[NYTr] Haiti Report for October 21, 2007

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

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Haiti Report for October 21, 2006

The Haiti Report is a compilation and summary of events as described
in Haiti and international media prepared by Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY.
It does not reflect the opinions of any individual or organization.
This service is intended to create a better understanding of the
situation in Haiti by presenting the reader with reports that provide
a variety of perspectives on the situation.

To make a donation to support this service: Konbit Pou Ayiti, 7 Wall
Street, Gloucester, MA, 01930.

IN THIS REPORT:

- Campaigning Against the EU Economic Partnership Agreement
- UN and Activists Call for Renewed Investigation into Disappearance
   of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine
- US Customs Discovers $852k Hidden in SUV Headed for Haiti
- President Preval Calls for Constitutional Amendment
- CARICOM Office Reopens in Haiti
- UN Extends Haiti Peacekeeping Mission with Additional Police
- Flooding Follows Heavy Rains
- STRIKING WHILE THE IRONY IS HOT: Acknowledging Haitis aid during
   the American Revolution

Campaigning Against the EU Economic Partnership Agreement:

Haitian development and human rights organizations are campaigning
against the signing of a new trade relationship with the European
Union (EU) that they say will strike a further blow against the
countrys already ailing economy. An Economic Partnership Agreement
(EPA) between the EU and the 16 Caribbean nations grouped together as
Cariforum is due to be signed by the end of this year. The Haitian
government has indicated that it is ready to sign, but Haitian
organizations, including those representing peasant farmers, say the
agreement  which will eliminate tariffs on goods traded between
signatory nations  will destroy the countrys agricultural sector,
which provides a livelihood for around two-thirds of the countrys 8
million people. Campaigners stress that the Haitian economy needs
more protection, not less.

The EU has been negotiating these trade agreements for five years
with groups of mostly former European colonies in Africa, the
Caribbean and Asia. The EPAs are set to replace the existing trade
structure, the Cotonou Convention that expires on Dec. 31 of this
year. EU negotiators state that the agreements will help these
countries to develop their economies, many of which rely on basic
commodity exports, and will help foster regional markets by
attracting foreign investment. But a newly-formed coalition of nine
Haitian organizations and networks, Bare APE in Creole, or Block the
EPA, disagrees. On Sept. 26, the coalition, which includes the Tht
Kole peasant movement and the Platform to Advocate for Alternative
Development, launched a campaign of demonstrations, workshops, and
meetings with government entities and international organizations.

This mobilization will allow various sectors of our nation to
continue to consider thebest ways to arrive at an alternative,
sustainable development by protecting the vital sectors of national
production, and to prevent the European Union from mortgaging this
countrys chances of development, the coalition said in a statement
on the eve of the campaign launch. One of the driving forces behind
the campaign is Camille Chalmers, director of the Platform to
Advocate for Alternative Development. He points to the case of rice,
the staple diet of the vast majority of Haitians, stating that the
reduction of protective tariffs on imported rice and the absence of
state support for rice farmers over recent decades have already taken
their toll.

Haiti was self-sufficient in food until 1972. In 1985 we produced
123,000 metric tons of rice, but the latest figures for 2006 indicate
we produced just 76,000 metric tons and imported 342,000 metric
tons, he said. We have the most outrageous situation. Haiti, the
poorest country on the American continent, is one of the top four
importers of rice from the United States. If the trend continues, we
will witness the disappearance of rice production, and 120,000 people
will become unemployed. Another critic of the proposed EPA is Jean-
Baptiste Charles, the director of the dairy production program of the
Veterimed organization that helps peasant farmers to improve
production. Veterimeds dairy production program has revitalized milk
production, but Charles laments the fact that theoretically we have
enough milk to supply national demand, yet we are continuing to
import milk to the cost of around US$30 million a year. Charles says
his organization sees the industrialized countries subsidizing their
producers and then their cheaper products invade the markets of
countries like Haiti. The result is that Haitian farmers are forced
out of business. We see four basic areas of Haitian agricultural
production: sugar cane, rice, chickens, and chicken eggs  and over
recent years we estimate that 830,000 jobs have been lost.

