APRIL 19 ELECTION YIELDS NO WINNERS

HAITI LIBERTE
"Justice. Verite. Independance."

* THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

April 29 - May 5, 2009
Vol. 2, No. 41
by Kim Ives

None of the 78 candidates who ran for 12 of the Haitian Senate's 30 seats on April 19 won in the first round, the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) announced on Apr. 27. The CEP also said that the elections, which were boycotted by Haiti's largest party, the Lavalas Family (FL), had a voter participation of 11.3 %, an assertion many voters and observers question.

"The figures the CEP give are a joke," said former FL deputy James Derosin, who helped to organize the party's "Operation Closed Doors, Empty Streets" on election day. "It's a fabrication because everybody observed that less than 1% of voters participated."

The nine-member CEP disqualified the Lavalas Family from participating in the Apr. 19 elections on the grounds that the party's leader, exiled former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, did not sign FL candidates' registration papers (see Haiti Liberté, Vol. 2, No. 31, 2/18/2009).

According to the CEP, 438,624 voters went to the polls from about 3.7 million enrolled nationwide.

In Port-au-Prince, the CEP claims that 49,522 people voted, with 41,688 valid votes, 3,243 blank ballots, and 4,591 flawed ballots. Even those widely disbelieved figures would indicate that less that 2% of the capital's 3 million people turned out.

Some politicians, such as the FL's Annette "So An" Auguste and Mirlande Manigat of the Assembly of Progressive National Democrats (RDNP), called on Haitians to vote but to cast blank ballots. (Other FL leaders and base organizations disavowed Auguste's call, insisting on a complete boycott.)

The Lavalas Family Committee of the Haitian Diaspora wrote in a letter to Haiti's Senate that "the majority had to impose its right of veto on these anti-democratic elections."

Charging that less than 1.5% of the population voted, the Committee said that "only the mercenaries in the polling places voted on Apr. 19 by stuffing the ballot boxes with false ballots." It called on the senators to "forbid the integration of the pseudo-senators in the Republic's Senate so as to safeguard the constitutional victories of the Haitian people, and this will be justice."

The CEP said that 11 run-offs will be held on Jun. 7. The Center Department, whose voting was cancelled on Apr. 19 after violence flared there, would rerun its first round on that date.

"As far as the people are concerned, there was no election, no first round," Derosin said. "If there was no first round, there can be no second round. But if they persist, we will have to launch Operation Closed Doors Number Two."

President René Préval's party Lespwa (Hope) is in all 11 of the run-offs. A candidate needs 50% of the vote plus one vote minimum to win the seat.

The second rounds scheduled for Jun. 7 will pit the following candidates and parties against each other in 9 departments:

West: John Joel Joseph (LESPWA/29.31%) vs. Mario Viau (UNION/12.56%).

South East: Wencesclass Lambert (LESPWA/49.06%) vs. Pierre Ricard (OPL/43.19%).

South: Laguerre Joseph Benoit (UCADDE/27.97%) vs. Exilus Pierre Francky (LESWPA/22.70%).

North: Moise Jean Charles (LESPWA/49.49%) vs. Laguerre Jean Jacques René (MODELH-PRDH/21.86%)

Northwest: Hyppolite Melius (OPL/34.93 %) vs. Sainvil Francois Lucas (LESPWA/29.29 %).

Grande-Anse: Jean Maxime Roumer (LESPWA/38.67%) vs. Bellefleur Marie-Aurore Lainé (FUSION/22.06%).

Nippes: Jean William Jeanty (KONBA/23.95%) vs. Vilson Louberson (LESPWA/16.50%).

In two departments, two senators will be elected, resulting in run-offs of four candidates.

Artibonite: Anick Joseph Francois (OPL/26.22%), Jean Baptiste Jean Willy (AAA/22.29%), Paul André Garconnet (LESPWA/14.54%) and Michelet Louis (Indépendant/13.74%)

Northeast: Pierre Louis Lucien Derex (LESPWA/24.48%), Jean Rodolphe Joazile (Fusion/18.54%), Charles Pierre Jacques André Karl (OPL/13.20%) and Joachim Armand (OPL/11.90 %).

Meanwhile, even senators from parties that participated in the Apr. 19 polling are taking a distance from the vote in the face of widespread popular outrage. A group of prominent senators have called the election a "farce" and vowed to block the seating of any candidates emanating from this set of partial Senate elections. Sen. Evaliere Beauplan (Pont Nord/Northwest), the spokesman for the group, said that the senators would make sure that the "impostors" could "not validate their power." The group also includes Fritz Carlos Lebon (Union/Sud), Edmonde Supplice Beauzile (Fusion/Center), Eddy Bastien (Alliance/Northwest), Rudy Hériveaux (Lavalas/West) and Jean Hector Anacacis (Lespwa/West).

Beauplan said that the senators "refuse to accept what happened on April 19" and proposed that well-organized inclusive elections be held in November when other parliamentary contests are due. He also called on Préval to apologize to the Haitian people for the fiasco.

According to Andris Riché (OPL/Grande Anse), the Senate's vice-President, "the Apr. 19 elections were a complete waste." The elections cost some $16 million to hold.

Even senators who accepted the principle of the exclusionary elections are complaining. "People voted in exchange for money and food," griped Senator Nenel Cassy (Lespwa/Nippes). "This is bribery that reversed the voting trend in the Nippes department."

The Organization of American States (OAS), representing, as usual, Washington's position, worked hard at damage-control after the election. In an Apr. 21 press release, OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza called the elections "part of an invigorated and persistent democratic exercise of the government of President René Préval, contributing to the institutional consolidation of that country."

The OAS asserted that the elections "were well-organized during the opening and closing of the voting centers, and in the distribution of government-issued registration cards, as well as in the presence of security forces that helped maintain order." Security maintenance was helped by the fact that most voting stations were all but empty of voters.

Insulza feigned ignorance of the massive boycott, attempting to attribute low voter turnout to apathy. "Indifference is harmful for a democratic process that requires a strong interaction between political actors and governments," he said. He also pointed to the "the normality that characterized the voting process and the propriety at the polling centers," as if a 1% turnout was normal or would sully a voting station.

To further underscore the foreign hand guiding Haiti's supposedly sovereign elections, Hédi Annabi, the head of the occupation force known as the United Nations Mission to Stabilize Haiti (MINUSTAH), inspected the OAS-provided Tabulation Center where votes were counted.

MARIO JOSEPH AND BRIAN CONCANNON TO SPEAK IN NY METRO AREA

Mario Joseph, Haiti's most prominent human rights lawyer, and Brian Concannon, a U.S. lawyer who spent nine years in Haiti, will discuss the fight for justice for poor Haitians in three different events around the New York metropolitan area next week. Joseph, who heads the Office of International Lawyers (BAI) in Port-au-Prince, and Concannon, who heads the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), will explain how this fight is waged in Haiti, one of the poorest and most inequitable countries in the world. They will also lay out how powerful countries like the U.S. have undermined justice and democracy in Haiti by imposing economic policies and deposing uncooperative Haitian governments.

All events are free and open to the public.

MONDAY, MAY 4, 2009
"Two Lawyers Working on the Front Lines for the Rule of Law in Haiti"
6:00 - 7:30 p.m.
Alan V. Lowenstein Conference Center
65 Livingston Avenue
Roseland, New Jersey 07068
Sponsored by Seton Hall Law School.
973.597.2500
www.lowenstein.com
Please RSVP by April 29, 2009
to development@ijdh.org or 530.219.0971

WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 2009
Meeting with the New York Haitian Community
7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Haiti Liberté Newspaper
1583 Albany Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11210
Sponsored by Haiti Liberté
718.421.0162
www.haitiliberte.com

THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2009
"Fighting for Justice in Haiti"
6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
New York University School of Law, Furman Hall, Room 212
245 Sullivan Street, between West 4th and West 3rd Streets
New York, NY
Sponsored by the National Conference of Black Lawyers & the National Lawyers Guild
(A photo ID is required to enter the building.)
Contact: 541.263.0029

All articles copyrighted Haiti Liberte. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haiti Liberte.

HAITIAN MASSES BOYCOTT EXCLUSIONARY ELECTIONS

HAITI LIBERTE
"Justice. Verite. Independance."

* THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

April 22 - 28, 2009
Vol. 2, No. 40

APRIL 19, 2009:

by Kim Ives

Haitian voters overwhelmingly shunned partial Senate elections held on Sunday, April 19, respecting a boycott called by former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas Family (FL), by far the nation's largest political party. The boycott came in response to the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) disqualifying FL candidates from running for the 12 of 30 Senate seats up for grabs (see Haiti Liberté, Vol. 2, No. 31, 2/18/2009).

Most press and observer estimates put participation at "under 10%." But Senator Jean Hector Anacacis, a member of President René Préval's own party, Lespwa (Hope), called the polling "a foreseeable fiasco," estimating participation between 1% and 3%.

The Lavalas Family's boycott campaign was called "Operation Closed Doors, Empty Streets," which is exactly what election day produced. Early Sunday morning, streets in normally bustling Port-au-Prince and Pétionville were eerily empty and quiet, patrolled by slow-moving police trucks with their lights on and bristling armored vehicles of the U.N. Mission to Stabilize Haiti (MINUSTAH).

The boycott was helped by the government ban on all motor vehicle traffic and sales of alcohol from Saturday night until early Monday morning.

In the capital's teeming Bel Air neighborhood, at the voting center at the Dumarsais Estimé National School, the 12 voting stations had collected a total of 37 ballots shortly before closing at 4 p.m., according the MINUSTAH website. Another Port-au-Prince voting station at the St. Anne school saw only 40 of the 450 people registered there vote.

Haitian police, U.N. soldiers, and yellow-shirted "Election Security" personnel outnumbered voters at most polling places.

