Deliver this Letter to Lula

Open Letter to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from New York Haitians

(To Denounce UN slaughter of Haitian civilians, go to: )


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Deliver this Letter to Lula: Report on the July 28, 2005 meeting with Brazilian Consul (George Monteiro Prata, Deputy Consul General) by Marguerite Laurent
*
On the anniversary of the first, we conversed. The Brazilian consul said
we have the same bloodlines* that’s why Brazil is on the frontlines.

We five around the table not hostile. But, they put this UN bullet in
our head while we were sleeping in our own bed. 23 dead. 27 bled.
Brazil is doing Lerclerc's fieldwork we said. See? To maintain standing
invitation to gatherings with Noreiga's purebreds. Brazil isn't keeping
the peace. Only the beast. Deliver this letter to Lula. Deliver this
letter to Lula.

Deliver this letter to Lula.

Today is the anniversary of the first.
We've already lived this.
Tell Lula it's worse.
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* There are 180million Brazilians, half are black (George Prata's actual words were, "at least half of Brazil population have some measure of African blood.")

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Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2005 10:08 AM
Subject: [ezilidanto] July 28, 2005: Letter to Lula | Haitians worldwide protest US/UN current occupation of Haiti today on the anniversary of the first U.S. occupation of Haiti

Fanmi Lavalas of NY & New York Haitian
Pro-democracy Advocates
P.O. Box 100614 Vanderveer Station
Brooklyn, New York 11210
917 337 6702

Open Letter to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from Fanmi Lavalas of New York and Tri-State and New York area Haitians, delivered to the New York Brazilian Consulate on July 28, 2005, the anniversary date for the first US occupation of Haiti
*
His Excellency
The Honorable Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
President of the Federative Republic of Brazil
Brasilia, Brazil

July 28, 2005
Dear President Lula da Silva,

We write to you on the 90th anniversary of the first US invasion and occupation of Haiti (1915-1934) as New Yorkers, Haitians and Haitian-Americans who are deeply concerned about Brazil's commanding role in the human rights disasters occurring in Haiti. The February 29, 2004 Coup D'etat against Haiti's duly elected and Constitutional government ushered in a brutal war against Haiti's poor masses. There has been wholesale police slaughter of unarmed demonstrators demanding the return of the Constitutional government and wholesale repression, summary executions and arbitrary arrests of Lavalas supporters and Haitian civilians living in the poorer and heavily populated neighborhoods supporting the return of President Aristide. There has been thousands of unjust deportations back to Haiti of the fleeing refugees and over 1,000 illegal, arbitrary arrests and indefinite detentions in Haiti's inadequate prisons, including the arrest and detention of Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and Father Gèrard Jean-Juste.

This war against democracy in Haiti is being waged by economic and political elites supported and reinforced by US foreign policy.
Numerous human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have already made thorough reports on the 18-months of terror Haitians have been forced to live since the Coup D'etat. As Haitians living abroad, we are extremely shocked, grief-stricken and appalled by the daily massacres to which residents of Haiti's poorest communities are being subjected at the hands of the National Haitian Police backed by Brazilian led MINUSTHA forces and often at the hands of the MINUSTHA forces themselves.

On July 6, 2005, in a deadly early morning attack, on the residents of Site Soleil, a community of over 350,000 of Haiti's poorest Haitians, over 350 UN troops from MINUSTHA under the command of a Brazilian general, left 27 Haitian civilians wounded and more than 23 dead, including a young 22 year-old Haitian mother, Sonia Romelus, who was killed by the same bullet that passed through the body of her 1-year old infant son, Nelson. Her 4-year old son, Stanley Romelus, who was sleeping next to his mother and brother was killed instantly by a single shot to the head. This is the brutal nature of the war being waged on the poor in Haiti.

We have reports, eyewitness testimonies and videotape evidence showing that the UN military forces, commanded by your Brazilian general, carried out a massacre in the early morning hours of July 6, 2005 in the poor Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Site Soley.

President Lula da Silva, we know that you are a man of conscience and that you will not condone these human rights violations, any more than the violations by the military regime that ruled your country after the 1964 coup. We respectfully urge you to exercise your moral and political leadership and launch the following measures:

1. Call for an end to the occupation of Haiti by all UN forces.
Brazil should take the lead in advocating for a change in policy by the UN towards Haiti. There is overwhelming evidence that the UN occupation is not "stabilizing" Haiti. But is, in fact, aggravating the country's crisis by bolstering a repressive and anti-democratic regime.

