 |
| Amaral Duclona speaks to journalist Kevin Pina in a
secret location. Duclona is accused by the UN, the National Police of
Haiti (PNH), and Haitian business leaders of being the top gang leader
in Cite Soleil, and is number 1 on the PNH's most wanted list. Duclona
described himself as a political militant, who defends the rights of the
people of Cite Soleil. |
February 1, 2006
HIP - Port au Prince, Haiti — Amaral Duclona is Haiti's most wanted man.
That is, the most wanted by the U.S.-installed de facto government. His
name
flashes across television screens throughout the capital each night
along
with those of twelve other men accused as "bandits" in the sprawling
seaside
slum of Cité Soleil.
Amaral is in fact the leader of the anti-coup and anti-occupation
resistance in Cité Soleil. He has taken up the mantle of his fallen
friend and comrade, Emmanuel "Dread" Wilmer, who was
gunned down by U.N. troops last July.
The U.S.-installed government and Haiti's elite now charge Amaral with
killing Canadian police officer Mark Bourque in Cité Soleil last
December. He vehemently denies the accusation.
Cité Soleil is home to over 300,000 Haitians who live in abject poverty.
Children play among mountains of garbage and open sewage canals. Most
are
malnourished, as their parents, unable to find work amidst 80%
unemployment,
try desperately to keep their families alive.
Cité Soleil is also a bastion of support for ousted President
Jean-Bertrand
Aristide. In his first successful bid for the presidency in 1990,
Aristide
announced his candidacy in this shantytown. Following the violent
military
coup against Aristide on Sep. 30, 1991, Cité Soleil took the brunt of
violence meted out by Gen. Raoul Cédras' military dictatorship. During
that
three year coup, the Haitian army in league with the CIA-funded
paramilitary
death squad known as the Front for Advancement and Progress in Haiti
(FRAPH)
slaughtered thousands and burned down whole neighborhoods in the slum.
After President Aristide was ousted a second time on Feb. 29, 2004,
Haitian
police and paramilitary units made armed forays into Cité Soleil while
occupying U.S. Marines did nothing to intervene. But soon, young men
formed
community self-defense brigades which began shooting it out with the
police
and paramilitaries, effectively driving them from the slum.
Even before the deployment of the U.N. Mission to Stabilize Haiti
(MINUSTAH), Cité Soleil and other neighborhoods like Bel Air and Solino
became launch pads for massive demonstrations demanding Aristide's
return.
The Haitian police's brutal SWAT teams bloodily repressed these
protests,
while MINUSTAH forces stood by.
The massive demonstrations belied mainstream press reports that Aristide
had
lost popular support and embarrassed the Washington-parachuted
government of
Prime Minister Gérard Latortue and the MINUSTAH. The U.N. force's
stated purpose was to restore stability and democracy to Haiti. But
Haiti's
poor majority increasingly saw them as an army of foreign occupation
bent on
propping up a client government and crushing their movement.
As gun battles intensified between Lavalas' armed followers and the
Haitian
police, the MINUSTAH intervened to crush opposition in Bel Air and to
contain Cité Soleil. Large cargo containers and concrete barriers were
placed on all of Cité Soleil's major entrances, isolating the shantytown
from the rest of the capital. U.N. troops searched men, women and
children
entering and leaving the neighborhood.
At the same time, the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID) began pacification programs designed to win the hearts and minds
of
Cité Soleil residents and undermine their resistance.
In Bel Air, the U.N. troops crushed and bought off the armed anti-coup
groups while setting up military posts throughout the hillside
neighborhood.
Meanwhile, the UN and USAID began sponsoring so-called community
development
projects, concerts and soccer matches.
The only "community development" organization first allowed into Cité
Soleil
was working hand-in-hand with USAID. Yele Haiti was founded by the
famous
Haitian hip-hop musician, Wyclef Jean. He asked residents of Cité Soleil
to
accept the occupation and let go of demands for Aristide's return. His
call
fell on deaf ears.
One of those most critical of Wyclef Jean's USAID-backed efforts was a
young
man raised in Lafanmi Selavi, an orphanage for street children founded
by
Father Aristide in 1986. Emmanuel "Dread" Wilmer led an armed force of
about
150 young men in Cité Soleil determined to resist incursions by the
Haitian
police and what he called "the foreign occupiers." The elite-owned
Haitian
press, the U.S.-installed government, and MINUSTAH all condemned Wilmer
as a
"bandit" and "gang leader" without any political ideals. Some 400
MINUSTAH
troops killed him along with four of his lieutenants in a bloody
pre-dawn
raid on July 6, 2005. The UN troops also killed untold dozens of unarmed
residents in the attack.
In the months since Wilmer's death, Cité Soleil residents have
complained of
coming under constant fire by the MINUSTAH's 1500-man Jordanian force
which
surrounds the shantytown. The U.N. troops indiscriminately fire on the
population, residents say, in an effort to terrorize and cow the
community.
