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General News    H3'ed 5/28/10

Haiti's Voiceless Speaks to New York Times: Where's the call for investigation into UN Slaughters in Haiti?

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Haiti's Voiceless Speaks to New York Times: Where is the call for investigation into the UN Slaughters in Haiti?

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Where was the New York Times calls for investigation and other mainstream presses echoes of calls for investigation and punishment when 110 UN soldiers where accused of rape, molestation, prostitution and exchanging sex for food or for less than $1 with young Haitian children, where is that investigation? ... Why are only Haitian policemen being investigated and not the UN mission's human rights track record in Haiti and USAID's involvement?... Where is the New York Times call for full and transparent investigation for the July 6, 2005 massacre by UN troops in Site Soley? The Dec. 22, 2004 massacre by UN troops in Haiti?... Where's the call to investigate the UN shooting of Sonia Romelus, killed by the same UN bullet that passed through the body of her 1-year old infant son, Nelson. Her 4 year-old son, Stanley Romelus, shot in the head as he lay sleeping next to his mother and brother. (See, Ezili Dantà ²'s Deliver this Letter to Lula, July 28, 2005; Evidence mounts of a UN massacre in Haiti ; What Haitian-Americans ask the new US president and Congress ; Proposed solutions to create a new paradigm)

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Since the first article came out on May 22nd, I've been reading mainstream articles about the slaughter of prisoners in Le Cayes, Haiti. (BBC, New York Times, Miami Herald, et al.)

"According to an investigation in The Times by Deborah Sontag and Walt Bogdanich, a dozen or more prisoners were killed and up to 40 were wounded after police stormed the prison to put down a riot." (Escape Attempt Led to Killings of Unarmed Inmates By DEBORAH SONTAG and WALT BOGDANICH |New York Times | May 22, 2010 http://nyti.ms/c7e9WF )

Songtag and Bogdanich report that their New York Times investigation casts doubt on the official version of events and instead indicates that Haitian authorities shot unarmed prisoners and then sought to cover it up.

Ms. Songtag and Bogdanich and now a May 25th Editorial recommends that UN, USAID and the Haitian government investigate. The Songtag/Bogdanich article dug up an old UN/USAID mouthpiece and retainer, Bill O'Neil, and fettered their rank obfuscation called "reporting" thus:

"After many years of dictatorship, there was no independent police force and no independent judiciary, and the prisons were hellholes," said William G. O'Neill, director of the Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum at the Social Science Research Council. "The goal was to create institutions that would respect human rights and allow the rule of law to flourish."

There indeed should be a full investigation and the killers of these prisoners brought to justice. HLLN supports the New York Times in this call.

But our memories are not as selective as the New York Times. Not as blunt, contained and without context. The UN/US slaughters and complicity in recent slaughters in Haiti, since 2004, floods my body like a deadly metastasized virus and cannot be contained in New York Times' silences; these embedded media's self-serving, selective amnesia. (http://bit.ly/db0gnT). Why is the New York Times ignoring the history of UN slaughters and complicity in human rights abuses in Haiti?

Ezili's HLLN wants to ask the New York Times, where was William G. O'Neil/UN/USAID's great human rights investigations and input during the Latortue slaughters from 2004 to 2006 in Haiti? Or, when Father Jean Juste, Yvon Neptune and tens of thousands of anti-Bush Regime Change Haitians where cast into the "hellholes" of Haiti prisons under a UN occupation since 2004? More to the point, where was the New York Times investigations, editorials and calls for further investigations during the UN/US slaughters in Haiti from 2004 to the present. Where?

Where was the New York Times clamor for a full and transparent investigation into the disappearance of Haiti's most well known human rights activist, Lovinsky Pierre Antoine? He disappeared in UN/US occupied Haiti in 2007. Why didn't the New York Times look into "who is the man in dark glasses?"( http://bit.ly/d5xJYA )

Where was the New York Times editorials asking for an investigation into Lovinsky's disappearance to ensure this sort of attack on human rights activists in Haiti never happens again as they are now so loudly demanding in reference to the Les Cayes slaughters? Why the arbitrariness and inconsistency? (See New York Times Editorial - Slaughter in Les Cayes, May 25, 2010 | http://nyti.ms/9Lox12).

