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<h1><b>The Narco News
Bulletin</b></h1><font size=3>
<a href="http://www.narconews.com/print.php3?ArticleID=1580&lang=en" eudora="autourl">
http://www.narconews.com/print.php3?ArticleID=1580&lang=en<br>
</a></font><h6><b>January 27, 2006</b> | Issue #40 <br><br>
</h6><h2><b>Haiti: Hopes for a Peaceful Alternative as the UN Plans to
Invade Cité Soleil<br>
</b></h2><h4><b>An Interview with Frank Eaton, Filmmaker and Kidnapping
Victim<br><br>
</b></h4><h3><b>By Jeb Sprague<br>
Special to The Narco News BulletinPor Jeb Sprague<br><br>
</b></h3><h6><b>January 26, 2006</b> <br>
This report appears on the internet at
<a href="http://www.narconews.com/Issue40/article1580.html" eudora="autourl">
<b>http://www.narconews.com/Issue40/article1580.html</a></b></h6>
<dl>
<dd><font size=3>“I think they are going to kill a lot of innocent people
when they [the UN MINUSTAH forces] go into Cité Soleil. It’s going to be
like Fallujah. They are going to kill a lot of innocent people. I
remember being in there, I realized, wow a lot of people are going to die
in here. I realized I was a survivor.” <br><br>
<dd>-Frank Eaton<br><br>
</i>
</dl>Documentary filmmaker Frank Eaton, 30, of Winston-Salem, North
Carolina, was kidnapped and held for three days in Cité Soleil, a slum in
Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. Along with his friend, Alain Maximilien, a Haitian
radio disc jockey, they were freed after his captors received $20,000, 10
pairs of shoes and a radio on December 31, 2005. The story of his
experience was repeated across the media. News coverage of kidnappings in
Haiti has continuously focused on fear and brutality, or what Eaton calls
“the pornography of violence,” and has rarely shown the context behind
the ongoing conflict and kidnappings.<br><br>
<img src="cid:6.2.5.6.2.20060127055321.0274c0f8@freedomarchives.org.0" width=350 height=233 alt="[]">
<br>
The United Nations MINUSTAH (French abbreviation for United Nations
Stabilization Mission in Haiti) force, under the Security Council adopted
resolution 1529 (2004), entered Haiti following the overthrow of the
democratically elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Feb. 2004.
MINUSTAH includes military and police contingents of more than 9,000
people from over 40 countries under the leadership of Brazil and
Canada.<br><br>
While being involved in numerous running gun battles with groups of young
men in Cité Soleil, MINUSTAH has been implicated in and admitted to the
killing of numerous innocent civilians – what the UN on January 9, 2006
called
“<a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article337553.ece">
collateral victims</a>.” Hundreds of Haitians interviewed claimed to have
been shot by the United Nations and in a recent report allegations have
emerged that UN forces have attacked the only hospital in Cité Soleil.
Cité Soleil is home to somewhere between 250,000 and 400,000 people
living in abject poverty. Leslie Bagg and Aaron Lakoff write in their
recent article,
“<a href="http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=55&ItemID=9520">
Haiti’s Deadly Class Divide</a>”:<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>According to Jean-Joseph Joel, the Secretary General of the local
branch of Fanmi Lavalas, the area’s residents are virtual prisoners, and
their movements restricted by armed police at checkpoints. Vilified as
bandits or chimeres by the elite-run press, he says they face persecution
if they do manage to escape the neighborhood. There is no work and signs
of malnutrition are obvious in the children.<br><br>
</i>
</dl>Following the events of February 2004 (preceded by four years of a
Bush administration-backed embargo and foreign-funded “democracy
promotion” destabilization programs) Haiti’s public institutions were
gutted, its elected government and many of it’s public employees ousted,
jailed, and persecuted. Thousands are dead in Haiti following the 2004
coup d’état and many more are in hiding or under daily persecution. Under
UN protection and with little mainstream press criticism, the interim
coup government has continued its methodical campaign of persecution and
imprisonment of political activists. Under the U.S. installed regime, in
late 2004, human rights investigators
<a href="http://www.law.miami.edu/cshr/CSHR_Report_02082005_v2.pdf">
discovered</a> hospitals in which Lavalas supporters were being allowed
to bleed to death, maggot infested morgues in which bodies were being
eaten away at with no refrigeration, and mass graves in which pigs
devoured the remains of victims.<br><br>
Edline Pierre-Louis, a Cité Soleil resident, was hit in the stomach by
gunfire from UN forces, causing her to loose her unborn baby on July 6,
2005. In a recent interview with journalists she stated, “They killed so
many people and I praise God that I am alive to call them
liars.”<br><br>
Some MINUSTAH contingents, outside of Port-au-Prince, primarily in the
north of Haiti, have reportedly behaved in a more professional manner,
communicating better with local popular organizers and representatives.
