Justin Podur

The First Indigenous and Popular Congress, Colombia

For readers who follow my work because they seek good Colombia information in English, I apologize for not reporting on the situation as much as I should have been. I will try to catch up. There were major and very successful events and mobilizations in Colombia on the part of the indigenous of Northern Cauca. I have translated the final declaration of their massive mobilization that happened last month. Some 60,000 marched for peace, against neoliberalism, and for autonomy. They succeeded in beginning to break the isolation that the government is trying to impose on them. They succeeded against extraordinary challenges and odds. I will write a full article about the mobilization soon. Meanwhile, here are their own words.

The First Popular Indigenous Congress

The Indigenous and Popular Mandate of the Minga for Life, Justice, Joy, Freedom, and Autonomy

Cali, September 18, 2004

The Challenge Before Us

We bring with us the memories and experiences of a long history of struggle and resistance. We rely on our identities and cultures to confront the many threats that face us time and time again. This path has not been easy. Since the Conquest and without cease, arrogance, egoism, ignorance and disrespect have fallen on us with lies, false promises, the power of ever more lethal weapons, and with institutions, laws, and norms that bring us misery, exploitation, pain, and dependence. Each time they attack us, they assure us it is for our own good. Each time we have had to learn the deception, unite and organize to defend ourselves. It has always served us to return to our roots, take advantage of the wisdom of our own collective memory, listen to our elders and pay attention to nature to make ourselves a part of life and defend ourselves by defending it. Time and again we have had to learn to resist and do so differently in accordance with the challenge before us. We have come from far, over a long period. The latest steps have brought us to this Congress of Peoples, the latest stage in this long history. More than the latest stage, it is the beginning of a new path we have decided to take. With the 60,000 that marched to Cali and in other parts of the country, our memories have marched; our elders have marched; those who opened the way by struggling before us, many men and women in many places within and outside of Colombia who have recognized the danger, suffered the pain and got up to march for the other world we know is possible and necessary.

The challenge of this new age is immense. It may be the most serious of our entire history. We suffer a damaging, evil ‘order’. We know this and say it loud. It is not only our cultures, communities, peoples and families who are at risk. It is life itself that can be destroyed by the blindness of those who are using the greatest power in history to make everything that exists part of a market with their project of death.

We know that what must occur does not yet exist except in our own commitment, the memory of everything we live and what we must invent, grow, and protect to open the way.

The project that threatens life does not respect borders – that’s why it is called ‘globalization’. It comes to our communities and into our homes throughout Colombia and the world. It brings war, lies of propaganda, the power of law, and the power of money. It comes for the wealth of nature and the work of people to exploit and sell. Those who control and make decisions to serve their interests are far away. They are in the directorships of large multinational corporations and in the financial centres of the world that end up with everything. They use governments and armies and institutions to do their bidding. They convince us that all this is inevitable.

This is hard to see, understand, resist and change. It requires unity, creativity, solidarity, commitment, sacrifice and work, but also a desire to live. Because we face a large and difficult challenge, this mobilization is also different. We have not come out only to demand something of the government or to denounce, though we are doing that also. This time we come to bring people together, to bring organizations and processes together. We march to express our commitment to unite to work and weave reciprocal solidarity that is necessary to defend life. This time we know that we cannot do it alone and we need one another to understand, resist, and create the possible and necessary world. We have surprised the government, power, the country, and the world because we have not come out to demand what is ours by right. Instead we call this Minga with a proposal so that all peoples can define an indigenous and popular mandate to orient the process and advance from this reality of confusion and death towards a project of life for and from the people.

Our actions show the value of our words. That is why our power to convoke and the force of our arguments grows. For us, our acts of dignity and resistance speak. The first indigenous and popular congress has won its objectives. The country and the world have heard us. The government could not ignore us and knows it will have to respect our legitimacy. The word we bring in peace has become fact that speaks for itself. Even some of the commercial media were forced to listen and transmit our proposals, though many others continued to distort the truth. The solidarity of the world was present and accompanied us. We recognize the responsibility that all this implies. It is a collective responsibility to continue our work and take up the challenge. This mandate collects what has happened in the past and signals our plans for the present.

We register the irresponsible and disrespectful posture of the President of the Republic towards the first indigenous and popular congress, and reject his lies about the motives and content of this congress to public opinion when he describes this peaceful, civil, democratic gathering as a political act of terrorists. On September 2, days before the congress, the prosecutor general’s office detained elder Alcibiades Escue on false charges in an act this congress calls a political kidnapping. The President declared today, during the final public audience, that he has taken over the case of Alcibiades Escue and that the Congress is headed by parliamentarians and political opposition who have had no influence whatsoever on our process. This shows the weakness of a government that relies on lies and force to silence the truth of the people when they assume their dignity.

Agenda and Position of the First Congress

The commissions ratified the following position for this Minga.

