Photos: ©2006 Haiti Information Project Lelanne Mertina, 24 years-old, was six months pregnant when a UN bullet ripped through her abdomen instantly killing her unborn child on Dec, 22, 2006. She claimed that she was running to get out of the way of a UN armored vehicle when they suddenly opened fire in her direction. She denies there was firing on UN forces by purported gang members when she was shot. The UN has said most of the victims were felled by crossfire after coming under fire from gang members in Cite Soleil.

UN in Haiti accused of second massacre
Horrifying evidence surfaces contradicting UN denials





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The week before the UN military action in Cite Soleil saw several huge demonstrations demanding the return of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Residents believe that the UN justification for the attack, to arrest a base of kidnappers, was really a cover for collective punishment against the community for continuing demonstrations like these.


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Samuel Leconte was arrested and questioned by UN authorities and then turned over to the Haitian police. He is currently being held without charges in the Delmas 33 police station.


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A helicopter gunship flies a sortie over Cite Soleil on Dec. 22, 2006. The UN has denied firing at the population from helicopters despite eyewitness restimony from victims and survivors


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An unidentified 28 year-old man is seen dying in his home. Before succumbing to his wounds, he gives testimony that directly contradicts UN denials of firing from helicopter gunships on the population below. "I was shot by the helicopter" were his last words.


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Jonel Bonhomme, 16 years-old, lies in a pool of his own blood just after being shot by UN forces on December 22, 2006. Before dying, Bonhomme described in detail how the UN opened fire on unarmed civilians in his neighborhood.


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An unidentified man in Cite Soleil crosses himself in a religious gesture before attempting to walk across the street as UN forces open fire in his community on Dec. 22, 2006.


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An unidentified Haitian man holds a towel to his face to stop the bleeding from a headshot he claims came from UN forces on Dec. 22, 2006 in Cite Soleil.Photos: ©2006 Haiti Information Project

HIP - Port au Prince, Haiti — A Cite Soleil community activist, Samuel Leconte, was arrested at gunpoint by Brazilian soldiers on Jan. 18th and was turned over to the Haitian police. The first questions posed to Mr. Leconte by the UN were whether he has information connecting former political prisoner Annette Auguste, aka So An, and exiled president Aristide to large demonstrations in the seaside shanty town of Cite Soleil. While Mr. Leconte has responded that he has no such information and that the demonstrations are taken at the initiative of the community, the information Mr. Leconte does possess is eyewitness testimony of the killings executed by UN forces in his community on December 22. 2006.

Weeks before his arrest, Mr. Leconte spoke at a funeral for the victims of what residents of Cite Soleil are calling a second massacre by UN military forces in their community. Mr. Leconte condemned the killings while sitting in front of a large banner that read "Thank you President Preval for this Christmas gift," an obvious reference to Preval's having reportedly approved the deadly raid. "They killed women, children and old people. They shot them like animals" states Mr. Leconte as he begins to weep into the microphone. He concluded, "They will never stop our demands for the return of President Aristide. We will keep demonstrating and will never stop until the land of Dessalines is truly free and independent!!" As of this writing, Mr. Leconte is being held without charges by the Haitian police in the notorious Delmas 33 prison which is called Fort Dimanche, alluding to a former prison run by the Duvalier dictatorship.

According to residents of Cite Soleil, UN forces attacked their neighborhood in the early morning hours of Dec. 22, 2006 and killed more than 30 people including women and children. For many this was a repeat of UN military operations on July 6, 2005 when more than 26 people were killed in a successful assassination attempt on Emmanuel "Dred" Wilmer and four of his closest followers. Wilmer was openly hostile to the UN military occupation of his country and opposed the ouster of the constitutional president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. He led armed resistance and inspired others to do the same against the brutal Haitian police and the irreparably corrupt legal system.

This time the target was a purported kidnapping gang led by a young man named Belony. The military operation was said to have been personally sanctioned by President Rene Preval, who was elected last year with support from Aristide's Lavalas movement. Tens of thousands of Lavalas supporters paralyzed the capital for more than a week to challenge the 76 million dollar UN-sponsored elections fiasco. The UN-backed Provisional Election Council(CEP) attempted a ballot counting fraud meant to keep Preval from assuming office.

