At 11:00 p.m. on Monday night, January 24, hundreds of heavily armed Haitian police officers and foreign occupation troops assembled at Delmas 33 in Port-au-Prince. An hour later, they swooped down on the sprawling slum of Cité Soleil, kicking in doors and arresting untold numbers of groggy residents. Their goal was apparently to capture or kill Emmanuel Wilmer, known as Dred Wilmè, the head of a pro-Lavalas popular organization who has been leading resistance to the U.S.-backed coup and occupation of Haiti. They didn't succeed.

Such raids in Haiti's popular quarters are becoming nightly occurrences in Port-au-Prince, where the Haitian National Police (PNH) and soldiers of the U.N. Mission to Stabilize Haiti (MINUSTAH) seek to stamp out the fires of rebellion spreading throughout the Haitian capital. But their brutal tactics are only spreading more outrage and resistance.

Last week, residents of the Village de Dieu (God's Village), near the National Theatre, were driven from their tumble-down homes by the PNH and MINUSTAH.

"The police asked us to leave the area," one fleeing man told the Nouvelliste. "We don't know where to go, but we definitely have to leave to save our skins." The man was accompanied by his wife and five young children.

As chilling and brutal as the forced evacuations was the cold-blooded execution of a radio journalist covering the operation. Abdias Jean, 25, a correspondent for the Magic Super Force program on WKAT in Miami, was shot dead Jan. 14 by PNH officers in Village de Dieu.

He had come to cover the story when he learned that two people had been killed in the course of the police evacuation of Village de Dieu. "As a journalist, Abdias naturally came to the scene to see the bodies," explained Frantz Cadet of the Collective of Haitian Journalists for a Free Press. "Then he left to get something to eat. It should be noted that Abdias also lived in Village de Dieu and was often pointed out by certain individuals in the neighborhood as being close to the Lavalas."

One of these individuals led the police in a search for Abdias, who was arrested. The police then "took him aside and executed him with several bullets," Cadet said.

Raymonde Jean, Abdias' mother, contends that her son was killed precisely because he witnessed police brutality and violence. According to Guyler Delva of the Association of Haitian Journalists (AJH), the police killing was no accident and they had chased the journalist into a home.

Only a day earlier, a similar execution came to light. On Jan. 13, Jean-Charles Déus Charles learned that his son had been murdered while in police custody. MINUSTAH soldiers had arrested the young man, Jimmy Charles, eight days earlier and taken him to the PNH's Anti-Gang Unit jail (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 22, No. 45, 01/19/2005). "The next day, I visited him in his cell," Jimmy's father told Haïti Progrès. "His wife even brought him food over the following days."

When Jean-Charles went to visit his son on Jan. 9, he was told that the young man would go before a judge the next day. But the next day, court officers told Jean-Charles that the case was "incomplete" and a hearing was postponed for Jan. 12. On that date, his son was also absent.

"I went to Anti-Gang to find out what happened," Jean-Charles said. "It was then that I was told he had been 'freed.' I looked everywhere in vain. Finally on Thursday, Jan. 13, I found his body in the morgue at the General Hospital."

Despite such terror and repression, popular mobilization continues in Haiti's poor neighborhoods. On Jan. 20, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in Belair to demand an end to the crackdown. and a return to constitutional order. In Cité Soleil, on Jan. 25, the morning after the joint PNH/MINUSTAH raid the night before, hundreds took to the streets to denounce the de facto government, police repression, and foreign occupation.

February 7 anniversary:
Conferences Planned to Organize Resistance

On February 7, 1986, Haitian "President-for-Life" Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier fled Haiti on a U.S. military jet, marking the end of the 29-year dictatorship established by his father, François or "Papa Doc."

This year, different groups from Haiti's pro-democracy movement will come together to hold two important gatherings in an effort to organize resistance to the February 29, 2004 coup, which has restored Duvalierist repression, corruption and servility in Haiti.

From February 4-6, a number of groups are organizing a conference entitled the "Bwa Kayiman Congress" at Trinity University in Washington, DC. Bwa Kayiman was the spot just outside Cap Haïtien where the vodou ceremony that launched the Haitian revolution in 1791 was held.

According to the call put out by the Congress organizers, their purpose is to "gather the different parts of the fighting force" and "the true friends of the Haitian people" struggling inside and outside of Haiti "to win back its national dignity and the return of democracy in Haiti." The Congress will seek to "define strategies of resistance, which can allow us to reinforce in Haiti and in the diaspora the mobilization for the return of democracy in Haiti and the recovery of national sovereignty." In short, the conference will work to "reconstruct the vast movement of solidarity with the struggle of the Haitian people."

The initiating organizations for the Congress are the Fondasyon Trant Septanm, Fondasyon Mapou (FondMapou), Haiti Action Committee, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network and the Haitian Initiative for Democracy.

The Congress is seen as a follow-up to a similar meeting held on January 3, 2004 at the Aristide Foundation for Democracy in Port-au-Prince, where over 30 solidarity groups, media, and individuals gathered to discuss strategies to thwart the looming coup d'état.

On February 7, Bwa Kayiman Congress organizers will hold a press conference with Congressional Representatives Maxine Waters (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA) and John Conyers (D-MI) as well as former TransAfrica leader Randall Robinson and actor Danny Glover.

Meanwhile in Boston, the New England Human Rights Organization for Haiti (NEHROH) is organizing an evening of solidarity with the people of Haiti at the Boston School Bus Drivers' Union Hall in Roslindale, MA. Speakers will include Haitian activist and singer Farah Juste, Ronald St. Jean of the Committee for the Protection of the Rights of the Haitian People (CDPH), Kim Ives of the Haiti Support Network (HSN), and Pat Chin of the International Action Center (IAC). Judge Senat Fleury, who was recently forced to resign by Haiti's de facto Justice Minister, and School Bus union president Steve Gillis, who traveled to Haiti as part of a human rights delegation last September, will also speak.

The event is being held to draw attention to and help build solidarity with the Haitian people's struggle and to demand an end to the foreign military occupation, the immediate return of the democratically elected President, and the immediate release of all political prisoners.

Last September, the NEHROH along with the New York-based Haiti Commission of Inquiry conducted joint delegations to Haiti to inspect Haiti's prisons and speak with victims of political repression. The delegates interviewed dozens of political prisoners including constitutional Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, constitutional Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert, and singer/activist Annette "So Anne" Auguste.

The Bwa Kayiman Congress: will be held at the Trinity University Haiti Program, 125 Michigan Avenue, NE, Washington, DC 20017. Contact Kongrè Bwa Kayiman 2005, c/o Fondasyon Mapou, P.O. Box 33724, Washington, DC 20033-3724, Tel:(301) 871-6082, Fax: (202) 332-1184, eMail: kongrebwakayiman@yahoo.com, lovinskypa@yahoo.fr, eugenia@fondasyonmapou.org.. Organizations wishing to participate are being asked to ante up $100 and individuals $50 to cover organizing costs.

The Boston Evening of Solidarity: will be held at the USWA Local 8751, 25 Colgate Road, Roslindale, MA. Contact Josué Renaud at 781-956-7417 or nehroh@yahoo.com. A donation is requested.