Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine

Los Angeles: Haiti vigil pays tribute to Don White

We are very sad to get the news that long time peace and social change activist Don White has died.  Don was the coordinator of CISPES, the Coalition in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, and on the boards of Office of the Americas and KPFK. 

For decades Don has been a fixture in the movement for change in Los Angeles, there were few rallies and protests, other movement events large and small that Don was not a vital part of, always bringing his vibrant energy, his articulate and heartfelt words, his practical suggestions and his wonderful humor.  It is hard to imagine Southern California without Don White!  It’s hard to think of anyone more dedicated to peace and social change than Don. 

Among his many efforts, Don was one of the organizers of and participants in the weekly fast and vigil for the safe return of another much-loved activist Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine.  Don brought his creativity (our bold banner was an idea he proposed), his commitment to justice for the Haitian people and his deep compassion for Lovinsky and all those who are imprisoned or have been disappeared.  We pay tribute to Don and mourn his passing.

This Thursday's vigil, part of our global efforts calling for the safe return of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, will also pay tribute to Don White.  Join us in saying DON WHITE PRESENTE! And help carry on Don't work in support of the people of Haiti.

Margaret Prescod

Unnecessary police presence at Lovinsky vigil in London

When we arrived at the Brazilian embassy for our weekly hour long vigil on Wednesday 18 June, imagine our surprise to see waiting for us nine police officers, including a cameraman and an armed officer, a large van, and pen barriers. We had never had more than two officers before and usually there were none.

The vigil is entirely peaceful. Between 10 and 30 people, mostly women, have been attending for nearly eight months. Many also fast for the day. There has been no incident. The police have come and gone, agreeing they are not needed. We have met twice with the Brazilian embassy, the second time in the presence of two officers who came at the request of the embassy, again without incident. The embassy has said more than once that they have no problem with our vigil. So what changed last Wednesday to warrant so many officers?

The previous week the police had called and written us claiming they had received complaints: the vigil, we were told, was too loud, it disrupted the neighbours. We had called back, spoken to an officer who said there was no problem, and we followed our conversation with an email and fax. But the police responsible never got our messages, it seems, so he decided to send a van full of officers. We had brought copies of the letter we had written to them, so they had no basis for complaint. But even if they had had no response, why send nine officers when two would have been more than enough? Every week we use our megaphone to call attention to why we are there, who Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine is and the world’s debt to the Haitian people who in 1804 were the first to abolish slavery. This time we also used it to protest about this waste of police time and resources.

Selma James spoke for us all:

“There are two anti-rape organizations at our Centre and we can’t get the police to act against rape and racist attacks when we need them to. Why then turn up in force for a peaceful vigil that requires no policing? We must protest.”

We invited the police to use our megaphone to explain why they had come in such numbers and what their objections were. They refused but admitted we had every right to be there and to use our megaphone as long as it wasn’t too loud. They kept asking us “to work with them not against them”, as if it were us who had acted unreasonably. We are holding a vigil to ensure that our dear friend and colleague Lovinsky is kept in the public eye. His return is our major concern. Why would we want to “work against the police” unless they were trying to prevent our lawful vigil?

As a gesture of goodwill, the police sent two officers away. Yet, at the end of the vigil they suggested they put pen barriers the following week because “there was evidence of a potential obstruction to passersby.” This is totally untrue. Many people go pass without any problem while we are there. Those who chose to cross the road last week were most likely intimidated by the strong police presence, their camera and van. The police refuted this, but agreed they would not insist on the pen. We object to being treated as if the police are doing us a favour when we exercise our right to protest. It is our right and we shall use it to keep up the pressure until Lovinsky has been released.

Nina Lopez, Global Women's Strike, London

While Lula visits, Haitian CIMO police attack vigil for Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine

San Francisco rallied May 28th at the Brazilian consulate, in solidarity with the demonstrations in Brazil. Speakers cried out against the attack in Port-au-Prince earlier that day, when CIMO special police roughed up participants in the weekly vigil for disappeared human rights leader Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine at the Place des Martyrs and threw their placards to the ground.

The San Francisco rally, called by Haiti Action Committee with participation by the anti-war group ANSWER, San Francisco Labor Council, Global Women’s Strike and Gabriela Network, denounced the UN mission in Haiti as having been installed, under Brazilian command, to legitimize the 2004 coup against the democratically-elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

UN forces arrived in Haiti as a proxy force, 3 months after US troops kidnapped President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Feb. 29, 2004 and installed a coup regime. In the aftermath of the coup, more than 8,000 Aristide supporters were killed and thousands more 'disappeared', exiled or thrown into prison, where most  remain locked up to this day. The entire government apparatus, down to the village level, was ‘cleansed’ of Aristide supporters during the coup..

