Toronto Haiti Action Committee (THAC)

August 14, 2007

Yesterday, we attended the commencement of the murder trial of Joseph Stefan Campbell, of Port au Prince at the Palais de justice in the center of Port au Prince.

He was arrested in July 2004 for being a part of a group of "troublemakers" (in French, "association de malfaiteurs"). When he was finally tried on those charges in 2006, the charges were thrown out for lack of evidence. Before his release, he was rearrested and charged with a murder alleged to have occurred on October 1, 2003.

While taking a break from the court proceedings, we heard an approaching street demonstration. It turned out to be a group of several hundred people from one of the poor districts in the city. Their march stopped in front of the Palais de justice to hear a speech from one of the march leaders. They were protesting the rampant poverty and absence of social programs. In his speech to the rally, the young leader condemned the contrast that prevails in the justice system between the treatment of rich and poor. While poor people are arrested for unjust cause and held for lengthy times in violation of Haiti's constitution, rich people such as businessman Andy Apaid steal from the country and from the pockets of the poor.

There was a very heavy presence of police from the Haitian National Police (PNH) at the demonstration. I counted at least twenty five of them, with three pickup trucks, most carrying shotguns and other heavy arms. Clearly, Haiti's elite is worried that such street protests will grow as the economic calamity under foreign occupation continues. Will the Preval government respond positively to the growing popular unrest here, as evidenced by protests such as this one, the strike in June of transport workers, and the growing peasant disatisfaction that we observed in the countryside?

Roger