Chalmers says the impact of the EPA and the total opening of the
Haitian economy to foreign imports will hit not just the agricultural
sector but the whole countrys chances of development. The EPAs will
deliver multiple blows to the economies of poor countries like Haiti.
There will be a budgetary blow because the elimination of import
tariffs will reduce the resources that each state needs to finance
development and public services, thus creating an even greater
dependence on the international finance institutions. The Haitian
government itself has taken little interest in the EPA negotiation
process and until recently had mandated the CARICOM regional body 
of which it is one of the 15 members  to negotiate on its behalf. In
one of the few public statements about the EPA process, in late April
at a meeting convened by the United Nations Industrial Development
Organization, the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Maguy Durci,
appeared to embrace the EPA, stating, The moment has come for us to
set to work, to evaluate our strengths and weaknesses, and in
particular to face up to the competition from regional and European
companies, and especially the requirements of reciprocal engagements.

With the Haitian government dependent on loans and grants from
international finance institutions that are, in turn, disbursed on
condition that the government refrains from erecting protective trade
barriers, there appears little likelihood that the anti-EPA
campaigners can stop the process. However, as the Dec. 31 deadline
approaches, the failure of European and Caribbean trade negotiators
to agree on many matters of principle and detail, despite years of
discussion, has cast a shadow over the EPA. The Haitian campaigners
will be hoping for more time to pressure their government to
reconsider the agreements implications. (Latin American Press, 10/17)


UN and Activists Call for Renewed Investigation into Disappearance of
Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine:

UN peacekeepers called Thursday for a renewed police investigation
into the disappearance of a Haitian human rights activist and senate
candidate who was reported missing more than two months ago. Since
his abrupt disappearance, scant information has emerged about
Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, a high-profile activist and member of ousted
president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas party. The UN
mission is "concerned to note that we have still not received news
about a person of stature, a political activist, who disappeared two
months ago," said spokesman Mamadou Bah. He added that Haitian police
have not responded to UN offers to assist with the investigation.
Police spokesman Frantz Lerebours said there was no new information
on Pierre-Antoine, and would not provide further details.

Pierre-Antoine, a leader of the pro-Aristide September 30 Foundation
and critic of both UN and U.S. involvement in Haiti, was last seen
leaving his Port-au-Prince home shortly before midnight Aug. 12, said
Ronald Saint-Jean, leader of a coalition called the Group Initiative
to Save Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine. Saint-Jean and other supporters say
Pierre-Antoine had received threats because of his ties to Aristide,
and they believe he was abducted because a rented SUV he was using at
the time was found abandoned outside his home. No ransom note was
ever issued, Saint-Jean said. "We are putting pressure on the
authorities to give us an answer," he said. (Canadian Press, 10/19)

After the disappearance of Haitian human rights activist Lovinsky
Pierre-Antoine more than two months ago, his supporters are pressing
the government of President Rene Preval, along with the governments
of the United States, Canada and Brazil and the UN Stabilization
Mission in Haiti (Minustah), to step up efforts to locate his
whereabouts. Mounting evidence suggests that Lovinsky (who goes by
his first name) was kidnapped for political reasons. Lovinsky, 41,
went missing on Aug. 12 while leading a joint U.S.-Canadian human
rights delegation in Haiti. Since then, a criminal gang has claimed
responsibility for Lovinskys abduction and has demanded a ransom for
his release. The Haitian government and police have released little
information about their efforts to free the human rights activist,
leading to charges that authorities are not truly interested in
finding him.

Roger Annis of the Canada-Haiti Action Network, who was a member of
the delegation, said that when they first reported Lovinskys
disappearance on Aug. 13, police showed no interest in the case and
did not even bother asking them any questions. Lovinskys supporters
inside and outside Haiti have mounted protests to force the Haitian
government and its backers to make a serious effort to secure his
release. Lovinskys two teenage children, Stiphane and Olivier Pierre-
Antoine, have released an open letter urging the Haitian government
and the international community to help find their father.

According to Brian Concannon Jr. of the Oregon-based Institute for
Justice and Democracy in Haiti, Lovinsky made many enemies in the
course of his work. Lovinsky earned the enmity of almost everyone
responsible for human rights violations in Haiti, including Haitis
conservative business elite, the right-wing politicians, the
Duvalierists, the interim government and the international
community, including the U.S., Minustah and international financial
institutions, Concannon said. Lovinsky makes them uncomfortable
because he will follow human rights violations to their source, and
fearlessly condemn whomever he finds is involved in the violation,
Concannon said. He manages to keep human rights and justice issues
on the radar screen through public rallies and demonstrations, web-
based analyses, press releases and interviews. Lovinsky is also the
most outspoken and effective opponent to the resurrection of the
Haitian army, Concannon said. He organizes photo exhibits to remind
Haitians of the militarys atrocities and brutality, and speaks out
directly against the armys return in the press. Although his views
on the army are widely shared, many people decline to express those
views in public for fear of retaliation.

