Dear friends and allies,
I hope you are all well. I have been in the Dominican Republic the
last few days, visiting Haitian migrant workers and human rights
organizations working with migrants here. I will be returning to Haiti tomorrow morning, and meanwhile, quite a storm seems to be brewing there. Please have a look at this announcement. It is quite shocking, but I think urgent action might be needed over the next few days:

 http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HAC/1_11_6/1_11_6.html

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Haiti Information Project: Stop UN's plan for a new massacre in Haiti

Urgent Action Alert from the Haiti Action Committee

As UN's Brazilian commander is found shot dead on his hotel balcony…

New UN massacres in Cite Soleil could come any day now

Be on the alert. The situation in Haiti is dangerous and moving fast.

In the nine days since January 1st, at least 23 civilians have been
shot to death by UN forces in Cite Soleil, according to reports from human rights workers in the Haitian capital. Consider these developments:

1. Brazilian General Bacellar, who's been commanding UN forces for
barely four months, was found shot in the head Saturday on the balcony of the 5-star Hotel Montana. Officials called it an apparent suicide. Late
last week, Bacellar had tense meetings with UN and coup regime officials and the right-wing business elite. They reportedly put "intense pressure" on the general "demanding that he intervene brutally in Cite Soleil," according to AHP.

This coincided with a pressure campaign by Chamber of Commerce head Reginald Boulos and sweatshop kingpin Andy Apaid, leader of Group 184
[the business group that helped mastermind the February 29, 2004 coup that ousted President Aristide]. Last week Boulos and Apaid made strident calls in the media for a new UN crackdown on Cite Soleil, the sprawling, impoverished neighborhood that is a stronghold of support for President Aristide and his Lavalas Party and a center of resistance to the coup regime.

2. On January 6 the Chilean UN chief Juan Valdes announced that UN
troops would "occupy" Cite Soleil, "and warned that civilians could be
harmed," reported Guy Delva for Reuters. Valdes told a local radio station: "We are going to intervene in the coming days. I think there'll be collateral damage but we have to impose our force, there is no other way," Reuters said.

According to "some UN officials" quoted by Reuters, Bacellar [who has
not been shy about shooting up Cite Soleil in the past] "had opposed
Valdes' plan" to escalate even further the UN military operation in Cite
Soleil.
This is an operation characterized by repeated UN killings of innocent
civilians throughout 2005 and so far in 2006 -- "aggressive" by any
standard, but not apparently aggressive enough for Boulos, Apaid and
the US-backed coup regime.

3. Bacellar's death comes on the heels of Boulos's call for a "general
strike" January 9, aimed at forcing the UN mission to get tough on Cite
Soleil "bandits"-- a code word for Lavalas supporters. Apart from the
absurdity of the Chamber of Commerce calling a "general strike" -- it
was an employer strike basically ignored outside the capital -- it does
show that Haiti's business elite is once again beating the drum for more
brutal UN armed incursions against the poor. This brings to mind a similar high-pressure campaign by the business elite -- just before the July 6th UN massacre of at least 60 civilians in Cite Soleil.

4. To justify a possible new crackdown in Cite Soleil, the coup regime
has made absurd claims that Cite Soleil is a haven for "Colombian drug
traffickers," and a hiding place for the victims of kidnappings that
have plagued the Haitian capital. But the kidnappers are hardly the poor
residents of Cite Soleil, surrounded as it is by UN troops. The kidnappers are mostly well-connected to the business elite and coup regime. Even Police Chief Andresol admits the National Police are involved in much of the crime wave, including kidnappings. And what "Colombian drug trafficker" would be hanging out in a tin shack in Cite Soleil, without clean water or electricity, and sewage flowing in the street?

5. Replacing Bacellar as interim UN military force commander is General
Eduardo Aldunate Herman, a Chilean army officer who served the brutal
dictatorship of General Pinochet as an officer in the CNI, the Chilean
political police. Aldunate Herman has been accused of participating in
the 1973 overthrow of Chile's elected government, and of involvement in the 1976 killing of a Spanish diplomat. He is a graduate of the US Army's School of the Americas.

If we take UN chief Juan Valdes at his word, this could be another
massacre in the making. UN troops showed on July 6, 2005 in Cite
Soleil, and on many other occasions, that they will shoot and kill men, women and children in their homes, in their beds, as they go about their daily chores.

Now is the time to act -- to let them know the world is watching and
demands an end to the killings!

Contact the following official. Demand that he intervene to stop a new
massacre and occupation of Cite Soleil!

* Juan Gabriel Valdes

Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to Haiti

Phone: 011-509-244-9650 or 9660 Fax 011-509 244 3512
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Others who need to hear the same message:

* Thierry Fagart  fagart@un.org

Human Rights Chief, UN Mission in Haiti

Ph: 011-509-510-3183 or 3185 - ext. 6360


* US Embassy in Haiti Telephones: 011-509-223-4711 222-0200 or
0354...Fax:
011-509-223-1641 or 9038 Email to Dana Banks, Human Rights Officer:
 BanksD@state.gov

[OVER THE WEEKEND OR AT NIGHT -- Call 011-509-222-0200 and press "0"
for
emergency]


* Craig G. Mokhiber -  mokhiber@un.org

Deputy Director, NY Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Ph: 917-367-5208

*** Contact your local media. Ask that they cover the UN killings of
civilians in Haiti.

Tune in to www.haitiaction.net for updates on what is happening.