2. Call for an end to US intervention in Haitian domestic affairs.
While we recognize that the primary responsibility for changing US policy towards Haiti rests with the people of the United States, we urge you to stand in solidarity with pro-democracy Haitians living abroad and with the people of Haiti by refusing to support the Bush administration's racist and cruel treatment of the Haitian people.

3. Call for the restoration of the constitutional government in Haiti.
Concretely, this means that President Aristide, as the duly elected president of Haiti, must be permitted to return to the country and complete his term before new elections are held. The UN forces should not be in the service of "stabilizing" an unelected, repressive regime established through a US, French and Canadian engineered coup. This is, quite bluntly, performing a rearguard duty for US imperialism in Haiti.

4. Require that UN forces in Haiti today, prior to their departure, fulfill their human rights mandate to protect, not terrorize, the people. In particular, as Brazilian forces are the commanding force in Haiti they must do much more to rein in the Haitian Coup D'etat police force that is out of control and is daily murdering Haitians throughout the heavily populated neighborhoods.

President Lula, please understand, we wish to work together with the people of Brazil towards strengthening democracy, human rights, and social justice in Haiti and stop the terror being presided over in Haiti by a Brazilian commander on behalf of Bush Regime change. We can furnish video evidence of the recent UN massacre in Cite Soleil if need be.

Below we attach two human rights reports and a partial list of the many massacres and human rights abuses that have been going on in Haiti since the forced removal of the Constitutional government. We urge you to assist the people of Haiti by denouncing the civilian killings, withdrawing Brazilian participation in such a blatantly repressive and abusive UN military operation and by calling for the return of President Aristide and constitutional rule to Haiti.

Sincerely,

Fanmi Lavalas of New York
Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
Ajoupa, Inc.
Patizan Jezikri
Vwa Lakou Lakay
Radyo Pa Nou
LaKou New York
Chalo Jaklen
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ATTACHMENTS TO JULY 28, 2005 LETTER TO PRESIDENT LULA FROM NEW YORK HAITIANS
*
We attached a report by the US Labor/Human Rights Delegation to Haiti dated and the University of Miami Law Center Haiti Human Rights Investigation - November 11- 21, 2004 by Thomas M. Griffin, Esq and Professor Irwin P. Stotsky.

The people of Haiti, its poor majority, are uniformly demanding the return of President Aristide and the return of the social and economic policies the Lavalas Movement was attempting to institutionalize in Haiti. The attached human rights reports detail the repression in Haiti and find that is precisely because the majority in Haiti still claim their human and civil right to self-determination, self-defense, and self-respect, that the UN forces are constantly being urged, by the Coup D'etat nations of France, Canada and the United States and the minority in Haiti who have traditionally acted as imperialist proxies, to be more "aggressive" in these poorer neighborhoods where the vast majority of Haiti's people reside.

According to the US Labor/Human Rights Delegation to Haiti report, "Economically, this war involves destroying the progressive changes implemented during the Aristide presidency that benefited the poor majority, reforms such as doubling the minimum wage, land redistribution, and school subsidies for children," said the Delegation. "While the minimum wage reforms have not been widely respected, and while many other Aristide reforms have been dismantled by the new coup regime, the prices of essential commodities like rice have vastly increased and real wages for workers are declining. Unemployment, hunger and malnutrition are on the rise.

"Politically, this war involves the systematic repression of the
popular movement, a repression that has involved the jailing, torture, and extra-judicial executions of thousands of suspected Lavalas members and Aristide supporters. Right-wing paramilitary elements, the Haitian National Police, and, increasingly, UN "peacekeeping" troops are invading popular neighborhoods, destroying homes, and killing unarmed civilians in the name of capturing supposed Lavalas "gang" leaders," the Delegation reported.
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Partial List of massacres and human rights abuses:

Feb. 2004: 3,000 prisoners freed. U.S. Marines turned a medical university into prison and barracks. Youth radio and tv station (Radyo & Tele Timoun) ransacked and shut down. Union buses burnt.

