What does volunteering as a GI Rights Hotline counselor have to do with what is going on in Haiti? My hotline clients, mostly disaffected soldiers and their family members, expose the truth that the U.S. plan for Iraq is causing massive suffering and has little to do with promoting authentic democracy. One could say the same about the U.S. plan for Haiti. Ever since the U.S.-engineered coup d'etat in 2004, the will of the Haitian people has been undermined and there has been massive suffering at the hands of U.S. Marines, followed by their surrogates, the interim Haitian Government's police and the international United Nations "peacekeepers".
Particularly distressing to those who want to believe in the U.N. as a benevolent intermediary are the eye-witness accounts of a U.N. massacre of poor Haitians on July 6, 2005. At about 4:00 a.m. over 300 UN troops with armed personnel carriers and helicopters ambushed a poor neighborhood of Cite Soleil, ostensibly aiming to kill an alleged gang leader. The U.N. personnel terrorized the residents and killed over two dozen unarmed men, women, and children. There were bullet holes in walls and ceilings of homes, a school, and a church. The U.N. troops had no medics on hand to take care of those injured in the crossfire. The Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute has an article about this disturbing event and the compromised role of the U.N. in Haiti in its Fall 2005 newsletter (www.mcli.org/projects/newsletters/NLfall.05.q.pdf). More recently, between November 23 and 27, 2005, the Haiti Action Committee received eye-witness reports of U.N. troops killing three unarmed civilians (two men and one woman) in Cite Soleil and wounding several more. To date there has been no investigation of these incidents by the U.N.
Although the interim Haitian Government's police and justice systems are operating under U.N. oversight, numerous political prisoners continue to languish in prison without formal charges. The most well-known are activist priest Father Gerard Jean-Juste, singer So Anne, and elected Prime Minister Yvon Neptune. All three, along with many others, are part of the widely popular Fanmi Lavalas party, which the U.S. is trying to silence.
In spite of the intense oppression, Haitians won't give up, and are resisting participation in sham elections (see the “Elections in Haiti” article). Originally, the U.S. wanted elections in October, 2005, but they have been postponed most recently until January.
What can you do to support the Haitian people? Contact the individuals below and insist on the release of political prisoners and an end to U.N. killings:
Craig G. Mokhiber, Deputy Director
New York Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights
Ph: 917-367-5208
mokhiber@un.org
U.S. Embassy in Haiti
Telephones: 011-509-223-4711, 011-509-222-0200 or 011-509-222-0354
Fax: 011-509-223-1641 or 011-509-223-9038
Email to Dana Banks, Human Rights Officer: banksd@state.gov
You can also thank our friend, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who last month succeeded in amending a foreign aid spending measure to ban the transfer of arms to the Haitian National Police and require a State Department report on the involvement of Haitian police in criminal activity.
Call Barbara Lee at 202-225-2661.
In Iraq, it appears that the U.S. is after the oil. In Haiti, the U.S. is determined to prevent an impoverished population from empowering itself and charting its own destiny. In the end, the people will prevail.
Marilyn Langlois is a member of the Haiti Action Committee and resides in Richmond, CA. She is also a counselor with CCCO on the GI Rights Hotline.