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Haitian
Singer & Humanitarian
Anne
Auguste (Sò No)
Arrested by US Marines
Haitian Activists Terrorized --
3,000 Killed
Anne Auguste
United States Marines have arrested Anne
Auguste (So Anne), a prominent Haitian singer and humanitarian
activist. A sizeable contingent of marines attacked So
Anne’s home in Port-Au-Prince, where she was recuperating from
surgery. They detained eleven friends and family, who were
handcuffed and taken away, including two young children (ages
five and twelve years old). The military ransacked the
house. The U.S. Marines apparently still hold So Anne
incommunicado. [Read below for a more detail! ed
narrative.]
What is So Anne’s “crime?” Organizing
nutritional programs, serving food to the homeless, presenting
cultural programs, and supporting Lavalas (along with the
majority of the Haitian people) to name a few. Thousands
of Haitians have already been killed since the coup d’etat on
February 29, 2004 for similar "crimes." Thousands more
are in hiding. We must fight back on their behalf.
Protest this illegal and immoral action by
the United States Marines! Demand So Anne’s immediate
release! Your calls, faxes and e-mails will make a
difference to keep So Anne alive, to deter brutal treatment and
to expedite her release.
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Narrative
On or about 12:30 on May 10, 2004, the U.S.
military, acting as the Multinational Interim Force (MIF) in
Haiti violently gained entrance to the home of Annette Auguste,
aka "So Anne."
No Haitian police were present at the time of
the forcible entry, at the time of interrogations or during the
arrests. The U.S. soldiers are said to have blown up the gate
where So Anne was living and accused her of making threats
against the MIF.
Freedom of speech, assembly and protection of
property are no longer civil rights for Haitians, especially for
Lavalas progressives. In fact, it appears Haitian law and
Constitution means less than nothing unless U.S. authorities
need a pretext to give legitimacy to Justice Boniface and
Latorture as the puppet replacement heads for foreign rule and
dictatorship in Haiti.
At a press briefing on May 10, 2004, MIF CJTF
Public Affairs officer Col. David Lapan reportedly said, in sum,
when asked why such force was used to make this arrest, that in
operations of this type it is necessary to use violence in order
to show the individuals who are the objects of the operation
that the MIF means business. Haitians who had any doubt as to
the current status of Haitian sovereignty need no longer
ask.
The U.S. military, through Colonel David
Lapan, have clearly implied that Haiti is under occupation, and
wartime rules known only to U.S. officers. Although the curfew
imposed on February 29, 2004 by the MIF has been lifted. By this
action of May 10, 2004, it is reasonable to say, Haiti is under
U.S. martial law while Ambassador Foley puts every word that
comes out of U.S. puppet head, Mr. Latorture's month.
Annette Auguste is an elderly Haitian
woman recovering from recent surgery. She is a well-known
artist, a political and cultural activist, a mother and
grandmother, whose life has been dedicated to the Lavalas
Movement for democracy and development in Haiti. As a
well-respected Haitian elder and community leader, her house is
a meeting ground, as is the normal Haitian custom, for people to
come and eat, gather, share news and solidarity. The Haitian
Constitution guarantees Haitian citizens the right, not to be
arrested or terrorized without due cause, especially it outlines
no arrest warrants may be excised between 6pm and 6 am at night.
Yet, last night, a strong contingent of U.S.
soldiers, from the Multinational Interim Force in Haiti
apparently decided to forego Haitian and international law and
practice warfare games on this elderly grandmother's unarmed
household.
Instead of knocking at the door, providing
proof of charges and making a legal arrest at a reasonable and
Constitutionally approved hour for arrests, the U.S. soldiers,
armed with the world's most sophisticated war instruments, threw
a grenade and blew up this elderly Haitian woman's gates and
forcibly entered her home.
All the people in her house, some 11 people,
including her tiny 5-year old grandson, Shashou, where forced to
the ground and were handcuffed by U.S. soldiers armed in heavy
artillery.
Let's reiterate - Shashou, a 5-year old
Haitian baby boy, handcuffed by the world's most powerful
soldiers at midnight in his own grandmother's home!