"As the rebels took cities throughout February, they freed all of the prisoners. Approximately 3,000 were freed overall, including many who were serving sentences or awaiting trial for serious human rights violations. There is no apparent effort being made to capture the escapees, among whom were persons convicted in the Raboteau Massacre trial."During Feb, 2004, the Coup D'etat people released the triggerman in the Jean Dominque case from prison. Other convicted criminals and known human rights abusers such as Jean Pierre Baptiste (alias Jean Tatoune), Jean-Claude Duperval, Carl Dorelien, and Prosper Avril were free to roam Haiti, join the Latortue police force or run for President of Haiti!. The Marines shut out over 200 medical students from their school and turned the classrooms into barracks and prison cells. Literary, health, and social programs for the poor where destroyed. Meanwhile, within a few months, Haiti's jails were re-filled with the members of the Constitutional government, including the constitutional Prime Minister of Haiti, Yvon Neptune and 70-year old grandmother, So Ann.
(See, National Lawyers Guild Report, Phase 2 http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignone/human_rights_reports/nlg_finalreport/report.html#specificconcerns

and,

March 13, 2004
Bel Air massacres by the US Marines, 2004.

"Multiple witnesses described an incident that occurred on March 13 in which Marines fired upon and killed up to ten Haitians in Bel-Air, a poor section of Port-au-Prince. According to an official at the U.S.

Embassy, the Marines thought they were being fired upon and returned fire. However, witnesses interviewed by the delegation consistently declared that there were no guns being fired, that they were having a demonstration with flares or fireworks. (One such interviewee was a 16-year-old male who was shot in the back by a Marine bullet.) It appears that American armed forces overreacted and used excessive force on this occasion. " (See, National Lawyers Guild Report, Phase II)
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignone/human_rights_reports/nlg_finalreport/nlg_contents_apr-04.html

October 13, 2004 - Arbitrary and capricious arrest of Father Jean-Juste as he was feeding children at his church in Port-au-Prince by hooded police who burst in, firing shots, wounding three children with bullets, smashing windows, throwing father Jean Juste to the ground and dragging to prison him head first into their truck. Jean Juste remained in prison for 2 months on a "disturbing the peace"charge that carries a fine equivalent to 30 U.S. cents.
http://www.konpay.org/pmwiki.php/Main/ReportNovember5

May 10 2004, US Marines arrest 10year old grandmother in the dead of night, put black plastic bags and handcuffs on all 11 occupants in the home, even on her 5 year old grandson who was asleep and transported them to the barracks for questioning. She been in prison since.

May 18, 2004 Flag day- 9 unarmed demonstrators killed by men-in-black with UN firepower cover.

May 18, 2005 Flag day - 3 unarmed demonstrators killed by men-in-black after demonstration where men-in-black lined the streets intimidating the peaceful protesters.

October 26, 2005 - Fort National Massacre

According to a news account, "On the afternoon of Oct. 26, (2004) masked men dressed in the black uniforms of Haitian riot police executed 13 people from the Rue Estim? quarter of Fort National near Bel-air. Some of the victims were killed in the slum while others were driven to and executed at Titanyen, a desolate dumping ground just north of the capital. Three of the victims were young women.

According to witnesses, the killers pulled up in four vehicles with Police plates in front of the house on Rue Estimè. They were
accompanied by an ambulance. " http://www.haitixchange.com/hx/article.asp?article_id=21

October 28, 2004 - Also it was reported that "On Oct. 28, four other youths were found executed on Rue P?an in the Bel-air neighborhood. Two of the victims had their hand tied. One of the victims was shirtless, suggesting that he had been abducted from or near his home.

"Six police cars came up here with about 15 officers," one of the witnesses told a New York Times reporter. "They took the men out of the cars, put them on the ground and shot them in the head." http://www.haitixchange.com/hx/article.asp?article_id=21

*

December 1, 2004
Prison Guards and Police Massacre of detainees - over 100 prison detainees slaugtered (some in their cells) by Haitian police forces and prison guards.
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignone/human_rights_reports/Decprisonmassacre.html

December 19, 2004
Prison force-out by men-in-black and prison guards.

On February 28, 2005 and April 27, 2005:

"At least 11 unarmed demonstrators were killed in the two attacks prompting U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to echo demands by human rights organizations for an official investigation."
http://www.world-crisis.com/news/1152_0_1_0_C/

"The use of lethal and indiscriminate violence by the police to disperse and repress demonstrators only serves to increase tension in an already violence-torn country, said Amnesty International today as it condemned the repression against Lavalas Party supporters by Haitian National Police (HNP) officers in Port-au-Prince on 27 April.