The foundation for Lovinskys effectiveness is the fact that his
analysis and his advocacy are rooted among Haitis poor, he
continued. Noting that Lovinsky has a masters degree in psychology
and could simply play the role of expert in a comfortable office if
he wanted to, Lovinsky instead takes his education and skills to the
street, working directly with poor people, using his skills to carry
their voice to places it otherwise would not be heard. Concannon, a
lawyer and member of the UN human rights mission in Haiti from
1995-96, said the evidence suggests that Lovinsky was likely
kidnapped for political reasons. The elapse of seven weeks since the
last communication suggests that the original ransom demand may have
been a ruse to hide a politically motivated abduction, he said. He
noted that in Haiti it is very uncommon for kidnappers to hold a
person so long. More ominously, Concannon noted that Lovinsky also
frequently criticized groups with a history of killing their
opponents, including the countrys political and economic right wing,
the army and paramilitary groups. However, Concannon cautioned that
he has not seen any information that points to one group or
individual who might be responsible for kidnapping Lovinsky.
Supporters say Lovinsky is still presumed to be alive. (Workers
World, 10/20)


US Customs Discovers $852k Hidden in SUV Headed for Haiti:

U.S. Customs officials found $852,000 hidden in the bumper of a sport
utility vehicle leaving from Palm Beach and bound for Haiti, police
said. According to a press release, U.S. Customs and Border
Protection officers were performing random inspections of vehicles
destined for Haiti Wednesday, utilizing a newly acquired X-ray
vehicle, the Z Backscatter Van, nicknamed "the ice cream truck" by
CBP officers. Officials said the officers noticed an unusual density
in the rear quarter panel and bumper of a red 1997 Toyota RAV-4 that
was awaiting export. Upon physical inspection, investigators found
bundles of cash wrapped in plastic bags and black tape that were
tightly packed into the small spaces. CBP Director of Field
Operations Harold Woodward said the money was being smuggled out of
the U.S. illegally and was likely linked to "serious criminal
activity." U.S. Customs and Border Protection is an agency within the
Department of Homeland Security which is charged with the management,
control and protection of U.S. borders at and between official ports
of entry. The CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist
weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.
(Yahoo News, 10/18)


President Preval Calls for Constitutional Amendment:

Haitian President Rene Preval on Wednesday called for a
constitutional amendment to allow presidents to serve consecutive
terms  a change he said would bring more stability to a country
frequently mired in political chaos. Preval, in a speech at the
National Palace, proposed overhauling the country's entire
constitution to give the government more flexibility to promote
development and fight corruption. He suggested holding all national
and local elections on the same day every five years, and recommended
creating a constitutional court to interpret the nation's laws. He
also said the president should have the power to dismiss the prime
minister  who is now appointed by the executive, but can only be
ousted by parliament. Current rules limit Haitian presidents to two
terms, with at least a five-year break in between. Preval's initial
proposal, which spokesmen said he would refine before submitting to
parliament, would allow future presidents to serve those terms back-
to-back.

Preval, who won his second nonconsecutive term last year, assured
legislators he could not, and would not, seek office again. "I know
that as soon as the president asks to reflect on the constitution, it
gives rise to suspicion," Preval said. "I repeat once again for
everyone: My tenure comes to end on Feb. 7, 2011, period." Haiti's
current constitution was signed in 1987 after 29 years of
dictatorship and was intended to impede any return to authoritarian
rule. Preval urged lawmakers to work with him to overhaul the
document, which he called the single greatest threat to Haiti's long-
term stability. Preval said the amendment process is slow, needing
the approval of two-thirds of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies and
requiring they then wait until the next session of parliament to
implement the changes. (AP, 10/17)


CARICOM Office Reopens in Haiti:

