Gay bashing with impunity at ‘sanctity of marriage’ rally

By Jasmine Armour

Asheville, North Carolina, Mar. 10 (AGR)— On Saturday, Mar. 6, at Asheville City Council Plaza, 11 arrests were made in the span of five minutes at the “Rally for family values and the sanctity of the marriage union between a man and woman.” Organizers for the event held a “general admission” permit.The rally, organized by Brad Jones and other members of the Swannanoa Valley Independent Missionary Baptist Church, brought out not only those in support of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, but also those in support of equal rights for gays -– all 11 arrestees came from the latter group.

There were roughly 400-500 people in City Council Plaza gathered Saturday, with about half for and half against the idea of gay marriage.

The Asheville Police Department (APD) had the aid of the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Department in making the arrests. Many of the arrestees and eyewitnesses felt there was a use of excessive force and profiling by the APD. “I was targetted, specifically grabbed…I walked up, and within five minutes I was arrested,” said Steven Goff of his arrest.

Neal Richie, who ended up with a badly bruised and swollen face as a result of the force used by officers during his arrest said, “There’s a great deal of legal contradiction within being charged with trespassing in a public space…and have my face be all fucked up.” One of the other people arrested and charged with trespassing, also sustained documented injuries.

At approximately 11am the APD had most of the perimeter of City Council Plaza surrounded, and began pointing at the “queer kiss-in” which consisted of acts like spin-the-bottle, people in drag, and a festive, merry-making mood. At 11:08am a line of Asheville police officers formed what the city’s public information officer, Lauren Bradley called a “…safety buffer with a line of officers between the attendees of the permitted event and the counter-protesters in an effort to maintain the public safety of all those present.”

At this point, the APD began telling gay rights advocates to stay behind the “safety buffer” and not intermingle with the anti-gay marriage rally. The crowd, while still in good spirits, was staying behind the buffer when at 11:20 am the Sheriff’s department made their arrival, complete with flack jackets, a forensics officer, plastic handcuffs and fatigues. At this point, there were still no arrests made, contrary to Bradley’s later statement that the sheriffs were not sent in until after the first arrests had been made.

A moment later, interim police chief Ross Robinson took the stage to announce that the police would give orders to the crowd, and for the crowd to comply with those orders. None of the arrestees said they heard the announcement, as they were too far removed from the stage.

Josh Ferguson, one of the people arrested, said this of the crowd in response to police orders: “Everything they told us to do directly, we responded to do…they told us to put our signs down…we rolled up the banner we had, we lowered our signs…”

Once barricaded off by a line of police, the gay rights crowd began to chant, “We’re here! We’re queer! And we won’t disppear!”

The first person arrested was Peter Reed, one of the people holding the banner, who helped to roll it up. When he repeatedly asked surrounding officers what Robinson was saying from the stage, he was grabbed from the line of people, thrown to the ground, and arrested. In roughly the same two and a half minute period as the first arrest, two others being made.

One of those arrests was Willy Rosencrans who said, “I asked Mike Lamb, the officer who arrested me, what legal basis he had to tell us to leave the area, since we were on public property. He said, ‘Well they paid for a permit, so that makes it private property.’ ”

The next eight arrests after that were hectic and mostly violent, as police herded a compliant crowd out of the area. They included Neal Richie, Josh Ferguson, Finn Finneran, Steven Goff, and Shawn Castell.

In describing the events that led up to his arrest, Richie said, “I was not told to leave. I was asked to back up.” At the same time, Ferguson was also being arrested and said, “They told us to move back towards the edge of the plaza…and we were moving backward, and then they started arresting people”

During his arrest Sean Castell suffered the loss of his pet rat he had for the past six months.

“The whole time the cop was just screaming in my ear…he had his knee in my back,” Castell said, “I could see my rat laying on the ground…it looked like his back had been broken…I have not been able to find my rat since.” Castell said he had asked multiple officers about his pet and was laughed at.

“What I don’t understand is how it can be proved that any of us weren’t there for the rally. I was there for the rally, but the difference between me and the people who applied for the permit is that we were expressing different opinions,” said Finneran, who was arrested only moments after his arrival to the event, “I can’t see my arrest as anything less than a violation of my first amendment rights.”

Those in attendance for the “sanctity of marriage” rally seemed oblivious to the series of violent arrests taking place. They mostly stood, prayed, and sometimes cheered throughout the entirety of the rally. Few at the ant-gay marriage event were willing to give statements about what had brought them out the to rally. Lewis Bartlett, Pastor at Swannanoa Missionary Baptist Church said, “The love that god put in my heart for my family, my country, and those that don’t know Jesus,” had brought him out that day.

