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</font><font face="verdana" size=3 color="#800000"><b>FROM: <br><br>
THE BLACK COMMENTATOR<br><br>
<a href="http://blackcommentator.org/109/109_haiti.html">http://blackcommentator.org/109/109_haiti.html</a><br>
<a href="http://blackcommentator.org/109/109_haiti_pf.html" eudora="autourl">http://blackcommentator.org/109/109_haiti_pf.html</a>
(printer friendly version)<br><br>
</font><font face="verdana" size=3>Issue 109 - October 14 2004<br><br>
</b><i>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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
</i>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.<br><br>
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
<b><u>SWAT,</u></b> 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.<br><br>
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
</font><font face="verdana" size=3 color="#800000"><b>Bel Air, Cite
Soleil, La Saline, Grand Ravine, Delmas 2, Martissant and many other poor
neighborhoods to kill a lot of
people.</b></font><font face="verdana" size=3> 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?<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
Bush and the United Nations know the truth as well. They know that
without the <b>Brazilians</b> they could not have entered Bel Air. They
know that without the <b>Jordanians</b> they could never keep us from the
National Palace. Without the <b>UN forces</b> 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.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
They did. <br><br>
<b>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.<br>
</b></font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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