Letter to Oxfam in response to: Oxfam’s report “Rule of Rapists in Haiti” (The Times, 6th May 2008)

Ms Barbara Stocking Director,
Oxfam Oxfam House,
John Smith Drive Cowley, OX4 2JY

11 June 2008

Dear Ms Stocking

Re: Oxfam's report “Rule of Rapists in Haiti” (The Times, 6th May 2008)

We write to you as sponsors of Alex Renton's and Caroline Irby's visit to Haiti.  Having read Alex Renton's account in The Times (6 May 2008), we have grave concerns about what he reported and, even more importantly, what he left out.  Given your subsequent public acknowledgement (27th May, 2008) that UN “peacekeepers” have been raping women and children in Haiti, Congo and other countries, Renton's omissions are even more glaring. 

We are part of a Haitian-led international campaign for the safe return of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, the distinguished human rights activist who disappeared in Port-au-Prince on 12 August 2007.  Mr.  Pierre-Antoine is co-founder of the Fondasyon Trant Septanm for victims of the 1991 and 2004 coups against President Aristide.  He is a well known and loved advocate for women, especially single mothers, and street children.  He was abducted after meeting with a US/Canadian human rights delegation - he had been briefing them, among other things, on the increasing violence of UN troops against residents of some of Haiti's poorest areas. 

Renton's account concentrates on the appalling way rape victims are treated by the Haitian criminal justice system, and he is “angry” at the hands-off response of MINUSTAH, the UN's mission in Haiti, with whom this was raised.  But he leaves out any mention of well documented reports of rape and murders by UN forces in Haiti. 

As you may know, in November 2007, 114 members of the MINUSTAH forces were sent home to Sri Lanka for raping women and girls, including some as young as 11 years old.  UN troops from Canada, Brazil and Jordan have also been accused of rape, and physical and sexual threats against the Haitian population.  (Washington Post, 13 March 2005;The Lancet, September 2006;)There are no reports of any prosecutions for these crimes. 

This is only the tip of the iceberg.  UN “peacekeeping” troops have become an “international rape force” with repeated reports of rape over the years by UN forces across the world.  It seems that the rape of women and children has become part of the “perks of the job” of being a UN peacekeeper.

Rape by soldiers and others in authority is one of the most insidious weapons against women and girls, striking at the main carers in every community, those who do the survival work of keeping families from starvation.  When soldiers rape with impunity, the communities' ability to resist and organise against violence and other injustice is undermined. 

One of us, Sokari Ekine, spent time in Haiti last August with women and girls from the Lavalas movement.  They were angry about rape and murder, especially the rapes and murders committed by the very soldiers supposedly there to protect them.  It is not only that “officials in the mission's justice section are chauffeured in UN 4x4s [and] somewhat removed from Haitian realities.” UN forces patrol narrow winding streets in huge armoured vehicles, so that women, children, older men and anyone vulnerable are terrified to go out.  With the excuse of looking for “gangs” UN forces have raided Cite Soleil and other poor neighbourhoods, shooting indiscriminately into houses, killing children, women and men who were asleep.  Many have died as a result of such raids.  Many more have been arbitrarily imprisoned, beaten and sexually abused.  Why is Oxfam silent about this?  Is a military force responsible for such violence really expected to care about women and girls being raped by others or imprisoned while their attackers go free?  Are these soldiers not setting an example for others to follow?  Are they not protecting their own when they allow others to get away with rape or murder?

The only background in the article is typical of the racist media coverage Haiti always seems to get.  It equates what slaves had to endure with what they did to free themselves. 

“Sexual violation and mass murder have punctuated Haiti's history ever since Columbus gave the girls of newly discovered Hispaniola to his officers as gifts, and traded in them.  The French sugar planters imported and raped black Africans, who in turn rose up and slaughtered all the white people who could not escape.”

Renton continues:

“Nearly half of the 65 Haitian heads of state since then have been overthrown or assassinated, and stories of sexual violence stain much of that sad history of coup and counter-coup.”

No mention of how these coups came about and the role of Europe and North America in installing and arming dictators against their own population. 

Haiti's 1804 revolution defeated the most powerful empires of its day.  As the distinguished historian CLR James points out in his masterpiece The Black Jacobins, the enslaved Africans' response was surprisingly moderate and short-lived compared to the slave masters' premeditated, cold-blooded atrocities over centuries.  “The cruelties of property and privilege are always more ferocious than the revenges of poverty and repression.” In fact, white settlers who had fought against the French empire were spared, as were those prepared to give up their plantations and renounce slavery. 

The world owes a huge debt to the Haitian people.  Their revolution was the first to overthrow slavery, decades before Europe or the US, making way for emancipation throughout the Americas and strengthening liberation movements everywhere.  Haiti gave asylum and aided South American Liberator Simón Bolivar with ships and soldiers, demanding nothing in return but that he fight to abolish slavery. 

