(Below is the table of contents and lead story from the most recent issue of Haiti Info, the newsletter of the Haitian Information Bureau. The lead story from each bi-weekly issue is posted in this conference. To receive the entire newsletter, you may subscribe by email, fax or mail. See the subscription information at the end of this entry).
* * * HAITI INFO * * *
News direct from the people and organizations
of Haiti's grassroots democratic movement
23 Nov. 1992, Vol. 1, #7
TENDREMOS UNA VERSION EN ESPANOL MUY PRONTO PARA
LOS COMPANEROS DE AMERICA LATINA Y ESPANA!
Contents:
News Stories: STUDENTS PROTEST - ARMY CRACKS DOWN
International Pressure Increasing
O.A.S. Team Contracts Up
Army Terrifies Capital
Interview: A High School Student Reflects
Human Rights Report
Behind the Headlines: Cedras Takes the Lead
Development: CGT Rejects Privatization
Operation Lifeline Update
Common Ground: Rigoberta Menchu Tum
About Haiti Info
News:
STUDENT PROTEST - ARMY CRACKS DOWN
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Nov. 23 - Haitian students relaunched their
struggle for democracy this month with a public conference,
statements to the press and demonstrations, eliciting violent
responses from the military.
After last year's coup dUetat, high school and university students
were the most vocal supporters of democracy in spite of repeated
attacks by soldiers and armed civilians.
The government of de facto Prime Minister Marc L. Bazin
attempted to control them this year by stationing soldiers around
schools and offering discounts for books and tuitions, but the
strategy has not worked.
On Nov. 12 soldiers surrounded and harassed students at a public
high school and also the university where they arrested six people,
including two journalists.
The repression and arrests were carried out during a week of
increased military presence on the streets. [See story, page 3.]
High school students demonstrate
On Nov. 12 a truckload of soldiers arrived at Lycee Alexandre
Petion, the capitalUs largest public high school, to stop a
demonstration. That was the army's second visit to the school that
week.
"There are no teachers, there are no chairs, there are no
blackboards," one student said.
Another added, "There are soldiers all over the place to watch what
you say so you don't criticize conditions."
During Thursday's demonstration students handed out pro-
democracy pamphlets, called for better conditions and denounced
the director of the school.
On television that night the director attempted to placate the
students.
"I just came from a meeting with the Minister of Education," said
Director Clerisson Mozart, "and effectivelyI the problem of the
bathroom will be resolved during the next week."
University conference interrupted
The same day, a number of student organizations sponsored a
conference at the universityUs Faculty of Sciences to discuss
repression and the de facto governmentUs plan to privatize state-
owned industries. [See Development News.] About 200 students and
journalists attended the event.
The event also commemorated the one-year anniversary of the day
soldiers arrested a number of students who were demonstrating and
calling for "Liberty or Death."
This year students called for "Democracy or Death! Down with Bazin! Down with Cedras! Down with American Imperialists!"
and presented papers on the de facto regimeUs systematic repression and its plan to sell state-owned industries.
"Privatization is part of a global logic," one student said. "It is a
development model that is being imposed on the poor countries."
About an hour after the event began, soldiers drove around the
building with their sirens blasting to intimidate the participants.
When this strategy failed, about 50 armed soldiers and an equal
number of attaches, or civilian assistants, surrounded the building,
occasionally shooting into the air.
Soldiers arrested two reporters and four students and harassed a
number of people, including a U.S. journalist who was "spread-
eagled" and frisked. The French embassy's press attache was also
nearly arrested and was forced to go to army headquarters.
An observer from the visiting Organization of American States team was so frightened, he left in the middle of the event.
For three hours soldiers literally held the building hostage, while
inside students presented papers and continued with their program. During the event, ex-General Carl Michel Nicholas, the de facto
Minister of the Interior (responsible for defense and internal
security) drove by the university in his private car, apparently to
check on the soldiers.
One local radio station apparently embarrassed the military by
publicizing their behavior, and the reporters were soon released and
the participants allowed to leave. The four students arrested were
released several days later.
The army's behavior drew national and international criticism from
human rights and journalists organizations.
De facto Minister of Education Max Carre attempted to justify the
army's illegal intervention by fabricating a completely false version
of the event.
Other students mobilize
Students all over the country are mobilizing to renew their struggle
for democracy.
At the public high school in Gonaives, the third-largest city here,
they also complain of soldiers in their classrooms but are determined
to continue fighting for justice.
"The mobilization will not be stopped," one student said. "We have a Committee of Resistance in every school that still functions, but some students are afraid of the repression."
"We have a gradual plan for mobilization. We are preparing to
commemorate November 28 because that will mark exactly seven
years from the date when soldiers shot three young students in
Gonaives."
That event in 1985 was the beginning of the "dechoukaj" or "uprooting" that led to the flight of dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier and
began the open struggle for democracy.
[Interview from Gonaives from "Nouvel Pou N al Pi Lwen #70"]
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