Meanwhile, a lawyers’ organization, AUMOHD, has come forward attempting
to negotiate a peaceful alternative for Cité Soleil and other poor areas
of Haiti.<br><br>
Following the 2004 coup and a fatal wave of persecution targeting Lavalas
demonstrations and communities, kidnapping has increasingly plagued
Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. In recent weeks the United Nations has
come under rising pressure from both the Haitian elite and the foreign
press to take over the slum of Cité Solei, which today, nearly two years
after the U.S. Marine led kidnapping of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
still remains a no-go-zone for the Canadian and U.S.-trained Haitian
National Police (HNP) and the UN MINUSTAH force. The wide-scale
persecution of the poor and politically motivated layoffs of public
sector employees by the U.S.-installed interim government, have further
provoked the situation.<br><br>
The mainstream media has continuously ignored visible examples of
Haitians being killed by the United Nations and massacres carried out by
the infamous Haitian National Police, the HNP forces often wear masks,
and their hooded “machete army” attaches, have been well documented by
journalists from the Haiti Information Project
(<a href="http://www.haitiaction.net/" eudora="autourl">
www.haitiaction.net</a>). Human rights and immigration lawyer Thomas
Griffin documented the dire situation in Cite Soleil in an
<a href="http://www.law.miami.edu/cshr/CSHR_Report_02082005_v2.pdf">
investigation</a> by researchers at Miami University. Ignoring the war
against the poor in Haiti, the press has focused on the kidnappings,
disregarding the numerous crimes against humanity at the hands of the HNP
and MINUSTAH.<br><br>
Meanwhile, increasing pressure has come not only from the media, but also
from Haitian elite to intensify the MINUSTAH occupation of Cité Soleil.
In early January 2006 a group called Group 184, including many prominent
sweatshop and radio station owners and which was partially responsible
for the overthrow of democracy in February 2004, began a campaign, which
included a business strike
(<a href="http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/1_18_6/1_18_6.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/1_18_6/1_18_6.html</a>) to pressure
MINUSTAH towards increasing its activities in Cité Soleil. Following
alleged tense negotiations with the leadership of the Haitian elite Group
184, MINUSTAH commander Brazilian Lt. General Urano Teixeira da Matta
Bacellar committed suicide. He was found dead the following morning,
lying on the balcony of his Port-au-Prince hotel room in the upscale
Hotel Montana
(<a href="http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/01/1794502.php" eudora="autourl">
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/01/1794502.php</a>).<br><br>
<img src="cid:6.2.5.6.2.20060127055321.0274c0f8@freedomarchives.org.1" width=350 height=233 alt="[]">
<br>
Recent reports have also uncovered a mysterious U.S. blacks ops company
that has been working with MINUSTAH to gain “intelligence” on Cite
Soleil. On January 18, 2006 Kathryn Cramer, a writer investigating
pentagon contractor Top Cat Marine Security
(<a href="http://www.topcatmarinesecurity.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.topcatmarinesecurity.com/</a>), released details
(<a href="http://www.kathryncramer.com/kathryn_cramer/top_cat_marine_security/index.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.kathryncramer.com/kathryn_cramer/top_cat_marine_security/index.html</a>
) on the role of a mysterious company called the Consultants Advisory
Group (CAG), run by ex-CIA and U.S. military employees living in Panama
City, Florida, with a representative in Haiti (living also in
Pétion-Ville’s Hotel Montana). According to Cramer, CAG has placed spies
disguised as journalists in the audiences of Haitian presidential
candidate debates, arranged for Top Cat patrol boats off the coast of
Cité Soleil, and arranged for the unlawful detention of people inside
Haiti who have complained about CAG’s involvement in human rights
violations in Haiti.<br><br>
Many kidnappings have occurred outside of Cite Soleil, something the
Haitian Chamber of Commerce, under Reginal Bolous, and the Group 184,
under Andre Apaid, refused to address in the recent business-led strike.