According to reports, police officers opened fire against Lavalas supporters demonstrating near the United Nations Mission headquarters in Bourdon, Port-au-Prince. At least 5 people died during the demonstration and 4 others are reported to have died later on as a consequence of their wounds. Several demonstrators and bystanders were also injured.

"The repression of this peaceful demonstration is not an isolated case. The insecurity and ongoing confrontation with armed groups should not be used as a pretext to crack down on demonstrators and the right to freedom of _expression and association," Amnesty International said."
http://news.amnesty.org/mavp/news.nsf/print/ENGAMR360022005

*
June 17, 2005, at least 10 people killed by police.

"The Haitian police moved against Bel Air again on June 17 killing at least 10 people in another bloody raid. Among the first victims shot by the police that day was 17 year-old Natalie Luzius. She was clutching her 6 month-old son Fritznel Luzius to protect him at the moment a police bullet struck her in the head and killed her.
http://www.world-crisis.com/news/1152_0_1_0_C/

*

June 29, 2005 - "UN forces carried out a large military operation in
Bel Air on June 29 stating that only combatants were killed. Residents claim the UN shot and killed unarmed bystanders during the course of that operation as well. This apparent strategy of alternating attacks by the Haitian police and UN military forces on pro-Aristide communities continues." http://www.world-crisis.com/news/

*

July 6, 2005
The UN slaughtered a 1-year old, 4-year old, a pregnant woman, a fetus, a handicapped man, a 2-year old ........
(For more details, see, Final Delegation report
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignone/human_rights_reports/unmassacre.html )

Excerpt form the July 6, 2005 report:

"People were killed in their homes and also just outside of their homes, on the way to work. According to this account, one man named Leon Cherry, age 46, was shot and killed on his way to work for a flower company. Another man, Mones Belizaire, was shot as he got ready to go to work in a local sweatshop and subsequently died from a stomach infection. A woman who was a street vendor was shot in the head and killed instantly. One man was shot in his ribs while he was trying to brush his teeth.

Another man was shot in the jaw as he left his house to try and get some money for his wife's medical costs; he endured a slow death. Yet another man named Mira was shot and killed while urinating in his home.

A mother, Sonia Romelus, and her two young children were killed in their home, reportedly by UN fire after UN forces lobbed a 83-CC gas grenade into their home.

The video footage taken by this eyewitness during the operation shows many of these killings while they were occurring. While it does not show images of the UN troops as they were firing into the community, one can view at least 10 unarmed people either in the process of being killed or who were already killed. Many were killed by headshots, such as 31-year-old Leonce Chery moments after a gun shot ripped off his jaw. Chery was clearly unarmed. There are audible machine gun blasts occurring in the background. The video footage also depicts the bodies of Sonia Romelus and her two young children, lying in blood on the floor of their home. Apparently, Sonia was killed by the same bullet that passed through the body of her one-year old infant son Nelson.

She was reportedly holding him as the UN opened fire. Next to their two bodies is that of her four-old son Stanley Romelus who was killed by a shot to the head. The video footage shows a weeping Fredi Romelus, recounting how UN troops lobbed a red smoke grenade into his house and then opened fire killing his wife and two children. "They surrounded our house this morning and I ran thinking my wife and the children were behind me. They couldn't get out and the blan [UN] fired into the house." The video also shows the grenade canister, apparently left in the house.

The eyewitness source claimed that the operation was primarily conducted by UN forces, with the Haitian National Police this time taking a back seat...."

*

See also: Report: Keeping the Peace in Haiti?: An Assessment of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti |Clinical Advocacy Project Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School | March 25, 2005
http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/hrp/CAP/
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignone/human_rights_reports/harvard.html
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Press Release

For Immediate Release:

June 27, 2005

Contact:
Jacques Dossou, Fanmi Lavalas, NY, (917) 337-6702
Marguerite Laurent, Esq. Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network, (203) 829-7210

Haitians to Demonstrate at Brazilian Consulate in New York

There will be a demonstration in front of the Brazilian Consulate in New York at 1185 Avenue of the Americas (6th Avenue) at the corner of 47th Street in Manhattan between 2 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 28, 2005, the 90th anniversary of the first U.S. Marine invasion and occupation of Haiti. The demonstrators will be protesting recent massacres carried out by Brazilian-led United Nations occupation troops in the Haitian capital, particularly on July 6, 2005 in the heavily populated neighborhood of Site Soley.

