BY ERNIE MAILHOT
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Visitors get their first view of
the occupation forces in Haiti as soon as they land at the
airport here. Less than a football field away from the
runway are rows of newly painted white United Nations trucks
and a military tent city. Most imposing are the large black
helicopters lined up facing the arriving planes as they taxi
by.
In March, Washington formally handed over control of Haiti to the United Nations. Since then, most of the original 20,000 U.S. troops that carried out the September 1994 invasion have left. But U.S. forces still make up almost half of the 6,000 occupying troops.
U.S. military vehicles with "UN" painted on their side drive through the main streets, usually in pairs and sometimes bigger convoys. The front vehicle has a machine gun mounted on its roof. A U.S. soldier is holding the gun while standing stiffly with his torso half out of the roof opening. The second vehicle, oftentimes a large open truck, carries about eight soldiers - most holding automatic weapons. Bangladeshi and other international troops are seen in Port-au-Prince, but the U.S. military is the most visible and most heavily armed by far. They guard the presidential palace, airport, and entrances to military encampments.
The military leaders that carried out the coup against Jean Bertrand Aristide in 1991 no longer govern Haiti. Their murderous civilian counterparts in the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH) no longer have free rein in Port-au-Prince. Many of these criminals are still around, however, and reportedly function openly in some areas, especially outside the capital.
Samuel Beauboeuf, a young member of the National Popular Assembly (APN), an organization opposed to the imperialist occupation, said after the military coup in 1991 he was threatened and forced to flee the central Haitian town of Lascahobas.
Beauboeuf came out of hiding when Aristide returned only to see the same people who had harassed him functioning openly and protected by U.S. troops. Referring to these former henchmen of the military and Duvalier dictatorships that ruled Haiti for decades, Samuelsaid,the center of the country. They still threaten people but most people are against the macoutes and are democratic."
One cab driver expressed a commonly held sentiment when he said, "FRAPH is disorganized but not disarmed. They kill and rob people. Now they're not political, just criminals."
Many Haitians explain that one of the big problems is that the U.S. military never disarmed the rightist military, the former police, or groups like FRAPH. Many of the murders and other serious crimes are carried out by these still heavily-armed groups.
Washington calls the shots
Like every major initiative in Haiti today, the U.S.
authorities are directly involved in setting up the interim
force that will serve as both army and police.
In February, the Haitian government tried to hire several hundred interim police without U.S. government approval. According to a report in the Washington Post, U.S. officials saw this as a move by the Jean-Bertrand Aristide government to take political control of the military. Despite some protests over "unwarranted meddling" Aristide agreed to fire them all.
Until recently, almost all cops carrying weapons were formerly part of the repressive police force under the military dictatorship. The few weeks of training from U.S. police officers was supposed to guarantee a newfound respect for human rights.
But not all interim police are accorded the same responsibilities. Jean Mathieu Dernier, a 19-year-old traffic cop in Port-au-Prince, directs traffic at one of the busy corners - on the street leading to the airport.
He said he is one of about 1,000 people who were recruited for the police force from the concentration camps at the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo, Cuba. Dernier had been locked up at the camps for six months.
The Guantánamo police, as many Haitians call them, are all probationaries and carry no weapons. They receive the equivalent of about $70 a month. Dernier said Guantánamo was deplorable and that he was glad to be out. "I was fleeing misery when I left Haiti. Now at least I have a job even though it is very, very little money," he said.
On March 28, Mireille Durocher Bertin, a prominent backer of the 1991 military coup, was gunned down in the streets of Port-au-Prince. The U.S. and Haitian authorities moved rapidly and quickly arrested four people. The Bertin case stands in sharp contrast to the many murders of Haitians who support democracy. Virtually no one has been charged in these cases.
Discontent and struggles
Even under conditions of an imperialist occupation there
have been some important actions organized by workers and
peasants. Recently teachers staged a nationwide strike for
better wages and conditions. This month-long walkout
included a May 3 demonstration of thousands of teachers,
students, and other supporters in Port-au-Prince. The
strikers demanded a 300 percent wage increase, and won a 120
percent raise.
The press reported that there were several confrontations during the teachers' fight and on more than one occasion UN troops sprayed tear gas at strike supporters.
Two conferences recently held in Port-au-Prince, attended mostly by young people, also give an idea of some of the discontent and open opposition to the imperialist occupation and harsh economic policies.
The Third Congress of the National Popular Assembly was held at the Domaine Ideal Hotel in the Carrefour section of Port-au-Prince May 25-28. Several hundred workers, peasants, and students participated in this meeting.
The congress honored Charlemagne Peralte, a hero of the Haitian people, who organized resistance to the first U.S. invasion and occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934.