What is “sad”, tragic in fact, is that far from being credited for this enormous contribution to humankind, the Haitian people were made to pay heavily for their victory over their colonial masters.  France imposed a crippling debt forcing Haiti to pay for its loss of slaves and costs incurred from the Haitian Revolution.  The US imposed economic embargos and sanctions, coups, invasions and dictators.  And each time they killed thousands and forced many more into exile.  Renton portrays Cité Soleil as a lawless place run by gangs without any mention of the extraordinary community organizations and churches which brought down the Duvalier dictatorship at great risk to their lives, and created the Lavalas movement which elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

“In modern times rape has been a weapon of control, of political repression, and a means of earning money.  In Cité Soleil, Martissant and Carrefour Feuilles, the vast slums that stretch out from Port-au-Prince's old centre along the dry coastal plain, rape is a habitual tool of the gangs that rule the inhabitants - a third of a million of them, living in abject poverty.”

He goes on to say that

“In 2006 a UN report stated that 'almost half' of the young women and girls living in Cité Soleil and other conflict-zone slums had been raped or sexually assaulted.  These figures are comparable with those that emerge from the conflicts in Darfur and the Democratic Republic of Congo.  But Haiti is not at war.  Rather the opposite: it has a functioning democratic government and a rehabilitated police force, supported by a UN mission whose four years in the country are widely acclaimed as a success.”

Haiti is at war.  A tiny Haitian elite and its US and French masters have been at war with the people of Haiti for 200 years.  Their latest coup in 2004 (backed also by Canada) removed Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the first democratically elected president who received 67% of the vote in 1990, and was re-elected in 2000 with 92% of the vote - popularity unheard of by Western politicians. 

The elite and US corporations have profited from sweatshops which exploit an impoverished population, and from the destruction of local farming to make way for US rice and other subsidised foods.  With food price increases many now face starvation. 

After the 2004 US coup against elected President Aristide, there were mass rapes, often committed by members of the disbanded Haitian military and their networks.  These death squads and rapists had come into power under the bloody Duvalier dictatorships (again backed by the US and France).  In 1994 Aristide's government disbanded the Haitian army because of its history of human rights atrocities, including mass rapes.  Since the deploying of UN troops, these elements have resurfaced, armed by the US.  They have repeatedly targeted the poorest communities both in the countryside and the city, as well as human rights advocates like Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine and his organization. 

Renton's article gives no sense of this, or that rape is a worldwide problem: the UK has a conviction rate for reported rapes of only 5.6%.  Yet the suggestion is that Haitians are more inclined to rape than others, one of the oldest racist stereotypes used against men of colour.

It is increasingly acknowledged that not only UN troops but NGOs are playing a damaging role in Haiti and other Third World countries.  They get funding from the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the AFL-CIO Solidarity Centre or other State Department operations, making a good living out of the misery and starvation they help maintain and the lies they help generate to justify IMF and World Bank policies of intervention on behalf of multinational corporations. 

NGOs like Oxfam have known about rapes by UN forces, as well as by aid and charity workers, for decades.  It's the pressure of victims, women and girls in the most impoverished communities, who had the courage to speak out that finally won Oxfam's public acknowledgement.  But even then, instead of pressing for every rapist to be vigorously prosecuted (not just sent home), you call for an international "watch dog". 

Given that Oxfam was among those calling for the UN to maintain "law and order" in Haiti, to demand the prosecution of all "peacekeepers" accused of rape, murder or any other human rights violation is the least you could do.  Otherwise announcements like this are just a smoke screen, another of the many ways NGOs use the suffering of those with least to get more funding to “research” or "resolve" crises they themselves had a hand in creating.  We ask that Oxfam disassociate itself from Alex Renton's article, and help us to get a right to reply in The Times. 

Yours sincerely, Sara Callaway, Sokari Ekine and Nina Lopez

Danny Glover Speaks at Brazilian Consultate in LA

Sokari Ekine

Letter from Congresswoman Maxine Waters to President Rene Preval

November 16, 2007

Rene Garcia Preval President of Haiti c/o Embassy of Haiti
2311 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20008

Your Excellency:

I am deeply concerned about the disappearance of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, a prominent human rights advocate and community activist in Haiti.  I urge you to use your influence to ensure a thorough investigation of his disappearance and take appropriate action to ensure his safe return to his family.

As you may know, Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine is the Co-Founder and National Coordinator of the September 30th Foundation (FTS), a human rights organization in Haiti that was formed after the 1991 coup d’etat.  He had reportedly announced his intention to file as a Lavalas candidate for the next round of parliamentary elections in Haiti.  He is admired and respected by numerous advocates of peace and justice for Haiti.

Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine was last seen on the evening of Sunday, August 12, 2007, after meeting with a U.S.  human rights delegation visiting Haiti.  After his disappearance, his car was found abandoned and was taken to the Delmas 3 Police Station in Port-au-Prince.  I have been informed that there was a ransom demand on Tuesday, August 14.  However, the presumed kidnappers have not pursued the ransom demand, and no further information is available regarding his fate.

I urge you to ensure that Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine’s kidnapping is thoroughly investigated, determine if at all possible his whereabouts, and take appropriate action to ensure his safe return to his family.

Sincerely,

Maxine Waters Member of Congress
cc: The Hon.  Janet A.  Sanderson, U.S.  Ambassador to Haiti MINUSTAH

A MESSAGE FROM THE CHILDREN OF DISAPPEARED HAITIAN HUMAN RIGHTS LEADER LOVINSKY PIERRE-ANTOINE

Our names are Stéphane and Olivier Pierre-Antoine, the children of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine.  This week will be the sixth one that we spend without our father, who is kept hostage and it has been more than 42 days since we did not receive any notice from him being alive.  The hours and the days go by without anyone, except his close relatives, seeming to worry about his fate.  We have felt a big void in our hearts since this disappearance.  This deplorable situation prevent us from sleeping, eating and forces us to concentrate our thoughts on the slow agony that our father is living.  Deprived of freedom, our father incurs the risks to catch diseases, to be victim of physical violence by his abductors and to have his spirit devoured by despair.  We ask you, who probably are fathers and mothers, to listen to the words of two teenagers who crave the presence of their father.  Listen well to this outcry of pain and anguish that comes directly from our heart.  It is not only our father that we miss, we are also deprived of our dear friend, of our counselor and of our spiritual guide.  We ask the authorities of the country and the Haitian people to do all this that is in their power to free our dad.  We particularly ask his abductors to grant us the return of our daddy who is so dear to us.

Even if we are aware that a release is a complex and long process, it has been more than a month than we did not see our dad and we want to insist on the unbearable wait that we are confronted with.  In the name of Human Rights and of the inherent duty to save people in lethal danger, we massively call on the Haitian authorities and the international community to help us find the means that will allow the release of our dad.  We do not doubt that in the future, all efforts will be set in motion to make the release of our dear dad an absolute priority.  We wish for energetic and effective measures to be deployed to this end.  We take this opportunity to cordially thank all those who, in a way or another, brought us their moral support during this sad period of our life. 

Stéphane Pierre-Antoine and Olivier Pierre-Antoine

Resolution in support of disappeared Haitian human rights leader Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine

September 30, 2007

To: Pacifica Radio National Board

RE: Resolution in support of disappeared Haitian human rights leader Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine

From: Submitted by Margaret Prescod, KPFK

 

Whereas, Haitian human rights leader Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine is missing in Haiti and has not been seen since the evening of Sunday, August 12, 2007 after meeting with a U.S. human rights delegation then in Haiti;

 

Whereas, Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine is a tireless fighter for the Haitian people: a grassroots leader and founding member and coordinator of the September 30^th Foundation, a Haitian human rights organization which advocates for victims of the 1991 coup, the first against President Aristide;

 

Whereas, as a young psychologist working in Port au Prince, Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine helped establish Fondsayon Kore Timoun Yo (Foundation for the Support of Children) for street children in Port au Prince; FAM (Foyer pour Adolescentes Mères), a center for teenage mothers; and Map Viv ("I Live"), a program designed to give psychological and medical aid to the victims of the 1991 coup;

 

Whereas, the September 30^th Foundation, named for the date of the first coup against President Aristide in 1991, emerged out of this work, and similar to the work of Mothers of the Disappeared in Central and South America, held weekly vigils demanding justice for victims of human rights violations and the release of political prisoners;

 

Whereas, Lovinsky Pierre Antoine has been snatched from his family and the community that loves and needs him;

 

Whereas, the Haitian grassroots and sisters and brothers throughout the Caribbean region have asked for international support in calling for the safe return of Lovinsky Pierre Antoine;

 

Whereas, the KPFK local station board has joined the call for a safe return of Lovinsky Pierre Antoine;

 

Therefore be it resolved, that the Pacifica Radio National Board is concerned and outraged over the disappearance of this valiant fighter for human rights and dignity, and we support the call to the United Nations; the government of President Rene Preval; the government of Brazil, as head of the UN military mission in Haiti; and the U.S. Embassy in Port au Prince to do all in their power to ensure that Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine is released unharmed;

 

Be it further resolved, that the Pacifica Radio National Board encourage all Pacifica stations and affiliates to educate its listeners about Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine and his life of working for peace and justice, and to keep critical attention focused on the need for Lovinsky to be returned safely to his family and his people.

Aristide opens his speech with a mention of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine

21 December 2007

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide denounced Haiti's most recent elections as "treason" and called for the release of a missing political ally in a radio speech broadcast Friday.

