[News] Haiti - Hope and Humiliation
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Thu May 18 13:18:19 EDT 2006
Hope and Humiliation: May 18, 2006 and the
Inaugural of President Rene Preval by Marguerite Laurent
Today, May 18, 2006 is Flag Day in Haiti. It's a
time to remember why the African general, general
Jean Jacques Dessalines took the tri-colored
French flag, ripped out the white and threw it
into the sea, leaving our flag, blue, and the
red. It's a time to remember why the emblem
engraved in the coat of arms of Haiti is "L'union
Fait La Force" “in unity lies our strength”.
It's a time to remember that after 300 years of
European barbarity in Haiti Haiti, the first
place Africans where transported as European
captives for the "New World" - that on May 18,
1803, after beating the armies of Great Britain,
Spain, France and the embargo and arms of the US
white settlers, the Africans, who became
"Haitian," in the land of the Taino-Arawaks
Amerindians had, with this great feat, even
Spartacus couldn’t achieved, liberated the sons
and daughters of Africa, eviscerating the white
men's fatalistic idea that the child of a Black
woman was lesser than that of the white men.
HLLN created a flag for the FreeHaitiMovement
which represents this Haitian struggle against
tyranny that continues to this day, May 18, 2006, some two centuries later.
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/solidarityday/infoforsponsors.html
We take this opportunity to thank all those who
have ANSWERED THE CALL and joined the list of
sponsors to the FreeHaitiMovement.- Dessalines Is Rising Worldwide
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/law/res2006.html .
Today, May 18, 2006 and throughout the rest of
the month, in countries in Africa, Europe, Asia
and the Americas, decent people worldwide will
stand in solidarity with the people of Haiti
against the Coup, the de facto protectorate and
the foreign occupation of Haiti.
There will be teach-ins, rallies and lectures
before and on May 18, 2006 about Haiti's
historical accomplishments; vigils, pickets
outside embassies and U.N. buildings; audio and
video streaming for internet and DVD distribution
of testimony from victims and resisters of the
2004 coup d'etat; the wearing and flying of the
blue and red colors of Haiti; and, the sacrilege
of the 2004 bicentennial coup, shall be
remembered as Africans and friends of Haiti
worldwide commit to fax, call-in and deliver to
French and US Embassies and Consulates worldwide
the People of Haiti’s demand that France pays
back the 22 Billion dollars it extorted from
Haiti, and the US pays back its portion of this
illegal slave-trade debt which was “refinanced”
by the US in 1914 (enforced, through a 19-year
occupation), the final payment made in 1947 to
the United States, after Haiti’s people had
broken the chains of racial slavery to win their independence.
The year, 2006, also marks the 200th anniversary
of the death of Haiti's liberator, general Jean
Jacques Dessalines. Pro-democracy Haitians
worldwide shall continue to call on the vision of
Dessalines for Haitians as we struggle to
liberate Haiti of its current France/US/Canada
and UN occupiers. HLLN will culminate our
year-long celebration of the life and works of
Dessalines, on Oct 17, 2006, the day marking the
first coup d'etat in Haiti and Dessalines assassination.
Haitians have live through and survived 33-such
coup d'etats as part and parcel of the legacy of
struggle against Euro/US debt, domination and dependency.
The February 29, 2004 coup d'etat against Haiti's
democratically elected president, Jean Bertrand
Aristide continues to this day, as Haitian
sovereignty continues to be humiliated by the
white saviors and their Black overseers in Haiti
- Haiti's morally repugnant wealthy few.
The imperialist and their Black overseers say
Haiti is a failed state and they will save us.
20,000 Haitians have died, over 4,000 are in
prison, there are children jails now in Haiti,
something Haitians have never had before. And
though the people of Haiti continue to resist
this tyranny, have elected and fought for the
speedy installation of President Rene Preval to
office. The repression continues.
One only has to analyze the May 14, 2006
Presidential inaugural events to understand how
both hope and humiliation still vie for a place in the Haitian psyche.
Hope, of course, is represented by the Haitian
peoples' courage, commitment and living legacy as
pioneers in the human rights struggle for life
with dignity. Humiliation as represented by the
presence of foreign troops to Haiti to install
the Latortue death regime. Humiliation as
represented by the fact that these Neocon
fascists even controlled the inaugural day of the
people's new president. Humiliation as
represented by the fact that since the ouster of
Haiti's democratically elected President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, there has been systematic
repression of the people and their voice in
Haiti. Humiliation in that, even as President
Preval officially took power, two months after
his election, the claws of the coup d'etat
vampires are so deep inside the backs of the
Haitian poor, Haiti still cannot liberate Yvon
Neptune, So Ann, Jacques Mathelier and thousands
of others who have languished in
Canada/US/France-supported indefinite incarceration on Dessaline's land.
