[News] Most-wanted man in Haiti: Amaral Duclona

[Anti-Imperialist News]

February 1, 2006 
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/2_1_6/2_1_6.html

Kevin Pina interviews the most-wanted man in Haiti: Amaral Duclona 
By the Haiti Information Project (HIP)

HIP - Port au Prince, Haiti — Amaral Duclona is Haiti's most wanted man.

That is, the most wanted by the U.S.-installed de facto government. His 
name flashes across television screens throughout the capital each 
night along with those of twelve other men accused as "bandits" in the 
sprawling seaside slum of Cité Soleil.

Amaral is in fact the leader of the anti-coup and anti-occupation 
resistance in Cité Soleil. He has taken up the mantle of his fallen 
friend and comrade, Emmanuel "Dread" Wilmer, who was gunned down by 
U.N. troops last July.

The U.S.-installed government and Haiti's elite now charge Amaral with 
killing Canadian police officer Mark Bourque in Cité Soleil last 
December. He vehemently denies the accusation.

Cité Soleil is home to over 300,000 Haitians who live in abject 
poverty. Children play among mountains of garbage and open sewage 
canals. Most are malnourished, as their parents, unable to find work 
amidst 80% unemployment, try desperately to keep their families alive.

Cité Soleil is also a bastion of support for ousted President Jean-
Bertrand Aristide. In his first successful bid for the presidency in 
1990, Aristide announced his candidacy in this shantytown. Following 
the violent military coup against Aristide on Sep. 30, 1991, Cité 
Soleil took the brunt of violence meted out by Gen. Raoul Cédras' 
military dictatorship. During that three year coup, the Haitian army in 
league with the CIA-funded paramilitary death squad known as the Front 
for Advancement and Progress in Haiti (FRAPH) slaughtered thousands and 
burned down whole neighborhoods in the slum.

After President Aristide was ousted a second time on Feb. 29, 2004, 
Haitian police and paramilitary units made armed forays into Cité 
Soleil while occupying U.S. Marines did nothing to intervene. But soon, 
young men formed community self-defense brigades which began shooting 
it out with the police and paramilitaries, effectively driving them 
from the slum.

Even before the deployment of the U.N. Mission to Stabilize Haiti 
(MINUSTAH), Cité Soleil and other neighborhoods like Bel Air and Solino 
became launch pads for massive demonstrations demanding Aristide's 
return. The Haitian police's brutal SWAT teams bloodily repressed these 
protests, while MINUSTAH forces stood by.

The massive demonstrations belied mainstream press reports that 
Aristide had lost popular support and embarrassed the Washington-
parachuted government of Prime Minister Gérard Latortue and the 
MINUSTAH. The U.N. force's stated purpose was to restore stability and 
democracy to Haiti. But Haiti's poor majority increasingly saw them as 
an army of foreign occupation bent on propping up a client government 
and crushing their movement.

As gun battles intensified between Lavalas' armed followers and the 
Haitian police, the MINUSTAH intervened to crush opposition in Bel Air 
and to contain Cité Soleil. Large cargo containers and concrete 
barriers were placed on all of Cité Soleil's major entrances, isolating 
the shantytown from the rest of the capital. U.N. troops searched men, 
women and children entering and leaving the neighborhood.

At the same time, the United States Agency for International 
Development (USAID) began pacification programs designed to win the 
hearts and minds of Cité Soleil residents and undermine their 
resistance.

In Bel Air, the U.N. troops crushed and bought off the armed anti-coup 
groups while setting up military posts throughout the hillside 
neighborhood. Meanwhile, the UN and USAID began sponsoring so-called 
community development projects, concerts and soccer matches.

The only "community development" organization first allowed into Cité 
Soleil was working hand-in-hand with USAID. Yele Haiti was founded by 
the famous Haitian hip-hop musician, Wyclef Jean. He asked residents of 
Cité Soleil to accept the occupation and let go of demands for 
Aristide's return. His call fell on deaf ears.

One of those most critical of Wyclef Jean's USAID-backed efforts was a 
young man raised in Lafanmi Selavi, an orphanage for street children 
founded by Father Aristide in 1986. Emmanuel "Dread" Wilmer led an 
armed force of about 150 young men in Cité Soleil determined to resist 
incursions by the Haitian police and what he called "the foreign 
occupiers." The elite-owned Haitian press, the U.S.-installed 
government, and MINUSTAH all condemned Wilmer as a "bandit" and "gang 
leader" without any political ideals. Some 400 MINUSTAH troops killed 
him along with four of his lieutenants in a bloody pre-dawn raid on 
July 6, 2005. The UN troops also killed untold dozens of unarmed 
residents in the attack.

In the months since Wilmer's death, Cité Soleil residents have 
complained of coming under constant fire by the MINUSTAH's 1500-man 
Jordanian force which surrounds the shantytown. The U.N. troops 
indiscriminately fire on the population, residents say, in an effort to 
terrorize and cow the community. Heavily armed Jordanian and Brazilian 
units escort work crews which put up posters exhorting the population 
to stop "associating with criminals." Nonetheless, MINUSTAH has 
recently admitted that the so-called "armed gangs" enjoy the support of 
the majority of Cité Soleil's population.

