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 On Feb. 4, a delegate from the 17th
World Festival of Youth and Students
hand-delivered to the United Nations
general headquarters in New York
a petition signed by 825 young people
from around the world calling for the UN
to withdraw its 13,000 occupation troops
– called the UN Mission to Stabilize Haiti
(MINUSTAH) – from the country and
pay “reparations” for “introducing cholera
into Haiti.” The petition also called
on the UN to “respect the right of Jean-
Bertrand Aristide and other political
leaders to return to Haiti.” Until now,
UN offi cials have echoed Washington’s
opposition to Aristide’s return. Since 1947, the anti-imperialist
World Federation of Democratic Youth
(WFDY) has organized the World Festival
of Youth and Students (WFYS) about
every four years in one of its 153 member
countries. The 17th Festival involved
over 15,000 youths from 126 countries
and was held in Pretoria, South Africa
from Dec. 13 - 21, 2010. Prior to the petition’s delivery to
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s
representatives, WFYS delegate Becca
Polk held a press conference across 1st
Avenue at the UN Church Center. A group of youths from Haiti, Ecuador,
Mali, Cuba, and the United States
got together “to discuss their concerns
about the brutality and lack of respect
for the Haitian people exhibited by the
international community, particularly
the United Nations, the US government
and military apparatus, and the
transnational and multinational corporations,”
Polk explained. “From these
political discussions arose a letter to the
Secretary General of the United Nations
Ban Ki-moon, concerning the self-determination
and survival of the Haitian
people.” Polk explained that the petition’s
signers were “against the occupation
by these same imperialist powers under
any name of aid, development or
assistance.” She also expressed “our
deep anger and sadness” that the US
government seeks “to hide its occupation
of Haiti under the disguise of a UN
peacekeeping mission and humanitarian
reconstruction.” Also speaking at the press conference
was Ray Laforest from the
International Support Haiti Network
(ISHN). “Haitians have a proverb,” he
said. “Bay kou bliye, pote mak sonje. It
means those that give the blows forget,
those that bear the scars remember.
And we want to remember. The Haitian
oligarchy and multinational, primarily
US, interests, do not want the type
of change that will benefi t the majority
of Haitians. They are attempting today
through the presence of Jean-Claude
‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier to rewrite history.
They want to pretend that the neo-fascist
system that is responsible for tens of
thousands of deaths and the incredible
psychological scar left on Haitians, just
never happened.” Laforest also said that “elections
under a military occupation cannot be
elections for the needs and in the interests
of the Haitian people. The so-called
leading candidates are only the extension
of the repressive system that exists
in Haiti.” Haitian community activist Frantz
Jerome also spoke, saying “we are very
happy to stand in solidarity with the
young people from around the world
who want to stand with Haitians.” He
denounced the “the spectacle of elections
organized by the US, OAS and Caricom,”
saying “the world has witnessed
the massive fraud that took place.” But,
“they added insult to injury by sending a
mission of so-called experts who decided
that they were going to extrapolate the
will of the Haitian people through some
statistical formula,” Jerome said. “We
say that it’s a sham.” He concluded by offering “thanks
to these young people who lead by reminding
us of simple ideals like freedom,
sovereignty and fairness.”
Following the press conference,
a delegation of New York Haitian activists
accompanied Polk across the street
where she delivered the hand-signed petition
to security personnel with liaison to
Ban Ki-moon.
Below is the complete text of the
petition. It has been translated and distributed
in Spanish, Arabic and French. Pretoria, December 21 2010 His Excellency Ban Ki-moon,
Secretary General of the United Nations, Two centuries ago, the Haitian
people began fighting for their freedom
from France. But France would not recognize
their independence without Haiti
paying reparations for its liberty over
the next 100 years. Then, when a Haitian
president for the fi rst time called for
restitution of the Haitian debt unjustly
imposed by the French government, he
was scandalously overthrown by North
American and French troops. After this coup d’état, Haiti was
invaded by UN military troops, led by
the United States. Since then, fratricide
has started. We consider this fratricide
because former Haitian soldiers are now
fighting against their own people. Moreover, MINUSTAH’s military
troops do not want to recognize that
the cholera epidemic that currently affects
Haiti was imported by them. This
fact was proven by the French epidemiologist
Renaud Piarroux. Cholera killed
more than 2,000 people in less than two
months and has infected a total of more
than 75,000 people. Due to the crises we are living in,
we demand the following: • Haiti needs “armies of doctors”,
who along with engineers and technical
expertise could help in the reconstruction
process, without acting out of any personal
interest. • We don´t need military troops
who only shoot people protesting for
their rights and who rape our women,
along with many other abuses.
We demand reparations for the
damage MINUSTAH has caused by introducing
cholera into Haiti. • The structure of aid must change
because the large number of NGOs in the
country are not helping to solve problems
in Haiti. People are tired of seeing
NGO employees driving fancy cars while
people are living in inhuman conditions. • All money that the international
community is sending for reconstruction
after the earthquake must be put into one
bank account that is owned by the people
of Haiti. Our people must participate
in the reconstruction and must know all
the projects. • We demand an end to transnational
and multinational corporations
leading the reconstruction process in our
country (for example, the “Haiti Hope
Project” with the Coca-Cola company
working in reconstruction projects), since
this not only contributes to decreasing
our quality of life but, more specifically,
enriches only a few, as it was in colonial
times. • We demand that the United Nations
respect the right of Jean-Bertrand
Aristide and other political leaders to
return to Haiti in order to continue with
Haiti’s democratic process.
Finally, we want to say that the
Haitian people will accept international
solidarity only if it is not militarized and
only if it is in the interests of really helping. Sincerely,
Young Haitians with the support
of the international community.
(Signed by 825 students from
countries as diverse as Bangladesh, Bolivia,
Brazil,
Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cuba,
Palestine, India, Libya, Morocco, Finland,
Norway, Democratic Republic of
Congo, France, England, Mozambique,
Sudan, South Africa, Syria, Sri Lanka,
Tanzania, Turkey, Zambia, Iraq, Egypt,
Ukraine, Venezuela, Vietnam, and
Western Sahara.) |
