Haiti political prisoner released after two years without charge

[Judi Lynn]

Haiti political prisoner released after two years without charge

1.00pm Wednesday August 16, 2006
By Andrew Buncombe


A popular Haitian folk singer and political activist has been released from jail - more than two years after she was seized by US Marines and incarcerated without charge.

Annette Auguste, better known as So Ann ("Sister Ann") was released after her lawyer persuaded a judge in Port-au-Prince that there was no evidence to hold her.

Yesterday, freed after 826 days in jail, she spoke of her incarceration onDemocracy Now radio in the US.

"The conditions in prison were very bad for everyone," So Ann said.

"Everybody was suffering. It was not only me."
(snip/...)

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10396518



So Anne

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Haitians Seized
Abused by U.S. Marines

Women, Children Subjected
to Hood Treatment

by the Haiti Information Project

May 12, 2004
Port-au-Prince, Haiti

At 12:30 a.m. on the morning of May 10, a Special Forces squad of approximately 20 U.S. Marines executed a military assault on the home of 69-year-old Annette Auguste, a.k.a. So Anne. Auguste's residence is part of a compound that includes four other apartments that were also invaded by the U.S. military forces. The troops forcefully covered the heads of eleven Haitians with black hoods and then forced them to the lay face down on the ground while binding their wrists with plastic manacles behind their backs. The victims of this terrifying U.S. military invasion included five-year-old Chamyr Samedi, 10-year-old Kerlande Philippe, 12-year-old Loubahida Auguste, 14-year-old Luckmar Auguste and seven adults.

Evidence gathered at the site included paraphernalia left behind, such as blasting caps, igniters for explosive devices that terrorized the occupants when the troops invaded the residence.

There was not a single member of the Haitian National Police (PNH) force or the de facto Haitian government present, according to the arrestees, when the U.S. forces unilaterally attacked the residence. According to Haitian law, as is the norm in any democratic country, no arrest can be made without a proper warrant issued by judicial authorities. The Haitian Constitution requires that warrants only be executed between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. The lack of any legality within the context of Haitian law and the fact this was executed unilaterally by U.S. military forces in Haiti raises serious questions of national sovereignty and the role of U.S. military forces in Haiti today.

Lesly Voltaire, one of the highest ranking Lavalas officials remaining in Haiti, has consistently condemned the campaign of political persecution and arbitrary arrests against his political party. Voltaire stated, "This was an illegal arrest done past midnight. The law does not allow arrests after 6:00 p.m. I strongly condemn this armed assault and believe that the charges against Annette Auguste are unfounded. We are fighting for due process and this was not performed within the context of due process and Haitian law. This is clearly a part of the campaign of persecution against Lavalas. No Haitian police or authorities were present. We must ask what are the rules of engagement for U.S. military authorities in Haiti and what right do they have to do this? Is Haiti still a sovereign nation?"
(snip/...)

http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/5_12_4.html

[htuttle]

1. She was interviewed on Democracy Now today

All I can say is What The Fuck?!?

When an Empire is terrified of a 69 year old singer, it's got to be a sign of the end of it's reign...

[Demeter]

2. 69 Year Old Women Are SOOOOOO Dangerous!

Is this a sick country, or what?

[Judi Lynn]

3. Interview with Annette "So Anne" Auguste

Political Prisoners Rot in Haitian Jails While Canadian Politicians Lie

--My meeting with So Anne Auguste

by Aaron Lakoff

Port-au-Prince, January 10/06

~snip~
Today I met one of Haiti's more prominent political prisoners, Annette “So Anne” Auguste. Like so many political prisoners throughout the world, So Anne isn't in jail for what she's done, but for what she represents.

So Anne is a Haitian political folksinger, and a community activist. She has been in a women's prison in Petionville (a neighborhood of
Port-au-Prince) for 18 months now, and her only crime was her words and wisdom.

There are estimated to be over 1000 political prisoners in Port-au-Prince alone (almost all imprisoned after the 2004 coup d'etat), and untold hundreds more in surrounding areas. However, most overseas wouldn't know
this, because the Haitian state and their superpower backers do a good job
of keeping the information down.

In fact, I tried to bring a camera and a minidisc recorder into the prison with me, but I had everything in my bag confiscated by jail guards upon entering. I wish so much that I could have had recorded evidence of our short conversation, but again, her words were only burned into my mind.