President Reni Prival is expected to deliver the feature address at
the re-opening of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Representational
Office in Haiti on Friday, according to a CARICOM statement issued
here. It said that the ceremony will take place at the new office in
the heart of the capital, Port au Prince and that the Parliamentary
Secretary in the Ministry of Finance of Barbados Senator Tyrone
Barker will represent Prime Minister Owen Arthur, the present CARICOM
Chairman. CARICOM Secretary General Edwin Carrington and Dennis
Robert, who is representing the Ambassador of Canada to Haiti, will
also address the function. "The CARICOM Representational Office (CRO)
is being re-opened with the support of the Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA), three years after it was closed following
the interruption of democratic governance in 2004," the CARICOM
statement said. "The office was then located in the Embassy of The
Bahamas and had been established at that time with the support of the
government of the Kingdom of Norway. The statement said that
Ambassador Earl Huntley, a St. Lucian diplomat and administrator with
wide experience, will be in charge of the CRO.

CARICOM said that the CRO is being established to facilitate more
speedily the integration of Haiti into the regional integration
grouping "with particular emphasis on the Single Market and Economy;
identify and mobilise domestic, financial and other resources;
promote relations with the media; and undertake public education
programmes". "The ratification by the Haitian Parliament of the
Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas including the Single Market and the
Economy and the re-opening of the Representational Office within two
weeks of each other augur well for the quickening of the pace of the
fuller integration of Haiti into CARICOM," Carrington said. Deputy
Secretary-General of CARICOM, Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite, said
that CIDA's assistance regarding the CRO is part of the wider CARICOM
Trade and Competitiveness Project. "Among the goals of the project is
to assist Haiti to prepare itself for full participation in the CSME.
This is being done within the context of the wider goal to provide
more and better opportunities for the people of CARICOM to
participate in and benefit from the CARICOM Single Market and Economy
(CSME). "It also should enable all CARICOM citizens to understand,
participate and actively engage in economic activities," she added.
(Caribbean News, 10/19)


UN Extends Haiti Peacekeeping Mission with Additional Police:

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Monday to extend the U.N.
peacekeeping mission in Haiti for a year, noting significant
improvements in security in recent months but saying the situation
remains fragile.  Haiti experienced relative calm after President
Rene Preval's election in February 2006, but violence flared several
months later. A U.N. crackdown on gangs launched late last year has
led to a sharp reduction in shootings, but many people still live in
squalor and are in desperate need of jobs, hospitals and schools. In
Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, some political leaders and residents of the
country's largest slum seemed to welcome the extension, saying a
crackdown earlier this year has made life easier in a neighborhood
previously run by gangs. "Last year we couldn't have sat here playing
dominoes" because it was so dangerous, 27-year-old construction
worker Jean-Baptiste Venel said in the seaside slum of Cite Soleil.
"If the U.N. is here for another year it's a good thing for the
country and Cite Soleil." Resisents say that Cite Soleil  where
people live in rows of bullet-scarred hovels with no electricity or
running water  is currently safer than it has been since Aristide's
departure. Senate President Joseph Lambert praised the U.N.
resolution but said Haiti must restore its national sovereignty after
years of security provided by U.N. troops. In its resolution, the
Security Council acknowledged significant improvements in the
country's security situation in recent months, but noted it remains
"fragile," in part because of continuing drugs and arms trafficking.
Ban said in a report to the council following his visit to Haiti in
August that despite "marginal improvements," the Haitian police force
"remains unable to undertake crucial security tasks" without help.
The force's mandate covers mainly Haiti's security needs, but
Preval's government has been pressuring the U.N. to funnel more
resources into development projects. The resolution urged the U.N.
country team and all humanitarian and development organizations in
Haiti to complement security operations by undertaking activities to
improve living conditions in the country. (AP, 10/15)

United Nations officials have agreed to extend the peacekeeping
mission in Haiti as part of a plan to add more international police.
VOA's Brian Wagner recently visited the Caribbean nation, where
officials say the renewed efforts will help improve policing on
Haiti's borders and in their national waters. More than three years
into their mission, United Nations officials in Haiti are seeking to
reform their 9,100-member peacekeeping team to better address ongoing
criminal and security problems. The Security Council agreed
unanimously Monday to extend the U.N. mission another year, as it
works to strengthen Haiti's government. The resolution calls on the
mission to reduce the number of military troops and deploy an
additional 140 international police officers, increasing the size of
the police contingent to nearly 2,100. U.N. military forces have been
credited with restoring peace to even some of the most violent parts
of Haiti, by carrying out raids and other military operations. In a
recent interview, J. Carter, head of civil affairs for the U.N.
mission, says the focus now is on conducting more police operations.
"Particularly with regard to border control, customs, immigration,
things of that nature," he said. "That's one of the insecurities that
remains, is Haiti's lack of control of its own borders and territories."

