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As Former Army Blusters<br>
NEW ANTI-COUP, ANTI-OCCUPATION FORCE EMERGES<br>
____________________________________________________________________<br><br>
This Week in Haiti<br>
<a href="http://haiti-progres.com/eng11-24.html" eudora="autourl">http://haiti-progres.com/eng11-24.html<br><br>
</a>(Haïti Progrès/Port-au-Prince) November 18 marked the 201st
anniversary of<br>
the battle of Vertieres, the final major conflict of the Haitian
revolution<br>
in 1803. On that day, the indigenous army decisively defeated
French<br>
forces, and that night, French General Rochambeau surrendered to
rebel<br>
General Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Forty-three days later, Dessalines<br>
declared the birth of the Republic of Haiti.<br><br>
On the anniversary, former Haitian soldiers wanted to march through
the<br>
capital with their weapons, as the now disbanded Haitian Army used to
do,<br>
but were prevented from doing so by troops of the United Nations
Mission<br>
for the Stabilization of Haiti (MINUSTAH). Several dozen former
soldiers<br>
were forced to parade around the vicinity of their de facto headquarters
at<br>
the old police academy in the capital's Freres district, cordoned off
by<br>
U.N. armored vehicles.<br><br>
Earlier in the day, the former soldiers had tried to occupy the old
Haitian<br>
Army headquarters, now the Culture Ministry, on the central Champ de
Mars<br>
square, but withdrew after negotiations with U.N. officials.<br><br>
Meanwhile, a few dozen former soldiers and their supporters marched
through<br>
the northern city of Cap Haïtien on Thursday.<br><br>
Despite the perhaps contrived appearances of tension, the former
soldiers<br>
and occupation troops generally have cordial and collaborative
relations.<br>
They carry out joint patrols in several towns.<br><br>
However, a new anti-occupation and anti-coup force sent its first<br>
communique to the Haitian press for the Vertieres anniversary, heralding
a<br>
new stage in Haiti's escalating uprising. The Dessalinien National<br>
Liberation Army (ADLN), whose origins remain unknown, took
responsibility<br>
for the Oct. 24th attack on the Gros Morne police headquarters in
Haiti's<br>
northwest and promised future actions. The guerrillas spray-painted
their<br>
acronym on the station and neighboring buildings with the slogans
"Down<br>
with the occupation! Down with the former soldiers! Down with the de
facto<br>
government!" The following is the ADLN's communique, which was sent
to the<br>
Haitian press on Nov. 17.<br><br>
Communique No. 0104<br>
From: Command of the Dessalinien National Liberation Army
(ADLN)<br><br>
For: MINUSTAH occupation forces, the de facto government, the press and
the<br>
Haitian people<br><br>
On October 24, 2004 at half past midnight, the ADLN's Artibonite
Front<br>
surrounded the Gros Morne police station and asked the policemen to<br>
surrender. We clearly told the policemen to come out with their hands
up,<br>
without weapons, through the front door of the station. We told them
that<br>
if they did that, nobody would get hurt.<br><br>
Two policemen chose to disobey the order we gave. They tried to escape
out<br>
of the station's back door. The unit covering the back of the station
had<br>
to fire on them, and one of them was wounded. Another ADLN unit had to
fire<br>
on a vehicle which tried to enter into the zone of operations. The
ADLN<br>
column, which was very disciplined, entered the police station and
took<br>
control of and removed from the scene a policeman who left out the
front<br>
door as we had asked. Nothing happened to him. The station was empty.
There<br>
was no furniture. We saw only three mattresses and a prisoner who was
an<br>
old man.<br><br>
This attack by the ADLN's Artibonite Front on the Gros Morne police
station<br>
is a warning to make known that the Dessalinien National Liberation
Army<br>
(ADLN) has begun to fight for the total liberation of the Haitian
people.<br>
We note that several of the press reports we heard about the ADLN attack
on<br>
the Gros Morne police station spoke of a "bandit
army"!<br><br>
Once and for all, we make it known that the ADLN is not a mercenary
army<br>
nor an army of bandit thugs. That is why, during the Gros Morne
operation,<br>
when the ADLN unit met on the road with two groups of young men and
women<br>
who had just left a disco, those people were not aggressed in any way.
The<br>
guerrillas did not steal their possessions the way the zenglendo,
Macoutes,<br>
and demobilized soldiers do everywhere around the country.<br><br>
The warning we gave on October 24 was for: 1) MINUSTAH which is acting as
a<br>
puppet for the United States. 2) The incompetent de facto puppet<br>
"technocrat" government of Alexandre and Latortue. 3) The
so-called former<br>
"rebels," former soldiers, former FRAPH members and Macoutes
who have<br>
reemerged. 4) All the reactionary forces which hold the country in<br>
ignorance and misery for decades and who enjoy and take advantage of
the<br>
crisis tormenting us today.<br><br>
We say to all these little clique sectors that they cannot hide. ADLN
will<br>
find them on the day, date and time of its own choosing.<br><br>
We note that the MINUSTAH is the armed wing of big countries, like
the<br>
U.S., which squeeze and occupy Third World countries like Haiti.
Therefore,<br>
MINUSTAH is a legitimate target of the armed wing of the popular
masses.<br>
That is why we call on progressive forces in Third World countries
like<br>
Brazil, Argentina and Chili, to force their governments to remove
their<br>
troops from Haiti immediately.<br><br>
Aspiring for political liberty and a better life with organization,
the<br>
popular masses can have Haiti take true independence, the same way
that<br>
Jean-Jacques Dessalines managed to gather the aspirations and demands
of<br>
the slave masses and freed the country from the French colonists grip.
In<br>
the same way, the spirit of Dessalines has entered and is beginning to
stir<br>
up the masses for a second independence. So ADLN tells all
combatants<br>
fighting the dictatorship to continue the struggle.<br><br>
Just like Dessalines, ADLN will not rest until the final
victory.<br><br>
Dessalinien National Liberation Army (ADLN)<br><br>
Copyright © 2004 Haïti Progrès. All rights reserved<br>
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