The town of Petit Goâve, 55 kilometers west of Port-au-Prince, is famous for the resistance of its townspeople to the dictatorships of Jean-Claude Duvalier and General Prosper Avril. However, it is also the stronghold of neo-Duvalierist politician Hubert de Ronceray, who is part of the tiny Washington-backed opposition front called the Democratic Convergence (CD).

This dual heritage is perhaps what today makes this town such a flash-point for violent confrontations between pro-CD demonstrators and those backing the Lavalas Family party (FL) of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. 
 
The most recent clash was on Dec. 3 when anti-Lavalas demonstrators tried to shut the town down, including the schools. They were met by pro-Lavalas demonstrators on National Route #2. The confrontation between the two groups was so intense that the police had to retreat under a hail of stones from the belligerents. The pro-CD mob hacked and maimed Joseph Céus Duvergé, an FL partisan, with machetes. He is now hospitalized in critical condition. 
 
Journalist Brignol Lindor of local radio station Echo 2000 had the misfortune of being with a friend that day in Acul, Duvergé’s neighborhood. Incensed by rumors of Duvergé’s death and thinking -- rightly or wrongly -- that Lindor was a CD partisan, a crowd composed of Duvergé’s relatives and FL partisans set upon the journalist with vengeful wrath, hacking him to death with machetes.
 
The government deployed the heavily-armed police Company for Intervention and the Maintenance of Order (CIMO) in an attempt to restore calm. The CIMO would take down barricades, but crowds would throw them back up. Gunshots rang out throughout the night. On Dec. 5, tear gas became so thick in the town that Mme. Lucane Dorléans, 76, died from the fumes. Many residents fled the town.
 
On Dec. 4, Guyler C. Delva, secretary general of the Association of Haitian Journalists (AJH), led a fact-finding delegation to the town. They reported that members of the popular organization “Dòmi nan bwa” (Sleep in the woods), allegedly FL-aligned, had a hand in the Lindor reprisal-killing. The government has issued arrest warrants for “Dòmi nan bwa” members and those identified as taking part in the attack on Duvergé as well.
 
A pro-CD mob attacked Delva and his delegation during their visit. They had to take refuge in the toilet of the mayor’s home from flying rocks and bottles. 

Reeling under a deluge of official outrage from national and international journalist groups, Aristide issued a statement calling for peace and expressing solidarity with all journalists. But the CD, trying to capitalize on Lindor’s killing, stepped up its rhetoric calling for Aristide’s overthrow. “The Democratic Convergence says enough is enough,” said Gérard Pierre-Charles, a CD leader. “The population must rise up and say no to Mister Aristide. Those guilty of these frightful crimes must be punished. We must close the faucet of blood. We must finish with this regime of crime, corruption, and impunity.” 
 
Anti-Aristide perennial Rony Mondestin was even more categoric. “There will not be any justice for Brignol as long as Jean-Bertrand Aristide is in Haiti and not in prison,” he said.
 
Information Minister Guy Paul ventured that Lindor “was not killed for being a journalist, but for being a member of the Democratic Convergence,” a remark which raised a ruckus among journalists, particularly those sympathetic to the opposition. The brother of the victim, Moreno Lindor, denied that the journalist belonged to the CD.
 
Meanwhile, FL Deputy Jean Candio complained that “there are so-called journalists who are active members of the opposition and who are deeply implicated in the destabilization movement which is occuring in several places. When the organizers of these disorders end up in confrontation with either the police or with some other groups, they suddenly raise their press flag.” Candio and other deputies singled out the National Association of Haitian Media (ANMH) as being very partisan in favor of the CD.
 
On Dec. 11, several hundred people attended a funeral for Lindor in Petit Goâve. The ceremony was all but sponsored by the CD, so both inside and outside the church there were shouts of “Down with Aristide!”
 
While the assassination of Lindor is indeed a heinous crime, it must be asked why there has been an almost complete press black-out on the brutal attack against Joseph Céus Duvergé, who may or may not survive. Clearly it is because the Lindor killing is being exploited cynically by the CD in its continuing rivalry for power with the FL. The CD used Lindor’s funeral to build “their political capital,” noted the reporter for Radio Quisqueya (which is hardly pro-FL), and an occasion “to raise all their issues, to have every message they have get out through his death.”
 
Unfortunately, the FL is now reaping the consequences of betraying its political principles in reaching for power. Hobbled by compromise, infiltration, and corruption, the party is rapidly losing the people’s confidence and, in desperation, is looking to strike any deal it can with Washington. Whether Washington will accept Aristide’s surrender, or urge on its dogs in the CD, will become clear in the weeks ahead.

Liberty and Love for All:
An Open Letter to Ramsey Clark

A decade ago, as the U.S. government was going to war against Iraq, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark founded in New York the International Action Center (IAC), a coalition of North American activists and international groups to, in Clark’s words, “carry out the important work of promoting peace, solidarity and truth.” Today, as Washington wages its merciless war against the Afghani people, the IAC is again in the forefront of the anti-war movement, having become the leading anti-imperialist mass organization in the U.S., with chapters in San Francisco, Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Providence, and Washington D.C..
 On this anniversary, we publish the open letter of our collaborator Paul Laraque to Ramsey Clark.

Dear Mr. Ramsey Clark,
      In response to your December 1 letter, I am glad to inform you that, in spite of my limited means and besides my regular contributions, I am sending a special donation by mail to the International Action Center for the 10th anniversary of the organization. I will not be able to attend the public forum on Dec. 13, but I want to reaffirm my solidarity with the movement.
      As you may remember, I am a poet from Haiti. I have been living in the United States in exile since 1961. I was deprived of my citizenship by the Duvalier dictatorship, supported by Washington. I was the first writer to win the "Casa de las Americas" Prize in French, and I am a member of the first generation of Haitian poets writing in Creole, the language of the Haitian people. I am a former secretary-general of the Association of Haitian Writers Abroad (1979-1986).
 We met years ago, through Haïti-Progrès. Once again, I am collaborating with this progressive newspaper. Only socialism can save Haiti. Leaders like you can represent the conscience of the people.
      I am an old man ready to die in dignity and for a new world order with no hunger, no racism, no executions, no war, but based on social justice, economic equality, liberty and love for all.

Yours truly,
Paul Laraque

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