-What is happening in this country and in our territories is serious, urgent, and we must mobilize immediately.
-The situation of emergency is due to a deep problem related to neoliberal globalization and for that reason the first action is a part of a struggle in the medium and long term. The results that follow FTAA and other free trade agreements are some of the most dangerous and destructive forms of aggression that will impel constitutional changes which will in turn impel more war and terror.
-Urgent mobilizations are neither the beginning nor the end of the struggle, but a stage of the process that we propose to create in minga, a process of indigenous and popular alternatives to make possible a country that is just, democratic, respectful of all its people, and peaceful.

Based on the above analysis, the themes debated in commissions and plenary sessions at the indigenous and popular congress were the following:

1. Defense of life and human rights facing the armed conflict and the politics of “democratic security”
2. The Constitutional “Reforms”
3. FTAA and other free trade agreements
4. Mechanisms for the construction of popular resistance and sovereignty

The indigenous and popular mandate for life, justice, joy, freedom and autonomy:

The authorities, organizations, processes and people participating in the First Indigenous and Popular Congress decide:

1. To declare ourselves under INDEFINITE PERMANENT ASSEMBLY until we have definitively overcome the threats against our life and integrity.
2. To establish the Indigenous Popular Congress to assume and deepen the themes of this Minga, to constitute and consolidate the process and Plan of Resistance and Life of Peoples. The congress will initiate sessions in the Peace and Coexistence Territory of La Maria, Piendamo, but it will have an itinerant character and will have sessions throughout the national territory, facilitated and led by all popular processes.
3. To create a PERMANENT TRIBUNAL OF THE PEOPLES with participation by people of the highest capacity at the national and international level, to examine, pronounce, recommend and act against the attacks and violations of human rights and the right to life of popular and indigenous organizations and processes.
4. To implement an AUTONOMOUS SYSTEM OF COMMUNICATION AND EXCHANGE OF THE PEOPLE FOR TRUTH AND LIFE
5. To establish a PERMANENT AND AUTONOMOUS DIPLOMATIC MISSION OF THE PEOPLES that will represent organizations and processes in diplomatic questions internationally, with representation from the international commissions of the movements and processes within the country.
6. Develop a SOLIDARITY ECONOMY and establish markets and mechanisms of production and exchange that will be reciprocal and oriented to defending and promoting life and the good of the communities.
7. Collect, analyze, deepen and adopt the recommendations and conclusions of the thematic commissions of the congress, as well as the declarations, agreements, pronouncements and resolutions of the organizations, movements, and events where positions and proposals were brought.

The Congress declares the following:

With regard to the armed conflict, the violation of human rights and the politics of “democratic security”

-To design and put in place popular mechanisms for a negotiated solution to the armed conflict.
-To demand truth, justice, and reparations for the victims of armed conflict.
-Promote popular and autonomous mechanisms of civil resistance, peace and security that include the recognition of the Guardia Indigena as a popular force for peace.
-Demand and design mechanisms of civil resistance with national and international pressure, support, and observation to win the exit of armed groups from our territories and respect for the civil population, respect for indigenous autonomy and indigenous organizations.
-Design mechanisms of resistance and civil disobedience against the politics of “democratic security” of the Colombian government.

With regard to FTAA and free trade

-Convoke organizations and the people of Colombia to develop the actions needed to stop negotiations of these agreements and promote a Popular Referendum against the Free Trade Agreement and FTAA.

With regard to the Constitutional Reforms:

-Demand the suspension of any attempt at constitutional reform and demand that in future, any proposed reform must be submitted to popular consultation and approval.

Follow-Up

Indigenous authorities and leaders present at this first congress will design an Indigenous and Popular Commission responsible for the design of mechanisms and agenda to fulfill this mandate as rapidly as possible. The criteria for selecting members of the commission must include: participation from diverse sectors; legitimacy of representation in the name of organizations and processes; and recognized capacity to do the assigned work. We will continue to act to confront the political kidnapping of elder Alcibiades Escue (*TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: ALCIBIADES WAS RELEASED AFTER MUCH POPULAR MOBILIZATION AND IS BACK IN INDIGENOUS TERRITORY – OCTOBER 6, 2004).

Words without action are empty.
Action without words is blind.
Words and action without the spirit of community are death.

For life, justice, freedom and autonomy, we continue to move forward.

EdwardsCheney: “We’ve killed thousands”

Doesn’t sound quite as good as BushKerry, but still.

If I identified one key line out of the BushKerry debate, it was “kill”, how badly Kerry wanted to “kill the terrorists”. Edwards wants to kill too, but I think the line of tonight’s debate has to be Dick Cheney’s. In a spirited attempt to wrest the killer title back from John Kerry/John Edwards, he noted — at least twice, that “We’ve killed thousands” (of al-Qaeda, of course).

Was that always something to be so proud of? “We’ve killed thousands”?