The anti-gay marriage rally was one of many events that have occured nationwide in the ongoing debate on same-sex marriage. While President Bush is vowing to ratify a prosposed constitutional amendment, defining marriage as the union between a man and a woman.

Cities across the country, including San Fransico, have been issuing marriage licenses to gay couples. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court of Massachusetts declared a state law banning same-sex marriage unconstitutional.

Brad Jones, who emceed and organized the anti-gay rally had this to say about the same-sex marriage issue, “You either agree or disagree, there is no middle ground,” before he made the announcement that people could pick up “good luck rocks” to keep with them as they left.

Jones also made sure to thank the APD and Buncombe County Sheriff’s Department and said, “…they conducted themselves in a very honorable manner…thank them for protecting us.”

Call for footage:
This is a call for any footage of the rally on March 6. We particularly need photos or video evidencing the event before the seperation of the two groups. Call 828-713-2826 or email citycounty11@ziplip.com

Mercenaries recruited for roles in Iraq

By Jonathan Franklin

Santiago, Chile, Mar. 5— The US is hiring mercenaries in Chile to replace its soldiers on security duty in Iraq. A Pentagon contractor has begun recruiting former commandos, other soldiers and seamen, paying them up to $4,000 a month to guard oil wells against attack by insurgents.

Last month Blackwater USA flew a first group of about 60 former commandos, many of whom had trained under the military government of Augusto Pinochet, from Santiago to a 2,400-acre training camp in North Carolina.

From there they will be taken to Iraq, where they are expected to stay between six months and a year, the president of Blackwater USA, Gary Jackson, told the Guardian by telephone.

“We scour the ends of the earth to find professionals - the Chilean commandos are very, very professional and they fit within the Blackwater system,” he said.

Chile was the only Latin American country where his firm had hired commandos for Iraq. He estimated that “about 95 percent” of his work came from government contracts and said his business was booming.

“We have grown 300 percent over each of the past three years and we are small compared to the big ones.

“We have a very small niche market. We work towards putting out the cream of the crop, the best.”

The privatization of security in Iraq is growing as the US seeks to reduce its commitment of troops.

At the end of last year there were 10,000 hired security personnel in Iraq.

Recruitment in Chile began six months ago and brought immediate criticism from MPs and officers, who fear that it will encourage serving personnel to leave.

Michelle Bachelet, the defense minister, ordered an investigation into whether paramilitary training by Blackwater violated Chilean laws on the use of weapons by private citizens.

She asked for its recruiting effort to be investigated after it was alleged that people on active duty were involved.

Many soldiers are said to be leaving the army to join the private companies.

Jackson said that similar issues were bedeviling the US forces.

The private sector paid experienced special forces personnel far more than the armed services.

“The US military has the same problems,” he said. “If they are going to outsource tasks that were once held by active-duty military and are now using private contractors, those guys [on active duty] are looking and asking, ‘Where is the money?’”

The number of hired soldiers in Iraq is estimated to be in the thousands.

Squads of Bosnians, Filipinos and Americans with special forces experience have been hired for tasks ranging from airport security to protecting Paul Bremer, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority.

Their salaries can be as high as $1,000 a day, the news agency AFP recently reported. “This place is a goldmine. All you need is five years in the military and you come here and make a good bundle,” said Erwin, a 28-year-old former US army sergeant working in Iraq.

Responding to a fear that any of its recruits who might suffer traumatic battlefield stress might be simply dumped back into Chilean society without mental health plans, Jackson said Blackwater USA had extensive psychological counseling programs.

“We have clinical psychologists on staff and we do a battery of tests during the assessment phase.

“I personally come from a special operations background and I feel comfortable that we have the procedures in place that will allow them to handle the stress.

“We didn’t just come down and say, ‘You and you and you, come work for us.’ They were all vetted in Chile and all of them have military backgrounds. This is not the Boy Scouts.”

In an interview with the Chilean newspaper La Tercera, a former Chilean army officer, Carlos Wamgnet, 30, who was going to Iraq, said: “We are calm. This mission is nothing new for us. In the end, this is an extension of our military career.”

John Rivas, 27, a former Chilean marine, said the work in Iraq would provide a “very good income” that would allow him to support his family.

“I don’t feel like a mercenary,” he added.

Source: Guardian (UK)

Exiled Aristide urges Haitian resistance

Compiled by Eamon Martin

Mar. 10 (AGR)— US Marines shot and killed at least two Haitians in overnight gun battles, Staff Sgt. Timothy Edwards told The Associated Press today. It was the third fatal shooting in three days involving the Marines, who have killed a total of four Haitians since arriving in their country on Feb. 29.