The irony is that the attack on Dec. 22 seems to have been triggered, not by a surge in kidnappings as claimed by the UN, but by another massive demonstration of Lavalas supporters that began in Cite Soleil. About ten thousand people demonstrated a few days before for the return of president Aristide in a clear condemnation of what they called the foreign military occupation of their country. These huge demonstrations are not to be confused with smaller protests of the so-called "student demonstrations" of the "testicles up your derriere" movement or GNB that helped to oust Aristide on Feb. 29, 2004. The protesters in Cite Soleil were offered a far different treatment by the UN than the so-called "students."

Footage taken by HIP videographers shows unarmed civilians dying as a result of indiscriminate gunfire from UN forces on December 22, 2006. Although the UN denied firing from helicopter gunships, an unidentified 28 year-old man dies on camera stating that he was shot in the abdomen from a circling UN helicopter raining death upon those below. This is not the first time the UN has denied murdering unarmed civilians in Cite Soleil. The occupation force also denied killing unarmed civilians on July 6, 2005. Eloufi Boulbars, a UN spokesperson stated on July 8, 2005, "We saw five people killed, that's what we could count. Armed bandits who had tried to resist were either killed or wounded." Documentary evidence finally forced the UN to admit that unarmed civilians had been killed by UN forces despite their attempts to cover it up.

The scene December 22, 2006 was not all that different with the UN feeding the corporate media a story of military intervention against kidnappers and denying once again the disproportionate use of force resulting in the heavy loss of life among unarmed civilians. Another similarity was the UN's utter disregard in planning for civilian causualties. As in July 2005, not a single medical unit accompanied the UN forces as residents hit by indiscriminate and sustained gunfire bled to death in the middle of the street or managed to crawl back to their homes to die in the arms of their families.

"I couldn't count all the victims," states one survivor who asked to remain anonymous due to fears for her safety. "They came in shooting. Look at that pregnant woman they just shot. Look at that young man. Are we all bandits? Are we all kidnappers?" Annette Auguste, who was a political prisoner in Haiti for more than two years added, "We saw young men and women gunned down by UN forces in Cite Soleil. Young people shot dead . Were they all kidnappers too?"

More than three hours of video footage and a large selection of digital photos, illustrate more than words ever could what the UN is doing in Haiti. The wounded and dying on the video tape all express horror and confusion at the reasons UN forces shot at them. A 16 year-old young man asks why UN forces shot him as he clearly realizes he is going to die. Less than an hour later we see his lifeless corpse replace what once was an animated and articulate young man. HIP Founding Editor Kevin Pina commented, "It is clear that this represents an act of terror against the community. This video evidence shows clearly that the UN stands accused, once again, of targeting unarmed civilians in Cite Soleil. There can be no justification for using this level of force in the close quarters of those neighborhoods. It is clear that the UN views the killing of these innocents as somehow acceptable to their goal of pacifying this community. Every demonstration, no matter how peaceful, is seen as a threat to their control if it includes demands for the return of Aristide to Haiti. In that context it is difficult to continue to view the UN mission as an independent and neutral force in Haiti. They apparently decided sometime ago it was acceptable to use military force to alter Haiti's political landscape to match their strategic goals for the Haitian people."

The people of Cite Soleil now view president Preval as having the blood of innocent victims on his hands along with UN Special Envoy to Haiti Edmond Mulet and the recently replaced Brazilian General Jose Elito Carvalho de Siqueira. In the minds of the survivors they now join the ranks of General Heleno Ribera, former UN Envoy Juan Gabriel Valdes and the former US-installed prime minister Gerard Latortue all of who are implicated in ordering and covering up the first massacre of July 6, 2005.

More photos and testimonies will be added soon, return to this web page.

See Also

Evidence mounts of a UN massacre in Haiti
July 12 2005

The UN's disconnect with the poor in Haiti
December 25, 2005

New documentary by Kevin Pina
"Haiti: We must kill the BANDITS"
Knoxville premiere Monday, January 22

http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/1_21_7/1_21_7.html

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Haiti:The Untold Story[/align]
[align=left]Download trailer of this new documentary 12.6M - TRT 6:53
On Mac: use opt-click to download file
requires Quicktime 7 player to view - download viewer free: Mac or Windows

About the Filmmaker

Kevin Pina is a U.S journalist and filmmaker. He is known primarily for his coverage of the human rights abuses and suppression of democracy in Haiti following the overthrow of Jean Bertrand Aristide and the installation of the interim government. Since these subjects receive little or no play in the corporate controlled media, Pina most often writes articles for, and gives interviews to the alternative media.

