The fourth session of the International Tribunal on Haiti will be held on Saturday, May 27, 2006 from 3 p.m. to 7p.m. at 3200 Pavillon Jean Brillant, Room B-2215 at the Université de Montreal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The tribunal will examine current reports of killing, torture, illegal detention and other serious violations of international human rights, as well as the events leading up to the overthrow of Haiti’s elected government in February 2004.

This session of the Tribunal is being organized by a coalition of Haiti solidarity groups, including the Latin America Solidarity Coalition, Résistance HaVtienne au Québec, Canada Haiti Action Network, the Comité Québécois Pour la Reconnaissance des Droits des Travailleurs HaVtiens en République Dominicaine, with the support of  the Montreal chapter of the American Association of Jurists.

The Tribunal's three previous sessions were held in Washington, D.C., in Boston, Massachusetts, and in Miami, Florida.  Prosecutors have presented a detailed background on the February 29, 2004 coup against exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and preliminary indictments. The actions of the U.S. and Canadian governments to destabilize the Aristide government prior to February 29, 2004 were examined. Witnesses provided eye-witness testimony about the on-going massacres of innocent civilians in Haiti being carried out by masked policemen with the acquiescence, and increasingly participation, of the U.N. occupation force. 

Guilty verdicts have been returned against many of the indicted defendants including “rebel” leaders Guy Philippe and Louis Jodel Chamblain for crimes on the Central Plateau. Evidence against Philippe included a videotaped interview with Cléonord Souverain, a Lavalas leader in Belladere, who described how Philippe’s “rebels” massacred five of his family members in their home in June 2002. Brigadier General Ronald Coleman, the head of U.S. military forces in Haiti in the spring of 2004, was found guilty, based on his command and control responsibility, for the murder of nine unarmed civilians by the National Police of Haiti on March 18, 2004. The murders occurred during an otherwise peaceful demonstration in support of the return of constitutional government to Haiti. Inspector Yves Gaspard, of the National Police of Haiti, was found guilty for his participation in the murder of several individuals during a soccer match on August 20, 2005. The Director General of the Haiti National Police Leon Charles, UN Force Commander Lieutanant General Augusto Heleno Ribiero Pereira of Brazil, and the Special Representative of the United Nations Juan Valdes of Chile were convicted of violations of Haitian law and international law including crimes against humanity.

Additional indictments against former Interim Prime Gerard Latortue and former Justice Minister Bernard Gousse are expected to be returned at the Montreal session.  The court is also expected to hear testimony regarding the Canadian government’s role in the destabilization of Haiti’s elected government of Haiti in the months and years leading up to the February 2004 coup.  The actions of the UN forces under the control of Superintendent David Charles Beer and later Staff Sergeant R. Graham Muir will also be examined.

            A blue-ribbon Commission of Inquiry was announced at the Tribunal’s opening session. Led by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, the Commission traveled to Haiti in October and gathered evidence of and testimony about new massacres and other crimes against humanity which allegedly have been committed in Haiti since February 29, 2004. The Commission interviewed over 50 eye-witnesses and relatives of victims of massacres in Haiti. Hours of testimony and evidence were videotaped, photographed and recorded, much of which will be presented at the fourth session of the Tribunal.

The Tribunal will forward evidence supporting the convictions for those found guilty of ordering, executing or tolerating massacres and crimes against humanity to the courts in Haiti, where constitutional government just returned this May. If the Haitian courts prove unable or unwilling to act on the evidence, the Tribunal will send the case to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Sisters and Brothers,

Haiti’s National Popular Party, the PPN, salutes the people who have turned out in Washington, DC today to defend the governments and people of Cuba and Venezuela.

            Never before has the threat of U.S. attack against these two countries been so great because never before has the promise throughout Latin America and the Caribbean for progressive and revolutionary change been so great. Cuba and Venezuela stand as models which inspire struggling peoples everywhere, and especially the Haitian people.

            We in Haiti have learned first hand how important the Cuban and Venezuelan revolutions are to the hemisphere’s people. Over 500 Cuban doctors are working in all corners of Haiti. They live among the people in Haiti’s remotest regions and perform medical miracles under very difficult conditions with very few medicines or instruments. Since their arrival in 1998, the Cuban doctors have made about 8 million consultations and 100,000 operations. The Haitian people revere them.

            After President René Préval met with President Fidel Castro in Havana last month, Cuba promised to send even more doctors.

            Cuba is also now training almost 700 young Haitians to become doctors. Indeed, last August, 130 Haitian doctors graduated from Cuba’s medical school and now 80 of them are practicing in Haiti.

            There is also the joint Cuban-Venezuelan project called “Operation Miracle,” which provides free treatment for eye problems to low-income people from the Third World. Already close to 700 Haitians have received treatment for glaucoma, cataracts and other conditios under this program.

            Cuba has also sent its experts to help Haiti develop its sugar production, agriculture, fishing, and fish farming.

            Cuba’s gestures of solidarity to the Haitian people are exemplary.

            Now, Venezuela is following suit. Venezuela will provide Haiti with petroleum on affordable terms. Minutes after making his inauguration speech to the nation last Sunday, May 14, President Préval called a joint press conference with Venezuela’s Vice President José Vicente Rangel. There, as his second official act, Préval signed the PetroCaribe accord. Under this accord, Venezuela will provide Haiti with 7,000 barrels of oil a day, for which Haiti only has to pay 60% of the cost up front. Haiti has 25 years to pay the remaining 40% at only 1% interest. Venezuela will provide Haiti another 4,000 barrels a day – for a total of 11,000 barrels a day – under a separate agreement called the San Jose accord.

            Venezuela is also donating 120 tons of asphalt per month for 12 months to help pave Haiti’s crumbling roads. Venezuelan technicians are also going to rehabilitate 130 electrical generators around Haiti. Venezuela also plans to contribute to Haitian agriculture and cattle raising.

Brothers and sisters,

            As Vice President Rangel said at the signing ceremony: “Solidarity is not just words, but concrete acts.”

            How different are Cuba’s and Venezuela’s solidarity from the so-called “development assistance” Haiti has received from the United States, France and Canada. Imperialist aid usually goes to the benefit of contractors or non-governmental organizations from the donor country. It also is usually in the form of a loan, thereby enriching the international banks and impoverishing the people.

            Meanwhile, we note the continued presence of thousands of U.S. troops in the Dominican Republic near the border with Haiti. This deployment comes at a time when the U.S. is conducting military exercises in the Caribbean. We think that these could be signs of imminent aggression against Cuba and/or Venezuela.

            We once again join with you to denounce Washington’s criminal blockade against Cuba, and its harboring of the terrorist bomber Luis Posada Carriles. We too call for the release from U.S. jails of the five Cuban heros, the closure of the Guantanamo Bay military base and torture camp, and an end to U.S. and U.N. military interventions around the world, beginning in Haiti.

            Long live Cuba and Fidel Castro! Long live Venezuela and Hugo Chavez! Long live the struggle of the Haitian people!

Ben Dupuy

Secretary General, Parti populaire national (PPN)

Port-au-Prince, May 19, 2006