(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 30 September 1995, Vol. 3, #25 Contents: Stories: ANNIVERSARY OF COUP D'ETAT JUSTICE: WHAT IS THE STATE OF AFFAIRS? ANTI-PRIVATIZATION MOVEMENT GROWS CORRUPTION EXPOSED HAITI: U.S.'S JUNKYARD WORKERS' 4-YEAR BATTLE EDH IS OWED MILLIONS HAITIAN DIPLOMAT HARASSED PEASANTS DEMAND ELECTRICITY Stories: ANNIVERSARY OF COUP D'ETAT PORT-AU-PRINCE, Sept. 30 - On the fourth anniversary of the coup d'etat which claimed 5,000 lives and thousands more victims of brutal repression, the Haitian people are restless. While the returned government prepares for presidential elections and continues to push forward with neoliberal reforms in a context of confusion and with a sprinkling of high-intensity labor programs, a few subsidized stores, scholarships for 100,000 (out of millions of) students and many promises, people continue to protest economic conditions, corruption and to demand justice. Sept. 30 Commemorated All over the country today, the government, the media, peasant, popular and religious groups commemorated the anniversary of the coup. The government seized the occasion to distract the population from its policy of reconciliation, putting a big emphasis on the anniversary in an attempt to touch people's sensitive chords. It decreed two weeks of official mourning, promised victims of the coup cash payments, special i.d. cards for preferential health care and, once again, pledged to provide lawyers. At a ceremony at the National Palace after an emotional speech where he thanked France and Venezuela (but not the U.S.) for their support four years ago, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide unveiled a statue commemorating a soldier who died during the coup. In a long and intimate interview on state television, he conceded there were problems with the justice system and urged people to continue to denounce injustice and corruption. Other guests on the day-long series of emissions included victims describing repression and Maj. Dany Toussaint, who gave a blow-by-blow account of the coup. (The coup-supporting Radio Metropole, closely linked to U.S. Voice of America, played its part by re-broadcasting part of a Sept. 27, 1991, speech Aristide gave after the coup movement began. Aristide appealed to the bourgeoisie to work with the government and hinted at the potential strength of the population. It was later used by local and international putschists as "proof" of the president's support of violence. Metropole's choice to replay the section it chose, with no comments, is an obvious attempt to try to justify the coup once more.) In Cap-Haitien, popular organizations sponsored marches and demonstrations both today and yesterday. Hundreds took to the streets, with over 1,000 marching in nearby Limbe. In their messages, groups there angrily denounced the continued lack of justice, "demagogical" judgements in absentia, reconciliation with those who backed the coup and attacked neoliberal plans. In the capital, two women's groups hosted an outdoor meeting where people demanded justice, "a court to judge all rapists" and listened to women describe brutal repression like the murder of their babies or multiple rapes of their daughters or themselves. Many organizations issued angry press releases, denouncing impunity, the government's apparent refusal to track down and prosecute the big criminals of the coup, and the foreign domination of the "reform" of the justice system. Neoliberalism Moving Forward The anniversary events came two days after a significant Smarck Michel press conference. Michel, who had just finished two weeks of negotiations with the international lending institutions, appealed to the public, and also to the newly elected parliament, to support a three-year Structural Adjustment Program. "The moment has come to choose," he stressed, and explained that if the government does as it has been "advised," it will immediately receive the loans it needs to make ends meet in the coming year. Carrying the free-market torch aloft, with pregnant words and numerous figures, Michel said that the government has to continue to "adjust." To refuse would be "an historic error," he said, and that he will resign if parliament does not approve the adjustment plans, which he promised will lead to the long-term development, better services for the population, "production" and "modernization." Michel also noted that, to date, Aristide has not asked for adjustment or for the privatization program to be halted. "I see the president regularly... He has never told me, 'Stop the program,'" he said. Interestingly, in a distinctly non-neoliberal move and perhaps as an attempt to assuage the increasingly angry public, this week the government announced the arrival of two boat-loads of rice ("big, beautiful Miami rice!" the ad says) to be sold at state-fixed prices. Next Step: Presidential Elections The U.S. and U.N. stayed out of the lime-light during the commemorations. Last week, U.S. spokesman Stanley Schrager said that the U.S. invasion helped "the Haitian people find what had been so brutally taken away," but said the "victory" is not for the U.S., but for the "Haitian people." In the meantime, despite the offensive by Republicans to cut all "non-humanitarian" Haitian aid, including US$3 million slated for the presidential race, the U.S. is pushing to have them carried off. If the adjustment package is passed by the new parliament - where the Lavalas platform has an absolute majority - and a new prime minister and president can be "transitioned" in, the U.S. and especially Bill Clinton will be able to claim a much-needed "foreign policy victory." But as the social movement protesting high prices, lack of jobs and impunity expands, and if it continues to grow, it will definitely disturb the plans of the U.S., the multilateral banks and the rest of the "international community." They may have to reconsider the neoliberal plans in general and the privatization program in particular, in both the rhythm and breadth of implementation. ABOUT HAITI INFO: * Haiti Info is published every two weeks in Haiti by the Haitian Information Bureau, an alternative news agency, and is edited by a group of committed individuals from democratic and popular sectors. * All articles Copyright HIB. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED. Please cite Haiti Info and send copies of usage. * Haiti Info is available by mail, by fax, and also electronically via computer. Subscription rates: Individuals E-mail in the Americas - US$20 elsewhere - US$35 Organizations E-mail in the Americas - US$70 elsewhere - US$90 [Those fees negotiable for journalists and non-profits] Write for more information, help for journalists, subscription costs for mail and fax: Haitian Information Bureau, c/o Lynx Air, Box 407139, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 33340, USA. For electronic mail: hib@igc.apc.org. ** End of text from cdp:reg.carib ** >