In addition to his original film about the formation of Aristide's Lavalas political movement entitled "Haiti: Harvest of Hope", he released a second video entitled "Haiti: The UNtold Story." It has been described by critics as "53 minutes of human rights hell in Haiti." The film chronicles human rights abuses by the Haitian police and the July 6, 2005 massacre by United Nations forces of unarmed civilians in the pro-Aristide neighborhood of Cite Soleil.

Pina's definitive works include a series of articles in the Black Commentator (http://www.blackcommentator.com) about the build-up to the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Beginning with "Is the US Funding Haitian Contras?" in April 2003, Pina chronicles the forced ouster of Aristide and the players behind the scenes.

Pina's film credits include "El Salvador: In the Name of Democracy" (1985), "Berkeley in the Sixties" (1990), "Amazonia: Voices from the Rainforest" (1990), "Haiti: Harvest of Hope" (1997), and "Haiti: The UNtold Story" (2005).

Mr. Pina is also the Haiti Special Correspondent for the Flashpoints radio program on the Pacifica Network's flagship station KPFA in Berkeley CA.

His filmography includes:
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• Haiti: Harvest of Hope - 1997
• El Salvador: In the Name of Democracy (1985)
• Berkeley in the Sixties (1990)
• Amazonia: Voices from the Rainforest (1991).

As the marchers returned to Bel Air, Haitian SWAT units appeared. Journalists had to call the UN who were about 30 yards behind the protestors when the SWAT unit emerged. Finally, UN troops arrive but appeared to be coordinating with their counterparts in the Haitian police SWAT unit. They seemed unconcerned that similar SWAT units have been responsible for murdering unarmed demonstrators on several occasions. May 4, 2005
Photo Gallery : view all 35 images for this story
Haiti Information Project






This is the deceitful image the Haitian police wanted the world to see after planting a handgun on the corpse of an unarmed demonstrator on April 27, 2005



Bodies of three victims gunned down by Haitian police on April 27, 2005. Note: there is no gun in the hand of demonstrator on right as a police vehicle enters the frame



Nearly 10,000 demonstartors hit the streets on May 4 demanding the return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide and freedom for political prisoners.



February 28 - Protesters flee as PNH fires into the crowd



Before protestors leave from Bel Air on May 4 to march to UN headquarters on Rue Pan-Americaine, a cameraman with Chinese police unit takes video images of the leadership of the march.



This participant in the May 4 march was shot in the head by US Marines on March 12, 2004. When asked why he continued to protest he replied, "Because no matter how much they try to legimize this coup, we voted for our president and what they are doing is immoral and wrong. We will not stop until our elected president is returned!"



A Brazilian soldier stands behind symbolic bonfire started by Bel Air residents before the marchers assembled on May 4.
(HIP) Port au Prince — The images of the killings by the U.S.-armed and U.N.-trained Police Nationale de Haiti (PNH) are stark and undeniable. Peaceful demonstrators slaughtered in cold-blood as the U.N. pontificates and postures to justify its role in legitimizing the coup in February 2004 against the democratically elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

On February 28, 2005, the first anniversary of the coup against the constitutional government, the PNH fired at unarmed demonstrators as the U.N. stood by. Video footage and photographs from that day show the U.N. was close enough to see the police open fire on peaceful demonstrators, yet unexplainably, not close enough to do anything about it.

Following the carnage of Feb. 28 the U.N. representatives from Chile and Brazil, Juan Gabriel Valdes and General Heleno Ribera, tell the world they will intervene to stop the police from shooting at peaceful demonstrations. The world believes the UN when they object to the killings by the police on Feb. 28 as the corporate media and their pundits begin to spin images of the impartial and dauntless humanitarian role the U.N. continues to play in Haiti. The UN bars the Haitian police from security duties during demonstrations the next week but finally cave in to objections raised by Justice Minister Bernard Gousse. Gousse claims that the limits placed on the police by the UN are illegal and usurp the rights of the Haitian state. The U.N.'s sound bites challenging the PNH for killings peaceful demonstrators were never taken seriously by the US-installed regime in Haiti. How could they be since the U.N. mission to "restore" democracy to Haiti has never resolved its own dysfunctions and contradictions? How can they move to challenge the brutality and abuses of the Haitian police when their mandate includes training and bolstering the very same forces? How could they challenge Gousse's assertion of the right of the Haitian police to kill demonstrators when their mandate is to protect the unpopular US-installed regime at all costs?

