by Bill Quigley

One year ago, the elected government of Haiti, led by President Jean Betrand Aristide, was forced out of office and replaced by unelected people more satisfactory to business interests and the U.S., France and Canada.

On Monday, February 28th, there was a large nonviolent march for democracy called for the neighborhood of Bel-Air (Beautiful Air). I attended with Father Gérard Jean-Juste and others from St. Clare's Parish. We started with prayers in the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the center of Bel-Air. After prayers we joined the larger crowd outside marching and singing through the streets of the old and quite poor neighborhood. Thousands of people were walking and dancing to the beat of drums, loudly chanting "Bring Back Titid (Aristide)" in Creole, French and English.

Fr. Jean-Juste has become one of the main voices for democracy in Haiti since his release from prison several weeks ago after 48 days in jail with no charges. He was interviewed two dozen times by local and international media during the walk with the crowd. It all seemed like a peaceful unorganized mardi gras parade until I noticed the Reuters correspondent was wearing a bullet proof vest. MINUSTAH, [the U.N. Mission to Stabilize Haiti], was all around. The giant moving party continued down Des Cesar Street. The street was packed from side to side with people carrying signs, umbrellas, and handmade cardboard posters, all calling for the return of democracy and Aristide. Neighborhood people joined in or clapped and danced from their front steps.

Suddenly, at the corner of Rue Monseigneur Guilloux and Rue des Césars, there was a loud boom from very close by. People started screaming and running. Another boom, then another. As people fled, I slipped on a pile of fruit and tried desperately to hide behind a very small tree. As people rushed past and dove into an opening in a concrete wall, the booms continued. I then dove though the wall and hid behind a one foot wide concrete pillar. The booms continued. People were down in the street. I saw a big white official-looking truck hurtling down the street as the booms continued. Others saw police in black uniforms, helmets, ski masks, and large guns shooting into the crowd. People around me were huddled under stairs and crying. The group from St. Clare's pulled me into a corner and we rolled into a ball until the booms stopped.

Out on the street, a man was down and unconscious. Fr. Jean-Juste knelt over him and prayed. Down the street, others were carrying injured people on their backs. The crowd screamed that the police were coming back, and we ran down an alley into a small home. Children were screaming, adults were crying, everyone was in fear. We waited, dirty and drenched in sweat, until the growing UN presence made it safe to leave.

Early reports document several people shot, at least one killed. Others were beaten. Two men showed me where the police wounded them.

As we drove slowly out of the now deserted neighborhood, the faces of the people on the porches who were so happy minutes before, were now somber, many crying.

As we rode back to his parish, Fr. Jean-Juste said: "The Aristide supporters were such a big number, it was very difficult to have a proper estimation of the crowd. The message is clear. Our vote has been counted. It still must be counted. There is no other way for Haiti to go forward but with the return of constitutional order, the release of all political prisoners, and the physical return of President Aristide."

Though the march for democracy in Haiti was halted by police shooting into the unarmed crowd, the people I talked to said their march for the return of democracy in Haiti will continue.

The author teaches at the Loyola University New Orleans School of Law. He is visiting Haiti as a volunteer attorney with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti.

Ossie was a friend of mine.

Ossie was a friend of all of us who fight for justice and dignity for every human being.

This kind a gentle man was able with his soft demeanor to affect monumental changes in the world.

He eulogized the great Malcolm X, after his brutal assassination on February 21, 1965. He then eulogized Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, after his assassination on April 4, 1968. There are no eulogies left for Ossie.

He gave us the best that can be found in any man. He lived a life of struggle, with his lovely queen, Ruby Dee, he walked the walk and talked the talk.

For those of us who had the pleasure of meeting him, he left an unforgettable mark. For those that experienced his presence through films and other public appearances, he always portrayed the honest and the good in all us. He left us an incredible legacy... that of a sensitized man who championed the cause of the less fortunate.

The quintessential "artiste engagé," he participated in the major struggles of the 20th century. He ranks among those who attain a privileged and popular place in society but never forget their roots: the roots of poverty, discrimination, apathy and abuse performed by those who have material means at their disposal against those who do not have those means.

Ossie will be missed. It is so hard to fill the shoes of one who accomplished so much and meant so much too so many. He was a tireless worker. He engaged all his faculties and all his artistic talents to bring change where change was needed. He opposed despots and despotic measures that impede human progress.

It was in that capacity that he graced the Haitian people and the Haitian struggle when he hosted for the Haiti Support Network (HSN) the New York premiere of Raoul Peck's film "Man by the Shore" on January 25, 1996. Along with his lifelong companion Ruby Dee, he joined other hosts of the evening including Ramsey Clark, former U.S. attorney general, Michael Moore, the noted documentary filmmaker, David Dinkins, former mayor of New York City, and other freedom loving people in support of the Haitian cause.

Our paths crossed again when Ossie spoke at an April 7, 2004 rally at Brooklyn College organized by the HSN and the International Action Center to protest the February 29, 2004 coup. There, Ossie spoke about his childhood interest in Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines and about the Haitian revolution as an inspiration for his own life and of the pride that he felt speaking about the first successful slave rebellion in the world.

Ossie identified with Haiti and Haitians because he knew that injustice against and indifference to Haitians and Haiti meant the same injustice against and indifference to all people who fight for justice everywhere.

Ossie knew that the same oppressors responsible for the Haitian debacle were the same oppressors that are responsible for abusing the materially poor peoples of the world. From Ossie, we learn that Haiti's current struggle reflect the struggles against slavery and against world domination by the remaining "superpower."

The people of Haiti have lost a great friend, someone who understood our struggle, who lived our struggle, and who walked comfortably in our shoes as if they were his own. We lost one of us.

Ossie was one of our most prominent soldiers. We have lost a true warrior, and we are poorer because of it. But we march on because this great man, this great advocate of freedom, always marched with us and for us.

Thank you Ruby. Thanks Ossie. Brother, you will be missed.