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Haiti, the Financial Crisis, and International Solidarity by Niraj Joshi, Global Research, February 25, 2009

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Bilan D'un Désastre, Feb. 28, 2009
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Cinq ans après le Kidnapping Du President Aristide, Il est et demeure le plus populaire
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LIST OF VICTIMS, MASSACRES, COUP D'ETAT ABUSES
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Jean-Bertrand Aristide remains potent force in Haiti
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES, Miami Herald, Mar. 1, 2009
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Ezili Dantò at Ottawa Initiative 2009 Conference with Michel Chossudovsky and students from Canada, Jaf, Choublak, Heru, Stu, et al
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In Kreyol - Unedited interview, recorded LIVE to promote Ottawa
conference on Feb. 28, 2009-
Listen to interview by Jafrikayiti of Ezili Dantò as preview to Ottawa Conference on Feb. 28, by Jafrikayiti, ckcufm.com, Feb 22, 2009
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The Haitian Coup: An Unresolved Injustice After Five Years by Bill Fletcher, Jr |The Seattle Medium, February 25, 2009
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HLLN is mobilizing legislative and international support for Haitian-American foreign policy concerns

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Pointing Guns at Starving Haitians: Violent Haiti is a myth
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The Cite Soleil Massacre Declassification Project
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Video: U.N. Massive Attack on Dec. 22, 2006 on Site Soley

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Bush Administration Accused of Withholding "Lifesaving" Aid to Haiti
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Another Independence Day Under Occupation, by Ezili Dantò, January. 1, 2009
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Independence or Death:
Celebrating the 205th Anniversary of The Haitian Revolution

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What do we do on an independence day under occupation? January 1, 2009

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Background Information of the FreeHaitiMovement

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HLLN's counter-colonial narrative on deforestation , Haitian Perspectives, Oct. 25, 2008
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Haitian Lawyer Lays Out Haiti Policy Agenda For Obama Team
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Haiti's Riches - expose the false stereotypes


Dessalines Is Rising!!
Ayisyen: You Are Not Alone!


 




Haiti Policy Statement for the Obama Team

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Heru Lutalo (kobrecords.net, myspace.com/herulutalo) -
Gad Sa Yo Fèm


CLICK TO STOP MUSIC


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UN/Brazilian Troops OUT of Haiti!
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UN Peacekeepers and Humanitarian Aid Workers raping, molesting and abusing
Haitian children

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Questions to Ezili Dantò on Lavalas Split
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I Don't Know this America...But I'm Most Happy to Meet It
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Yes, we did it! OBAMA!!!


 

 

 

 

 


The Obama Administration must Investigate Crimes Against Humanity by Bush not only in Guantanamo, but in Haiti 2004 (See also: Lies without Borders)

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Thousands march in Haiti demanding return of Aristide, HaitiAction.net, March 2, 2009
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Wyclef Speaks Up For Haitians Facing Deportation, CaribWorldNews, Mar. 2, 2009
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US Discriminatory Immigration Policies Toward Haitians

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HLLN's Letter to Esther Olavarria about a stop of all deportations to Haiti,
Feb. 23, 2009
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- An overloaded freighter carrying more than 200 Haitians -- 27 of them children -- was interdicted by the U.S. Coast Guard BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER | cmarbin@MiamiHerald.com

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Haitian Repatriation Hits High
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HLLN on the report that 30,000 Haitians have been ordered deported by US Federal immigration judges

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To subscribe, write to erzilidanto@yahoo.com
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zilibuttonCarnegie Hall
Video Clip
No other national
group in the world
sends more money
than Haitians living
in the Diaspora
Red Sea- audio

The Red Sea


Ezili Dantò's master Haitian dance class (Video clip)

zilibuttonEzili's Dantò's
Haitian & West African Dance Troop
Clip one - Clip two


So Much Like Here- Jazzoetry CD audio clip

Ezili Danto's

Witnessing
to Self

zilibutton
Update on
Site Soley

RBM Video Reel

Haitian
immigrants
Angry with
Boat sinking
A group of Haitian migrants arrive in a bus after being repatriated from the nearby Turks and Caicos Islands, in Cap-Haitien, northern Haiti, Thursday, May 10, 2007. They were part of the survivors of a sailing vessel crowded with Haitian migrants that overturned Friday, May 4 in moonlit waters a half-mile from shore in shark-infested waters. Haitian migrants claim a Turks and Caicos naval vessel rammed their crowded sailboat twice before it capsized. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Dessalines' Law
and Ideals

Breaking Sea Chains


Little Girl
in the Yellow
Sunday Dress

Anba Dlo, Nan Ginen
Ezili Danto's Art-With-The-Ancestors Workshops - See, Red, Black & Moonlight series or Haitian-West African

Clip one -Clip two
ance performance
zilibutton In a series of articles written for the October 17, 2006 bicentennial commemoration of the life and works of Dessalines, I wrote for HLLN that: "Haiti's liberator and founding father, General Jean Jacques Dessalines, said, "I Want the Assets of the Country to be Equitably Divided" and for that he was assassinated by the Mullato sons of France. That was the first coup d'etat, the Haitian holocaust - organized exclusion of the masses, misery, poverty and the impunity of the economic elite - continues (with Feb. 29, 2004 marking the 33rd coup d'etat). Haiti's peoples continue to resist the return of despots, tyrants and enslavers who wage war on the poor majority and Black, contain-them-in poverty through neocolonialism' debts, "free trade" and foreign "investments." These neocolonial tyrants refuse to allow an equitable division of wealth, excluding the majority in Haiti from sharing in the country's wealth and assets." (See also, Kanga Mundele: Our mission to live free or die trying, Another Haitian Independence Day under occupation; The Legacy of Impunity of One Sector-Who killed Dessalines?; The Legacy of Impunity:The Neoconlonialist inciting political instability is the problem. Haiti is underdeveloped in crime, corruption, violence, compared to other nations, all, by Marguerite 'Ezili Dantò' Laurent
     
No other national group in the world sends more money than Haitians living in the Diaspora
 
 
 
 
 







 

FreeHaitiMovement
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Oct 17 – Day of Heroes In Haiti- See
Dialogue between Two Haitians


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HLLN on oversight needed on USAID

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Ezili Dantò at Ottawa Initiative 2009 Conference with Michel Chossudovsky and students from Canada, Jaf, Choublak, Stu, et al

PHOTOGALLERY

Photos of Ezili Dantò at Ottawa Initiative 2009 Conference with Michel Chossudovsky, Jafrikayiti, Choublak, Stu, Jude, Candio and University students from Canada, et al...



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Bilan D'un Désastre

Source: Via Forwarded E-mail from Nieve Fouche, March 3, 2009

(See also Remembering Bush Regime Change in Haiti, remembering slaughter, occupationand making Haiti worse for the masses than before regime change and foreign occupation | Go to: HLLN's LIST OF VICTIMS, MASSACRES, COUP D'ETAT ABUSES)


Les coups d’Etat sont les premières causes de nos instabilités politiques, économiques et même écologiques. Deux analogies historiques peuvent éclairer bien notre religion. Les Etats unis et Haïti sont les deux Etats doyens de l’Amérique. Depuis l’indépendance américaine en 1776 les Etats-Unis n’ont jamais connu de coup d’Etat, tandis qu’Haïti a connu trente trois coups d’Etat classique et soixante quinze chambardements de gouvernement. Comme conséquences Les USA sont l’un des pays les plus riches du monde, Haïti est l’un des plus pauvres de la planète. Autre analogie, de 1879 jusqu'à l’arrivée de Nord Alexis, pendant environ une décennie sans coup d’état, Haïti a connu des progrès et des modernisations qu’elle n’a jamais connus ni auparavant ni après. Quatrième pays au monde à construire les chemins de Fer, premier pays de la caraïbe à utiliser l’électricité en 1885 à Jacmel, la ville du cap est électrifiée au même moment que la ville de New York. A la même époque Haïti a jeté des ponts solides et confortables sur ses routes en terre battue. Les gros camions de transport sont introduits au pays environ cinquante ans après, et ils traversent ces ponts sans aucun danger. Cela sous entend que l’élite dirigeante avait une vision de développement, de modernisation et de progrès. Il faut ajouter à ces réalisations, la télécommunication, le service hydraulique etc.