On December 1, 2004 at the National Penitentiary in Haiti, it is reported that from 60 to 107 prisoners where executed. From 60 to 107 prisoners where EXECUTED, some while in their cells with UN troops less than 100 yards away. Where was the New York Times at that time? Ezili's HLLN was one of the few who reported on this prison massacre. We remember it well because Colin Powell had flown into Haiti that very day. New York Times was there. So what's the reason for this sudden New York Times interests in human rights abuse in Haiti? Could it be that, after 6-failed years, USAID and UN/US need to justify their existence in Haiti now with all the limelight on Haiti by showing Haiti police force needs more human rights training? The UN is asking for a higher budget, more troops (15,000), more cash for Clinton/Farmer, renewal of their mission, even in view of the failures of the UN/NGO's earthquake aid to the people, which, uhmm, meant 20-thousand US troops, HAD to come in for security purposes? There's been a move lately to say that aid monies raised should go directly to the Haitian government, which gets less than one cent of every dollar raised. The New York Times' calls for investigation assumes the UN troops, who were on the scene were not complicit in the slaughters themselves, takes the focus away from the militarization of aid, away from the NGOs who have ripped off hundreds of millions in US donor funding and have not been held accountable, away from the UN/USAID failures in Haiti. Is it possible that the New York Times is helping to better facilitate the old failed standard of giving aid monies directly to the UN/USAID/NGOs but never directly to Haiti, by reminding everyone of their laudatory oversight role in Haiti, that their "bringing human rights" to Haiti that the vile Haitians and corrupt Haiti government can't bring? To wit: "look at the slaughters in Les Cayes!"

OK, but weren't both the UN and USAID in Haiti on December 1, 2004? Where is that investigation? The results of the US/UN/Private military contractor police training that's been taking place since then? What happen to all that millions upon millions allocated and spent in the name of building prisons in Haiti, allocating for prisoner humane treatment and due process if 70% to 80% of the prisoners in Haiti are still simply poor folks, or mostly folks deemed to be "Lavalas" supporters meaning anti-coup detat, anti-Bush regime change and UN/US occupation - who are warehoused in UN occupied Haiti, without ever being convicted, getting a hearing, seeing a judge? ( How to Steal Haiti's Sovereignty and Independence.)

Where is the New York Times call for full and transparent investigation for the July 6, 2005 massacre by UN troops in Site Soley? The Dec. 22, 2004 massacre by UN troops in Haiti? The Abu Ghraib treatment by US Marines of Haiti children with the dead-of-night arrest of Annette August, a 70-year old grandmother and one of Haiti's well-renowned folk singers? US Marines arrested the 70-year old grandmother in the dead of night, put black plastic bags and handcuffs on all 11 occupants in the home, even on her 5-year-old grandson who was asleep and transported them to the barracks for questioning. Annette August like Haiti's Prime Minister stayed in prison, for over two years until the charges where dropped before being released. Where was the New York Times then? Where was the New York Times when the US Marines turned a University into military barracks and closed down the school and stop Haitians from training needed doctors for Haiti? Where was the New York Times during the March 13, 2004 Bel Air massacre by the US Marines in Haiti and the various other US troop massacres in 2004 where US forces brought their own ambulances to take away the bodies and cover up the number who had been killed? Where was the New York Times when Brazilian Troops entered the funeral march of father Gerald Jean Juste and shot at the marchers killing one mourner? (The shooting was caught on video see Ezili Dantà ² at UN provoke mourners, gun down unarmed, blames it on victims - http://bit.ly/8AwRN and http://bit.ly/2Vn5h4)

Where was the New York Times reporting when on November 8, 2005, Jordanian soldiers, with their mounted-cannon tanks, fired indiscriminately at the unarmed people of Site Soley as they were getting water in a military attempt to take over the only water tower that provides life to the 300,000 to 450,000 people of Site Soley. The Haitian women and men protected the water tower with their very bodies and refused to allow the soldiers to take it over. Dozens were reported shot, by our direct from Haiti, on-the-streets, Ezili Dantà ² Witness Project correspondents, at point-blank and virtually execution-style directly by the UN soldiers who wouldn't let go of the macabre operation, until the Black blood flowed, and flowed. http://bit.ly/9qObOP

Where was the New York Times calls for investigation and other mainstream presses echoes of calls for investigation and punishment when 110 UN soldiers where accused of rape, molestation, prostitution and exchanging sex for food or for less than $1 with young Haitian children, where is that investigation? Why is the New York Times suddenly NOW interested in pointing to Haitian government wrongdoing and UN/USAID as "investigative" arms for human rights in Haiti? The UN has been in Haiti for over 6-years and in control of prisons where 70 to 80% of the prisoners have never been charged of a crime, never had a hearing, seen a judge or been convicted. Yet, remain indefinitely imprison for years with UN overseeing the system, US and USAID training the Haitian guards, police at a tune for the UN of over 600million a year (perhaps to move up to $760.8 million this year.) More Haitians have been warehouse in jail, put there by UN soldiers who've rounded them up then any Haitian policemen.... Why are only Haitian policemen being investigated and not the UN mission's human rights track record in Haiti and USAID's involvement? ...This is just off the top of my head, but I could go on for pages. http://bit.ly/968rQG

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Human Rights Lawyer, Èzili Dantò is dedicated to correcting the media lies and colonial narratives about Haiti. An award winning playwright, a performance poet, author and lawyer, Èzili Dantò is founder of the Haitian (more...)
 

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