HAITI: UN soldiers shoot at Haitian mourners outside church funeral for Father Jean-Juste

[magbana]

This is a note from the Haitian Lawyer Leadership Network. So, Bill Clinton, special envoy, welcome to Haiti.
magbana

The blood pours - UN soldiers shoot at Haitian mourners outside Church funeral
of Father Jean Juste in Haiti

Today, June 18, 2008, UN soldiers gunned down Haitian mourners outside the
Church - Port au Prince Cathedral - in Haiti during the funeral for Father Jean
Juste in Haiti. But undeterred by UN guns, Haitians continue to run towards the
darkness using their bodies, breath and soul to light the world with their
light - Liberty or death! Famous Haitian artist, Zap Zap, has been reported
arbitrarily detained, arrested and transported to location unknown. In the
fracas, the people immediately took the body of Father Jean Juste to protect it
from being vandalized because when mourners where coming out of the Church, the
UN started shooting. The people also picked up the body of a young man who was
killed in front of the Church by UN soldiers and marched it to the front of the
National Palace despite the fact that they were being shot at by the UN
soldiers to prevent their getting there. There are reports of lots of cars
being overturned and burned in Port au Prince. Radio Ginen radio has been
reporting and broadcast these events live.

The caravan of mourners are on their way to the cemetery from Port au Prine
to Kavayon, which is two hours away. It is expected more Haitians will die
behind occupation-force bullets before the day is over and Father Jean Juste is
laid to rest at the cemetery...

No major news outlet is reporting any of this, as per usual.

Ezili Danto/HLLN
2:10 Eastern Time
June 18, 2009
*

[magbana]

1. Update from Kevin Pina, Haiti Information Project on UN shooting

HIP - Port au Prince, Haiti -One protestor was killed as UN forces open fire during a funeral for Catholic priest Father Gerard Jean-Juste. A human rights advocate and well-known supporter of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his Lavalas movement, Jean-Juste died on May 27 in a Miami hospital from complications following a stroke and long respiratory illness.

Eyewitnesses report today's shooting incident involving the UN began after mourners began chanting slogans for the return of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide outside of Haiti's national cathedral.

One of the protestors was seen inadvertently passing through a security barrier erected by UN forces and was detained. As the UN arrested him hundreds more rushed past the barrier and resumed chants for Lavalas and Aristide.

According to witnesses, UN troops on the scene began shooting indiscriminately at the crowd killing a young man identified only as "Junior" from the neighborhood of Solino.

Hundreds more protestors then took the body of the victim to the front of Haiti's National Palace where they began chanting, "Down with Preval" and "Long live Aristide."

Widespread disillusionment with Haitian president Rene Preval and the UN occupation force has grown discernibly over the past year. Members of Fanmi Lavalas, Haiti's largest political party were barred from participating in the last Senate election and organized a successful boycott called "Operation Closed Door." Today's shooting comes days before a second round of elections scheduled for Sunday. Fanmi Lavalas has announced a second boycott to protest their exclusion from the electoral process.

The incident involving the UN was captured live and streamed over the Internet by Tele-Ginen, a Haitian television station located in Port au Prince.




The Haiti Information Project (HIP) is a non-profit alternative news service providing coverage and analysis of breaking developments in Haiti.

Winner of the CENSORED 2008 REAL NEWS AWARD for Outstanding Investigative Journalism

For further information about the Haiti Information Project (HIP) visit: http://www.teledyol.net/HIP/about.html
Contact: [email protected]

If you wish to be removed from this list please contact us at the above email address.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Kicking.

:kick:

[magbana]

2. AP: "Marchers Accuse UN of Shooting at Haiti Funeral

Marchers accuse UN of shooting at Haiti funeral

By JONATHAN M. KATZ – 17 minutes ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Gunfire broke out during a funeral procession Thursday for a popular Haitian priest, killing a man and prompting angry protests that could inflame government opponents with only days to go before elections in the troubled nation.

