African Union Offers to Help Aristide

[struggle4progress]

IPS/GIN
Originally posted 2/2/2005

The African Union’s chairman has called the Caribbean island of Haiti ''an African country outside Africa'' and said the Union is ready and willing to help restore democracy there, after the president was deposed last year.

Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare said that ''The AU wants to help create conditions in which a new government can be democratically elected in Haiti.''

He added, ''We want to create a framework for non-violent national dialogue and a situation where none of the political forces are excluded.''

Konare, who visited Haiti in December, made the announcements after meeting in South Africa with that country’s President Thabo Mbeki and ousted Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide, who has now settled there. <snip>

http://www.amsterdamnews.com/News/article/article.asp?NewsID=3688&sID=12

[sasquatch]

1. Isn't it funny that black people always have to stick up for eachother

Because no one else ever fucking will.

[Zhade]

4. Funny? No. Disgusting? Yes.

It's also terrible how even some Dems fell for the Big lie about the coup in Haiti.

[donheld]

6. This Dem fully believes the US led the Coup

No question in my mind.

[SemperEadem]

2. Good.. maybe a lasting, peaceful resolution can be reached

God knows the US hasn't done a damn bit of good there.

[poe]

3. Keep the Haiti Message Out There-Here's More on Haiti Solidarity in US

February 7 anniversary:
Conferences Planned to Organize Resistance

On February 7, 1986, Haitian "President-for-Life" Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier fled Haiti on a U.S. military jet, marking the end of the 29-year dictatorship established by his father, François or "Papa Doc."

This year, different groups from Haiti's pro-democracy movement will come together to hold two important gatherings in an effort to organize resistance to the February 29, 2004 coup, which has restored Duvalierist repression, corruption and servility in Haiti.

From February 4-6, a number of groups are organizing a conference entitled the "Bwa Kayiman Congress" at Trinity University in Washington, DC. Bwa Kayiman was the spot just outside Cap Haïtien where the vodou ceremony that launched the Haitian revolution in 1791 was held.

According to the call put out by the Congress organizers, their purpose is to "gather the different parts of the fighting force" and "the true friends of the Haitian people" struggling inside and outside of Haiti "to win back its national dignity and the return of democracy in Haiti." The Congress will seek to "define strategies of resistance, which can allow us to reinforce in Haiti and in the diaspora the mobilization for the return of democracy in Haiti and the recovery of national sovereignty." In short, the conference will work to "reconstruct the vast movement of solidarity with the struggle of the Haitian people."The Congress is seen as a follow-up to a similar meeting held on January 3, 2004 at the Aristide Foundation for Democracy in Port-au-Prince, where over 30 solidarity groups, media, and individuals gathered to discuss strategies to thwart the looming coup d'état.

On February 7, Bwa Kayiman Congress organizers will hold a press conference with Congressional Representatives Maxine Waters (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA) and John Conyers (D-MI) as well as former TransAfrica leader Randall Robinson and actor Danny Glover.

Meanwhile in Boston, the New England Human Rights Organization for Haiti (NEHROH) is organizing an evening of solidarity with the people of Haiti at the Boston School Bus Drivers' Union Hall in Roslindale, MA. Speakers will include Haitian activist and singer Farah Juste, Ronald St. Jean of the Committee for the Protection of the Rights of the Haitian People (CDPH), Kim Ives of the Haiti Support Network (HSN), and Pat Chin of the International Action Center (IAC). Judge Senat Fleury, who was recently forced to resign by Haiti's de facto Justice Minister, and School Bus union president Steve Gillis, who traveled to Haiti as part of a human rights delegation last September, will also speak.

The event is being held to draw attention to and help build solidarity with the Haitian people's struggle and to demand an end to the foreign military occupation, the immediate return of the democratically elected President, and the immediate release of all political prisoners.

Last September, the NEHROH along with the New York-based Haiti Commission of Inquiry conducted joint delegations to Haiti to inspect Haiti's prisons and speak with victims of political repression. The delegates interviewed dozens of political prisoners including constitutional Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, constitutional Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert, and singer/activist Annette "So Anne" Auguste.

The Bwa Kayiman Congress: will be held at the Trinity University Haiti Program, 125 Michigan Avenue, NE, Washington, DC 20017. Contact Kongrè Bwa Kayiman 2005, c/o Fondasyon Mapou, P.O. Box 33724, Washington, DC 20033-3724, Tel:[phone], Fax: [phone], eMail: [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail].. Organizations wishing to participate are being asked to ante up $100 and individuals $50 to cover organizing costs. The Boston Evening of Solidarity: will be held at the USWA Local 8751, 25 Colgate Road, Roslindale, MA. Contact Josué Renaud at 781-956-7417 or [e-mail]. A donation is requested.
www.haiti-progres.com

[Supersedeas]

8. great info...ty poe

[DulceDecorum]

5. They shall overcome.

This is going to be fun to watch.
The African Union has outlawed coups d'etat
and Condi is going to have her face fed to her if she dares open her mouth.

They managed to do to Aristide what they failed to do to Chavez.
But now, like a house of cards, it is going to fall down.

[Judi Lynn]

7. So glad to know people are rallying around Aristide. He was so abused

by _Bush's filthy, dishonest war against him.

Hope he has more than enough security around him at all times. No doubt people around _Bush would love nothing better than to find a way to knock him off, just to make a public example of someone who stood on his own two feet and didn't bow to _Bush.

He is loved by the majority of Haitians, for whom he has cared so many years, and served in complete humility. Not many leaders have that record.

You know they love him if they are STILL willing to leave their homes and demonstrate openly, knowing they are surrounded by mass murderers doing the will of people who are not truly Haitian.