"Préval did not encourage people to go to the polls," complained a right-wing politician on the radio. "He preferred to leave for the Summit [of the Americas in Port-of Spain]. He strengthened the Lavalas boycott by banning the movement of all tap-taps," the colorful Haitian buses.

On April 16, Ronald St. Jean, a well-known human rights activist and independent candidate, withdrew from the running, saying he could not "in good conscience" participate in the elections.

Even the National Council of Political Parties, a coalition of neo-Duvalierist parties headed by right-wing politicians Déjean Bélizaire and Osner Févry, recognized that the elections were "a failure."

Despite the low turn-out, it will take at least eight days for results to be known as ballots are trucked in from the countryside, Jean-Marc Baudot, a Canadian consultant coordinating logistics for the CEP told the Miami Herald.

"This is a stinging setback for the government and the international community which has financially backed these fake elections and for the CEP, which organized this fiasco, spending $16 million," said Patrick Elie, a human rights activist. The U.S., France, Canada and the U.N. gave about $12.5 million for the elections.

In some places, even members of the voting stations (known as BIVs) did not vote, Elie said. "The decision of the CEP to arbitrarily exclude the Lavalas Family party from the election contributed greatly to this failure," he concluded, calling on the CEP to account for the millions it spent.

"Only in this country are the people victim of so much deprivation and misery," said Manes, a resident of Rue Magny in the capital on Sunday morning. "And yet our leaders find more than $16 million to waste just to please the indecent whims of the international community."

So far the CEP's President Frantz Verret has declined to estimate the participation rate. "We can call ourselves happy to have delivered the goods," he said. "The people went to the polls but not en masse. The essential thing was done: the elections took place on the date previously established."

U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Janet Sanderson tried to minimize the boycott. "Historically, off-year elections in the United States as well as in other countries tend not to be as well-attended as presidential elections," she said. "We'll have to see."

"You have just told me that voters did not go to the polls," responded Préval when asked about the massive voting abstention. He returned from the Summit to vote late Sunday in Bois Verna, "However, I will await the results to be published shortly by the leaders of the Provisional Electoral Council."

Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis was similarly agnostic when she voted in Turgeau. "It is not up to me to determine whether or not the voters have responded," she said. "The essential thing is that I have fulfilled my duty as a citizen because elections are an expression of sovereignty." Haiti's "expression of sovereignty" was held under a deeply unpopular U.N. military occupation.

"We can congratulate ourselves for helping to carry out the April 19 elections," a MINUSTAH spokesperson declared with even more irony. "From a security standpoint, there weren't any major incidents. As for the Police, there were not many arrests."

However, violence was so severe on the Central Plateau that the CEP had to annul elections there. The worst incidents occurred in the town of Mirebalais.

"It was about 1 a.m. when masked individuals, who drove up in a white Nissan Patrol, burst into the electoral office located at the National High School," said voting station chief Fils-Aimé Valbrun from his hospital bed in intensive care. "Furious, they ordered me to sign the ballots and hand them over to them. Faced with my categoric refusal, they pulled out a handgun and shot me in the mouth."

Skirmishes and gunfights between supporters of the rival parties Lespwa, UCADDE, and Fusion, terrorized the townspeople of Mirebalais. An angry crowds almost set fire to the Roseau Hotel belonging to Agriculture Minister and Lespwa big-wig Joanas Gay. A similar stand-off took place at the Mirage Hotel, where some Fusion candidates were housed.

(Ignoring the CEP's decision annulling the elections in the Center Department, UCADDE candidate Willot Joseph and his allies ran through Mirebalais' streets proclaiming their victory.)

Violence flared in other regions. In the northern towns of Acul du Nord and Limbé, right-wing parties participating in the anemic polling clashed. "If you find ballots in the urns, it is not our votes," said one Limbé resident.

In the Nippes Department, some people were wounded in rock thowing. In the Artibonite town of Verrettes, supporters of the party Haiti in Action party were arrested for possession of illegal weapons.

All of the violence was between small rival parties participating in the elections. Election officials had been expecting trouble from the Lavalas Family.

"I want to express my congratulations to the Lavalas Family," said CEP's director general Opont Pierre-Louis with borderline sarcasm. "Despite its call for abstention, its supporters refrained from violence against those who wanted to exercise their civic duties."

Lavalas leaders were also proud of the discipline shown by their frustrated partisans. "We wish to thank the masses for showing so much maturity," said former Lavalas deputy James Derosin. "However, the fight has just begun."

"We solemnly declare that we are in opposition to Préval's policy of exclusion," said Nahoum Marcellus, also a former Lavalas deputy from the North and one of the disqualified Senate candidates. "We re going to mobilize for the return of President Aristide," who remains in exile in South Africa five years after the coup that ousted him on Feb. 29, 2004.

Meanwhile, demonstrations took place on April 20 and 21 in front of the National Palace and the CEP headquarters. On Apr. 16, five young Lavalas Family activists entered the Parliament where they have undertaken a hunger strike to call world attention to the exclusion of the party from the elections. They say they will continue the strike until the elections are annulled.

The Lavalas Family's Permanent Mobilization Commission also declared that April and May would be spent mobilizing to demand the annulment of the elections and their rerun in November when wider parliamentary races will be held. The party also called for an audit of the CEP by the Cour des Comptes (Haiti's General Accounting Office) and the Corruption Fighting Unit (ULCC).

(Based on reporting by Haiti Liberté correspondents Geatjens Pierre, J. Fatal Piard, and Jean Baptiste Jean Ristil)

All articles copyrighted Haiti Liberte. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haiti Liberte.
This Week in Haiti" is the English section of HAITI LIBERTE newsweekly. For
the complete edition with other news in French and Creole, please contact
the paper at (tel) 718-421-0162, (fax) 718-421-3471 or e-mail at
editor@haitiliberte.com. Al3o visit our website at
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A Black President Doesn’t Mean Racism is gone in America

By Peter Phillips

Racial inequality remains problematic in the US. People of color continue to experience disproportionately high rates of poverty, unemployment, police profiling, repressive incarceration and school segregation.

According to a new Civil Rights report, “Reviving the Goal of an Integrated Society: A 21st Century Challenge,” by Gary Orfield, schools in the US are currently 44% non-white, and minorities are rapidly emerging as the majority of public school students. Latinos and Blacks are the two largest minority groups. However, Black and Latino students attend schools more segregated today than during the civil rights era. Over fifty years after the US Supreme Court case: Brown VS Board of Education, schools remain separate and not equal. Orfield’s study shows that public schools is in the Western states, including California, suffer from the most severe segregation in the US, rather than schools in the southern states as many people believe.

This new form of segregation is primarily based on how urban areas are geographically organized—as Cornel West so passionately describes— into vanilla suburbs and chocolate cities.

Schools remain highly unequal, both in terms of money, and qualified teachers and curriculum. Unequal education leads to diminished access to colleges and future jobs. Non-white schools are segregated by poverty as well as race. These “chocolate” low-income public schools are where most of the nation’s drop-outs occur, leading to large numbers of virtually unemployable young people of color struggling to survive in a troubled economy.

Diminished opportunity for students of color invariably creates greater privileges for whites. White privilege is a concept that is challenging for many whites to accept. Whites like to think of themselves as hard working individuals whose achievements are due to deserved personal efforts. In many cases this is partly true; hard work in college often pays off in many ways. Nonetheless many whites find it difficult to accept that geographically and structurally based racism remains a significant barrier for many students of color. Whites often say racism is in the past, and we need not think about it today. Yet, inequality stares at us daily from the barrios, ghettos, and from behind prisons walls. Inequality continues in privileged universities as well.

An example of white privilege is how Sonoma State University (SSU) has recently achieved the status of having the whitest and likely richest student population of any public university in the California. Research shows, that beginning in the early 1990s, the SSU administration specifically sought to market the campus as a public ivy institution—offering an Ivy-League experience at a state college price. Part of this public ivy packaging was to advertise SSU as being in a destination wine country location with high physical and cultural amenities. These marketing efforts were principally designed to attract upper-income students to a Falcon Crest-like campus.

To achieve the desired outcome of becoming a wine-country public ivy, SSU’s administration implemented special admissions screening processes that used higher SAT-GPA indexes than the rest of the California State University (CSU) system. According to Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres in The Miner’s Canary, high SAT scores correlate directly to both race and income with little relationship to actual success in college.

SSU also conducted recruitment at predominately white upper-income public and private high schools throughout the west coast and Hawaii. Consequently, SSU freshmen students with family incomes over $150,000 have increased by 59 percent since 1994 and freshmen students from families with incomes below $50,000 declined by 21 percent (2007 dollars). The campus remained over three-quarters white during this fifteen-year period, while the rest of the CSU campuses significantly increased ethnic diversity.

We are at a time in society when a majority of the population has elected a black President of the United States. This presidency is a hugely symbolic achievement for race relations in the US. We must not, however, ignore the continuing disadvantages for people of color and the resulting advantages gained by whites. Institutional policies and de facto segregation contribute to continuing inequalities that require ongoing review, discussion and redress. Efforts against racism must continue if we are to truly attain the civil rights goal of equal opportunity for all.


Peter Phillips is a Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University. His recent research study Building a Public Ivy: Sonoma State University: 1994-2007, is on line at: http://www.projectcensored.org/articles/story/building-a-public-ivy/

Haiti's Senatorial Elections Already a Fiasco

April 18th, 2009

By Wander Pierre*-www.haitianalysis.com

Election or Selection?

Two days before they are due to occur, Haiti's senatorial elections are already a fiasco. According to a nationwide survey by The Haitian Priorities Project (HPP),“...only 5% of eligible voters would turn out on Apr. 19, based on polling conducted of some 65,000 people by 70 investigators during eight days in early April.”