Valdes and General Ribera's promise to intervene to stop the PNH from killing unarmed demonstrators is tested when Lavalas organizes yet another massive demonstration on April 27, 2005. In the wake of the UN bowing down to Bernard Gousses's intervention asserting the policing rights of the PNH, the force strikes again on cue. An innocent bystander's leg was blown to bits by the PNH as he was leaving a local pharmacy in the vicinity of the demonstration after buying insulin for his ailing mother. After killing unarmed demonstrators the PNH then tries to plant guns in the hands of the corpses. An anonymous journalist declared, "I filmed the dead bodies of demonstrators killed by the police. The police put a gun in the left hand of one of the corpses. After they saw me filming they asked me to come and film the gun in his hand. I couldn't believe it." An anonymous source close to the UN mission commented, "The attempts to cover-up these killings and the feeble justifications of the Haitian police are unbelievably stupid and transparent. The UN mission is well aware of the unacceptable pace of recruitment of former military into the Haitian police, as well as the parallel emergence of death squads within the institution."

Haitian police spokeswoman Gessy Cameau Coicou, who is by now widely ridiculed for always claiming that civilians killed by the Haitian police are all "bandits", declared that "only 2 persons were seriously injured during a gun battle with a police patrol" on April 27. She added the laughable notion that Lavalas activists who were killed "were not shot during a demonstration since police authorities had received no notice of a demonstration." Standing by her side to lend credence to the farce was Canadian UN-Civilian Police spokesperson Dan Moskaluk, who called the march an "unauthorized, illegal demonstration". Moskaluk at least had the decency to admit to finding five corpses despite the corroboration of nine killed after UN peacekeepers finally showed up on the scene. The truth is the march was announced for several days before it took place on radio stations throughout the capital. What Coicou and Moskaluk failed to disclose was that the courier with the official request for the permit to demonstrate on April 27 was beaten and arrested by the Haitian police when he tried to deliver it.

All of this leads to May 4, 2005 when yet another large demonstration by Lavalas takes place. The leaders of the demonstration were photographed and videotaped by the U.N. and a Haitian police officer wearing a UN blue helmet before they left the Aristide stronghold of Bel Air. After a brief and symbolic protest in front of the U.N. headquarters on Rue Pan-Americain (Avenue John Brown), the demonstration continued down the same street. At a certain point the U.N. forces stop and allow the protestors to continue without them for about 100 yards. Suddenly, the PNH appears with M-14 and M-16 military weapons and points them towards the crowd. Without the presence of a few press cameras and journalists to dissuade them, it is clear the police would have opened fired on the crowd. When questioned on camera, the U.N. military officers on the scene refused to answer questions and later dismissed the incident as yet another coincidence.

After the Lavalas demonstration on May 4, U.N. troops drive by as sharpshooters of a Haitian SWAT unit enter Bel Air with high-powered telescopic rifles. The U.N. leaves the scene as if it is "business as usual" as Haitian police began pointing their weapons, meant to kill specific targets, at residents of the neighborhood. The presence of a news camera makes them angry but keeps them from shooting at the population. Given that the UN and the international community have tolerated the abuses of the Haitian police thus far, journalists and photographers have to wonder how long it will be before they become victims of trigger-happy Haitian policemen or made deliberate targets? The presence of journalists naturally places constraints upon the behavior of the police and, if their reactions on May 4 are any indicator, they are not happy about it.

To date, no serious investigation of the Haitian police for shooting unarmed demonstrations or well-documented cases of murder sprees into poor neighborhoods of the capital, has been undertaken. The UN has done little more than make noise while not one single name of a policeman or SWAT team member who committed these acts has been made public. This can only send a message to the Haitian police that they have free reign to commit murder and tell tall-tales about it. They now assume the UN will keep supporting them by remaining silent because no one in the Haitian police is being held accountable. For many observers on the ground this gives the appearance that the UN mandate to "restore democracy" to Haiti is providing the police with cover to commit murder with impunity. In the absence of any public investigation it can certainly be argued this has been the reality thus far.

