[WestMALocals] UN massacre in Haiti - eyewitness reports

[kate harris]

From: Jeff Duritz <jduritz at hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 13:23:58 -0400

The information below is reliable.  Major media have failed to report 
it.  Seth Donnelly, a member of the US delegation, will be interviewed 
tomorrow on "<http://democracynow.org/>Democracy Now!"

----- Original Message -----
From: <sub at sonic.net>

For Immediate Release:

[For more information, or to have direct telephone contact with the 
delegation in Haiti, contact Dave Welsh from the Labor/Human
Rights Delegation to Haiti, at 510-847-8657]

UN Occupation Forces Carry Out Massacre of Poor in Port-au-Prince

On Wednesday morning, July 6th, at approximately 3:00 AM, UN occupation 
forces in Haiti carried out a major military operation in the working-class 
neighborhood of Cite Soleil, one of the poorest in Port-au-Prince and also 
a stronghold of support for Haiti's majority political party Lavalas and 
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Presumably, the purpose of the operation 
was to crack down on illegal "gang activity", in particular on "gang" 
leader Dread Wilme. In actuality, a US trade union and human rights 
delegation in Port-au-Prince discovered evidence of a massacre conducted by 
the UN forces, targeting the larger community itself.

According to accounts from many different members of the community, many of 
whom chose to remain anonymous, as well as from journalists who were on the 
scene during the operation, UN forces surrounded two neighborhoods within 
Cite Soleil, Boisneuf and Project Drouillard, sealing off the alleys with 
tanks and troops.

Two helicopters flew overhead. At 4:30 AM, UN forces launched the 
offensive, shooting into houses, shacks, a church, and a school with 
machine guns, tank fire, and tear gas. Eyewitnesses reported that when 
people fled to escape the tear gas, UN troops gunned them down from the back.

UN forces shot out electric transformers in the neighborhood. People were 
killed in their homes and also just outside of their homes, on the way to 
work. According to journalists and eyewitnesses, one man named Leon Cherry, 
age 46, was shot and killed on his way to work for a flower company. 
Another man, Mones Belizaire, was shot as he got ready to go work in a 
local sweatshop and subsequently died from a stomach infection. A woman who 
was a street vendor was shot in the head and killed instantly.

One man was shot in his ribs while he was trying to brush his teeth. 
Another man was shot in the jaw as he left his house to try and get some 
money for his wife's medical costs; he endured a slow death.Yet another man 
named Mira was shot and killed while urinating in his home.

A mother, Sena Romelus, and her two young children were killed in their 
home, either by bullets or by a 83-CC grenade UN forces threw. Film footage 
of many of these deaths was shared with the US human rights delegation. 
Eyewitnesses claimed that the offensive overwhelmed the community and that 
there was not a "firefight", but rather a slaughter. The operation was 
primarily conducted by UN forces, with the Haitian National Police this 
time taking a back seat.

Seth Donnelly, a member of the US human rights delegation in 
Port-au-Prince, visited Cite Soleil with Haitian human rights workers on 
Thursday afternoon, July 7th. The team gathered testimony from many members 
of the community, young and old, men, women, and youth. All verified the 
previous statements we had received from journalists and other eyewitness 
accounts.

These community members spoke of how they had been surrounded by tanks and 
troops that sealed off exits from the neighborhoods and then proceeded to 
assault the civilian population. The community allowed the team to film the 
evidence of the massacre, showing the homes -- in some cases made of tin 
and cardboard -- that had been riddled by bullets, tank fire and
helicopter ammunition, as well as showing the team some of the corpses 
still there, including a mother and her two children.

The team also filmed a church and a school that had been riddled by 
ammunition. Reportedly, a preacher was among the victims killed. Some 
community members allowed the team to interview them, but not to film their 
faces for fear of their lives. People were traumutized and, in the cases of 
loved ones of victims, hysterical.

Many community members -- again young and old, men and women -- spoke 
highly of Dread Wilme, referring to him as their "protector" or "father", 
and expressed fear for the future. One member said that he heard that 
another UN operation against the community was planned for later Thursday 
night or early Friday morning.

Multiple community people indicated that they had counted at least 23 
bodies of people killed by the UN forces. Community members claimed that UN 
forces had taken away some of the bodies. Published estimates indicate that 
upwards of 50 may have been killed and an indeterminate number wounded, and 
that more than 300 heavily armed UN troops took part in the assault on this 
densely populated residential neighborhood.

"There was systematic firing on civilians," said one eyewitness to the 
killing. "All exits were cut off. The community was choked off,
surrounded -- facing tanks coming from different angles, and overhead, 
helicopters with machine guns fired down on the people. The citizens were 
under attack from all sides and from the air. It was war on a community."

The Labor/Human Rights Delegation from the United States, sponsored by the 
San Francisco Labor Council, had been in Haiti since late last month to 
attend the Congress of the Confederation of Haitian Workers (CTH), the 
country's largest labor organization, and interviewed hundreds of Haitian 
workers, farmers and professionals about the current labor and human rights 
situation in Haiti.


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