Famni Lavalas (FL) the party of former president Jean Bertrand Aristide has had all its candidates disqualified by the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP).

Rene Civil, a long time Aristide supporter and former political prisoner, said in a telephone interview “There will be a selection on April 19, not an election.” He said that demonstrations against the government and the CEP would be relentless. He believes that with FL banned from the senate President Preval will be able to force through unpopular economic policies such as the privatization of state institutions such as TELCO (Haiti's phone company) and the National Port Authority.

Haitian Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis declared a recent donor conference in Washington a success. But it is doubtful that this will inspire Haitians to turn out for the election.

Comments gathered below from people living and working in Haiti seem to confirm this.

Romy, a young labourer said in a telephone interview that he would not vote because FL has been banned. However, he also said that he wished FL were less internally divided.

Dave, a young vocational student who has worked with foreign journalists, also lamented FL's exclusion as a “lost opportunity” for Haitians.

Merisma Jean-Claudel, a law school student said “I am not sure that even 35% of the population will go out to vote. I have been in Cap-Haiti for the holy week. People are not interested in this election.”

Erline, a mother of two who works as secretary at a private school, said in an email, ” I am not going to vote, I am very disappointed to see some folks become rich overnight while most are starving..”

Disillusionment with Preval seems widespread. However, divisions within FL have also been harshly criticized. Even Aristide has been criticized for not taking a clear stand as the FL leader. It has been suggested that his silence during the dispute with the CEP was driven by a desire to do nothing that may appear to legitimize the coup of 2004. However, FL partisans have expressed frustration that they must guess what their leader is thinking.

The electoral fiasco has prompted more foreign attention for Haiti. Criticism of the CEP, at least among the foreign and Haitian elite, halted after a visit to Haiti by US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. Such high levels visits have provoked ridicule of the government for its deference to foreign donors.
*Merisma Jean-Claudle contributed to this article.

HAITI: Fanmi Lavalas Banned, Voter Apprehension Widespread By Jeb Sprague*

NEW YORK, Apr 17 (IPS) - Weekend senatorial elections in Haiti are mired in controversy as Fanmi Lavalas (FL), the political party widely backed by the poor majority, has been disqualified.

Read the rest of this article on:http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46537

AS DONORS MEET IN WASHINGTON, DC: HAITIAN ELECTIONS IN DOUBT

HAITI LIBERTE
"Justice. Verite. Independance."

* THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

April 15 - 21, 2009
Vol. 2, No. 39

by Kim Ives

In the face of widespread consternation and a boycott by Haiti's largest
party, the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) plans to go forward with
partial Senate elections this weekend, just days after international donors
met in Washington, DC in an effort to raise money for the cash-strapped
country.

Two months ago, the CEP excluded former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's
Lavalas Family party (FL) on the grounds that he had not signed the
registration documents for his party's candidates for the 12 Senate seats
being filled (see Haiti Liberté, Vol. 2, No. 31, 2/18/2009).

Aristide, who is still in exile in South Africa, is not required to sign the
documents. Another party designee can and has done so in years past,
including this year. Furthermore, it would be difficult and politically
awkward for Aristide to sign the documents at the Haitian Embassy in
Pretoria, as he would have had to.

In response to its disqualification, the party has launched "Operation
Closed Doors," a campaign urging the Haitian people to shun the Apr. 19
polling. The call comes after a Haitian court ruled Mar. 9 that the CEP had
acted illegally in disqualifying the Lavalas Family (see Haiti Liberté, Vol.
2, No. 34, 3/11/2009). The CEP, however, has ignored the ruling, being
constitutionally autonomous and outside court and government jurisdiction in
electoral matters.

(Judge Jean-Claude Douyon, who made the ruling against the CEP, was fired by
Haitian Justice Minister Jean-Joseph Exumé on Apr. 3 for alleged corruption.
Douyon, however, says his dismissal was retaliation for hearing the case,
according to the Haiti Information Project's Kevin Pina.)

Thousands of demonstrators marched through the capital on Feb. 28, the fifth
anniversary of the Feb. 29, 2004 coup d'état against Aristide, to demand his
return to Haiti and the party's inclusion in the elections. Another march of
some 10,000 on Mar. 27 shook Haiti's second city, Cap Haitien.

The Haitian Priorities Project (HPP), based in the U.S. and Haiti, estimated
that only 5% of eligible voters would turn out on Apr. 19, based on polling
conducted of some 65,000 people by 70 investigators during eight days in
early April.

"If the Lavalas Family is not part of the election, then there will be no
free and fair election," said a Lavalas Family member at a demonstration
outside CEP headquarters last month. "Whatever happens will just be a
selection."

Even organizationally, the election appears destined for trouble. Although
CEP spokesman Frantz Bernadin claimed that ballots and other voting
materials were already distributed to Departmental Electoral Offices - known
as BEDs - several press reports said that two-thirds of the 600,000 new
electoral cards were not yet distributed to voters with less than a week to
go.

There are 78 candidates from only 16 of Haiti's 49 registered parties -
along with some independents - running for the 12 seats. The elections,
which have been postponed for about a year and a half, are costing more than
$15 million.

In an effort to promote the elections, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton will travel to Haiti on Apr. 16, as her husband, former President
Bill Clinton, did with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Mar. 9 (see
Haiti Liberté, Vol. 2, No. 34, 3/11/2009). In Port-au-Prince, she will meet
with President René Préval, as she did on Feb. 5 in Washington. (The same
day she will travel on to the Dominican Republic and then on Apr. 17 to
Trinidad and Tobago, where she will attend the three-day Summit of the
Americas along with President Barack Obama in Port of Spain.)

The push for elections will come after a push for aid. On Apr. 14, Hillary
Clinton, along with Ban Ki-moon, French Deputy Foreign Minister Rama Yade,
and Haitian Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis, attended a donors
conference of about 30 nations and multilateral agencies in Washington,
organized by the Haitian government and the Inter-American Development Bank
(IDB). Clinton pledged $57 million from the U.S. government, including $20
million for infrastructure repair, $20 million for debt relief, and $15
million for food aid.

The $125 million Pierre-Louis aimed to raise on Apr. 14 is just to close
this year's budget deficit, Haiti's Economy and Finance Minister Daniel
Dorsainvil told The Wall Street Journal. In addition, the Haitian government
is looking for pledges of $2 billion, half of a $4 billion three-year
poverty reduction program.

The government came away from the conference with pledges of $324 million
for the next two years. Time will tell how much of that sum will actually be
delivered as the world capitalist crisis deepens in the months ahead.

Washington is very concerned about Haiti's political stability, as indicated
by the donors conference, the high-level visits, and a spate of articles and
editorials by Ban Ki-moon and others in leading U.S. dailies like the New
York Times and Miami Herald over the past two months.

"We are treading on very fragile ground," Pierre-Louis told the donors
conference. "If no action is taken now the consequences will be
catastrophic."

Catastrophic instability, however, may well result, sooner or later, from
the exclusionary Apr. 19 elections. Despite attempts to raise money to avert
disaster, by keeping Aristide in exile and his party out of the Senate
elections the Préval/Pierre-Louis government, and its international backers,
may be engaged in the futile exercise described in a Haitian proverb: "Lave
men, siye ate." Wash one's hands but then dry them in the dirt.

All articles copyrighted Haiti Liberte. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haiti Liberte.

Jubilee-Grassroots: Obama Administration Pledges to Cover Remaining Debt Payments from Haiti!

Dear Jubilee members and friends,

Yesterday at the Haiti Donors Conference Secretary of State Clinton announced a US pledge of $20 million to cover Haiti ’s remaining debt payments to the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank. Not only is this a victory for the people of Haiti , it is also an inspiring demonstration of the power of your solidarity and advocacy.

While this is exciting news, we are not entirely out of the woods yet. Congress may need to authorize and appropriate $50 million to fund the entire package of US emergency aid to Haiti (including the debt relief money). And Haiti has not yet received permanent debt stock cancellation. The projected date for this has been pushed back more than once and it could happen again.

That said, yesterday’s announcement is cause for celebration. Many thanks to everyone for the years of hard work that helped to bring about yesterday’s announcement!

Jubilee’s press statement & links to coverage and video of the announcement follow.

Peace,

Kristin

AFP – “ Clinton pledges more than $50 million in aid for Haiti ”

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i0vtqlmpiKI-5VkFrRKXqINsYsJw

Secretary of State Clinton’s Remarks at Haiti Donors Conference – transcript and video

http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2009a/04/121674.htm

JUBILEE USA NETWORK

www.jubileeusa.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

APRIL 15, 2009

CONTACT: Kristin Sundell, Jubilee USA, 202-783-0215 direct; 443-845-4461 cell

Brian Concannon Jr, Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti , 541-432-0597

Jubilee USA Welcomes Obama Administration Pledge to Relieve Haiti’s Debt

Debt Relief to Support Haiti’s Fragile Democracy in Advance of Critical Senate Election

Washington DC – Jubilee USA Network today enthusiastically welcomed yesterday’s announcement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the US would pledge $20 million to cover Haiti’s 2009 debt payments to its multilateral creditors as part of an over $50 million aid package to the country.

Haiti is currently sending $1.6 million to the World Bank every month while thousands of Haitians starve and funding shortages threaten the nation’s stability.

“Today’s announcement is a victory for the people of Haiti . The US pledge to cover Haiti ’s debt service obligations will free $20 million for basic infrastructure, healthcare, and education and will help Haiti to recover from last year’s devastating storms. We are especially grateful for the leadership shown by the Treasury and State Departments in achieving this commitment.” said Kristin Sundell, Deputy Director of the Jubilee USA Network, a coalition of faith-based, development, human rights and community organizations working for debt relief for impoverished countries.