The UN relationship to the US-installed Latortue regime and the human rights violations committed by the Haitian police has done little to inspire confidence for the much-touted elections scheduled to begin in October. Many people in Haiti are asking how the UN can seriously expect Lavalas candidates to participate in the next elections when they might expect the same treatment from the Haitian National Police during a campaign rally? How can the masses of poor Haitians who continue to support Lavalas despite more then 13 months of repression and brutality be expected to feel secure enough to register or cast their ballots in the next elections?

Putting the question of the legitimacy of the upcoming elections aside, the climate for change in coming years is bleak with a UN special mission that offers lofty words about elections and democracy but fails to hold the Haitian police accountable for documented human rights violations.

Photo Gallery : view all 35 images for this story

Photos: ©2005 Haiti Information Project (HIP) - Cite Soleil resident gestures to show force of bomb. Evidence shows these poor neighborhoods have been victims to fragmentation and incendiary type bombs lobbed into the community by U.N. forces over the past few days.





[align=center][/align]Traffic was paralysed for nearly six hours in Petion-Ville after
Lavalas militants felled a telephone on the Laboule road.



[align=center][/align]UN outpost on border of Cite Soleil in front of Boulos Market



[align=center][/align]Representing an undemocratic dictatorship in Jordan to "restore"
democracy to Haiti.



[align=center][/align]58 year-old victim of schrapnel from bomb thrown by UN into Cité Soleil



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Haitian collaborator mounts UN armoured vehicle





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Jordanian soldier loads high caliber weapon as UN troops prepare for incursion into Cite Soleil

Cité Soleil under siege:
Haiti's elite, U.N., and fat cat NGOs paralyzed
by Haiti Information Project

April 25, 2005 - HIP - Lavalas militants created a massive traffic jam in the wealthy suburb of Petion-Ville today by felling a telephone pole on a road used by the country's wealthy elite, highly paid non-governmental specialists and commanders of the United Nations contingent. Traffic was backed up for six hours leading to luxury homes on Laboule road after militants first used machetes to weaken the pole and then backed up a large truck forcing it to block the road.

On the eve of their first major act of creative non-violence resistance since Aristide's ouster, an anonymous spokesperson stated, "We are not gangsters, we are not criminals. We did not use guns to perform this act. Many of the elite who sponsored and supported the coup of February 29, 2004 must use this road to return home to their families. We want to create a traffic jam to force them to sit and reflect upon what they have done to this country. You can see them finally acknowledging the poor market place women who line the roads to their homes. Today, U.N. forces that are ready to kill us surround Cité Soleil and Bel Air. Maybe now they will see how vulnerable they really are. The poor who supported Jean-Bertrand Aristide live among them, in their communities. We demand the return of our constitutional president and only after that can we can have free and fair elections."

Meanwhile, citizens of the poor slum of Cité Soleil who continue to demand Aristide's return are forced to take an accounting of their dead and wounded. U.N. forces led by the Jordanian contingent are accused of turning the area into a virtual concentration camp. Evidence shows these poor neighborhoods have been victims to fragmentation and incendiary type bombs lobbed into the community by U.N. forces over the past few days. One victim of the shrapnel explained, "We were sleeping when the bomb exploded. It sent metal fragments to kill people everywhere. It landed in a large pool of water that became filled with fire before exploding. It nearly burned down my house. At first I didn't feel anything but my son said I was bleeding from my side." A Lavalas militant stated, "The Jordanians are the most brutal among the U.N. forces. We are not stupid. We realize the Jordanian people could never live up to the one-man one vote formula dictated to us by the international community. We have contact with Jordanians who say they are living under an undemocratic dictatorship in their own country. What has the U.S. promised them in military aid to oppress our people in the name of democracy? Look it up in the record. Every single nation that is participating in the U.N. coalition in Haiti to receives large funding from the Pentagon. All we ask is that you do your homework. We know what FMF and IMET represents. Argentina, Brazil and Chile are major recipients of U.S. military and financial assistance. We challenge you to realize the impact of the U.S. upon this U.N. coalition in Haiti today. The U.S. embassy along with the U.S. dollar has compromised our sovereignty and it is their bullets and bombs that are killing us today. They all have proved for the last time the Haitian Constitution is just a piece of paper for them."

SEE ALSO;

Haitian Lawyers Leadership
Urgent Action Alert

Denounce the slaughter of the people of Cite Soleil, demand that the U.N. immediately stops sponsoring summary executions in Haiti Apr 22


John Maxwell.

