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<font face="Arial Black, Helvetica" size=5 color="#FF0000">Haiti/Honduras
Vigil</font><font face="Arial Black, Helvetica" size=4 color="#FF0000">
:</font><font face="Arial Black, Helvetica" size=4>
</font><font face="Arial Black, Helvetica" size=5 color="#0000FF">
Wednesday, Aug. 12 - 4:30 pm<br>
</font><font face="Arial Black, Helvetica" size=4>Brazilian Consulate -
300 Montgomery St.</font><font face="Arial Black, Helvetica" size=3> (at
Pine, nr Montgomery BART), SF<br><br>
</font><font face="Arial Black, Helvetica" size=3 color="#0000FF">
Haitians and Hondurans are still in the streets protesting political
kidnappings and coups.<br>
</font><font face="Arial Black, Helvetica" size=3><b>Return
Lovinsky! Return Aristide! Return
Zelaya!<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=4><b>August 12, 2009 marks
2 years since the kidnapping and disappearance of Haitian human rights
leader Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine</i>. Yet the authorities have sat on their
hands.<br><br>
Haitian President Aristide</i> and Honduran President Zelaya</i> - both
kidnapped from their homes in the middle of the night and flown into
exile in US-sponsored military coups - are still in exile and not
permitted to return home. This is
intolerable</font>.</b></h1><font size=3>It is two years since human
rights advocate <b>Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine</b> was kidnapped in Haiti. We
are with the people of <i>Haiti </i>who have been living under occupation
since their elected president <b>Jean-Bertrand Aristide</b> was kidnapped
and forced into exile in 2004 by a US military coup, and with the people
of <i>Honduras</i> whose president <b>Manuel Zelaya</b> was kidnapped and
removed by a military coup in June 2009.<br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>Please join Haiti Action
Committee Wednesday, August 12th, to observe the second anniversary of
the kidnapping and disappearance of grassroots organizer and leader,
Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine.<br>
</font> <br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>Meet in front of the Brazilian
Consulate at 300 Montgomery Street in San Francisco, 4:30PM. [Brazil
heads up MINUSTAH, the United Nations military force that has been
occupying Haiti since soon after US special troops kidnapped President
and Mrs. Aristide in 2004 and flew them to exile in Africa aboard a US
military plane.] <br>
</font> <br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>Lovinsky was kidnapped and
disappeared in Haiti on August 12th, 2007 shortly after meeting with a
US-Canadian human rights delegation. As a member of Fanmi Lavalas,
Brother Pierre-Antoine is an extraordinary grassroots organizer and
leading advocate for the poor, including street children, teenage mothers
and victims of torture. <br>
</font> <br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>Despite international actions
demanding an investigation into Lovinsky's disappearance, there has been
no effective effort by either the UN in Haiti or the Preval government to
locate Lovinsky and secure his safe return, or to hold those responsible
for his disappearance accountable.<br>
</font> <br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>Join with Haiti's grassroots
movement on August 12, together with friends and comrades in Haiti,
Grenada, Los Angeles, London, and elsewhere, in events demanding the
return of our dear brother, Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine. End the US/UN
occupation! Brazil out of Haiti! Free the political prisoners! Return
Presidents Jean-Bertrand Aristide and Manuel Zelaya!<br>
</font> <br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><b>Here is last year's message of
solidarity from Mumia Abu-Jamal</b>: <br><br>
<i>For Haitians, this coming August is a reminder of the kidnapping and
disappearance of their brother, Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, who was taken
after a meeting with a US-Canadian human rights delegation visiting Haiti
in mid-August, 2007.<br>
</i></font> <br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Pierre-Antoine is a co-founder of
the Fondayson Trant Septenm, (Kreyol for September 30th Foundation), a
group which assisted and supported the people who during (and especially
after) the 1991 and 2004 coups against the democratically-elected
president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Members of the Fondayson have
been targeted for years.<br>
</i></font> <br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Around the world, activists have
been organizing in Lovinsky's support, calling on various governments,
from Haiti's President Rene Preval, Brazil (which forms the bulk of the
United Nations forces in the country), Canada, the US and France, which
organized the latest coup against Haitian democracy.<br>
</i></font> <br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>When Pierre-Antoine was abducted,
it forced other democracy and human rights activists in Haiti to go into
hiding to avoid waves of state repression.<br>
</i></font> <br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Haiti has a proud and illustrious