Heavily armed Jordanian and Brazilian units escort work crews which put
up
posters exhorting the population to stop "associating with criminals."
Nonetheless, MINUSTAH has recently admitted that the so-called "armed
gangs"
enjoy the support of the majority of Cité Soleil's population.
Cité Soleil has also become a large base of support for presidential
candidate Rene Garcia Preval. Aristide's first prime minister in 1991
before
the coup, Préval went on to be elected president from 1996 to 2001. He
now
commands a large lead in the polls just a week before Feb. 7 elections.
Haiti's electoral council announced last week that there will be no
polling
stations in Cité Soleil. Residents will have to walk miles to cast their
votes. Cité Soleil's armed groups have announced that they will
accompany
those who want to vote to the polls.
Haiti Information Project founding editor Kevin Pina recently spent two
days
in Cité Soleil and managed to negotiate this exclusive interview with
Amaral
Duclona about the current situation in Haiti.
Kevin Pina interviews the most-wanted man in Haiti: Amaral Duclona
KP: Amaral, let's start by letting people know who you are and where you come from.
AD: My name is Amaral Duclona.
I wasn't born in Cite Soleil, but I was born on a road close to Cite
Soleil named Chancerel. I was born on October 20, 1979. I am currently
27 years old.
I went to school in Cite Soleil, and I went to school in downtown Port
au Prince.
KP: So describe the general situation as you see it in Cite Soleil
today.
AD: Today we find ourselves in a situation where Cite Soleil is full of
misery.
Where they say people are killing each other in Cite Soleil. Supposedly,
we are all "bandits" or "gangs."
But it is actually this misery I speak of that is destroying the people
of Cite Soleil.
Today we are working with the population of Cite Soleil, to see how we
can help them get out from underneath the misery that they are in. We
have no problem working with the local community and we invite the
international community to help us get out of this misery.
KP: But what about those who accuse you of violence? Those who say there
is no role for people like you to play in helping Cite Soleil?
AD: There is a well-defined sector working for the bourgeoisie inside of
Cite Soleil that doesn't want poor people to get out from underneath
their predicament. It comes from the base of a real gangster who said
he was Lavalas but betrayed the cause and started accepting bribes from
Apaid and Boulos.
And we can understand that and now how they turn this around on us.
When Dessalines was fighting, they did not understand the fight of
Jean-Jacques Dessalines.
When Toussaint Louverture was fighting, they didn't understand him. And
when, by the same token, Charlemagne Peralte, they didn't understand the
fight of Peralte and the U.S. marines killed more than 50,000 people who
were known as Cacos opposing the American occupation of Haiti.
After many years, they came to see that Peralte, was a man of the
struggle, was a man among militants, who was defending the Haitian
population. For that reason the U.S. marines killed him.
It is for that reason that today, us, we are struggling, but this for a
people who are in misery.
KP: The U.N. and the U.S.-installed government portray you and Dread
Wilmer as unintelligent thugs and gangsters. That you are devoid of any
political agenda and are merely common criminals. How do you respond to
them?
AD: Today, they say that Dread Wilme and I are "criminals" without any
intelligence.
And everyone must think that the death of Dread Wilme was something that
would bring peace to the country.
We proved to them that Dread Wilme was never ever a bandit, never a
criminal, the same way as me, I was never a bandit, I was never a
criminal.
We are political militants who are struggling to defend our rights, and
to defend the rights of everyone and especially the people of Cite
Soleil.
In this country, in the country of Haiti, everyone who is struggling to
defend their rights, they always demonize them through name-calling.
They call them "criminals," they call them "assassins." Just as they
did to Dread and they are doing against me and other Cite Soleil
militants today.
But if we were in the interests of the bourgeoisie sector, with
MINUSTAH, if that were the case, then we would be cast as "good
people," we would be the "best people" for them. It's total hypocrisy
and propaganda to justify the slaughter.
We are not fighting for the interests of the U.N. and the sector of the
bourgeoisie they are propping up. We put the misery of the Haitian
people foremost in our interests and struggle for them. It is for that
reason that they treat us as criminals and assassins and are trying to
destroy us.
Criminals cannot survive in Cite Soleil because an already abused people
will not accept more abuse. If we are able to survive today it is
because the population in Cite Soleil supports us because they know we
are defending their interests. If they are calling us "poor criminals"
then fine, because we are in misery, so they are right but we are not
criminals. What is criminal is that the U.N. works with the very same
sector of our society that created this misery in Cite Soleil in the
first place. If they define opposing this crime as banditry, then we
ask them to really look at Haitian history. Didn't the U.S. marines
call Charlemagne Peralte and the Cacos "bandits" because they opposed
the foreign occupation of Haitian soil? We, in Cite Soleil, who are
fighting are trying to change the conditions of the people in Cite
Soleil.
KP: What impact does the memory of the slaughter committed against the
people of Cite Soleil by the military following the 1991 coup against
Aristide serve today? Has it had an impact and does it reflect in your
struggle today?
