Ireland and Haiti

international | anti-war / imperialism | press release Tuesday March 01, 2005 11:02 by For LASC

Haiti is the poorest country on the Western Hemisphere
and its all history is one of foreign intervention and
looting, from colonial times until its republican
period. Last year Haiti celebrated the 200th
anniversary of its existence; not a minor celebration,
as Haiti was the first Latin American country to gain
its independence and represented the first step to the
abolition of slavery. But Haiti had to pay a very high
price for the freedom of its offsprings

Today, the country is ruled by a tiny elite, that has brutalised
the population for more than a century, that has
strong links with imperialist powers harboured in both
France and the USA. This elite came to power once
again after the coup d'etat of February 29th 2004,
carried by a number of thugs and ex-Duvalierists, and
this coup has been sanctified by the presence of the
"international community"; the USA, France, and Latin
American countries like Chile, Brasil (which is
leading the military coalition in Haiti) and
Argentina, none of which can boast of a too clean
Human Right record... and they're troops had been
given by the UN the mission of "protecting Haitian
people"!

No wonder many Human Right abuses have been
reported and the number of dead people keeps piling.
But the world remain indifferent to the suffering of
the Haitian people and it seems that whatever atrocity
occurs in the island is part of the natural state of
the world. We, in the Latin American Solidarity
Centre, reject this "natural" order of things and we
call all the social organisations and progressive
people, to demonstrate on March 5th at 13:00 o'clock,
outside of the Brasilian embassy in Dublin (41
Harcourt Street, Dublin 2). We call international
organisations to hold pickets of solidarity that day
as well, to show that Haitian people are not alone,
that we keep an eye on the events and that we join the
demands of the Haitian people:

- Disarmament of the putschist thugs lead by Chamblain
and Phillipe.
- Respect of the Sovereignity of Haitian people, as
expressed in the last elections and rejection of the
regime of Latortue.
- Freedom to all political prisoners.
- Respect to the freedom of association.
- Payment back of the indemnification payed by Haiti
to France after its liberation.
- That the UN take real measure to protect civilians
in Haiti against the systematic attacks and the reign
of terror of former agents of the Duvaliers'
autocracy.

The demonstration will take place in front of the
Brasilian embassy, Saturday 5th March at 13:00
o'clock. You are all welcome.