* * * HAITI INFO * * * News direct from the people and organizations of Haiti's democratic and popular movement 19 October 1996, Vol. 4, #24 *** HAITI INFO now has photos in every issue *** Contents: ADMINISTRATION PLAGUED CIA AGENTS PLANNED MALARY'S MURDER World of Labor: NURSES TO BE PAID POLICE ATTACK PARENT ROADBLOCK PEASANT PROTEST TENUOUS SITUATION AT TELECO Close-up: NEOLIBERALISM IN ACTION: PLANTAINS & CLAIRIN Stories: ADMINISTRATION PLAGUED PORT-AU-PRINCE, Oct. 19 - Across the country, the public administration - city halls, ministries and the state enterprises - is plagued by agitation and protests. Corruption scandals have gone unchecked, mismanagement wracks many sectors, and thousands of employees went for months without salaries. Those problems may also be amplified by the fact that the executive is on the verge of enacting the neoliberal measures that will effect thousands of employees in many sectors, through layoffs or privatization, which surely makes people nervous. In addition to the TELECO walkout over corruption charges [see p. 2], on Oct. 14 at Electricite d'Haiti recently fired employees fought with their replacements until shots were fired and police intervened. The ministries have problems, too. Although the nurses situation was solved [see p. 2], this week, employees at the Secretariat of Population demanding that the Secretary be fired for corruption clashed with his armed guards. The city administrations have problems, too. Last week again, employees of Carrefours blocked Route 1 leading out of the capital, tying up traffic for 10 hours. This week, the Ministery of Interior, which oversees all city administrations, finally paid the employees 10 of the 13 months they are owed. Today, the Cour Superieure des Comptes (the accounting court) asked the government to issue an "interdiction de depart" (interdiction from leaving) for the Delmas Mayor Patrick Norzeus and his treasurer, who are suspected in the misuse of funds. That administration has been paralyzed by internal discord almost from the day it took office. Similar rulings were issued for Carrefours officials after one million gourdes (about US$67,000) went missing. Last month, Port-au-Prince workers closed the cemetery and delivered a cadaver to the Minister of the Interior to protest their unpaid salaries. When the minister tried to convoke Mayor Emmanuel Charlemagne to discuss it, Charlemagne said "a minister cannot convoke an elected official" and shortly thereafter left on a trip to Canada. The current administration appears to be continuing in the same tradition of corruption that plagued the state in the past, even if the Cour Superieure des Comptes has recently gone after some of the coup d'etat's crooks, like Max Pean, head of that court during the coup, who was arrested on Oct. 12 on charges of selling state vehicles. (The justice system also laid its hands on another putschist this week: Reynold Georges of ALAH, the putschist-turned-democrat linked to the army and suspected of being linked to the CIA, was arrested on Oct. 15 for "plotting against the security of the state.") In the midst of this effervescence, the executive last week convoked Parliament to a special session so it could ratify the budget for the current fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1, but lawmakers have already complained about problems and irregularities, indicating the process will not be the quick one the Palace had hoped. Last year the budget took nearly ten months to pass. Rather than focusing on this unhealthy situation, Preval has spent much of the week at ceremonies, always occasions for demagogy: Oct. 14, the anniversary of the murder of Minister of Justice Guy Malary; Oct. 15, of the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and Oct. 17, of the murder of independence hero Jean- Jacques Dessalines. At the latter, held in Marchand Dessalines, Preval recalled Dessalines as the first Haitian coup d'etat victim and then, citing Dessalines' determination to distribute land to the ex- slaves (a determination which led to his assassination on Oct. 17, 1807), he pledged to begin the long-promised land reform and practically dubbed himself Dessalines' successor, saying "The unrealizable dream of Jean-Jacques Dessalines will be made concrete." What an imposter. Preval, in his attempt to capitalize on Dessalines, forgot that the general headed an army which struggled against colonialism and gave the country its independence and sovereignty. Preval's Haiti is still occupied, with his consent, by foreign soldiers, and has neocolonial tutors overseeing many aspects of its social, economic and political life. In this context, what kind of agrarian reform is he talking about? [PHOTO: PEOPLE AND CARS. CAPTION: Traffic backed up for miles in Carrefours, just south of the capital.] CIA AGENTS PLANNED MALARY'S MURDER PORT-AU-PRINCE, Oct. 12 - Recently released documents from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) say its agent, Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, the founder of the paramilitary death squad FRAPH (Front pour l'Avancement et le Progres Haitien), and Gen. Phillipe Biamby planned the murder of Minister of Justice Guy Malary, who was ambushed and killed, along with two others, three years ago on Oct. 14, 1993. The CIA document, released to