It is the fourth straight year that Aristide — exiled in South Africa — has recorded a New Year's address to mark Haiti's Independence Day on Jan.  1.  The exiled leader, who was toppled in a 2004 uprising, did not say directly if he will attempt a return to Haiti.

Aristide previously has said he wants to return to Haiti but that the timing depends on President Rene Preval, his former prime minister and political protege.

"We are waiting to meet again, face to face on Haitian soil," Aristide said Friday in Haitian Creole.

He described his removal from power as a kidnapping, and he condemned the 2006 presidential elections won by Preval.

"The last blow against the people, when the knife of treason was planted in their back, was the 'selection' of 2006," Aristide said.

Aristide opened his speech with a mention of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, a Lavalas activist last seen leaving his Port-au-Prince home before midnight on Aug.  12.

Few details about the suspected kidnapping have emerged, prompting U.N.  peacekeepers and human rights group Amnesty International to call for a more aggressive investigation.

Article by JONATHAN M.  KATZ Associated Press writer Evens Sanon contributed to this report.

 

Letter to Government of Brazil concerning the safe return of Lovinksy

LETTER TO THE GOVERNMENT OF BRAZIL CONCERNING THE SAFE RETURN OF LOVINSKY PIERRE-ANTOINE, BY MR.  EUSI KWAYANA, A DISTINGUISHED ELDER FROM GUYANA, KNOWN BY MANY THROUGHOUT THE CARIBBEAN REGION.  HE WAS CENTRAL IN BRINGING TOGETHER AFRO AND INDO PEOPLE IN GUYANA’S INDEPENDENCE STRUGGLE.

20 May 2008 HIS EXCELLENCY MR.  ANTONIO DE AGUIAR PATRIOTA, Brazilian Ambassador to the United States,  3006 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 90008

HER EXCELLENCY, MS.  THERESA MARIA M.  QUINTELLA, Consul General of Brazil
8484 Wilshire Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA 90211

YOUR EXCELLENCY, It is time, after nine months of uneasy anxiety, that some authority charged in the name of the international community with responsibility for security in Haiti, advise the international community, that is, the international public, of its findings in regard to the scandalous kidnapping or disappearance of Haitian citizen and patriot, MR.  LOVINSKY PIERRE-ANTOINE.

The date of MR.  PIERRE-ANTOINE’S disappearance is well established.  It is also known that he had been helping human rights delegations from two countries the USA and Canada, countries with famous courts and parliaments.

Please do not misunderstand this appeal.  It has great hope in the United Nations as a peacekeeping agency and much hope in the evolution of democracy in Brazil, which holds a leading position in the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti.  My disappointment is therefore considerable.  Every son and daughter of Haiti deserves the protection of the law and of special international arrangements.  LOVINSKY PIERRE-ANTOINE is a son of Haiti, one who is well-known in the region and is becoming better known in the world.  His international reputation is a standard of judgment of the peacekeeping force.  Their reputation will rise or fall with his fortunes.  In the present day world, news of violations is highly saleable.

Open letter to Brazil and other Latin American countries

SIGN, CIRCULATE and RETURN

Open letter to

Brazil

and other Latin American governments
which are part of the UN mission in

Haiti

 

FOR THE SAFE RETURN OF HAITIAN HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST LOVINSKY PIERRE–ANTOINE AND TO END VIOLENCE AND REPRESSION AGAINST THE HAITIAN PEOPLE.

We the undersigned residents of Latin America call upon our governments to urge UN and other security forces in Haiti to find and return Haitian human rights activist Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, abducted on 12 August 2007.

Further, we ask our governments not to participate in the UN occupation of Haiti and in this way help end the resulting violence and repression against the Haitian people.  Their successful revolution in 1804 opened the way for the liberation of those enslaved throughout the Americas and directly aided South American Liberator Simón Bolivar by twice giving him refuge, and sending him home with ships and fighters.  It is time to pay our debt.  Write, call, email, fax your government asking them to account for their actions in Haiti and for what they are doing to find Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine.

In early 2005, Lieutenant-General Augusto Heleno Ribeiro Pereira, commander of the UN Stabilization Forces in Haiti (MINUSTAH), testified at a congressional commission in Brazil that "we are under extreme pressure from the international community to use violence,” citing Canada, France and the United States.

22 May 2008

Dear Friends,

1) On 12 August 2007, our dear friend and colleague Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine was abducted.  He has not been seen since but we have good reason to believe that he is still alive, and we urge you to help us press for his safe return.  Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine is an advocate of those with least, especially single mothers and street children.  He co-founded Fondasyon Trant Septanm for victims of the 1991 and 2004 coups against Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti ’s first democratically elected president, beloved by the poor majority.  Lovinsky is a member of Lavalas, the movement and party of President Aristide. 