Upon entering, we found So Anne in a crowded visitation cell, surrounded
by bags upon bags of supplies. She explained to us that the women are
given nothing, not even food, in the prison. The inmates have to rely on
family and friends from the outside world for everything. In a country
where the unemployment rate is 80%, and the per-capita income is $200 US
PER YEAR, one could imagine not a lot of food gets into the jail.
Militant as ever, So Anne has taken it upon herself to nourish others in
the prison, and has now organized a feeding program for most of the 200
women in the Petionville jail
(snip/...)

http://aaron.resist.ca/node/59

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wednesday, June 30th, 2004
The New Haiti: Arrest, Murder and Repression

~snip~
REP. MAXINE WATERS: Well, you know, this was very, very startling and disturbing. The military or the police, so-called police, came to her place along with the United States marines. They literally blasted her gates that are in front of the home. They killed the dog. They went in and they handcuffed a five-year-old, a 14-year-old, and other adults in the complex. There are two houses. So Anne's house and her sister's house, and they carted them off to jail. Then they released everybody except So Anne. I called both the American ambassador down there, and the head of the southern command, general hill, to find out what was going on. General Hill said to me that, yes, they had been involved. They had the warrant was issued by the Haitian government, and that the marines went down and blasted the home with grenades, I believe it was, because there was -- they had some evidence that So Anne had been involved in activities threaten being the United States marines. I asked him exactly what was that supposed to have been, and he could not tell me. He said that it was classified, that he could not give me that information. Then I heard that they were arresting her because she was involved in a confrontation up at the university that has become one of the stories told about the incidents leading up to the coup d'etat, where I guess the dean or the professor up the university had been harmed. So, there have been two different stories about why So Anne was arrested, but those people who know and understand who she is and how powerful she is really believe that again that's the campaign of intimidation and terror getting rid of the strong heads of Lavalas. She was close to President Aristide, well respected by Haitians, a woman who dedicated her life to helping take care of the poor. She is a singer, creative person and just the kind person that people would rally behind. So, again -- rally behind. And so, again, destroying the Lavalas movement, they are arresting, jailing and killing the strong leaders.
(snip/...)

There is a break in the program at 12:00 with a short song by So Anne.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/30/1514246

[struggle4progress]

4. "Rezistans" by Sò Anne

... We went to hell even though we are not dead
We came butted head with Lucifer
We told him we believe in paradise
We are a people who have resistance
We have endured 30 seasons of pain
We have been taken by tornado of danger
We are bent but have not fallen
We are a people who have resistance ...

http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/SAlyrics.html

[Matariki]

6. i love your avatar image

she's one of my saints.

[struggle4progress]

7. One night I dreamed I was in slavery

Bout 1850 was the time
Sorrow was the only sign
Nothing around to ease my mind

Out of the night appeared a lady
leading a distant pilgrim band
First mate! she cried, pointing her hand
make room aboard for this young woman
saying

Come on up
I've got a lifeline
Come on up to this train of mine
Come on up
I've got a lifeline
Come on up to this train of mine

She said her name was Harriet Tubman
And she drove for the Underground Railroad

Hundreds of miles we traveled onward
Gathering slaves from town to town
Seeking every lost and found
Setting those free that once were bound

Somehow my heart was growing weaker
I fell by the wayside sinking sand
Firmly did this lady stand
she lifted me up and took my hand
saying

Come on up
I've got a lifeline
Come on up to this train of mine
Come on up
I've got a lifeline
Come on up to this train of mine

Who are those children dressed in red?
They must be the ones that Moses led
Who are those children dressed in red?
They must be the ones that Moses led
saying

Come on up
I've got a lifeline
Come on up to this train of mine
Come on up
I've got a lifeline
Come on up to this train of mine

- Walter Robinson

[Judi Lynn]

Another comment on her arrest:

~snip~
On May 10, U.S. Marines violently attacked the family compound in Port au Prince of a well-known folk singer, Annette Auguste (also known as Sò Anne). One of the best known Haitian musicians, she lived and performed for 20 years in New York City. "It seemed like they were going after Osama bin Laden or something," said her son Reginald Auguste, who lives in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, according to New York Newsday (May 23, 2004). An anti-Aristide commentator asked, "Why did they have to go in with explosives, guns firing? Why did they have to kill her two dogs and shackle even her six-year-old grandson."

