Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine

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 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

 

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