While companies such as “Texaco, Shell, Scotia Bank, and upscale grocery
stores remained shut” during the strike, the “informal economy – street
vendors, runners, tap-tap (taxi) operators – lined the streets, unable to
skip a day’s work just because the island’s wealthiest said so” explain
Leslie Bagg and Aaron Lakoff in their recent article.<br><br>
Kidnappings have come not only from the “gangs” described by the
international press but by criminals and members of the Haitian National
Police. Police Officers Wilfrid Francois, Sony Lambert, Rénald Cinéus,
and an accomplice of theirs named Stantley Handal have all been
implicated in a kidnapping ring. The Haiti Information Project
<a href="http://www.narconews.com/www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/1_11_6/1_11_6.html">
reports</a>:<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>Handal is a member of one of Haiti’s wealthiest families that
supported the ouster of Aristide in 1991 and 2004. He was initially
arrested along with eight members of Haiti’s police force for running a
kidnapping ring after he attempted to use a stolen credit card taken from
one of his victims. The judge that released them, Jean Pérs Paul, is
responsible for keeping Father Gerard Jean-Juste behind bars and for the
arrest of journalists Kevin Pina and Jean Ristil on September 9, 2005.
The police officer responsible for the initial investigation into
Handal’s case has reportedly been forced into hiding. The U.N. and the
Canadian government have not commented on the case since Jean Pérs Paul
ordered the suspects released.<br><br>
</i>
</dl>Recent reports have also shown that many kidnappings are in fact
taking place not in Cite Soleil, but in the most upscale quarters in
Port-au-Prince, Pétion-Ville:<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>The Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ) informed Friday
that it has broken up this week an important kidnapping network in
Pétion-Ville, a residential district of Port-au-Prince. According to DCPJ
General Inspector Michaël Lucius, this is the gang which had kidnapped on
December 30, 2005 Carine Rouzier, the wife of a businessman of
Port-au-Prince, who was released on January 8th. The 11 persons abducted
by this gang were held in a luxurious home evaluated to hundreds of
thousands of dollars, M. Lucius declared. He says he regrets that the
bandits had time to run away. The discovery of this hiding place in the
heart of Pétion-Ville proves that important groups are involved in
kidnapping activities, the DCPJ director declared. <br><br>
<dd>Michael Lucius calls the population to remain careful and to beware
of well-dressed people, saying that the shantytown of Cité Soleil is not
the only hiding place for kidnappers. “Appearances are sometimes
deceptive”, he warned, affirming that besides Cité Soleil and
Pétion-Ville, acts of kidnapping are committed in other non-populist
districts of the capital, including Pernier, Meyer, Delmas, Frères,
Canapé-Vert as well as in the second largest city of the country,
Cap-Haïtien…Chief of the Haitian police Mario Andresol and Head of
MINUSTAH Juan Gabriel Valdès indicated recently that there are candidates
to presidency who use kidnapping money for their campaign and to try to
destabilize the electoral process underway.<br><br>
<dd>(AHP News, English Translation, January 13, 2006)<br><br>
</i>
</dl>While kidnappings have received the limelight of international press
coverage in Haiti, the violence against the poor has continually been
obscured. On June 11, 2005, Juan Gabriel Valdes, the Chilean head of the
U.N. mission in Haiti, made a statement on Haitian radio stations
declaring he had lived through the Pinochet dictatorship and, “compared
to that experience, there is no political persecution in Haiti.” Time
