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<font size=3><br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>NEW AFRIKAN
MILLENNIUM<br>
24 JULY 2004<br><br>
FROM: ANC Today<br>
Volume 4, No. 29 . <br>
23-29 July 2004<br><br>
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LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT<br>
<b>“Haiti after the Press went home”<br><br>
</b>There was another important July birthday that passed in our country
without public notice. But no so in Haiti, where thousands of people took
to the streets bearing<br>
placards carrying the words - "Bonne Féte President Titid" -
Happy Birthday President Titid.<br><br>
The birthday demonstrators also demanded the return of Titid - President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, an honoured guest in our country. Titid,
"little Aristide", is the<br>
affectionate Creole nickname given to President Aristide by the poor of
his country. He quietly celebrated his 51st birthday in our country on
July 15.<br><br>
Where our people did not join him in these celebrations because they did
not know it was his birthday, the people of Haiti did not forget. But
they could not join him<br>
because circumstances had taken him and his family far away from his
beloved motherland.<br><br>
On July 15, CNN reported that, "Aristide supporters, singing
'happy birthday', marched with empty plates and spoons to show they were
hungry.<br><br>
"If Aristide was here, we would be celebrating with him and eat with
him at the national palace on his birthday today," said Michele
Sanon, a resident of the Cité Soleil<br>
slum."<br><br>
Reuters reported that on the very day that President Aristide quietly
celebrated his 51st birthday and the slum dwellers marched in protest at
his absence, gunmen killed<br>
two policemen in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince,having fired on a group
of police officers standing in the street. The authorities said the
attack was politically motivated.<br><br>
Port-au-Prince Police Commissioner Harry Beauport said, "We firmly
believe the police are being targeted, because we have noted a series of
attacks against our policemen,<br>
several of them deadly."<br><br>
The news agency said, "With rebel forces still in control of many
areas of the country, tensions between police and rebels have been rising
in recent weeks. Rebel leaders<br>
have criticized government plans to disarm their soldiers, a move that
would leave Haitian police and United Nations peacekeepers in charge of
security in the country. <br>
The rebels, many of whom are former members of the Haitian army disbanded
by Aristide in the mid-1990s, have demanded the creation of a new
army."<br><br>
As much as they did not know of President Aristide's birthday, our people
will be ignorant of all this and much else that is happening in Haiti.
They will not have had<br>
access to the June 21st article written by a Haitian, Lucson
Pierre-Charles, entitled "Haiti After the Press Went Home: Chaos
Upon Chaos".<br><br>
Evidently the US and other journalists, who had come to Haiti in the
period preceding the removal of President Aristide on February 29th, went
home soon after the<br>
President was taken out of his country. Pierre-Charles writes that,
"The country is descending into chaos and to have a better
understanding of what lies ahead, one needs<br>
to look no further than to the latest travel warning for Haiti issued by
the Bureau of Consular Affairs at the State Department.<br><br>
"According to that statement, the situation in Haiti remains un
predictable and potentially dangerous despite the presence of foreign
security forces. This warning followed<br>
a report issued in early May by the United Nations reaching a similar
conclusion."<br><br>
He continues, "The security apparatus is on the verge of collapsing
due to the proliferation of small arms, the mere presence of the heavily
armed rebels and Aristide <br>
loyalists, the increasing gang activities, the rampant rise in
kidnappings and the release of 3,000 prisoners by Guy Philippe and his
squads following the ouster of <br>
Mr. Aristide. Some of the rebels will be integrated into the police force
despite the fact that they killed a great number of policemen and burned
down police headquarters <br>
in the lead up to the coup.<br><br>
"In most parts of the country, they appointed themselves as mayors,
police chiefs and judges. (One report says 6,000 elected officials have
been removed and replaced <br>
by self-appointed individuals.) Under Mr. Aristide's leadership, the
police force was often criticized for being too heavily politicized.
