Haiti: regime escalates repression

Tim Pelzer

According to an American filmmaker and journalist living in 
Haiti, the country's US-installed government is intensifying its 
repression of supporters of former President Jean-Bertrand 
Aristide.

Speaking via telephone from Haiti, Kevin Pina stated that the 
regime that helped depose Aristide has arrested and detained "an 
incredible number" of people on false charges. It has especially 
targeted those who are demanding Aristide's return to office.

On September 30 Haitian police in Port-au-Prince, the nation's 
capital, had fired on thousands of unarmed demonstrators who had 
marched and called for a return to constitutional order. An 
unknown number were killed and injured.

Calling these developments the "next level of repression", Pina 
said that, initially, the regime headed by Gerard Latortue was 
conducting police sweeps through poor neighbourhoods and 
arresting all young males. "Now they are arresting labour 
leaders, clergy and church people." He also stated that there are 
numerous reports of police and paramilitaries assassinating 
Aristide supporters, including burning some alive.

Asked about the whereabouts of Aristide's cabinet, Pina said that 
most cabinet ministers are either in jail, in hiding or in exile.

Pina said that the US-sponsored coup against Aristide has angered 
people. The opposition movement that overthrew the Lavalas 
Government earlier this year is not home-grown but was nurtured 
by the US Government.

Contrary to what the international press has reported, the 
Aristide Government was supported by the majority of the Haitian 
people. He said there has been a campaign to demonise Aristide 
and cast him as a repressive dictator.

"When I read the international press, I'm not sure that I'm 
living in the country they are describing", Pina said. Prior to 
the coup, he said, Haiti's impoverished majority felt empowered 
for the first time.

Describing the September 30 demonstration, Pina reported that up 
to 15,000 people marched, "and if police had not attacked 
protesters the march could have easily swelled to 50,000."

"As pro-Aristide protesters marched past the city's main prison", 
he said, "police opened fire on the crowd, killing and wounding 
several people. Police then placed the bodies in a nearby truck. 
Then a car passed by and opened fire on the Port-au-Prince 
police, killing three officers. Angry protesters then burned the 
police vehicle."

Pina also reported that the National Coalition for Haitian Rights 
(NCHR) — a human rights group — helping to foster the climate 
of repression by making false allegations that Aristide's Lavalas 
Party is organising armed attacks against opponents and 
committing crimes.

"They [the NCHR leaders] are very destructive, spreading rumours 
but offering no evidence to back up their claims." Unfortunately, 
he said, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch get much of 
their information about the country's human rights situation from 
the NCHR.

Describing the horrible human toll wrought by tropical storm 
Jeanne as "a nightmare, compounded by tragedy", Pina remarked 
that prior to the storm the country had been prepared for such a 
disaster. The Aristide Government set up a disaster relief 
network across the country, "But the events of February 29 [the 
day of Aristide's ouster] destroyed all of this".

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People's Weekly World