NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #18/NN_1992_18.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/5971

Text File | 1992-08-21 | 5.2 KB | 122 lines

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From: [e-mail] (N.Y. Transfer)
Subject: Haitians:INS Stoops to New Lows
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Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 23:34:00 GMT
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 Via The NY Transfer News Service ~ All the News that Doesn't Fit

              INS Blocking of Haitians Hits New Low

                        By Gloria La Riva
                          San Francisco

At first, it seemed utterly unreal. But as the Coast Guard patrol
boat racing across San Francisco Bay, its red light flashing, cut
off the sailboat filled with Haitian refugees, disbelief turned
to anger among the 200 people on shore.

They had gathered to protest U.S. policy toward Haiti and demand
an end to the racist forced repatriation of Haitian refugees. The
protest took the form of a symbolic welcome for Haitian refugees
already living in the Bay Area while their applications for
political asylum are being considered.

As agents from the Immigration and Naturalization Service
boarded the boat, a Coast Guard helicopter appeared on the scene.
Hovering less than a hundred feet overhead, the copter wake
roiled the water while the roar of its engines muffled the chants
of "Let them land" coming from the shore.

The INS agents stated they were acting at "the direction of the
State Department" They proceeded to check the papers and status
of everyone aboard the sail boat.

What followed was an hour-long harassment of the Haitians by the
agents who made them prove their temporary refugee status. When
it was clear they were not coming directly from Haiti, the
Haitians were allowed to come ashore in small groups by dinghy to
cheers, applause and welcoming arms.

The outrageous conduct by the Coast Guard and INS showed the
lengths to which the U.S. government goes to deny Haitians refuge
from the Bazin-Cedras military regime. The re-enactment was held
to dramatize the racist policy of the U.S. government towards the
tens of thousands of Haitians.

Only two days after the Oakland-San Francisco action, the U.S.
government again revealed its direct complicity with the regime
when the U.S. Coast Guard apprehended 150 Haitians at sea and
handed them over to police in Port-au-Prince.

Bush's executive order

Capturing the Haitians at sea, delivering them directly to the
hands of murderous military-police is the direct result of
President Bush's executive order. The order denies Haitians the
most basic right of review by immigration to determine their
eligibility. The U.S. government has decided that the Caribbean
is virtual U.S. territory, by seizing Haitian boats and returning
them to Haiti.

These fleeing Haitians have tried to escape the increased
repression following the overthrow of popularly-elected president
Jean Bertrand Aristide. The federal government has granted
temporary refugee status to only two percent of the 37,000
Haitians who arrived.

The noontime welcoming rally was staged near the Ferry building
in San Francisco. Activists and leaders from labor, religious,
lesbian and gay, and other movements and communities greeted the
40 Haitians with banners and flowers. The refugees sailed from
Oakland aboard two boats of the "Peace Navy."

In the rally, Haitians spoke of the terror they have experienced
in Haiti since the Sept. 30, 1991 coup. Wilna Baptiste said, "We
want you to support us in our struggle. The Haiti military was
armed and supported by the U.S. government, so we need your help
to change the situation. I'd like to thank all the people of the
U.S. for the warm welcome we have received. They have really
given us their hearts and their warmth."

She described massacres the Ton Ton Macoutes carried out in her
town, La Matin. These killings led to her decision to flee. "What
the army did was just shoot three to 10 people. Then they would
get other people to bury them. Then they took those survivors to
be killed also. I was very active in Lavalas [the pro-Aristide
mass movement]. I and others went into hiding. When we knew it
wouldn't get any better, we got a boat and decided to leave
Haiti."

Among the other speakers at the rally were Walter Johnson, head of
the San Francisco Labor Council; San Francisco Supervisor Terence
Hallinan, Monica Hernandez, Gente Latina Ambiente; Judy Talaugon,
American Indian Movement; Dick Becker, All-Peoples Congress/
Movement for a Peoples Assembly; Kathie Klarreich, Global
Exchange; Pierre Labossiere, Bay Area Haitian American Council;
Angie Fa, Harvey Milk Lesbian/Gay Democratic Club; Josue, Roots
Against War; and Lorenzo Carlysle, Oakland Community United Church
of Christ.

                               -30-

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World,46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; "[e-mail]".)

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