Continue reading “EdwardsCheney: “We’ve killed thousands””

Democracy in action

So, I spent some time watching the John Edwards vs. Dick Cheney debate. It’s on right now. An educational experience I’ll be returning to shortly. I learned that Kerry and Edwards want to strengthen sanctions against Iran. Edwards also seems quite close to calling Cheney a liar, which is good I suppose. He called attention to the real situation in Afghanistan, for example, though only a little. At the point that I left the TV, Cheney was starting to lose his composure. I was intrigued reading Tom Engelhardt’s thought that withdrawal is now entering the public discourse.

Of course, while they debate, the US is smashing Sadr City in Baghdad (winning hearts and minds?), there’s a story in the media about some US soldiers who tortured an Iraqi to death at Abu Ghraib, Israel is continuing to kill Palestinians in Gaza (we’re up to 92 in 7 days). About that latter, there’s no need to worry: the US will be vetoing a proposed UN resolution about the invasion. US Ambassador John Danforth, without any sense of irony given that the ordinance used Israeli and US weapon systems does sever limbs from their bodies quite regularly, is willing to “bet either my left or my right arm that this resolution will not pass”.

Haitian Police are also engaging in major terror operations all over Port Au Prince right now. Today they cordoned off the western slum of Martissant and are “sweeping” their way through. By the sounds of it, it really is a genuine return to the 1991-1994 days of dictatorship and terror: “Dead bodies have been seen lying in the streets and there are even reports of many disappearances. Searches in relevant places such as hospitals or morgues have not revealed the whereabouts of those disappeared. Those who have been wounded in the shootings cannot obtain vital medical treatment for fear of being further targeted. In one known case, the police have intervened to remove someone who has been shot in the stomach from a hospital in Cité Soleil while he was there seeking treatment.”

Believe it or not, though, I hadn’t intended this post to be a roundup of the world under occupation, nor for the title to be a tongue-in-cheek exposure of US hypocrisy. Instead, I wanted to mention an important initiative that is underway that is genuinely about democracy in action. Some readers might be familiar with the unofficial referendum on the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas held in Brazil in 2002, in which about 10 million voted and 98% of them rejected the FTAA. This campaign greatly strengthened the Brazilian government’s hand in the negotiations — it was a very powerful and important move against the FTAA.

Well, Peruvian social organizations are making a push to take the continental campaign against neoliberalism even further. The Brazilian plebescite was unofficial — the Peruvians are trying to force a general referendum on FTAA. They’ll be mobilizing against FTAA on October 12. I’ll report whatever I hear here…

The Haiti Witch Hunt (II): The Bel Air Siege

Please see the previous entry about the arrests of October 2, in which Lavalas members were arrested right out of a radio station where they had been criticizing the human rights record of the police. These three leaders, Former Deputy Roudy Hérivaux, Senator Yvon Feuillé, and Senator Gerald Gilles, have a base in the Haitian slum of Bel Air. Authorities are prepared to release Gilles, but not the others — who are accused of committing acts of violence on September 30.

One of the victims of violence on September 30: Marguerite Saint-Fils, 35, shot in her home by police from the CIMO unit during the course of an operation in La Saline.

On that day — Sept. 30 — police opened fire on unarmed demonstrators. From the Haiti Information Project report: “Members of the special police unit were seen firing on demonstrators and collecting bodies before masked gunmen returned fire killing three and wounding a fourth who later died in the hospital. ”

“The police action in Bel Air began this morning after a spokewoman for the Haitian National Police (PNH) asked listeners on local Radio Metropole to call the police “if you suspect there are Lavalas chimere in your neighborhood. We will come and get them immediately.” There are no reports of casualties on either side as the police continue to control all entrances to the Haitian slum. ”

Here are the HIP reports:

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October 4, 2004 – 4:00 PM

Gunfire erupts in Haiti’s slums

Haiti Information Project (HIP) – Residents in the slum of Bel Air exchanged gunfire today with police surrounding their neighborhood. Heavily armed units of the Haitian National Police cordoned off the area earlier this morning following an ultimatum issued by residents demanding the release of three of their leaders who were arrested on Saturday. Lavalas militants threatened to take to the streets in a new wave of protests unless Former Deputy Roudy Hérivaux, Senator Yvon Feuillé, and Senator Gerald Gilles were freed unconditionally.

Haitian officials announced earlier in the day that they would free Gilles citing a lack of evidence implicating him in the violence of September 30th. Minister of Justice Bernard Gousse continues to maintain that Hérivaux and Feuillé were the “intellectual authors” of the violence.

Bel Air is a slum in the capital of Port au Prince that served as a launching site for recent demonstrations demanding the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Aristide was ousted last February 29th amid charges he was kidnapped by U.S. Marines and remains in exile in the Republic of South Africa. The Bel Air slum has been under siege by police since violence erupted on September 30th after police opened fire on unarmed demonstrators. Witnesses say a unit of the Unite de Securite Presidentielle (U.S.P), a special security detail assigned to Interim President Boniface Alexandre, came under attack after police opened fire on the marchers. Members of the special police unit were seen firing on demonstrators and collecting bodies before masked gunmen returned fire killing three and wounding a fourth who later died in the hospital.