Les coups d’Etat sont les principaux désastres qui ont dévasté le pays à tout point de vue.

Les années ou le mois de Février porte 29 jours ne sont pas ordinaires, elles se succèdent chaque quatre ans. Elles amènent assez souvent des événements assez souvent tragiques qui changent la destinée de la planète, ou provoquent des bouleversements qui modifient la vie des peuples. Par exemple le 29 Février 1504 une éclipse solaire a assombri la Jamaïque, au moment du passage de Christophe Colomb, et des centaines de morts et de blessés étaient enregistrés.

La vie animale et végétale était menacée dans tous ses intérêts. Cinq cents ans après soit le 29 février 2004, la pression des forces anti démocratiques et anti nationalistes ont pousse par un mouvement déstabilisateur des planètes de ténèbres pour éclipser la démocratie en Haïti avec le renversement de Jean Bertrand Aristide au pouvoir et son exil en République Centrafricaine, Jamaïque et Afrique du sud.. Le coup d’Etat du 19 Février 2004 blesse le peuple haïtien est blesse jusque dans l’âme, jusque dans sa conscience historique par des armes néo colonialiste et anti nationalistes qui ont noyé les festivités commémoratives du bicentenaire de l’indépendance dans les flammes et dans le sang. Depuis 2002, le cryptogramme 1804 est ampute de son zéro neutralisateur pour accoucher 184, un monstre idéologique qui a semé terreur, fureur, deuil, cercueil, pleurs et douleurs …..

Une minute de recueillement pour tous ceux qui sont tombes sous les balles impitoyables et cruelles des mercenaires honores comme des combattants de la liberté. Ils sont des milliers qui ont perdu la vie, ils sont encore des milliers à laisser le pays et fuir la répression, des centaines et des centaines à pleurer. Ceux qui sont disparus sont inoubliables et innombrables. D’autres sont tombes et partis pour l’au-delà sans sépulcre, sans cercueil, sans fleurs, sans pompes, sans prière et sans oraisons. Paix a leur âme, justice a leur progéniture. La liste est longue et inachevée, ceux dont les noms ne sont pas cités ne sont ni oubliés ni abandonnés.

Une minute de recueillement en mémoire de

Christophe Lozamar assassiné le 28 novembre 2002 à Lascahobas

Wilfrid Denord

Marius Pierre
assassiné le 26 juin 2002

Mimoze Brizard

Dubuisson Brizard
assassinés le 26 juillet 2002

Louis Ramil
, 14 ans

Nathalie Sauveur
, 17 ans

Hussein Bertrand,
4 ans (survivant)

Au cap haïtien le 4 Avril 2003 Donat Julmice est assassiné au cours d’une manifestation tenant en main le drapeau national

Irandel Pierre
agent de sécurité du pdt Aristide, assassiné le 6 Fév. 2003

Patrick samedi
assassine le 16 Février 2003

Colean Pradel

Dadou Pierre
assassinés à Lascahobas



A petit Goave Myrthil Fleurilus

Samuel Polo
, ont été brulés vifs

Le crime était généralisé, ils étaient devenus fous. Il faut signaler les cas de Brignol Lindor, a Petit Goave, Amyot Metayer ou Cubain aux Gonaïves , des cas que Fanmi Lavalas avait condamné. La machine de la mort n’avait pas de frein.

Le 7 janvier 2004, le jeune Louvois Petit regardait passer une manifestation du groupe de 184 a été cruellement tué par des piques et jeté dans un canal

Le 26 Juillet 2003, 4 employés du ministère de l’intérieur et des collectivités
Territoriales qui allaient installer une nouvelle commission communale a Belladère
Sont assassinés : Ce sont Jean Marie Dépeignes, Cheriel Augustin, Wilfrid Thomas Adrien Augustin ; seul Mahens Félix est sorti survivant, mais grièvement blessé.

Le 29 Février des dégâts considérables sont enregistrés; des institutions publiques et privées, des maisons appartenant à des cadres de Fanmi Lavalas sont pillées et saccagées.

Plusieurs media appartenant a des proches du régime sont sabotées L’université de la Fondation Aristide pour la démocratie, saccagée et pillée le 29 février a été scellée par la justice le 18 Mai 2004 pour être occupée par des militaires des nations unies.


Cinq ans après les yeux sont encore fermés sur ces crimes, sur des orphelins, des veufs et des veuves, des handicapes physiques et mentaux engendres par cet évènement cruel.

Les oreilles sont encore bouchées aux cris de justice et de réparations. Le pouvoir en place fait semblant qu’il ignore ces milliers de victimes qui croupissent dans la misère et la souffrance. Les plaies et les blessures sont ouvertes, il faut penser à les panser, et ceci ce n’est pas une faveur pour Fanmi Lavalas, mais une nécessité nationale. Cette soif de justice ne doit pas être éternelle.

Fanmi Lavalas a une double responsabilité. La première est morale, comment négliger ces milliers de victimes de toutes sortes pour la cause de la démocratie ? Comment prioriser les intérêts personnels au mépris cette soif de justice.
Comment refuser de longer sa main a ses compagnons de combat juste pour guérir son obsession de chef ?

Fanmi Lavalas se termine par la marque du pluriel, donc il n’est jamais au singulier. Fanmi Lavalas a l’obligation de changer cette société de combat en une société de débats axée sur la tolérance ,le dialogue ,l’unité et solidarité pour que la nation ne produise plus des monstres qui tuent des enfants et des femmes innocents. La majeure partie de la population haïtienne croit que la philosophie Lavalassienne est salvatrice, car l’abime trop large entre la majorité trop pauvre et la minorité trop riche n’est sécuritaire à aucun secteur. Nous sommes tous menaces, les évènements des Gonaïves sont un probant témoignage.

« La lutte contre les pauvres est un crime contre l’humanité, mais la lutte contre la pauvreté est un devoir civique » comme écrit le professeur Bell Angelot dans les Chants de Resistance.

La deuxième responsabilité de Fanmi Lavalas est politique. Le retour du représentant national est une responsabilité pour Fanmi Lavalas. En démocratie pas d’exil, et le coup d’Erat du 29 Février ne doit plus continuer à éclipser les valeurs démocratiques. L’attitude du conseil électoral provisoire pointe du doigt ceux qui ont peur de la démocratie en Haïti ; Ceux qui ont peur de Fanmi Lavalas Le conseil électoral provisoire veut institutionnaliser l’exclusion. L’ombre du coup d’état du 29 Février plane encore sur le pays . Le coup d’Etat persiste contre Fanmi Lavalas . Le CEP n’a rien appris de l’histoire le CEP n’a rien compris du peuple haïtien. En excluant Fanmi Lavalas de façon. si arbitraire le CEP ne voit même pas s’il côtoie la haute cour de Justice Le danger c’est l’exclusion, mais pas la participation citoyenne à la Res publica. Fanmi Lavalas doit concerter toutes ses forces pour répondre aux desiderata populaires, pour formaliser les revendications des organisations de bases, il faut marier les mobilisations aux négociations. Le défit est de taille, mais pas au dessus de nos capacités.

Renforçons-nous ! Remembrons-nous ! Unissons-nous ! Solidarisons nous ! Ceux qui trahissent ce sont ceux qui mentent.

Voici quelques images

 




Dubuisson Brizard assassiné en juillet 2002 à Lascahobas

Nathalie Souverain 17 ans .Les anciens militaires ont Pris la maison de Cleonor souverain d’assaut et ont assassiné 4 membres de la famille

Une Jeune fille de 14 ans qui a reçu deux balles dans son vagin

 


Mme Mimoze Brizard



Et voilà les résultats du désastre du 29 Février 2004. Les communautés nationales et internationales ont une responsabilité. Le silence de certaines organisations de droits humains est aussi atroce que ces crimes. C’est un silence complice. Laisser ces crimes impunis, ces dommages sans réparation, c’est institutionnaliser l’impunité. La réconciliation est trop personnelle, trop sentimentale, mais plutôt il faut une entente conclue sur des bases juridiques fortes pour sauver cette nation menacée par les dangers de toutes sortes.