Cité Soleil has also become a large base of support for presidential 
candidate Rene Garcia Preval. Aristide's first prime minister in 1991 
before the coup, Préval went on to be elected president from 1996 to 
2001. He now commands a large lead in the polls just a week before Feb. 
7 elections. Haiti's electoral council announced last week that there 
will be no polling stations in Cité Soleil. Residents will have to walk 
miles to cast their votes. Cité Soleil's armed groups have announced 
that they will accompany those who want to vote to the polls.

Haiti Information Project founding editor Kevin Pina recently spent two 
days in Cité Soleil and managed to negotiate this exclusive interview 
with Amaral Duclona about the current situation in Haiti.

Kevin Pina interviews the most-wanted man in Haiti: Amaral Duclona 

KP: Amaral, let's start by letting people know who you are and where 
you come from.

AD: My name is Amaral Duclona.

I wasn't born in Cite Soleil, but I was born on a road close to Cite 
Soleil named Chancerel. I was born on October 20, 1979. I am currently 
27 years old.

I went to school in Cite Soleil, and I went to school in downtown Port 
au Prince. 

KP: So describe the general situation as you see it in Cite Soleil 
today.

AD: Today we find ourselves in a situation where Cite Soleil is full of 
misery.

Where they say people are killing each other in Cite Soleil. 
Supposedly, we are all "bandits" or "gangs."

But it is actually this misery I speak of that is destroying the people 
of Cite Soleil.

Today we are working with the population of Cite Soleil, to see how we 
can help them get out from underneath the misery that they are in. We 
have no problem working with the local community and we invite the 
international community to help us get out of this misery.

KP: But what about those who accuse you of violence? Those who say 
there is no role for people like you to play in helping Cite Soleil?

AD: There is a well-defined sector working for the bourgeoisie inside 
of Cite Soleil that doesn't want poor people to get out from underneath 
their predicament. It comes from the base of a real gangster who said 
he was Lavalas but betrayed the cause and started accepting bribes from 
Apaid and Boulos.

And we can understand that and now how they turn this around on us.

When Dessalines was fighting, they did not understand the fight of Jean-
Jacques Dessalines.

When Toussaint Louverture was fighting, they didn't understand him. And 
when, by the same token, Charlemagne Peralte, they didn't understand 
the fight of Peralte and the U.S. marines killed more than 50,000 
people who were known as Cacos opposing the American occupation of 
Haiti.

After many years, they came to see that Peralte, was a man of the 
struggle, was a man among militants, who was defending the Haitian 
population. For that reason the U.S. marines killed him. 

It is for that reason that today, us, we are struggling, but this for a 
people who are in misery.

KP: The U.N. and the U.S.-installed government portray you and Dread 
Wilmer as unintelligent thugs and gangsters. That you are devoid of any 
political agenda and are merely common criminals. How do you respond to 
them?

AD: Today, they say that Dread Wilme and I are "criminals" without any 
intelligence.

And everyone must think that the death of Dread Wilme was something 
that would bring peace to the country.

We proved to them that Dread Wilme was never ever a bandit, never a 
criminal, the same way as me, I was never a bandit, I was never a 
criminal.

We are political militants who are struggling to defend our rights, and 
to defend the rights of everyone and especially the people of Cite 
Soleil.

In this country, in the country of Haiti, everyone who is struggling to 
defend their rights, they always demonize them through name-calling. 
They call them "criminals," they call them "assassins." Just as they 
did to Dread and they are doing against me and other Cite Soleil 
militants today.

But if we were in the interests of the bourgeoisie sector, with 
MINUSTAH, if that were the case, then we would be cast as "good 
people," we would be the "best people" for them. It's total hypocrisy 
and propaganda to justify the slaughter.

We are not fighting for the interests of the U.N. and the sector of the 
bourgeoisie they are propping up. We put the misery of the Haitian 
people foremost in our interests and struggle for them. It is for that 
reason that they treat us as criminals and assassins and are trying to 
destroy us.

Criminals cannot survive in Cite Soleil because an already abused 
people will not accept more abuse. If we are able to survive today it 
is because the population in Cite Soleil supports us because they know 
we are defending their interests. If they are calling us "poor 
criminals" then fine, because we are in misery, so they are right but 
we are not criminals. What is criminal is that the U.N. works with the 
very same sector of our society that created this misery in Cite Soleil 
in the first place. If they define opposing this crime as banditry, 
then we ask them to really look at Haitian history. Didn't the U.S. 
marines call Charlemagne Peralte and the Cacos "bandits" because they 
opposed the foreign occupation of Haitian soil? We, in Cite Soleil, who 
are fighting are trying to change the conditions of the people in Cite 
Soleil.

KP: What impact does the memory of the slaughter committed against the 
people of Cite Soleil by the military following the 1991 coup against 
Aristide serve today? Has it had an impact and does it reflect in your 
struggle today?