Illegal drug networks have been able to take advantage of weaknesses
in Haiti's security forces in recent years to ship contraband from
South America to traffickers in the United States and elsewhere.
Also, insecurity along Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic has
been a source of tension between the neighbors on the island of
Hispaniola. Carter says cooperation between international police and
Haitian officers already has produced results, such as the arrest of
several alleged drug kingpins this year. He says such efforts are
helping to restore confidence in the nation's government. "The people
are beginning to see results too, and that counts," he said. "Because
that provides a certain conviction and imbues credibility to the
[Haitian] government's efforts." Some Haitian lawmakers, however,
have criticized the joint police efforts, especially agreements that
have allowed U.S. anti-drug agents to make arrests on Haitian soil.
They say such operations violate Haiti's sovereignty.

But deputy Jean Dorsonee Verrettes from the northern Artibonite
region, says international support is needed until Haiti's police
force can function on its own. He says Haiti's police force still has
some weaknesses and lacks key resources. Verrettes says the support
of international partners may help overcome some of those problems.
For months, the U.N. mission has been working with Haiti's police
force to rebuild its infrastructure and reform its training program
for new officers. The top U.N. police official, Richard Warren, says
one major goal is to combat the perception of corruption that has
plagued Haiti's police for decades. "The change in reality is to move
the orientation of the police service from one that serves the state
to one that serves the people," he said. "If we can do that and it
can be sustainable in Haiti, I think we have a bright future for the
police."

Warren says 1,400 Haitian police officers have completed the new
training program, and officials hope to graduate classes of similar
size each year through 2011. The current mandate of the U.N. mission
in Haiti allows it to operate until next October, and it is unclear
if officials will extend it further. Haiti's President Rene Preval
has praised the assistance from the U.N. and other international
partners. In a speech last month at the United Nations, he noted that
the presence of foreign troops remains difficult for many Haitians to
accept, and he suggested the U.N. mission cannot remain forever.
(VOA, 10/16)


Flooding Follows Heavy Rains:

Cars crossing Gonaives Avenue shoot plumes of murky water from their
rears. Men on motorcycles stick to the shoulder of the road, dodging
large puddles. As the flooding in this coastal city begins to slowly
recede, residents are starting to assess the measure of destruction.
Scattered thunderstorms are still drenching Haiti, which remains on
"yellow alert", with persistent threats of overflowing rivers, floods
and landslides -- always a danger in a country that has lost 90
percent of its forest cover. Haitians of all classes dread hurricane
season. A week of hard rain in areas like Les Cayes, a seaport in the
southwest, means residents must trudge through feet of water. And
many feel abandoned to the mercy of the elements. One couple carrying
plastic cans down a street in Gonaives asked, "Where is the state?
Why do they wait for the catastrophe before intervening?"

Residents of this city, the capital of the department of Artibonite,
which was especially hard-hit, say that local forecasting committees
should be formed to help communities avoid the worst. For more than a
week, people in Les Cayes, Hinche, Port-De-Paix, Gonaives, Nippes and
Grand'Anse have reported that the roads are impassible, or nearly so,
due to the floods. The rains began in earnest late last month. And
since the first week of October, Gonaives, a city of about 100,000
people, has been literally underwater. The horror of Hurricane Jeanne
is still alive in the memories of its residents, and many complain
that they see no sign of the hundreds of thousands of dollars that
international donors gave after that monster storm in 2004 left some
3,000 people dead -- 2,000 in Gonaives alone -- with bodies floating
for days. One Gonaivian remarked, "Only the good Lord can save us."

The Haitian government has released funds to send food and beds to
the stricken areas, and the United Nations has also offered to help.
However, residents here appear to be highly sceptical of the
international community's involvement in Haiti, choosing instead to
work together to do the best they can.  According to the
International Organisation for Migration, 700 homes have been
completely destroyed and more than 4,000 seriously damaged, "leaving
around 4,000 families in distress and 3,000 persons living in
temporary shelters." Areas in southern Haiti were also devastated,
according to radio reports. There have been 37 confirmed deaths, but
some press reports indicate that up to 50 people may have perished in
the flooding. A mounting number of climatologists believe that global
warming, caused in large part by the industrialised north, has
increased the intensity and frequency of bad weather during the
Caribbean's storm season from June 1 to November 30. This is a
particular problem for Haiti because much of the country's topsoil is
precarious and exposed due to the clear-cutting of forests to make
charcoal for cooking and heating water. More than 70 percent of the
energy usage in Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, is
derived from wood and other biomass.