AD: The massacres of the military, the ex-military, the Haitian army,
that were committed against Cite Soleil. That had a large impact.
Because there were many people that died or lost their families.
There are many people, who have never seen justice for the acts
perpetrated by military. And today people see what MINUSTAH is
perpetrating as a similar thing. People are being shot and killed
everyday for no reason other than to inspire terror in the population.
To force them to accept the kidnapping of their president
It is for that reason that we are always demonstrating to demand justice
for the people of Cite Soleil. It is only here today that people can
demonstrate for Aristide's return without being killed by the police.
Instead the terror of the police has been replaced by the terror of
indiscriminant firing by the U.N. troops. And yet we still continue to
demonstrate. It is this they fear the most.
KP: What about the Haitian elite and the role you say they have played
in keeping the people of Cite Soleil in misery?
AD: Where there is Dr. Reginald Boulos today? He is now the president of
the Haitian Chamber of Commerce and yet it was he who killed close to 25
children in Cite Soleil. He made money by distributing a cough syrup
that was called "Ephemil." Was he never brought to justice for the
deaths of those children? No, instead he is being rewarded for his role
in overthrowing our democratically elected president. This is not
justice.
It is for that reason that we are demonstrating like this and
accompanying the population in their search for justice and a way out
of misery. And again, the bourgeoisie and MINUSTAH will label anyone
who defends the interests of the people as common assassins and
criminals.
And we say, we are not assassins, we are not criminals. We are political
militants, who are defending the rights of the population of Cite
Soleil, the rights for all of the Haitian people who are suffering in
misery today.
And it is for that reason that we are struggling, but we will never be
criminals, never, ever.
KP: What about July 6, 2005 when U.N. forces killed Dread Wilmer and the
accusations that unarmed civilians were killed as well?
The U.N. does deny it ever happened but MINUSTAH committed that
genocide inside of Cite Soleil. It is a crime worse than the Haitian
army did inside Cite Soleil [after the coup of 1991 and 2004]. Now
MINUSTAH blames Lavalas militants...that Lavalas militants killed
people who were happy that Dread was killed or who were informants
against the people's interests. That's nonsense!! We would never do
that because Lavalas depends upon the people, depends upon the
population. If the U.N. cannot control Cite Soleil today it is because
the majority still believe in the ideals of the Lavalas struggle and
that means the poor have as many rights as the bourgeoisie.
They make the incredible claim that there were people inside Cite Soleil
who celebrated the death of comrade Dread Wilme. I don't believe that
such people exist in Cite Soleil and it was a fabrication to cover up
the slaughter by U.N. forces on July 6. Just walk around and ask
anyone here and they will recite for you the good works that Dread
Wilme always did on behalf of the poor in Cite Soleil.
I worked closely together with Dread, me, Amaral. We worked together to
help keep the people of Cite Soleil alive.
But with the complicity of MINUSTAH along with the bourgeoisie sector,
they were able to kill Dread Wilme. They were able to kill close to 60
people in Cite Soleil when they assassinated him and four other
militants.
We always keep Dread Wilme alive in our memory. It is for that reason
that the population accompanied us, to the point where we succeeded in
inaugurating Dread Wilme Boulevard. The community worked together to
dedicate a street in his name. Everyone in Cite Soleil contributed to
this effort.
KP: But they continue to say Wilmer was an assassin and a criminal.
AD: If Dread were a criminal, if he was an assassin, the population
would never, never, ever, have held such a beautiful funeral in his
memory in Cite Soleil. His funeral reflected his life and his
sacrifice. And when we look at the funeral of Dread Wilme...we saw it
was an extraordinary thing [referring to the huge droves of people who
attended]. It was in this same spirit of sacrifice for the interests of
the poor that Dread was commemorated by renaming the street of Bwa Neuf
as Boulevard Dread Wilmer. A criminal in Cite Soleil would never have
been bestowed with such glory. We will continue our struggle in his
memory and the U.N. nor the bourgeoisie can ever take that experience
away from the Haitian people.
KP: What about the upcoming elections? Do you support them?
AD: Yes, we support them if the Haitian people support them. They will
try to blame us for any violence that happens but the truth is we want
this nightmare to be over. The only way to do that is through these
elections. Now, Latortue and his government and the movement to oust
Aristide have put many of their family members and cronies in more than
12,000 civil service jobs throughout Haiti. These were jobs that were
given to poor people to give them a chance to rise above poverty under
Aristide. They were fired after the coup. Those who replaced them are
afraid of losing those jobs while the wealthy elite and those who
participated in the kidnapping of Aristide have their own reasons to
create violence to destabilize the election process. We say clearly
that the people of Haiti should be allowed to decide for themselves
whether or not to vote and participate in these elections.
We will
accompany and help to protect those who wish to vote. The repression
must stop and we must turn the page on this nightmare and hell for the
poor in Haiti.
KP: Thank you Amaral.
AD: You're welcome.
