Another massacre has occurred in Haiti...
Fear is partly communicated by what is hidden and is used as a weapon. The reliable reports are unsubstantiated by officials; almost no mention of the massacre appears in the establishment news media. We do know that Canadian police are involved with "reforming the Haitian National Police" ("PM announces police deployment to assist stabilization efforts in Haiti," Press Release July 6, 2004, Office of the Prime Minister, Ottawa), and that U.S. and Canadian military forces have participated in actions against Haitian civilians ("Canadian Military Involved in Haiti Massacre ?" August 25, 2004, http://dominionpaper.ca).Alternative news services suggest there have been several recent massacres in Haiti targeting members of the Lavalas party, supporters of Haiti's elected President Aristide. Aristide was deposed by a U.S. and French coup, February 19, 2004, which the Canadian government has supported. Current murders and executions appear to be carried out by the Haitian National Police. There is reliable evidence of the complicity of U.N. forces. There is supported evidence that the troops of the UN Missions' MINUSTAH, have committed a massacre of residents in Cite Soleil, Port au Prince ("Eyewitnesses describe Massacre by UN Troops in Haitian Slum," Goodman, July 11, 2005, Democracy Now). The community is afraid of more war crimes by the U.N. Mission ("Haiti: Massacre in the Making," Pina, August 18, 2005, HaitiAction.net), afraid because the takeover of Haiti is ruthless, fascist, illegal, racist. The occupiers are killing the poor people.
Notes on a Massacre of August 21, 2005
Historical note:
The date marks the anniversary of the start of Haiti's liberation by a slave uprising at Le Cap, August 21, 1791, where the slave owners were massacred ("u.s.debt to haiti," wesley, schiller institute, current aug. 2005, http://www.schillerinstitute.org/).On August 21 2005, in front of a large crowd at a soccer march in Gran Ravin-Martissant, hooded Haitian National Police and men in red shirts entered and ordered people on the ground, then singled out Lavalas supporters and killed them with machete and hatchet - a reminder of the genocide in Rwanda. The U.S. Agency for International Development helped fund the soccer event. The killers came and left through an area encircled by U.N. troops (U.N.. troops are currently under UN investigation due to a previous massacre in Cite Soleil). Between twenty and fifty deaths are estimated; (sources: "5000 Soccer fans in Haiti witness machete and hatchet massacre by police and the new death squads," Tom Luce & Aumohd, Haiti Action Committee http://www.haitiaction.net/index.html; also: "Twenty Massacred in Port-au-Prince Soccer Stadium..." Goodman, August 26, 2005, Democracy Now).
This recent massacre establishes a pattern of what I believe are war crimes against the poor ("war crimes" because Haiti is an occupied country until its democratically elected president is returned).
1. My own belief is that Canadian complicity in the takeover of Haiti is a crime, and its policy should bend to insist on the return of the legal President Aristide.
2. The Euro-American media refusing to adequately report war crimes against the poor in Haiti, is accepting complicity; editors in charge of the major media news desks should be held accountable; because the coup is traced to Euro-American countries ruled predominantly by "whites," and because all the victims are "black," the policy may be a crime of racial hatred.
3. The U.N. Mission (MINUSTAH) has shown itself to be partisan rather than a protector of the people or the peace; a number of U.N. troop contingents are from the Americas and commands which may have domestic histories of cooperation with the CIA/DIA in handling insurgencies through formation of death squads.
4. The massacres signal the intentional use of atrocities to terrorize local populations into submission to military management/rule; however any military rule in Haiti is currently U.N. based.
5. Due to the illegal removal from office of President Aristide, no genuine legal justification is available for the occupation by forces foreign to Haiti, which is why the occupation requires a controlled media.
6. The takeover of Haiti continues an historical pattern of European enslavement of Haiti's first peoples and Blacks. The current Euro-American takeover is an attack on the world's first nation state ruled by people of African descent. As a psywar operation the clear message is that "Black" countries aren't allowed democracy. Whether corporate powers, foundations, government agencies, media, rich or poor of any race, those attempting to re-enslave Haiti's poor should be called home to account in their own countries.
- J.B.Gerald
August 27, 2005News & resources
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Gerald and Maas Night's Lantern
Posted Aug. 28, 2005
Corrected Aug. 29, 2005