Secretary-General Paul Loulou Chiry of the Confidiration des
Travailleurs Haitiens (CTH), a national trade union confederation,
says the situation is desperate. He has heard from numerous people
living in the flooded areas who have faced severe weather for weeks.
Chery said the CTH is trying to provide support to the many trade
unionists living in the affected departments, but has few resources
to do so. He explained that rising costs of living for the poor
exacerbate the crisis. "The people of all these departments need
solidarity at once," Chery said.  (Caribbean Net News, 10/19)


STRIKING WHILE THE IRONY IS HOT: Acknowledging Haitis aid during the
American Revolution

Napoleon once said that nothing could be as insulting as adding irony
to injury. For more than a quarter century, Haitian boat people
have been making headlines in our country risking their lives to
escape the crushing poverty of theirs. Many, if not most, have been
arrested, placed in detention centers, deported, interdicted at sea
by the U.S. Coast Guard, repatriated to Haiti, or have drowned in
their desperate attempts to reach our shores. That is the injury.

The irony is that the first Haitian boat people sailed north from
what was then the French, slave colony of Saint Domingue to fight for
our independence during the American Revolution, twelve years before
their own. Two hundred and twenty-eight years later, their
contribution has been officially acknowledged. On October 8th, the
city of Savannah, Georgia, along with the Haitian American Historical
Society, unveiled a monument in the citys Franklin Square
commemorating the courage and sacrifice of Les Chasseurs Volontaires.
The ceremony was attended by local and regional politicians including
Savannah mayor, Otis S. Johnson; former mayor, Floyd Adams, Jr.;
congressmen John Barrow (D-Georgia) and Miami-based Kendrick Meeks (D-
Florida). Representing the Haitian government were several members of
its senate and Jean V. Geneus, Minister of Haitians Living Abroad.
It had to take a special vision to fight for the political
independence of a slave holding society, announced Rep. Barrow. For
men of color from another country to fight alongside the cause of
American freedom required vision and far sightedness exceeding most
men and women of that time.

On August 16, 1779, a militia of five hundred and forty-five, free
blacks and mulattoes from Saint Domingue accompanied their former
governor, Vice-Admiral Charles-Henri Le Comte dEstaing, more than
three thousand French troops, and an additional contingent of white
and volunteers of color from the other French West Indian colonies:
Grenada, Martinique, and Guadeloupe. The mission was to render
military assistance to American insurgents, led by General Benjamin
Lincoln, attempting to regain the British-held port of Savannah. It
was Frances initial, land-based foray in a war that would reach its
ultimate conclusion, and victory, at Yorktown. The British were not
expecting them. Nothing seemed further from Savannah than Englands
hereditary enemies, wrote Alexander A. Lawrence in his 1951 book,
Storm over Savannah, those giddy opportunists who had taken the side
of the Americans for no better reason than to avenge Britains rape
of the Bourbon Empire.

For twenty-three days, the combined forces laid siege to the city
while the British gained reinforcements and fortified their defenses.
On October 9th, the allies, including some but not all of the
chasseurs, finally attacked what they thought was the weak point of
the British fortifications, the Spring Hill Redoubt. The attack
failed. In less than an hour, hundreds were killed or wounded.
Retreat was sounded. Attempting to demolish the enemy, the British
mounted a counter attack. The balance of chasseurs, as part of the
French reserves, came between them, stood their ground, and repulsed
the onslaught. Their courage saved thousands of French and American
lives allowing Lincoln to regroup and eventually push north.

Franklin Square is a small park nestled in Savannahs historic
district surrounded by pecan trees and live oaks festooned with
Spanish moss. The monument is an octagonal, granite pillar, six feet
high by sixteen feet wide. Each facet of the octagon is engraved with
a portion of the story of the Siege of Savannah focusing on the
chasseurs contribution. Crowning the pillar are four, life-size,
bronze statues depicting the chasseurs in action: a young drummer boy
represents Henri Christophe, who would one day become Haitis first
king; a wounded soldier kneels clutching his chest; a third soldier
fires a musket while the fourth reloads. Two additional statues have
yet to be installed once the final $250,000 has been raised through
additional, private contributions. Rep. Meeks praised Chairman Daniel
Fils-Aime, Sr. and other members of the Haitian American Historical
Society for mortgaging their homes for us to be here on behalf of
pride and commitment, to telling a story the way it should be told.

