THE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ STRUGGLE IS RADICALIZING
by Yves Pierre-Louis
On Sep. 17, 2009, thousands of students, joined by teachers and members of progressive and revolutionary organizations, once again took to the streets of Port-au-Prince to denounce the occupation of the State University of Haiti (UEH) by the Haitian National Police (PNH). The demonstration ended with arrests, tear-gas, and police violence.
On Aug. 28, riot police stormed the School of Medicine and Pharmacology (FMP) which was occupied by medical students. The police then placed the FMP and the School of Ethnology (FE) under a lock-down, where vehicle and even most pedestrian traffic in and around school grounds was severely restricted. Students charge the police occupation is a gross violation of the University’s sovereignty, which is protected by law.
The quarantine was requested by the UEH administration which includes President Jean Henry Vernet, Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs Wilson Laleau, and Vice-President of Research Fritz Deshommes. The students are now demanding their resignations along with removal of the FMP’s deans, Dr. Gladys Prosper, Dr. Dodeley Sévere and Fritz Delafuente.
In early September, medical students launched a hunger strike to demand the resignations and other UEH reforms. Riot police intervened on Sep. 9 and arrested 22 students (see Haiti Liberté, 9/16/2009).
Since April, the students at different UEH schools have demonstrated against dilapidated facilities, reduced faculty, and cuts in their curriculum. At some schools, students also demonstrated to raise the national daily minimum wage to 200 gourdes ($5.05) from 70 gourdes ($1.75); the Haitian Parliament this summer raised it to 125 gourdes ($3.10).
Last Thursday’s demonstration began at 10 a.m. at the School for Teachers (École Normale Supérieure) on Rue Monseigneur Guilloux. With a banner reading “Long Live an Independent University,” the protesters marched down Rue Saint-Honoré and Rue Capois through Lalue to reach Rue Riviere in Bourdon, where the UEH Administration (or Rectorat) is based. But the police had barricaded the entrance to the administration offices. After trying several times to enter the Rectorat, the protesters finally retreated the way they had come. They marched down Lalue, turned onto Rue Capois and entered the capital’s central square, the Champs de Mars.
There, the police attacked. The Corps for Intervention to Maintain Order (CIMO) drove their truck into the peaceful crowd, dispersing demonstrators with clubs and tear gas. The police made three arrests: Jean Louis Wendjy, a student at the School of Ethnology; Civil Dieuseul, also known as Ti Marxiste (Little Marxist), a progressive activist, and a young member of the Marché Salomon neighborhood committee, Stanley Roche.
“There was no violence from demonstrators, no breaking of car windshields,” exclaimed one student. “This was a completely peaceful demonstration. The police intervened brutally and dispersed demonstrators with tear gas, by driving their truck into the crowd, by hitting students with clubs and then arrested three students. But we will continue to mobilize, we’ll go to other universities, schools, and progressive organizations to continue to educate others to join us to say ‘No’ to the immoral leaders who currently head the State University of Haiti, so that students can continue their studies in peace, in order to serve the population as they should. The State University of Haiti cannot be headed by a rector who cannot do without police support to solve a problem that is purely academic.”?
The next day, Sep. 18, the students gave a press conference to denounce the Police violence against the demonstration. They also demanded the unconditional release of those arrested at the end of the demonstration.
The same day, School of Ethnology students interrupted the press conference of their deans, who were trying to give their views on the UEH crisis. The students prevented Vice-Dean of Research Jean Yves Blot from speaking to the assembled media. Instead the audience left the room to witness students demonstrating outside chanting “These people [the deans] have to go, they have done too much!”
“I think we will continue to fight the UEH administrators because they have threatened to kick us out of our own schools,” said one student. “The doors of the Medical School are tightly closed, and it has been transformed into a police station. The School of Ethnology and the School of the Humanities are also threatened with closure. Ultimately, the whole university is threatened. We now must wage a merciless fight for the liberation of the university which is controlled by dark retrograde anti-change forces who want at all costs to maintain the status quo.”
Paul Antoine, the FE’s Dean, said that the students had promised not to disrupt the deans’ press conference. “We were shocked that the students interrupted the press conference,” he said. “We thought they would listen to our conference and ask questions so as to find a way to allow us to form a committee to facilitate dialogue leading us on the way to solve the problems that afflict the School of Ethnology. But instead, students began yelling and disrupted the press conference, so we don’t know exactly what we are going to do.”
Antoine Augustin, the FE’s Vice-Dean of Academic Affairs, said he recognizes the students’ right to protest and agrees with the principle of the inviolability of the UEH’s grounds. “We recognize these principles,” he said. “First, the inviolability of university grounds. We said this to the students this morning, but they did not hear us. Secondly, we recognize the students’ right to protest as part of a principle of student engagement. Students are not extraterrestrials; they are linked to the community… We recognize the right to dissent, for students to mobilize and to make demands. However, we strongly condemn the methods used to achieve these demands.”
Eventually, the FE deans closed the school after the disrupted press conference and the students were pushed out into the street.
On Sep. 16, students, professors and members of the board of directors of the School of Humanities met in a general assembly to decide on how to respond to the UEH crisis. They passed a resolution drafted by Professor Jean Anil Louis Juste calling for the resignation of the UEH administration. Of the 113 participants at the meeting, 108 in favor of the resolution, four abstained, and one voted against.
The resolution also proposed establishing an interim committee to manage the UEH admissions for the upcoming academic year.
The university is where the brains of Haitian society are cultivated. If the university is in crisis, ultimately the entire society will be in crisis. Therefore, all of Haitian society should support the student protesters in their struggle for change at the University. And as the students’ struggle radicalizes, it is imperative that they seek unity with the masses’ demands for former President Aristide to be allowed to return to Haiti, for the 2004-2006 coup political prisoners to be freed, and for education, healthcare and improved living conditions to be made priorities.
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This Week in Haiti” is the English section of HAITI LIBERTE newsweekly. For the complete edition with other news in French and Creole, please contact the paper at (tel) 718-421-0162, (fax) 718-421-3471 or e-mail at editor@haitiliberte.com. Also visit our website at http://www.haitiliberte.com