This is the sort of "law and order"
and democracy Haitians are subjected to after their
Constitutionally-elected President was, himself, forced out of
Haiti by U.S. and French soldiers at gunpoint.
This is the sort of "law,"
"order," and better "democracy" the Bush
Administration is bringing to the world, while Secretary of
State, Colin Powell praises Latorture, a man who called cop
killers and convicted felons, "freedom fighters" in
Haiti. This is the democracy the Bush Administration, currently
hosting Mr. Latorture's first "official" U.S. visit,
has saddled peace-loving Haitians with. Meanwhile, U.S.
authorities, ignoring that most of the local, State and
congressional invitees have declined to attend meetings with the
illegal Latorture, still are blithely forging ahead with their
"Regime Change", escorting the illegitimate U.S.
replacement to the Constitutional government, Mr. Latorture, to
shrimp and lobster dinners to places such as the Harvard Club in
New York today.
After, the U.S. soldiers, with grenades, blew
up the gates at So Anne's house, they then shot, with powerful
automatic weapons, the hapless defenseless yard dogs and
children pets who were barking in the yard at the rude entry in
the dead of night.
Photos taken of So Anne's house show that a
lot of damage was done. Also from news reports, the U.S.
admitted, through Col. Lapan at the press conference, that there
was no evidence of any weapons at So Anne's house. Thus, the use
of such excessive force and the hour of the operation is
rendered even more illegal and clearly a blatant violation of
the Haitian Constitutional, Haitian sovereignty and
international treaties, not to mention the OAS and UN charters.
Moreover, in the context of the U.S.
citizenry's current concerns over treatment of individuals in US
custody in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, this May 10,
2004, excessive force and handcuffing, terrorizing, at past
midnight of Haitian civilians, who where then not accused of any
crime is especially egregious.
All 11 people at So Anne's house where
transported to the U.S. barracks at the Medical University the
U.S. shut down upon arriving in Haiti, a country without
doctors, and interrogated. None where charged. No apologies
given. They were release, except that Lavalas militant, So Anne,
was then delivered, after U.S. interrogation, to the Haitian
National Penitentiary. No official charges have been cited.
Presumably, the Interim Multinational Force has the authority,
by virtual of what law? to use military force against a Haitian
citizen, without warrant, without even the presence of
Haitianauthorities or any Haitians whatsoever?
Are we to understand that protecting unarmed
Haitian civilians - through policing, demilitarizing Haiti and
arresting convicted mass murderers such as Guy Philippe and his
ex-soldier and FRAPH mercenaries - are "beyond the U.S.
peacekeeping mission."
But, throwing grenades at an unarmed and
sickly grandmother's house because she supports Lavalas and the
return of the legitimate President of Haiti - ransacking and
destroying her house; brutally forcing all the occupants to the
ground and handcuffing them, and taking them to U.S. barracks
for further terrorizing after two hours of U.S. "show of
force" shock-and-awe at their home - that, that sort of
U.S. military performance is indeed well within the U.S.
"peacekeeping mission" in Haiti?
Haitian children, even 5-year old baby boys
in Haiti, need to be handcuffed by grown U.S. soldiers in the
dead of night. The head of their dogs cut off by a U.S. grenade
Thus, it is clear, our malnourished and
defenseless Haitian children no longer have to get on overloaded
Haitian boats, face shark infested open seas and reach Miami to
be terrorized by U.S. guards.
Now in Haiti itself they don't have
sanctuary.
Even more poignant, our Haitian children,
don't, in this 200 year of our ancestor's greatest feat against
enslavement and colonialism, have asylum, justice, sanctuary at
their own grandmother's houses on Haitian soil.
This situation is more than illegal. It's
barbaric, untenable. It's naked racism. Haitians are flesh and
blood human beings with heart beats, pains, dreams, desires for
beauty and peace.
Why are they so persecuted by the most
powerful of peoples? It seems terrorists, convicted felons
responsible for actually murdering innocent people, including
Americans, are treated better by this Administration than
innocent Haitians, who 've never harmed anyone; who merely voted
for a leader the Bush regime, Otto Reich, Roger Noreiga, Luigi
Einuiadi and big-business-interests hate with a deranged,
psychotic passion.