Après le 29 Février les auteurs ont revendique leurs actes et leurs œuvres et d’autres ont été dénoncés, tels le sabotage des matériels sur la route des Gonaives en juillet 2003 et l’explosion de la centrale de Peligre . En décembre 2001 l’opposition armée a tenté d’assaillir le palais national. Plusieurs locaux des partis politiques ont été saccagés par des auteurs inconnus, et le gouvernement d’Aristide était contraint de dédommager ces partis politiques. La communauté internationale avait joué sa participation en ce sens. Surtout en 2002 et 2003 les anciens militaires haïtiens ont utilisé le territoire dominicain pour commettre ces crimes en Haïti. Alors quelle était la responsabilité du gouvernement dominicain d’alors ? Du coup d’état du 17 octobre 1806 contre Jn Jacques Dessalines jusqu'à celui du 29 février 2004 contre Jn Bertrand Aristide les autorités dominicaines ont toujours joue leur rôle de complice. Non à la Violence ! Non au Coup d’Etat ! Oui a la paix ! Oui a La démocratie ! Non à la vengeance, oui à la Justice ! « Que les armes se taisent, que les âmes se parlent »
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Remembering Bush Regime Change in Haiti, remembering slaughter, occupationand making Haiti worse for the masses than before regime change and foreign occupation | Go to: HLLN's LIST OF VICTIMS, MASSACRES, COUP D'ETAT ABUSES

 

Le Monde du Sud /Elsie HAAS - Five years on: Haiti's suffering continues
under occupation

http://elsie-news.over-blog.com/article-28373586.html

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Haiti, the Financial Crisis, and International Solidarity by Niraj Joshi,
Global Research, February 25, 2009

What will be the impact of the global economic crisis, this financial meltdown in the world's richest economies, on that of the world's most impoverished? Consider the case of Haiti, where the sheer magnitude of the economic disaster, already long under way, is difficult to conceive in most countries.

Recent World Bank data warns that the world's peoples already living on the edge will be pushed into greater misery, even as their absolute numbers swell. Now situate that catastrophe in a nation that is at the same time militarily, economically and administratively occupied, and you have the tragic reality of Haiti today.

As Peter Hallward has written in Haiti, Aristide and the Politics of Containment, Haiti is a country where a tiny transnational clique of wealthy and well-connected families maintains a grip on industrial production, international trade, and political and social life. Meanwhile, 80% of their fellow citizens live in poverty, with 75% surviving on less than $2/day; 70% are unemployed; life expectancy is 52 years; infant mortality is 62 per 1,000 live births; there is a raging health crisis with grave HIV/AIDS infection rates, and the list goes on.

Occupation and plunder

Haiti's first democratically elected president, Jean Bertrand Aristide, stated that "Haiti's exceptional poverty is the result of an exceptional history — one that extracted an equally exceptional wealth. That history still remains both the starting and ending point of Haiti's present reality — two centuries of imperial intervention and colonial plunder. The most recent manifestation was the violent U.S., Canadian, and French-inspired coup d'état in February 2004 which left thousands killed, displaced, imprisoned and exiled, and the imposition of a disastrous regime of human rights abuses that lasted two years under direct United Nations sanction. The 2004 coup was yet another crushing blow to Haiti's remarkable democratic movement of the poor majority — and has set the country back decades, economically, socially and politically.

Although Haiti currently has an elected government under President René Préval, the U.S., Canada and France play a major role in financing its ministries, while the majority of "aid" funds are diverted to a plethora of Non-Governmental Organizations (an estimated 4,000 operate in Haiti). For example, the agricultural department in Haiti shares control of its budget with some 800 different NGOs.

These same wealthy nations and the international financial institutions also direct Haiti's domestic policy through the 10,000-member, UN-sponsored foreign military, police and political contingent known as MINUSTAH.

The coup and the current occupation have been a continuation (even a culmination) of years of American/World Bank/IMF economic policy impositions that turned Haiti into one of the lowest-wage (lowest in the hemisphere), export-friendly and regulation-free economies in the world, and offering profitable business and resource extraction opportunities for foreign investors. It's a strategy that Peter Hallward says has taken Haiti from "impoverished self-sufficiency towards outright destitution and dependency."

Impact of economic crisis

Under these conditions (and neoliberal IMF conditionalities), a world economic crisis that results in even a few points uptick in inflation or a couple of points drop in GDP would not just impact on the basic needs of poor Haitians but would compromise their very physical survival.

At the same time the elected government is not allowed to implement its own development or economic recovery plans. Shockingly little has been done from 2004 to the present by the foreign powers and international financial institutions to assist Haiti's recovery and development. Haiti's infrastructure remains crippled and no significant money by the big powers has been put into building roads, markets, health care or any other infrastructure for the people. Only Venezuela, Cuba, and a handful of well-intentioned charities or development agencies have provided meaningful assistance.

The totality of the Haitian government budget comes from outside. The Haitian state has little capacity for generating revenue; all the less so during an intensified international crisis. Even part of the Central Bank is being sold in a recapitalization operation. Tax laws have been revised, but only to spur private sector development. Meanwhile, the parliament is only minimally functional because of foreign constraints and confusing elections. Last year for example, only five major laws were passed.

Of course, the foreign occupiers have not been completely remiss and are making some preparation for the expected fallout from a worsening economic crisis. One such contingency plan has the US funding a military base for MINUSTAH in Cité Soleil as part of its development aid to Haiti. Cité Soleil is the largest slum in Haiti's capital city and has been a hotbed of resistance to the occupation.

A highlight of the recent visit of Canadian Governor-General Michaëlle Jean to Haiti was her ceremonial opening of a new police station and jail, built with Canadian "aid" funds.


Repression and killings

Military domination in dealing with social unrest has been a consistent strategy by the foreign occupation over the past five years. For example, the soaring global food prices that crippled many poor countries last spring also devastated Haitians. Some of the poorest survived by eating cakes of toxic clay baked under the Haitian sun. Starvation appeared in pockets of the countryside. More than half of the island's food is imported, a direct consequence of neoliberal reforms begun in the 1980s, so the surge in global prices hit especially hard.

The fallout was angry protests throughout the country directed both at the unresponsive government and the military occupation. These protests were then violently dispersed and suppressed by police and UN forces. At least five starving Haitians were killed, scores more were injured, and the Prime Minister was dismissed, causing a further paralyzing of Parliament for months following.

The food crisis was followed by terrible tropical storms in the late summer. Once again, the occupying powers put nothing in place to mitigate the effects of the expected disaster which killed 1,000 people, displaced several thousands more, flooded almost all agricultural land and destroyed almost the entire season's harvest. The World Bank put the aggregated damage and loss to agriculture and infrastructure at $900 million, equivalent to 8% of Haiti's GDP and representing the largest disaster in Haiti for more than 100 years. Once again, the scale of the tragedy was hardly natural.

Unnatural catastrophe

The Haitian government complained that it became impossible to coordinate the relief work among the many different and disparate international aid agencies. Further, 90% of the promised $100 million in emergency aid never arrived, while some $197 million which the government tried to release from the Central Bank was not disbursed because it had been placed in U.S. financial markets without consultation with the Haitian Parliament!

So as Haiti celebrated its 205th anniversary of Independence on January 1, President Préval's bleak message to his occupied nation was to "avoid rosy expectations" for 2009. The suggestion was that following on the sorrows of 2008 will be even more hunger and more pain. Under a growing global recession, there will be a significant slowdown in remittances. As working-class Haitians in the U.S. and Canada endure more layoffs and cut backs, they will have less disposable income to send to relatives back home.

Remittances are the most important economic factor in Haiti today. Many Haitian households are being sustained by these transfers from the diaspora, estimated at $1.65 billion a year. The sum is twice the national budget and accounts for 15% of the nation's GDP — dwarfing the sum total of all the foreign aid from all sources (promised, delivered or otherwise). Some surveys are already showing a 25% slowdown at this early stage.

