STOP THE WAR AGAINST THE HAITIAN PEOPLE

Sign on to the International Declaration of Support for the Haitian People…

An International Coalition of Haitians living in exile, human rights groups, Haiti advocacy groups, elected officials and individuals from the international community and Haiti is quickly forming to declare solidarity with the people of Haiti and to demand that Haiti’s sovereignty be respected. As an International Coalition, many signatories have and will continue to monitor and record the illegal activities and human rights abuses of the poor in Haiti, and report them to various heads of state, as well as the Haitian and international press. The Coalition will also press MINUSTAH, the HNP, and the US, French and Canadian governments to acknowledge the documented abuses below and meet the specific demands. A copy of the full declaration is reproduced below. It can also be reviewed and signed on to by going to ipetitions.com.

Documented abuses written in the document include:

• Summary executions and disappearances
• The living in hiding
• Mass illegal arrests

• Persecution of Lavalas party leadership, members and supporters
• Politically motivated rapes

• State sponsored terror
• Violations of right to free speech and assembly
• The torture of thousands of people including children

• Persecution and violence against journalists

Demands in the declaration include:

• The gross human rights abuses stop immediately, including the daily attacks by the National Police, MINUSTAH (UN forces), and paramilitaries under police control, in Cite Soleil, Bel Air and other popular neighborhoods, as well as illegal arrests, rapes, tortures and persecution of the poor. Impartial, international human rights observers must be sent to Haiti immediately.

• The governments of the United States, Canada and France, remove themselves from the political affairs of Haiti, respect Haiti’s sovereignty and resist any further attempts to try to colonize the country.

• All current and former political prisoners including Prime Minister Neptune, Interior Minister Privert, Annette Auguste and Father Jean-Juste, receive protection and be released immediately.

• Restoration of the constitutional government including the return of President Aristide.

 

We hope that you will sign-on, distribute this flyer and include the Declaration and its demands in a solidarity action/event for Haiti on September 30, 2005

 

International Declaration of Support for the Haitian People

We are Haitians living in exile, international human rights groups, Haiti advocacy groups, elected officials and individuals from the international community, who wish to declare our solidarity with the people of Haiti and to demand that Haiti’s sovereignty be respected. From February 29, 2004 to this day, we have witnessed, documented and reported on the forced removal of the democratically elected president of Haiti, Jean Bertrand Aristide, by the United States, French and Canadian governments; the  dismantling of the constitutional government, which included the illegal removal of approximately 7,000 government officials; the creation of a subsequently lawless environment in which there is clearly a total disregard for the constitution and judicial system; and systematic human rights violations and crimes against thousands of members of the Lavalas Party and citizens from the poorest areas, which have traditionally supported the popular democratic movement of Haiti.

Between the state sponsored violence against the poorest citizens, the exclusion of the Lavalas Party which represents the majority of the citizenry, and the need to register 4.5 million people to vote, we feel that moving forward with imposed elections is absolutely not a just, credible plan or in the best interests of the Haitian people or the sovereignty of the country.

Based on the conditions described below, we condemn any attempt by the international community, the de facto government of Haiti, or the elite Haitian business community to coerce the Haitian people into holding elections, which are currently scheduled for late in 2005.

In the past fifteen months, we have gathered and received documentation of:

• Summary executions and disappearances of thousands of people who are either members of the Lavalas Party and/or citizens from the poorest areas, which have traditionally supported the popular movement

• The living in hiding of thousands of people who are either members of the Lavalas Party and/or citizens from the poorest areas, which have traditionally supported the popular movement.

• Mass illegal arrests of hundreds of people, who are members of the Lavalas Party, citizens from the poorest areas which have traditionally supported the popular movement and street children who have been imprisoned for weeks and months without charge or due process

• Persecution of Lavalas party leadership , including several high ranking members of the Lavalas Party or well known activists such as  Prime Minister Neptune, Interior Minister Privert, Annette Auguste and Father Gerard Jean-Juste.

• Politically motivated rapes of over 100 women, girls, and boys who are either family members of the Lavalas Party and/or children from the poorest areas, which have traditionally supported the popular movement.

• State sponsored terror of hundreds of people in the poorest neighborhoods, most recently Cite Soleil and Bel Air in which citizens including children have been attacked and murdered by HNP and MINUSTAH (UN forces). Eye-witness testimonies received claim that similar "operations" in the months after the coup d’etat were carried-out by US Marines and the HNP. In the current attacks, unidentified English-speaking, white men in black ski masks have been identified by many local citizens.