Under (the) technocratic administration <br>
(installed after the removal of President Aristide), the police force
will consist of convicted human rights abusers, murderers, rapists, thugs
and death squads who have <br>
committed some of the worst atrocities during the first coup in
1991."<br><br>
On May 4th, a 9-person Labor/ Religious/Community Fact-Finding Delegation
visited Haiti. Sent by the San Francisco Labor Council, it included US
and Canadian trade<br>
unionists, religious leaders and human rights activists. It reported
that:<br><br>
"The coup which deposed President Aristide has led to a serious wave
of attacks and persecutions of supporters of President Aristide and his
Fanmi Lavalas Party. <br>
The delegation heard testimony from an elected Member of Parliament for
the Fanmi Lavalas who is living in hiding, having been driven out of his
town under gunfire. <br>
Other political leaders and known activists have also been forced into
hiding, living underground, fearing the death threats and violence
directed at supporters of the ousted <br>
government. Despite its obvious popularity, the Fanmi Lavalas movement is
not currently able to have political demonstrations or otherwise take
open political action <br>
due to the threat of attack.<br><br>
"The (new administration).has not provided security for those
currently mos tat risk. The names of Lavalas supporters - and even those
suspected of being Lavalas <br>
supporters - are being read off on right-wing radio stations as an
implicit threat. Neither the coup regime nor its international backers
have taken action to contain what <br>
many Haitians refer to as an anti-Lavalas "witch hunt" that
continues to this day."<br><br>
A US human rights activist and College Professor who has been visiting
Haiti since 1977, Tom Reeves, wrote on May 5, "The very same para -
military and former <br>
Army officers who terrorized Haiti during the previous (1991) coup are
doing so today. Their victims are mostly the poor and their popular
organizations who <br>
supported (and still support) President Aristide and Fanmi Lavalas. We
interviewed many of these victims who said they recognized their
tormentors (and in one case <br>
rapists) as the same men who had victimized them a decade ago. Among
those terrorizing Haiti today are many common criminals who were let out
of the National <br>
penitentiary by the "rebels," as well as major convicted human
rights abusers and mass murderers like Jodel Chamblain and Jean
"Tatoune." "<br><br>
The "previous coup" to which Reeves refers took place in 1991,
when the Haiti military seized power and forced the elected President
Aristide into exile. The then <br>
US government, opposed to unconstitutional changes of government,
assisted him to return to power in 1994. On resuming his term as
President, he dissolved the <br>
Army, leaving the civilian police to be responsible for national
security.<br><br>
Oscar Arias, the former President of Costa Rica, was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1987. Disturbed by the reappearance of the soldiers who
had carried out the <br>
1991 coup d'etat, and the demands that the Haitian army, dissolved in
1995, should be reconstituted, he spoke out on March 15.<br><br>
He observed that one Guy Philippe had been quoted by "The Washington
Post" saying, "I am the chief, the military chief. The country
is in my hands." He wrote:<br><br>
"Nothing could more clearly prove why Haiti does not need an army
than the boasting of rebel leader Guy Philippe the other day in
Port-au-Prince. The Haitian army <br>
was abolished nine years ago during a period of democratic transition,
precisely to prevent the country from falling back into the hands of
military men.<br><br>
"Like so many countries in the Third World, Haiti has suffered not
only from a lack of national security in the sense of borders and
territorial integrity but also from an <br>
ongoing crisis of human security, the right of each person to live in
peace and with the guarantee of basic rights such as food, health care,
education and citizenship.<br><br>
"The army, long an instrument of suppressive authoritarian regimes,
has historically deprived Haitians of these fundamental rights.<br><br>
"The abolition of the army makes as much sense today as it did in
1995. The Haitian people still need their government to spend its
precious few resources on fighting <br>
poverty, not buying arms. They need a professional, de-politicized police
force to maintain order, not an army that attacks its own people with
impunity. They need a <br>
say in their country's destiny, not subjugation to the rule of men with
guns.<br><br>