The U.S.-backed government claims that the headless bodies of the policemen were later recovered and that Aristide supporters have launched a campaign emulating beheadings in Iraq called “Operation Baghdad.” Representatives of Aristide’s Family Lavalas party have denied the allegations. A party spokesman in Bel Air reiterated “it was the police who provoked the violence by firing on demonstrators who were demanding the return of President Aristide.”

The police action in Bel Air began this morning after a spokewoman for the Haitian National Police (PNH) asked listeners on local Radio Metropole to call the police “if you suspect there are Lavalas chimere in your neighborhood. We will come and get them immediately.” There are no reports of casualties on either side as the police continue to control all entrances to the Haitian slum.

Reports from throughout the capital describe heavily armed police units backed up by unidentified paramilitaries taking up positions at major intersections in Port au Prince. Witnesses are also reporting heavy gunfire in Cite Soleil another slum known for its staunch support of Aristide.

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October 4, 2004 – 11:50 AM

Haiti slum surrounded by police

Haiti Information Project (HIP)

Haiti Information Project (HIP) – A slum in the capital is completely surrounded by the Haitian National Police (PNH) this morning following four days of violence and unrest. Heavily armed units of the PNH are positioned at all major thoroughfares around the community. “There is complete panic in Bel Air at this moment, people have already been shot and we expect this to be a massacre” said a frightened resident.

Police attempted nighttime raids in Bel Air on October 2nd and 3rd but were forced to withdraw after meeting fierce armed resistance. Shots could be heard throughout the area for several hours on both nights as residents fought a pitched battle with the police.

Bel Air is a slum in the capital of Port au Prince that served as a launching site for recent demonstrations commemorating the thirteenth anniversary of the 1991 military coup against Jean-Bertrand Aristide. On September 30th the police opened fire on unarmed demonstrators provoking an attack against a unit of the Unite de Securite Presidentielle (U.S.P), a special security detail assigned to Interim President Boniface Alexandre. Members of the special police unit were seen firing on demonstrators and collecting bodies before masked gunmen returned fire killing three and wounding a fourth who later died in the hospital.

The U.S.-backed government claims that the headless bodies of the policemen were later recovered and that Aristide backers have launched a campaign emulating Iraq called “Operation Baghdad.” Representatives of Aristide’s Family Lavalas party have denied the allegations. They reiterated it was the police who provoked the violence by firing on unarmed demonstrators who were demanding the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide who remains in exile in the Republic of South Africa.

Political tensions ratcheted up further in Haiti after three Lavalas representatives were arrested on Saturday after participating in a broadcast on local Radio Caraibes FM. During the course of the program, Former Deputy Roudy Hérivaux, former Lavalas Senator Yvon Feuillé, and former Lavalas Senator Gerald Gilles denounced the violence and condemned the police for firing on unarmed demonstrators on September 30th. At 5:55 PM the police entered Radio Caraibes and arrested the three on charges of “inciting violence” related to September 30th. The police action was condemned by the management of Radio Caraibes stating that it “harms the reputation of the station and is an infringement of freedom of expression.” Radio Caraibes has suspended broadcasting indefinitely in protest.

The police action in Bel Air began this morning after the spokesperson for the Haitian National Police (PNH) asked listeners on local Radio Metropole to call them “if you suspect there are Lavalas chimere in your neighborhood. We will come and get them immediately.”

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The Haiti Information Project (HIP) is a non-profit alternative news service providing coverage and analysis of breaking developments in Haiti.

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October 3, 2004

Paramilitaries shoot Aristide supporters

Haiti Information Project (HIP)

Port au Prince, Haiti (HIP) – Reports are surfacing from many neighborhoods in the capital of paramilitary forces aligned with the US-backed regime of Latortue patrolling at night and shooting suspected supporters of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Witnesses in the neighborhoods of Delmas 19, 30, 32 and 33 report heavily armed men in civilian clothes pulling up in cars and commandeering intersections at approximately 6:30 PM for two nights in a row. “They stop you and ask you political questions about Aristide and Lavalas. They ask you what you think about Latortue. If they think you like Aristide they will shoot you where you stand. I saw two young men I know who were killed that way Friday night. We are terrified and many people have left Delmas 30 out of fear” said 52 year-old Gladys who declined to give her last name.

This new development comes after four days of confrontations between the Haitian National Police (PNH) and supporters of Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s Family Lavalas party. Violence broke out throughout the capital of Port au Prince on September 30th after the police fired at unarmed demonstrators. Bel Air, a slum in the capital that has served as a launching site for recent Lavalas demonstrations, is under nightly siege by the police. According to witnesses, elements of the PNH attempted to enter Bel Air for a second straight night in a row and were repelled by residents.

