughter, anarchy and chaos unleashed on
Haiti’s already impoverished masses.

DO SOMETHING. What Jean doesn’t say in this report because he didn’t want to
alarm his family was that he was beaten by the police - slapped and kicked
onto the grown, in addition to having his moped dumped on his head. Since
this reporting Jean has been in hiding. The Haitian Coup D’etat police force
want to stop Jean’s reports and have been to his house, his parents house and
detained his sister. Please call, fax, e-mail immediately. Help us save
Jean’s life, protect his family and preserve his liberty to practice his
trade as a journalist. Help HLLN stop the slaughter in Haiti, the killing of
journalist and other innocent civilians. (See other Jean reports at:
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignone/testimonies/Jean1.html
;
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/witnessproject_jean_may18.html
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignone/testimonies/stdemo.html

Tell MINUSTHA, the Bush Administration, France and Canada that Jean is not a
“bandit,” the 30 civilians just murdered in blood in Bel Air and Site Soley
on June 4th and 5th by the Haitian reconfigured “police” with Jordanian and
Chinese “support” are human beings with the inalienable right to life,
liberty and justice. Their lost, our Haitian lost and sufferings cannot
simply be ignored because of the color of our skin and empty pocketbooks. The
only road to law, peace and justice in Haiti is the return of the
Constitutional government. The U.S. Special forces kidnapping of President
Aristide has unleashed a rash of kidnappings since the Coup D’etat never seen
before in all of Haiti’s history. Our collective voices against these
crimes-against-humanity must mean something.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Please call, e-mail and fax letters the officials listed below and your
local and national media.
**
UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)
PHONE: 011.509.244.9650.9660
FAX: 011.509.244.9366/67
Address MINUSTHA letters individually to:
Mr. Juan Gabriel Valdes, Kofi Annan's Special UN Envoy to Haiti
Lt. General Augusto Heleno Ribeiro Pereira, UN Military Commander
in Haiti
Mahamane Cisse-Guoro , UN Human Rights Office in Haiti
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THE UNITED NATIONS:
Fax No. (212) 963-4879
Hon. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General
United Nations
United Nations Headquarters
First Avenue at 46th Street
New York, NY 10017
212-963-5012
inquiries@un.org
Fax No. (212) 963-4879
************
U.S. Ambassador to Haiti: James B. Foley
Fax: U.S. Embassy, Port-au-Prince - 011-509-223-9038 or
011-509-223-1641
Phone: U.S. Embassy, Port-au-Prince - 011-509-223-4711 or 222-0200 or 0354;
State Department Haiti Desk, Washington
202 -647-2901
Anthony Beaver/John Mariz, State Department Haiti Desk - 202- 647-5088
Email: noriegarf@state.gov (Roger Noriega Assistant Secretary of State for
Western Hemisphere Affairs;
BanksD@state.gov (Dana Banks, Human Rights Officer, U.S. Embassy,
Port-au-Prince)
__________
Canadian Ambassador to Haiti, Claude Boucher
Embassy of Canada
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Telephone: (509) 249-9000
Fax: (509) 249-9920
Email: prnce@international.gc.ca
__________
Ambassador of France in Haiti, M. Yves GAUDEUL
Embassy of France
51 place des Héros de l'Indépendance - BP 312
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Telephone: (509) 222-0952
Fax : (509) 223 5675
__________
SEND COPIES TO AS MANY OF THESE PEOPLE AS YOU CAN including your
congressperson, local and national media (Visit contact for local & National
media) or the U.S. congress.
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Haiti's regime:
M. Bernard Gousse
Minister of Justice and Public Safety
9 Ave. Charles Sumner
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
c/o Embassy of the Republic of Haiti - Washington, DC
Fax 202 745-7215
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African Union Headquarters
P.O. Box 3243
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: (251) 1 51 77 00
Fax (251) 1 51 78 44
website: www.africa-union.org
email for President Alpha Oumar Konare: KonareAO@africa-union.org
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With Copies to: kongo-doudou@un.org (Toussaint Kongo-Doudou, Chief of
Communications, United Nations Support Mission To Haiti)

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Forwarded by the Haitian Lawyers' Leadership Network
******

"Men anpil chay pa lou" is Kreyol for - "Many hands make light a heavy load."

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