the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which is filing a lawsuit against FRAPH on the behalf of one of its victims, Alerte Belance, is called "Haiti's Far Right: Taking the Offensive," and was written only two weeks after the slaying (Oct. 28). It says "in early to mid-October, Biamby and his associates coordinated the murder... with members of the Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement (FRAPH). [BLACKED OUT] FRAPH members Jodel Chamblain, Emmanuel Constant and Gabriel Douzable met with an unidentified military officer on the morning of 14 Oct. to discuss plans to kill Malary." The document exposes once again the duplicity and cynicism of the CIA and the entire U.S. government. U.S. officials knew or at least suspected that Biamby and Constant, who was on the CIA payroll at the time and continued to receive his monthly check up until the U.S. invasion in 1994, participated in the assassination of a government official, and still rewarded them for jobs well done: Constant safely protected from Haitian justice, free to live and work in the U.S. (as long as he does not talk about his association with the CIA), and Biamby flown, all-expenses-paid, to Panama. Attorney Michael Ratner of the CCR was stupefied by the revelations: "The U.S. continued to pay Constant, knowing full well he was responsible for the murder... They gave him their approval. They encouraged him to kill... The other implication is that the U.S. or CIA officials could have had a complicity in the murder." [IPS, trans. from French] In what appears to be standard "damage control," today an "unnamed CIA official" got in touch with Reuters, Inter Press Service (which broke the story) and other media to say that now, the CIA does not think Constant was involved, because the blacked out words say the source of that accusation, one of its own agents, is "untested." He could not explain why that word had been blacked out. However, he said the source for the first sentence (implicating Biamby and the entire organization of FRAPH) is "fairly reliable." With or without the supposed "damage control," the blood stains on the hands of the U.S. government are hard to miss. Whether or not its agent, Constant, was at the Oct. 14 meeting, the CIA admits that FRAPH, the death squad he formed, with U.S.-facilitated arms and U.S. encouragement, was directly involved, as were Biamby and other members of the Forces Armees d'Haiti (FADH). According to the CIA itself, members of the high command, including Biamby's direct superior and co-putschist Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, were also on the CIA payroll. In the meantime, the 160,000 pages stolen from FRAPH and Haitian army headquarters by U.S. soldiers two years ago are supposedly all at the U.S. embassy here. Embassy officials, apparently believing the Haitian people still trust their word, "promise" that the only changes made to the documents is that the names of U.S. citizens have been blacked out. The Haitian government has so far refused to accept the documents with the blacked out names. World of Labor: NURSES TO BE PAID PORT-AU-PRINCE, Oct. 8 - The protests and strikes by members of the Syndicat du Personnel Infirmier (SPI) over months of back salaries and raises owed to nurses and assistants at public facilities finally ended this week, but only after a group of nurses held a two-day sit-in/hunger strike at the Ministry of Health. Today SPI and the ministry signed an accord where the Ministry of Finance promised to pay the 29 million gourdes owed to personnel, and where the ministry agreed to consider raises for some categories of employees. The ministry also agreed to form a "mixed commission" that would include SPI members and other nurses, to give their input in health policy decision-making. POLICE ATTACK PARENT ROADBLOCK AUBERT, Oct. 7 - On Oct. 2, for a third time in recent months, the population of this small town blocked Route 1 which links Port-de- Paix with the rest of the country. This time however, rather than getting results from the authorities who have broken numerous promises, a special "Rapid Reaction" team of the Haitian National Police arrived and, without any warning, brutally arrested six or seven parents, many of them women. Several of those arrested were roughed up, and one was hit twice with a gun butt. (They were all later released.) "When they appeared, they did not negotiate with anyone. They just began to handcuff people and take apart the barricades," said one parent. "Everyone interprets this as an act of the former soldiers... there is no difference at all between them and the army. The police are defending the cause of the bourgeoisie and do not have anything to do with the cause of the popular masses." The intervention of police also shocked organizations in the region. "We do not pardon this act. The people fought to eliminate this stinking army... We ask all consequent organizations to remain vigilant to combat all ugly dishonest acts the Preval-Smart government is starting to do to the unfavored popular masses, especially the peasants," said Tet Kole Ti Peyizan Jan Rabel in an Oct. 4 press release. Despite the repression, parents remain mobilized and angry. For three months they have been asking the government to repair their school building, first constructed for some other purpose