Lovinsky was abducted after meeting with a US-Canadian human rights delegation visiting Haiti .  President Aristide (now living in South Africa ) recently said of Lovinsky that if he were free today “his deep and bellowing voice would echo the demands of Haitians and the world’s poor for respect of the fundamental and human right to food and freedom from hunger.” US Congresswoman Maxine Waters said: “Lovinsky’s continued disappearance is, of course, a great personal tragedy, but it is also a great tragedy for the people of Haiti .”

Following the 2004 US coup against President Aristide (backed by Canada and France ) the UN agreed to send troops into Haiti , legitimizing the coup and making themselves responsible for law and order there.  Brazil heads MINUSTAH, the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti .  While most international media and NGOs have praised their actions, residents of Haiti ’s most impoverished areas as well as independent journalists have reported massacres and rapes committed with impunity by these very UN forces which claim to be protecting them.  They say that the neighbourhoods, community churches and organizations, which were key to defeating the infamous Duvalier dictatorship and bringing Aristide to power, have been targeted. 

While some troops have been sent home following rape reports, none as far as we know have been prosecuted for their crimes.  See: Kevin Pina’s film “We Must Kill the Bandits” www.teledyol.net, the Haiti Action Committee’s “What’s Going on in Haiti ?” www.haitisolidarity.net, and articles in the Sunday Times and Washington Post.  Brazil is not the only country taking part in this shameful and violent occupation.  Countries contributing military personnel to the UN forces:

Argentina , Bolivia , Brazil , Canada , Chile , Croatia , Ecuador , France , Guatemala , Jordan , Morocco , Nepal , Pakistan , Paraguay , Peru , Philippines , Spain , Sri Lanka , United States and Uruguay .  Countries contributing police/civilian personnel: Argentina, Benin, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, DR Congo, Egypt, El Salvador, France, Grenada, Guinea, Jordan, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Senegal, Spain, Sri Lanka, Togo, Turkey, United States and Uruguay.

2) It is mainly Latin American, African and Asian countries which have been drawn into this occupation.  Even countries like Argentina , Bolivia , Brazil , Chile , Ecuador , Paraguay , Spain and Uruguay whose governments have said they champion human rights are taking part.  The Caribbean countries, with the exception of Grenada , are not involved – Venezuela and the Caricom countries refused to recognise the “provisional government” installed by the US after the coup, and Cuba has helped with doctors rather than soldiers. 

The world owes a huge debt to the Haitian people.  Their 1804 revolution was the first to overthrow slavery, making way for emancipation throughout the Americas and strengthening liberation movements everywhere.  Haiti directly aided South American Liberator Simón Bolivar by twice giving him refuge, and sending him home with ships and fighters.  The Haitians asked only that he worked to abolish slavery.  (Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez acknowledged this when he visited Haiti in March 2007 after René Préval was elected president.  Lovinsky was involved in organizing the visit of Chávez who was enthusiastically received by the residents of Cité Soleil and other poor neighbourhoods.)

In 1825 France imposed a crippling debt, forcing Haiti to pay for its loss of slaves and costs incurred from the Haitian Revolution – these payments continued until after WWII.  The US imposed coups, invasions and dictators.  They killed thousands and forced many others into exile.  A tiny Haitian elite has profited from sweatshops which exploit an impoverished population, and from the destruction of local farming to make way for imported US rice.  With food price increases many now face starvation.

The people of Haiti have been betrayed by the governments of the countries they helped create.  We cannot let them get away with this betrayal.

We have been holding a weekly vigil at the Brazilian embassy in London for five months asking for any information they may have about Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine.  So far we have met a stony wall of silence and worse.  Brazil clearly wants to wash its hands of this matter despite its prominent role in Haiti .  Their human rights officer told us we were barking up the wrong tree and should ask the IMF or World Bank to put resources into reconstructing Haiti to prevent such things from happening again. 

Another officer told us that it was not up to them, they were “just doing their job”.  Vigils and other protests have also taken place in the US and in the Caribbean Region.  Amnesty International has issued two urgent reports, over 2,100 people from around the world have signed a petition, and a growing list of prominent people worldwide have been calling for Lovinsky’s safe return, including: British Member of Parliament John McDonnell, US Congresswoman Maxine Waters, acclaimed actors Danny Glover, Vanessa Redgrave and Martin Sheen, Pax Christi International.  But the people of Haiti have never given up.  Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, beloved father and community organiser, personifies their revolutionary resistance and determination.  It is time to pay our debt.

We have been asking: “ Brazil , why are you in Haiti ?” Latin American trade unions, journalists and others are pressing their governments to withdraw their troops.  Add your voice to ours.  Protest about your government involvement in Haiti .  Sign the statement above.

