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 This
Jul. 28, 2016
marks 101 years since Yankee occupiers
landed in the nation liberated by former slaves
from the French colonial system in 1804. The
brutal U.S. military occupation of Haiti lasted
19 years, from Jul. 15, 1915 to Aug. 21, 1934.
The occupation left deep scars on Haiti’s
economy, environment, culture, and politics. It
plundered the country’s financial and natural
resources. Like the 150 gold franc “independence
debt” that France extorted from Haiti, the
occupation added another burden on Haiti, which
was only 111 years old when invaded.
"The U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915-1934)
was one of the most savage,” wrote Saint-John
Kauss of the first U.S. occupation of Haiti. “
Nearly 50,000 men and women died from this
invasion by Uncle Sam. The irresponsibility of
the Haitian ruling class had forced various
oppressed and angry social classes to use
violence to advance their interests."
Haitian patriots of the day did not
remain indifferent to this affront to their
sovereignty. Resistance movements were formed
quickly to liberate the country. The brave
soldier, Charlemagne Péralte, became the head of
the Caco movement. The occupiers carried out a
bloody crackdown on peasant movements, killing
about 5,500 Haitians in three years.
The Marchaterre massacre, forced labor
and deportation of the unarmed population, mass
expropriation of peasants and Cacos, theft of
the Haitian Central Bank’s gold reserves, valued
at over $500,000: this was the record of 19
years of occupation and imperialist domination
of Haiti in the early 20th century.
Since the centennial of the 1915 occupation last
year, Haitian social movement organizations have
launched various activities to raise awareness
about that era’s crimes. This year, on the
initiative of the Patriotic Democratic Popular
Movement (MPDP), MOLEGHAF, the Organization of
Slaves in Revolt, and other progressive popular
organizations, a popular tribunal will be held
at the Vincent Gymnasium in Port-au-Prince on
Thu., Jul. 28, to symbolically put on trial the
perpetrators, co-authors, and accomplices of
these heinous and abominable crimes. There will
also be a march to denounce the current UN
military occupation, and the U.S. and French
domination and exploitation of Haiti, which has
gone on for too long. Demonstrators will march
from Fort National to the Vincent Gymnasium. |
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U.S., French, and Canadian
troops militarily occupied Haiti on Mar. 1,
2004, the day after they had colluded in the
kidnapping-coup of Feb. 29, 2004 against the
democratically elected president. UN troops took
over the occupation on Jun. 1, 2004, for a stay
that was supposed to be only six months. Twelve
years later, the troops remain.
The
objectives and consequences of this new
occupation are not too different from that of a
century ago. The record of the United Nations
Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) is
already very bad: thousands of Haitians have
been murdered, troops have committed robbery and
rape, they imported a cholera epidemic which has
killed more than 10,000 and sickened close to
one million. Until today, cholera victims have
received no reparations or justice despite
multiple legal suits brought on their behalf.
But the victims are not discouraged. They
continue to demand justice and redress through
sit-ins organized in front of the U.S. Embassy
in Haiti every Thursday.
So the struggle continues not only to try
former occupiers but also to obtain justice and
reparations. After 100 years of imperialist
occupation and domination, Haiti continues to
resist. As the Cuban revolutionary leader,
Commander Fidel Castro said: "In an oppressed
country, even the dead cannot rest in peace."
After a century of on-and-off military
occupation, is it not time that Haiti fully
recovers its independence and sovereignty? |
