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Haiti began 2004 with celebrations commemorating the 200th anniversary of the defeat of Napoleon's army and the French slave masters. But it quickly became a year of misery and terror.
Former military and death squad members sponsored by the U.S. overthrew the government. US military personnel kidnaped democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide on February 29. In April, floods killed hundreds of people. Tropical Storm Jeanne killed several thousand in September. A year-long all out attack on President Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas Party resulted in thousands of deaths, hundreds of homes burned, and tens of thousands of people forced to abandon their families and communities to live underground, in fear for their lives. The political corruption and chaos exacerbated the misery and death from natural disasters.
After kidnaping Aristide, US occupation forces appointed as Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, a former minister in a 1988 military-installed government who had not set foot in the country for 16 years. In April, Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas Party refused to help plan new elections. After all, Haitians had already elected Aristide as president twice. The man who made Haitian Creole an official language and voodoo an official religion, tried to collect taxes from the wealthy, doubled the minimum wage, disbanded the army, and opened relations with Cuba never stopped being president.
When Lavalas leaders announced a demonstration on May 18, Haiti's Flag Day, to call for Aristide's return, US marines arrested Anne August (So Anne), an ardent Aristide supporter, folk singer and voodoo priestess, on May 10. The Haitian police tried to stop the march by shooting into the unarmed crowd, killing at least 3 people while occupation forces watched. (Police often steal murdered bodies, preventing burial and an accurate count of the dead.)
Lavalas marches to commemorate the 1791 slave insurrection on August 14 proceeded peacefully. The presence of international observers and a letter writing campaign to the UN may have helped. But September 30, the anniversary of the first coup against Aristide in 1991,police fired into a crowd of over 10,000 demonstrators in Port-au-Prince while UN "peacekeepers" watched. The next morning, Latortue boasted at a press conference: "We opened fire on demonstrators; some of them have been killed, others injured, and still others fled."
A new wave of repression had begun that continues to this day. It has claimed hundreds of lives, and according to the Catholic Church's Justice and Peace Commission, Haiti's jails hold more than 700 political prisoners. A November United Nations Development Program report said only 17 of the some 1,100 prisoners at the national penitentiary -- about 1.5 percent -- have been convicted of a crime, and many have not yet seen a judge.
On October 2, police arrested three Lavalas leaders at Radio Caraibe after they criticized the occupation government on air. (The government finally released them on December 24.) Also on October 2, police officers raided the offices of the Confederation of Haitian Workers (CTH) labor union and arrested nine union members, all without a warrant. The official justification for the arrest was that the defendants were "close to the Lavalas authorities." Hours later masked men in military attire attacked the office of the Committee for the Protection of the Rights of the Haitian People (CDPH).
On Wednesday, October 13, authorities violently arrested activist priest Father Gerard Jean-Juste as he served food to 600 hungry children in his parish, wounding three of the children during the arrest. They held him without charges for seven weeks. Police murdered an entire household of 13 people on October 26, and four young people were similarly executed on October 28. Police have sealed off popular neighborhoods such as Cite Soleil and Bel Air and conducted house-to-house searches, often destroying everything of value in the process. Brazilian UN troops have watched, and in some cases abetted them. A national palace employee overheard Latortue saying they may have to kill 25,000 people in Port-au-Prince alone to purge it of Lavalas.
On December 1, Colin Powell visited Port-au-Prince and announced at a public gathering with Latortue, "We're with you all the way." The same day police and prison guards attacked prisoners protesting abominable conditions and the lack of due process at the national penitentiary, killing more than 60 people and possibly as many as 110. Prison officials reported the prisoners had killed each other with "sharpened tooth brushes," but the first 7 bodies showed clearly the prisoners had been shot. Testimony by an eyewitness prisoner, neighbors who heard gunshots for two hours, and truck drivers who drove the bodies away indicate the true scope of the massacre.
Supporters of President Aristide continue to demonstrate, defying death and arrest. Several thousands were in the streets on December 31 to mark Haiti's 201st anniversary of independence.
Besides the terror for the Haitian majority, the unconstitutional removal of President Aristide sets a dangerous precedent for Latin America and for the world. Neither the Caribbean CARICOM countries nor the Organization of African Unity have recognized the occupation government.
The 2004 coup against President Aristide continues 200 years of brutal U.S. imperialist policy. In 1804, Haiti became the only successful revolution of enslaved people in the history of the world. The United States refused to recognize this new government for 60 years, until the end of the Civil War, and has worked ever since to prevent true independence and self-determination for Haiti.
For more information contact the Haiti Action Committee: www.haitiaction.net, info@haitiaction.org, or 510-483-7481
[Charlie Hinton is a member of the Haiti Action Committee and GCIU Local 388M. He works at Inkworks Press, a worker-owned and managed union printing company in Berkeley, CA.]
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