during the first American occupation (1915-1934) which is, according to one father, "not fit for a good pig." On Sept. 13, one representative of the Minister of Education came, and later a second. Both promised construction would start before school started. After the Oct. 2 incident, Sen. Elie Plancher went on the radio to promise that construction teams would come on Oct. 3 and 4. "Thursday, the people waited, they did not see anyone. Friday, the people waited, they did not see anyone. And that was when we blocked the road... We blocked it with force because, as we said on the radio, those people lied to the population. The population pays taxes like everyone... but ever since Haiti's first president, Aubert has never benefited from anything," a member of the parent committee told Haiti Info. The parents blocked the road again on Oct. 5 and 6, but travellers have been taking shortcuts on back roads. The government Delegate promised to represent their case in the capital if they would hold off blocking the road, but, parents said, he snuck back on a back road and "never said anything... He just wanted to demobilize the population." The parents committee temporarily called off the roadblock on Sunday (Oct. 6), but said their battle "will not end until we see construction begin on the school" and asked organizations in nearby localities to block cars taking short cuts "because the cause we are defending has to do with them too, as peasants, as poor people, as the exploited and unfavored class." PEASANT PROTEST CAMP PERRIN, Sept. 25 - Over 150 people marched here today to demand justice, to reject the government's willingness to negotiate with and pay former soldiers, and to demand that Minister of Justice Max Antoine be fired. The demonstrators, organized by the peasant association MOPEMS (Mouvman Peyizan Marceline Saut-Mauthurine), chanted, marched and sang as they went from the Catholic church of Marceline to the town square of Camp Perrin, a small town in the plains outside Les Cayes in the South department. "Today, we in MOPEMS decided to hold this demonstration to say, if we see macoutes and ex-soldiers in the streets, what will we do?" a march leader yelled into a megaphone. "Grab them!" shouted the crowd in unison. " We'll grab a hold of them and give them to the police, right?" "Yes!" "We say, we demand the firing of the Minister of Justice right away! Right?" "Yes!" "Rapidly so that we can get justice! For all those who died! And we say we will not negotiate with the ex-soldiers!" The marchers also demanded that the police force be cleaned out of all former soldiers, attaches, or members of the CIA-linked death squad FRAPH (Front pour l'Avancement et le Progres Haitien), and called for disarmament of all ex-soldiers and paramilitary members. "Down with the former soldier-macoutes!" the crowd's shouts filled the square. "Down with macoutes! Down with macoutes!" "Today we did not hold this demonstration for nothing. We left all of our work at home to come here... It's a warning we are giving to all macoutes! We want to show them, we are not sleeping. We are watching!" MOPEMS members are familiar with the lack of justice. During the coup, the secretary of the organization, Guy Netus, was taken away by a section chief and soldiers and beaten all the way from Camp Perrin to Les Cayes, where he died. MOPEMS members said have filed a legal complaint, and Netus' family has given their stories to the Commission for Truth and Justice, but until today "not one little finger has been lifted." MOPEMS recently experienced for whom the system "lifts its fingers" when a local grandon (large land-owner) tried to use the system to re-seize land MOPEMS says he has tried to steal from them many times. [See Haiti Info v.4 #21] (The three peasants arrested have been released, but the court has not rejected the grandon's claim.) "They killed Guy Netus! Until today we do not have justice for him!" the march leader shouted, and said peasants are not afraid of the former soldiers and macoutes. "We know they have guns in their hands... but us, the consequent militants in the country, we say 3 times, 7,077 times, we say down with all the former soldiers! We don't owe them anything. The government doesn't owe them anything! It's Michel Francois, Cedras who owe them!" He was then drowned out by enthusiastic shouts. TENUOUS SITUATION AT TELECO PORT-AU-PRINCE, Oct. 16 - Workers at TELECO, the telephone company, are back to work today after a 24-hour protest, but the TELECO employees union continues to demand the reinstatement of engineer Jean-Robert Bosse, who was fired by Director General Jean Jaunasse Elysee on Oct. 11 after he accused the director of corruption. The union also wants Elysee to resign. On Oct. 8 Bosse, in an open letter, accused Elysee of corruption, of sabotage, of signing unjustified contracts with foreign companies, of making TELECO lose US$12 million, and of mismanagement: "Instead of buying cables... you prefer, less than a month after your nomination, to take bids for 14 Jeeps... inappropriate for a public enterprise that cannot even repair a client's telephone." Elysee has responded saying he is going to sue Bosse for defamation, and that the deluxe four-wheel drive vehicles for the company's directors were important to maintain a "standard" and because TELECO receives