[R-G] "Ghosts” – A Cheap Shot at the People’s Struggle in Haiti

[Anthony Fenton]

“Ghosts” – A Cheap Shot at the People’s Struggle in Haiti
by Shirley Pate
	
July 26, 2007

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=55&ItemID=13380

A recently released film, "The Ghosts of Cite Soleil," tells the  
story of two young men, Bily and 2pac, who live in Cite Soleil, a  
poor neighborhood of Port-au-Prince.

Most people who have reviewed the film suggest that viewers are at  
once titillated and repelled by these young men because of their  
violence-ridden lifestyle. We learn that they are "chimeres" (a word  
that loosely means "monster" and used for several years to demonize  
supporters of former Haitian president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide).   
It’s a label that adds a certain drama, if you are looking at it from  
a cinematic standpoint, but its political implications are serious.  
Several years ago, a mainstream journalist introduced “chimere”  
broadly into the international media suggesting that President  
Aristide had a corps of violence-prone monster-creatures responsible  
for attacks on his political opponents. The introduction and  
extensive use of “chimere” by journalists was part of an  
international plot to turn world opinion against Aristide paving the  
way for a coup d’etat that would oust him in 2004 and lead to the  
murder of thousands of his supporters.



While “Ghosts” appears to be the belle of the blogs and various  
newspapers, many of the reviews, analyses, and discussions about the  
film are unenlightened by facts concerning Haiti’s history and politics.



Filmmaker, Asgor Leth, is under the mistaken impression that his  
movie is a documentary.  Actually, it is a staged fraud of a movie  
that exploits the poverty and social circumstances of life in Cite  
Soleil.  Just below the film’s veneer of gangster rap, sex, and  
violence lies an unmistakable and intentional subtext:  supporters of  
Aristide are violence-prone sub-humans who, because of their  
overwhelming majority and continued demand for the return of  
Aristide, must be contained and then eliminated.  A lack of context  
might lead viewers to assume that the “chimeres” are the primary  
aggressors in Haitian society.  Quite the opposite is true.  Those  
labeled “chimere” during and after the coup were met with certain  
incarceration or execution by the Haitian National Police – many were  
accused over Haitian radio.  Rather than aggressors, those labeled  
“chimeres” have been, and continue to be, the victims.



Not long after the UN peacekeeping mission, MINUSTAH, arrived in  
Haiti, it began to raid poor, Aristide- supporting neighborhoods.   
Yet, the indiscriminate attacks were causing it a public relations  
problem.  In need of a propaganda advantage, MINUSTAH came up with  
its own term for the “resistant” population that remains loyal to  
Aristide – “bandit.”   This term may not be as exotic as “chimere,”  
but with its roots in the 1915-1934 US occupation of Haiti, where the  
mere utterance of the word provided Marines carte blanche to kill, it  
resonated well and has become pervasive in the media and a major  
theme in speeches by the UN Secretary General’s representative in  
Haiti, Edmond Mulet.



And, this brings another political reality to the fore.  MINUSTAH’s  
mandate calls for bringing security to Haiti yet, security for all  
Haitians is not part of its agenda.  Make no mistake, MINUSTAH was  
sent to Haiti by a US-dominated UN Security Council to do one thing:   
make the coup of February 2004 “stick.”  Elite Haitians and  
international business interests are banking on an Aristide-less  
Haiti.  Aristide was on a path of shifting the balance of power into  
the hands of the majority of Haitians who are poor by doubling the  
minimum wage, dedicating 20% of the nation’s budget to education,  
instituting widespread literacy programs and struggling successfully  
with international financial institutions to not privatize all of  
Haiti’s state-owned companies.  The last thing the business class  
needs in Haiti is a better-paid, better-educated workforce.



No documentary about post-coup Haiti can be authentic unless it  
“outs” those responsible for the carnage, asks hard questions and  
pursues answers relentlessly. “Ghosts” never tried to do any of these  
things.  If “Ghosts” wants to collect its “documentary” credentials,  
it will have to admit that Bily and 2pac are not the real bad guys  
but, rather:  the US, France, and Canada who planned, financed and  
implemented the coup that ousted President Aristide; the US-installed  
de facto government of Gerard Latortue that maintained an  
extraordinary atmosphere of impunity making summary incarcerations  
and executions of Aristide supporters effortless and without  
consequence; and the US-dominated United Nations Security Council and  
its peacekeeping mission in Haiti, MINUSTAH, which is making the coup  
“stick” by committing massacres of unarmed Haitians in poor  
neighborhoods.



Asking the right questions and pursuing the answers is the only way  
to honor the struggle of the people of Haiti. In addition, those  
answers will tell us far more about the lives of Bily and 2pac than  
“Ghosts” ever could. While there are many questions that can and  
should be asked, I propose the following:



What was intended for Haiti's economy and education, health and  
social structures when the US coordinated an embargo on loans to  
Haiti by international financial institutions beginning in 2000 and  
not ending until Aristide's forced departure four years later?  Who  
in the international press collaborated with the coup makers to  
demonize Aristide and criminalize his supporters by labeling them  
"chimeres?"  How long before the coup did the US, France, and Canada  
map out the plan to destabilize Haiti politically by financing  
"opposition groups" and fake human rights organizations that fingered  
"chimeres" for summary executions by the Haitian National Police?   
How many thousands of guns did the US give to the Dominican Republic  
that went to Haitian "rebels" hiding out there to invade their own  
country and kill thousands of Aristide supporters and, for god’s  
sake, how many of those guns are still in their hands? What kinds of  
state repression tactics did the unelected Prime Minister of the  
illegal interim government of Haiti employ to "contain" the  
overwhelming majority of Haitians who demanded the return of their  
democratically-elected president?  How long before the coup did the  
US-dominated UN Security Council develop its occupation plan for  
Haiti involving first, soldiers from the three countries that  
orchestrated the coup and then followed by a UN “peacekeeping”  
occupation?  Why, for the first time in UN history was MINUSTAH the  
only peacekeeping mission deployed without a peace agreement to  
enforce?  How many Haitians died because MINUSTAH ignored the  
assassination of unarmed demonstrators by Haitian National Police  
sharpshooters?  Why does the present government of Haiti allow  
MINUSTAH to continue to label Haiti’s citizens as “bandits” for  
supporting the return of Aristide and resisting a cruel occupation?    
Finally, what monster, under the guise of pursuing “bandits,”  
authorized UN raids into Cite Soleil and other poor neighborhoods  
involving hundreds of UN soldiers, tanks, and assault helicopters  
resulting in the death and injury of hundreds of unarmed Haitians?



Luckily, there is one documentary that can answer these and many  
other questions about what happened in Haiti.  It’s a film called  
“Haiti:  We Must Kill the Bandits,” by acclaimed filmmaker, Kevin  
Pina.  Finally, the people of Haiti have a film about their struggle  
that is honest, well-researched, hard-hitting, and dead serious.   
Most importantly, “Bandits” features Haitians telling their own story  
about their fight for justice, peace and security. You can find more  
information about the film at this website:   http:// 
www.haitiinformationproject.net/.



Shirley Pate is a Haiti solidarity activist in Washington, D. C.  You  
can contact her by email at:  magbana at hcvanalysis.net.  For other  
articles written by her, please go to:  http:// 
hcvanalysis.wordpress.com.