Political tensions ratcheted up further after three Lavalas representatives were arrested yesterday after participating in a broadcast on local Radio Caraibes FM. During the course of the program, Former Deputy Roudy Hérivaux , former Lavalas Senator Yvon Feuillé, and former Lavalas Senator Gerald Gilles denounced the violence and condemned the police for firing on unarmed demonstrators on September 30th. At 5:55 PM the police entered Radio Caraibes and arrested the three on charges of “inciting violence” related to September 30th. The police action was condemned by the management of Radio Caraibes stating that it “harms the reputation of the station and is an infringement of freedom of expression.” Radio Caraibes announced it would suspend broadcasting indefinitely in protest.

The Haiti Witch Hunt (I)

The Haiti Information Project is an important initiative that tries to provide breaking news on the situation in Haiti. They will probably have a website running soon. Meantime, you can count on websites like this one to republish their notes.

Let me start with October 2. These reports provide an anatomy of the ongoing witch hunt and slaughter of Lavalas people by the paramilitary killers who the US/Canada/France has installed to replace Aristide.

Three Lavalas parliamentarians from the old government were on the radio, Radio Caraibe, criticizing the current government. The Haitian police busted in and arrested them. Another former legislator protested the arrests, so the police arrested him too.

“Former Senators Yvon Feuillé and Gerard Gilles, and former Deputy Rudy Hérivaux. The three form the Communications Commission of the Fanmi Lavalas party, and all three are prominent critics of human rights violations carried out by Haiti’s Transitional Government. Lawyer Axène Joseph, also a former Deputy, was arrested when he protested the other arrests.”

This comes at the end of a week of a lot of killing of Lavalas activists. See the story below. I had originally planned to summarize it, but it is very concise. I have

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Haiti Human Rights Alert: Illegal Arrest of Political Leaders October 2, 2004

On Saturday October 02, 2004, Haitian police forcibly entered Haiti’s Radio Caraibe and arrested three former parliamentarians from the Fanmi Lavalas party who had criticized the Interim Government during a radio program. They arrested a fourth former legislator who protested the arrests. The warrantless arrests were illegal and a clear violation of the detainees’ freedom of association and of expression. They take place in the context of a wave of police persecution of human rights critics, and verbal attacks on critics by Haiti’s Prime Minister.

The three arrested for criticizing the government were former Senators Yvon Feuillé and Gerard Gilles, and former Deputy Rudy Hérivaux. The three form the Communications Commission of the Fanmi Lavalas party, and all three are prominent critics of human rights violations carried out by Haiti’s Transitional Government. Lawyer Axène Joseph, also a former Deputy, was arrested when he protested the other arrests.

Feuillé, Gilles and Hérivaux had gone to Radio Caraibe to participate on the station’s 11AM “Ranmasé” program, along with Evans Paul and Himmler Rébu, both prominent critics of the Lavalas party. The program’s subject was violence accompanying recent anti-government demonstrations. Feuillé, Gilles and Hérivaux denounced the violence, and condemned the police for firing on unarmed demonstrators. Before the program ended, heavily armed police officers from the Port-au-Prince police headquarters and specialized units surrounded the station and announced their intention to arrest the three parliamentarians.

Radio Caraibe’s Station Manager, Patrick Mossignac, refused to allow the police entry into the station, citing the Haitian Constitution’s protection of free speech. Himmler Rébu and Evens Paul remained in the station to protest the police action. A standoff ensued, until just before 6 PM (the Constitution prohibits arrests, even with a warrant, after 6 PM). At that point Judge Gabriel Amboise, a Justice of the Peace, instructed the police to cut the locks and make the arrests. The three Parliamentarians did not resist arrest, and were taken by the police from the Station Manager’s office to the Port-au-Prince police holding cells. Lawyer Axène Joseph, also a former Deputy, was arrested earlier in the day when he arrived to protest the other arrests.

Lawyers for the arrestees demanded that Judge Amboise produce a warrant, as required by Haiti’s Constitution. The Judge refused, claiming that a verbal order from the Commissaire du Gouvernement (Chief Prosecutor) gave him the authority to make the arrest. He also refused to state the charge against the defendants. Throughout the day, however, government and police sources made announcements purporting to link Feuillé, Gilles and Hérivaux to recent violence. The police also claimed that a car belonging to one of the three contained automatic weapons, but dropped this claim when journalists and human rights observers on the scene insisted that the police, not the parliamentarians, had brought that car.

The October 2 arrests follow a sharp upturn in attacks against critics of the interim government’s human rights policies. On September 7, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued a statement expressing concern “over several key areas in which the basic rights and freedoms of Haitians remain weak and imperiled.” On September 16, Radio Caraibe aired an interview with Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, in which Latortue complained that human rights criticism was making his relations with donor countries difficult. Later that day 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).

The parliamentarians join many other officials of Haiti’s Constitutional government in jail, including former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and former Minister of the Interior Jocelerme Privert and former Delegate Jacques Mathelier. All are held illegally: neither Prime Minister Neptune nor Minister Privert have ever been brought before the judge who issued their arrest warrant. Mr. Mathelier was brought before a judge, who ordered his liberation on July 12, but prison authorities transferred Mathelier out of that judge’s jurisdiction.