“This is change that Haitians can believe in,” said Brian Concannon Jr., Director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti . “It provides much-needed tangible support while righting a historical wrong by removing the burden of Haiti ’s unjust and unbearable multilateral debt.”

In February, a bipartisan group of 72 US Representatives called on World Bank President Robert Zoellick to immediately suspend all scheduled debt repayments from Haiti and grant complete debt cancellation to the impoverished nation. The letter was circulated by Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA).

Haiti is projected to complete the IMF’s Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative by July. Completion of the program will result in the permanent cancellation of a substantial portion of Haiti ’s debt to the United States, World Bank, and Inter-American Development Bank. Haiti was improperly left out of the original HIPC for political reasons. The country was accepted into the program in 2006, but its efforts to catch up have been hindered by economic policy conditions imposed by the IMF and a string of natural disasters, economic shocks and political unrest.

Earlier this month Haitian President René Préval appealed to Secretary of State Clinton for immediate financial assistance, describing a $100 million budget gap that he said could throw Haiti into anarchy.

The US pledge of $20 million in debt relief is a substantial step toward filling the budget gap, but the date by which Haiti is projected to complete the HIPC program and receive permanent debt cancellation has already been pushed back a number of times by the IMF. Haiti ’s debt must still be cancelled outright without further delays.

###

Kristin Sundell, M.Div.
Deputy Director
Jubilee USA Network
202-783-0215

443-845-4461 (cell)
kristin@jubileeusa.org

www.jubileeusa.org

Check out the Jubilee blog:http://jubileeusa.typepad.com/

MEN ANPIL, CHAY PA LOU (more hands, load is light)

HAITI LIBERTE
"Justice. Verite. Independance."

* THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

March 25 - 31, 2009
Vol. 2, No. 36


by Mario Joseph

On Mar. 17, the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), based in San Francisco, California, awarded the 2009 Judith Lee Stronach Human Rights Award to lawyer Mario Joseph of the Office of International Lawyers (Bureau des Avocats Internationaux or BAI) , a Haitian legal organization based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

The previous week, on Mar. 8, Joseph received Santa Clara University Law School`s 2009 Katharine and George Alexander Law Prize in Santa Clara, California. It was the second annual Alexander Law prize to be awarded. The prize recognizes a member of the worldwide legal community who has used his or her skills, knowledge, and abilities to correct an injustice in a significant manner.

In recent years, Mario Joseph has become Haiti's foremost human rights lawyer, representing prominent political prisoners like former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, activist priest Father Gérard Jean-Juste, and Lavalas Family party leader Annette "So An" Auguste. Since 1996, he has been the BAI's chief trial lawyer and managing attorney, representing hundreds of victims of political violence and less well-known political prisoners.

He was also one of the lead prosecution lawyers in the watershed Raboto trial. In November 2000, he and his colleagues won the conviction of dozens of military and paramilitary officers who carried out a 1994 massacre in Raboto, a poor neighborhood of the northwestern city of Gona ves.

"We honor Mario Joseph for his passionate fight to improve the justice system in Haiti, and his selfless work on behalf of political prisoners, victims of political violence, and the poor," said Santa Clara Law Dean Donald Polden. "He is a fierce voice calling for justice amid threats to his own life. Mr. Joseph has not only freed individuals from injustice but has placed systematic pressure on the dictatorship to respect the rule of law. We honor him for his courageous leadership, his tireless service to those in need, and his dedication to preserving the rights of all."

The BAI also works in close collaboration with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), headed by U.S.-based lawyer Brian Concannon.

We present now excerpts from the remarks that Mario Joseph delivered on receiving the Judith Lee Stronach Human Rights Award in San Francisco last week.

- - - -

I would like to thank the Center for Justice and Accountability for this award, on behalf of all the staff of the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. I would like to accept the award in the name of the victims in Haiti, especially the victims of the Raboto massacre, whose courage and persistence make our work possible (...)

We have a proverb in Haiti, "men anpil, chay pa lou." It means "many hands make the burden light." (...)

In Haiti we carry many burdens. The burden of injustice, the burden of poverty, the burden of political instability. Often these burdens seem impossible to carry. But sometimes we find that if we have enough hands, we can carry them.

When we started the Raboto case, poor people had never used Haiti's courts to achieve justice against rich or powerful people. But we put our hands together with the Raboto victims, with human rights activists and with judges, prosecutors and police who believed in a democratic justice system for Haiti.

We carried the Raboto case as far as it could go in Haiti. We had a trial, convicted those responsible, and won a damage verdict for our clients. It was a historic victory. But the top leaders of the dictatorship, and their money, were no longer in our country; they were in yours.

Haiti's criminals and the U.S. government made the injustice of Raboto international. With CJA, we made the fight for justice international. CJA was a true collaborator, involving BAI and our clients in all the decisions. CJA took every step necessary to ensure that the Raboto victims got their day in American courts. Last May, I carried a nice burden, $430,000, to our clients in Raboto.

Many of Haiti's burdens are at least in part failures of the rule of law. When hurricanes come, the rain floods our cities quickly, because our laws against cutting trees on mountains above the cities are not enforced. Schools collapse on students because no one is held responsible for poor construction. Political violence breaks out when our constitution is ignored.

Our collaborative, legal approach can carry other burdens in Haiti. We have put our hands together with Dr. Paul Farmer and Partners in Health to enforce the civil, political and health human rights of prisoners. We work with parents to enforce the human right to attend primary school, a right currently denied to half of our children. We work with political prisoners and their families to free the political prisoners remaining from our most recent dictatorship.

We are grateful for the helping hands of CJA, of Partners in Health, the Haiti Action Committee, Hastings Law School and from all our supporters in the U.S.. But Haitians need even more help from people in the U.S., because many of our burdens start in your country. [Former Haitian Army Colonel] Carl Dorelien and [former death squad leader] Toto Constant found refuge here because your government collaborated in their brutality in Haiti. The U.S. did not even recognize Haiti, the second independent country in the Americas, for almost sixty years. The U.S. has helped many of Haiti's 33 coup d'etats, including the most recent one in 2004, when our President was kidnapped and exiled to Africa on a U.S. plane.

So I ask you tonight to lend your hand to our fight for justice. We need you to ask your government to cancel Haiti's unjust debt to the World Bank, and to treat Haitians coming to the U.S. fairly. We need you to make sure that your government reverses its failed policies to Haiti- not just the failed policies of the last 8 years, but the failed policies of the last 200 years.

I know that sometimes Haiti's problems seem impossible to solve. But Haiti is the country where slaves won freedom by defeating Napoleon's army. It is where Dr. Paul Farmer's hospitals provide first-class treatment in remote mountain villages. It is where massacre victims from one of the poorest neighborhoods in the Americas won justice against powerful, connected generals, in the courts of two countries. It is where "men anpil, chay pa lou."

COUP-INSTALLED CONSUL DOUBLY SHAMES HAITIAN EDUCATORS
by Lily Cerat

Félix Augustin has always been a controversial figure as Haiti's Consul General in New York. The de facto regime of Gérard Latortue rewarded him with the post after a U.S.-backed coup d'état overthrew elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Feb. 29, 2004.

Augustin was a vocal spokesperson for that coup. As a leader of the so-called "Committee to Defend Democracy in Haiti" in New York, he wrote an infamous letter in 2002 to then Secretary of State Colin Powell calling for the U.S. to oust Aristide and occupy Haiti. Washington finally did exactly that.

Augustin works closely with his cousin, Raymond Joseph, the editor of the arch-reactionary weekly Haiti Observateur. The coup regime appointed Raymond Joseph as Haiti's Ambassador to Washington, a post he still holds.

Augustin has also publicly defended the atrocious human rights record of the de facto regime, arguing that political prisoners illegally and arbitrarily arrested during the coup deserved their fate. In 2005, he even attempted to personally eject a pro-democracy journalist from a public event where coup government officials were dining.

For all these reasons, several Haitian educators attending the 32nd Annual Conference of the New York State Association for Bilingual Education (NYSABE) on Mar. 14 were dismayed to learn that Augustin had been invited to address the gathering.

The annual conference brings together educators from around New York State who work with immigrants and non-English-speaking students and families. Also attending were those who conduct research on the value of maintaining a student's native language and culture and on how that impacts educational achievement.

Before inviting Augustin, NYSABE's Executive Committee did not consult all of the organization's Haitian membership, which may have protested. But faced with a fait accompli, Haitian educators resigned themselves to the prospect of Augustin giving remarks during the Awards Luncheon, a conference tradition where the NYSABE recognizes outstanding peer-nominated educators and students who have won the annual essay and art competition. (This year, Clifford Cedrik Lalanne, a bilingual Haitian student in PS 189's fifth grade, won third place for his essay in Haitian Creole entitled "How Do You Define Your Heritage, and How Does Your Heritage Define You?")

Some Haitian educators reasoned that Augustin might be able to boost teacher tourism to Haiti. This idea took hold with me. After all, teachers do travel. Plenty of vacation time is one of their few rewards. I began to envision Consul Augustin showing up on Saturday morning with a staff from the Consulate to set up a corner with Haitian arts and crafts, brochures, samples of Haitian coffee, rum, and cuisine. Under a banner saying "Come See and Taste Haiti," the consul would invite the attendees, about 350 educators, to come to Haiti during Christmas break, winter recess, spring break, the two summer months, or a few long weekends. There are even some Haitian and Haitian-American teachers who have not visited their homeland in ages. Encouraging words from a consul might have lured them back, especially with Delta Airlines inaugurating flights to Haiti this June.

My reverie grew when, by complete accident in the conference hotel's lobby, I met a woman waiting for a taxi. I told her about the conference, and she told me that she was a hydrogeologist, anxious for an opportunity to visit Haiti. Hydrogeology is the area of geology that deals with the distribution and movement of groundwater in the soil and rocks of the Earth's crust. Haiti needs to be visited by hydrogeologists, who can help us address our nation's dire water problems.

