[News] HAITI ACTION alert: please write the SF Chronicle

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Please take a moment to send a brief letter to the San Francisco
Chronicle responding to their awful article "New president in Haiti
liberates citizens with crackdown on crime" (Dec.3 ), which perpetuates
lies such as the following: "In the past, some human rights activists
have accused U.N. peacekeepers of firing indiscriminately during
anti-gang crackdowns....U.N. officials, however, deny firing on
civilians and argue that an early exit would leave Haiti vulnerable to
gang resurgence." For the complete article, go to
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/03/MNRDTHENC.DTL&hw=haiti&sn=001&sc=1000>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/03/MNRDTHENC.DTL&hw=haiti&sn=001&sc=1000 


Letters should be under 200 words and sent to
<mailto:letters at sfchronicle.com>letters at sfchronicle.com


The Chronicle article looks at a narrow spectrum of violence in Haiti
with little historical perspective.

As is often the case with mainstream coverage of Haiti, some of the
more glaring problems with the piece are what it doesn't say: why the
UN mission was put in place (to legitimize the 2004 coup), who is
responsible for the overwhelming majority of violence against poor
people in Haiti (UN troops, police, paramilitaries, thugs freed from
jail by coup figures), and the overwhelmingly pro-Lavalas nature of
Cite Soleil and other poor neighborhoods.

Nor does it address the root problems of the misery in Cite Soleil:
peasants moved off their land as a result of "Washington consensus"
economic policies, then systematically denied basic human rights by
the same rightist elites behind the kidnapping of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the overthrow of his democratically elected
government.


SAMPLE LETTER:
Re "New president in Haiti liberates citizens with crackdown on crime"
(Dec. 3): your coverage should address the broader context of violence
in Haiti. You should also acknowledge the overwhelming evidence of
repeated UN killings of unarmed Haitian civilians.

You do not mention that the Bush Administration (along with France and
Canada) helped orchestrate the 2004 coup which ousted the
democratically-elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.   Instead
of attacking poor neighborhoods with military assaults, as the UN
regime in Haiti has done since 2004, Aristide worked hard to advance
social programs to provide jobs and opportunities for those destitute
neighborhoods.  He was undercut at every turn by Washington.

MINUSTAH, the UN mission, was put in place to legitimize the February
2004 coup which was carried out with the direct support of the U.S.,
France, and Canada.

The U.S.-backed paramilitaries who participated in the 2004 coup freed
imprisoned right-wing death squad operative.  These killers are still
free.  Why not mention their role terrorizing Haiti's poor majority,
which still supports the return of forcibly expelled President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide from South Africa? The UN has never made a
serious attempt to disarm paramilitaries working against Aristide's
Lavalas party base, by far the largest political grouping in Haiti.


++++
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON UN IN HAITI:
Eyewitnesses Describe Massacre by UN Troops in Haitian Slum
July 11, 2005
<http://www.democracynow.org/2005/7/11/eyewitnesses_describe_massacre_by_un_troops>http://www.democracynow.org/2005/7/11/eyewitnesses_describe_massacre_by_un_troops

+++++
October 4, 2007
The UN Occupation Continues
<http://www.counterpunch.org/terrall10042007.html>http://www.counterpunch.org/terrall10042007.html
By Ben Terrall

+++++
<http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HAC/10_14_6/10_14_6.html>http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HAC/10_14_6/10_14_6.html 

Thousands march in Haiti demanding end to reign of terror
by Dave Welsh - Haiti Action Committee

++++++++++

Haiti: Revelations of UN's role in massacres
Flashpoints Radio transcript — January 23 2007
<http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/1_29_7.html>http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/1_29_7.html
++++++

2 minute trailer for Kevin Pina's documentary Haiti: We Must Kill the Bandits:
<http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/5_8_7/5_8_7.html>http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/5_8_7/5_8_7.html
Eyewitnesses Describe Massacre by UN Troops in Haitian Slum




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/20071206/b1d5d5b1/attachment.htm>