Even though President Preval has taken power,
there is still a gun to Haiti's head. A gun held
by the coup d'etat governments of the US, France,
Canada, with the UN as their "peacekeeping"
cover. There is no justice in Haiti. For Haitians
cannot forget all of Latortue’s human rights
violations, will not forget the 20,000 Haitians
slaughtered since Feb. 29, 2004 and 4,000 in
prison, mostly all political prisoners; cannot
forget the multinationals, NGOs, foreigners and
IFCs’ fleecing Haiti these last two coup d’etat
years and calling it “bringing development, justice and democracy.”
It wasn't an easy job for these folks to turn
Haiti back to this miserable level. But, as
President Preval stated in his inaugural speech -
and HLLN takes the liberty of forgetting the
double entendres, high-society proprieties and
diplomatic protocols, to say what a manacled
President perhaps cannot and even may not have
intended to say but we, HLLN say, on behalf of
the people of Haiti who were not INVITED to the
inaugural of the President they elected, that "it
wasn't easy but the illegal Boniface Alexandre,
Gerard Latortue, their cabinet members and their
illegal Provisional Electoral Council did
EVERYTHING they could to undermine the people of
Haiti, so Haiti could get to this point of
humiliation, this point of insanity, bloodshed
and chaos that it is today.” It was not easy, but
they had powerful US/Canada/France/UN guns behind them to push Haiti to here:
HERE where Prosper Avril, a former general who
escaped two years ago from the National
Penitentiary where he was being held as a threat
to national security, had a front row seat, while
Rene Civil, who HLLN is told, allegedly had a
letter of invitation in his hand to attend the
inaugural, was illegally arrested, on the Friday
(May 12, 2006) before the inaugural, at the border of the Dominican Republic.
So, at Preval’s inauguration, Proper Avril was
out of prison and in a front row seat of the
Legislative Palace. So Ann, Yvon Neptune and
thousands of political prisoners, with no human
rights violation records, still languish in jail.
That’s where we-Haitians are.
HERE where we hear an unconfirmed report that
even Louis Jodel Chamblain attended the inaugural.
HERE where the Haitian people’s duly chosen
President has no control of the police force, the
UN soldiers, not even the National Palace.
BUT, but, in spite of all of the Boca Raton
regime and their powerful Western supporter’s
undemocratic efforts, the people of Haiti still won back the presidency.
This folks, is how the Haitian Lawyers Leadership
Network explains the comment made by President
Rene Preval at the inaugural that:
“
President Boniface Alexandre, Prime Minister
Gerard Latortue, cabinet members [applause], you
have done EVERYTHING you could so Haiti could get
to this point. It was not easy, but we got here. [Applause]
Members of the Provisional Electoral Council, your job was not easy,
either. Since 1987, elections in Haiti have been trouble. The first
one ended in blood. Most of the others ended in challenges. These
elections also had their problems, but everybody acknowledges that
there was no violence. The people participated en masse, and
everybody acknowledges the results. [Applause] “
Our work at HLLN is to give voice to the
voiceless people of Haiti, a voice not often
found in the mainstream press or the powerful
citadels of power on this planet. That the Boca
Raton regime did everything to destroy justice,
democracy and anyone associated with the
Constitutional governement of Haiti is
undisputable. Fortunately, like the Haitian
people outside the inaugural halls, who came to
make their presence known, their grievances
heard, HLLN also has no diplomatic need or
practical reasons to couch this truth behind
double entendres or diplomatic protocols.
But, true also, is the fact that, even as there
is hope today in Haiti, we are still being
humiliated as a people, a nation. That is why
when HLLN ponders at what point are we-Haitians
in the struggle today for self-determination,
self-respect, self-defense and national
sovereignty, we singled out the noted paragraph
from President Preval’s inaugural speech and ask:
Is President Preval being held prisoner in plain
sight without the bars, for instance, locking in
So Ann and Yvon Neptune? Is Preval unable to
freely speak? Is that what we fought for? Or, in
the alternative, if President Preval meant to
freely praise the Boca Raton regime for “doing
everything” to get us “to this point” - to this
repression point that continues right up to this
very moment, is that what we all fought for?
It doesn’t take much thinking to figure out why
the double entendre. Why President Preval, who is
hobbled by the events of the coup d’etat, the
presence of a police force trained by Haiti’s
enemies, backed by UN guns, is limited. The
humiliating part we are in right now as a nation
is that Haiti is under domination and pretending
to be electing a president, hoping we can
transform the dynamics of the situation: buy
ourselves breathing room, stop the killings, free
the political prisoners, get the return of
President Aristide, alleviate the people’s total
repression since the 2004 coup d’etat.
The inaugural of President Rene Preval is one
step in this direction. For that hope, Haiti has
paid with the lives of over 20,000 of its sons
and daughters and continues to pay, as at least
12 political prisoners are reported to have been
killed by the defacto police with UN firepower
cover just hours before President Preval’s inaugural.
Haiti’s humiliation continues this May 18, 2006.
But Haitians know how to fight US/Euro containment-in-poverty.
Those of us who stand without shackles, like the
Haitians in the Haitian Lawyers Leadership
Network, owe our success and survival to this legacy.
