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Fanmi Lavalas of NY & New York Haitian <br>
Pro-democracy Advocates<br>
P.O. Box 100614 Vanderveer Station<br>
Brooklyn, New York 11210<br>
917 337 6702<br><br>
<br>
Open Letter to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from Fanmi Lavalas of
New York and Tri-State and New York area Haitians, delivered to the New
York Brazilian Consulate on July 28, 2005, the anniversary date for the
first US occupation of Haiti<br><br>
*<br>
His Excellency<br>
The Honorable Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva<br>
President of the Federative Republic of Brazil<br>
Brasilia, Brazil<br><br>
July 28, 2005<br><br>
Dear President Lula da Silva,<br><br>
We write to you on the 90th anniversary of the first US invasion and
occupation of Haiti (1915-1934) as New Yorkers, Haitians and
Haitian-Americans who are deeply concerned about Brazil's commanding role
in the human rights disasters occurring in Haiti. The February 29, 2004
Coup D'etat against Haiti's duly elected and Constitutional government
ushered in a brutal war against Haiti's poor masses. There has been
wholesale police slaughter of unarmed demonstrators demanding the return
of the Constitutional government and wholesale repression, summary
executions and arbitrary arrests of Lavalas supporters and Haitian
civilians living in the poorer and heavily populated neighborhoods
supporting the return of President Aristide. There has been thousands of
unjust deportations back to Haiti of the fleeing refugees and over 1,000
illegal, arbitrary arrests and indefinite detentions in Haiti's
inadequate prisons, including the arrest and detention of Prime Minister
Yvon Neptune and Father Gèrard Jean-Juste. <br><br>
This war against democracy in Haiti is being waged by economic and
political elites supported and reinforced by US foreign policy.<br><br>
Numerous human rights organizations, including Amnesty International,
have already made thorough reports on the 18-months of terror Haitians
have been forced to live since the Coup D'etat. As Haitians living
abroad, we are extremely shocked, grief-stricken and appalled by the
daily massacres to which residents of Haiti’s poorest communities are
being subjected at the hands of the National Haitian Police backed by
Brazilian led MINUSTHA forces and often at the hands of the MINUSTHA
forces themselves.<br><br>
On July 6, 2005, in a deadly early morning attack, on the residents of
Site Soleil, a community of over 350,000 of Haiti's poorest Haitians,
over 350 UN troops from MINUSTHA under the command of a Brazilian
general, left 27 Haitian civilians wounded and more than 23 dead,
including a young 22 year-old Haitian mother, Sonia Romelus, who was
killed by the same bullet that passed through the body of her 1-year
old infant son, Nelson. Her 4-year old son, Stanley Romelus, who
was sleeping next to his mother and brother was killed instantly by a
single shot to the head. This is the brutal nature of the war being waged
on the poor in Haiti.<br><br>
We have reports, eyewitness testimonies and videotape evidence showing
that the UN military forces, commanded by your Brazilian general,
carried out a massacre in the early morning hours of July 6, 2005 in the
poor Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Site Soley. <br><br>
President Lula da Silva, we know that you are a man of conscience and
that you will not condone these human rights violations, any more than
the violations by the military regime that ruled your country after the
1964 coup. We respectfully urge you to exercise your moral and political
leadership and launch the following measures:<br><br>
1. Call for an end to the occupation of Haiti by all UN forces. <br>
Brazil should take the lead in advocating for a change in policy by the
UN towards Haiti. There is overwhelming evidence that the UN occupation
is not "stabilizing" Haiti. But is, in fact, aggravating the
country's crisis by bolstering a repressive and anti-democratic regime.
<br><br>
2. Call for an end to US intervention in Haitian domestic
affairs.<br>
While we recognize that the primary responsibility for changing US policy
towards Haiti rests with the people of the United States, we urge you to
stand in solidarity with pro-democracy Haitians living abroad and with
the people of Haiti by refusing to support the Bush administration's
racist and cruel treatment of the Haitian people. <br><br>
3. Call for the restoration of the constitutional government in
Haiti.<br>
Concretely, this means that President Aristide, as the duly elected
president of Haiti, must be permitted to return to the country and
complete his term before new elections are held. The UN forces should not
be in the service of "stabilizing" an unelected, repressive
regime established through a US, French and Canadian engineered coup.
This is, quite bluntly, performing a rearguard duty for US imperialism in
Haiti.<br><br>
4. Require that UN forces in Haiti today, prior to their departure,
fulfill their human rights mandate to protect, not terrorize, the people.
In particular, as Brazilian forces are the commanding force in Haiti they
must do much more to rein in the Haitian Coup D’etat police force that is
out of control and is daily murdering Haitians throughout the heavily
populated neighborhoods.<br><br>
President Lula, please understand, we wish to work together with the
people of Brazil towards strengthening democracy, human rights, and
social justice in Haiti and stop the terror being presided over in Haiti
by a Brazilian commander on behalf of Bush Regime change. We can furnish
video evidence of the recent UN massacre in Cite Soleil if need be.
<br><br>
Below we attach two human rights reports and a partial list of the many
massacres and human rights abuses that have been going on in Haiti since
the forced removal of the Constitutional government. We urge you to
assist the people of Haiti by denouncing the civilian killings,
withdrawing Brazilian participation in such a blatantly repressive and
abusive UN military operation and by calling for the return of President
Aristide and constitutional rule to Haiti.<br><br>
Sincerely,<br><br>
Fanmi Lavalas of New York <br>
Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network <br>
Ajoupa, Inc. <br>
Patizan Jezikri<br>
Vwa Lakou Lakay<br>
Radyo Pa Nou<br>
LaKou New York<br>
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