AD: The massacres of the military, the ex-military, the Haitian army, 
that were committed against Cite Soleil. That had a large impact. 
Because there were many people that died or lost their families.

There are many people, who have never seen justice for the acts 
perpetrated by military. And today people see what MINUSTAH is 
perpetrating as a similar thing. People are being shot and killed 
everyday for no reason other than to inspire terror in the population. 
To force them to accept the kidnapping of their president

It is for that reason that we are always demonstrating to demand 
justice for the people of Cite Soleil. It is only here today that 
people can demonstrate for Aristide's return without being killed by 
the police. Instead the terror of the police has been replaced by the 
terror of indiscriminant firing by the U.N. troops. And yet we still 
continue to demonstrate. It is this they fear the most.

KP: What about the Haitian elite and the role you say they have played 
in keeping the people of Cite Soleil in misery?

AD: Where there is Dr. Reginald Boulos today? He is now the president 
of the Haitian Chamber of Commerce and yet it was he who killed close 
to 25 children in Cite Soleil. He made money by distributing a cough 
syrup that was called "Ephemil." Was he never brought to justice for 
the deaths of those children? No, instead he is being rewarded for his 
role in overthrowing our democratically elected president. This is not 
justice.

It is for that reason that we are demonstrating like this and 
accompanying the population in their search for justice and a way out 
of misery. And again, the bourgeoisie and MINUSTAH will label anyone 
who defends the interests of the people as common assassins and 
criminals.

And we say, we are not assassins, we are not criminals. We are 
political militants, who are defending the rights of the population of 
Cite Soleil, the rights for all of the Haitian people who are suffering 
in misery today.

And it is for that reason that we are struggling, but we will never be 
criminals, never, ever.

KP: What about July 6, 2005 when U.N. forces killed Dread Wilmer and 
the accusations that unarmed civilians were killed as well?

The U.N. does deny it ever happened but MINUSTAH committed that 
genocide inside of Cite Soleil. It is a crime worse than the Haitian 
army did inside Cite Soleil [after the coup of 1991 and 2004]. Now 
MINUSTAH blames Lavalas militants...that Lavalas militants killed 
people who were happy that Dread was killed or who were informants 
against the people's interests. That's nonsense!! We would never do 
that because Lavalas depends upon the people, depends upon the 
population. If the U.N. cannot control Cite Soleil today it is because 
the majority still believe in the ideals of the Lavalas struggle and 
that means the poor have as many rights as the bourgeoisie.

They make the incredible claim that there were people inside Cite 
Soleil who celebrated the death of comrade Dread Wilme. I don't believe 
that such people exist in Cite Soleil and it was a fabrication to cover 
up the slaughter by U.N. forces on July 6. Just walk around and ask 
anyone here and they will recite for you the good works that Dread 
Wilme always did on behalf of the poor in Cite Soleil.

I worked closely together with Dread, me, Amaral. We worked together to 
help keep the people of Cite Soleil alive.

But with the complicity of MINUSTAH along with the bourgeoisie sector, 
they were able to kill Dread Wilme. They were able to kill close to 60 
people in Cite Soleil when they assassinated him and four other 
militants.

We always keep Dread Wilme alive in our memory. It is for that reason 
that the population accompanied us, to the point where we succeeded in 
inaugurating Dread Wilme Boulevard. The community worked together to 
dedicate a street in his name. Everyone in Cite Soleil contributed to 
this effort.

KP: But they continue to say Wilmer was an assassin and a criminal.

AD: If Dread were a criminal, if he was an assassin, the population 
would never, never, ever, have held such a beautiful funeral in his 
memory in Cite Soleil. His funeral reflected his life and his 
sacrifice. And when we look at the funeral of Dread Wilme...we saw it 
was an extraordinary thing [referring to the huge droves of people who 
attended]. It was in this same spirit of sacrifice for the interests of 
the poor that Dread was commemorated by renaming the street of Bwa Neuf 
as Boulevard Dread Wilmer. A criminal in Cite Soleil would never have 
been bestowed with such glory. We will continue our struggle in his 
memory and the U.N. nor the bourgeoisie can ever take that experience 
away from the Haitian people.

KP: What about the upcoming elections? Do you support them?

AD: Yes, we support them if the Haitian people support them. They will 
try to blame us for any violence that happens but the truth is we want 
this nightmare to be over. The only way to do that is through these 
elections. Now, Latortue and his government and the movement to oust 
Aristide have put many of their family members and cronies in more than 
12,000 civil service jobs throughout Haiti. These were jobs that were 
given to poor people to give them a chance to rise above poverty under 
Aristide. They were fired after the coup. Those who replaced them are 
afraid of losing those jobs while the wealthy elite and those who 
participated in the kidnapping of Aristide have their own reasons to 
create violence to destabilize the election process. We say clearly 
that the people of Haiti should be allowed to decide for themselves 
whether or not to vote and participate in these elections. We will 
accompany and help to protect those who wish to vote. The repression 
must stop and we must turn the page on this nightmare and hell for the 
poor in Haiti.

KP: Thank you Amaral.

AD: You're welcome.



Claude Marks
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia St
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977