Source: AlterPresse
http://www.medialternatif.org/alterpresse/
Written by Ronald Colbert
Translated from French by Charles Arthur for the Haiti Support Group

At a press conference in Port-au-Prince on 4 June, numerous Haitian civil society organisations called for the immediate and unconditional release of the 11 people, two of them journalists, arrested on 27 May in the locality of Guacimal near Saint-Raphael in connection with a union movement’s struggle for the rights of hundreds of people who have worked 366 careaux of land there since 1958.

The civil society organisations denounced the attitude of the Lavalas authorities for trying to criminalise the people’s demands by characterising them as the actions of "terrorists", "anti-investment", "anti-free zone" and as "attempts to destablise the government". These organisations also denounced what they call a disinformation campaign carried out by certain medias, in particular State Television, which refered to "terrorists-uprooters attempting to use force to take land".

Georges Augustin of Batay Ouvriye, who spoke at the press conference, said "If we intended to use force to take over the orange plantation, we would not have come unarmed. If we had a project to destablise the Lavalas government, we would have been able to respond to the aggression of the armed group which violently disrupted our peaceful rally. However, the St Raphael police found absolutely no guns in the possession of the people they detained."

Francilien Exumé and Ifares Guerrier, members of Batay Ouvriye from Saint-Michel de l'Attalaye who participated in the rally, were chopped to death with machetes and buried where they died by the aggressors. According to Batay Ouvriye, this group was composed of landowners, members of the local councils (CASEC and ASEC) and their allies who are conducting a repressive campaign against its members.

Faced with the aggression from this gang of men armed with machetes, rocks and 38 calibre pistols, those participating in the rally tried to defend themselves by throwing rocks. The majority of the participants were able to flee along the tracks to Bahon, Grande Riviere du Nord and Ranquitte, but 11 of them, having been intercepted by the gang and imprisoned in the St Raphael jail on 27 May, were taken by helicopter to Port-au-Prince. Batay Ouvriye listed them as two women and nine men, including two drivers and one fare-collector from the public transport chartered to take people to and from the rally, as well as the journalists, Darwin Saint-Julien of Haiti Progres and Alan Deshommes of Radio Atlantic, arrested as they attempted to cover the peaceful rally of around 150 people near the Catholic church at the Guacimal locality.

Elifaite Saint-Pierre, secretary-general of the Platform of Haitian Human Rights Organisations (POHDH) said, "The 11 people who are subject to prolonged preventative detention in the National Penitenciary were arbitrarily and illegally arrested in violation of articles 26, 26.1 and 31 of the Constitution that guarantee the rights of unarmed meeting and assembly. They were also physically mistreated at the time of their detention."

Saint-Pierre also cited the violation of the rights to information and freedom of the Press, not to mention the procedural and judicial irregularities arising from the 11 being transferred by helicopter to Port-au-Prince instead of being kept Grand-Riviere du Nord as they should have been following the incidents in Saint-Raphael.

It was announced that the National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR) which is member of the POHDH had visited the Guacimal area in order to collect independent testimonies about the events of 27 May. However, a NCHR delegation that had tried investigate the health of the detainees had been denied access to the National Penitenciary. Information obtained by AlterPress indicates that the 11 detainees suffered serious physical injuries, and that a justice of the peace from St. Raphael who had wanted to interview the detainees had been dismissed on the orders of local Lavalas Family officials.

Camille Chalmers of the Platform to Advocate for Alternative Develoment (PAPDA) said, "The events of 27 May at Guacimal are part of the neo-liberalism war and the anti-peasant politics violently orchestrated by the current regime, which wants to suppress the Guacimal workers’ demands."

The PAPDA, which took part in the press conference, invited the population to mobilise itself and make solidarity with the Guacimal workers and peasants, as well as with the Maribaroux peasants’ struggle to stop productive farming land being used as the site of free zone.

Dr. Eric Edouard, son of Mme Dambreville Edouard, who has been imprisoned in the Fort National jail since 28 May, said, "The current situation in Guacimal is much more than just a land dispute but, as we see now, it displays many of the features belonging to the colonial era of revolt against feudal regimes."

The Guacimal workers are asking not only for gloves to protect their hands while harvesting the oranges, masks to protect themselves from wasp and other insect stings, ladders so that they can pick the oranges properly, and toilets so that they don’t have to go behind the bushes, but also schools and health centres to serve all the peasants.

Batay Ouvriye charges that not only do the Guacimal workers lack the proper work equipment, but they have never received their pensions and holiday pay as stipulated in the Labour Code. These demands had been taken up with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Justice, and with the Government regional delegate, but these authorities had shown no concern about the warnings of the risk of confrontation with the management of the plantation.

The union conflict involving the Guacimal orange plantation managers who supplied orange extract used to produce the French liqueur, Cointreau, began first with the formation in October 2000 of a workers’ union, then with the creation of a peasant association in 2001. Since 2001, the workers and peasants have tried using strikes and work stoppages to win respect for their rights according to the Labour Code, to end the practice of plantation guards taking half of the peasants’ annual harvests, and to make the Guacimal company enact the promises made when it acquired the land in 1958.

In response to the workers’ renewed demands, the Guacimal company bosses decided to entrust the plantation to the Catholic Church. At a meeting, a priest declared that he himself envisaged growing sugar cane on 12 carreaux of land, and that the peasants, who would only be left with 80 carreaux of land to farm during the period between the orange harvests, "would be better off looking for other land to farm in Pignon, Ranquitte and Hinche."