Issued by: Global Women Strike, Women of Colour in the Global Women’s Strike, Haiti Action Committee and Red Thread ( Guyana )

More information from: www.globalwomenstrike.net www.haitisolidarity.net

 

Statement from President Aristide on Human Rights Award for Lovinsky

The Haiti Solidarity Network of the North East (HSNNE) has honoured Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine with its Human Rights Award on Saturday, May 10, in Bayonne NJ.  HSNNE will launch an action alert to fight for Lovinsky's return, which we will get out next week.

Dr.  Jean-Bertrand Aristide  President of Haiti Pretoria, South Africa May 2, 2008

Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine is truly deserving of the Haiti Solidarity Network of the North East’s Human Rights Award.  The range of his work is astounding – from organizing resistance to the military dictatorship of 1991 to 1994 to fighting to make the justice system responsive to Haiti’s poor and providing psychological treatment to victims of human rights violations.  Lovinsky has been successful in all of these endeavors because he keeps persisting in the face of great obstacles, and insists on non-violence in the face of great frustration and injustice.  Anyone who cares about human rights in Haiti is aggrieved that Lovinsky cannot be with you to accept his award.  Lovinsky's continued disappearance is, of course, a great personal tragedy, but it is also a great tragedy for the people of Haiti.  As Haiti faces continuing trials, it needs Lovinsky and his persistence and courage more than ever.

Lula Haiti visit prompts protests in Brazil, Mexico and San Francisco

One unified demand: Withdraw Brazilian and all foreign occupation troops from Haiti!

Lula Haiti visit prompts protests in Brazil, Mexico and San Francisco Demonstrators in many Brazilian cities and San Francisco denounced Brazil's brutal 4-year military occupation of Haiti -- on the occasion of the May 28th visit to Haiti by Brazilian President Luiz Lula da Silva, marking the 4th anniversary of the arrival of Brazilian U.N.  troops in Haiti.  Organized labor played a key role in coordinating the actions in Brazil.

In Mexico City on May 30th, a high-level Mexican labor delegation, responding to the call of their colleagues in Brazil, met at the Brazilian embassy to demand withdrawal of Brazil’s troops from Haiti and respect for Haitian sovereignty.

In Brazil, the National Campaign for Brazilian Troops Out of Haiti organized actions as part of the May 28th national day of struggle by the CUT trade union federation, seeking a 40-hour workweek.  The banner "Brazilian Soldiers Out of Haiti" flew at rallies and marches in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Recife, Salvador and state capitals throughout Brazil.  Speakers connected the money squandered on the Haiti occupation, with the pressing but unmet needs of people back home in Brazil.

Leading forces in the Troops-Out-of-Haiti campaign include the Unified Black Movement (MNU) and Black Youth Network, along with significant elements of Lula's own Workers Party (PT), the Landless Peasants Movement (MST), and the CUT labor federation.  They collected some 6,000 petition signatures, to be presented to President Lula by PT Federal Deputy Fernando Ferro.

U.N.  Military commander Brazilian General Carlos Alberto dos ...

AP U.N.  Military commander Brazilian General dos Santos Cruz, Brazilian battalion Commander Lt.Col.  Paul Cruz, center, and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, right, speak during a visit in Port-au-Prince, May, 28, 2008.  Lula is on a one-day official visit to Haiti.  Brazil says it will send additional troops to Haiti.

While Lula visits, Haitian CIMO police attack vigil for Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine San Francisco rallied May 28th at the Brazilian consulate, in solidarity with the demonstrations in Brazil.  Speakers cried out against the attack in Port-au-Prince earlier that day, when CIMO special police roughed up participants in the weekly vigil for disappeared human rights leader Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine at the Place des Martyrs and threw their placards to the ground.

The San Francisco rally, called by Haiti Action Committee with participation by the anti-war group ANSWER, San Francisco Labor Council, Global Women’s Strike and Gabriela Network, denounced the UN mission in Haiti as having been installed, under Brazilian command, to legitimize the 2004 coup against the democratically-elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

UN forces arrived in Haiti as a proxy force, 3 months after US troops kidnapped President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Feb.  29, 2004 and installed a coup regime.  In the aftermath of the coup, more than 8,000 Aristide supporters were killed and thousands more 'disappeared', exiled or thrown into prison, where most remain locked up to this day.  The entire government apparatus, down to the village level, was ‘cleansed’ of Aristide supporters during the coup..

Brazil's legacy in Haiti - Massacres in the poor neighborhoods Brazil commands the 9,000-strong UN 'peacekeeping' force in Haiti, which committed massacres in poor working-class neighborhoods on July 6, 2005, on December 22, 2006, February 2007 and many other occasions -- attacking the civilians who are the base of support for President Aristide and his widely popular Lavalas political movement.  Scores of women, children and men were killed in these massive, day-long raids involving as many as 400 troops, tanks and helicopter gunships.  UN troops have also been caught committing rapes, sexual abuse of children and running prostitution rings in the poor neighborhoods.

