‘Justice for Ronel Désir!’ Haiti: Rip Cops’ Maiming of Student

Port-au-Prince, November 21 — Ronel Désir is a third-year student at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Teachers College) in the Haitian capital, site of demonstrations for the removal from office of the right-wing President Michel Martelly. Like hundreds of other students from the campuses of UEH [Université d’Etat d’Haïti, State University of Haiti], Ronel took part on November 18 in a mass protest mostly organized by Lavalas, the organization of former President Aristide and current politicians like the outspoken senator Jean-Charles Moïse.  Many students have no faith in Lavalas or bourgeois politicians like Moïse but took part anyway, with other left and liberal groups, because they have been fighting Martelly ever since the U.S. embassy helped him gain power.
When he came back to campus after the march that afternoon, Ronel was struck directly on the right hand by a vicious weapon, a stun grenade which not only deafens protesters with loud noise but showers them with toxic chemicals. It is supposed to be launched above the heads of a crowd, but the Haitian National Police shot Ronel point blank with it, essentially exploding his hand. His comrades got him to the hospital where his hand was amputated, but he was still fighting a dangerous infection in the arm.
Amputees in Haiti face a tough time in many areas, including employment. Students demonstrated immediately for “Justice for Ronel!” but without any response from the police or the government. This atrocity resembles the police killing with a tear gas canister fired into the head of a picketing teacher, Jean Louis Filbert, in October 2010. The policewoman who killed him merely served six months in jail.
The police, backed up by the UN army of occupation MINUSTAH, often target certain UEH campuses on days of mass demonstrations, attacking before the marches to prevent the students from joining, and after the marches to punish them. On November 18 there was a morning attack with tear gas and an afternoon attack with stun grenades.  Ronel lost his hand not because of a police mistake but because of systematic police intimidation and psychological warfare — in a word, fascism. One of the hallmarks of fascism everywhere is police terror tactics against youth they fear may become rebellious.
Readers can respond with email protests to the Prime Minister, Laurent Lamothe, who is in charge of the commission which oversees the National Police, at this link: primature.gouv.ht/?page_id=22.  Statements of support can go to the students at GREPS01@yahoo.fr.
As the UEH students’ “SOS” says, this is one struggle. A shout-out for Ronel, “Get well, Ronel!” started by a City University of New York (CUNY) union leader who had been informed of the assault, echoed among CUNY students rallying at Baruch College November 25, protesting the CUNY Board of Trustees’ policies of militarization, repression, and tuition hikes.
As capitalists everywhere prepare for war, students and workers internationally have to make our own preparations to defend ourselves.  Uniting across borders — one CUNY group is called Students Without Borders — is job number one.  “Get well, Ronel!”  One day communist students and workers will make the bosses pay for their crimes.