foreign visitors. [From AHP] Close-up: NEOLIBERALISM IN ACTION: PLANTAINS & CLAIRIN Since taking office eight months ago, the Rene Preval government has not ceased its din in people's ears of promises to improve the country's "national production," and every few weeks, a minister visits a new project or announces a new program. But what Preval and his cabinet - where curiously, agronomy is the most popular career-choice - have failed to admit is that neoliberal policies enacted by the Jean-Bertrand Aristide government are already taking their toll on the nation's producers. Public attention and popular mobilization has been focused on privatization, but two years ago, Aristide and the 45th legislature had already accomplished many of the neoliberal reforms his government had promised in the "Paris Plan." Working quickly between Oct. 15, 1994, when U.S. troops deposited him on the lawn of the National Palace, and the end of the parliamentary session in February, 1995, and never once discussing publicly what the effects would be on hundreds of thousands of workers and peasants, the Lavalas government made Haiti a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) [see Haiti Info v.3 #17] and also cut tariffs on everything, including agricultural products. According to the Minister of Commerce, generally, tariffs of 35 to 50% went to 15%, those of 25 to 30% went to 10%, those of 15 to 20% went to 5% and the rest were cut to zero. (In July, parliament added tax to some products. For instance, it put a 10% tax on imported rice, so the total tax on rice is now about 19%.) While Haiti Info has already covered agricultural production and neoliberalism generally, a look at two recent cases offer a chance to hear from two new sets of victims - the banane (plantain) planters of the Plaine de l'Arcahaie, north of the capital, and the alcohol distillers from the Plaine de Leogane, to the south - and to see what they are doing to fight against government policies. Background: Sugar Saga Haiti used to be one of the hemisphere's top sugar producers, and still produced up to 90,000 MT a year at mid-century. But in a context of exacerbated competition between cane sugar from the tropics and heavily subsidized beet sugar mostly from Europe and North America, and due also to a lack of investment in infrastructure and modernization, Haitian production began to drop off. In fact, by the seventies Haiti had ceased to export sugar and was now importing to complete local consumption needs. By the eighties, the largest mill, HASCO, was in the hands of one of the bourgeoisie's most powerful families, the Mevs, in association with foreign capitalists, most notably American. The state had given the sugar mills the exclusive right to import sugar to make up for production shortfall, and when HASCO discovered it could make more profit importing than producing, little by little the company, which employed 3,200 workers year- round and double that during harvest season, as well as purchased cane from thousands of small growers, cut back. Finally, HASCO closed completely. The country's other mills, with antiquated production facilities and little government support, could not compete and, one by one, closed down too. Tens of thousands of planters, cutters and transporters all over the country were effected. However, cane is still grown here, and the associated industries provide jobs and revenues. In the Plaine du Nord, Plaine de Leogane, and Plaine de Camp Perrin in the south, small mills and distillers make sugar syrup, molasses, rapadou (a kind of artisanal sugar), and alcoholic beverages ranging from export- quality rum to clairins and other traditional drinks (cremasse, tafia, etc.) consumed by the mass of the population and sold at little tables on the street or in village squares. Some also make medicinal alcohol. Clairin and Faux Clairin Beginning about a month ago, members of the Association of Planters and Distillers of the Plain of Leogane (APDL) began to complain of an invasion of "faux clairin." APDL, which says it speaks for the 150-200 refiners and distillers in the plain who produce about 25 percent of the country's clairin, said that local clairin is being undercut by a product made by cutting imported ethyl alcohol with water and adding a little clairin for seasoning. A gallon of faux clairin sells for 20 to 25 gourdes, while a gallon of clairin sells for 50 gourdes. (APDL also claims the faux clairin is "toxic," but no cases of poisoning have been reported by the press.) "We don't know where it comes from but we know it is from outside, and that two people are bringing it in: Mevs and Boulos," Edner Desir of APDL told Haiti Info. APDL took their complaints to the Senate, and last week Senator Wesner Emmanuel went public, saying importers have been bringing in hundreds of barrels of alcohol, supposedly for medicinal purposes or for transformation and re-export, but instead have been using it to make faux clairin. He named businessman Fritz Mevs and Dr. Reginald Boulos, of Centres pour le Developpement et la Sante and Pharval laboratories (involved in the diethylene glycol scandal) as being involved. Neither Mevs nor Boulos have responded to the accusations, but whoever is doing the importing is serious about defending it, because this week a full-page statement (at the cost of