As many as nine peaceful demonstrators were killed in Haiti on May 18, as tens of thousands of people took to the streets despite the risk - and reality - of violent repression by international forces and a militarized Haitian police force. These demonstrators were calling for an end to the illegal occupation by U.S., Canadian and French forces and for the return of overthrown President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The mainstream media has already done its best to cover this up, which isn’t difficult considering that most corporations no longer have journalists covering Haiti, save for Associated Press (AP), Reuters and the Miami Herald. The readership of these sources has scarcely been privy to any of the realities in Haiti for quite some time.

The AP’s Amy Bracken has a virtual monopoly on the information that is allowed out of Haiti in the mainstream these days. As such, her summary of the Flag Day demonstrations is the one that will stick in peoples’ minds. Her description is sterile, seemingly objective reporting:

"Thousands of demonstrators called for the return of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide during a Flag Day rally Tuesday that turned violent, leaving at least one man dead."

While Bracken cannot lie about the fact that the May 18 demonstrators were in fact Aristide supporters, she is denying the actual numbers of people in attendance; she is denying the level of repression by U.S. Marines and Haitian police; and she is denying that the demonstrators were also calling for an end to the illegal occupation and all that it stands for - namely the presence of a U.S. puppet regime and a U.S. trained and financed military that is executing much of the terror on Lavalas/Aristide supporters.

On Flashpoints Radio (broadcast weekdays at 5 p.m. on KPFA 94.1 FM, www.flashpoints.net), responsible journalist Kevin Pina recounted his eyewitness experience of the demonstrations, explaining how he was threatened with arrest by a U.S. Marine - despite showing his credentials - and was subsequently shot at by the new Haitian Special Forces as he denounced the Marines for promoting the violence. Prior to this, one demonstrator standing near him was slain as a result of the Haitian police firing upon demonstrators. Anywhere between 30,000 and 60,000 people demonstrated at various times and places throughout the day.

That this many people were courageous enough to demonstrate - after two and a half months of severe repression that has seen thousands killed, beaten or disappeared - is telling, and might serve to inspire the "progressives" who have mostly suffered from a strange and silent paralysis toward Haiti in terms of movement building. The main thing that these demonstrations do is put the lie to all of those who claim that Haiti is "on the right track" or "moving forward" or that the "interim" government is "doing a good job" with the full support of the U.S. and its vassal states.

Speaking of vassal states, the consensus in Canada is that "people were unanimously calling for Aristide’s departure" (see the recent goings on in the Foreign Affairs Committee, http://www.parl.gc.ca). Where, in the United States, there is existing political opposition to the role of the government in manufacturing the “Haitian crisis