In addition, the Haitian economy is almost entirely dependent on the American economy, most notably as a market for its exports. A downturn is expected in Haitian exports alongside Haiti's subcontracting sector. This, in combination with the reduction in remittances, will mean that Haiti is unlikely to achieve even the modest growth rates of 1.5% conservatively hoped for. That will be the immediate effect.

A more long-term worry is that as the government continues to be pressured into implementing neo-liberal options imposed by the international financial institutions, there will be an ongoing crisis in national sovereignty, a continuation of the disintegration of the national economy and continued collapse of the crucial peasant economy — the very conditions that over the decades of foreign domination (including over the past five years) have brought the country to ruin.

Despair and hope

All this is discouraging. There is a lot of despair in Haiti. Yet, there is also hope. Weakening of multinationals and restricted capital and credit may create new space for local Haitian industries to emerge. The UN is experiencing a budget shortfall and MINUSTAH is costing more than a million dollars a day. Some of the biggest protests against MINUSTAH outside of Haiti have been in Brazil, which plays the leading role in the occupation force. The pressures of the economic crisis may make it more difficult for countries like Brazil to maintain their participation, which has already cost them over $300 million, while 40 million of its own citizens are living in poverty. Some say the first U.S. occupation of Haiti in 1915 was ended in 1934 by President Franklin D Roosevelt, in large part due to the constraints the great depression imposed on the U.S. economy.

More importantly, however, these shifts may also mean a change in Haiti's connection to, and dependence on, the U.S. and opportunities to create alternative, sovereign projects. For example, right now the financial sector accumulates tens of billions of gourdes (Haitian currency) and invests absolutely nothing in the real economy. The commercial banks extend less than 1% of their credit to the countryside, where the majority of Haitians live and work. Instead, credit is being concentrated in the metropolitan area of the capital, Port au Prince and wasted on speculation, exchange and consumption. The fiasco of the $197 million dollars marked for hurricane relief from the Central Bank has given more leverage for calls that Haiti's parliament be able to closely monitor how national reserves are managed. This could then mean that capital can be brought back to Haiti so that it can be invested in the national economy.

Then there is always hope among the Haitian poor majority. Although Haiti's democratic movement is in a state of disarray after two coups d'états in a space of 13 years, the core of that movement remains defiant and combative.

Huge anti-imperialist demonstrations consistently fill the streets of the cities and the unfolding economic calamity may once again serve to unite the divided social movements into the formidable force it once was.

International support and solidarity

And of course there are the new international progressive, anti-imperial and pro-socialist forces of Latin America (like Venezuela and Bolivia) offering new sources of political and economic support for the beleaguered national democratic forces in Haiti. South America is heralding a new era of genuine globalization, that is, of regional and international integration in the interests of people, not investors or private sector ownership. For example, Haiti recently concluded an agreement to obtain cheaper financing from Venezuela under the Petro Caraïbe agreement for its petroleum usage. Venezuela and Cuba are also jointly funding a billion dollar program to develop energy, health and other infrastructure in Haiti.

Finally, there has to be an expanding role for international solidarity struggles with Haiti, particularly in the powerful western nations. Haiti needs to control its own destiny and rebuild its sovereignty and control its territory. The people of Haiti have expressed that they want democratic control over their financial and economic institutions so that they themselves can make the best decision to deal with national crises — and begin dismantling the programs and structures of years of colonialism and neoliberalism (as every major demonstration over the past five years has demanded). That then has to become part of the demands on our government as well — an end to neoliberalism in Haiti and the associated presence of MINUSTAH.

Until now, every elected leader in Haiti has had to contend with how U.S. foreign policy and that of U.S. allies affects the country and to balance that against the needs of the Haitian majority. This has been the consistent and tragic conflict facing Haitian democracy. True solidarity with Haiti comes with the understanding that democracy in Haiti will be best advanced by the democratization of the foreign policies of the western nations, and the ultimate responsibility of that lies with us.

Niraj Joshi is a coordinator of the Canada Haiti Action Network and its affiliate in Toronto, the Toronto Haiti Action Committee

 

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Jean-Bertrand Aristide remains potent force in Haiti BY JACQUELINE CHARLES, Miami Herald, Mar. 1, 2009


Five years after he fled into exile amid a bloody revolt, former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is continuing to cast a long shadow over Haiti's political landscape.

His reemergence as a central figure in Haiti's political future comes as the once all-powerful Fanmi Lavalas political party seems to be imploding amid an internal power struggle over which competing faction has the right to lead in Aristide's absence.

The internal dispute boiled over into Haiti's larger political debate last month when Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council -- presented with two competing slates of Lavalas candidates for the upcoming April 19 parliamentary elections -- disqualified all 16 office-seekers from across the country who had registered for the 12 senate seats under the Lavalas banner.

The electoral council's explanation for the disqualifications: According to Lavalas bylaws, the party's national representative -- Aristide -- must sanction candidates.

Others, including some Lavalas leaders, disagree. They say the council's ruling is a pretext to keep the party, which boycotted the 2006 presidential and legislative elections, from getting a foothold in President René Préval's government.

The matter has confused and confounded even loyal Lavalas supporters, who have publicly criticized each other.

CENTER STAGE
The election exclusion has placed Aristide at the crux of the debate, and stirred concerns within the international community that banning Haiti's most popular and biggest political party from the vote could lead to contested elections and provoke a repeat of the political crisis that led to the 2004 rebellion and Aristide's ultimate departure to South Africa.

''Throughout Haiti's history, Haiti has had leaders who have either fled or been placed in exile. It seems to me that Aristide's shelf life is surprising everybody, compared to what has happened with other leaders,'' said Robert Maguire, U.S. Institute of Peace Jennings Randolph senior fellow and director of the Haiti Study Program at Trinity University.

''In part it's because under René Préval, you've had improvements in security and kind of less-overt political conflicts. But you haven't had improvements in people's personal and economic well-being,'' Maguire said. ``For some in Haiti, Aristide apparently still holds promise.''

On Saturday, several thousand Aristide supporters blanketed the streets of Port-au-Prince to commemorate the five-year anniversary of his ouster.
As they chanted and waved signs demanding his return from exile in Pretoria, South Africa, 7,393 miles away, they also for the first time added a new request: the inclusion of Fanmi Lavalas in the April elections to fill 12 seats in the 30-member Senate.

GLOBAL ATTENTION
The credibility of the elections is of such importance that it is expected to top the agenda of several planned high-profile visits to Haiti in the coming weeks. Among those expected to visit: former President Bill Clinton, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and members of the U.N. Security Council.

The fear, say Haiti observers, is that contested elections or those that erupt into violence could negatively affect storm-battered Haiti's efforts to maintain strong and increasing international support for reconstruction, development and governance.

''That is why it's important for this issue to be resolved in a way that most people in Haiti and most observers are comfortable there is going to be an inclusive election,'' said Mark Schneider of the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit that analyzes conflict in Haiti and elsewhere around the world.
And as the international community pushes for the inclusion of Lavalas, in Haiti, the talk turns to Aristide.

Some have seized on the exclusion explanation offered by the electoral council, known by the French acronym CEP, to demand Aristide's return -- so that he can formally sanction those seeking office under the Lavalas banner.

''It's clear there is more discussion now about Aristide because of the CEP's need to require Aristide to take some action to validate one or another set of candidates,'' said Schneider. ``Were the CEP to recognize the [Fanmi Lavalas] candidates it registered in December, or some other slate, immediately the issue of Aristide would diminish.''

So far, few here know what to make of the squabbling, including whether the elections, which is expected to cost $16 million, will be postponed. Some are hoping that the electoral council, which has yet to order the ballots or come up with a final budget, will reverse itself and allow Lavalas to participate.

But then the question becomes: Which Lavalas?

The party today is being led by at least two factions: One is led by Lavalas Senator Rudy Hériveaux and Aristide spokeswoman Dr. Maryse Narcisse of the Fanmi Lavalas Executive Committee. The other involves a 27-member coalition whose most high-profile supporter is former Aristide Prime Minister Yvon Neptune.