On Thursday, police interrupted a legal demonstration commemorating the anniversary of Haiti’s September 30, 1991 coup d’etat. Human rights observers accompanying the demonstration reported that police fired on the march, after several attempts to disperse it failed. On the morning of October 1, interim Prime Minister Latortue conceded in a radio interview that the police had shot at protesters and individuals had been killed, and indicated that the authorities would take action against further protests.

Many media reports claim that demonstrators retaliated against the police on September 30, killing three. But before the demonstration started, the police had reported three police officers had been attacked in a firefight with a crime gang early that morning, with one killed and two wounded. The Interim Government claims to have recovered three bodies of decapitated officers, but did not announce their names and the Port-au-Prince morgue had not received the bodies of any of the three as of 4 PM on Friday. Media reports also say that the violence occurred when demonstrators tried to pass before the National Palace. In fact, the unprovoked shooting happened several blocks beyond the Palace, at the Rue des Casernes.

The end of last week saw a sharp increase in warrantless arrests and shootings of Lavalas supporters by police and anti-Lavalas paramilitary groups. IJDH has received reports from all over Port-au-Prince, especially in poor neighborhoods. The cases that we have been able to confirm so far are:

September 30:

Marguerite Saint-Fils, 35, shot in her home by police from the CIMO unit during the course of an operation in La Saline . Accel Savain, age 23 a Lavalas leader. Police searched his home without a warrant, and although they found no illegality, they arrested him after finding a T-shirt supporting President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Amel Prince, 25; Lamarre Prince, 21; Amboise Frantz, 20; Wilfred Amboise, 32; Jean Noel, 14; Laurent Yves, 21; Johny Rudolph, 23; Sonel Laguerre, 26; Michelin Michelle, 26, all arrested on Boulevard LaSaline, on September 30, all without warrants.

October 1: Wendy Manigat, age 15, shot and killed by police during an operation in Bel-Air

Roland Braneluce, 28, shot by police during a demonstration at Rue Tiremasse.

Lesly Gustave, a member of the National Committee of Reflection of Famni Lavalas, was arrested at approximately 4 PM on October 1, without a warrant. Police are reportedly searching for the remaining members of the committee.

In addition to police persecution, residents of Cite Soleil report that anti-Lavalas armed gangs have been targeting Lavalas supporters over the last few days. Those killed include:

Maxo Casséus, a leader of a grassroots organization in Cite Soleil, killed on September 30.

Piersine Adéma, a resident Soleil 9 in her sixties, killed while sitting in front of her house, reportedly by the same group that killed Maxo Casséus.

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One of the many obstacles to peace in Israel/Palestine…

First thing: I want readers to know that even though I don’t spend much time blogging about Iraq, I don’t want readers to think that reflects what I think should be priorities. In fact I think Iraq is a major priority. I just think that two of my favourite blogs, Rahul’s and Zeynep’s , are staying on top of it quite effectively. If I think I can add anything, I will.

On Israel/Palestine. The offensive in Gaza continues. Israeli military shot and killed a 4 year old child there, according to IMEMC, and 12 others.

Read Ramzy Baroud in today’s Counterpunch for a thought experiment and a summary of what’s happened in this ‘Gaza raid’ so far.

And while this massacre goes on, the religious fundamentalists have invaded Israel and are trying to impose their agenda on that country.

Hamas, you ask? No, dear reader, I am talking about Pat Robertson. Today’s Haaretz quotes Pat, in Israel right now, said that if Bush were to “touch” Jerusalem, “Evangelicals would form a third party” (touch it, Bush! touch it please!)

Other constructive contributions from Pat include:

-Wanting to abolish the UN Relief and Works Agency (it perpetuates the refugee problem — which I suppose is true, since UNRWA is stopping all the refugees from starving to death, counter to Israel’s closure policies)

-Saying Arab nations “want a conflict” and “want the destruction of Israel” (so do the evangelicals, though I suppose they expect God will do it in His own time)

-“A Palestinian state with full sovereignty would be a launching ground for
various types of weapons, including weapons of mass destruction” (though how the WMD would get there from the US wasn’t explained)

-“I see the rise of Islam to destroy Israel and take the land from the Jews
and give East Jerusalem to [Palestinian Authority Chairman] Yasser Arafat.
I see that as Satan’s plan to prevent the return of Jesus Christ the
Lord,”

-“God says, ‘I’m going to judge those who carve up the West Bank and Gaza
Strip,'” Robertson said. “‘It’s my land and keep your hands off it.'”

I’m reminded of Latin American writer Eduardo Galeano’s quizzical remark before the US invaded Iraq last March: why is God giving Bush and the Pope such contradictory messages?

Sharon vows to keep on killing

And why shouldn’t he? When “Operation Defensive Shield” happened in March/April 2002, there was at least the idea that while Powell meandered his way around the world, by the time he got to Israel Sharon would have to slow the massacre down. MSNBC says 58 have been killed in Gaza so far, around the same number cited for the Jenin slaughter in 2002. But Sharon has vowed to continue doggedly, as if this is some kind of act of courage, and not a slaughter of a an already starving population of refugees.

