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On Sep. 30, the 22nd
anniversary of the 1991 coup d’état against President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, tens of thousands of demonstrators
poured into the streets of Port-au-Prince and Cap Haïtien to
demand two things: “Martelly must go! MINUSTAH must go!”
Knowing this agenda, the day
before over 100 delegates representing about two dozen different
popular organizations from all of Haiti’s ten departments
gathered at the Fany Villa Reception Center in Port-au-Prince to
reflect on and debate a proposal on how to form a provisional
government which could lead the country to free, fair, and
sovereign elections after Martelly’s departure from power, which
all of the delegates felt would be coming in the days ahead, one
way or another.
The proposal was made by the
Kòwòdinasyon Desalin or Dessalines Coordination (KOD), a new
formation headed by several prominent veterans of Haiti’s
democratic struggle over the past 25 years.
“We are sure that the U.S.
Embassy has made its plans for what to do after the Haitian
people have chased Martelly and [Prime Minister Laurent] Lamothe
from power,” said one KOD leader, Yves Pierre-Louis, who is also
Haïti Liberté’s Port-au Prince Bureau Chief. “The Haitian
people also have to work out their plans so that Washington,
Paris, and Ottawa don’t simply impose another puppet on Haiti,
as they have done so often over the past two decades.”
The essence of KOD’s proposal
is the formation of a 13 member Council of State which would
lead the country with a judge drawn from Haiti’s Supreme Court.
The Council of State’s members would be drawn from key sectors
of Haitian society: peasant organizations, popular
organizations, political parties, non-aligned parties, women’s
organizations, unions, the business sector, vodou, Protestant,
and Catholic sectors, students, young people, and civil society.
“The Council of State would sit
down with the Supreme Court judge to find a democratic formula
to name a government,” the KOD proposal reads. “That government
would put in place a democratic Provisional Electoral Council
which would hold a general election in the country for all the
empty posts in a time frame of no more than six months.”
KOD proposed that Haiti should
accept no international financing for those elections which
comes with any strings attached. “We would not refuse” any
solidarity offered from foreign nations, “but they cannot meddle
in Haiti’s internal affairs,” the proposal reads. “They can give
their support, but without any conditions.”
In the same vein, the proposal
calls on the 9,000 occupation troops of the UN Mission to
Stabilize Haiti (MINUSTAH) to leave the country immediately.
“The last MINUSTAH soldier should leave the country no later
than May 2014, just as [a Haitian] Senate resolution [passed in
May] demands,” said the proposal.
KOD works with a host of
popular organizations which were also instrumental in organizing
the Popular Forum such as the National Movement for Liberty,
Equality, and Fraternity of Haitians (MOLEGHAF), the Patriotic
Force for Respect of the Constitution (FOPARK), the National
Popular Platform (PNP), the Movement for the Survival of Haitian
Society (MOSSOH), the Organization of Young Progressives of
Avenue Pouplar (OJPAP), Organization for National Progress
(OPNA), the Great Space Reflection for Social Integration
(GERES), the Awakened Militants for Another Haiti (MRH), and the
Popular Assembly for Change in La Saline (RPCS).
Many organizations from Haiti’s
provinces also sent delegates to the Forum, including groups
like the Organization of Young Patriots for the Development of
Baradères (OPDB), the League of Progressive Youth from Grande
Rivière du Nord, Pòt la from the Artibonite, and the
Revolutionary Movement for the Development of the North West (MRDNO),
and OPDSIC from the Grande Anse.
There were also international
delegates who attended from the Guadeloupe Haiti Tour Committee
and the International Support Haiti Network in the United
States, and from the Travayè e Péyizan (Workers and Peasants)
organization in Guadeloupe. Messages of solidarity were also
sent from unions and parties in Brazil and Argentina.
The meeting was chaired by two
other KOD leaders, Oxygène David and Pierre Michaël, who kept
the speeches moving at an efficient clip. FOPARK’s Biwon Odigé,
whose organization initiated the call for a massive march on
Sep. 30, also shared the podium.
“Overall, the delegates
welcomed and received well KOD’s proposal which was presented at
the beginning of the day,” said another KOD leader, Mario
Joseph, one of Haiti’s most prominent human rights lawyers, at
an Oct. 1 press conference at the Office of International
Lawyers (BAI). “The delegates divided themselves into eight
workshops which met for almost two hours to analyze the
proposal. Afterwards, each workshop presented a summary of the
delegates’ reflections on how to reinforce and enrich the
proposal. In the days ahead, a committee of synthesis will
review the reports of each workshop to draw up a final
resolution. All popular organizations who approve the final
resolution can sign it, even if there are some who were not able
to participate in the Sep. 29 Popular Forum.”
Lawyer André Michel, who has
been severely persecuted for bringing a corruption lawsuit
against the Martelly government, also attended the Forum, as did
outspoken Sen. Moïse Jean-Charles, who electrified the room with
his address.
“Today we will try, even if we
have only a little time, to bring a little light to the battle
we are leading as political militants,” said Sen. Moïse. “We are
clear about it: the international community has an agenda for
Haiti. In 1990, we disrupted their plans and elected our own
government. Seven months later, they carried out a bloody coup
d’état. Since then, it is they who have imposed what they want
in Haiti. This cannot continue. They imposed President Martelly
on us. They imposed Laurent Lamothe on us.... It is we, the
Haitian people, who have to take our destiny in hand. And that
is what we are beginning to do here today.”
In concluding its proposal, KOD wrote that the
Martelly administration along with the embassies of Washington,
Paris, and Ottawa “will say that what we propose is not legal,
is not acceptable.... But when the imperialists make a coup or
an illegal election, even when the people reject it, they don’t
care... What we propose is more democratic, more authentic, more
honest and more sovereign than any of the maneuvers the
imperialists have carried out in Haiti. It is time for the
Haitian people to stop taking orders from the colonists. We have
to construct our own democracy, because we are a nation, not a
colony. We are our own masters.” |
