Update 4 - Haitians protest, "Down with Preval!". Lavalas and GNP Parties Unite!

On Monday May 10th, in a development that spelled major trouble for the WC Coalition's backroom election plans, many thousands Haitians marched through Port-au-Prince shouting "down with Preval" and accusing him of selling the country to foreigners.

About 30 political parties, including Rasanble, Libération et PLAPH joined voices to say that they would not accept a dictatorship. In addition, the protest inaugurated an alliance of Haiti's two major political parties: Lavalas (headed by René Civil, Ansyto Félix et Jacques Mathelier) and the current coalition opposition party GNB (headed by Hervé Saint-Hilus, Evans Paul et Serge Gilles).

Two groups of protestors started from different corners of Port-au-Prince, swelled their numbers by marching through several populous neighborhoods and then converged on the national palace. Haitians from all walks of life demanded the retraction of the state of emergency, the dissolution of the current electoral committee, the departure of Preval, and the reinstatement of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to finish his second term. The protestors were undeterred by a heavy presence of police and broke through their barricades. When asked about the tear gas used by the police, protestor Réginald Lange, who directs an association of earthquake victims, replied that the police can open fire if they want, we will march every day against Préval, who has done nothing whatever for the people."

Simultaneously with the uprising in Port-au-Prince, there was a march in the city of Miragoane, a "pot concert" (banging of pots) in Cap-haïtien (north), and a sit-in before the regional parliamentary building in Jacmel (southeast).

The level of fear from those who are losing control has reached fever pitch. Reuters journalist Guyler C. Delva, who recently broke a story on the use of bribery to control the flow of information to the media, and Mr. René Civil, who officially announced the alliance of Lavalas with the GNB party, reported that they have become targets of death threats. 

- Dady Chery

In a press conference on Wednesday May 5th, a group of Haitian senators announced that they brought to the Haitian supreme court a formal challenge to the constitutionality of the CIRH. The senators referred to the CIRH as the “coup d’etat d’urgence.” I like to call it “the WC commission.”

In a move to distract the press from the commission’s legal troubles, which also signaled the commission’s desperation in identifying a new Haitian frontman, the next day Preval announced with great fanfare that he would extend his term after all, if elections could not be held in time for his departure.

In fact, elections cannot be held at all, so long as the WC commission continues to exist because of a great scarcity of interested voters and, remarkably, puppet candidates.

Preval magic act continued to work on the foreign press while Canada’s visiting Minister of Foreign Affairs quietly unraveled his humanitarian package: a contribution of prisons, Canadian police, and Canadian prison guards to Haiti.

Are we grateful? Yes. For every small sign that the WC commission is running scared.

- Dady Chery

Update 2: Senators Paid off - Haitians Continue Uprising -Led Interim Commission

Haitians are continuing to fight the unconstitutional state of emergency by shining a spotlight on the corruption that engendered it, informing each other about the letter of the CIRH, and protesting in the streets of Haiti’s major cities.

The Haitian National Network for the Defense of Human Rights has formally requested an investigation by Haiti’s Anti-Corruption Unit into allegations that three named senators received large sums of money (each over $40,000) to guarantee a quorum in the parliamentary session that voted for the CIRH. In the meantime, unbought legislators who opposed the law, like Representative Esdras Fabien, have been busy warning citizens that the CIRH document “removes all power from the legislature” to control the conduct of foreigners. According to the CIRH state-of-emergency law, its international members may not be held liable for any of their actions. Legislators and party leaders are crisscrossing the country to support anti-governmental protests, the most recent ones of which took place on Monday April 26th in Cap Haitien (Haiti’s second largest city) and Miragoane. The protestors are calling for Preval’s departure, a decentralization of resources, and the release of political prisoners.

Over the past weekend, a U.S. response to the popular opposition was quickly plotted. It is expected to take the form of a USAID-coordinated SouthCom military mission to pacify Haiti’s provinces.