• Violations of right to free speech and assembly by state sponsored terror, in which the HNP has been given free reign to kill several unarmed, peaceful demonstrators, including young men, as they were exercising their democratic rights of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.

• The torture of thousands of people , especially members of the Lavalas Party, young men and boys from the poorest neighborhoods of Cite Soleil, Bel Air, La Saline, etc who have been and continue to be systematically profiled, terrorized and often tortured.

• Persecution and violence against journalists from several countries who were trying to report on demonstrations for the return of President Aristide. Several have been murdered or threatened with arrest and/or murder. 

In the past fifteen months, human rights organizations have recorded countless  allegations and credible documentation of these crimes against members of the Lavalas Party and citizens from the poorest areas, being carried out to varying degrees by the Haitian National Police, the former military, many of whom patrol the streets while being given authority to act as law enforcement officials, United States Marines and MINUSTAH.

Some sources of the many credible reports include:

Harvard University , www.law.harvard.edu/programs/hrp/CAP/current/americas/haiti.html

The Harvard Law School Clinical Advocacy Project’s Haiti Report -- "Keeping the Peace in Haiti?: An Assessment of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti Using Compliance With its Prescribed Mandate as a Barometer for Success"  

University of Miami School of Law, www.law.miami.edu/news/368.html

Haiti Human Rights Investigation: November 11-21, 2004  

Haiti Information Project, www.law.miami.edu/news/368.html :

Crushing President Aristide’s Party Through Violence (Testimonies of Lavalas Victims)  

Loyola University New Orleans Law School , haiti-news@listhost.uchicago.edu

The Haiti Human Rights Report

Amnesty International, www.amnesty.org

Haiti : health concern/legal concern, Yvon Neptune….Haiti: National Police must be held accountable for killing of civilians….Haiti: Fear for safety/excessive use of force….Haiti:Fear for safety/unlawful killing. Amnesty International calls on the transitional government to set up an independent commission of inquiry into summary executions attributed to members of the Haitian National Police  

Our coalition feels strongly that under these oppressive, genocidal conditions, resembling a dictatorship not a democracy, it is impossible to move toward elections. We insist that rather than the United States Congress and the United Nations initiating the sending of more arms and troops to Haiti against the people’s will and good judgement, that these inhumane, unconstitutional conditions must be brought to a halt.

As an international coalition we support and insist that:

• The gross human rights abuses stop immediately, including the daily attacks orchestrated by the HNP, MINUSTAH and the unidentified militia in the neighborhoods of Cite Soleil and Bel Air, as well as the illegal arrests, rapes, tortures and persecution of the poor. Impartial, international human rights observers must be sent to Haiti immediately.

• The governments of the United States, Canada and France, remove themselves from the political affairs of Haiti, respect Haiti’s sovereignty and resist any further attempts to try to colonize the country or to use Haiti as part of the globalization movement.

• All current and former political prisoners including Prime Minister Neptune, Interior Minister Privert, Annette Auguste and Father Jean Juste, receive protection and be released immediately.

• The reinstatement of the constitutional government including the return of President Aristide.

As an international coalition representing hundreds of thousands of people from around the world, we expect that our concerns for the sovereignty of Haiti and the well being of the Haitian people will be taken very seriously. This is a situation of extreme political and economic oppression, violating all national and international laws of decency and human rights doctrines, not unlike a genocidal state. We will continue to monitor and record the illegal activities and human rights abuses in Haiti, and report them to various heads of state, as well as the Haitian and international press. We will also continue to confront and expose the imperialist policies of the United States, Canadian and French governments that have and continue to threaten the very lives of the vast majority of the Haitian people.