Narcisse, who is reportedly in South Africa meeting with Aristide, has insisted that she has the right to nominate the 12 candidates she registered on behalf of Lavalas.

She also points out she was the first to register her slate and the registration was recognized by the CEP in December. Neptune disagrees, and his group turned in its own list of candidates weeks later. A third faction, led by several Lavalas senators, also handed in a list of candidates.

''This is a very tricky situation,'' Neptune told The Miami Herald.
``On the one hand, the electoral council, and I would even say the government, hasn't been doing what they are supposed to do to accommodate Fanmi Lavalas. At the same time, Fanmi Lavalas has a lot of problems on its own.''

In a wide-ranging interview at his home overlooking the hills of Port-au-Prince, Neptune downplayed his role in the faction, saying he's there as a founding member to help reorganize the splintered party; dismissed the executive committee Aristide reportedly left in charge of Fanmi Lavalas as ''illegal;'' and questioned the motives of Narcisse and others.

But Neptune's critics question his motives and loyalty, viewing him as a traitor to Aristide who helped Canada, France and the U.S. governments put in place an interim government in the wake of Aristide's Feb. 29, 2004, departure.

''I did not stay in office to please anybody or to be utilized by anybody,'' he said, dismissing claims that he was pressured to do the international community's bidding. ``I did what I believed was the proper thing to do so that indiscriminate killings would not happen because that was in the planning. Indiscriminate killings. Indiscriminate burnings.''

*

Questions to Ezili Dantò on Lavalas Split
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/feb_09.html#split

Third Lavalas faction - are they Fanmi Lavalas?

http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/feb_09.html#thirdfaction

HLLN SAMPLE LETTER Asking President Obama to Assist Haiti's Recovery Efforts by Granting Haitian Nationals TPS

Thousands march in Haiti demanding return of Aristide, HaitiAction.net, March 2, 2009

Wyclef Speaks Up For Haitians Facing Deportation, CaribWorldNews, Mar. 2, 2009

US Discriminatory Immigration Policies Toward Haitians, by Stephen Lendman, Saturday, 28 February 2009 | Atlantic Free Press

HLLN's Letter to Esther Olavarria about a stop of all deportations to Haiti,
Feb. 23, 2009

- An overloaded freighter carrying more than 200 Haitians -- 27 of them
children -- was interdicted by the U.S. Coast Guard
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER | cmarbin@MiamiHerald.com

- Haiti Policy Statement for the Obama Team

- Haitian Repatriation Hits High

HLLN on the report that 30,000 Haitians have been ordered deported by US Federal immigration judges

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The Haitian Coup: An Unresolved Injustice After Five Years by Bill Fletcher, Jr | NNPA Columnist | Originally posted 2/25/2009

On the morning of 29 February 2004 I was asleep in Oakland, Calif., having gone to that city to deliver a speech. My cell phone went off around 6am and a voice announced herself as a journalist from a major media outlet. She asked me, in my then capacity as President of TransAfrica Forum, whether I could confirm that Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide had stepped down from office. Needless to say I was stunned and, having no new information, could neither confirm nor deny the rumor.

It turned out that Aristide had not exactly stepped down; he had been removed in a coup, a coup in which the then Bush administration was complicit.

At the time of the coup, the mainstream media accepted the line from the Bush administration that President Aristide had voluntarily chosen to go into exile in the face of an insurrection.

As the days and weeks went on, and through the work of Congresswoman Maxine Waters, TransAfrica Forum founder Randall Robinson, and Democracy Now producer and host Amy Goodman, a very different story was revealed. Rather than Aristide having voluntarily left Haiti, he had been forced to leave, first going into the hell of the Central African Republic, and then returning, briefly, to the Caribbean (where he stayed in Jamaica), and finally residing in South Africa in de facto exile. In either case, the Bush administration was vehement that Aristide would not be permitted back in Haiti.

The coup, though successful in removing democratically elected President Aristide, was unsuccessful in stabilizing the situation in Haiti or improving the living standard of the Haitian people. Despite the best efforts of the Bush administration to ensure that a puppet remained in control of the country, the Haitian people--when they had a chance to vote--elected Rene Preval, a former president and ally of President Aristide, to the office of the Presidency.

While the overt puppets were now removed, the US continued to keep its hands in Haiti largely through the occupation of the country by a United Nations force, a force that was initially greeted as liberators turning back the mercenaries who overthrew the Aristide presidency.

U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee has reintroduced House Bill 331, a bill ''To Establish the Independent Commission on the 2004 Coup d'Etat in the Republic of Haiti.''

This is an important piece of legislation that should be supported by progressive and all fair-minded people and should be pushed to the Obama administration to sign into law. In essence this act provides for an investigation into what actually transpired in the period around the February 2004 coup. It seeks to ascertain, among other things, the role of the US government in supporting the coup.

There have been many discussions regarding holding the Bush administration's personnel accountable for crimes that took place during those very rough eight years. Most of the time attention focuses on issues of Iraq, torture, Guantanamo, Afghanistan, and domestic civil liberties. As important as are those areas it is too easy to forget Haiti. In fact there is a long history in the USA of forgetting Haiti, irrespective of whatever crimes the USA commits there.

Now we have a chance to set things right.

*
Bill Fletcher, Jr. is a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies and the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum.

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HLLN's Letter to Esther Olavarria about a stop of all deportations to Haiti

-----Original Message-----
From: zili danto <erzilidanto@yahoo.com>
To: eolavarria@americanprogress.org
Sent: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 2:17 pm
Subject: HLLN's Letter to Esther Olavarria about a stop of all deportations to
Haiti

Ms. Esther Olavarria
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy
Department of Homeland Security
2001 Independence Ave, SW
Washington, DC 20528

February 23, 2009

Dear Deputy Assistant Secretary Esther Olavarria, The Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network, a Haitian-led, Haitian capacity building organization, dedicated to protecting the civil, human, economic and cultural rights of Haitians living at home and broad, takes this moment to congratulate you, on being appointed, by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, to be the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy to shape the Obama Administration’s immigration policy.

Ms. Olavarria, as co-founder of the Florida Immigration Advocacy Center and a lawyer who started her career, over 20-years ago, at the Haitian Refugee Center in Miami at the height of the struggle for Haitian refugee rights, we know we do not need to underscore for you, in any great detail, the unfair treatment of Haitian refugees and asylum seekers in the US and the current Haitian desire for a stop to all deportations to Haiti, for work permits to be granted to Haitian nationals and to have all Haitians released from the detention camps and the suspension of all legal and administrative proceedings. Justice demands that the US begins to treat Haitians as human beings deserving of equal protection under the laws and take into consideration the humanitarian crisis in Haiti and that the flow of Haitian remittances from the US to family and children in Haiti is providing critical life-sustaining support in these times where Haiti is pummeled by a global economic crisis, hurricane devastation, food shortages and famine.

You are well known and duly recognized, Ms. Olavarria, as a champion for immigrant rights and for your lifelong devotion and career spent representing the legal rights of immigrants and pursuing fair and equitable application of the US immigration laws as to all immigrants, without distinction. You are aware, Ms. Olavarria, of our plight as Haitians and the continuous unfair treatment, vis a vis others, similarly situated, who Haitians have watched be granted political asylum or TPS, while our people are continuously subject to incarceration, detention, deportations and interdictions at sea and repatriations without a fair hearing on credible claims for political asylum.

Now, is the time for this paradigm to change. And you Ms. Olavarria, are in a unique position to explain to the Obama Administration that fair and decisive action is urgently needed on this Haiti deportation matter. We ask that you help the Administration to do the right thing and assure more equal application of the immigration laws towards Haitians and, most immediately, that President Obama's administration upholds humanitarian values and protect lives in Haiti by stopping all deportations to hurricane-ravaged, famine-stricken Haiti.At HLLN we are dismayed that in the same week that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made it clear that immigration enforcement is among her top priorities that we saw a report where "fugitive operations teams" may be launched to go after 30,000 Haitians ordered deported who have not complied.