correspondent Kathie Klarreich, cited numerous “unnamed sources” in a
<a href="http://www.madamedread.com/IN%20THE%20NEWS/010706.html">recent
article</a> who used the term “wussies” to describe the UN force in
Haiti, not once mentioning the well documented HNP and MINUSTAH slayings
of innocent civilians. Another TIME correspondent and former employee of
the U.S. State Department, Edward M. Gomez,
<a href="http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=15archive/&entry_id=2613">
explaining</a> the violence in Cite Soleil, cited a Le Monde statement
that the “kids” in Cite Soleil are fighting because they are on
“crack”.<br><br>
<img src="cid:6.2.5.6.2.20060127055321.0274c0f8@freedomarchives.org.2" width=350 height=234 alt="[]">
<br>
Over the last year, footage has emerged showing the deadly results of UN
raids into Cité Soleil, including journalist Kevin Pina’s film, Haiti:
The Untold Story. Pina told
<a href="http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/11/1436222">
Democracy Now!</a> that “I personally handed a copy of that video to [the
UN special envoy, Juan] Valdes at JFK airport. He described it as
propaganda and lies without even looking at it. They are predisposed to
saying this. They do not want to look at the evidence.”<br><br>
By ignoring the systematic repression being carried out by the U.S.,
Canadian, and UN-backed coup regime while focusing attention on alleged
gang members “high on crack,” the media provide a disingenuous
examination of events in Haiti.<br><br>
<br>
</font><h5><b>Interview with Frank Eaton</b></h5><font size=3>What
follows are experts from an interview with Frank Eaton, a kidnapping
victim. Eaton speaks about Cité Soleil, his experience being kidnapped,
and the U.S. media coverage of his experience. Below are excerpts from
the interview.<br><br>
Jeb Sprague: Tell me about your experience being kidnapped.<br><br>
Frank Eaton: Every one of the ten-or-so young men who held me bore bullet
wounds and scars on their bodies from MINUSTAH guns. As I sat there, more
bored than terrified, I had the profound realization that I would almost
certainly outlive each of them. Now, with the political branch of the UN
ascendant [the United Nations Office for Project Services, or UNOPS, has
had an increasingly expanding role in Haiti], and an occupation of Cité
Soleil apparently in the works, I’m afraid that the end is near for many
of these young guys, women, and kids. It’s a horrible, horrible thing
that’s about to happen there…<br><br>
<img src="cid:6.2.5.6.2.20060127055321.0274c0f8@freedomarchives.org.3" width=350 height=234 alt="[]">
<br>
One night it rained and the night was pretty quiet. The other nights, it
was a shooting gallery. We are sitting listening to this. It is unreal.
We were in Blecort, the southernmost part of Cité Soleil. You can hear
MINUSTAH guns; they are very regular, high caliber, heavy, heavy arms.
And then you can hear the local guns, which are smaller; pistols and
rifles. And that’s where people get hurt…To give the UN a little bit of
credit, with this UN guy [Brazilian Lt. Gen Bacellar] that shot himself
the other day, there is a certain reticence to occupying Cité Soleil
[among sectors of the UN]. They have knowledge to the fact that this
“collateral damage” will happen as soon as they do this. It is dangerous
for everybody… The victims are the people who are trapped here. They
can’t do anything. They are human shields between both sides. I see no
way into these neighborhoods. We were in a small house that is isolated,
in a blind alley. No way in. No way out. Women, children, and people
everywhere.<br><br>
Jeb Sprague: How were you treated; what type of food did you eat when you
were in captivity?<br><br>
Frank Eaton: Every Haitian I met was very generous, very hospitable,
including these guys. The Haitain hospitality that you hear of is true.