The Company They Keep


COMMON SENSE # 462 - Jamaica Observer Columnist, John Maxwell, just wanted totalk to the UN official that was on BBC about human rights in Haiti. Not high on their agenda. What is important to the US puppets in the United Nations is assassinating Dred Wilme. John Bolton is probably not interested in talking to John Maxwell either. Apr 23

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[align=left]©2005 Haiti Information Project (HIP) - Brazilian UN soldier in Delmas 2, Port au Prince, aims at residents in a pro-Aristide neighborhood where they continue to demand for the restoration of democracy and Aristide’s return.[/align]
[align=left]Flashpoints: Does Haiti need more arms?[/align]
[align=left]Flashpoints Interview with Kevin Pina, Friday, April 8th, 2005

Dennis Bernstein: Two weeks ago Flashpoints Radio broke the story of the United States government secretly and illegally arming the U.S. installed coup government of Haiti. Since that time more details have surfaced in terms of the extent of the illegal arms flow, and how these back door deals are working. Indeed, as we reported, the United States has quietly begun to ship these arms to Haiti's interim government, despite a 13-year arms embargo on the Caribbean nation. The new arms are meant to brace up a shaky security force, so they say, but the reality is that they could actually undermine security and fuel the actions by the death squad national police and a whole bunch of drug dealers running around the streets....[Kevin Pina,] first of all bring it back to where it started and then give us some more information.

Kevin Pina: Last week we reported that the U.S. installed Prime Minister, Mr. Gerard Latortue, was making noises inside of Haiti, asking that the 13-year old arms embargo against Haiti be lifted. What we pointed out last week was that there had already been deals made, had already been cut, that arms had already been delivered to Haiti. So his calling for the U.S. embargo to be lifted was actually just a cover for the fact that there had already been arms sent into Haiti, that there had already been deals made. What we have learned, and several names have surfaced that have made this story even more interesting for us...we understand that almost six months ago there was a cheque for $1 million that was cut from the Prime Minister's office, that brokered one of the first shipments of arms that went into Haiti. The arms shipment was [allegedly] brokered by a figure associated with the Republican Party in Florida, a Haitian-American woman named Lucy Orlando. Apparently, one of the other brokers is a man named Joel Deeb. Now Joel Deeb is a very interesting figure because Joel Deeb, of course, was arrested by the Duvalier dictatorship (the son, Jean-claude Duvalier), because he was involved in several bombings in the capital, and the illegal importation of arms. Mr. Deeb is also interesting because his name surfaced with regard to Pablo Escobar and the fact that Pablo Escobar may have been hiding in Haiti at one time. Apparently, Mr. Deeb had participated in a ruse with Pablo Escobar in order to mislead the DEA into thinking that Escobar was in Haiti when actually he was trying to change his location within Columbia itself.

Dennis Bernstein: And Escobar, of course, was head of the Medelin Cartel.

Kevin Pina: Exactly. So we've got this person who is attached to the Republican Party in Florida, this Haitian-American woman Lucy Orlando; we have Joel Deeb, a nefarious figure who was helping to broker the arms deal. And, apparently, Condoleeza Rice was well aware that this arms deal was happening six months ago; she was well aware that the Haitian government had cut a $1 million check from its treasury in order to pay for this arms shipment, and apparently that deal was brokered for arms that were held by the Pentagon in Panama, in what they call refurbished, recycled arms. These are arms that apparently had been captured by so-called "enemy forces," which we can only assume would be people like al-Qaeda, other armies, possibly the FARC in Columbia, captured armaments that were then shipped to Panama and now apparently are up for sale by the Pentagon to so-called "friendly nations" within Latin America and the Caribbean.

Dennis Bernstein: Say a little bit more about the Florida connection and Condoleeza Rice. How do you know that there's an official from the Republican Party in Florida involved, and how do you know Condoleeza Rice was involved?

Kevin Pina: She [Orlando] is not an official as much as she is a darling of the Republican Party in Florida; she is [apparently],very close to Jeb Bush. Lucy Orlando is a woman who worked for George Bush's re-election campaign; she's a woman who is well-known in those circles and this information is coming from someone else within those circles, who said that Lucy Orlando is very close to Youri Latortue, who of course is the nephew of Gerard Latortue, the U.S. installed Prime Minister of Haiti, and that it's Youri Latortue along with Lucy Orlando who are working on the Haitian side along with Joel Deeb actually acting as the intermediary with the Pentagon. And, apparently, there was a conversation that someone who was in Florida had heard, where there was a conference call where Condoleeza Rice had participated and that she has been well-aware for quite some time, since before becoming Secretary of State - when she was National Security Advisor for the Bush administration - that the Pentagon was selling arms to the U.S. installed government in violation of that 13-year arms embargo.

