Repression grows more violent in Haiti
By G. Dunkel
The Haitian police, firmly backed by United Nations forces
currently occupying Haiti, have decided on a new tactic to put
down the massive, popular resistance against the U.S.-imposed
government of Prime Minister Gérard Latortue. This "de
facto" government was imposed by the U.S. and France on Feb.
29, after the kidnapping of democratically elected president
Jean-Bertrand Aristide by U.S. Marines.
During the day, the police drive into poor neighborhoods in
areas known to support Aristide and open fire on groups of
people, leaving the bodies of the people they kill lying in the
street.
Haitians remember that the paramilitary Macoutes in the time
of the Duvaliers--another family of dictators supported by the
United States--would kill anyone who moved the bodies of their
victims. The Macoutes wanted the dead bodies to reinforce the
terror they had spread.
According to an Oct. 27 Reuters dispatch, opponents of the
Latortue regime said 13 people were killed by the cops that day
in a poor neighborhood of Port-au-Prince called Fort National,
near Bel Air. Only eight bodies were turned over to the local
morgue. Residents of Fort National say that the cops disposed
of the other bodies.
The morgue in this desperately poor country lacks
electricity. It can't keep bodies from decomposing so it has
been burying them in mass graves. While this is an essential
health measure on the part of the morgue, it also keeps the
press and doctors doing autopsies from examining bodies and
determining the cause of death.
In the neighborhood of Carrefour-Pean on the same day,
according to Haïti Progrès journalist Kim Ives, who
was there, four young men were shot dead and left lying in the
street.
The clearest example of this policy is the death of Emmanuel
Marcéus on Rue St. Joseph in La Saline, while he was
selling candy with his mother. Marcéus, who was called
Manno, lived with his mother, two aunts, a grandmother and two
smaller brothers in a one-room shed. He was 9 years old and in
the fourth grade.
Around 2:00 in the afternoon, a pickup truck filled with
cops dressed in black and wearing ski masks pulled up and
opened fire on the market. Manno was hit in the leg and
couldn't run away. A cop shot him in the abdomen. As he lay
dead or dying, another cop shot him in the head. (Haïti
Progrès, Oct. 27 to Nov. 4)
His family was so frightened that they let him lie in the
street until 10:00 p.m., then took his body back home. The
central morgue refused to take it the next day, claiming to be
full. The family finally found a private morgue that would
dispose of the body.
This murder of a popular 9-year-old has made the anger in
his neighborhood seethe even more. Residents feel that the
U.S.-imposed government of Latortue is conducting a terror
campaign against them, fully backed by the UN forces in Haiti,
which take part in these raids against poor neighborhoods.
There are many reasons why the cops don't raid during the
night. For one, they are afraid that, in the completely dark
streets of Port-au-Prince's poor neighborhoods where there are
no street lights, no electricity and piles of garbage are
scattered here and there, they would be vulnerable to ambushes.
From time to time, their fire is answered and they are forced
to retreat, even during the day.
Three recent demonstrations have taken place in New York
protesting the repression in Haiti. The Haiti Solidarity
Network--in conjunction with Fanmi Lavalas, International
Answer and the International Action Center--is currently
working to build a major meeting in Brook lyn on Dec. 5 at New
York City College of Technology to explain the current
situation in Haiti and build support for the resistance.
Reprinted from the Nov. 11, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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