From: Chris Cartter <newslink@igc.apc.org>
Subject: Haiti Info #7/lead
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 19:20:07 GMT

(Below is the table of contents and lead story from the most recent issue of Haiti Info, the newsletter of the Haitian Information Bureau.  The lead story from each bi-weekly issue is posted in this conference.  To receive the entire newsletter, you may subscribe by email, fax or mail. See the subscription information at the end of this entry).   

				* * * HAITI INFO * * *

		News direct from the people and organizations 
		of Haiti's grassroots democratic movement

				23 Nov. 1992, Vol. 1, #7


	TENDREMOS UNA VERSION EN ESPANOL MUY PRONTO PARA 
	     LOS COMPANEROS DE AMERICA LATINA Y ESPANA!


Contents:	
	
News Stories: 		STUDENTS PROTEST - ARMY CRACKS DOWN
				International Pressure Increasing
				O.A.S. Team Contracts Up
				Army Terrifies Capital
Interview:			A High School Student Reflects
Human Rights Report
Behind the Headlines:	Cedras Takes the Lead
Development:		CGT Rejects Privatization		
				Operation Lifeline Update
Common Ground:	Rigoberta Menchu Tum
About Haiti Info


News:

			STUDENT PROTEST - ARMY CRACKS DOWN

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Nov. 23 - Haitian students relaunched their 
struggle for democracy this month with a public conference, 
statements to the press and demonstrations, eliciting violent 
responses from the military.
   After last year's coup dUetat, high school and university students 
were the most vocal supporters of democracy in spite of repeated 
attacks by soldiers and armed civilians. 
   The government of de facto Prime Minister Marc L. Bazin 
attempted to control them this year by stationing soldiers around 
schools and offering discounts for books and tuitions, but the 
strategy has not worked.
   On Nov. 12 soldiers surrounded and harassed students at a public 
high school and also the university where they arrested six people, 
including two journalists.
   The repression and arrests were carried out during a week of 
increased military presence on the streets. [See story, page 3.]
High school students demonstrate
   On  Nov. 12 a truckload of soldiers arrived at Lycee Alexandre 
Petion, the capitalUs largest public high school, to stop a 
demonstration. That was the army's second visit to the school that 
week.
   "There are no teachers, there are no chairs, there are no 
blackboards," one student said.
   Another added, "There are soldiers all over the place to watch what 
you say so you don't criticize conditions."
   During Thursday's demonstration students handed out  pro-
democracy  pamphlets,  called for better conditions and denounced 
the director of the school.
   On television that night the director attempted to placate the 
students.
   "I just came from a meeting with the Minister of Education," said 
Director Clerisson Mozart, "and effectivelyI the problem of the 
bathroom will be resolved during the next week."

University conference interrupted
   The same day, a number of student organizations sponsored a 
conference at the universityUs Faculty of Sciences to discuss 
repression and the de facto governmentUs plan to  privatize state-
owned industries. [See Development News.] About 200 students and 
journalists attended the event.
   The event also commemorated the one-year anniversary of the day 
soldiers arrested a number of students who were demonstrating and 
calling for "Liberty or Death."
   This year students called for "Democracy or Death! Down with Bazin! Down with Cedras! Down with American Imperialists!"
and presented papers on the de facto regimeUs systematic repression and its plan to sell state-owned industries.
   "Privatization is part of a global logic," one student said. "It is a 
development model that is being imposed on the poor countries."
   About an hour after the event began, soldiers drove around the 
building with their sirens blasting to intimidate the participants.
   When this strategy failed, about 50 armed soldiers and an equal 
number of attaches, or civilian assistants, surrounded the building, 
occasionally shooting into the air.
   Soldiers arrested two reporters and  four students and harassed a 
number of people, including a U.S. journalist who was "spread-
eagled" and frisked. The French embassy's press attache was also 
nearly arrested and was forced to go to army headquarters.
   An observer from the visiting Organization of American States team was so frightened, he left in the middle of the event.
   For three hours soldiers literally held the building hostage, while 
inside students presented papers and continued with their program. During the event, ex-General Carl Michel Nicholas, the de facto 
Minister of the Interior (responsible for defense and internal 
security) drove by the university in his private car, apparently to 
check on the soldiers.
   One local radio station apparently embarrassed the military by 
publicizing their behavior, and the reporters were soon released and 
the participants  allowed to leave. The four students arrested were 
released several days later. 
   The army's behavior drew national and international criticism from 
human rights and journalists organizations.
   De facto Minister of Education Max Carre attempted to justify the 
army's illegal intervention by fabricating a completely false version 
of the event.

Other students mobilize
   Students all over the country are mobilizing to renew their struggle 
for democracy.
   At the public high school in Gonaives, the third-largest city here, 
they also complain of soldiers in their classrooms but are determined 
to continue fighting for justice. 
   "The mobilization will not be stopped," one student said. "We have a Committee of Resistance in every school that still functions, but some students are afraid of the repression."
   "We have a gradual plan for mobilization. We are preparing to 
commemorate November 28  because that will mark exactly seven 
years from the date when soldiers shot three young students in 
Gonaives."
   That event in 1985 was the beginning of the "dechoukaj" or "uprooting" that led to the flight of dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier and 
began the open struggle for democracy. 

[Interview from Gonaives from "Nouvel Pou N al Pi Lwen #70"]

ABOUT HAITI INFO:
* Haiti Info is published every two weeks in Haiti by the Haitian 
Information Bureau, an alternative news agency, and is edited by a 
group of committed individuals from democratic and popular sectors. 
* All articles ) HIB. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.  Please cite Haiti Info 
and send copies of usage.
* Haiti Info is available by mail, by fax, and also electronically via 
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For North American/European subscriptions contact newsLINK, 67 
Pleasant Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.  Tel:  617-661-7592.                       
E-mail:  newslink@igc.org.  
Other correspondence:  Haitian Information Bureau, c/o Lynx Air, 
Box 407139, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 33340, USA or B.P. 15533, Petion-
ville, HAITI.  Fax & tel (509) 575782 E-mail:  hib@igc.org.

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