There were so many positive things that an upstanding and responsible Haitian Consul could promote with a good speech. But, obviously, Félix Augustin is not such a consul. After committing to the event, he simply never showed up. My Haitian colleagues and I were embarrassed to be represented by such a flaky official. Distance could not be the excuse: the conference took place at the Westchester Marriott, about an hour away from New York City.

Perhaps we should have expected no better from a man with Augustin's political credentials. However, his cavalier lapse reminded me why we must continue to fight for a government and diplomatic corps which are responsible, disciplined and democratic.

All articles copyrighted Haiti Liberte. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haiti Liberte.

More of the Same as Bill Clinton and Ban Ki-Moon visit Haiti

by Wadner Pierre-Haitianalysis.com

Haiti has always seemed to attract more high profile and supposedly benevolent visitors than any other Caribbean country. For example, there are more NGOs per capita in Haiti then anywhere in the world – up to 20,000 according to a 1998 World Bank estimate. Since the coup that ousted Aristide's democratic government in 2004, Haiti also “hosts” thousands of UN soldiers and support staff. Countless visitors profess a desire to improve life for Haitians and to promote democracy but they seldom deliver.. That does not excuse the Haitian authorities and Haiti's bourgeoisie class who have kept Haitians living in extreme poverty. Nevertheless, one must wonder what visitors to Haiti really want for Haitians.

I have witnessed and heard many of the false promises, particularly since 1994 with the return of Haiti's constitutional order. On October 15, 1994, the Clinton Administration allowed Aristide's government to return but under strict conditions. Many people say Aristide should not have accepted those conditions but he did not seem to have much choice. Aristide tried to keep the Democrats on his side, especially after Bush was elected, but with the exception of the Congressional Black Caucus, especially Maxine Waters, they betrayed him and the Haitian people. It was under Clinton, in 1995, that economic sanctions began to be brought against Aristide's government for not moving quickly enough on privatization to please Washington.

With these facts an mind, what can Haitians expect from the recent visit they received from former US president Bill Clinton and UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon? “Nothing” answered some Haitian parliamentarians. They will spend a few days in Haiti, eat some nice food at the National Palace, make more empty promises, and perhaps encourage more false hope. Perhaps they will congratulate Preval for not stepping out of line as did Aristide.

For the Lavalas supporters, it will be a chance to draw attention to some demands: the return of their leader and the reintegration of Fanmi Lavalas in the electoral process. Finally, they will try, via the presence of the international press, to send a message Barack Obama. In fact, a rally is planned in front of the International Airport, Toussaint Louverture for March 9, 2009.

Fanmi Lavalas Party Divided and Confused

By
Wadner Pierre


As elections approach for twelve senate seats in the Haitian Senate the
Fanmi Lavalas (FL) party (the electoral vehicle of the Lavalas movement) has
divided into two factions. One is headed by former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune,
Annette Auguste (aka So Ann), and former parliamentarian, Yves Crystallin.
Both Neptune and Auguste were prominent political prisoners of the UN installed
regime of Gerard Latortue. The other FL faction is directed by Senator Rudy
Herivaux and a former Arisride spokeswoman, Maryse Narcisse. Both factions
sent lists to the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP).


The CEP must decide which faction has the better claim to represent FL in
the elections. The Neptune-Auguste faction is confident that the CEP will rule
in their favor after examining the founding FL documents in which their
members are more prominent. However, adding to the confusion, both factions
recognize Aristide as the leader of FL, and their electoral lists include some of
the same candidates.


One FL candidates, Nahoum Marcellus, has expressed a widely held desire
among FL supporters: “ It is Aristide himself who has to intervene to resolve
this dispute.( source,www.Haitiliberte.com)” Aristide has intervened, according to a report in Haiti Liberte
by Kim Ives. However, Aristide has reportedly done so discretely through
telephone calls to the members of both factions. He has probably avoided public
pronouncements due to his precarious situation in South Africa where he lives in
exile since the US orchestrated coup that deposed him in 2004.


Lavalas opponents have openly enjoyed the spectacle of an internal feud.
Others have gone on the attack.


The National Network of Defense Human Rights, (RNDDH),” a vehemently
anti-Lavalas “human rights group“ that has been funded by both the Canadian and US
governments, has recently gone on the offensive. In a February 3 press
release RNDDH implored Haitians not to “transform the Senate in to a haven for
bandits”. [1] The press release, which rehashed thoroughly discredited claims
about a “massacre” of “La Scierie”, was clearly aimed at the Lavalas movement,
though it did also denounce some Lavalas opponents such as Guy Philippe in an
apparent attempt to look impartial. RNDDH was formerly known as the
National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR). The name change was made in 2005 at
the request of its New York associates who wished to distance themselves from
its work after the 2004 coup. Even UN officials have publicly criticized
flagrant partisanship and unsubstantiated allegations of RNDDH.


Lavalas supporters may well ask “what does Fanmi Lavalas stand for?” Does
it stand for people, or for seats in the Haitian Senate? What should Aristide
do to end the internal dispute? The Fanmi Lavalas party is clearly
struggling against itself.


Its supporters would, no doub,t like FL leaders to remember the party motto “
Alone, we are weak, together, we are strong, together, together, we are
Lavalas,”.
By: Wadner Pierre

[1] _http://www.rnddh.org/article.php3?id_article=403_
(http://www.rnddh.org/article.php3?id_article=403)

HUNDREDS RALLY TO PROTEST PLANNED DEPORTATION OF 30,000 HAITIANS

March 4 - 10, 2009
Vol. 2, No. 33


POMPANO BEACH, FL:

By Francesca Guerrier

Over 500 demonstrators gathered in front of the remote immigrant detention jail known as the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, Florida on Saturday, Feb. 28 to demand that the Obama administration stop the threatened deportation of some 30,000 Haitians back to their strife and storm battered country.

The protest was called by Haitian Women of Miami (FANM), Haitian Citizen United Taskforce (HCUT), the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center (FIAC), the Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC), and the union Unite for Dignity. Officials of Miami Dade County, where most Haitians in South Florida live, assisted by providing buses for protestors coming from Miami, 30 miles south.

The rally was boisterous but peaceful and well-organized. The crowd demanded TPS (Temporary Protected Status) for Haitians, which was previously denied by the Bush administration. TPS has been granted in recent years to nine countries plagued by war or natural disasters: El Salvador, Honduras, Liberia, Montserrat, Nicaragua, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and Sudan. It allows refugees from those countries to live and work legally in the US. The designation is effective for a minimum of six months and a maximum of 18 months.

After four storms in August and September 2008 brought widespread death and destruction to Haiti, the U.S. government suspended Haitian deportations for three months. But expulsions resumed after Dec. 5, sending dozens of Haitians back to their homeland since then. Between January and December 2008, 1024 Haitians were repatriated, said Barbara Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement or ICE.

In February, U.S. immigration officials announced that 30,299 Haitians were subject to immediate deportation back to Haiti.

Jonel Lemy, a Haitian-American lawyer with the Haitian Lawyers Association, told the Sun Sentinel that he has seen an increase in deportation cases in the last six months, even taking the three month reprieve into account.

"Arrests are up," Lemy said. "People are being arrested as they drop their kids off at school or on their way to work."

Lending visibility to the rally were hip-hop star Wyclef Jean and his younger sister Melky Jean, who is also a singer. She performed a passionate song in Krey l and said that TPS for Haitians was "only fair." She founded and helps run the CARMA Foundation which provides shoes and other relief to poor children in Haiti.

Farah Juste, another well-known Haitian singer and activist, took the microphone after Melky to lead the crowd in an improvised song in Krey l: "Prezidan Obama, se TPS nou mande." (President Obama, we demand TPS).

Lavarice Gaudin, a leader with the long-standing grassroots organization Veye Yo based in Miami's Little Haiti, addressed the hundreds of demonstrators on behalf of the group's founder Father Gérard Jean Juste, who couldn't attend the rally due to poor health. Lavarice telephoned Jean-Juste, who then addressed the crowd by phone, which received him with warmth and enthusiasm.

"What do we want?" Jean-Juste asked. "TPS," the crowd loudly responded.

"When do we want it?" Jean-Juste continued. "NOW!" the crowd came back.

Other speakers and singers communed with the crowd, expressing solidarity with the Haitians held in the nearby detention center.

Wyclef Jean made a surprise appearance at the rally, which delighted the crowd.. Speaking in English and Krey l, he said he had a message for President Obama, "my President, our President."

"Haitians are strong in number but not in politics," he said. "Haiti is the poorest country in the hemisphere. If they deport 30,000 people back to Haiti, we will see 60,000 coming to the USA the following week, only because the country is in bad shape. I left Haiti when I was 9 years old and I believed in the American dream. I think giving justice to Haitians is the American dream. My President Obama, when my parent came here, they didn't have papers, but they worked hard for 15 years. Like in this situation, if they had been sent back to Haiti, America and the world wouldn't have had the gift of Wyclef Jean. This is not a Haitian cause. This is a human cause."

In an interview with Fox TV after his intervention, Wyclef noted that Haitians should receive the same treatment and rights as "my Cubans brothers and sisters."

"Haitians need to be politically empowered in Florida," he continued. "Otherwise we will keep on having the same problem."

"I want to let young people know that if you don't stand for something, you stand for nothing," he told Haiti Liberté. "We need to be strong politically, I encourage young Haitians to study... We have to take part in the Haitian struggle otherwise we fool ourselves if we don't stand up for ourselves."

FANM's Marleine Bastiene asked Wyclef why he had felt compelled to attend a rally that was not in his schedule.

