Haiti's Fr, Gerard Jean-Juste and human rights activists to demonstrate in Miami today

Father Gerard Jean-Juste and human rights activists to demonstrate at 11:30 AM today at Brazilian Consulate in Miami to protest July 6th Cité Soleil massacre carried out by Brazilian led UN "peacekeepers"

WHEN: Wednesday July 13 11:30 AM

LOCATION: Brazilian Consulate 80 SW 8 St, Miami

Father Gerard Jean-Juste, a leading Haitian human rights activist will lead a demonstration at the Brazilian Consolate today to denounce the Brazilian army's role in leading the UN forces in Haiti that are carrying out massive repression against the Haitian people.

On the morning of July 6, 2005, a full-blown military attack on a densely-populated neighborhood, which multiple sources confirm killed at least 23 people, was carried out by UN "peacekeepers" in Haiti. Published estimates indicate that upwards of 100 may have been killed and an indeterminate number wounded, and that more than 300 heavily armed UN troops took part in the assault on the neighborhood.

"We call upon President Lula to stop the war against the poor people of Haiti", Father Jean-Juste said. "Lula cannot claim to support democracy and human rights while his military commands forces that are slaughtering innocent civilians. If President Lula is to be a leader for the peoples of Latin America he needs to remember his roots as a union organizer that suffered under government repression. He needs to order his troops to stop the killings now before it is too late"

Dave Welsh, a delegate with the San Francisco Labor Council who was in Haiti as part of a labor/human rights delegation, said, "This full-blown military attack on a densely-populated neighborhood, which multiple sources confirm killed at least 23 people, is a crime." The attack took place in Cite Soleil, an extremely poor area that is staunchly supportive of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Aristide was forced from office by the U.S. embassy in collusion with U.S.-backed paramilitaries on February 29, 2004 and is now in exile in South Africa.

Seth Donnelly, a California teacher with the same delegation, visited the scene of the massacre and spoke to traumatized survivors of the attack. "This operation started early Wednesday morning at 3am, with Jordanian and other troops on foot and in tanks and helicopters with machine gun turrets. It was a full-scale attack. Survivors told us that when they saw UN troops they felt that, unlike Haitian police, they would not fire on civilians, but that the 'peacekeepers' soon began shooting into houses and at civilians. "

The Labor/Human Rights Delegation from the United States, sponsored by the San Francisco Labor Council, had been in Haiti since late June to attend the Congress of the Confederation of Haitian Workers (CTH), the country's largest labor organization, and met with hundreds of Haitian workers, farmers and professionals, interviewing scores of them about the current labor and human rights crisis in Haiti.

Pierre Labossiere of the Haiti Action Committee noted, "This latest attack, in which people in their homes and on the way to work were killed for no reason, is beyond the pale. Such atrocities must not be accepted by the international community. Those responsible for these killings of civilians must be brought to trial."

Labossiere concluded that the U.S.Embassy should immediately refrain from more statements which provide a "green light" for slaughter of civilians. "By recently calling grassroots activists 'gang members' and 'terrorists', U.S. Ambassador James Foley sent a signal that it's open season on civilians. The real terrorists in Haiti are the UN troops, the Haitian police and the paramilitaries who are killing civilians. Under its most recent mandate, the UN has supervision of the Haitian police. But instead of stopping the killing of civilians, the UN is stepping up the slaughter," said Labossiere.