career on the world's stage, becoming the first free Black republic in
the West after its 1804 revolution against France, which abolished
slavery almost 70 years before the US Civil War spelled the end to human
bondage in the US. Their freedom spread the bright lights of
liberty and independence throughout the Caribbean, and when South America
rose against Spain, it was to Haiti that their Liberator Simon Bolivar
turned for support, arms, and a place to rest.<br>
</i></font> <br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>For their bold struggle to bring
Black freedom to the West, the US and Europe have unleashed an unholy
war. France forced reparations (!) on Haiti -- an act unprecedented
in history, forcing the victor in war to pay away it's wealth for almost
a century. The US repeatedly invaded the country, brutalized its
people, and imposed an assortment of puppet dictators to exploit the
country for foreign benefit, and national impoverishment, for
generations!<br>
</i></font> <br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Because Haiti's popularly elected
Bertrand Aristide dared to oppose Haiti's rich elite, and tried to make
things nominally better for its peasantry, US Marines forced him into
exile.<br>
</i></font> <br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Because Lovinsky comes from the
popular mass movements, he was snatched off the streets of Haiti a year
ago, and the movement is building to bring him back home to his family,
his community, and the popular movements of which he was a part.<br>
Haiti must never be forgotten, and neither must we forget Lovinsky
Pierre-Antoine. 7/30/08 (c) '08 Mumia Abu-Jamal<br>
</i></font> <br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><b>Behind the kidnappings of these
political leaders</b> [excerpted from an article circulated by Global
Women's Strike]<b><i>:<br>
</i></b></font> <br>
Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine is co-ordinator of <i>Fondasyon 30 Septanm
</i>for survivors of the military coups against Aristide, and an advocate
for those with the least, starting with women and street children. He was
kidnapped on August 12, 2007, two weeks after announcing he would run for
the Haitian Senate. The grassroots in Haiti hold weekly vigils demanding
his return and the return of Aristide, who was forced into exile in 2004
by a Bush administration military coup backed by Canada and France.
<br><br>
Latin American governments have rightly condemned the recent coup in
Honduras and have been working for the return of President Jose Manuel
Zelaya, but in contrast, they have collaborated with the occupation of
Haiti....UN occupying forces in Haiti continue to be headed by Brazil and
include troops from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay and
Uruguay. Only Caricom (a grouping of the English-speaking Caribbean,
Suriname and Haiti) and Venezuela have spoken out; Cuba continues to
provide doctors to Haiti. <br><br>
President Aristide, a liberation theology priest with a 91.8% mandate
(2000 election), was removed because he fought to eliminate poverty. His
policies angered the Haitian elite and the US which profit from
sweatshops, privatisation and the import of [US] rice which has destroyed
the local agriculture and contributed to starvation. Like Zelaya in
Honduras and Chávez in Venezuela (who also faced a coup in 2002),
Aristide increased the minimum wage, and invested in food, health and
education. <br><br>
Now, former US President Bill Clinton is pushing US policy to expand
sweatshops in Haiti under the guise of global investments – and the UN
occupiers are responsible for many rapes and murders, including recently
opening fire on mourners at the funeral of Father Jean-Juste, another
liberation theology priest....<br><br>
Despite pressure from those in power to participate in elections,
grassroots people in Haiti organized “Operation Closed Door”. This
massive boycott of the US-financed ($17 million) elections was organised
after all candidates from Aristide’s party Fanmi Lavalas were banned from
running. The boycott was an outstanding success – only 3% voted, a
fantastic example of grassroots organizing and solidarity! The ban
[on Lavalas] came the day after a meeting between US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton and the present Haitian President, Preval. The reason for
the ban?: Lavalas usually takes over 85% of the vote. <br><br>
Haitians have been made to pay for their 1791-1804 revolution which
overthrew slavery, making way for emancipation in the region and for
liberation movements everywhere. The world owes a great debt to the
Haitian people. They have never given up. [Courtesy of Global Women's
Strike.] Read more about Brother Pierre-Antoine
here:<a href="http://www.haitisolidarity.net/article.php?id=205">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>
http://www.haitisolidarity.net/article.php?id=205</a><br><br>
</font>Haiti Action Committee<br>
Information:
<a href="http://www.haitisolidarity.net/">www.Haitisolidarity.net</a>
<a href="http://www.globalwomenstrike.net /" eudora="autourl">
www.globalwomenstrike.net </a>
<a href="http://www.haitiaction.net">www.haitiaction.net</a><br>
<br><br>
<br>
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