State repression continues as a daily fact of life in Haiti:

A thousand pro-Aristide political prisoners are still crammed into Haiti's jails and prisons, most being held for many months or years without charges and without ever seeing a judge.  Many were arrested by UN soldiers on suspicion of being Aristide sympathizers and turned over to Haitian police.

On April 11th, UN soldiers smashed up an open-air market in the capital, assaulting street vendors, killing at least three and torching the stalls with flamethrowers.

On May 28th, as UN troops and National Police massed in the streets of the Haitian capital for Lula's visit, black-uniformed CIMO special police attacked the peaceful weekly vigil for Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine at the Place des Martyrs, roughing up seven of the vigilers and throwing their placards and banners to the ground.  The mobilization for Pierre-Antoine's safe return continues: in the U.S.  Congress; on the streets (weekly vigils in Haiti, as well as at Brazil's embassy in London and Los Angeles consulate), and on the internet (Petition to Save Lovinsky).

For information go to the Global Women's Strike

To read the powerful new letter to the Brazilian government from the distinguished independence leader and elder from Guyana, Mr.  Eusi Kwayana, demanding action to ensure the safe return of Brother Lovinsky, go to HERE.   

Lula's troops "not leaving anytime soon" - despite rising protests in Brazil & Haiti The Miami Herald quoted Lula's foreign ministry as saying "the main purpose” of Lula’s trip to Haiti “will be to figure out what role Brazil and the...U.N.  Stabilization Mission, known by its French acronym MINUSTAH, can play in the 'restoration of democracy' in Haiti." This may be a tall order, given the blue helmets' sordid history of rapes and massacres of the poor in the Haitian capital -- and their role in consolidating the coup d'etat that overthrew Haiti's democratically elected government in 2004.

Lula, meeting with President Rene Preval, said Minustah was "succeeding in their mission" (Reuters), while Lula’s Defense Minister Nelson Jobim promised to deploy 100 additional Brazilian soldiers (AP).  While giving a pep talk to Brazilian troops, Lula compared the UN mission in Haiti to "a soccer game that has only reached halftime," adding that "the second half is a time to take the initiative," according to Associated Press.

But persistent protests in both Brazil and Haiti are demanding Minustah's departure.  Miami Herald pointed out that "like his Chilean and Argentine counterparts, Lula is facing domestic pressure to pull his troops out of Haiti." In Haiti, thousands rallied against the U.N.  in April during militant mass demonstrations over the soaring cost of food, shouting for the blue helmets to leave Haiti.  The movement is building in Brazil.  In Paraná the Coalition of Social Movements (CMS) of Paraná, which includes the CUT labor federation, the landless peasant movement and student groups, announced that a rally would be held in June to demand troops out of Haiti.  In Salvador, a debate was being organized on the same theme.

On April 30th in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia, a delegation including Fernando Ferro, federal deputy from Lula's Workers Party (PT) and Markus Sokol, member of the PT National Executive Board, met in Planalto Palace with Lula's chief of staff, Gilberto Carvalho.  They delivered a letter to Lula demanding withdrawal of all Brazilian military forces from Haiti.  The letter was signed by 16 prominent Brazilian members of Parliament, trade union officials, and representatives of peasant, student and women's organizations.  The delegation delivered an Open Letter from a Haitian American, David Josue, describing in graphic detail the July 6, 2005 massacre of innocent Haitian women, children and men by UN troops under Brazilian command, and appealing to Lula to put an end to the brutal foreign occupation of Haiti.

The anger of Brazilian unionists and peace activists was heightened when it was announced that more than 464 million Reais (US$290 million) have been spent over the past four years -- funds desperately needed for people's needs in Brazil -- to attack the sovereignty of the Haitian people.

However, a Brazilian foreign ministry spokesperson told the Miami Herald: "At this moment, the Brazilian position has been to renew our work with MINUSTAH.  We don't have the intention of leaving."

The Miami Herald reported: "Rubens Barbosa, a Brazil-based consultant who served as Brazil's ambassador to the United States from 1999 to 2004, said that while he believes Brazil should end its mission in Haiti because of the costs, he sees the South American nation staying involved [in Haiti] for the foreseeable future."

Nevertheless, Brazil is feeling growing pressure to withdraw its troops.  In Mexico City on May 30th, a delegation of Mexican trade unionists met to dialogue with officials at the Brazilian Embassy in Mexico City, joining their Brazilian comrades in calling for Brazil’s military to leave Haiti now.  The delegation included Salome Herber Aguilar, a leader of the Miners and Metal Workers Union (SNT-MMSRM ); Nivardo Rodriguez Morales and Fernando Mendoza, leaders of Section 22 of the SNTE-CNTE; and Armando Pasos Cabrera, from SITUAM.  Like the Brazilians, they presented an Open Letter to President Lula raising the Troops Out Now demand

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