Marchers accused U.N. peacekeepers of killing the unidentified man during protests surrounding the funeral of the Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, who was a close ally of exiled former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The protesters are incensed by the presence of foreign troops on Haitian soil. U.N. peacekeeping spokeswoman Sophie Boutaud de la Combe said the shooting was under investigation and that an autopsy would be quickly carried out.

There has been no evidence produced that would definitively prove who shot the man. None of the protesters were seen holding guns and the shooting took place on a busy thoroughfare intersected by multiple cross-streets and alleys.

Jean-Juste was a Roman Catholic priest known as an advocate for the poor, both in Haiti and in Miami, where he led the Haitian Refugee Center. Mourners sang pro-Aristide songs and slogans throughout the ceremony, which was officiated by Haiti's archbishop.

The shooting happened as about 2,000 people were carrying Jean-Juste's flag-draped coffin to the presidential palace to protest President Rene Preval's policies and his failure to bring Aristide back from South African exile.

Witnesses said some marchers had thrown rocks at Brazilian U.N. peacekeepers shortly before gunshots rang out, causing a panic and leaving one marcher dead in a pool of blood.

"He was our brother, and they killed him," said a sobbing man who said he saw the shooting.

Most of Jean-Juste's mourners continued on to the palace gates, unaware of the death at first. The casket was loaded into a hearse, to be carried to his birthplace in rural Cavaillon.

But as word of the shooting raced through the crowd, some mourners began smashing the windows of cars and buildings. Four men then carried the dead protesters's body to the palace, laying it onto the same spot where Jean-Juste's casket had been minutes before, and screaming for Preval to resign.

Haitian riot police moved in with shields and batons to make way for a police ambulance to remove his body. U.N. peacekeepers stood by across the plaza.

The shooting follows four weeks of protests led by medical students against the elimination of some classes from school curriculum, in favor of an increase in Haiti's minimum wage and against the 9,000-member U.N. force that has been in Haiti since Aristide's departure in 2004.

On Wednesday, student protesters attacked and burned a U.N. police vehicle.

Student-led demonstrations have preceded several recent upheavals, including the 2004 rebellion that ousted Aristide and the 1986 overthrow of dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier.

Jean-Juste died in early June at a Miami-area hospital following complications from a stroke and respiratory problems. He was 62. He was known for fighting on behalf of migrants in Florida.

He later returned to Haiti and was arrested in 2005 on suspicion of playing a role in the kidnapping and slaying of a prominent Haitian journalist. He denied any involvement, noting he'd been in Miami at the time of the killing. International human rights groups called the charges politically motivated.

While he was in jail, Aristide's party registered Jean-Juste as its candidate for president. But the party was not allowed to run in 2006, instead throwing its support behind Preval, who had been Aristide's prime minister. Lavalas supporters now consider Preval a traitor for failing to return Aristide from his South African exile.

The government released Jean-Juste from prison in 2006, prompting his return to Miami. Charges against him were later dropped, and he visited Haiti often in recent years, leading some 3,000 people in the capital's Cite Soleil slum in a rally for Aristide's return last April.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iRCWtpaArIsRHBHvoxPNCpREN5xQD98TB0VO0

Brian Concannon Jr., Esq.

Director

Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti

P.O. Box 745

Joseph, OR 97846

541-432-0597

541-263-0029 (cell)

[email protected]

www.HaitiJustice.org

Skype: Brian.Concannon

[Judi Lynn]

3. Kicking, to read later tonight.

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[magbana]

5. Mourners at Jean-Juste's Funeral Accuse Catholic Church/Haitian Leaders of Complicity in his Death

Pics and lengthy article.

June 18, 2009
Mourners at Father Gerard Jean-Juste’s funeral accuse Catholic church, Haitian leaders of complicity in his death
‘Look at what Haiti’s tyrants did to me!’ said the priest who could have been president*: Haitian oligarchy jailed him, Catholic church denied him health coverage, hospital denied him care, Miami Herald denigrated his memory.'

http://www.sfbayview.com/2009/mourners-at-father-gerard-jean-juste%e2%80%99s-funeral-accuse-catholic-church-haitian-leaders-of-complicity-in-his-death/

[magbana]

6. First Hand Account of UN Shooting at Unarmed Haitians at Fr. Jean-Juste Funeral

Report From My Trip To Haiti - UN gun down the unarmed and a mourner at Father
Jean Juste's Haiti funeral

From Jack Lieberman | Source: Email, Friday, June 19, 2009 1:41 AM

Dear Friends,
I have just returned to my hotel room in Port Au Prince from a long trip to the
Haitian countryside where we buried my longtime friend Father Gerard Jean-Juste
in his hometown of Cavaillon.