Dennis Bernstein: And of course it's not easy to get these arms that have been seized by so-called terrorist countries and anti-terrorist operations by the United States Government. These are arms that are controlled by the U.S. government so it would take a high official in the Pentagon or in the NSC to make these weapons available. Now let's be clear: this is in violation of a 13 year arms embargo. Why was that embargo first put on?

Kevin Pina: That came after the 1991 coup, when the former brutal military, which we know is now being transformed into the brutal Haitian police force, PNH...after that coup the United States instituted this embargo and it's been in place ever since. It's a remnant of the Clinton Administration, basically.

Dennis Bernstein: Now, the other part of this that is so troubling is, we have seen in recent days and weeks, we've reported extensively with you Kevin, on the attacks, the open attacks on peaceful demonstrations, on Father Gerard Jean Juste, on pro-democracy activists by the so-called "new" National Police of Haiti. If you put weapons in their hands, and more heavily arm...you're arming death squads, and aren't you also arming in a way, the drug trafficking structure there?

Kevin Pina: With the Haitian National Police, there's very little difference between them and those people who are involved in drug trafficking today in Haiti. But one thing I also want to add is that this question of the arms shipment and the U.S. violating the 13-year old embargo also came out on the 7th, yesterday, by Robert Muggah, who wrote an article that came out in the Globe and Mail in Canada, in which he has said that the United States and the Pentagon have actually sold the U.S. regime $7 million worth of arms recently. What we're talking about [with] this first $1 million arms shipment is what opened up the pipelines six months ago, and apparently according to Robert Muggah and his organization, called the Small Arms Survey, in the Globe and Mail yesterday, that the Pentagon and the Bush administration have sold at least $7 million worth of arms to the current U.S. installed regime in Haiti.

Dennis Bernstein: And where are they getting the money to pay for these weapons when the amount of poverty, the extraordinary malnutrition, the AIDS pandemic, where does this $7 million come from?

Kevin Pina: Well, it's as good a question to ask, where does the $26 million that they're using to buy off the former military in order to get them to lay down their arms to join the Haitian police force, where is that $26 million coming from? Nobody knows. Nobody knows where this $7 million for these arms shipments is coming from either.

Dennis Bernstein: What else do we need to know about this illegal support of this weapons operation by the U.S. Government and the Pentagon?

Kevin Pina: Well of course it's not just disgusting given the current situation, that this amount of money is being spent on these arms, but we've also got to remember what these arms are being used for. These arms are being used to arm a repressive police apparatus that today is involved in a systematic campaign to physically eliminate the majority political party, Jean Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas party. At the same time we know that this must be happening with the collusion, certainly with the knowledge of the United Nations, who, after all, is being put in place and being told that they have to deal with the outcome of all of this, of these arms coming in. It's got to be the United Nations. So we have to also ask, are they in the loop? Are they aware that these arms shipments have happened? If they are, given that it's already been shown that they cannot control the Haitian police; we know that they've fired on unarmed demonstrators several times, we know that they've been involved in massacres in poor neighborhoods where calls continue for the return of Jean Bertrand Aristide. What is the UN's relationship to these arms deals? What is their position about this since, again, they are the ones on the ground who are going to have to deal with the outcome?

Dennis Bernstein: Kevin, this came out in the Associated Press on Monday, it's called "Fiery Priest May Seek Haiti's Presidency," it's from Port au Prince, Stevenson Jacobs. Now listen to this, this is how it starts:

"Supporters call him Haiti's Martin Luther King Jr., a fiery Roman Catholic priest who electrifies the masses with populist sermons urging social equality and non-violent protest. The U.S.-backed interim government recently accused him of inciting violence and hiding gunmen loyal to ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, jailing him for weeks before freeing him because of a lack of evidence."

This article seems rather provocative and a set-up. You want to talk about it Kevin?

