[UPDATE: Kevin Pina and Jean Ristil were ordered freed without charges on September 12, 2005, according to the AP — ZNet Editors.]
Getting accurate information about what is going on in the impoverished and embattled country of Haiti is next to impossible. The mainstream U.S. reporters stationed in Haiti don’t even keep up the pretense of objectivity, printing outright lies from government officials, corrupt police, and fascist business leaders. Often times they simply parrot the distortions of the local media, which is largely owned by right-wing elites. However, there has been one voice that for years has been bringing some semblance of sanity and balance to American audiences about this country, all while facing numerous threats and attempts on his life: Kevin Pina. Kevin’s courageous journalism is often times the sole source of information for those of us who seek to inform others about reality in Haiti. But as of around 5:00 PM last Friday, Kevin Pina has been languishing in a Haitian prison, his life in the hands of murderous thugs masquerading as the law.
As far as we know, this is how events unfolded. The Haitian police are currently holding Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste, a prominent progressive leader, on trumped up charges. It is alleged, among other things, that he returned from a trip to Florida with an arsenal of weapons to foment some sort of insurrection. The charges are ridiculous, and Amnesty International has labeled him a ‘prisoner of conscience.’ On Friday, Haitian police showed up at Father Jean-Juste’s presbytery and began searching and ransacking the building. As is often the case, the policemen were wearing black masks, and intimidating the people in the church, which included a group of children.
Once local journalists received word of the raid, they showed up at the church to record what was going on. Kevin Pina was among them. He began questioning the police, who said something to the effect of, ‘We are tired of you California troublemakers.’ Soon after, Pina and Haitian journalist Jean Ristil were arrested. Pina has been accused of striking the judge who accompanied the police on their raid, a charge which he denies. In all likelihood, the police went to the church to plant some sort of incriminating evidence against Father Jean-Juste, which they would later claim they ‘discovered’ in a search of his presbytery.
This is not the first time Kevin has been harassed and threatened by the right-wing thugs and death squads in Haiti, and the Haitian police have proven that they will kill American citizens just as easily as they kill their own people. Last year they brutally murdered a young American citizen named Cassey Auguste because they suspected he had political sympathies with Lavalas, the party of the deposed, democratically-elected president, Jean-Bertarnd Aristide. In truth, Auguste was apolitical. They killed him because he wore his hair in dreadlocks, which is sometimes taken to be a statement of political radicalism, and the fact that Lavalas Party members frequented his mother’s business. If they’ll kill an American citizen on grounds as tenuous as this, I have little doubt that they will harm Kevin, whose political sympathies and activism are widely known. His American citizenship, white skin, and high profile as a journalist are likely the only things keeping him alive at this moment.
Kevin’s arrest is simply the latest case in an ongoing assault on the freedom of the press in Haiti that has been occurring ever since the coup government took power, with the backing and active support of the Bush administration, Canada, and France. Immediately following the coup many journalists were beaten or killed, and had their offices and buildings ransacked. Others were forced to flee into the hills to escape persecution.In more recent weeks, the government has begun to officially sanction attacks on the press, whereas it had formerly turned a blind eye to abuses by the police and their death squad co-conspirators. According to an August 3 story in AHP, ‘A dozen media organizations in the capital, including radio and television stations, have decided to observe a day without news broadcasts this Friday, August 5, to protest against a communiqué issued by the Council of Ministers calling for sanctions against media accused of ‘serving as a vehicle for a pernicious dual language, for hate speech’ and of offering a microphone to people accused of being ‘bandits.”
The increase in attacks on journalists in Haiti is commensurate with an increase in the assault on pro-democracy advocates and the poor. The National Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, for example, documented 169 killings in May and June, and you can bet that is a major undercount over the overall amount of deaths. With elections on the horizon, Haiti’s U.S.-controlled puppet government wants to stamp out any notion the Haitian people may have about electing another progressive leader in the mold of President Aristide (such as Father Jean-Juste). They need to silence the voices of people like Kevin so that their campaign of terror will go unnoticed by the international community. One cannot expect MINUSTAH, the UN forces, to do anything about it. In fact, the UN forces have been complicit in the murders, kidnappings, and rapes of countless Haitian citizens. Far from being a ‘stabilizing’ or ‘humanitarian’ force, the UN’s role in Haiti has been characterized by some of the worst forms of colonial savagery. According to a Harvard report, ‘MINUSTAH has effectively provided cover for the police to wage a campaign of terror in Port-au-Prince’s slums. Even more distressing than MINUSTAH’s complicity in HNP abuses are credible allegations of human rights abuses perpetrated by MINUSTAH itself.’
These are the kind of stories that we in America would likely never hear about if not for people like Kevin Pina. I’m not given to public begging, but I implore whoever may be reading this to please, please call or write some of the numbers and addresses included at the bottom of this article and demand the release of Kevin Pina, Jean Ristil, and all of Haiti’s other poli tical prisoners. I know that with the catastrophe in New Orleans and the War in Iraq, Haiti probably isn’t even on your mind right now. But the events in Haiti are a product of the exact same Bush league racism and imperialism that have caused the horrors we see today in New Orleans and have seen in the Middle East for the past several years. I challenge all progressives across the world to not ignore Haiti in the same way Bush ignored New Orleans. For all we know, the lives of many good people are hanging in the balance right now, and your action could very well make a difference.
Call and write the United Nations: 212-963-4879, [email protected]
UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)
PHONE: 011.509.244.9650.9660
FAX: 011.509.244.9366/67
Or, Fax, Office of General Secretary (New York) – 212.963.4879
For other contact information see:
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignone/presswork/freepina.html
Justin Felux is a writer and activist based in San Antonio, Texas. He can be reached at [email protected]
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