"When I found out this [rally] was happening, I decided to come and ask President Obama to stop deportations to Haiti," he replied. "Even though he's dealing with the economic crisis we are facing, Haiti is in extreme crisis, he has to act immediately to stop all deportations to Haiti; otherwise they will have huge problems in the island which will have repercussions back in the US ultimately."

Of the 30, 000 Haitians with deportation orders against them, 600 are in detention centers and 260 are allowed to stay at home and in their communities, although their movements are monitored with ankle bracelet transmitters.

Haitian President René Préval, who has also asked Washington to grant TPS to Haitians in the U.S., has effectively blocked deportations by having his government refuse to grant would-be deportees travel documents.

"President Obama, the time has arrived to right this wrong," said Marleine Bastien to the crowd.

The world capitalist crisis and soaring jobless rate in the US put great pressure on Obama to deport undocumented workers, as right-wing politicians urge. But Obama has lots of political capital to lose with Haitian-Americans, one of his power bases, if their undocumented compatriots are deported. Conversely, his administration gains lots of easy political capital if it grants TPS, a very short-term measure which does nothing to address the fundamental injustice of U.S. immigration restrictions and their enforcement.

Clearly, many in the crowd had high hopes that their continued mobilization would sway the Obama administration to grant the TPS that the Bush administration denied. "We will continue to protest and take our message to Washington, and we expect President Obama to support us," lawyer Jonel Lemy said.

All articles copyrighted Haiti Liberte. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haiti Liberte.

Le Carnaval de Jacmel, un model a suivre

Ecrit par:
Dave Thompson
“ORIJINALITE’M SE PA’M (Mon originalité est la meienne)”

C’est sur ce terme que s’est deroulé le carnaval a Jacmel cette année.

Malgré les maigres moyens de la mairie de Jacmel, et ceux des artisans

Une fois de plus, ils ont prouvé l’envie de montrer au monde entier qu’ils

Ont de “l’originalité” et qu’Haiti qu’en dépit des mauvaises figures qu’on

Lui expose au monde entier, qu’on ait d’innombrables choses que l’on pourrait

présenter, afin que que le monde entier puisse avoir une pensée positive envers nous.

Et ce qui se passe là-bas a Jacmel n’a rien a envier a celui du Brésil, Cuba, et a Santiago

en matière de carnaval.


A noter que chaque année ils présentent des nouveautés.

Pour l’année ’09 les artisans n’ont pas ratté l’occasion de stupéfier les gens qui ont

Manifesté leur présence a cette belle fête culturelle avec des maisons, des cannons,etc.…

Ce sont des choses incroyables, et le plus beau de tout c’est qu’ils n’utilisent pas

de machines, ils travaillent toutes ces choses a la main.


Apres avoir passé plus de quatre a cinq heures de temps a assister au défile des

groupes masques et bandes a pieds On a pu constate que l’imagination

était au rendez-vous.

A Jacmel le carnaval est typiquement artistique et créative contrairement a

Port-au-Prince ou l’on évoque l’aspect des groupes sonores en premier.

Pour cette année, ça a été une réussite, en route pour l’année prochaine

Il nous faut travailler beaucoup plus car, le carnaval ne cesse d’épater les

Touristes chaque année et déjà, la ville de Jacmel a elle seule sans le carnaval

Attire des milliers de touristes venant de partout chaque année.


Le carnaval de Jacmel est un patrimoine a préserver tout comme les sites historiques.


Pour vous, ne connaissant pas encore Jacmel, c’est une splendide ville situee a 34km

De la ville de Leogane. Réputée pour ces hotels et ses plages ce qui lui a fallu le nom

de “ Première ville touristique d’Haiti.” Alors, si vous passer dans le coin, demander

A visiter “Cap Lamandou hotel” Peace of Mind hotel” “Piano Piano Bar” ce dernier

est un lieu que fréquente des hommes comme l’ex. Ambassadeur Américain en Haiti Bryan Dean Coran, l’actuel Amb. Du Danemark et de L’argentine etc… Il faut notre que Jacmnel est la ville de l'actuelle Gouverneure de Canada, Mme Micheal Jean. Jacmel est surnommé, la capitale touristique d'Haiti, les plages sont belles et admirables aussi.

"Pour ceux qui ont ratté cette année nous vous attendons pour la toute prochaine édition" a dit jacmelien.

Et vous verrez qu’Haiti a beaucoup plus a vendre que ce a quoi qu’on nous reproche fort souvent.

FIVE YEARS LATER: EVENTS WORLDWIDE MARK HAITI'S 2004 COUP

HAITI LIBERTE
"Justice. Verite. Independance."

* THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

February 18 - 24, 2009
Vol. 2, No. 31



In the early morning hours of Feb. 29, 2004, U.S. Special Forces took Haiti's President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his wife Mildred from their home in Tabarre and loaded them onto an unmarked U.S. jet already waiting at the Port-au-Prince airport. The U.S. troops then flew Aristide into exile in Africa, where he remains to this day, five years later.

Thus unfolded one of the Bush Administration's few successes: the forcible overthrow of an elected government, disguised and recorded in the mainstream press as a mass uprising against an unpopular would-be dictator.

The majority of the Haitian people were not duped. They suspected the collaboration of the Dominican-based Haitian "rebels" led by former soldiers Guy Philippe and Jodel Chamblain with the National Endowment for Democracy-spawned "civil opposition" front known as the "Group of 184," headed by assembly factory owners Andy Apaid and Charles Henri Baker. In recent years, proof of that collusion was made public as the putschist alliance, like the government they cobbled together, fell apart.

The whole sordid endeavor was underwritten and militarily facilitated by the U.S., France and Canada, each power having important economic and political interests in Haiti.

On the coup's fifth anniversary, demonstrations, masses, conferences and vigils will be held in many quadrants of Haiti's far-flung diaspora. In BROOKLYN, the Lavalas Family party has called for a mass on Saturday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. at Holy Innocent Church at the corner of Beverly Road and E. 17th Street in the heart of New York City's Little Haiti. In FLORIDA, on the same day from 3 to 6 p.m., the Florida Immigration Coalition will sponsor a rally to demand Temporary Protected Status for undocumented Haitian immigrants in the U.S. The rally will be held at the Broward Transitional Center, 3900 N. Powerline Road in Pompano Beach, FL.

Perhaps the most ambitious commemorative event is the OTTAWA INITIATIVE ON HAITI 2009, a one-day conference to analyze the 2004 coup, with special attention to Canada's role. The Feb. 28th conference will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the University of Ottawa's Alumni Theatre at 85 University (Jock-Turcot Building). The event will also address what roles Canada, the U.S. and the Haitian diaspora might play in Haiti today. Some of the speakers invited include author Edwidge Danticat, political activist Patrick Elie, economists Camille Chalmers and Kesner Pharel, and Ottawa-based Haitian activists Raymond Dubuisson and Jean Saint-Vil. Peter Hallward, author of "Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide and the Politics of Containment," and Michel Chossudovsky, director of the Centre for Research on Globalization and Economics Professor, will also attend.

Central to the organization of the Ottawa Initiative is the Canada Haiti Action Network (CHAN), a vibrant and effective nationwide coalition of Canadian groups and individuals which formed during the 2004-2006 coup. CHAN issued a statement on Jan. 24, 2009 which succinctly summarizes Haiti's situation today. The organization also makes five demands, including a call to investigate the coup and ensuing massacres by occupation troops. We close with that statement.

Kim Ives


FOREIGN OCCUPATION TROOPS OUT OF HAITI!
FREEDOM AND JUSTICE FOR HAITI!

Statement by the Canada Haiti Action Network, on the fifth anniversary of the overthrow of elected government in Haiti.

This February, the Haitian people will commemorate the fifth anniversary of a seminal date in their long and proud history. But it won't be a celebration. They will mobilize in angry protests to condemn the overthrow of the elected government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on February 29, 2004. They will also condemn the decades of foreign domination that has brought the country to ruin; made all the worse since 2004.

The illegal coup of 2004 has had an extremely negative impact on Haiti's social fabric - breakdown in government services, including education and health care; increased poverty; decline of agricultural production; increased violence by pro-coup gangs and by foreign military forces and the Haitian National Police; an increase in emigration of educated Haitians; and heightened tensions within families as a result of all of the above.

Haiti's crippled economy was dealt further blows when a series of hurricanes struck the island last summer. Several thousand died and agricultural production was dealt a heavy blow. The city of Gonaives, the fourth largest in Haiti, still lies under several feet of dried, rock-hard mud.

Some $100 million was pledged by foreign governments in relief following the storms. Almost nothing has been received. This follows the pattern of the past five years whereby the United Nations and participating countries have spent hundreds of millions of dollars each year on their 9,000-member military mission while spending next to nothing on social and economic development.

Canada supported the overthrow of the government of President Aristide and thousands of other elected officials in 2004. Troops from the U.S., France and Canada joined with Haitian rightists to consolidate that illegal act. The three big powers got a stamp of approval from the United Nations Security Council. An appointed regime of human rights violators ruled Haiti from 2004 to 2006 and ran the country into the ground.

Today, a 9,000-member foreign police and military force, including the aforementioned Big Three, patrols the country with the endorsement of the UN Security Council. These powers have a preponderant role in the financing of the Haitian government and thus in its policy decisions.

The Canadian government and its Canadian International Development Agency say they are providing $110 million per year to assist Haiti. But little of that money reaches ordinary Haitians. Most of it is used to prop up institutions of foreign domination, including NGOs and propaganda agencies that supported, or were silent in the aftermath of, the 2004 coup.

Political persecutions dating from the 2004 coup are continuing. These include:

Ronald Dauphin, still imprisoned after five years.

Political rights leader Lovinsky Pierre Antoine who was "disappeared" on August 12, 2007 and whose whereabouts remain unknown. Incredibly, his case was not even mentioned in the 2007 report of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances.