"Were the international community now to stand by as the rebels
reinstated the army, it would surely destroy the seeds of peace and
self-rule that have been planted <br>
with great sacrifice by the Haitian people."<br><br>
Guy Philippe was a death squad leader under the Duvaliers and a member of
the FRAPH we mention below. He was taken into the police when the army
was dissolved <br>
in 1995. Human Rights Watch says that police under his command summarily
executed people they arrested. Discovered to be planning a coup d'etat in
2000, he fled to<br>
the neighboring Dominican Republic.<br><br>
Here he linked up with other killers of the Duvalier period, including
Louis Jodel Chamblain, Jean Pierre Baptiste, who calls himself General
Tatoune,and the leader of<br>
the 1991 coup d'etat, Emmanuel 'Toto' Constant.<br><br>
Of Chamblain and Baptiste, the February 29 edition of the "San
Francisco Chronicle" (SFC) said Chamblain is "a former army
officer who later headed the Front for<br>
the Advancement of the Haitian People or FRAPH, a paramilitary
organization responsible for thousands of murders of Aristide followers
in the early 1990s.<br><br>
"Baptiste and Chamblain were convicted in absentia for massacring
25Aristide supporters in a seaside slum known as Raboteau in the northern
city of Gonaives in <br>
1994."<br><br>
As he and his fellow "rebels" marched on Port-au-Prince in
February,Chamblain, as quoted by the SFC, said: "The army was
demobilized. Now the army has been<br>
remobilized and is a constitutional army. Aristide has two choices:
prison or execution by firing squad."<br><br>
Concerned at what might happen when they succeeded to overthrow the
democratic government of Haiti, Deputy Director of the Americas Division
of Human Rights<br>
Watch, Joanne Mariner, said: "These men, notorious for killings and
other abuses during the military government, must not be allowed to take
violent reprisals against <br>
government loyalists."<br><br>
The SFC also reported that while Guy Philippe served in the leadership of
the Haiti police, he and his colleagues from the former Duvalier army
"began collecting <br>
bribes for the drugs that easily pass through this nation of 8 million
people. Internal reports from foreign observers found that the 'Latinos'
routinely gave gifts to <br>
politicians and once squeezed the government into exiling its former
inspector general after the seizure of more than three-quarters of
a ton of cocaine implicated the <br>
men."<br><br>
It is no wonder that Tom Reeves even in 2003, after Philippe and others
hadstarted their violent campaign against the Aristide government, could
quote a young man <br>
of Cap-Haitien as saying, "It's the army I really despise. At least
now I can sit here with my friends and complain. Under the military, I
would be shot. When I saw <br>
Himmler leading the demonstration by the Convergence last November, I was
really scared."<br><br>
Reeves wrote that, "The aptly named Himmler is Himmler Rebu, a
former army officer who has been involved in several coup
attempts."<br><br>
Those, like Rebu, who prepared the putch that led to the removal of the
government of Haiti in 2004, carried out a violent provocation at a
university on December <br>
5, 2003, which they proceeded to blame on Lavalas.<br><br>
The US journalist and documentary filmmaker, Kevin Pina, Associate Editor
of "The Black Commentator" wrote: "In the wake of the
fabricated events of December 5, <br>
the Haitian government and Lavalas endured weeks of clandestine attacks,
while the opposition demonstrated under heavy police
protection.<br><br>
"Then, on December 26, the great silent beast of Haiti's poor,
portrayed as violent and anti-democratic by the Haitian press and their
friends in the international <br>
corporate media, awakened. Tens of thousands of Lavalas supporters hit
the streets with a singular purpose and objective: that Haiti's
constitution be respected and <br>
President Aristide be allowed to fulfill his five-year term in
office.<br><br>
"The real battle had just begun, as Haiti's long-oppressed millions
prepared to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the world's only
successful slave revolution and the<br>
first black republic."<br><br>
Michele Sanon who demonstrated in Port-au-Prince on July 15 to celebrate
her President's birthday and demand his return, carrying an empty plate
and a spoon, is <br>
part of "the great silent beast of Haiti's poor" of which Pina
wrote. She, like many among Haiti's urban and rural poor, see President
Aristide as their very own Titid.<br><br>
One other of her Lavalas leaders is Annette Auguste, who was
arrested on May10, on the pretext that she was involved in the