about US$165) signed by an "agronomist" appeared in Le Nouvelliste extolling the virtues of "alimentary alcohol" as safer than alcohol produced at small distilleries, which could potentially cause "nerve lesions" and "varieties of paralysis." It also said that smaller distilleries use wood, causing deforestation, that imports raise state tax revenues, and approvingly concluded: "The most recent law voted by the parliament in favor of modernization shows well the new orientation of the state in terms of free competition." At an Oct. 11 press conference, Minister of Commerce Fresnel Germain confirmed that a large amount of alcohol has been coming in, but he also revealed it has been entering untaxed. (He would not name the importer, telling a reporter: "Why do you want to know the name of the importer? We are talking about things in general. I am as rational person. We are talking about principles.") Germain reported that, while the tariff on non-denatured alcohol was cut from 20% to 5% last year, for denatured alcohol (for medicinal uses) it stands at zero. He said he discovered: "Almost all importation of alcohol is called 'denatured' alcohol. That means everyone who imports alcohol could call it 'denatured alcohol' so they don't have to pay duties... It happens that [we] do not have a structure or laboratory that could make an analysis of products being imported." (Germain also said the faux clairin is not made with "toxic" alcohol [denatured alcohol]. But, as experienced with the diethylene glycol tragedy where over 62 infants died, the government does not check the quality of any consumer products, local or foreign.) But while the faux clairin's quality may not be the question, and the name of the importer is not certain, what is clear is that the beverage, sold by "mixers" in the Cite Soleil neighborhood (where the Mevs private wharf and the former HASCO plant are located), is undercutting local producers and putting in jeopardy hundreds of small mills and the thousands of people associated with them: growers, cutters, peelers, workers in the round-the-clock distilling teams. APDL had announced that if the Minister of Commerce did not stop the sale of faux clairin, it would block Route 2, linking Port-au- Prince with the entire southern half of the country, and search all trucks. Cargoes of faux clairin would be seized. On Oct. 17, one radio reported, it began the operation. The minister has responded by saying the Leogane planters have to "compete" and should not benefit from protection or have a "monopoly" on the alcohol market, ironically applying the word to hundreds of middle- and small-sized producers who may be up against one of the country's big monopolists. Arcahaie Banane Growers The plantain problem is similar: local production, which receives little or no government assistance or support, being undercut by imports. The plantain issue is also related to the cane issue, because when HASCO was still open, much of the Plaine de l'Arcahaie grew cane. Today, its 6,000 hectares are covered about 80% in plantains, the rest in vegetables. About 25% of plantains are eaten locally and the rest sold. According to the plantain growers, some 70,000 people's livelihoods depend on plantains. A 1987 study by the Department of Agriculture reported that "the predominant culture is plantain, followed by sugar cane. The profit from plantain is five to ten times higher than from other crops." Beginning a few months ago, plantain growers noticed that their produce was not being bought up as quickly. When they investigated, they found that Dominican plantains, often bigger due to better production conditions, were being sold in the capital. "We do not have a productivity that lets us compete with our neighbors," one grower explained, noting that, like the sugar mills and distilleries, techniques have been handed down for generations and are archaic. Recognizing that they have common problems, plantain growers invited the clairin producers, as well as the ministers of agriculture and commerce, to Cabaret, the biggest town in the region. As one said: "The problems are married. The only thing that separates us is 50 kilometers." Meeting in Cabaret Over 200 planters and distillers met in a cockfight arena in Cabaret on Oct. 15 to discuss their problems. Only Minister Germain came. Minister of Agriculture Gerald Mathurin, who until recently maintained a discourse calling for protection of national production and considered himself a "progressive" defendant of "alternative development," not only did not send a representative (he was out of the country), but has not even pronounced himself on the issues. The morning was a litany of pleas and demands from small, medium and large planters and distillers: "If the plantain is threatened, the life of everyone in the Plaine de l'Arcahaie is threatened... These Dominican plantains do not come in the night. They come in broad daylight. What are you going to do?" said one planter from the stands surrounding the pit where a table and microphone had been set up for the minister. Another listed the products Haiti no longer produces and said: "Haiti says 'This is enough!' We ask the minister, is Haiti not al-lowed to produce anything? Does everything we consume have to come from outside?" "The problem we have in the country is not only about clairin