We probably ate better then anybody in the entire neighborhood. We ate
locally prepared food. We had plantains, scrambled eggs the first
morning, and then we had the traditional spaghetti and hot dog. Then we
had rice and beans. The best thing I had was when one guy made a pâté, a
little pastry with eggs or chicken on it. It was absolutely incredible.
We had Prestige Beer, which is really good. They were really hospitable,
in light of the circumstances. There was definitely a level of concern
there. They hate the UN. They had a brand new toothbrush, water, soap for
us. We slept on a bed. We could wander around. I could go around the room
and if I wanted to go outside and pour water on my head. It was pretty
laid back. They were mostly lying down. They had guns but they weren’t
pointing them at us. It wasn’t like this macho thing. There was an
understanding that we weren’t going to run away or take anyone’s
gun.<br><br>
For the majority of the time, the M-14 and the other guns remained
loaded. The room we were kept in served as an ammo dump for this group.
Young men were coming in constantly to retrieve ammo from a duffel
bag.<br><br>
The guys that kidnapped me, I didn’t feel they were capable of hurting
me. They weren’t cruel. I kept thinking, it’s tough; it’s physically
tough to hurt a human being. Your body rejects that on a physical level.
I honestly felt they didn’t want to attack me. I was certainly not giving
them any trouble. They were content with letting the process take its
course. It was boring for all of us. During negotiations things would get
tense. I was released and Alain stayed behind. But he was released
afterward; they felt sorry for him. They really got along well with him.
We were all frustrated for the time it took the money to get there. For
two days we just sat doing nothing and on the third day I finally said,
bring the cash. I used my bank account.<br><br>
<img src="cid:6.2.5.6.2.20060127055321.0274c0f8@freedomarchives.org.4" width=350 height=239 alt="[]">
<br>
We were picked up far out from Cité Soleil. Now I’ve got all these
overdraft fees from my bank. I wrote a check for $5,000 and after a few
other charges passed, I was bounced into the red.<br><br>
Jeb Sprague: What can you say about the context behind the
kidnappings?<br><br>
Frank Eaton: I’m not sure… It’s so tough for me to understand. Since it’s
me and my money I can’t just say “that’s okay.” But the ten guys who
watched us were humble guys, and this was just sort of the deal at the
moment. Like a job. This could be a situation where this is the only
thing that they are able to do. This is their community involvement to
help facilitate this transfer of money back into the community.<br><br>
So many innocent people are dying. It’s insane fighting right in the
middle of all those people. The whole situation is the result of a pretty
heinous socio-political economic environment. This is where they live.
These people don’t conceal themselves; we were not concealed. I know they
have a lot of support. People would come around women and children, old
people, moms.<br><br>
It’s very important for me not to be the poster child for Haitian
kidnapping or to be a warning to stay out of Haiti. I hold no hard
feelings. I understand that this something that is much bigger then me. I
don’t feel sorry for myself. I had so many good experiences and met
wonderful people.<br><br>
Jeb Sprague: I’ve noticed that in all the articles (Miami Herald, Forbes,
ABC News, etc.) about you, they focus on the guns and the kidnappers
having guns around you..<br><br>
Frank Eaton: Yes, and that’s true. It’s the pornography of violence, and
I mention that every single time to all of the reporters that have
interviewed me. They gave us food, they gave us water, they treated us
well. I think that’s one of the most interesting things about it all.