We teach our children, the example of Prime
Minister Yvon Neptune, that NO, it is not
alright to reconcile with injustice. We teach our
children what Dred Wilme and the people of Site
Soley, Bel Air, Solino, Martissant and all over
Haiti have taught the world these last two
nightmarish years, NO, it is not acceptable to
"get along on our knees" rather than telling the
truth because that would mean risking losing a
job, a social status, even prison or a bullet in the head.
On this May 18, 2006, Haitians worldwide
will continue teaching these values, celebrating
our roots, Dessalines legacy, Catherine Fon’s
flag and the Ancestors “live free or die”
principle and heavy example. Our ancestors would
not reconcile with injustice. Even if they died
for this, they would not accept injustice.
Are today’s Haitians to live in discord with the
legacy the African Ancestors left us in Haiti?
No. Haitians cannot and still BE “Haitian.”
There is a humiliation still to be erased in this
current coup d’etat struggle. President Preval
has begun the process on behalf of the people of Haiti at his inaugural.
THERE, he made three critical points.
MINUSTHA was clearly informed Haiti prefers
tractors and bulldozers to MINUSTHA’s heavy
weapons, armored vehicles and war tanks. The
speech was entirely in Kreyol. This is a first
for Haiti, has never been done before to anyone’s
memory and is CRITICALLY significant to Haitians.
BUT, equally and the most satisfying action of
President Preval at the inaugural, what made
us-Haitians feel he is OURS, was the way
President Preval dexterously and without fanfare,
skipped “the propriety” of having Boniface place
the presidential sash on him. This says much to
Haitians and pro-democracy advocates. It rejects
and soothes our many wounds since Feb. 29, 2004.
Still, the repression continues and is
suffocating us. Haiti is still not free. That is
why today, May 18, 2006 is also International
Solidarity Day with Haiti. And why people of
conscience worldwide will be flying the blue and
red colors of Haiti’s liberty to support our
struggle and let the poor majority in Haiti know: YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
Today May 18, 2006 is better than the last two
flag days we have had, in 2004 and 2005. Again,
this year we remember the Haitian woman who
face-off the US Marines’ guns and refused to give
them the body of the unarmed Haitian demonstrator
that was shot, in cold blood, in front of said
“peacekeepers” with impunity. We remember how, on
that May 18, 2004 day, this anonymous Haitian
woman, refused to give up to fallen body of this
demonstrator. She took off all her clothes,
staring down the US Marines tanks and guns, to
show them she was not armed. Then, she wrapped
her naked body up in a large Haitian flag,
hoisting up the dead man upon her back, walking
off with him on her back, daring the “peacemakers” to shoot her.
This exemplifies Haiti’s “to live free or die”
motto. It is why Haitians celebrate Flag Day. It
is why today, we pro-democracy Haitians, we too
hoist on our back the 20,000 dead since the coup
d’etat, the thousands still in prison, the 33
coup d’etat’s, the 200 years of
containment-in-poverty and before that, the 300
years of slavery. Haitians are a strong people
and hoist all of this on our back. We may buckle
down under the weight, nou plie pa case, but we
shall NEVER reconcile with injustice.
On Flag Day 2004, at least 9 unarmed
demonstrators were shot dead fighting for Haiti’s
liberty. On Flag Day 2005, Sanel Joseph lost his
life, along with many others. Today Flag Day
2006, we hope no Haitian life is lost. We hope
that the inaugural of President Preval will mean
Haitians will stop getting killed by organized, state-sponsored forces.
At Preval's inaugural the crowd outside were
chanting “arrest Boniface and Latortue” and
remembering how, after the September 30th
killings of unarmed demonstrators, Latortue said
“We shot them, some of them fell, others were injured, others ran away
”
We-Haitians who commit to protect the Feb. 7th
vote, who discount the polemics aimed at “the
gallery,” and international community during
inaugural, we who congratulate President Rene
Preval for safely traversing the dangerous coup
d’etat gauntlet set for his team to bridge at the
inaugural, we find, May 18, 2006 is a good time
to ask, “Did you hear Mr. President, the PUBLIC
CLAMOR for the arrest of Boniface and Latortue?
When, sir, will the political prisoners be free? “
The people of Haiti voted for President Preval in
order to wipe out the humiliation of Feb. 29,
2004. The crowd outside told the world, at
Preval’s inaugural, what must be done for Haiti’s humiliation to be assuaged?
It is wonderful that President Preval has
officially been inaugurated, taken power. But,
according to the wishes of Haiti’s majority, who
elected President Preval to office, justice must
be done. The people, as documented by the
reporters on the scene at the inaugural, were
requesting the arrest of Boniface and Latortue,
asking for the release of the political prisoners
and that MINUSTHA stop killing the people along
with the Haitian police. But, for Haiti’s
humiliation to be assuaged, for that to be done,
the return of President Aristide to Haitian soil
is the only event Haiti’s majority poor FEEL
will BEGIN to erase the total humiliation Haiti
has suffered, at the hands of the US, Canada, France and the UN, since 2004
Respect,
Marguerite Laurent, Esq.
Chair and Founder, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
May 18, 2006
The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20060518/39670c0e/attachment.htm>
More information about the News
mailing list