Ben Dupuy, a founding member of the APN and the director of the newspaper Haiti Progres gave the keynote address. He noted the UN occupation of Haiti was basically a cover for continued U.S. domination. He called for the APN to hold to its principles of opposing any occupation of Haiti.
The final resolution of the APN congress stated, "The return of President Aristide on Oct. 15, 1994, under the banner of the American military occupation and the policy of reconciliation are betrayals of the demands of the December 16, 1990, election and the three years of the people's resistance and sacrifice."
The resolution supports mobilizing people inside and outskde Hakti"agcinst KMF"anf Worlf Bcnk"plcns"for Hcitk. " Vhe"APN anso"declared, "No fair, democratic and secure election is possible under U.S. military occupation." The group called for boycotting upcoming legislative and local elections set for June 25 and July 19.
The "International Conference Against the IMF and Neo- Liberalism," a four-day meeting held on the campuses of the Ecole Normale Superieure and the Facultes des Sciences in Port-au-Prince, was also held at the end of May. Speakers from the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Guatemala, and the United States addressed this gathering.
A hand lettered sign above the entrance to the event said in Creole, "For Autonomy, Against Occupation, Against Privatization." Students put up the banner for the May 18 anniversary of Haitian flag day.
Pika Byron, a member of the Committee of Initiative for the Student Struggle at Ecole Normale Superieure, who participated in the anti-IMF conference, explained how the military government had tried to remove their elected faculty/student council. The students and faculty resisted with a series of mobilizations, forcing the government to back down.
After classes were suspended for one year the military once more tried to remove the council and again the students rebelled. A new dean was put in with military guards.
Byron noted, "After the U.S. invasion we put the dean out the door and the faculty/student council returned. But we wanted to continue the fight. Many of us didn't support the U.S. troops but we knew we couldn't fight them.
"We decided to try to organize ourselves as students with our own autonomy. But not all students here are progressive," Byron said. "To change Haiti will take struggle. Here at the university we need to show solidarity with the workers struggles."
On May 28, the final day of the conference, many of the participants staged an impromptu demonstration at a nearby hospital where Aristide was visiting.
Some supporters of Aristide counter-protested at the same site. According to the daily Le Nouvelliste the counter- protesters said they agreed with the criticisms of the economic policies of the international financial institutions towards Haiti. The paper went on, however, "they didn't appreciate the slogans that implied a certain collusion between the chief of state and the financial institutions implicated."
U.S. occupation brings little relief
In many ways the economic and social conditions facing
the Haitian people have changed little since last September
when the U.S. military invaded.
The World Bank at the end of 1993 put Haiti's foreign debt at $773 million. Total national income in 1994 was $2 billion.
According activists here, citing figures from the World Health Organization, life expectancy in Haiti is 55 years, infant mortality for children under five years is 133 for every 1,000 live births. Illiteracy among men is 62.7 percent and among women 67.5 percent. In the capital only 37 percent have drinkable water and in the countryside it is 23 percent. For every 10,000 Haitians there is an average of 1.6 doctors and 1.27 nurses.
The legacy of imperialist control means that the vast majority of Haiti's working people remain unemployed. The June 2 Miami Herald estimated that Haiti's unemployment rate is 85 percent.
Conditions in Haiti for workers and peasants today are so difficult that it is not uncommon to hear comparisons with the days of the U.S. embargo when many basic necessities were unavailable and prices skyrocketed.
One of our cab drivers told us there was still an embargo against Haiti even though he knew it was ended after the U.S. invasion. "We still have an embargo because gas costs 31 gourdes," he said - more than $2 a gallon.
Many of the cement walls, sides of buildings, metal gates, and other flat surfaces around Port-au-Prince, including the wall around the presidential palace, are covered with spray-painted slogans. Many call for supporting one or another candidate in the upcoming elections.
These elections have already been postponed twice. Recently 800,000 voter registration cards were stolen. A large number of U.S. officials are in Haiti basically running the election. Washington is spending $11.8 million on the contest compared to the Haitian government's $715,000.
According to the June 5 Miami Herald, to run for senator "costs six months of a good Haitian salary."
The walls also carry many political slogans. "Carter is a false democrat" and "Carter Magouye" meaning the former U.S. president is no good. These were written last year, when he negotiated the departure of Haiti's military leaders with millions of dollars stolen from the Haitian people.
"Down with the IMF," "Privatization=Misery" and "Down with the high cost of living," are slogans expressing more political sentiments.
The International Monetary Fund and some in Haiti's ruling circles are pushing for privatizing state-owned enterprises including the flour mill, cement company, port authority, telephone company, electric company, and airport. Tied to this is the proposal to get rid of half the 45,000 public employee jobs.
Many Haitians oppose these plans. Among other organizations the Haitian Workers Federation has recently come against these proposals.