The same day, a delegation made up of New York pro-democracy activists, including Fanmi Lavalas of New York, the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network and others will meet with the Deputy Brazilian Consul, Mr. George Prata, to express their deep concerns over the commanding role of Brazilian forces in the wholesale repression, killings and arbitrary arrests of Lavalas supporters and Haitian civilians living in Haiti's poorer neighborhoods.

The delegation will present the Brazilian Consul with a letter to Brazilian President Luiz In?cio Lula da Silva demanding that he order his officers to stop all repressive operations against the masses in neighborhoods such as Site Soley, Delmas 2 and Bel Air and immediately withdraw Brazilian troops from Haiti.Sponsored and endorsed by: Fanmi Lavalas of New York , Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network, Ajoupa Inc., Patizan Jezikri, Vwa Lakou Lakay, Radyo Pa Nou, Lakou New York, Chalo Jaklen

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July 28, 2005, on the annivesary of the first US occupation of Haiti:
Haitians worldwide will protest US/UN current occupation of Haiti

- July 28, 2005 Cap Haitien shall pour into the streets condemning the current US-imposed armed occupation of Haiti.

- July 28, 2005 - Philadelphia Haitians Protest the current US/UN occupation of Haiti on . Contact: The Philadelphia Committee for the Return of Democracy in Haiti 215-476-2859 fanlatour06@yahoo.com

- July 28, 2005 - New York Haitians Protest the current UN/US occupation on .
Contact Jacques Dossou 917 337 6702 or, erzilidanto@yahoo.com
- Washington, DC - End UN Massacres! Brazil Out of Haiti Protest in DC on July 28, 2005. Contact:(EPICA) at 202-277-8252

- - On July 30th in Paris, the Haitian community will lead a
demonstration at the Place de la Republique to protest the UN/UN
occupation.
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Forwarded by the Haitian Lawyers' Leadership Network
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"Men anpil chay pa lou" is Kreyol for - "Many hands make light a heavy load."

Join our International Solidarity - THE FREE HAITI MOVEMENT. For info, see:

http://www.margueritelaurent.com/photogallery/haitisolidarityday.html and,
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/solidarityday/infoforsponsors.html

Help stop the slaughter in Cite Soleil, Bel Air and throughout Haiti, now. Learn more:"Bandit King of Site Soley"
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignone/presswork/interviewdread.html

Eyewitnesses Describe Massacre by UN Troops on Haitian people, July 6, 2005 | Community Leader, Dread Wilmer reported killed: http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/unslaughter.html

There's no time to waste. All the nationalities are down there in Haiti, in the form of UN troops, quietly liquidating young Black
brothers who will not accept the recolonization of Haiti and return of the bloody Haitian bourgeiosie and army back to power.

Even after death, our indignities and sufferings don't stop, because their families can't afford to bury them and their bodies are just dumped in mass graves, left to rot in the streets or morgue: http://www.margueritelaurent.com/solidarityday/pictures/orel_01.html
*
See, Death Regimes tries for "a second December 5th, 2004" attempting to leverage the sad death of Jacques Roche to criminalize Lavalas, which makes up the masses of the peoples in Haiti, and spread more untruths at:
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/rocheused.html
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See also: No Voters, No Problem - HAITI: ELECTIONS IN A CEMETERY
(Text of Radio BC audio commentary)
http://www.blackcommentator.com/radio_bc/071505/071505_radio_bc_text.html

(Audio Radio BC commentary)
http://www.blackcommentator.com/radio_bc/index.html
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************Urgent Action Requested************************
Amnesty International designates Father Gerald Jean-Juste as a prisoner
of conscience. Calls for internations action to secure his immediate release http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignone/presswork/freejeanjuste.html

DEMAND IMMEDIATE RELEASE of Father Gerald Jean-Juste. International pressure is needed on the US, the Haitian Minister of Justice and the UN. For their addresses and how Fr. Jean-Juste was attacked at church and arrested.

Click here to also take further action:
http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/campaign/Jean_Juste
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*********************Urgent Action Request*********************
HLLN Statement - Open Letter Demanding a Stop to UN slaughter
of Haitian civilians in Site soleil, Haiti, July 21, 2005
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/openletter.html

DENOUNCE THE SLAUGHTER OF HAITIAN CIVILIANS BY UN TROOPS IN HAITI, EVEN OF PREGNANT WOMEN AND 1, 2, 4 and 5-year old toddlers. Demand stop to
killings of Haitian civilians in Haiti by UN troops. Please send appeals immediately
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignone/presswork/protect.html
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