And just in case 2 invasions weren’t enough…

So we know the US is hammering Samarra. We know Israel is hammering Gaza, missile strikes and all, 74 killed in the past 4 days, 330 injuries, at leats, and counting.

But, let us not forget the Americas, since it seems every repressive US ally wants to get in on the act.

Take Colombia, for example, whose troops invaded Ecuador in a group of 70, searching houses and firing weapons, according to the FARC’s site ANNCOL. The Colombian Army is back to its old tricks of assassinations on the Venezuelan border as well, after a brief peace was made between Colombian President Uribe and Venezuelan President Chavez in July.

And why shouldn’t the coup-installed Haitian police get in on the action? In the Port-Au-Prince slum of Bel Air, Haitian police are besieging the place, killing people, taking bodies away — reports the Haiti Information Project (I’ll attach the report below). The United Nations, the same HIP reports, is playing a constructive role, standing around while the police provoke and commit violence.

HIP reports below.

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October 2, 2004

Haiti slum under siege

Haiti Information Project (HIP)

Port au Prince,Haiti (HIP)– A slum in the capital is under siege from the Haitian National Police (HNP) following three days of violence and unrest. Heavily armed units of the HNP attempted to enter the slum of Bel Air at 9:00 p.m. last night and were met with armed resistance. Shots could be heard throughout the area for several hours as residents fought a pitched battle with the police who were forced to withdraw under heavy fire.

Bel Air is a slum in the capital of Port au Prince that has served as a launching site for recent demonstrations commemorating the thirteenth anniversary of the 1991 military coup against Jean-Bertrand Aristide. On September 30th the police opened fire on unarmed demonstrators provoking an attack against a unit of the Unite de Securite Presidentielle (U.S.P), a special security detail assigned to Interim President Boniface Alexandre. Members of the special police unit were seen firing on demonstrators and collecting bodies before masked gunmen returned fire killing three and wounding a fourth who later died in the hospital.

Residents of Bel Air claim that six persons were wounded and one killed during last night’s police raid. There are no reports of casualities from the police who have yet to acknowledge the nighttime raid. Partisans of Aristide’s Lavalas political party, who are calling for his return following his forced ouster on February 29th, stated they are preparing for further actions by the police and the possibility of UN troops being used against them in Bel Air.

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October 1, 2004

Haiti Protests: UN/Brazilian Troops stand-by as Haitian police provoke
violence

Haiti Information Project

Port au Prince, Haiti (HIP) – Last September 11th more than 10,000 Lavalas militants took to the streets to demand the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The marchers were accompanied by a large contingent of Haitian police who returned fire when unidentified gunmen shot at the demonstration as it passed the Office of National Insurance on Delmas 17. The crowd immediately took up the chant, “Down with the army. Long live the police!”

Another march was planned for September 30th marking the thirteenth anniversary of the military coup that overthrew Aristide in 1991. Although organizers for the march received permits from the Haitian National Police (PNH) it was clear from the beginning something was amiss. The first noticeable difference was the absence of police escorts that normally ride shotgun at the head and tail of these types of sanctioned demonstrations. These days the police are also aided by roving UN vehicles that monitor the negotiated route of the demonstration. They were conspicuously absent as well.

By 10:00 am it was evident this wasn’t going to be business as usual on the streets of Port au Prince. More than 10,000 singing and chanting Lavalas militants had already started pouring out of the slums of Bel Air and were marching towards the national palace. It was certain that if it the march continued it would swell to even greater numbers by midday despite reports that Lavalas militants from the Cite Soleil slum had just been ambushed by police and blocked from joining the march.

As the crowd approached the capital’s center known as “Champ Mars”, three armored personnel vehicles and an impressive line of Brazilian soldiers in full riot gear blocked their access to the street in front of the national palace. Despite the hurtling of a few insults by the crowd, intended for the UN troops Lavalas considers to be occupiers of Haiti, the march passed without incident and continued towards the old section of Port au Prince known as “La Ville.”

As the demonstration passed a street leading to the National Penitentiary, heavily armed units of the police SWAT team opened fire without warning on the crowd. People panicked and scattered in all directions knocking over goods of the local market place women in an effort to seek cover from the gunfire. The shooting continued sporadically for nearly twenty minutes as angry marchers began to break out car windows as they fled. On another side street a pickup truck with four policemen could be seen shooting and then stopping to collect the bodies of two of their victims. It was at this moment everything changed.

Up to this point, in what had been a peaceful demonstration, not a single weapon was brandished or seen among the marchers. Suddenly, according to witnesses, five men in masks appeared out of nowhere with small firearms. They surrounded the police in the small pickup truck and began to return fire. Despite the fact they were heavily outgunned by automatic weapons, they managed to catch the police in a deadly crossfire. Witness’s say that two of the police were killed almost immediately while a third died of his wounds in the hospital and the US-backed government is claiming a fourth was kidnapped by demonstrators. Justice Minister Bernard Gousse claims that there were no deaths reported among the marchers although several witnesses dispute this. This is understandable given that Lavalas marchers now collect bodies as they fall because they do not trust the current government to allow the families to give them a proper burial.