December 5 events. She sent out a <br>
message on May 23 from Pétionville Penitentiary, where she was
detained.<br><br>
For us, her words recall a time, which is not so long ago, when we too
had to fight for our liberation. She wrote:<br><br>
<b><i>"While I have been forced to sit in this jail cell I have also
seen the cynicism of some within our party, brought about by this
campaign of repression, intimidation <br>
and assassination. I understand their fear, as I am myself a victim of
this campaign whose purpose is to destroy our hope and aspirations for
building a Haiti where <br>
the poor are not simple tools upon which to build dreams of personal
empire and wealth.<br><br>
"I send you all my love and gratitude for remaining strong in
separating the lies from the truth in Haiti's current situation. I send
you all my blessings as a free <br>
Haitian woman fighting for the rights of the impoverished majority in my
homeland.<br><br>
"They may imprison my body but they will never imprison the truth I
know in my soul. I will continue to fight for justice and truth in Haiti
until I draw my last <br>
breath."<br><br>
</i></b>Annette Auguste's moving message draws attention to the real
nature of the struggle in Haiti, which the working people of that
country, the slum dwellers who <br>
demand the return of President Aristide, understand very well.<br><br>
>From his election in 1990, President Aristide and other patriots have
been engaged in a complex and difficult struggle to establish the stable
democratic system that <br>
has eluded the First Black Republic since its birth 200 years ago. They
have also sought to ensure that this new democracy should address the
interests of the majority <br>
of the people, the black urban and rural poor.<br><br>
An adherent of Liberation Theology, together with such outstanding
progressive thinkers within the Roman Catholic Church as Helder Camara,
Gustavo Gutiérrez, <br>
Oscar Romero, Ernesto Cardenal and Erwin Kräutler, President Aristide
would have been inspired by such Biblical teachings as:<br><br>
<ul>
<li><i>"He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the
proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty
from their seats,
and
exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things;
and the rich he hath sent empty away." (Luke 1: 51-53.)</i>
</ul><br>
Opposed to the related political and social outcomes President Aristide
sought are sections of the population of Haiti, which have historically
been the beneficiaries <br>
of successive systems of dictatorship that have guaranteed the privileges
of the few and the impoverishment of the many, keeping the mighty in
their seats and <br>
subjugating those of low degree. The privileged few have consistently
depended on state repression to protect this social order, as Oscar Arias
said.<br><br>
The Duvalier regimes of "Papa Doc and Baby Doc" developed this
repression into open state terrorism against the masses of the people,
relying on the police, the <br>
Army that was disbanded in 1995 and the "tonton macoutes".
Agents and practitioners of the Duvalier state terrorism led the
counter-revolution of 2004, which <br>
resulted in the overthrow the Aristide government.<br><br>
The central purpose of the counter-revolution is to halt and reverse the
long-delayed democratic revolution in Haiti, guarantee the positions of
the privileged few, <br>
and ensure the continued oppression, disempowerment and impoverishment of
the millions of poor Haitians. In many respects, the 2004
counter-revolution in Haiti <br>
was not dissimilar to the counter-revolution in Chile in 1973, which
resulted in the overthrow of the Allende government, the death of the
President, and the installation<br>
of the Pinochet military dictatorship.<br><br>
In his July article, <b><i>"Haiti's Cracked Screen: Lavalas Under
Siege While the Poor get Poorer",</i></b> Kevin Pina described Haiti
today in the following terms:<br><br>
<b><i>"Former Haitian military leaders prance hand in hand with
Haiti's traditional economic elite, intellectuals and artists. The poor
black majority, who <br>
cannot read or write and continue to support the constitutional
government of President Aristide, has been deliberately made
indescribably poorer in an <br>
effort to force them to turn against their own interests.<br><br>
"Going to bed hungry is not uncommon in Haiti. The greatest violence
here is the violence of hunger and poverty. It permeates and consumes
everything <br>
in its path. Haiti's phantom "middle class" - the relative few
who have something such as an education to cling to - can be easily
manipulated against a <br>