Though there is pork thrown in for Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah, most of the 500 troops for this mission would come from the Louisiana National Guard. Are these National Guards being deployed to Haiti during a massive oil spill in the Gulf because the rights of Haitians and Louisianians are threatened by the same parties?

Editor's Note: Like common thieves secretly gathering after the robbery, the CIRH, led by Bill Clinton, meets to divide up the spoils after exploiting Haiti's tragedy to gain military control of her people, land and resources. We thank Haitian author, Dady Chery for helping to throw the light on these neocolonialists and their schemes.

Obama taking Preval into the Oval Office to lay out the plan on March 10, 2010

"Watch closely and pray against natural disasters. The next pay-for-play Commission might well be for your state or country."

Things have not cooled down in Haiti. Quite the contrary. They are just starting to simmer.

"At least 20 legislators walked out, declaring the law to be unconstitutional and hoping to break the quorum."

On March 8, Haiti’s house of Representatives, a large majority of which belongs to Preval’s party, voted for a highly controversial State of Emergency law that allows an Interim Commission for the Reconstruction of Haiti (CIRH), led by former U.S. president William J. Clinton, to run the country for a supposed 18-month State of Emergency.

This particular meeting of the Haitian Parliament was extremely contentious. Outside, a small group of protestors urged the legislators to vote “no." At least 20 legislators walked out, declaring the law to be unconstitutional and hoping to break the quorum. Others stayed and voted against the law at the start of the meeting, hoping to stall the proceedings. One Senator proposed an amendment that would allow a senatorial commission to oversee the CIRH. All their efforts failed. It was a done deal from the start.; Forty-three Representatives voted “yes”, 6 voted “no”, and 8 abstained.

How did this come to pass?

First, the current Haitian government, if one can call it that, came to power after elections that excluded the most popular political party Lavalas and 14 others. It is highly unrepresentative, to say the least.

Second, the most vocal opposition to CIRH and the State of Emergency came from the right, which is categorically rejected by the great majority of the population. This opposition demanded, reasonably enough, that the Haitian Armed Forces (FADH) be re-established, MINUSTAH departs, and the Haitian Constitution and UN Charter be respected. Their calls of protest fell on the death ears of a population well acquainted with their brutality.

Finally, Preval’s government is considered a great embarassment. Among other things, it has failed to account for its expenses of the last three months. Preval himself campaigned for the State of Emergency law, although the stated reason for this law was a need to circumvent the state’s corruption. In typical style, he insisted that everyone dirties their hands along with him and the law be voted on by the entire Haitian Parliament. When criticized about dragging the country into the depths of dependency and handicapping the next administration, he shrugged and lapsed into absurdities like Haiti is “a weak state,” but still “possessed of its sovereignty.”

“the president wants to dissolve the parliament so as to give the occupier a free hand.” - Acluche Jeune

With the Chamber of Representatives in the bag, the next obstacle was the Senate. In an April 8th meeting, the Senators voted ‘no” to the State of Emergency Law and the CIRH. In advance of another vote on Tuesday April 13th, Preval held a press conference at which he pleaded with the Senators not to “miss this chance.” Several demanded to know why he felt he needed the parliament to ratify a commission with a majority of foreigners. They pointed out that he could take full responsibility for his miserable commission and establish it by presidential decree. Others, like Acluche Louis Jeune declared that “the president wants to dissolve the parliament so as to give the occupier a free hand.” The April 13th vote was successfully blocked by the lack of a quorum. The Haitian Senate now numbers 25 because of two deaths. It needed a quorum of 16, but only 15 Senators participated. Two of those Senators showed up merely to snub the meeting.

Enter Michelle Obama on April 14th. What did she do during her surprise visit to Haiti, besides drawing fishes and comparing them to the more advanced art of the Haitian elementary-school children? What inducements or threats did she bring to the Senate on behalf of the U.S.? Might her statement of the innocent-sounding proverb “Little by little, the bird makes its nest” have been a signal that a deal was made for the occupation?