One of the ideological pillars of the 2004 overthrow in Haiti was the doctrine of "Responsibility to Protect." The doctrine is increasingly used today to justify military intervention against many of the world's poorer countries - from Venezuela and Cuba to Sudan and Zimbabwe. Thus, the lessons of Haiti have an added importance for the world's people.

Haitians are fighting to retake the sovereignty of their country. Just one month ago, on December 16, tens of thousands marched and rallied in Port au Prince and in other cities across Haiti to reaffirm their opposition to foreign occupation.

The Canada Haiti Action Network will hold public events in at least seven cities across Canada to commemorate the 2004 coup d'etat in Haiti, featuring speakers or films. In late March, we are sponsoring a delegation of trade union activists to Haiti for one week. We continue to assist in sending medical supplies to health providers. We invite you and your organization to join us at anniversary events - become a co-sponsor. Join us in the work of our projects. We encourage local and national media to join us in examining the conditions in Haiti today.

WE DEMAND:

1) Reparations to the Haitian people for all the damage of the past five years caused by foreign occupation.

2) An investigation of the raids by United Nations military forces into Cité Soleil on July 6, 2005 and December 22, 2006. The UN stands accused by residents of "massacres" that cost dozens of lives. To date, not a single international human rights group has undertaken a serious investigation of the community's allegations.

3) Free all political prisoners, including Ronald Dauphin. End the grisly overcrowding in Haiti's prisons.

4) The United Nations Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) must conduct an independent investigation into the disappearance of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine.

5) An independent inquiry into Canada's role in the overthrow of Haiti's elected government in 2004. This inquiry must release the full documentation of the "Ottawa Initiative on Haiti" meeting held in Meech Lake, Quebec on Jan 31 - Feb 1, 2003 that sketched plans for the overthrow of Haiti's government. It must conduct a comprehensive assessment of Canada's aid programs in Haiti, including the extensive involvement in Haiti's persistently dysfunctional justice system and national police service.

For the Canada Haiti Action Network and its local chapters,

Roger Annis, Vancouver 778 858 5179

Chris Semrick, Nanaimo 250 616 7009

Regan Boychuk, Calgary 403-479-8637

Macho Philipovich, Wpg 204 783 2571

Niraj Joshi, Toronto 416 731 2325

Stuart Neatby, Ottawa 613 293 9480

Nik Barry Shaw, Montreal 514 225 5984

Tracy Glynn, Fredericton 506 458 8747

For information on the web, including activities in cities across Canada: http://canadahaitiaction.ca/

For an in-depth look at the "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine: http://canadahaitiaction.ca/?p=341

All articles copyrighted Haiti Liberte. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haiti Liberte.

Change Haiti Can Believe In

January 26th, 2009


By: Paul Farmer and Brian Concannon - Boston Globe

THE INAUGURATION of a US president committed to reversing "the failed policies of the past" provoked sighs of relief around the world. Few were more relieved than the citizens of Haiti, because few have suffered so much from failed US policies. But Haitians are still waiting to see whether the "past" that is to be reversed extends beyond the illegal and destructive policies of the last eight years to include over two centuries of US policies that have failed both our oldest neighbor and our highest ideals.

Our treatment of Haiti was bad enough during the Bush administration. We imposed a development assistance embargo in 2001, because we did not like the elected government's economic policies. The embargo stopped urgently needed government programs - a Partners In Health study found that cancelling water projects in just one city had a devastating impact on health in the area. In 2004, US officials forced Haiti President Jean-Bertrand Aristide aboard a clandestine flight to Africa and placed a Bush supporter from Florida at the head of Haiti's government. Thousands were killed in the ensuing political violence. Years of hard-won progress toward democracy were erased overnight.

But our mistreatment of Haiti started earlier, as soon as Haiti became independent in 1804, when we refused to even recognize the new republic run by freed slaves. We invaded Haiti in 1915, to ensure repayment of a debt to Citibank. We propped up ruthless dictators in the name of fighting communism. In the 1980s, we decimated Haiti's agricultural base by forcing subsidized US rice on Haitian markets.

These policies failed Haitians terribly. They cost thousands of lives lost in political violence. Millions more suffered because Haiti's governments could not or would not provide clean water and basic healthcare. The policies have also failed the United States, by requiring us to mount expensive military interventions, respond to repeated waves of refugees, and deal with the drugs that transit easily through an unstable Haiti on their way from South America.

Haitians are hoping that America will reverse the failed policies of the past. Their hopes are grounded not just in President Obama's promise, but in their own country's brief, but successful, experiment with democracy from 1994 to 2004, and in America's important contributions to that success.

Haiti's democratic interlude included contested elections, and struggles to provide basic justice, education, and healthcare - the predictable challenges of a poor, emerging democracy. But it also included Haiti's first transfer of power from one elected president to another in February 1996, and its second in February 2001. Democratic progress included extending AIDS retroviral therapy to rural areas that had never before had a simple clinic. It included two historic trials that brought powerful figures from Haiti's former army and current police force to justice.

These successes were due, in part, to US government investments. US troops intervened to restore the constitutional government in 1994. USAID helped craft Haiti's successful application for financing from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. US judges, prosecutors, and police officers trained their Haitian counterparts, and we helped equip Haitian courts with basic legal resources and materials.

We now have a historic opportunity to work with Haiti's current constitutional government to build a stronger, more prosperous Haiti. Seizing this opportunity will require restraint, and faith in democracy: We will need to allow elected Haitian leaders to make their own policy decisions, even if we would have decided otherwise.

We will also need to invest in democracy. Three days' spending in Iraq or two weeks' interest on the bank bailout could fund Haiti's entire government for a year. Prudent, depoliticized investments in Haiti's democracy will yield dividends of prosperity and stability to Haiti, and will save US taxpayer dollars in the long run by reducing the flow of refugees and drugs to our shores. Perhaps most important, by helping rebuild a better Haiti, we will show the world how, in President Obama's words, "we are ready to lead once more."

Paul Farmer, MD, is Presley professor of social medicine at Harvard Medical School and a co-founder of Partners In Health. Brian Concannon Jr. is director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti.

Editorial: The Uninspiring "Dialogue" of President Preval

January 30th, 2009

By: Wadner Pierre - HaitiAnalysis.com

What kinds of words do the Haitian people need to hear from President René Préval during these hard times? Do Haitians need the hopeful discourse of US president Barack Obama?

One would think that President Préval, a man with high level government experience dating back to the Aristide administration of 1991, would know how to address the Haitian people. Honesty need not crush hope, and false hope is useless. From the time of slavery Haiti has been plagued by commissions that do nothing for the people. The reason for their failure is simple. They exclude the people who know and care the most about Haiti. Any well intentioned leader must always bear this lesson in mind and ensure that it guides his actions and his words.

On January 1, 2009 in front of the cathedral of Gonaives, Préval gave a speech to the nation to open the year – something countless Haitian presidents (most of them illegitimate unfortunately) have done. Préval gave a mundane speech that highlighted road construction and “dialogue”. When parliament opened on January 12, Preval pledged to continue with the “dialog” that he thinks has brought peace to Haitians.

However, Senator Jean Hector Anacasis from “LESPWA (hope)”, the party of President Préval, announced something more significant. He said that in April a commission would be formed to review the Haitian constitution that would include “all sectors”. However, the Préval administration has already formed commissions that exclude the largest sectors – the peasants and the urban poor.

Préval was criticized for not saying when the UN Occupation forces would leave Haiti – and for not saying when exiled President Aristide would be able to return. Aristide is currently residing in South Africa where he was welcomed by President Thabo Mbeki shortly after the coup d'état of 2004.

Through elections Haitians have already engaged in much of the “dialogue” that Préval keeps talking about. The problems of Haiti cannot be solved in a month, but Préval needs to mobilize and inspire the people who most urgently want and need to solve them. If he were to do this then progress could be made.

The exclusion of the poor must end. One sided, uninspired “dialogue” must end. Foreign troops must leave as demanded by the Haitian constitution. Criminals who run free mist be brought to justice. Our exiled leaders must return to Haiti. If their elected leaders could say these things it would give Haitians good reason to be hopeful.

Haitians Celebrated, not without pain, Day of Independence

By: Wadner Pierre - HaitiAnalysis.com

The dream of the heroic liberators is still - in many ways - far from becoming a reality - the dream that every Haitian without distinction should live comfortably and without any fear; a dream in which the father of the country, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, declared that no foreign soldier violate the soil of Haiti.

After defeating the largest and most powerful army at the time, the army of Napoleon, on November 18, 1803 in Cap-Haitien, Haiti became the first Independent Republic of black people and the second country in the Americas to declare its Independence. However, the powerful countries branded Haiti an outlaw nation and France extorted a payment of 90 million francs in "compensation" for its lost "property" which included 600,000 slaves.

Haitian artist and political activist Farah Juste ("La Reine Soleil") organized a concert in the Haitian community in Miami to honour those who fought to liberate the Haitians of slavery. This year (2009) marks the twentieth year of the great traditional concert.

"My brothers and sisters you represent the second largest ethnic community in Florida, you represent a force both socially and politically. We must unite" said Farah Juste. This year's concert was dedicated to the famous Haitian singer Martha Jean-Claude. Martha Jean-Claude fled from Haiti to Cuba in 1952. She incurred the wrath of Haitian president Paul Eugene Magloire for publishing a journal entitled "Avrinette".

Her son, Richard Mirabal Jean-Claude, was in attendance at the celebration. Also in attendance were various Haitian artists, politicians the Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste of Saint Claire's parish of Ti Plas Kazo, well-known as the father of the Haitian community in Florida-as well as a famous political prisoner after the coup that ousted Haiti's democratically elected government in 2004 and, it is widely hoped, a future candidate in Haiti's next presidential election.