We are not advocating for a disregard of the immigration laws, but Haitians feel singled out here and this is especially frightful at a time when we are asking that the Obama administration, breaks from the past and designate the country of Haiti for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for a period of 18 months with specifications to stop all deportations to Haiti.

In 2008, hurricanes and storms devastated Haiti, and presidential candidate Barack Obama stated: “I also urge the United States to work in partnership with President Rene Preval and the new Haitian government … to immediately assemble a task force on reconstruction and recovery to begin work as soon as the storms pass…Together, we can help Haiti recover from this terrible series of storms and renew efforts to brin g hope and opportunity to the people of Haiti.”

Today, deportations to storm-ravage Haiti continue. When the US deports an income earner to storm-ravaged Haiti, this decreases remittances and further impoverishes family members. Diaspora remittances are the most effective and direct aid to the Haitian poor in Haiti.

In 2002 TPS was renewed for Nicaraguan and Honduran immigrants because of continuing difficulties caused by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. At this point, Haiti is in much worse shape than Central Americans were at the time. Haitians in the United States should receive equal treatment and protection. Haiti qualifies for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and should be granted this disaster relief.

Four tropical storms and hurricanes battered Haiti during last year's harvest season, killing almost 1,000 people nationwide, decimating Haiti's agriculture and causing $1 billion in damage to irrigation, bridges and roads. Mudslides still cover entire towns. Houses are flooded. Schools have collapsed on children and people are starving. It's inhumane to deport Haitian back to Haiti under these devastating conditions, where they will find no home, no employment, no food, no personal safety and security.

TPS was established to provide protection to people who are temporarily unable to return to their homelands. Please, Ms. Olavarria, help the people in Haiti by permitting their friends and relatives in the United States to remain here and to continue to send support to a nation in severe crisis. Please affirm the United States tradition of caring for and protecting persons in vulnerable situations by granting TPS and/or stopping all deportations through Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) or any equivalent administrative or executive ruling, with a specification to stop ALL deportations and provide work permits to Haitian nationals.

Sincerely,
Marguerite Laurent, Esq.
President, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN)
Phone: (203) 829-7210
USA
e-mail: ezilidanto@yahoo.com
www.ezilidanto.com

********************

HLLN on the report that 30,000 Haitians have been ordered deported by US Federal immigration judges



There are approximately 560,000 ordered deportees in the US, why are only the 30,000 from Haiti being SELECTED for enforcement priority and/or highlighted in the media by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE")? (See, US set to deport more than 30,000 Haitians AP, Feb. 17, 2009 and ICE Fugitive Operations Program, Nov. 19, 2008).

Haitians pose no threat and are mostly providing for their families both in the US and in Haiti.

According to ICE's National Fugitive Operations Program, the enforcement policy is to make those criminal deportees who pose a national security threat an enforcement priority. Are Haitians being singled out, being persecuted for reasons of race and nationality, especially as they pose no threat and are mostly providing for their families both in the US and in Haiti?

"According to a study released (Feb. 4, 2009) by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, 73 percent of almost 97,000 people arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) fugitive operations teams between 2003 and early 2008 were illegal immigrants without criminal records. MPI's report, "Collateral Damage: An Examination of ICE's Fugitive Operations Program," says the National Fugitive Operations Program, a federal program established in 2003 to apprehend fugitive aliens who pose a threat to the community, has only "succeeded in apprehending the easiest targets, not the most dangerous fugitives. The ICE program obtained big funding increases from Congress -- more so than any other program ICE runs -- after immigration officials told lawmakers they would concentrate on rounding up the most dangerous criminals and terrorism suspects. Over the past five years, program funding has totaled to more than $625 million. But the MPI report shows that the agency abandoned its stated mission to go after dangerous fugitives and instead targeted noncriminal undocumented workers -- the "low-hanging fruit." (See, Immigration raids target noncriminals; Most Immigrants In Detention Did Not Have Criminal Record, Reports AP.)

Evelyn, a Haitian immigrant, wears a permanent tracking device while she awaits a decision from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on whether she will be deported back to Haiti or allowed to stay with her 5-year-old daughter, who was born in the U.S. (SANDRA C. ROA/NYT INSTITUTE) - See For Haitian Immigrants, Hurricanes Complicate Deportation Cases NYT, Jan. 9, 2009 ********************
- ***********************

The question remains why are these figures for Haitians deportees in the US, coming out when Haitian human rights' forces are pushing for the Obama Administration to STOP to all deportations to Haiti and have gotten info that's it's imminent? (See, Editorials urging the President to Grant TPS to Haitians and HLLN links advocating Haitian asylum seekers Haitians deserve equal treatment.)

It seems like the sort of orchestrated fear that drove US policy decisions of the eight years of the last Bush Administration. If that's not the case, what do our detractors want to do with the selected media release of these figures of Haitian deportees? For, if, over the years, perhaps a span of 20-years, 30,000 Haitians have been ordered deported by U.S. immigration judges, and that number is accurate, reflecting those who have not, in the interim, adjusted their status, passed away or otherwise returned to Haiti, why does Obama's Homeland Security feel it must make it a priority to hunt down, apprehend, incarcerate and deport Haitian asylum seekers now, to storm ravaged, famine-stricken Haiti in contravention to international and US national refugee laws for providing safe haven, right to life, security of person, equality under the law and to seek and receive asylum?

To further contextualize this treatment of the Haitian deportee question, one would need answers to questions such as: How many others, from different nationalities, have been ordered deported and why aren't their figures being revealed by the media now? How many illegals from Eastern European countries, European countries, Latin American countries, Asian countries, et al, have been similarly ordered, by U.S. Federal immigration judges, to be deported - 300,000, 200,000, 10,000? How many in comparison to the numbers for Haiti?

According to ICE's own figures, at the end of FY 2008, there were approximately 560,000 fugitive alien cases. That means the 30,000 Haitian deportees are a very small part, about 5% of this overall 560,000 number of the total ordered deported - fugitive alien cases. So, why are only the Haitian figures being segregated and trumpeted by the media?

We know that Haitians are disparagingly treated in relations to other nationalities, like the Cubans who are automatically given political asylum and never deported, or like the 260,000 Salvadorans, 82,000 Hondurans, and 5000 that Washington granted disaster relief (TPS) and just renewed their protected status again in 2008. Or, even Jamaicans, are not deported who have been ordered to be deported because Jamaica's been given a moratorium.

Jamaica has the highest gang and murder rate in the Caribbean. The Dominican Republic (DR) is one of the most militarized Caribbean nations, with great income disparities and gross human rights abuse. 90% of the DR's agricultural worker are Haitians, with up to one million stateless, with no rights even if born in the DR and the majority held in slave-like plantation conditions. Yet, because foreigners and the super wealthy ruling Eurocentric Oligarchs of these countries legally own most of the wealth, the corporate media and Internationals, play down the poverty and inequities in these Caribbean nations and give them a very good image for tourism and as places for stable "economic development" investments. (See: Comparing crime, poverty and violence in the rest of the Hemisphere to Haiti).

There are four times more homicides per capital, more violent crimes, murders and human rights abuses in the Dominican Republic than in Haiti. But, it is the Dominican half of the Island of Haiti that tourists flock to because the US does not keep a perpetual travel warning against going to the Dominican Republic. Haiti is no-one's "client state" per se and is no traditional colonial preserve, either as a US territory or with a Queen or King in Europe to bow to. Despite the poverty and misery in Haiti, unlike most of the Caribbean and Latin America, the rural Haitian peasants and population own their lands in general and are not relegated to be maids, butlers or subjugated gofers in their own countries and for Eurocentric or foreign-owned tourist havens due to neocolonialism/Western imported Bourgeoisie Freedom/democracy - where genocide, exploitation and tyranny co-exists with immense freedoms, individual rights and liberties (See, "Does the Western economic model and calculation of economic wealth fit Haiti, fit Dessalines' idea of wealth distribution?No" and Haiti's Riches). Beginning with the endless Independence Debt (1825 to 1947) it had to pay, Haiti has traditionally been fleeced, plundered, discriminated against by the US/Euros and kept contained-in-poverty precisely because of its independence. (See, Rich countries use trade deals to seize food from the world's hungriest people).