A late-night parliamentary session on Thursday April 15th finally did the trick. With barely a quorum of 16 senators, 13 voted for the State of Emergency law, with all but one of the “yes” votes coming from Preval’s party. One senator voted against the law, 2 abstained, and 9 stayed away from the meeting altogether.

I find myself being proud that even this highly unrepresentative government put up such a fight to protect the country’s sovereignty. Haiti will not be an easy conquest.

In the CIRH, which is Bill Clinton’s wet dream of a government and is to be led by him, a majority of foreigners hope to administer Haiti, including:

• · 9 representatives who are major donors chosen by a CIRH administrative council. This is a strictly pay-to-play affair. To get a sit, a country or institution must donate at least $100 million over a two-year period or erase debts worth at least $200 million. The current list includes the U.S., the European Union, France, Canada, Brazil, Venezuela, the Interamerican Bank of Development, the United Nations, and the World Bank.
  
  
• 1 representative of CARICOM (15 Caribbean countries included).
  
  
• 1 representative of the Organization of American States.
  
  
• 1 representative for all the other donors without a seat.
  
  
• 1 representative of the NGOs in Haiti.
  
  
• 1 representative of the Haitian diaspora.

Haïti itself would be represented by a minority of seven representatives, none of them popularly elected.

Though the CIRH boasts of its plans to restore urban centers and build homes throughout Haiti, its real mission, also stated quite explicitly, is to proceed with privatizations, in particular the privatization of the sea and air ports of Haiti’s capital city of Port-au-Prince. The plans for sweatshops are there too, though not as explicit.

Indeed, even as homeless Haitians are being bused one hour away to a desert to live, presumably because there is no room for them in the city, ground is being broken in town for new factories. The CIRH would additionally grant opportunities to foreign companies to invest in agriculture and tourism (read as land grab).

At the conclusion of its term, the CIRH would become an “Agency for the Development of Haiti,” with an indefinite mandate. Thus any democratically elected government would find itself at the helm of an island nation, but without control of its ports, and therefore without the means to tax its imports and exports. The only way to raise revenue would be to go begging. This has gone on for some time, but it would now become institutionalized.

Earlier today in the city of Gonaives there was a major protest against the State of Emergency and CIRH.

This city is rightfully proud of its Senator, Mr. Youri Latortue, for his steadfast opposition to this law. Four political parties (Alternative, Liberasyon, Rasanble, and Uccade) have declared the parliamentary vote to be in violation of the Haitian Constitution (specifically, its Article 278.2). They have called on all opposition parties to join forces and on all Haitians to salvage what democracy has been built and to continue along a progressive path.

Even the ancestors had their say this month, in an original copy of the Haitian Declaration of Independence that magically reappeared.

This document reminded me, among other things, that our Declaration of Independence was signed in Gonaives and only printed in Port-au-Prince. In an eloquent passage that beautifully distinguishes our revolution from the general blather of slavers about democracy, it declares:

“We have dared to be free, let us be thus by ourselves and for ourselves. Let us imitate the grown child: his own weight breaks the boundary that has become an obstacle to him. What people fought for us? What people wanted to gather the fruits of our labor? And what dishonorable absurdity to conquer in order to be enslaved. Enslaved?... Let us leave this description for the French; they have conquered but are no longer free.”

This last statement refers specifically to the Napoleonic era that followed the enlightenment, but it applies generally to colonialists. Conquerors are more or less the same, no matter their past ideals or eloquence. They ultimately lose their own freedom because, sooner or later, the empire builders cross the Rubicon and return home. As for us Haitians, our revolution continues. What choice have we but to keep it alive and find our own way? Long ago, in Gonaives, we made a pact never again to be enslaved.

READ HER BIO AND MORE BY HAITIAN AUTHOR, DADY CHERY