[News] Violent Repression of President Aristide's Legacy

Tue Jul 20 09:00:32 EDT 2004

Violent Repression of President Aristide's Legacy
<http://www.haitiaction.org/News/HIP/7_15_4a.html>http://www.haitiaction.org/News/HIP/7_15_4a.html 

Street Children who supported President Aristide are still being imprisoned 
and killed by former military.

by Lolo Reagan - Jounalist writing with the Haiti Information Project. 
Graduate of Fanmi Selavi  Aristide Orphanage  and former reporter with 
<http://pangaea.org/street_children/latin/haiti.htm>Radio Ti Moun

Summary: Street Children  living in poverty  along with Aristide party 
leaders have been illegally arrested, mistreated, and killed with the 
collaboration of the Haitian National Police; the youth radio and t.v. 
stations and the Aristide orphanage have been ransacked and shut down.

[ this is a close translation directly from kreyol with minimal editing ]

On February 29, 2004 the American authorities forced the constitutional 
President, Jean Bertrand Aristide, to leave power and the leaders and 
members of his Lavalas Party began suffering all sorts of persecution. This 
happened because the de-facto government in Haiti didn't need any arrest 
warrants or charges against Lavalas leaders and members to arrest them and 
put them in jail. In this way Jocerlerme Privert, who was Minister of the 
Interior, found himself arrested on April 6, 2004. Annette Auguste, alias 
So Ann, also was arrested in the same fashion, May 10, 2004. So Ann was a 
very active Lavalas supporter, a very well known artist in Haiti. It must 
be noted that it was American Marines who arrived at her house to arrest 
her. They brought her directly to the Central Penitentiary under the 
pretext that they had an arrest warrant from the National Haitian Police. 
Yvon Neptune, Prime Minister with the Lavalas government, was arrested June 
27, 2004 and since that time has not had any opportunity to present his 
case before a judge. Many other party members are now groaning in prison. 
This is the case of Aryns Laguere who was a cameraman-journalist at Tele 
Timoun (Youth Television Station) who has just spent several weeks in the 
Port-au-Prince police station. He was freed following much pressure from 
his family and friends. After his release Aryns Laguere has been forced to 
live in hiding because he didn't know what plans his enemies continued to 
have for him.

In this atmosphere, the Fanmi Selavi (Family Is Life), an institution 
<http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1952>set up by 
President Aristide in 1986 to take in children living on the street and 
give them an appropriate upbringing, 
<http://www.blackcommentator.com/81/81_reprint_haiti_street_kids.html>has 
always had extremely difficult experiences. During the period of the first 
coup against Pres. Aristide in 1991 
<http://www.speakeasy.org/%7epeterc/haiti/lost.htm>soldiers entered the 
Fanmi Selavi building on Camileon Street, Port-au-Prince, tortured the 
adult staff who worked in the institution, and set fire to the house. Five 
children died in the fire and many others were paralyzed. The results of 
the latest coup of February 2004 
<http://www.haitireborn.org/campaigns/lhl/humanrights1.php>are no different 
than those of the first coup. Even if the military didn't burn the house, 
they still have killed children. Kenold Raymond and Anel are two children 
from Fanmi Selavi killed by the police this year from the Canapè Vert 
station. Many other children from Fanmi Selavi are currently living in 
hiding because armed gangs accompanied by the police are looking to 
assassinate them. According to the gangsters themselves these children from 
Fanmi Selavi are Aristide's children. At this time Jeremi Dupain, a young 
man from Fanmi Selavi who also worked for Radio Timoun has had to leave 
Port-au-Prince because the armed thugs came to his home and, not finding 
him there, killed his aunt.

The Haitian National Police had already taken it upon themselves to close 
the Radio Timoun station after February 29, 2004. Then on March 20, 2004 
the police landed at Fanmi Selavi, broke down the gate, and proceeded to 
arrest many people including children from the Fanmi Selavi. These children 
tried to protect their home non-violently against the bandits who wanted to 
break up the place and steal everything. There is no doubt that these 
bandits who had pillaged the place were working for the police because 
immediately after my arrest* [Lolo Reagan, who is a child of Fanmi Selavi 
and a worker at Radio Timoun] it was the police themselves who came with 
trucks to take away everything from the home. Since that time a 30 kilowatt 
generator which the insitution used was taken by the police and is being 
used by them.

The persecution against Lavalas not only affects the leaders and members of 
the party but also the children who live in the streets of Port-au-Prince 
under terrible conditions. These children are sometimes the principal 
targets of the police. From the time of February 29, 2004 it can be noted 
that many of the centers in the city where there used to be lots of 
children have been emptied out and there are few left. Today they are 
labeled with all sorts of hateful names, "kokorat" (dirty rats), "bouled 
kaoutchout" (burners of rubber tires), "ratpakaka" (shitty rats), "Selavi" 
etc. The police use all these names against the children who live in the 
streets of Port-au-Prince with the aim of finding a way to justify hunting 
them down. In the context of an operation called, "Arimay" (random pickup) 
the police are in the habit of landing in the spots where the children live 
in the middle of the night and then of proceeding to arrest them, and 
killing them. This doesn't, however, interest the Haitian press since it is 
a matter of a group of people with no importance. So it is not a serious 
matter.

Lately the campaign of the persecution borrows another form especially when 
the popular organizations of Lavalas have announced a long mobilization 
called, "Mobilizasyon manch long" (Ongoing Mobilization/March) which is 
meant to denounce persecution against the leaders and members of the 
Lavalas party and then to demand the release of Lavalasiens who are 
currently in prison without any valid reason. They demand naturally a 
return to consitutional rule. Every time Fanmi Lavalas plans a 
demonstration the people in the poor neighborhoods experience difficulties 
with repression by the police. In this way on July 13, 2004 in the middle 
of the night 10 young men who were living in Bel Air, a poor neighborhood 
where Lavalas remains the most powerful sector of the party, were arrested 
because these young men had always participated in these demonstrations and 
had mobilized the people to join them for the Fanmi Lavalas party. It is 
important to point out that these illegal, arbitary arrests, which the 
young people from the poor neighborhoods experience, are meant to 
intimidate and persecute the party members and leaders. The arrests of 
these young people were meant to stop the demonstration planned for July 
15, 2004.

*Lolo Reagan was arrested without a warrant and held in prison without 
charges for several months. He was released a couple weeks ago due to the 
efforts of Haiti activist, Tom Luce and Haitian attorney Evel Fanfan. This 
is the same situation facing an untold number of Lavalas activists 
throughout the country.

Mr Fanfan was confronted in front of the court by an individual who 
exclaimed, "Why are you working to get that Lavalas criminal asssasin out 
of jail?"

Since his release  and being cleared of all charges  the Haiti 
Information Project is proud to invite Mr. Reagan to join our staff to 
bring news to the public about issues that aren't reported anywhere else.

The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
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