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On Tuesday, September 18, the Bay Area-based Haiti Action Committee (HAC) held a rally in downtown San Francisco to call attention to the unresolved kidnapping of veteran Haitian human rights activist Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine.
Fri Mar 9 2007 (Updated 03/11/07)
Resistance, Solidarity and Song with So An
Haitian singer and grassroots organizer Annette Auguste ("So An") was seized from her home by US Marines as part of the 2004 coup d'etat in Haiti, and was held as a political prisoner for over 2 years. Oakland welcomed So An on Saturday, March 10th, for a musical performance and celebration at The Uptown.

"Haiti: We Must Kill the Bandits," the new 90-minute film by Kevin Pina, introduced by So An, will be screened on Wednesday, March 14th, at 7PM at the Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave. in Oakland.
February 7th was an International Day in Solidarity with the People of Haiti. The day was part of a campaign against the US/UN Occupation by the popular movement in Haiti, leading up to February 15th, when the UN Security Council is due to renew its Haiti mandate.

In San Francisco, people gathered at 4:30pm for a rally at Powell and Market Street, followed by a march to the Brazilian Consulate. Brazil commands the UN military force in Haiti. imc_photo.gif Photos | imc_audio.gif Audio
In San Jose, people gathered from 5pm to 6pm at the South end of Cesar Chavez Plaza.
Tue Dec 26 2006 (Updated 07/12/07)
Haiti: Another UN Assault on Cite Soleil
On December 22nd, 400 Brazilian-led UN occupation troops in armored vehicles carried out an assault on the people of Cite Soleil, laying siege to the impoverished community. Eyewitness reports said a wave of indiscriminate gunfire from heavy weapons began about 5 a.m. and continued for much of the day Friday. Initial press accounts reported at least 40 casualties, all civilians. UN troops from Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Bolivia took part in the all-day siege, backed by Haitian police. According to community testimony, UN forces flew overhead in helicopters and fired down into houses while other troops attacked from the ground with Armored Personnel Carriers.
After more than two years in prison and a fifteen month hunger-strike, former Haitian Prime Minister Yvon Neptune was freed in order to seek medical treatment on Thursday, July 27th. Neptune is one of the most high profile political prisoners who have been detained by the U.S.-backed interim government in Haiti. He was jailed shortly after the 2004 coup that ousted Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide. The intermittent hunger strike has taken a heavy toll on the 59 year-old former Prime Minister's health.
On June 9th 2006, Jacques Edouard Alexis was sworn in as Haiti's prime minister. Alexis served as René Garcia Préval's prime minister from March 26th 1999 to February 7th 2001.
On February 16th, Haiti’s interim government and election officials reached an agreement to declare Rene Preval the winner of the country’s presidential election. With 90% of ballots counted, it was claimed that Preval had been just shy of the 50% margin needed for a first-round election win, but under the agreement, some of the blank votes - representing 4% of the estimated 2.2 million ballots cast - were subtracted from the total number of votes counted, giving Preval the majority. 129 seats in parliament are also up for grab and it is those who control legislature that will approve Haiti's prime minister. So far the media have neglected to inform the public on the outcome of the parliamentary election. Some fear the parliamentary election was also tainted by fraud since the same burnt ballots with Preval's name on them would have contained votes for pro-Aristide parliamentary members whose votes are now lost.

Brian Concannon writes:
On February 7, Haitian voters went to the polls to elect a President for the fourth time since 1990. Through great patience and determination they overcame official disorganization, incompetence and discrimination, and for the fourth time since 1990 handed their chosen candidate a landslide victory. And for the fourth time Haitian elites, with support from the International Community, started immediately to undercut the victory, seeking at the negotiation table what they could not win at the voting booth.

...[Rene Preval] won the 50% of the vote necessary to avoid a runoff election against his nearest competitor. Although early official results and the unofficial tallies by the Preval campaign, international observers and journalists all showed Mr. Preval comfortably above the 50% bar, after 5 days of counting his official results crept 1.3% below it. Negotiations resulted in a deal that changes the way that the Electoral Council treats blank ballots, which, according to the Council's calculation, puts Mr. Preval back above 50%. ...The election deal gives a little something to everyone, and that's the problem. Elections are not supposed to make everyone happy; they are supposed to apportion political power according to majority vote, on the basis of set rules. In all likelihood, a correct tabulation of the votes would have given Mr. Preval a first round victory, as exit polls and unofficial tabulations had predicted. Although the negotiated agreement reaches the same result as a correct tabulation would have reached, it does so by changing the rules instead of correcting the violations of the rules. The deal provides leverage for those seeking to delegitimize Preval's presidency and block the progressive social and economic policies that he was elected to implement.

Read More

Préval is President but what about the vote-rigging charges? | US Propaganda in Haiti: NPR reporter Amelia Shaw is wearing two hats | Bring Aristide back to Haiti, enough is enough! | Max Mathurin and Jose Miguel Insulza contradict each other on charges of elections fraud
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