Kevin Pina: This seems to be another one of AP's disinformation pieces for the State Department. I don't exactly know who Stevenson Jacobs believes he's working for but this, to me, seems like an absolute set up. On the one hand there is this sort of sensationalist approach to describing Jean Juste, but really where the article goes is in saying that there is the possibility that Father Jean Juste will run for the presidency. Of course, as soon as you give that impression, that makes him vulnerable to attacks again, that makes him fair game to his enemies within the Haitian National Police force, within the United Nations, and certainly within the former brutal military who already see him as a threat because Jean-Juste has already made it clear, he's not interested in running for the Presidency, he has already made it clear that Lavalas will not participate in those October elections; he's also made it clear that before there can be any real negotiations, about elections and the participation of Lavalas, that, one, President Jean Bertrand Aristide must be returned to Haiti, allowed to return to Haiti, and that, two, political prisoners be released, the thousands of political prisoners in Haiti be released from the jails, and that, third, and most important of all that there be freedom of expression and freedom to campaign, freedom of speech, because obviously no one could participate or call those elections free or fair without those three prerequisites. So this article really is a set up in a lot of ways because what its doing is portraying Father Jean Juste as someone who might be willing to participate in this set of elections despite the fact that he has categorically rejected any sort of rumour that says he is planning a run for the presidency. This is a set-up, a classic disinformation set-up, by the Associated Press.
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[align=left]Photos: © 2005 Haiti Information Project - A UN armored personnel vehicle rolls through Delmas 2 in Bel Air. Five people were killed on January 5 when the UN entered the pro-Lavalas neighborhood under the pretext of cleaning the streets of garbage. Although the UN force took advantage of several photo opportunities to show their public works projects yesterday, their only duty on January 5 was to enter the roiling slum on heavily armed patrols.

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[align=left]©2004 Haiti Information Project - On October 28, 2004, the Haitian police entered the slum of Bel Air and shot these four young men execution style. Now that the UN controls Bel Air, members of Aristide's Lavalas party demanded the UN stop the police and the former military from committing more murders in their communities.

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[align=left]Some residents decided to leave Bel Air after the UN assumed control of the streets on January 5, 2005. Although the UN claims responsibility for security, members of Lavalas accuse the multinational force of allowing the Haitian National Police (PNH) to execute armed raids in poorneighborhoods where support for ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide remains strong.[/align]
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[align=left]Despite UN claims of having entered Bel Air with force on January 5th to clear the streets of trash, other than a few carefully planned photo opportunites with the Associated Press, there was little evidence of progress the next day.

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[align=left]A UN armored personnel vehicle rolls through a nearly deserted street in the neighborhood of Bel Air. Residents claim five persons were killed on January 5, 2005 when the UN invaded the slum with hundreds of Brazilian troops under the guise of street cleaning and civic improvement projects

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UN occupies Bel Air in Haiti[/align]
[align=left]Port au Prince, Haiti (HIP) - Hundreds of Brazilian soldiers and special units of the Haitian National Police stormed the pro-Aristide neighborhood of Bel Air in the early morning hours of January 5. Residents were surprised and frightened by the armed incursion as gunfire broke out. Witnesses reported that five persons were killed as the operation unfolded.

Bel Air is a slum in the capital of Port au Prince that has served as a launching site for 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 had been under siege by police since violence erupted last September 30th after police opened fire on unarmed demonstrators.

Following the military operation, UN peacekeepers were seen providing photo opportunities to the press as they fixed a few water pipes and cleared the carcasses of burned out vehicles blocking the road. One resident who refused to give their name fearing reprisals stated, "Do you think we want to live like this? We are more afraid of the police coming in here and killing everyone than we are of the rats and the garbage. Those wrecked cars were our security because it stopped the police from coming in here at night and shooting us. Now that the UN has opened the door for them we don't know what is going to happen to us. Look what they did in Cite de Dieu yesterday."

The UN incursion came one day after Haitian police were accused of committing another deadly raid in a neighborhood close to Haiti's National Theater. In Cite de Dieu the police reportedly killed six people including a 16 year-old girl and later justified the slaughter claiming they were bandits.

An unidentified representative of Aristide's Lavalas party commented on the situation, "If the UN is really going to provide security to our communities then they must stop the police from murdering our citizens. We all want peace but you cannot blame people for wanting to defend themselves while the UN allows the police to commit murder and fill the jails with political prisoners. They must stop the police and the former military from murdering our citizens.

"Last October 28th the police executed four young men they thought were Lavalas and the UN did nothing to stop them.

"The UN cannot on one-hand say they are bringing security while on the other they claim to be assis