Eyewitnesses Account: UN Forces Open Fire on Poor Haitian Neighborhood

Democracy Now
Eyewitnesses Account: UN Forces Open Fire on Poor Haitian Neighborhood
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/31/144235
(audio, video, transcript)

United Nations troops in Haiti opened fire last week on a poor neighborhood outside of Cite Soleil. We show footage of the raid, speak with a writer and activist who witnessed the raid and hear from the mother of a nineteen year-old who was killed in the raid. Is life in Haiti improving under the new presidency of Rene Preval? Well just last week, UN forces opened fire on a poor neighborhood outside of Cite Soleil. An international delegation of activists was in the area and witnessed what happened. They also caught much of the raid on tape. In a moment we are going to play some of that tape. But first we are joined in our firehouse studio by one of the witnesses. Ben Terrall is a writer and activist. He just returned from Haiti this week.

* Ben Terrall, writer and activist who just returned from Haiti. His writings have appeared in CounterPunch, In These Times, the San Francisco Chronicle and else where.

We go back to the day of the UN raid in Simon Pele. These are members of the international delegation describing the scene:

* Witnesses describe the UN raid as it is caught on tape.

Nineteen year-old Wildert Sanedy was shot and killed by UN troops in the raid. The delegation caught up with his mother, Adacia Sanedy, four days after the shooting. She spoke about her son.

* Adacia Sanedy, son killed by UN troops in Haiti.

I'm beginning to think that it's our species destiny to end itself. It certainly can't be to get along and love each other anymore.

WHILE I SIT HERE TRYING TO THINK OF THINGS TO SAY


SOMEONE LIES BLEEDING IN A FIELD SOMEWHERE

SO IT WOULD SEEM WE'VE STILL GOT A LONG LONG WAY TO GO

I'VE SEEN ALL I WANNA SEE TODAY

WHILE I SIT HERE TRYING TO MOVE YOU ANYWAY I CAN


SOMEONE'S SON LIES DEAD IN A GUTTER SOMEWHERE

AND IT WOULD SEEM THAT WE'VE GOT A LONG LONG WAY TO GO

BUT I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE

SWITCH IT OFF IT WILL GO AWAY

TURN IT OFF IF YOU WANT TO

SWITCH IT OFF OR LOOK AWAY

WHILE I SIT AND WE TALK AND TALK AND WE TALK SOME MORE

SOMEONE'S LOVED ONE'S HEART STOPS BEATING IN A STREET SOMEWHERE

SO IT WOULD SEEM WE'VE STILL GOT A LONG LONG WAY TO GO, I KNOW

I'VE HEARD ALL I WANNA HEAR TODAY

TURN IT OFF IF YOU WANT TO (TURN IT OFF IF YOU WANT TO)

SWITCH IT OFF IT WILL GO AWAY (SWITCH IT OFF IT WILL GO AWAY)

TURN IT OFF IF YOU WANT TO (TURN IT OFF IF YOU WANT TO)

SWITCH IT OFF OR LOOK AWAY (SWITCH IT OFF OR LOOK AWAY)

SWITCH IT OFF

SWITCH IT OFF

SWITCH IT OFF

SWITCH IT OFF

SWITCH IT OFF

TURN IT OFF


thanks phil collins for the words
my heart to the people of Haiti

can touch a person's soul.
Or perhaps it's just strange that more often than not it doesn't - not nearly as much as it should.

...and they've been shooting people for as long as they've been there. Which has really soured me on the UN and its alleged "peacekeeping" role.

Democracy Now
Women Recount Gang Rape, Abuse at Hearing Against Haitian Death Squad Leader Emmanuel Constant
Thursday, August 31st, 2006
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/31/144239

Two women have testified at an evidentiary hearing in a civil case against a former Haitian death squad leader living in New York City. The suit against Emmanuel "Toto" Constant was launched in December 2004 by a group of women who suffered gang rape and other abuses from Constant's forces. We speak with the lead attorney in the case.

<more>

Democracy Now
Shocking Lancet Study: 8,000 Murders, 35,000 Rapes and Sexual Assaults in Haiti During U.S.-Backed Coup Regime After Aristide Ouster
Thursday, August 31st, 2006
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/31/144231

A shocking new report in the British medical journal the Lancet on human rights abuses in Haiti finds that 8,000 people were murdered and 35,000 women and girls raped during the U.S.-backed coup regime that followed Jean Bertrand Aristide. Those responsible included Haitian police, United Nations peacekeepers and anti-Lavalas gangs. We speak with the co-authors of the report.

<more>

This would NEVER have happened if _Bush didn't have a perverse nature, and had left Aristide exactly in the job to which Bill Clinton returned him after the elder _Bush overthrew him originally, in his idiot obsession with control.

Haiti has been stomped flat over and over with ONLY the exception of the time it was controlled by that monster, US-preferred fiend, Francois Duvalier. European descended heads of state have no intention of allowing Haiti to have that independence for which it sacrificed and struggled so very long ago. How DARE slaves take their lives back, eh?

It's heartbreaking to hear UN forces actually do the kind of work _Bush's death squads were assigned by both _Bushes.



Francois Duvalier with Nelson Rockefeller.

for the picture (and the website)

and it rarely makes MSM. Poor Haiti.

It was astounding, another country administration decided to change leadership in! I hope that Aristead will be back.