2010.02.04: 4-6 p.m. Today: Let the aid get through to Haiti

From: Letwin, Michael
Sent: Thursday, February 04, 2010 9:50 AM
To: 1199 Members; ALAA MEMBERS
Subject: 4-6 p.m. Today: Let the aid get through to Haiti

Rally: Thursday, February 4 from 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Outside the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, 140 East 45th Street, Manhattan (Between 3rd Ave and Lexington Ave, take any train to Grand Central)

At 6:00 pm: March to Times Square Army Recruiting Station

STOP BLOCKING THE AID – NO TO U.S./U.N. OCCUPATION IN HAITI

With up to half a million Haitians feared dead under the rubble following the earthquake, Haiti needs robust Emergency Assistance. The first 48 hours in the aftermath of the earthquake were very critical. The Haitian people have been helping one another with their bare hands from the very first few moments of the earthquake. People everywhere are striving to support the Haitian people any way they can.

Yet, the U.S. military having wrested total control of the ports and the main airport in Port-au-Prince as well as throughout the country is refusing to allow cargo planes from different countries such as Turkey, Iran, Mexico, Venezuela and Cuba to bring urgently needed medical supplies, water, food, and medicine to the people in Haiti. Planes with field hospitals from France and Doctors Without Borders were denied landing rights. For days, the US and UN officials on the ground stopped volunteers from distributing supplies to the people in the hardest hit places. This is mass genocide. There is a real Humanitarian crisis in Haiti and it must be dealt with as such.

The Haitian people must be assisted and not be portrayed in the media as animals and criminals. The Haitian masses – as the US masses did in New Orleans during Katrina – are doing the best they can to deal collectively with their situation. These efforts must be supported in all aid programs. Volunteers must be facilitated to distribute the aid provided by other countries around the globe and should not be suppressed.

The United States, instead of providing the immediate aid necessary in the first critical hours, mobilized an arsenal of military hardware and personnel with at least 11,000 soldiers to reinforce the occupation of Haiti adding to the 9,000-strong UN military force in the country. The Haitian people need Humanitarian assistance –water, medicine, medical supplies, healthcare workers – not a military arsenal. We say NO to this military deployment in Haiti. We oppose the occupation of Haiti now and forever. We demand:

1) Let the aid get through to Haiti! Let the Haitian People organize! Stop U.S. Military interference with international rescue & Humanitarian aid!

2) Stop denying Humanitarian entry into the US for Haitians whose lives are at risk!

3)  Stop the cruel and unjust IMF/World Bank/USAID structural adjustment progam in Haiti! END U.S./U.N. occupation of Haiti!

HAITI EMERGENCY COMMITTEE
Phone: (646) 898-7328

E-mail: bosolidarity at yahoo.com