On May 18, the marines went further, accompanying police and firing indiscriminately at the tens of thousands of Haitians demonstrating on Haiti's Flag Day, demanding the return of their elected president. The Associated Press reported nine deaths from police fire, but a U.S. reporter on the scene, Kevin Pina, said there were at least 12 deaths, including one person he saw shot by a Marine. (Flashpoints Radio, KPFA, Berkeley,CA, May 18, 2004.)
(snip/...)

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=5665

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~snip~
Annette Auguste is a Haitian folk singer, a naturalized American citizen. She was arrested May 10, by US Marines who accused her of meeting with Haitian Muslims to plan attacks on American troops, then turned her over to the interim Haitian government. But the United States isn't pursuing charges. The Haitian government is charging her with planning attacks on anti-Aristide demonstrators and sacrificing a baby in a voodoo ritual. That kind of charge is not new. The opposition previously accused her of bathing Aristide in human blood in 2000 in order to ward off the election of George Bush. Given the oddity of the charges, and the unwillingness to back them up, it doesn't seem much of a stretch to think that So Ann's real crime is being a Lavalas Party member and a close associate of Aristide.

So what we have here are political prisoners held on bizarre charges, in prisons where death squad leaders have the opportunity to gather information about them, run by someone who oversaw prisoner mistreatment in this country, and then went to Iraq to help set up a prison system in which prisoners were tortured.

Meanwhile, Jeb Bush visited Haiti this week to drum up business for Florida and votes for his big brother.
(snip/)

http://bodyandsoul.typepad.com/blog/2004/06/a_couple_of_wee.html

[Judi Lynn]

5. Another Haitian folk singer was driven out in earlier days, and

became a celebrity in Cuba:

Singer Martha Jean-Claude Dead at 82
Haitian singer and actress Martha Jean-Claude, whose engaged music inspired Haitians struggling against dictatorship for decades, died at age 82 on Nov. 14 in Havana.

Known as "the daughter of two islands," she was a symbol of the fraternity between Haiti and Cuba, where she lived most of her life and raised four children.

Martha Jean-Claude, known affectionately as Mamita, came to fame in Haiti during the 1940s, most notably during Port-au-Prince's bicentennial festivities in 1949. As a child, she sang at the Port-au-Prince Cathedral and, in 1942, began her professional career with folkloric concerts at the Rex Theatre, where she was often accompanied by fellow singer-dancer Emérantes Despradines.

In 1952, she was imprisoned for publishing a play, "Avrinette," which the regime of President Paul Magloire found subversive. She fled to Cuba on Dec. 20, 1952.

"I left Haiti after spending several months in prison while pregnant," she recalled in an interview. "I gave birth two days after getting out. One month after leaving prison -- my husband was in Cuba -- I left to join him." She had married Cuban journalist Victor Mirabal, whom she met after one of her shows. A few months later, they married in Venezuela.

Together they had four children: Linda, an opera singer in Madrid; Sandra, a musician living in Amsterdam; Magdalena, a doctor living in Cuba; and Richard Mirabal, a musician and director of the Martha Jean-Claude Foundation, based in Pétionville, Haïti.

In Cuba, she quickly became a star on the stage, radio, and television, playing with different orchestras and in many clubs, including the famous "Tropicana." In 1957, she spent a year working in Mexico, where her "Afro Cabaret" was very popular on television.

When she returned to Cuba in 1958, the country was in upheaval and she sided with the revolutionaries. After the Batista dictatorship fell in 1959, she became something of an ambassador for the Cuban Revolution, Haitian culture, and the the anti-Duvalierist struggle, bringing her concerts to many socialist countries as well as playing at schools, Army bases, and official receptions in Cuba. She even travelled with the Cuban Army to Angola in the 1970s. She also toured Paris, Montreal, New York, Panama, Mexico, and Spain.

In 1971, she starred in the anti-Duvalierist film Si m pa rele, produced in Cuba.
(snip/...)

http://www.haitiprogres.com/2001/sm011121/xeng1121.htm



Martha Jean-Claude