On that day, Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide says he was forced to resign and kidnapped by US forces after a commando force comprised of ex-military, death squad and coup leaders — and by many estimates numbering no more than 300 — in a few weeks allegedly seized control of half the country of 8 million people.

Yesterday, lawyers representing Aristide served US Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell with papers asking that the US prosecute the people involved in what they call the kidnapping of the Haitian president and his wife Mildred, who is a US citizen. The lawyers are invoking the Multilateral Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons.

The request that the United States fulfill its obligations under the Convention stems from what Aristide’s lawyers call the intentional commission of internationally recognized crimes that were “part of a coup d’etat organized and implemented by officials of the Government of the United States of America to remove and replace the democratically-elected President of Haiti.”

The Bush administration says it merely helped Aristide depart Haiti and the decision to go was his own.

In a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft, Aristide’s lawyers said, “These criminal acts appear to have been carried out by US government personnel acting under the orders of high-ranking United States government officials, including the United States Depute Charge de Mission in Haiti, Luis Moreno, and possibly Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega (Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs), Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.”

“I am the elected president and I remain the elected president,” Aristide told reporters in his first public appearance since his exile to the Central African Republic. He appealed to his supporters to counter what he called the “occupation” of Haiti by foreign troops.

Marines oversee death and unrest

In recent days, US Marines have fought several firefights in the Haitian capital.

The first incident occurred late Mar. 9 just after a Haitian exile in Florida was named the new prime minister.

“There were three incidents last night where gunmen fired at Marines who in all three cases returned fire,” said spokesman Major Richard Crusan.

In one, gunmen opened fire on Marines who were patrolling outside the prime minister’s residence. US troops fired back and thought they killed two people. If true, the military’s statement would bring to four the number of Haitians to die this week at the hands of the peacekeepers.

On Mar. 7, unknown gunmen sprayed high-caliber bullets at a huge anti-Aristide demonstration although it was accompanied by a phalanx of US and French soldiers.

Marines say they shot and killed one gunman, but despite repeated calls over the course of almost a half-hour, the soldiers never made it to where a half-dozen men were pinned down by sniper fire.

In all, six people were killed and at least 26 injured, the National Coalition for Haitian Rights said.

The next day, Marines killed a taxi driver who did not halt when ordered. A military spokesman said the car approached a military checkpoint at high speed so soldiers opened fire on the driver. A passenger was wounded.

US Colonel Mark Gurganus, who heads the multinational force in Haiti, said that by speeding toward the checkpoint the driver had clearly shown “hostile intent.” While no weapons were found in the vehicle, Gurganus said he had no intention of holding an investigation into the incident.

But a body remained near the checkpoint area on Port-au-Prince’s main road Tuesday morning, and a man who said his cousin had been shot and killed by Marines identified it as that of Mutial Telusma.

The cousin, Jean-Claude Batiste, said Telusma had picked up his brother, Sedelin Telusma, from his work at the international airport and was driving home at high speed, which is normal in Haiti.

“The road was blocked and he didn’t know, just kept going and he was shot,’’ Batiste told reporters, recounting the story from Sedelin Telusma, who was treated for two gunshot wounds.

Florida TV host named premier of Haiti

On Mar. 9, a former Haitian foreign minister and popular South Florida television talk-show host was selected to become Haiti’s next prime minister. Gerard Latortue, a critic of Aristide’s, was chosen after two days of deliberations by a US-backed “council of sages.”

Latortue, who served as foreign minister in 1988, accepted the position after a receiving a 2 ½ hour telephone call at his Boca Raton home the day before.

Latortue is married, with three adult daughters. One works for the International Monetary Fund in Washington, and another at the World Bank in Paris.

The day before at the National Palace, Boniface Alexandre, wearing a blue, yellow and red sash, was formally installed as new president behind closed doors under heavy guard by US Marines.

Outside, as military helicopters criss-crossed the skies, 2 5, demonstrators vowed they would die to restore Aristide to power, shouting: “Aristide must come back! No coup d’états!”

They ran away as US troops guarding the gleaming white palace were dispatched to the area.

Diplomats who were on the scene to welcome Alexandre as president watched from the palace steps, behind US Marines who pointed their guns toward the crowd but did not fire.

Aristide: ‘I’m still president’

Half a world away, while Alexandre assumed Aristide’s office — in his first press appearance since leaving Haiti a little over a week ago — the exiled leader declared he is still the country’s legal president. The authorities in the Central African Republic allowed Aristide to hold a news conference after a delegation of visiting US activists, including one of Aristide’s lawyers, Brian Concannon, charged that the Haitian president was being held under lock and key like a prisoner.