What will be resolved by returning 30,000 Haitians to flood-ravaged, famine-stricken Haiti? What will it say about the Obama administration if Obama's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) insist on enforcing these 30,000 orders in terms of Haitian nationals, especially if there are greater numbers of other nationalities, similarly ordered deported, who don't have strife or storm ravages in their countries but who are NOT being singled out for enforcement of deportation orders by Obama's Department of Homeland Security. Wouldn't such inhumane actions on the part of Obama's administration be but a continuation and an enabling of the sort of 2004 unnatural interference of the Bush administration and US's proxy MINUSTAH /UN troops that virtually wiped out the civil defense infrastructure of Haiti through supporting the Apaid/GuyPhilipe/Stanley Lucas 2004 coup d'etat?

With Haiti's civil defense infrastructure virtually wiped out by the last Bush Administration's regime change in Haiti, how could Obama stand on change, if his administration deports these 30,000 Haitians back to a place with no civil defense infrastructure partly due to US regime change interference?

The Obama administration has said it wants to assist in Haiti's development, stability, reconstruction and recovery from the natural disasters of September 2008, and we know that the Haitian Diaspora's $2 billion in annual remittances is the most effective and direct financial assistance to the poor in Haiti.

If President Obama is committed to Haiti's recovery and reconstruction, as he indicated, after the four hurricanes of 2008, the Obama administration will grant a stop to all deportations to Haiti. Just like Cuba, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador, Haiti has special circumstances and its nationals need to be treated accordingly. When the US deports an income earner to storm-ravaged Haiti, this decreases remittances and further impoverishes family members. Diaspora remittances are the most effective and direct aid to the Haitian poor in Haiti. The Obama administration should not continue the racist and discriminatory immigration policies of the Bush administration. If this report that 30,000 Haitians have been ordered deported has been cast out to the media to set the stage for inducing public fear of more Black Haitians "littering" Florida's shores, to make it easier to summarily deny TPS and work permits or deferred enforced departure to Haitian nationals, as the case may require, we expect the Obama team to exercise more respect for the law, more civility and courage than the last U.S. Administrations. If it's been cast out to drum fear and it's a prelude to qualifying the granting of a stop to deportation so that there is a stop to deportations but no protected status is accorded to Haitians and they are allowed to remain here through the use of (the more-economically-beneficial-to-DHS's-refugee-operation-programs) electronic surveillance monitoring of Haitian deportees, we hope that the Obama Administration does not put such repugnant profit above the law but stops all deportations and grants work permits to these 30,000 deportees who are eligible, just as the US has done for other nationalities, similarly situated. (See, Most Immigrants In Detention Did Not Have Criminal Record, Reports AP, outlining how the system is unfair, inhumane, denies due process, and its goal appears to be to make money per head, through having asylum seekers, suspected illegals, all deportees - everybody - in some kind of custodial program; Immigration raids target noncriminals.)

We urge the Obama administration to do the right thing and grant relief to the Haitians in the same manner the US has provided appropriate assistance to the Hondurans, Nicaraguans and El Salvadorans who got TPS after hurricanes and earthquakes in their countries. At this point, Haiti is in much worse shape than Central Americans were at the time they were granted TPS. The damage in Haiti is worst than three times the damage left after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Haitians in the United States should receive equal treatment and protection.

In 1997 President Clinton granted Haitian nationals deferred enforced departure from the United States. This did not induce mass migration of Haitians to the United States. Between December 19, 2008 and Dec. 9, 2008, DHS stopped deportations to Haiti, this did not cause mass migration of Haitians to the United States. The US has an interdiction process on the seas around Haiti that it put in place to stop fleeing Haitian refugees during the second Bush 2004 Coup D'etat. This interdiction procedure has worked for the US. Moreover, the concern that granting equal protection to Haitians as has been done for Central Americans and others, would cause mass migration of Haitians to the US, is selective and based on fear. US policymakers did not allow such a concern to prevail when President Bush just renewed TPS for the Central Americans in 2008.

Releasing the figures for Haitians ordered deported appears fear orchestrated and "fear" projected by design. President Obama has said that fear should not be the engine that drives U.S. policy. The best way to address Haitians leaving Haiti for the US is for the US to follow policies that help lessen, not add to Haiti’s misery. Haitians sending money to Haiti helps Haiti. US could further help with authentic aid, reciprocal trade, investment in agricultural production in Haiti and, by not sending back income earners whose $2billion in yearly remittances to Haiti is the most direct aid Haiti receives. (See also, Haitians unable to send money home, March 10, 2009). Moreover, hunting down, separating and sending back mothers, fathers with US born children and families to a country that is unable to receive them, not only is inhumane and unequal protection, it does not even meet ICE National Fugitive Operations Program's own policy enforcement priorities and procedures.

US laws qualify Haiti for disaster relief and humanitarian assistance in the form of a grant of TPS with a specification to stop ALL deportations and provide work permits to Haitian nationals. We ask all those who stand for equal treatment under the laws and who stand in solidarity with the people of Haiti to write, fax, call and e-mail the White House (202-456-1111, 202-456-1111), and the Obama Team (Janet Napolitano, head of Department of Homeland Security at 202-282-8495), to request a stop to all deportations to Haiti and a grant of work permits. (See, HLLN SAMPLE LETTER Asking President Obama to Assist Haiti's Recovery Efforts by Granting Haitian Nationals TPS)

Marguerite "Ezili Dantò" Laurent, Esq.
President, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network ("HLLN")
March, 2009
******

HLLN's Background Note (Feb. 19, 2009): On the report that 30,000 Haitians have been ordered deported by US Federal immigration judges and the anti-democratic exclusion in Haiti of Haiti's biggest political party from participating in the upcoming Senate elections.

These turns of events have come to a conjuncture - A report making national news that over 30,000 Haitians have been ordered deported by Federal US immigration judges in the same week that Haiti's biggest political party - Fanmi Lavalas- is EXCLUDED from participating in the democratic elections in Haiti, a UN occupied and US-supported Haitian government in Haiti where democracy and democratic participation is supposed to have been installed. Fanmi Lavalas, Haiti's biggest political party is excluded from the upcoming April 19th elections because, says Haiti's Electoral Council ( CEP), President Aristide, who was forceably oustered and is living in exile in South Africa, FAILED to submit papers authorizing the party's list of Senate candidates. (See,
Jean-Bertrand Aristide remains potent force in Haiti BY JACQUELINE CHARLES, Miami Herald, Mar. 1, 2009; and Questions to Ezili Dantò on Lavalas Split ; Third Lavalas faction - are they Fanmi Lavalas? ; and, Thousands march in Haiti demanding return of Aristide).

The report that 30,000 Haitians are subject to immediate deportation comes at a time when Haitian activist are pushing the Obama Team to stop all deportations to storm ravaged and famine stricken Haiti. An Obama administration that came on a change platform, supported by Haitian Americans and who delivered their vote to Obama, especially to push him over in Florida. But, Obama's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office says its just enforcing these judge's rulings and that its not the ones who ordered the 30,000 Haitians deported. That that was done before it came into office and by US Federal Judges. But, ICE says it is having trouble with these deportations - ie. with doing its job - because the HAITIAN government (whose budget is financed over 70% by the US) won't issue travel papers! How is this credible when ICE actually charters its own airplane to deport Mexican nationals? Will Haitians somehow stop the US, which pretty much controls the Haitian airport, from landing in Haiti? How will that take place? Our credulity is stretched and questions abound.

The fact that 30,000 Haitians have been ordered deported is being revealed right now and not before, perhaps sets up an obvious out for the Obama Administration to stop all deportations and create some US jobs at the same time to assist with the economic crisis, without having to bother about giving work permits and TPS or DED legal status to Haitian nationals. There's currently 243 Haitians under ICE supervision and monitored electronically who are allowed to leave their homes. So, perhaps we can soon expect 30,000 such ICE supervisions and electronical supervisions? Non? A good source of new income for ICE/Homeland Security and its security subcontractors, no? Nice set up for new jobs and ways of spending money in the name of "helping Haitians" while in practice keeping Haitians without status, in electronic chains and discriminated in ways not done to others who have TPS and work permits - like the Hondurans, Salvadorans or Nicaraguans.