The chasseurs mission was far more daunting. To members of Georgias
slave-holding society, seeing this corps of free blacks and men of
color, marching with rifles on American soil, must have been nerve
wracking; a threat to their very existence. Among the French
regulars, the idea of fighting beside the rebel army was so
distasteful they arrested any American who dared set foot in their
camp. As for the men of Saint Domingue, dEstaing felt compelled to
issue orders stating the people of color would be treated at all
times like whites. They aspire to the same honor and they will
exhibit the same bravery.	Upon leaving their island home, they
had been told only that they would be joining American insurgents in
their war for independence. The exact destination had been kept a
secret by dEstaing, as was his custom. Geographically, Savannah was
approximately six hundred and fifty miles west but eight hundred
miles north of Saint Domingue, nearly half way to Canada. For men who
had spent the entirety of their lives in the tropics, their tolerance
to Georgias cooler climate proved remarkably resilient. 	It is
extraordinary, wrote dEstaing soon after the battle, that there
were so few sick among the three thousand men who came from the
islands and Saint Domingue, who were constantly at arms for nearly a
month, most of them without tents, dressed only in linen, suffering
from heat in the daytime and freezing to death at night. (Muskets,
Cannon Balls & Bombs: the Revolution in Georgia, Benjamin Kennedy, Ed.)

The chasseurs heroics have been largely ignored by American
historians since the revolution. Except for a few advocating the
patriot cause, like The Boston Gazette and The Charleston Gazette,
most newspapers at the time were tools of propaganda controlled by
the Crown. Reports on important events, such as the siege of Savannah
were repressed for political reasons. Regardless of which side a
paper supported, however, the agenda rarely included discussion of
blacks except as slaves or criminals. Students in Haiti still learn
of Les Chasseurs Volontaires in grammar school although no firsthand
documentation from Saint Domingue has survived. Haitis historical
archives were destroyed by a series of fires and explosions in the
National Palace and other ministry buildings during the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries. Limited accounts of the chasseurs that
did survive first appeared in the journals of a few military men
present at the siege, nearly all of whom were French, American, or
English. None were chasseurs.

At the ceremony, Jean V. Geneus, Minister of Haitians Living Abroad,
reiterated what students in Haiti have always been taught. In 1849,
Sir Richard Rush, the American minister to Paris, wrote that blacks
and mulattoes saved the French and American troops that day at
Savannah; covering themselves with glory. Ultimately, the chasseurs
returned to Saint Domingue bearing something far more valuable than
glory. They brought back first hand knowledge of how the French made
war: their hubris, the petty jealousies within the ranks, poor
provisioning, and strategic blunders. All this knowledge gleaned from
Savannah would serve the men of Saint Domingue during their own
revolution twelve years later.

By 1802, Thomas Jefferson had become deeply concerned that if
Napoleon could quell the rebellious slaves, he might afterwards shift
his troops to the Louisiana territory. A master manipulator,
Jefferson promised not to infringe on French sovereignty in Saint
Domingue while simultaneously turning a blind eye toward private
merchants delivering contraband arms, ammunition, and provisions to
the rebellion behind Frances back. Saint Domingue defeated the
French, declared its independence in 1804, and changed its name to
Haiti. With his war chest near depletion, Napoleon had already sold
the Louisiana territory to the U.S. the year before. No longer
threatened by France, Jefferson responded to pressure from Americas
slave-holding states poised to expand into the nations vast, new
real estate. Fearing its influence, Jefferson chose not to recognize
the fledgling, black republic. His decision, which remained the
official, U.S. position until1862, established the exclusionist and
paternalistic policies toward Haiti that persist to this day. As for
Haitis boat people, according to a report from the Congressional
Research Service, their mass migration by sea threatens our
national security because it diverts the Coast Guard and other
resources from their homeland security duties.

Fortunately, the Haitian boat people who came to fight for our
freedom in 1779 were not turned away. Had they been, said Floyd
Adams, We might all be speaking with an English Accent. (Elliot
Kriegsman, 10/16)