UN provoke mourners, gun down unarmed

UN provoke mourners, gun down unarmed, blames it on victims

by Ezili Danto/HLLN (June 19, 2009)

UN provoke marchers/mourners, gun down the unarmed at point-blank range and blames the killing on the crowd of mourners at Father Jean Juste's Haiti funeral. At the June 18, 2008 funeral of Father Jean Juste in Port-au-Prince, witnesses on the scene, say that UN soldiers fired on the funeral procession and gunned down a Haitian mourner outside the cathedral where Fathe Jean Juste's funeral was held; But, according to an AFP article, the UN/MINUSTAH claims, without providing any substantiating evidence, that the dead mourner didn't die from a UN bullet but from a "blunt object" presumably a rock thrown by the crowd at UN soldiers. (Go to: UN 'categorically' denies shooting death in Haiti ).

W hy is it that the world is more pre-disposed to listen to these criminals taking Haitian sovereignty by force than Haitians who were on the ground and experienced what happened? Racism, what? Does it matter that the UN has been slaughtering innocent, unarmed Haitians in Haiti since 2004 and that there is tons of documented evidence of their criminality? Does it matter that the only folks they provide security to is themselves, their NGOs and the Haitian mercenary families/Haitian oligarchy that denies and disenfranchise the people of Haiti? Does it matter that the UN soldiers are documented, in so many cases, to be raping, molesting and sexually abusing Haitian children, sometimes in exchange for giving them food? Where is the world's outrage? Justice for Haiti, for Haitians. For Father Jean Juste whom UN honchos watched being beaten in a church before they intervene to stop it and then sent him off to jail, where, denied immediate medical help, he would die slowly and now this killing by the UN at his funeral? Does it matter that Zapzap has already spent two and a half years in UN prisons in Haiti, illegally detained under false charges, since 2004 for his dissent against foreign occupation and continual use of his music and talent to demand return of President Aristide from exile and release of Haiti by the Internationals and Haiti's tiny/mercernary economic elite?

"According to several eyewitnesses, when members of the funeral procession blocked the provocative attempt to arrest Zapzap, the UN troops became enraged and one of them shot one of the attendees of the funeral at point blank range." (Jack Leiberman's reporting from Haiti, June 18, 2009).

According to the AFP article "The UN security forces in Haiti 'categorically' denied that any of its soldiers were involved in the death of a person during protests in the capital.

The UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) insisted also that the death, initially attributed to a gun shot wound, was due to a "head injury inflicted by a stone or a blunt object."

Please look at the pictures on the left found in the Haiti Information Project (HIP) article and from Lakounewyork covering the funeral and see for yourself. I may be wrong of course, but it seems to me, that that "blunt object" would have had to have been hurled from a speed and a distance to have cause the damage it caused to the young man's head, certainly not by hand, but a gun. Look at the damage. It doesn't take some expert to see the unidentified man was shot in the head, not hit with a rock. Besides the whole thing was captured live by Radio Tele Ginen Haiti and broadcast live on the internet. (See, Radio Tele Ginen's Deroulman antèman pè Gerard Jean-Juste )

At the start of the Radio Tele Ginen footage we hear music and see the procession milling around the Church cathedral. Then the camera pans to five Brazilian soldiers in the middle of the crowd pulling a man out from the crowd, holding this unidentified man in dreadlock in a choke hold, dragging him away.

With their hands up in the air, we see the young Haitian men closest to the soldiers, following the soldiers and verbally protesting the arrest of this marcher. Their hands are up in the air. Then you see the crowd turn away and began to run in the opposite direction, presumably and according to eyewitnesses, this was because the UN soldiers turn their guns directly towards them. But we don't see this on-camera. Off-camera, we hear three shots being fired from the UN soldiers. On camera, simultaneous with the firing, we see a person in the crowd drop. Someone in the crowd picks the young dead boy up as everyone is running for cover against the UN shots. We see the puddle of blood left behind where the young boy, some say he was only 14- years old, had dropped dead. Then we hear five more UN shots off-camera. The video footage cuts to show panic also inside the Church. There are reports that there was UN shooting inside the Church but we don't have this confirmed though we have seen footage of the panic and listened to a separate video footage, also from Radio Ginen, that captures a Haitian Deputy testifying he lost his wallet in the panic that ensued as the UN fired inside the Church. Later the video excerpt shows the mourners have laid the body at the gate in front of the Haitian National Palace steps, asking for justice.

This is what you'll see in the footage that was streamed live during the funeral. But eyewitnesses, who report to the Ezili Danto Witness Project, and who were there, on the scene, say the UN-Brazilian soldiers let the unidentified man go, right before they got into their truck and then fired more shots straight into the crowd as they drove away, followed by a Haitian police vehicle.