Complicated things like that are more interesting than just saying they
put guns on us. I always say we were treated well and that I have really
no hard feelings, besides the fact that I am financially destitute. I’m
$15,000 in debt. I also make the distinction that I am no more
financially destitute then these guys. I got out of Cité Soleil. These
guys didn’t. I was very interested in this whole thing on the human
scale.<br><br>
I don’t come from money, which makes it tough for me to operate down
there. But they are treated terribly. These neighborhoods are
underrepresented in every way. I’m sure that the crime is a natural way
to try to regain balance. Use the money the way they can…. We just didn’t
want our ransom money used for weapons.<br><br>
Jeb Sprague: Why do you think the UN/HNP attacks are rarely mentioned in
the mainstream press, while the kidnappings receive so much
coverage?<br><br>
Frank Eaton: Lots of reporters are in Haiti because of the election. But
with that postponed unfortunately they are all just writing about the
kidnapping and focusing on that. I just don’t know if there is any
interest in knowing why these things happen.<br><br>
It’s a lot of peoples’ faults. The international community demands
something be done about this. The rich community demands something being
done about this. Poor people want something done about the kidnapping;
kids are in danger. A lot of people are being kidnapped, across all
sectors, and I don’t know how politically motivated all of it
is.<br><br>
Jeb Sprague: Are you worried about what’s going to happen to the people
in Cité Soleil and the people you saw in the neighborhoods around where
you were being held?<br><br>
Frank Eaton: All roads are leading to Cité Soleil right now for the
occupying force. I think half the reason [Lt. Gen.] Bacellar was trying
to keep that from happening is because he didn’t want to loose his own
guys [Interview´s note: nine MINUSTAH soldiers have died as of this
date]. He’s dead now . And I think the political wing of the UN has taken
over in Haiti, and these are guys that are more directly pressured by the
camps that want to have Cité Soleil occupied and have the whole thing
shut down. I am expecting them to make a move against the
neighborhood.<br><br>
Yes, I think the UN troops are going to kill a lot of innocent people
when they go into Cité Soleil. It’s going to be like Fallujah. They are
going to kill a lot of innocent people. I remember being in there, I
realized, Wow a lot of people are going to die in here. I realized I was
a survivor….<br><br>
Jeb Sprague: Do you think the UN can be convinced of an alternative to
going into Cité Soleil with military force? The President of the AUMOHD
lawyers organization, Evel Fanfan, has presented a peaceful alternative.
Fanfan has asked to meet with interim commander Gen. Herman, of MINUSTAH,
to review “the work toward self-managed disarmament in the poor
communities of Grande Ravine, St. Bernadette, and Lafwa and to consider a
totally new approach there and in Cité Soleil.” Also, the peace process
could also be better achieved if a democratically elected government was
put into place. What do you think about all that?<br><br>
Frank Eaton: There are definitely people out there with solutions that
should be tried. There are a lot of guns on both sides. With the strike
that the chamber of commerce held it seems the elites are adamant that
the UN go into Cité Soleil.<br><br>
I am trying to handle this without anger… I would hope that they examine
the angle of grace before going in and blasting their way through a
neighborhood that is home to a lot of women and children. I think that
there needs to be a discussion, an alternative. I know it wasn’t
impossible to put negotiators on the ground in Cité Soleil to communicate
the terms of our release. So I know there are ways to open channels to
talk about a resolution to this thing.<br><br>
When you go in to try to move money and human beings in Cité Soleil it’s
easy to find someone to talk to. But there is not a lot of communication
going on. Every night they are fighting. On both sides are these young
guys, 18 to 35 years old, looking to kill each other. Both are armed to
the teeth. Innocent people are being killed. Kids are being killed.
Children, women. Innocent people are put into this situation. It’s just
such an insane situation. I don’t know if I had any business being in
Haiti in the first place.<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>Jeb Sprague</b> is a freelance journalist and a graduate student in
History at California State University of Long Beach. He is currently
writing his masters degree thesis on the destabilization and overthrow of
democracy in Haiti, 2000-2004. Contact him at Jebsprague@[nospam]mac.com
(removing the word “nospam”) or visit his blog at
<a href="http://www.freehaiti.net">http://www.freehaiti.net<br><br>
</a></i></font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
</dl><font size=3 color="#FF0000">The Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
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