What occurred at the end of Father Jean-Juste's funeral at Port Au Prince's
Cathedral, this morning before my trip, was a crime committed by the so-called
UN peacekeepers who attacked a peaceful funeral procession in an attempt to
arrest a prominent Aristide supporter, Yvone Zapzap, who was attending the
funeral. I was in the crowd where the incident occurred moments earlier and it
was a completely peaceful event with the crowd reflecting Father Jean-Juste's
belief that Haiti's democratically elected president Jean Bertrand Aristide
must be returned to Haiti.

According to several eyewitnesses, when members of the funeral procession
blocked the provocative attempt to arrest Zapzap, the UN troops became enraged
and one of them shot one of the attendees of the funeral at point blank range.

This outrageous attack on a peaceful funeral procession mournimg the passing of
a leading Haitian human rights activist should be protested against
internationally. We must demand that Bill Clinton, the UN's newly appointed
Representative overseeing their Haitian operations, take immediate action to
investigate this criminal attack and to insure that it is not repeated. Please
read the articles below, which were written earlier today, for more information
on this latest attack on Haiti's struggle for justice and democracy.

Best Regards,
Jack Lieberman

[magbana]

7. PHOTOS: Being arrested by UN soldiers is a death sentence

As you view pics and read stories about Haiti, you might want to take into consideration what an arrest by UN "peacekeepers" really means. In the two years that followed Aristide's kidnapping the "peacekeepers" routinely handed Aristide supporters over to the Haitian National Police who handed them directly to the death squads. Haitians know that if arrested by the UN they will either be ultimately killed or languish in jail indefinitely without charge or an attorney. There are still people in Haitian prisons today who were arrested the day after Aristide's kidnapping in 2004 who have never been charged with a crime. And, I imagine five years in a Haitian jail is enough to make you wish you were dead.

So when being arrested in Haiti, a very natural inclination is to resist and by-standers, primarily women, have been known to get up in the face of the peacekeepers doing the arresting. Everyone knows that an arrest is most often a death sentence. Unfortunately, it is these particular scenes that find their way to the media and to the UN Security Council when considering renewal of MINUSTAH's mission in Haiti.

Everything must be viewed in context.

Two photos and article:

Photo of Aristide supporter,Zapzap, in chokehold by UN soldier in process of being arrested.

Photo of dead Haitian murdered by UN peacekeepers

http://www.dominionpaper.ca/weblogs/stuart_neatby/2734

[Billy Burnett]

8. I guess that without a large middle upper class to twitter this, it's not news.

:(

Thanks for posting these most upsetting stories.

[Judi Lynn]

9. If something seems familiar about this unforgiveable tragedy, it's because a School of the Americas

graduate shot down Archbishop Romero in El Salvador, then, when people came to attend his funeral, the military shot down people outside the church. There were even shoes left on the ground after people ran for their lives from the soldiers' fire.

To know they went to the trouble to do this at Father Jean's funeral tells you NOTHING has improved in the world in countries which have no strong government which is on the side of the people. The predators are still stalking the weak, helpless, and frightened angels of the human race.

One day the poor majority of the world WILL be united. It's even prophesided in the Christian Bible, over and over and OVER.
The violent, envious, greedy, hate-driven assholes among us from the "Christian" professing right-wing need to pick up their "Good Book" again, and this time, try to read the damned thing. It does NOT support greed and hatred, nor does it support their filthy contempt for the poor, and the powerless.

The world is crying out for more good people to come forward, even knowing they most likely will spend their whole lives living for the betterment of the people, and knowing there's every chance they will be persecuted beyond mind itself by common criminals who have seized power and use it to torment, discourage, terrorize good people.