Amidst the distinctive Haitian Creole one could sometimes hear "Happy New Year" uttered happily. It seems that this date is celebrated by not only Haitians, but also by many other peoples on this earth. The great day of Haitian Independence provides just further inspiration.

"A year 2009 for a new Haiti," said Father Gérard Jean-Juste.

The Forgotten Occupation: Emmanuel Santos explains why an extended UN presence has only meant more suffering for the people of Haiti

Socialist Worker______Haitianalysis.com
Picture by
Wadner Pierre

MORE THAN 9,000 military and civilian personnel from the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH, by its French initials) will remain in the country until October 2009, following the UN Security Council's unanimous vote on October 15 to extend its mandate.

MINUSTAH troops have occupied Haiti since 2004 when a U.S.-backed coup overthrew democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The brutal Brazilian-led UN military occupation has resulted in the death, imprisonment or disappearance of thousands of Aristide supporters. Human rights organizations and the independent media have reported sexual assaults committed against women and children.

Brazilian leaders hope that their country's role in the occupation will lead to a future seat in the UN Security Council, where it can play a bigger political role as the region's emerging power. Other South American countries that help maintain the occupation in Haiti include Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Colombia.

On October 31, Bolivia sent a contingent of 200 troops. Israel, the main U.S. ally in the Middle East, has played a role in maintaining the occupation by flying in Jordanian troops. The U.S. also has military and civilian personnel on the ground.

The International Socialist Review has carried extensive coverage of the food crisis in Haiti and globally, including Sharon Smith's "The revolt over rising food prices."

The vote to extend the UN mandate came after warnings from the top UN envoy in Haiti, Hedi Annabi, who, according to Reuters, said that ignoring the plight of the Caribbean country and leaving its population hungry and angry could lead to a new wave of social unrest--an allusion to popular protests over rising food prices in April that ousted former Prime Minister Jacques-Édouard Alexis.

But UN concerns about political stability in Haiti are only a justification for the ongoing presence of a 9,000-strong "peacekeeping" military force that keeps the popular movement in check by targeting left-wing activists and criminalizing the poor. In fact, Brazilian military forces are carrying out counterinsurgency operations in Haiti similar to those used in Brazil to repress the poor in the favelas and activists from the Landless Peasants Movement.

MINUSTAH troops conduct raids in the poorest neighborhoods under the pretext of disarming criminal gangs. But those so-called "gangs" are ordinary Haitians who are being punished by the U.S. and its allies for daring to oppose the occupation. Thus, disarming criminal gangs serves to justify UN military presence there. Already, several massacres have been committed since its arrival.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration and its allies continue to spread anti-Aristide propaganda to deflect criticism by human rights organizations that accuse MINUSTAH of systematic human rights violations. Even Haitian-American singer Wyclef Jean justifies the UN occupation by propagating the idea that it is fighting against dangerous gangs.

In 2004, Jean supported the coup against Aristide. Jean was also executive producer of Ghost of Cité Soleil, a propaganda film that portrays Aristide supporters as ruthless gangsters. Jean's role in demonizing Aristide and his supporters legitimized the UN occupation in the eyes of some Hollywood progressives and others.

But local and international NGOs also played a role in legitimizing the occupation on the grounds that it would bring order by disarming streets gangs--in particular, Canadian NGOs, which led the charge against Aristide in the days leading to the February 2004 coup that ousted him.

Canada's involvement in Haiti is part of a commitment to serve U.S. interests, just as it has in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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A COMBATIVE grassroots movement exploded in April changing the political landscape in Haiti and weakening both President René Préval and his Lespwa (Hope) Party. Préval's coalition was suffering, as some of the 22 National Assembly members from Lespwa joined Concertation des Parlementaires Progressistes (CPP, Coalition of Progressive Parliamentarians), a new legislative bloc that rejects neoliberal policies.

After the senate rejected two of Préval's candidates for prime minister, the government was paralyzed for four months. The impasse ended in July, when the senate confirmed Michèle Pierre-Louis as prime minister. Pierre-Louis is the founder of FOKAL, an NGO funded by financial speculator George Soros.

But the confirmation of Pierre-Louis didn't represent a departure from politics as usual in Haiti.

In November, Pierre-Louis was criticized by Haitian labor activists after she made a visit to the Dominican Republic to attend a small economic summit, but didn't extend her visit to meet with Haitian immigrants after several immigrants were killed in a wave of racist attacks the month before.

Furthermore, discontent is mounting against the UN occupation and the Préval/Pierre-Louis government for failing to deliver on any of its 2006 election campaign promises.

To mark the four-year anniversary of the UN occupation, protests were held in several countries on the eve of Brazilian President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva's visit to Haiti on May 28. Solidarity activists in Brazil, Mexico and the U.S. marched to demand the immediate withdrawal of MINUSTAH from Haiti. The biggest demonstrations took place in Brazil, where labor and left-wing activists marched in several cities.

The occupation of Haiti is unpopular among Brazilians. Over the past four years, Brazil has spent more than 464 million Reals ($290 million) on the occupation, a major sum for a country where more than 40 million people live below the poverty line.

Meanwhile, the movement against the high cost of living continues in Haiti. On August 25, several hundred people gathered in La Savane, a poor area in the town of Les Cayes, to demand lower food and gas prices. A rapid response by MINUSTAH forces and Haitian police dispersed the crowd with tear gas.

On October 14, several hundred people gathered in front of the Commerce and Industry Ministry to protest the high cost of living and call for an end to the MINUSTAH occupation. The protest was organized by Soleil in Action Coalition, known as Aba Satan (Down with Satan)--a key player in the events leading to the April rebellion. It plans similar actions in the future.

Meanwhile, Lavalas activists and supporters are holding weekly vigils for activists who have been jailed and disappeared since the February coup.

During Lula's visit, Haitian police from the elite CIMO unit brutally dispersed a vigil of protesters demanding a prompt investigation into the disappearance of human rights activist Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine. Pierre-Antoine disappeared in 2007 after attending a meeting with human rights activists from Canada and the U.S.

Haitian activists, along with international supporters, have in the past organized successful campaigns to free human rights activists, Lavalas leaders and former Aristide collaborators. In July 2006, former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune was released after spending two years in jail. In August 2006, Annette Auguste, a folk singer and activist popularly known as So Anne, was also released.

Presently, a local and international campaign is underway to free Ronald Dauphin, an Aristide supporter arrested by right-wing paramilitaries during the 2004 coup. Five years later, he has yet to be convicted for any crime.

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DESPITE THE repression carried out by MINUSTAH, Haitian National Police and right-wing death squads since 2004, ordinary people continue the fight to return the democratically elected president from his forced exile in South Africa.

While it's true that Aristide implemented neoliberal policies, he remains popular among the majority of Haitians. Four years after the coup, Fanmi Lavalas (FL or Lavalas), the center-left populist party founded by Aristide 12 years ago, is still a mass political organization. Although it is split into two different wings internally, its grassroots supporters are united in confronting the UN occupation by organizing nationwide demonstrations.

This is a testament to the determination of ordinary Haitians, who also face one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes on the planet after four hurricanes struck the country in less than two months. Soon after, the agricultural sector collapsed, depriving workers and peasants of one of their main sources of income in a country where the unemployment rate is 80 percent.

But the destructive effects of nature could have been avoided had there been more investment on infrastructure, health care and food subsidies. Haiti is more vulnerable today because the occupation has rolled back many of its democratic freedoms. During the coup, schools and hospitals were destroyed by right-wing paramilitaries, as they entered the country from neighboring Dominican Republic, where they received training and arms from the Dominican government and the U.S.

The government's response to the crisis hasn't been enough--largely due to Haiti's dependence on outside powers. In the agriculture department, for instance, some 800 NGOs control part of the budget, undermining the state's ability to deal with the crisis.

And even though Haiti is facing a crisis of indescribable proportions, it hasn't stopped paying back its foreign debt. As of this writing, Haiti's payments amount to $1 million a week. Activists worldwide are pressing the World Bank to forgive Haiti's $1.7 billion foreign debt, but so far, it has refused.

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PRIOR TO the recent devastation, independent journalists revealed a plan to demolish Cité Soleil, a poor neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, to extend the UN military base. The U.S. is funding the base extension. Haiti Liberté reporter Kim Ives explains the importance of this military base for the U.S.:

"First, as Port-au-Prince's largest, poorest and most pro-Aristide slum, it has been a hotbed of anti-occupation resistance for the past four years. Although most of the popular organizations carrying out armed struggle were dismantled in early 2007, unrest still continues there, particularly with Haiti's (and the capitalist world's) worsening economic crisis. Hence, military domination of this important northern flank of Haiti's capital is critical."

As in the past, the military occupation of Haiti is part of a larger plan to keep the region under U.S. dominion. Haiti shares the Windward Passage with Cuba, a strait that has great importance for the U.S., and the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.

In the early 1990s, Haiti's election of Aristide under a populist platform gave hope to millions of people at a time when most governments in the region were implementing neoliberal policies. A series of U.S.-backed regimes and interventions to derail the movement for change followed.

The 2004 coup against Aristide and the subsequent military occupation legitimized the Bush administration's "regime change" doctrine in the region, making Venezuela and Bolivia future targets of U.S. intervention.

Solidarity with the Haitian people should be part of a broader anti-imperialism that calls for an end to the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine as well as an immediate withdrawal of the UN from Haiti and elsewhere.

At the same time, activists must point out Aristide's role in accepting neoliberal policies that impoverished the poor, while supporting ordinary people's struggles to return him to complete his term. Demanding immediate cancellation of Haiti's foreign debt is also important, because it could free up needed resources to feed people.

In the long term, however, it will take the unity of workers and peasants in the entire region to free Haiti from the yoke of foreign intervention and exploitation.