"After Congress established TPS in 1990, Washington granted 260,000 Salvadorans, 82,000 Hondurans, and 5000 Nicaraguans protection, then extended it on October 1, 2008. Besides El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras, past recipients included Kuwait, Lebanon, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Guinea-Bissau, Rwanda, Burundi, Liberia, Montserrat, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, and Angola. Six nations still have TPS, but all face expiration in 2009 unless extended. Haiti is not among them.

More than 30,000 Haitians have been ordered to leave, with about 600 of those in detention as of Feb. 9, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement..." (See,
Wyclef Speaks Up For Haitians Facing Deportation, CaribWorldNews, Mar. 2, 2009).

Meanwhile in Haiti, the biggest Haitian political party is summarily excluded because, or so the CEP says, President Aristide, who is living in exile in South Africa, FAILED to submit papers authorizing the party's list of Senate candidates.

Can this possibly be also a means for opening up the debate that Aristide did not choose exile, but was forced out by Bush Regime change? How does this dovetail with the current legislation, sponsored by Congresswoman Barbara Lee, to have the US role in the illegal ouster of Haiti's democratically elected president, investigated? And does the prospect of 30,000 deportations to storm-ravaged-UN-occupied Haiti, show the same level of failure of US-Haiti foreign policies in Haiti, as the anti-democratic electoral council, put in place under UN-occupied Haiti, after Bush Regime change, reveals the failures of the UN/US to successfully promote democracy in Haiti. (See, Haiti Policy Statement for the Obama Team).

The level of Haitians seeking political refugee status in the US has been shown to be way less when there's a democratically elected president in Haiti, than when the US is supporting either Raoul Cedras (1991-1994) or Gerald Latorture (2004-2006) imposed Bush regimes. Less Haitians where fleeing Haiti under the duly elected Lavalas governments than are currently fleeing Haiti and seeking asylum in the US right now under this US/US occupied Haiti (2004-present). So, the long term solution for the US in terms of its illegal Haitian immigration issue would be to respect Haiti's sovereignty, support democracy instead of regime change, occupation or dictatorships in Haiti. That is, if it does not want to deal with a deluge of refugees from Haiti. A new US-Haiti policy that allows the people of Haiti to freely participate in the politics of Haiti is the long term solution, while a stop to all deportations right now must be granted as the immediate short term solution, since the current occupation, current exclusion of Haiti's biggest political party from the electoral process evidences a level of oppression and instability compounded by food crisis, famine and the hurricane disasters to which a stop to deportations would be the appropriate and humane temporary course.

The CEP incident evidences the continuation of regime change in Haiti. By planting the rightwing firmly in Haiti's parliament, for the interests of the internationals, the US and Haitian Oligarchy will never have to remove a president in Haiti again. The presidency is now impotent and the Parliament controlled by the enemies of the people of Haiti. What better way to silence the people than to control who gets to represent them in Parliament? Some in Haiti's parliament are willful participants and others have no idea they are being pimped.
*
(N pral rale ti chez ba nou, pou n chita gade developman tout bagay sa yo.)

 

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**********************Haiti's Riches*******************
Haiti's Riches - expose the false stereotypes

Pointing Guns at Starving Haitians: Violent Haiti is a myth
"...So, people-to-people, we ask assistance to stop the genocide going on (the better to steal from and fleece) Haiti. A genocide, depopulation and terror taking place through: indefinite detention/incarceration; UN, NGO and humanitarian aid workers sexual rape, human trafficking and molestation of Haitian children; imposed famine from fraudulent "free trade" policies that destroys Haitian food sovereignty; imposed coup d'etat and UN/US protectorate that destroys Haitian security and stability, increases violence and organized kidnappings, drug-dealings and arms trafficking; and, perhaps genocide and forced sterilization by this wholesale foreign-imposed (UNICEF/WHO $10-million dollar) vaccination program in UN occupied Haiti." (Excerpted from "Ezili Danto's Note: Genocide by vaccination in Haiti and Is this a way to sterilize Haitian women, as was done to Puerto Rican women?" June 15, 2008; See also: Haiti's Riches - expose the Lies and false stereotypes and Pointing Guns at Starving Haitians: Violent Haiti is a myth; Is the UN military proxy occupation of Haiti masking US securing oil/gas reserves from Haiti; Digging up Haiti; Map of mining resources in Haiti and showing five oil/gas sites in Haiti; US open new (World's fifth largest) US Embassy compound in Haiti).

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"....expose how the wealthy, powerful and well-armed are robbing the Haitian people blind; expose the manufactured fear, racist myths and false stereotypes about Haitian brutality and violence that aims to control and maintain people's negative perceptions of Haiti and to contain-Haiti-in-poverty the better to rob it blind. (See also, Is the UN military proxy occupation of Haiti masking US securing oil/gas reserves from Haiti, and a June 13, 2008 Nouvelliste article alleging, in sum, that "...in these last months, more than 40 to 50% of the imported rice that is subsidized by the Haitian State is CONSUMED in the DOMINICAN REPUBLIC... And that even Haitian clandestinely subsidized petroleum products, cheaper Haiti oil products, are also being consumed by wealthy foreign ships passing through Haitian waters, instead of the impoverished and starving Haitians these food and gas subsidies were intended to benefit..."; Digging up Haiti; Map of mining resources in Haiti and showing five oil/gas sites in Haiti; Haitian Riches; Expose the Lies.)


"... stop the imposed famine from fraudulent "free trade" policies that destroys Haitian food sovereignty; stop imposed coup d'etat and UN/US protectorate that destroys Haitian security and stability, increases violence and organized kidnappings, drug-dealings and arms trafficking ...(Go to: Genocide by vaccination in Haiti - Is this a way to sterilize Haitian women, as was done to Puerto Rican women?)
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"Three false Haiti stereotypes are that Haiti has no resources, is overcrowded and violent. In reality Haiti has formidable advantages - plentiful resources, the most purest in the world of natural resources, enviable strategic location, hard working population; it is centered in Caribbean Basin, has 38% more coastline than the Dominican Republic.
(See, Matraco-Colorado Haiti on Haiti resources and 3 false stereotypes about Haiti -A Power-Point Presentation.)

If there's substantial oil and gas reserves in Haiti, the US/Euro genocide has not yet begun.

Ayisyen leve zye nou anwo, kenbe red. Nou fèk komanse goumen.
(Read again, John Maxwell's "Is there oil in Haiti".) -

Digging up Haiti:
Matraco-Colorado Haiti Projects (marble, chalk, limestone/aggregate quarries and Haiti lignite/coal mine and power plant...)


"The New US Embassy in Haiti is massive, largest in world except for Iraq, Afghanistan, China and Germany and we know US strategic/economic interests in those count ries...What does Haiti own that even...McCain is now campaigning concern for "the fight for justice in Haiti?" (Excerpted from,
Is the UN military proxy occupation of Haiti masking US securing oil/gas reserves from Haiti )
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Standing on truth, living without fear – Supporting Barack Obama’s vision of what can be…
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The Haitian struggle - the greatest David vs. Goliath battle being played out on this plane

What do we do on an independence day under occupation?

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‘...Hayti (is) the glory of the blacks and terror of tyrants...I hope that she may be united, keeping a strict look-out for tyrants, for if they get the least chance to injure her, they will avail themselves of it...But one thing which gives me joy is, that they (the Haitians) are men (and women) who would be cut off to a man before they would yield to the combined forces of the whole world-----in fact, if the whole world was combined against them it could not do anything with them...’ ---David Walker
from: David Walker’s Appeal, 1829

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Dessalines Is Rising!!
Ayisyen: You Are Not Alone!


"When you make a choice, you mobilize vast human energies and resources which otherwise go untapped...........If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want and all that is left is a compromise." Robert Fritz

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