The official version being put out by the UN is that “a gunfight broke out between Aristide supporters and security guards at shops looted during the march” to cover the fact that the Haitian National Police provoked the incident by firing on unarmed demonstrators. Observers note this may also be to protect the Brazilian troops from embarrassment and explaining why they stood by as the Haitian police provoked the conflict. At the same time the UN is claiming that the violence occurred before the marchers reached the national palace, witnesses including many in the press, say this is not the case.

Gaza (or is it Fallujah?): The massacre has begun

This morning wire services were reporting 200 tanks, armoured personnel carriers, and bulldozers were massed on the Gaza border. “Troops were setting up makeshift camps, apparently in preparation for an extended operation.”

Keep in mind this was after 28 Palestinians had already been killed, and 139 wounded, the day before. That was before the “major operation” that is already underway. 10 more have been killed since.

The first killings were in the refugee camp of Jabaliya, with aircraft firing into a crowd. Two Israeli soldiers were wounded in fighting.

Haaretz is making the obvious comparison to March/April 2002, when Israel slaughtered its way through Jenin and Nablus:

“Thursday’s deaths marked the highest one-day Palestinian toll since April 2002 when 35 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank, during Operation Defensive Shield.”

It can only be coincidence that as Israel is mounting major offensive operations in Gaza, that the US is mounting major offensive operations in Fallujah and Samarra in Iraq? That these occupying armies are smashing through civilian neighbourhoods and camps with ultra modern high-tech weaponry? That the media is rationalizing all these actions as ‘self-defence’?

As happens often when Israel and the US compete for atrocities, the US is winning hands down: it has killed over 100 already.

Intervention in Sudan?

I have appreciated David Peterson’s blogging about the ‘humanitarians’ and their ‘interventions’ about Sudan. So when I read his latest, referring to my own recent piece on the subject (a piece which made good use of his own previous blogging), I thought it a good time to blog on the topic myself.

I think David, like Ed Herman, is a very forceful and well-informed anti-interventionist. He takes the hard cases (Sudan, Kosovo) and relentlessly goes after even the more sympathetic liberal interventionists — folks like Samantha Power, Louise Arbour, Human Rights Watch — for their genuine inconsistencies that seem always to favour the powerful. My own instincts are also pretty much always in the anti-interventionist direction. There are various reasons. One is the old moral truism (where have I heard that phrase before?) that we should hold ourselves (or our own societies) to the same standards we claim to hold others. Another is that the US and the West are by far the most powerful, and that makes them the most dangerous, and the stakes very high, even for people outside.

But, if David’s recent post exposes the double-standards of the interventionists, in my own response I’d like to ask a more difficult question of ourselves. Why are those of us who are, for what I think are right reasons, anti-intervention — why are we so ineffective?

Why did we anti-interventionists fail so badly to convince even the whole ‘left’ about Kosovo? Or Afghanistan? And, upcoming, Sudan? We have to examine this carefully. Part of it is our lack of a megaphone and the power of propaganda, of course. Part of it might also be that if we can’t get ‘beyond hypocrisy’, meaning beyond accusing the hypocrites we both cite (Powell, Blair, etc.) of hypocrisy, we allow the interventionists to claim the high ground, in this sense: they can say “all you are saying about Palestine might be true and it might not, but I am the only one with a plan to address what is happening in Sudan — or Kosovo, etc. — right now. You can call me a hypocrite for not caring about Haitians, Palestinians, Iraqis, or whoever, but what about the Sudanese (Albanians), now?”

At which point, in fact, our own side — the anti-interventionist side — divides. Some of us become apologetic for the crimes that are going on, minimizing them or trying to put them in context (“What would the US do if a violent secessionist movement arose in Texas?”). Others repudiate the crimes, declare stridently things like “Milosevic is a thug” (You remember that line, right?) but that that doesn’t justify intervention. I think maybe our weakness in situations like these is that we don’t actually press our competitive advantage over the interventionists.

Our competitive advantage is that we *actually* care about the victims of crimes, because we are against crimes, while they are selectively indignant and only care about crimes of other people. In rebutting them, we usually feel the need to emphasize our own side’s crimes to the same degree that they emphasize the crimes of others, and de-emphasize others crimes to the same degree they de-emphasize US crimes. That might be a mistake, because it makes us a mirror image of their callousness: we care about all people, but we sound like we only care about some. They care about none, but because they have more outlets and scream louder, they sound like they care about all. This doesn’t mean we have to start our every discussion with ritual denunciation of the Sudanese regime (or Slobodan Milosovec, or the Taliban, or Saddam, or Zarqawi, or Bin Laden, etc. etc.). But maybe we have to do something differently.