And dare we quote President Bush in reference
to a statement made about the U.S. soldier's torture of Iraqi
prisoners in U.S. custody, and say that the handcuffing and
arrest of 5-year old baby-boy Shashou at midnight on May 10,
2004; even the killing of defenseless pets in the yard of a
grandmother in Haiti awaken by U.S. grenades, not too mention
the arrest of So Anne and her entire household, one of Haiti's
most tireless pro-democracy activists, is simply too naked and
revolting a lawlessness; and, for those who still believe in the
untainted goodness of the U.S. government: it's simply
"un-American" to borrow that recent phrase used by
President George W. Bush.
It is reported this U.S. orchestrated show of
force is to further pressure, intimidate and otherwise stop
other such Lavalas activists requesting the return of laws and
democracy to Haiti from holding a demonstration intended for May
18, 2004, Haiti's flag day.
* More than 3,000 Haitians, mostly young
Haitian men associated or rumored to be associated with the
Lavalas party have been killed in Haiti since the U.S. deposed
President Aristide itself on February 29, 2004. In a bare two
months, this bloodbath and killing of 3,000 Haitians represents
more than half the number of Haitians that were killed during
the entire three years of the first Coup D'etat against the
Haitian people.
More than 3,000 defenseless Haitians have
been killed since U.S. soldiers landed in Haiti for this 2nd
Coup d'etat against Haitian development and democracy. Yet, the
reason given by Secretary of State, Colin Powell for the MIF and
forcing out of President Aristide was "to avoid a
bloodbath."
According to current reports, as of April 26,
2004 - less than two months after U.S. and French soldiers
forced Haiti's Constitutionally elected President unto a U.S.
aircraft - this Bush Administration's illegal interdiction
policy towards Haitian asylum seekers has
resulted in Washington returning 1,948
Haitians to Haiti in 2004, already an increase, according to the
U.S. Coast Guard, over the 1,490 intercepted at sea for the
entire 2003 year. And yet, the State Department's propaganda to
destabilize the Constitutional government, had promised the Haitian people a better human
rights record than that of the previous two Lavalas voted-in
governments?
There is now a strong dossier of the 14-year
destabilization campaign against Haitian democracy and
development by the powerful Western Nations, led by the U.S. The
violent arrest of So Anne, her 5-year old grandson and 10 other
people at her house at midnight on May 10, 2004 and similar
brutal conduct by the U.S. military against Lavalas -- the party
whom State Department propaganda insisted, before the Coup
D'Etat, no longer supported President Aristide is too blatant to
need deeper investigation.
*****
The U.S. Marines did not leave So Anne's
house until around 2 or 2:30 a.m. on May 10, 2004. The house of
this well-known Haitian woman and Lavalas activists was brutally
ransacked and all the occupants, including, as we have noted
above, small children as young as 5-years old, where taken in
custody, in the dead of night and transported to
the Medical University at Tabarre. Some of
the detainees report they were interrogated about their role
under the Constitutional government, including questioned
regarding whether they knew "Danny Toussaint was a drug
trafficker?" and what where they planning at the house so
late at night, et.
It is reported, by some of these detainees,
that excessive force was used in putting them into custody. They
had no warning and some still are trembling from the encounter
and that they were terrorized during the interrogations by U.S.
soldiers. No one can say how this newest trauma will damage the
children involved, not to mentioned the adults, who were already
managing the U.S./France metered out Coup D'etat's post
traumatic stress syndrome. Imagine waking up and all that you
have worked for your entire life has been trashed and defiled
while the duly elected President is kidnapped to parts unknown.
The trauma is tremendous for the majority of Haitians who do not
support dictatorship and wanted to move from elections to
elections, not from Coup d'etat to dictatorship and the rule of
the old, status-quo Duvalieriest and their FRAPH and Haitian
army soldiers.
No charges where pressed against any of the
twelve Haitian detainees taken from So Anne's house. Except that
So Anne was arrested and transferred to the National
Penitentiary after having been interrogated all night. Just as
with the forced removal of President Aristide and his wife, this
operations was conducted without any Haitian present other than
the foreign soldiers.