government that has declared itself to be working on behalf of those who
have nothing save for the conviction that tomorrow may yield a better
future for <br>
their children. This is especially true when the media inside and outside
of Haiti do everything possible to make it so."<br><br>
</i></b>On February 29th, the day President Aristide was flown out of his
country, the UN Security Council adopted a Resolution on Haiti. Among
other things,<br>
it decided to establish an intervention force and directed this UN
contingent to:<br><br>
* contribute to a secure and stable environment in the country, "as
appropriate and as circumstances permit";<br>
* assist the police and Coast Guard to establish and maintain public
safety and law and order and to promote and protect human rights;<br>
* support "the constitutional political process under way in
Haiti."<br><br>
What was and is strange and disturbing about this Resolution is that it
is totally silent on the central issue of the unconstitutional and
anti-democratic removal <br>
of the elected Government of Haiti. It says nothing about the notorious
figures who achieved this objective, arms in hand, killing many
people.<br><br>
Seemingly to avoid the obligation to disarm and punish those who took up
arms against a democratic government, it even directed that the UN forces
should<br>
discharge these obligations "as circumstances
permit".<br><br>
However, it is perfectly obvious that a safe and secure environment in
Haiti, respect for human rights, and a return to constitutional legality
cannot be achieved <br>
without defeating the criminal forces of counter-revolution that
necessitated the deployment of UN troops and other international
interventions. The declared <br>
purposes of the UN cannot be realized while those schooled in the brutal
practices of the Duvalier's occupy the centre-stage in Haiti.<br><br>
The UN will not achieve its goals if it does not guarantee the safety and
security and the democratic rights of the leaders and members of Fanmi
Lavalas, other <br>
democrats and the poor of Haiti who demand democracy and
development.<br><br>
Time will tell whether the UN is ready and willing to live up to its
obligations to the poor of Haiti, as well as respect the binding
principles contained in its Charter <br>
and the Declaration of Human Rights. Time will tell whether what Oscar
Arias warned against will be avoided - the destruction of <i>"the
seeds of peace and self-rule<br>
that have been planted with great sacrifice by the Haitian
people."</i> What has been allowed to happen in Haiti After the
Press Went Home raises serious concerns in <br>
this regard.<br><br>
As the African slaves of Haiti fought for their liberation more than two
centuries ago, among other things the counter-revolution opposed to the
French Revolution tried<br>
hard to restore the slavery in Haiti that Jacobin France had abolished,
propelled by the heroic struggle of the risen slaves.<br><br>
At that time, the outstanding leader of the revolutionary African slaves,
Toussaint L' Ouverture, wrote to the French Directory and, speaking of
the counter-revolution, <br>
said:<br><br>
"Do they think that men who have been able to enjoy the blessing of
liberty will calmly see it snatched away? They supported their chains
only so long as they did not<br>
know any condition of life more happy than that of slavery. But today
when they have left it, if they had a thousand lives they would sacrifice
them all rather than be <br>
forced into slavery again. We have known how to face dangers to
obtain our liberty, but we shall know how to brave death to maintain
it."<br><br>
Annette Auguste has sent the same message to the counter-revolution of
2004.In her heart burns the same unquenchable desire to build "a
Haiti where the poor are not <br>
simple tools upon which to build dreams of personal empire and
wealth", which inspired her forebears to defeat the mighty European
powers and establish the First <br>
Black Republic.<br><br>
The risen slaves achieved their liberation even though their brilliant
and renowned leader, Toussaint L' Ouverture, was imprisoned far away in a
French jail. The poor<br>
of the slums of Bel Air, Cité Soleil and elsewhere in Haiti will achieve
their liberation even though their brave and beloved leader,
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is an honored<br>
guest far away in South Africa.<br><br>
Knowledge of that past, and this future, was the best birthday present
that Titid received, to celebrate his 51st birthday. <br><br>
<b>Bonne Fête President Titid.<br><br>
</b>Thabo Mbeki</font> <br>
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