VZCZCXRO4550
OO RUEHQU
DE RUEHPU #0592/01 1701924
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 191924Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0073
INFO RUEHZH/HAITI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 2343
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA PRIORITY 2068
RUEHQU/AMCONSUL QUEBEC PRIORITY 1440
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 1892
RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J2 MIAMI FL PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PORT AU PRINCE 000592

SIPDIS

STATE FOR WHA/EX AND WHA/CAR
S/CRS
INL FOR KEVIN BROWN, DIANNE GRAHAM AND MEAGAN MCBRIDE
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD
STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAR
INR/IAA
WHA/EX PLEASE PASS USOAS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/13/2019
TAGS: PGOV HA PREL
SUBJECT: MINIMUM WAGE DEMONSTRATIONS BECOME VIOLENT

REF: A. PORT AU PRINCE 00530
     ¶B. PORT AU PRINCE 00583

PORT AU PR 00000592  001.2 OF 003


Classified By: Thomas C. Tighe for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

¶1.  (C) SUMMARY:  Demonstrators confronting Haitian National
Police and MINUSTAH units that began June 3 have become
violent and taken on an anti-government and anti-MINUSTAH
character.  Initial demands by university students for
changes in the curriculum and improvement of conditions at
the State University have expanded to include demands for
implementation of a recently-passed law to triple the minimum
wage, and the withdrawal of MINUSTAH from Haiti.  Non-student
elements have joined the students and are contributing to the
violence, which has included burning of vehicles and tires
and caused injuries but no deaths.  In another incident that
further elevated tensions, one Haitian attending the funeral
of a Fanmi Lavalas activist was killed during a confrontation
with MINUSTAH troops June 18, in circumstances that remain
unclear.  End summary.

Day Seven
---------

¶2.  (C) Students who had protested university conditions for
several weeks took up the cause of the minimum wage bill
beginning June 3 (reftels).  After a four-day break from
demonstrations due to Corpus Christi holiday June 12 and rain
showers June 13, demonstrators resumed activities on June 15
with increased intensity.  Roughly 500 protestors marched
near the National Palace demanding that the government
promulgate the minimum wage law (ref A).  (Note:
Historically, Haitians do not demonstrate on holidays, in
poor weather conditions, on weekends, or during major
international soccer games. End note.)  They also demanded
the freeing of their arrested colleagues who remained jailed
since the previous week.  Demonstrators paraded placards with
slogans such as ''Down with Preval,'' ''Down with the
Bourgeoisie,'' and ''Our Country is not for Sale Either
Wholesale or Retail.''  Others called for the withdrawal of
MINUSTAH from Haiti, or bore the names of President Preval,
Prime Minister Michele Pierre Louis, and UN Special Envoy
Bill Clinton with an ''X'' drawn through their names.

Day Eight
---------

¶3.  (SBU) On June 16, students became violent, attacking
passing vehicles with rocks thrown from behind the walls of
the Faculty of Ethnology.  Demonstrators burned tires and set
up barricades at two major intersections downtown.  Later in
the afternoon, a CIMO (HNP SWAT) unit arrived on the scene as
protestors threw stones targeting vehicles with GOH,
MINUSTAH, or other international organization plates.  One
HNP vehicle was attacked, causing the occupants to flee to
avoid injury as a crowd smashed the windows with rocks.  HNP
and UN Police (UNPOL) used tear gas to quell the violence.

Day Nine
--------

¶4.  (C) Violence ramped up considerably on Wednesday, June 17
with students shifting much of their focus from the minimum
wage issue to MINUSTAH.  Embassy sources and press reports
say that a crowd stoned a MINUSTAH vehicle and burned it,
forcing the UN personnel to flee on foot.  Protesters also
burned a mini-van owned by the University.  HNP and UN troops
began using rubber bullets in addition to tear-gas to regain
control.

