General strike in Haiti capital answers UN repression
By G. Dunkel
Brooklyn, N.Y.
On Dec. 14 United Nations "peacekeeping" forces in Haiti
moved from words to deeds. Hundreds of Brazilian, Jordanian and
Sri Lankan soldiers, backed up by Chi lean armored personnel
carriers and helicopters and accompanied by Chinese police,
invaded Cité Soleil, said Damian Onses-Cardona, a
spokesperson for the over 6,000-member UN mission now occupying
Haiti. The troops came in firing.
Some 500,000 not very well armed people live in Cité
Soleil, one of the poorest sections of Port-au-Prince and a
stronghold of supporters of President Jean-Ber trand Aristide.
According to Reuters, the UN forces had to fight their way in.
Four people, including a UN soldier, were injured in the
fighting. Popular forces report that at least one baby was
injured by the firing.
A journalist from the weekly newspaper Haiti-Progrès
reported that firing around the newspaper's office in the
Belair neighborhood was so heavy that she had to leave. She
also had reports from Aristide supporters in Cité Soleil
that casualties were heavy, but the UN denied this report. Two
weeks earlier, a journalist from Haiti-Progrès had been
killed in crossfire.
Two days after the UN incursion into Cité Soleil,
there was a general strike in Port-au-Prince. According to the
official Haitian Press Agency, "business was completely
paralyzed in Port-au-Prince to commemorate the 14th anniversary
of the first election of Jean-Bertrand Aristide to the
presidency.
"The big stores were shut tight, while street vendors were
in slow motion. Only some commercial bank branches were open.
Road traffic was likewise affected." Schools closed a few days
early for the end-of-year vacations.
The same day in Cap-Haitien, 10,000 people marched to
"denounce the lawlessness which rages in the country, the
impunity from prosecution for certain individuals, the cost of
living which rises daily and the mass firing of Lavalas
supporters from public employment." The demonstration in
Cap-Haitien and a smaller one in Belair also strongly supported
the return of Aristide, Haiti's democratically elected
president.
U.S. officials, with the collusion of the French and support
from the Canadian government, maneuvered a coup that overthrew
Aristide last Feb. 29. Now these powers have managed to replace
most of their troops with the UN force, made up mainly of
troops from countries that are themselves oppressed.
The diplomatic maneuvers by the United States, Canadian and
Brazilian as well as the Chilean governments have been intense.
On Dec. 1, Secretary of State Colin Powell met with the
U.S.-imposed government of Gérard Latortue and UN
representatives in Port-au-Prince. His message, according to
numerous press reports of the meetings, was that the UN had to
undertake more vigorous repression of Aristide's
supporters.
The next day, Gen. Augusto Heleno Ribero Pereira told a
Brazilian parliamentary committee, "We are under extreme
pressure from the international community to use violence,"
especially from the U.S., Canada and France. He claimed he
would not carry out this repressive mission, and that it would
take 100,000 troops. At that time, about 6,200 UN troops were
in the country.
Brazilians question role
Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amor im, who visited
Port-au-Prince on Dec. 20, has also spoken out against this
repressive role.
Nevertheless, on Dec. 8, Juan Gabriel Valdés, the
civilian head of the UN peacekeeping mission and a Chilean,
declared that the UN did indeed now have enough troops to carry
out the mission assigned to it. Six days later, UN troops went
guns blazing into Cité Soleil and raided Belair.
A few days after Valdés' statement, Canada put
together a founding meeting of the International Congress of
Haitians in Montreal. Latortue flew to Montreal to take part in
it. Hundreds of Haitians from Montreal and as far away as New
York and Toronto gathered in front of the meeting hall to shout
"Latortue's a murderer, Martin is his accomplice."
Paul Martin is Canada's prime minister, who has proclaimed
that "Canada has a special role to play in Haiti." Right now
Canada's role includes building new prisons and courthouses,
and supplying logistics for the UN.
Washington is openly saying it wants Aristide's party, Fanmi
Lavalas (FL), to participate in upcoming elections in Haiti,
but without Aristide having any role. Although Dr. Jean-Claude
Desgran ges, Aris tide's chief of staff, had met with Powell in
Port-au-Prince, Fanmi Lavalas has issued a formal statement
that Des gran ges speaks only for himself and that it did not
as an organization meet with Powell.
Meeting in Brooklyn emphasizes unity
Fanmi Lavalas answered this attempt to split it and to
destroy its unity at a meeting in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Dec. 18.
Mario Dupuy, the National Communication director of FL, and
Alina Sixto, a New York-based activist, both stressed that
Fanmi Lavalas was united and in solidarity with the peaceful,
nonviolent struggle to return democracy and Aristide to
Haiti.
Pat Chin spoke for the International Action Center at the
meeting. She emphasized that the IAC would do everything it
possibly could to build solidarity with the Haitian people's
struggle against U.S. imper ialism, just as it builds
solidarity with the Iraqi and Palestinian peoples'
struggles.
Father Gerard Jean-Juste, recently released from prison in
Haiti due to pressure from progressive people worldwide, also
spoke at the Brooklyn meeting.
Reprinted from the Dec. 30, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
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