Join people in 36 cities on four continents to mark the International Day in Solidarity with the People of Haiti.  The events will mark the 4^th anniversary of the coup in which US Marines kidnapped Haiti’s president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and replaced the democratically-elected government with UN forces.  Four years later, Haiti is under a UN-US occupation, and thousands of Aristide supporters have been killed or imprisoned.  The occupation has been marked by deepening poverty, arrest, rape, disappearance and murder.

Events will also protest the disappearance of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, co-founder of Fondasyon Trant Septanm which advocates for victims of the 1991 and 2004 coups d'états against Jean-Bertrand Aristide; Fondasyon members carry out weekly vigils demanding justice for victims of human rights violations and for the release of political prisoners.  Additionally the co-founder of Fondasyon Trant Septanm Wilson Mésilien has been forced underground.  International actions calling for Lovinsky’s safe return and  safety for Wilson Mésilien and others under threat have included weekly vigils and fasts in London, England, and other actions and fasters from Guyana, to Spain to Los Angeles.  

Haiti has been punished by colonial powers since the Haitian revolution of 1804 where the most powerful army of the day, Napoleon’s army, was defeated and led the way for the emancipation of those enslaved throughout the Americas.  Haiti gave refuge to Simon Bolivar, the liberator of Latin America, and provided ships and fighters. The Haitian people remain determined and are once again making a revolution.

Everyone Welcome * Donation $5, no one turned away * Translation into Spanish
All funds raised will go to support Haitian grassroots activists

LA event coordinated by the Women of Color in the Global Women’s Strike and GWS/LA
sponsors include ANSWER/LA, CISPES, Eastside Café, International Action Center 
For more info 323-276-9833, la@crossroadswomen.net, www.globalwomenstrike.net

The call for the 3^rd International Day in Solidarity with the People of Haiti has been initiated by the Haiti Action Committee.  International demands include:

• End the US/UN Occupation – Respect Haiti’s sovereignty  
• Free the political prisoners – No more illegal arrests or prolonged detention without charges
• No more killings and sexual abuse of the poor by UN troops, police and paramilitaries under police control
• President Aristide must be free to return to Haiti – Respect the Haitian Constitution
• No more ‘disappearances’ – Work for the rule of law and the safe return of kidnapped Haitian human rights advocate Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine 
• Launch an independent inquiry into the February 29, 2004 coup and forced removal of President Aristide
• Perpetrators of the coup and massacres of the poor must be brought to justice – Reparations for the victims 

 

 Haiti