or plantain. We have a problem with our national production," said Lionel Fabian, who runs one of the larger clairin distilleries around Leogane. "First of all, there is our little creole pigs that were destroyed. They came with foreign pigs. The Creole pigs, you could give them banana leaves, little sticks, leaves. They came with a white pig, and poor people who themselves could not afford a concrete house, they were obliged to make a concrete house for the foreign pigs. Then, we had our factories that produced sugar. Sugar was our national production, because a long time ago we used to export sugar to other countries. The Darbonne factory [in Leogane] closed, we don't know why. The HASCO factory closed, we don't know why. The Welch factory in the Cape closed, we don't know why. Next, there is the cement factory that closed, and we don't know why. Then, there is the flour factory that closed. It used to sell us wheat bran for our pigs, that we used to buy for 15 gourdes; now it's 300 gourdes. After that, all those products that are not on the market, where do they come from? Foreign countries. And who has the monopoly on them? The people who used to produce sugar in the country... I remember from geography we studied in school that Haiti is a country that is 'entirely agricultural.' If we are an agricultural country, we are supposed to produce food for ourselves, right? If we have a government that is entirely made up of agronomists, I would assume those people would have thought of national production! That is what I have to say. Thank you!" "Everything you are saying here I would say if I were in your place," said Germain, who is from Arcahaie and tried to gain the audience's confidence by saying "When I am not a minister I am a plantain grower." (He left out his other career details: 25 years at the Inter-American Development Bank) Then Germain gave planters and distillers a lesson in mondialisation, saying Haiti joined the WTO, and that therefore tariffs were cut (the tariff on plantains went from 30% to 10%), and that, in any case, many people don't pay any tariffs at all. He also said, without explaining why, that Haiti's tariffs are lower than those of the Dominican Republic, and that "if Haiti had anything to export, it would be at a disadvantage." But, while he said he is personally is in favor of protecting local production, as a member of the WTO, the country cannot stop foreign products from entering. At last week's press conference, Germain had defended Haiti's quick entrance into the WTO and tariff cuts, holding up the March, 1995, tariff law and saying: "Haiti is always ahead, the first independent nation in Latin America... so Haiti, in March 1995, decided to enter into this movement, to reduce the customs tariffs, and therefore, reduce the protection of certain activities." But faced with hundreds of planters and distillers on Tuesday, Germain stepped back, and said he would look for ways to discourage plantain imports. He promised that at an upcoming Conseil des Ministres meeting, he would ask permission to enact barriers like health restrictions, or an obligatory quar-antine (that will cause the fruits rot, he said completely seriously) or by having customs officials demand paperwork that "market ladies will never be able to get together." But his promises were not enough. "The minister has not yet made the commitment to block Dominican plantains," one planter told the crowd. "They will find a way to jump over barriers. Dominican production is advancing and they need a place to sell, but my position is that we produce enough plantains for Haiti here in the country. What we want is a pure and simple interdiction!" The mayor of Cabaret, whom the planters did not even invite to the meeting, demanded to speak, but he quickly revealed the government line of dependence on "aid" and acceptance of neoliberalism. In an anguished voice he said: "You cannot flirt with protectionism or our money for projects will be cut off!" He was cut short by shouts of protest. "We are peasants. All peasant problems are our problems. Clairin has a problem. Rice has a problem. It is not just a plantain problem... If the government is going to take steps to protect national production, it should take some real measures and protect what we produce!" said another planter. The crowd cheered. Other planters made similar statements, and they resolved that they want nothing less than an interdiction, and that if nothing is done, in 15 days they will seize all Dominican products on route from the border to the capital. [PHOTOS: MAN WORKING WITH CANE AT A MILL, GERMAIN TALKING. CAPTIONS: One of the smaller of the Plaine de Leogane's 150-200 mills and distilleries. Minister Germain, in the pit of the cockfight arena, trying to justify his government's free trade policies.] ABOUT HAITI INFO: * Haiti Info is published every two weeks in Haiti by the Haitian Information Bureau, an alternative news agency. * All articles Copyright HIB. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED. Please cite Haiti Info and send copies of usage. * Haiti Info is available by mail. For subscriptions, other correspondence and help for journalists: Haitian Information Bureau, c/o Lynx Air, Box 407139, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 33340, USA. For electronic mail: hib@igc.apc.org.