Repeating that he had been kidnapped, Aristide called for “peaceful resistance” to the “occupation,” and vowed to return to Haiti.

“It was in fact a political kidnapping,” Aristide said. “This political kidnapping unfortunately opened the road to an occupation.”

Aristide said US officials lied. He said they had told him before he left Haiti that he could speak to the news media but then took him directly to the airport.

Aristide’s lawyers said they are preparing cases accusing authorities in the United States and France of abducting him and forcing him into exile.

“The Bush administration wanted to pull Aristide out of Haiti... and France gave its help under conditions which are contrary to international law,” French lawyer Gilbert Collard said.

“The [French] foreign ministry tells us that a democratically-elected president of the republic in a free country can resign outside all constitutional procedures, during the night while surrounded by armed men and that that constitutes a constitutional resignation,” the lawyer said. “I call that a kidnapping.”

“He was not free to leave the plane,” said Concannon. “He was not free to decide the plane’s direction. He did not even know where the plane was going.”

Concannon also said French and US authorities threatened Aristide before he signed a letter of resignation and fled. “The ambassadors of France and the US told him that he would be killed, his family would be killed and his supporters would be killed if he did not leave right away,” the lawyer said.

This week, the 53-nation African Union (AU) added its voice to a growing international chorus questioning the circumstances surrounding Aristide’s departure and demanded a UN investigation into allegations that the US forcibly removed a democratically elected president from office. The AU endorsed Aristide’s claim that he had been removed by “unconstitutional” means and expressed concern that this “set a dangerous precedent for a duly elected person.”

On Mar. 3, Caribbean leaders ended a two-day emergency meeting in Jamaica already calling for such an investigation. Jamaican Prime Minister PJ Patterson said the 15-nation Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders were not convinced the Haitian leader had “voluntarily” resigned.

Congressional outrage at Bush admin.

Several members of Congress are backing Aristide. The Bush administration’s role in facilitating Aristide’s ouster came under sharp and sustained attack by Democrats in Congress on Mar. 3.

People throughout the Americas were “watching this government turn its back on democracy,” New Jersey Rep. Robert Menendez told Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roger Noriega. “The message is clear: this government will not stand up for a democratically elected head of state they do not like.”

Noriega confirmed that US officials had told Aristide they could not guarantee his safety in the event of an assault by the paramilitaries, whose leaders had sworn to arrest or kill him.

Charles Rangel, a senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus, suggested that, under the circumstances, Aristide had been essentially coerced into resigning. “I would’ve signed (a resignation note), too,” he told Noriega.

Senator Christopher Dodd, the Democrat’s ranking expert on western hemisphere affairs, questioned the administration’s position that Aristide’s resignation was voluntary.

“It is indisputable based on everything we know,” he said, “that the US played a very direct and public role in pressuring him to leave office by making it clear that the United States would do nothing to protect him from the armed thugs who (were) threatening to kill him.

“His choice was simple: stay in Haiti with no protection from the international community, including the US, and be killed, or you can leave the country. That is hardly what I would call a voluntary decision to leave.”

“You didn’t want a diplomatic solution to this problem. You wanted to get rid of Aristide,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks, a New York Democrat.

‘Bush stole two elections’

Thousands of demonstrators chanting anti-American slogans encircled the US Marine-occupied National Palace on Mar. 5, lambasting the US government for “kidnapping” Aristide and demanding that their deposed leader be returned to power.

“Viva Aristide! Down with America!” and “Down with Bush!” shouted protesters, who marched to Aristide’s former office.

The demonstrators also swarmed in front of the US and French embassies, venting their anger at the two governments.

“Bush stole two elections, one with [Al] Gore, and then from Haiti,” said Philippe Paul, as he walked around the perimeter of the palace. Of Aristide, he said, “They kidnapped him, like a thief.”

Pro-Aristide Haitians said they would continue to demonstrate until they got their president back, and some said the response may be violent if their demand is denied. Others pledged to boycott new elections.

Riguet Joseph, 25, said his neighbors slept on their roofs or in small boats at night to avoid being killed by political foes, and wouldn’t be safe unless Aristide came back into power.

“We won’t recognize any other government,” Joseph said. “If they give us a new prime minister, we’re going to burn the country.”

Militants demanding Aristide’s return stoned cars and set barricades ablaze yesterday, blocking a main road in the capital.

Sources: Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, Boston Globe, Democracy Now, Guardian (UK), Independent (UK), Inter Press Service, Miami Herald, Observer (UK), Reuters, Star-Ledger