Although, the MIF reportedly transferred So
Anne to the custody of the PNH without charging her with any
crime. It has been reported, after the arrest, and before any
formal charges have been brought that NCHR - a human rights
organization with strong ties to USAID, the U.S. Embassy, the
right wing Haiti Democracy Project and the opposition to
President Aristide and the Lavalas party- has accused So Anne of
"some connection" to the December 5th violent
incidents at the University. However, these innuendoes are not
supported by NCHR by any facts as of yet, nor does it have the
authority to press its witch-hunt campaign against Lavalas
supporters.
Moreover, other Haitian popular
organizational leaders, currently in hiding for fear of similar
U.S. reprisals, have opined that they suspect this arrest is a
pretext to prevent So Anne from taking part in a demonstration
demanding the return of the rule of law and President Aristide
planned for May 18, 2004 - Haiti's Flag Day.
So Anne is an elderly woman on medication and
has yet to be charged or to see a judge in accordance with the
48 hour rule under the 1987 Haitian Constitution. This is an
urgent call to action. Please contact the State Department,
Defense Secretary Colin Powell, your local congressperson and
representatives, the Congressional Black Caucus and media, to
denounce the arrest of So Anne; the systematic terror campaign
against Lavalas demonstrators, and the treatment of Haitians,
like So Anne, and especially her 5-year old grandson, Shashou,
by U.S. command with the Multinational Interim Force in Haiti.
Marguerite Laurent, JD, / Haitian Lawyers
Leadership Network / (dedicated to protecting the civil, human
and cultural rights of Haitians at home and abroad)
May 10, 2004 /
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaigns.html
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What Color is Haitian Jesus?—17
October 2011—When it comes to Jesus, however, it seems everyone else
is Black, leaving Jesus to standout more than what would be normally
expected in a religious painting. My favorite example of this in
the gallery is a depiction of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. The
scene contains onlookers in the foreground, all Black, as well as
John the Baptist, also Black, baptizing Jesus, white. The message is
uncanny, but the true gravity of the piece takes a moment to sink
in. Finally, it hits: you mean even in a Black country where the
people and important figures in religious history are depicted as
Black, Jesus still has to be white? For any Christian painting, I
imagine the image of Jesus would figure prominently. Yet, this
painting has added an extra layer of “heavenliness, ” by depicting
Jesus as white amidst a sea of Black followers and a Black baptist.
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In another painting, depicting the
miraculous catch of fish from the book of Luke, Jesus and the disciples are
painted white, though admittedly the fish are a variety of colors. And, after
further scrutiny, perhaps Jesus isn’t white exactly? After all, Haiti does boast
a sizable and influential Libyan population. Perhaps the images in this painting
bear homage to middle eastern influence?—SakpaseDiplomacy
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The Impact of the
Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World
Reviewed by Mimi Sheller
Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789-1804
A Brief History with Documents
By Laurent
Dubois and John D. Garrigus
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Blacks in Hispanic Literature: Critical Essays
Edited by
Miriam DeCosta-Willis
Blacks in Hispanic Literature is a
collection of fourteen essays by scholars and
creative writers from Africa and the Americas.
Called one of two significant critical works on
Afro-Hispanic literature to appear in the late
1970s, it includes the pioneering studies of
Carter G. Woodson and
Valaurez B. Spratlin, published in the 1930s, as
well as the essays of scholars whose interpretations
were shaped by the Black aesthetic. The early
essays, primarily of the Black-as-subject in Spanish
medieval and Golden Age literature, provide an
historical context for understanding 20th-century
creative works by African-descended, Hispanophone
writers, such as Cuban
Nicolás Guillén and Ecuadorean poet, novelist,
and scholar
Adalberto Ortiz, whose essay analyzes the
significance of Negritude in Latin America. This
collaborative text set the tone for later
conferences in which writers and scholars worked
together to promote, disseminate, and critique the
literature of Spanish-speaking people of African
descent. . . .
Cited by a
literary critic in 2004 as "the seminal study in the
field of Afro-Hispanic Literature . . . on which
most scholars in the field 'cut their teeth'."
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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1965
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update 22
December 2011
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