But, the Associated Press reports: "In the video shown by Radio Tele Ginen, five Brazilian soldiers are seen arresting a protester wearing dreadlocks and a T-shirt from Jean-Juste's Veye Yo organization.

As they lead him toward their open-top jeep ...the soldiers, ... periodically turn and fire their assault rifles ... Six gunshots are heard. The soldiers load the protester into the truck and fire two more shots as they drive away, followed by a Haitian police vehicle. As the camera pans around, bystanders and protesters come out of hiding from behind cars and walls. Within seconds some spot the young man lying unconscious in a pool of blood and a crowd, including an Associated Press photographer, gathers around. He appears to be breathing for several minutes while bleeding profusely from around the mouth and head. The victim remains unidentified. He was said by other protesters to be nicknamed "Junior" and live in an area near the capital's Bel Air slum." (Haitian TV airs footage of confrontation with UN)

The UN Mission in Haiti is claiming, without providing any substantiating evidence, that the boy died from a stone or blunt object thrown by the crowd of mourners at the soldiers! If the UN and their new envoy/face to Haiti, Bill Clinton, gets away with this blatant lie that this man did not die from a gunshot to the head as is evident in the picture of the man, then we are all ridiculously impotent and their power defies reason. If the young man was indeed killed by a UN bullet, there must be grave consequences for so-called "peacekeepers" shooting at and slaughtering unarmed marchers/mourners in cold blood and then adding insult to murder by slandering, defaming and humiliating the peaceful Haitian mourners.

There should also be action taken against those responsible for the cover-up of this crime. The UN spokesperson, Sophie Boutaud de la Combe, should be removed from her position, as well as the head of the mission, the commander of UN/MINUSTAH, Brazilian General Floriano Peixoto. Both have stated that the UN shot "into the air" to disperse the crowd. According to the AFP article, General Peixoto and de la Combe are blatantly asserting that the UN firing at the funeral "had no connection with the death," and that the soldiers did not fire on the people with live ammunition. The UN Mission went so far as to, without any substantiating evidence, categorically deny that any of the UN security forces were involved in the death of the young man killed during the funeral. In fact, UN spokesperson, Sophie Boutaud de la Combe, also insists, also without providing any substantiating evidence, that it was the other way around, it was the "stone-throwing" mourners who attacked the blue helmets. This, despite clear video evidence, that the Brazilian troops felt perfectly safe entering the crowd of mourners and protesters to provoke and disturb them by making an arrest.

( See HLLN's Action Alert - Message to President Obama. Demand an end to the UN Occupation of Haiti. Justice for UN Victims. Immediate return of President Aristide from exile. Immediate release of the popular Haitian musician Zapzap arrested on June 18, 2009 during Jean Juste funeral in Haiti and release all the political prisoners from prison).

The UN envoy to Haiti, President Bill Clinton, ought to denounce these UN actions and begin an independent investigation of all crimes committed by the UN since setting foot on Haitian soil to uphold thugs, criminals, the imposed-US-Boca Raton Regime, its death squad - Lame Ti Manchet - and the tiny Haitian economic elite.

In addition, the video, as reflected in the HIP photo below, shows the UN soldiers, in broad daylight, strangling an unarmed funeral attendee, right before the shooting. Why would the UN provoke like this and at a funeral of a priest they are accused of being complicit in killing and then claim they were attacked? WHo attacked whom first? The shooting occurred after the UN forces aggressively ventured into a peaceful group of mourners to arrest a popular musician -Yvon Zapzap. I would submit the attempt to arrest a popular musician at a funeral full of his fans, of a priest whose death tears Haiti's heart, is a direct UN provocation to incite violence, chaos, display their dominion/control over the people of Haiti. To then blame the resulting death on the peaceful mourners makes the crime all the more hideous. For the photos, go to: UN Guns Down One, Opens Fire on Crowd at Funeral of Revered Haitian Priest ).

The Obama Administration and the new UN Envoy ought to demand, from the UN occupation forces, an immediate accounting of the tragic events at Father Jean-Juste's funeral. This brutal UN intrusion at the funeral of a human rights activist, is criminal not to mention an assault to decency. Even in death, Father Jean Juste's could not be buried in peace, with dignity and respect. This is intolerable and a deliberate and intentional infliction of emotional distress. For to shoot at a crowd of mourners, and there are eyewitness reports of the UN shooting both inside and outside the Church, debases the Haitian people and the concept of peacekeeping.

As Haitians are apt to say, mete Minista deyò! - or, throw these UN "vampires of leisure" out of Haiti!