From: nyxfer%panix.com@UMCVMB.missouri.edu (N.Y. Transfer)
Subject: RVW:Haiti Commission Video
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: University of Missouri
Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@UMCVMB.missouri.edu>
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 19:53:24 GMT


Via The NY Transfer News Service ~ All the News that Doesn't Fit

VIDEO: ANATOMY OF HAITI'S MILITARY COUP


                      "Haiti Under the Gun"
               The Inquiry of the Haiti Commission
                            30 minutes

                           Video review
                       by Monica Moorehead

The opening shots scan thousands of jubilant people inside Haiti
celebrating the historic December 1990 victory of Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, the first popularly elected president of Haiti. A few
moments later this exuberance is transformed into scenes of
terror as Haitian soldiers, members of the hated Tonton Macoutes,
are seen firing on unarmed Haitians following the ouster of
Aristide.

The 30-minute video documentary, "Haiti Under the Gun: The
Inquiry of the Haiti Commission," is a powerful and insightful
eyewitness account of life in Haiti since the coup.

The Haiti Commission for Inquiry into the September 30th Coup
d'Etat was formed only one week after the bloody military
uprising that forced Aristide to flee the country in 1991. Under
the auspices of former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, the
Commission sent two multinational fact-finding delegations to the
Caribbean--the first to the Dominican Republic in November 1991
and the second to Haiti one month later.

The delegation spoke to many victims of the coup who vividly
described what it has been like to brave the unspeakably brutal
conditions maintained by the landed oligarchy and the merchant
bourgeoisie--the ruling class of Haiti that is supported by the
Bush government. The Tonton Macoutes are composed of the
mercenary army and secret police that protect the interests of
the Haitian elite.

Who was behind the coup?

The documentary asks the questions: "Who was behind the coup? How
was it executed? Who has been threatened, killed or arrested
since Sept. 30?" Young Haitians anxiously tell horror stories of
being forbidden to use the roads by day since the takeover, in
contrast to feeling free to go wherever they pleased under
Aristide's rule. For just speaking Aristide's name they could be
killed. One youth said, "To Bush and those who made the coup
d'etat, it shows that they are not going to give up power."

A 9-year old child talked about how soldiers broke down his
family's door while everyone was sleeping and began beating his
father with clubs. Soon after that, the boy's father was
interviewed from his hospital bed. He pointed out 15 stitches in
his head, a ruptured stomach and a crushed foot.

Commission members explain how tens of thousands of Haitians have
fled their country since the September coup. Between 2,000 and
3,000 Haitians have been murdered since the military takeover.
Those who did not risk their lives in shark-infested waters to
get to the U.S. traveled instead on foot through the mountains
across the border into the Dominican Republic.

The Commission persevered through a number of obstacles put up by
the Dominican border patrols to interview 23 Haitian refugees
given sanctuary by the Catholic church. Some 25,000 Haitian
refugees are currently in the Dominican Republic. These refugees,
like so many people targeted by the Macoutes in Haiti, are
political activists with the popular movement known as
Lavalas--Aristide's base of support.

As the interviews take place, one gets a glimpse of the extreme
poverty Haitians face in their own country, as well as in the
Dominican Republic where they are super-exploited as sugar cane
workers.

Scenes of military terror

Back in Haiti, the fact-finding team is taken to a mass grave
where executed Haitians have been dumped, and to a morgue to
examine the remains of a torture victim. Popular Haitian singer
Manno Charlemagne explains to Commission members from his refuge
in the Argentine Embassy in Port-au-Prince, the capital, that he
fears for his life if he leaves the compound.

Ramsey Clark, tells a New York City rally: "Aristide would not
have been removed if it had not been for U.S. policy. The whole
country of Haiti is like a prison, where the people are
terrorized."

This documentary is a must-see for any progressive person who
wants a better understanding of what is truly going on in Haiti
and what is at stake for the Haitian masses who, in the end, will
be their own liberators.

To order "Haiti Under The Gun," write the Haiti Commission, 36 E.
12 St., 6th floor, New York, N.Y. 10003 or call (212) 254-5385.
The price is $20 plus $3 shipping and handling.

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