Civil rights worker kidnapped in Haiti
By
G. Dunkel
Published Sep 3, 2007 6:02 PM
Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, forced out of Haiti by U.S. agents, is
still in exile. Supporters of Fanmi Lavalas (FL), his party, are still in
prison because of their political allegiance. Former members of the Haitian
Army, which was abolished by Aristide when he was president, hold armed
demonstrations demanding its re-establishment. U.N. forces, called MINUSTAH,
still occupy the country under the direction of a Security Council dominated by
the U.S.
And now Lovinsky Pierre Antoine has been kidnapped. An FL activist and
organizer of the September 30th Foundation, he has been a public supporter of
community groups in the impoverished but militant neighborhood of Cité
Soleil that oppose MINUSTAH. He was slated to run as an FL candidate for a
Senate seat in upcoming elections.
On Sunday, Aug. 12, Antoine drove some visiting members of a North American
civil rights group back to their rooms. He was supposed to take them to
Arcahaie the next day to meet René Civil, who has been in detention for a
number of months. Civil is a prominent youth leader, closely connected to
Aristide, and a frequent target of right-wing propaganda.
When Antoine didn’t show up Monday morning, the North American group
called the police, who then found the rented car he was driving near the
airport with nothing but a T-shirt and a few CDs in it.
Kidnapping is so common that the police have a whole procedure they follow for
prominent individuals. But they didn’t for Lovinsky Pierre Antoine. There
were no searches of the known haunts of kidnapping gangs, no public outcry.
After a few days, when some North American activists in the Haiti solidarity
movement were suspecting a political kidnapping, a demand for a $300,000 ransom
surfaced. (Haïtí-Progrès, Aug. 15 to Aug. 23)
Whether this kidnapping was done for profit or out of political motives, or for
both reasons, its political impact is the same. It will strengthen the hold of
reactionary forces in Haiti, already strong, and make foreign solidarity groups
much more cautious when they visit. It is going to be riskier for Haitians to
oppose the occupation of their country and the re-establishment of the army and
to support the popular protests in poor communities.
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