In the fracas, the people immediately took the body of Father Jean Juste to protect it from being vandalized, because when mourners were coming out of the church, the U.N. started shooting. The people also picked up the body of a young man who was killed in front of the church by U.N. soldiers and marched it to the front of the National Palace despite the fact that they were being shot at by the U.N. soldiers to prevent their getting there.
There are reports of many cars being overturned and burned in Port au Prince. Radio Ginen has been reporting and broadcasting these events live on the radio and online.
The caravan of mourners were on their way to the cemetery from Port au Prince to Kavayon, which is two hours away, where the body of Father Jean-Juste was laid to rest beside his mother's.
*A day later, on June 19, 2009, the Associated Press reported in a story headlined "Haitian TV airs footage of confrontation with UN" that "In the video shown by Radio Tele Ginen, five Brazilian soldiers are seen arresting a protester wearing dreadlocks and a T-shirt from Jean-Juste's Veye Yo organization.
As they lead him toward their open-top jeep ...the soldiers, ... periodically turn and fire their assault rifles ... Six gunshots are heard. The soldiers load the protester into the truck and fire two more shots as they drive away, followed by a Haitian police vehicle. As the camera pans around, bystanders and protesters come out of hiding from behind cars and walls. Within seconds some spot the young man lying unconscious in a pool of blood and a crowd, including an Associated Press photographer, gathers around. He appears to be breathing for several minutes while bleeding profusely from around the mouth and head. The victim remains unidentified. He was said by other protesters to be nicknamed "Junior" and live in an area near the capital's Bel Air slum." (Haitian TV airs footage of confrontation with UN)
Video and Eyewitness Evidence Contradict UN Assertions:It is for very good reason that Haitians resent that the world seems more pre-disposed to listen to the UN spokesperson and the Brazilian general 's version of the matter. Haitians were calling for justice and democracy and protesting the presence of the UN in Haiti because they consider them criminals taking Haitian sovereignty by force.
"Eyewitnesses report today's shooting incident involving the UN began after mourners began chanting slogans for the return of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide outside of Haiti's national cathedral." ( UN Guns Down One, Opens Fire on Crowd at Funeral of Revered Haitian Priest)
Photos and video footage show the UN soldiers, in broad daylight, strangling an unarmed funeral attendee in a chokehold, right before the shooting. Why would the UN provoke like this and at a funeral of a priest they are accused of being complicit in killing and then claim they were attacked?
Clearly in the video footage we hear shots, then we SEE a person fall and later learn he's dead. In the photos, copied below, found in the Haiti Information Project (HIP) article and from Lakounewyork coverage of the funeral, it seem evident that that "blunt object" would have had to hurled from a speed and a distance to cause the damage it caused to the young man's head, certainly not by hand, but a gun. Look at the damage. It doesn't take some expert to see the unidentified man was shot in the head, not hit with a rock. One eyewitness Ezili's HLLN spoke to directly, who was there and saw the body, said the bullet entered from under the young boys neck and exited through his [lower cheek] head - bal la pran anba kou li e soti lan tèt li. Besides, most of the episode was captured live by Radio Tele Ginen Haiti and broadcast live on the internet. (See, Radio Tele Ginen's Deroulman antèman pè Gerard Jean-Juste )
At the start of the Radio Tele Ginen footage we hear music and see the procession milling around the Church cathedral. Then the camera pans to five Brazilian soldiers pulling a man out from the crowd, holding this unidentified man in dreadlock in a choke hold, dragging him away.
With their hands up in the air, we see some of the young Haitian men closest to the soldiers, following the soldiers and verbally protesting the arrest of this marcher. Their hands are up in the air as they proceed out of camera range. Then you see the crowd turn away and began to run in the opposite direction, presumably and according to eyewitnesses, this was because the UN soldiers turn their guns directly towards them. But we don't see this on-camera. We hear three shots being fired from the UN soldiers. On camera, simultaneous with the firing, we see a person in the crowd drop. Someone in the crowd picks the young dead boy up as everyone is running for cover against the UN shots. We see the puddle of blood left behind where the young boy had dropped dead. Then we hear five more UN shots off-camera. The video footage cuts to show panic also inside the Church. There are reports that there was UN shooting inside the Church but we don't have this confirmed though we have seen footage of the panic and listened to a separate video footage, also from Radio Ginen, that captures a Haitian Deputy testifying he lost his wallet in the panic that ensued as the UN fired inside the Church. Later the video excerpt shows the mourners have laid the body at the gate in front of the Haitian National Palace steps, asking for justice.
This is what you'll see in the first video excerpt.
Eyewitnesses, who report to the Ezili Danto Witness Project, and who were there, on the scene, say the UN-Brazilian soldiers fired more shots straight into the crowd as they drove away, followed by a Haitian police vehicle. The man seen being arrested was let go, some say, by the UN twenty minutes after his arrest. If the man was unimportant enough to be set free immediately and it was a case of mistaken identity, why did the UN soldiers feel it necessary to arrest him, disrupting an event as sacred as a funeral?
A second video excerpt (released later) captured the UN firing, not in the air, but level at the crowd from the back of their pickup truck as they leave the scene. The Tele Ginen broadcast was streamed live during the funeral.
Since the 2004 Bush Regime Change/Kidnapping in Haiti, the UN forces have customarily and automatically profile as "criminal" or "bandit" any young Haitian male or Vodouist wearing dreadlocks because the ruling Catholic/Francophone light-skinned Haitian Oligarchy/bourgeoisie think them to be too "Black and African."
Here's the Radio Tele Ginen Video Footage
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