¶5.  (C) Crowds marched near the National Palace displaying
signs that read: ''Down with Preval,'' and ''Down with
MINUSTAH.''  Media reports that many of the protesters called
for the departure of MINUSTAH, defining its troops as ''an
occupying force.''  Faculty members in the Schools of Law,
Economics, and Humanities claimed MINUSTAH and the HNP had
violated the Constitution on June 10 by firing tear-gas
canisters into the campus to stop the students from hurling
rocks and a small quantity of Molotov cocktails. (Note:
Article 34 of the 1987 Constitution states, ''Except for
cases of being caught in the act (flagrante delicto), the
grounds of education establishments are inviolable.  No law
enforcement units can penetrate them, unless they have the
proper authorization from the Direction of such an
establishment.''  After this incident, and following reports
that citizens in the vicinity became ill from tear gas,
Embassy sources report that President Preval asked HNP
Director General Andresol to minimize the use of tear-gas.
End note.)

¶6.  (C) Police reported to the media on June 15 that 24
people had been arrested, 19 of them confirmed as students.
The majority have since been released.  Privately, however,
HNP Director General Mario Andresol told an Embassy official
on June 15 that the number of individuals arrested is closer
to sixty.

Official Responses
------------------

¶7.  (C) In a speech commemorating the 14th anniversary of the
HNP, on June 13, Andresol promised that the police would
continue to act with force against any public demonstration
that turned violent, and called on the students to exercise
their right to demonstrate with respect for the law.  Prime
Minister Michele Pierre-Louis has remained silent on the
minimum wage controversy.  In a discussion June 15, President
Preval told the Ambassador with an air of defiance ''I do not
deal with demonstrators.''  He added, as far as he was
concerned, the minimum wage issue had been settled privately
with (select) members of Parliament and the business sector
(ref B).

Deadly Outcome of Funeral of Fanmi Lavalas Militant
--------------------------------------------- ------

¶8.  (SBU) Tensions in Port-au-Prince rose further June 18
during the funeral of Father Jean-Juste, a close associate of
former President Aristide who died in Miami in late May and
whose body was returned to Haiti June 16.  His funeral was a
boisterous and emotional event held in a Port-au-Prince
cathedral and attended by several members of parliament.
When the casket was brought outside for transport to his home
town of Cavaillon for burial, a large crowd of Lavalas
supporters had gathered.  They surged toward a group of
Brazilian MINUSTAH troops in the area, who fired warning
shots into the air and retreated.  A demonstrator fell to the
ground with a head would and soon died. Demonstrators carried
his body to the National Palace and left in front of the
Palace entrance, shouting slogans against MINUSTAH and
President Preval. Several members of Parliament and others
who all claimed to have been at the scene told the media that
MINUSTAH troops had fired without provocation at the crowd
outside the cathedral and had definitely killed the victim.

¶9.  (C) MINUSTAH Deputy SRSG Luis Da Costa told PolCouns June
19 that Brazilian troops were in the area searching for a
suspected gang leader.  When they seized a person fitting the
description of the suspect, the crowd surged toward the
troops in an attempt to free the suspect.  The troops
retreated and fired live ammunition and rubber bullets into
the air.  At some point, a demonstrator fell wounded to the
ground with a head wound and soon died.  MINUSTAH
investigator has examined a video which they claim
conclusively shows that the Brazilian troops were not
involved in the death.  Other MINUSTAH sources told DATT
later June 19 that the GOH Medical Examiner's office had
concluded the victim died of blunt trauma to the head.
However, the corpse also exhibited a .22 or .25 caliber
gunshot wound just below the eye that they had been inflicted
post mortem.  (DATT Note:  MINUSTAH troops use 7.62 mm
ammunition.)

Comment
-------

¶10.  (C) Port-au-Prince is quiet June 19, but Embassy fears a
resumption of protests by students or others.  The third week
of protests over the minimum wage issue saw increasingly
brazen attacks on MINUSTAH troops and police.  President
Preval has remained silent and refused to engage the students
on the minimum wage issue in public, as Deputy Steven Benoit,
who first authored the minimum wage law, has pleaded that he
do.  RSO has credible information that Lavalas elements have
made contact with the students.  They and/or other political
elements may be urging the students to violence in order to
disrupt the second round of Senatorial elections on June 21.
In the wake of these protests, it appears very unlikely that
many parliamentarians will give serious consideration to
President Preval's proposed amendments to the minimum wage
bill.

TIGHE