[News] Clandestine Interview from Haiti

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FROM:

THE BLACK COMMENTATOR

<http://blackcommentator.org/109/109_haiti.html>http://blackcommentator.org/109/109_haiti.html
http://blackcommentator.org/109/109_haiti_pf.html  (printer friendly version)

Issue 109 - October 14 2004

Backed by United Nations so-called peacekeepers, the U.S.-installed Haitian 
regime continues its siege of poor neighborhoods in the capital, Port au 
Prince, in an attempt to crush ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's 
LAVALAS party. The following is the result of a clandestine interview with 
a woman called Nancy, conducted last Sunday in the slum of Bel Air.

Nancy is a member of the Cell of Reflection of Family LAVALAS. The 
interview took place under extremely difficult and dangerous conditions. 
Nancy's remarks were then edited to safeguard her and the journalist's 
anonymity.  BC stands behind their credibility.

First you should realize that they have been trying to starve the poor in 
Haiti since President Aristide was kidnapped on February 29th. Do you know 
how much rice and beans cost now in the market? Families are starving while 
a few families that import goods are getting rich off the pennies we have 
to spend on food. They have killed us since then and driven us into hiding. 
Have you ever tried to feed your family while you are running from the 
police and you have no job? They have arrested our leaders or driven them 
into exile. They have cornered us and taken our dignity away so that now we 
realize we have no where left to go.

We see that the situation in the streets, our situation, we who are part of 
the Cell of Reflection of Family LAVALAS, we see that in all the poor 
neighborhoods there is not a day that goes by that the government does not 
squeeze us. The repression is much worse. And now the de facto Prime 
Minister [Gerard Latortue] has said he is going to sign a contract with the 
former military to kill us one by one. In a secret meeting he had with the 
Minister of justice, a friend inside heard Latortue estimate that it would 
be necessary to kill 25,000 people in the capital, in the capital alone to 
stop the calls for the return of President Aristide. September 30th was the 
beginning of this initiative where Latortue unleashed his forces that are 
comprised of new units of SWAT, USP, CIMO and the police where the killers 
of the former military had already been integrated. It was they who began 
firing on unarmed demonstrators while the Brazilians and the United Nations 
stood by to let them kill us.

This was only one part of their strategy that day. On September 30th they 
had extra squads of former military work hand-in-hand with these 
militarized forces of the police to enter Bel Air, Cite Soleil, La Saline, 
Grand Ravine, Delmas 2, Martissant and many other poor neighborhoods to 
kill a lot of people. On September 30th many people were killed, especially 
in Bel Air. The former military had already set up operations in Bel Air 
and Cite Soleil without our knowledge before the demonstration had 
started.  We did not know that they had quietly entered certain houses very 
early in the morning and held the occupants at gunpoint waiting for the 
right moment to strike. After the killing started they broke into many more 
houses shooting and beating people who had stayed at home. They also broke 
everything they could and stole anything of value while we were running 
from the bullets of the police. Later in the afternoon the police entered 
the poor neighborhoods and arrested everyone they could get their hands 
on.  This is how the violence of September 30th began and it became a 
question of defending our neighborhoods and our community from the violence 
of Latortue's police and the former military. What do we have to lose by 
defending ourselves since they are determined to kill us anyway?

In the days that followed we would not allow them to enter our communities 
and continue the killing. They tried several times on their own and we 
would not let them enter. So they set up on the outskirts of our 
neighborhoods and began to arrest everybody in sight. Outside of Bel Air we 
have seen them force three year-olds and four year-olds to the ground. 
There are many people here who do not know where they have taken their 
family members after they arrest them. All of this because Latortue and 
Bush were afraid of the numbers of people they knew we would mobilize to 
demand Aristide's return on September 30th. There is no other explanation.

Since then, Latortue has made it clear we do not have the right to live and 
we are no better than animals that deserve to be slaughtered. We are not 
counted as human beings in Haitian society because we are poor and 
uneducated even though we are the majority of the population. With 
President Aristide this was not the case and for this reason we are 
determined there will never be peace in Haiti until he returns. Our 
brothers, our sisters, our fathers, our sons and our cousins are all 
willing to die before we will accept this misery caused by a government 
that was put into power by foreigners and that does not accept us as human 
beings. We will never stop and there can be no peace until President 
Aristide returns. They can call us bandits and thieves all they want but 
they know the truth and this is why they are in a process of exterminating 
us today.

Bush and the United Nations know the truth as well. They know that without 
the Brazilians they could not have entered Bel Air. They know that without 
the Jordanians they could never keep us from the National Palace. Without 
the UN forces this phony government would not last a week. That is why we 
call them occupation forces and it is criminal for them to prop up this 
killing machine that is trying to destroy us. It is an insult to see them 
occupying the streets in front of our National Palace to keep in place a 
government that was not chosen by the people. They should be ashamed of 
themselves and wonder how they would feel if the same thing were done to 
them in their country. We believe that if the people in their countries 
knew the truth they would ask them to come home. We pray we will not have 
to fight them but they are part of the killing machine right now and it is 
a question of survival for us. We have no choice but to defend ourselves 
and our communities against their tanks and their guns.

It is clear they will kill many more of us in the weeks to come. The 
streets of Bel Air and Cite Soleil will turn red from all the blood 
Latortue intends to spill but we will no longer just stand like zombies and 
let them kill us. We will continue to demand the return of our elected 
president and we will defend ourselves against them when they come to kill 
us. We are not animals, we are not bandits and we did not start this killing.

They did.

Take this to the American people and let them know we think that what Bush 
is doing in Haiti is criminal. He had a choice of supporting our democracy 
and our votes but he chose to throw them away. He sided with criminals and 
the rich against us instead of choosing dialogue and reconciliation. We do 
not blame the American people and it is a lie that we intend to harm them 
in Haiti. We love our children and we love life as much as they do but we 
must defend our right to exist in the face of these criminals who are 
determined to exterminate us.

The Freedom Archives
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