Signed,

Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton, Auxiliary, Archdiocese of Detroit - USA

Paul Farmer, M.D., Partners In Health – USA

Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, Fondation Trente Septembre
Cynthia Rose, Partners In Health/Program in Infectious Disease and Social Change , Harvard Medical School - USA
Blase Bonpane, Ph.D. , Director, Office of the Americas - USA
Reverend Leonard B. Bjorkman, Dr., Co-Moderator, Presbyterian Peace Fellowship - USA

San Francisco Bay View Newspaper - USA

Mary Ratcliff, editor , SF Bay View - USA
Rebecca Gibbs, First Presbyterian Church of Miami - USA 
Malaika Hodari Kambon,  NU AFRIKAN LIBERATION - USA
Susan Severin, Marin Interfaith Task Force on the Americas - USA

Seth Donnelly, US Labor/ Human Rights Delegation to Haiti - USA

Stefanie Collins, San Antonio Peace Coalition - USA
Christopher Larson, Haiti Justice Committee of Minnesota - USA

Dr. Jennie Smith-Paríolá, Chair, Dept of Sociology and Anthropology, Director, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Berry College, Mt. Berry, GA - USA  
Edwige Romulus, chairman of the Haitian-American Support Group of Central Florida, Inc., - USA

Michael Stulman, Department of Public Education and Mobilization - USA 
Stella Goodpasture, OP, Justice Promoter, Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose, CA - USA

Maryann Zavez, Staff Attorney/Professor of Law South Royalton Legal Clinic at  
Vermont Law School - USA 
Sara Renn, Global Justice, Washington D.C. - USA

Leon Werdinger, Ottertrack Productions - USA
Margaret A. Lanoue, Associate Director, The Sage Colleges – Libraries - USA
Lina Barrantes, San Jose - Costa Rica 
Rev. Gerald J. Osterman - USA

Robert M. Boucher, MD - USA
Peter Hallward, Middlesex University - USA

Gottfried Brieger, Professor - USA
Ron Voss for The Izmery Projects - USA

Catherine Matthias, Indigo Gallery - USA
Catherine Podojil, journalist  - USA
Kay Coll – USA

Fritz Pean - CANADA
Barbara Laxon - USA 
Eugenia Barrantes - Mexico, DF

Walter F. Block - USA

Jennie Smith-Pariola - USA
Deborah Lagutaris, J.D. - USA
Marhta J. Willi MD - USA
Thomas Troutman - USA

Joy Troutman - USA
Jean-François Corbett - Denmark  
Brian VandenBossche - USA 
Mary Lothschutz - USA
Alma Giraudo  - Italy
Michael Fishman - USA
Don Timmerman - USA

Roberta Thurstin - USA
Arlene Sandler - USA
David Corcoran - USA
Donna Felger - USA

Maryann Alukonis - USA
Sonia Lee - USA

Anthony Draye - USA
Kate Patterson  - USA
Amy Selvius  - USA
Nadine Vesel - USA
Susan Liebold - USA
Jack Logue - USA

Sandy Loque - USA
Rita Russo - USA
Phillip Runkel - USA
Sasha Bennett - USA
Carol Strazer  - USA
Colleen Whalen - USA
Joan Emerson - USA

Ellie Happel - USA
Darlene Wallach - USA
Christine C. McBride  - USA
Lois Wilcken - USA
Victoria Szatkowski - USA

Julia Davidson - USA
Erica Bettwy  - USA
Fred Chandler - USA
John Steinmeyer - USA
Joe Zelenka - USA
Mark Schafer  - USA
Shirley Quement - USA 
James J. Barry  - USA
Joan Rae - USA
Deborah Dimmett - USA
Nancy Bennett - USA

Julian Burnet - USA
Carole Enright - USA
Ladan Sobhani - USA
Ann Tiffany - USA
Judy Bjorkman - USA
Jennifer Wernersbach - USA
Ray Torres - USA  
Paul Reineke  - USA
Diana Bohn - USA 
Natalie Guarin - USA 
James Devin O'Keefe  - USA
Patricia Bruno  - USA
Michel Sanon - USA
Rosemarie Milazzo  - USA
Sonia Lee - USA
Lillith Carpenter - USA
Janina Glasov - USA

Chris Ellis - USA
John Duff - USA
Duane Ediger - USA
Eric Mosley  - USA
Dick Wildeman - USA
Marcel Charland - USA

Judy Charland  - USA
Norman Plotkin  - USA
Karen Wisniewski - USA 
Fritz P. Montréal - USA 
Paul W. Miller - USA 

Kevin Burns - USA 
Ziad Obermeyer - USA 
Ray Carrier - USA  
Amalia Vidas - USA 
R.A DeSutter - USA 

Lynn DeSutter - USA 
Susan Pleasants - USA  
Jane Ehrenfeld - USA 
Jessica Leight - USA 
Mary B. Fort   - USA 
Diana Jimenez - USA 
William Slavick - USA 
William H. Slavick - USA 
Ed Kinane - USA 
Donna Wallach - USA