Donovan Cole is a former Marine who was arrested and discharged from the military for refusing to take up arms against the Haitian people at the Guantanamo Bay INS prison camp.
The following statement was taken from the video, Guantanamo Notes II, available through Crowing Rooster Arts, Inc. (For info. contact the Haiti RRN.)
(Speaking at a rally in Washington DC in April 1993) "My heart was in the right place with concern to Haitians. Where was everybody else's hearts? Where was the 400 Marine's hearts that came in with machine guns and dogs, batons, and throwing women around, throwing men around, handcuffing them like hogs and animals? Where were their hearts? If my heart was in the right place, where were their hearts? It's real appalling to me that President Clinton can let this go on and not feel any remorse. But I'm here to say 'President Clinton, this fight will go on and we beseech you to stand up and do something about this situation. We beseech you to make good on your promise that the Haitian ban will be lifted. We don't want beaurocratic statements saying that the ban will be lifted. We want the ban to be lifted.'
It all started for me when I was told to get dressed because there was a uprising at Camp Bulkeley with the Haitians; and we dressed and we responded out there. By the time we arrived on the scene, some of the Haitians had gotten outside the back perimeter. We went down and we got the situation under control after a while. This they call a riot. I myself call it a rebellion or an uprising against intolerable conditions on the Haitians' behalf.
They want their freedom; and for the U.S. to hold them down there with the cliche that they don't allow HIVs into this country is very very very bogus. They don't just look at this as a person with HIV. They look at it as another Black person with HIV, you see? You know, if this is humanitarian let's let it be humanitarian. If this is a prison of war camp, let's call it a prison of war camp, you know? Let's call a dog a dog and a sheep a sheep.
The first time I think I really got aware that this mission is not what it's supposed to be, was when this Seargent told me that this little Haitian boy-that all the urinals were full so he just went around on the side of the wall behind one of them and urinated on the ground. Well, this soldier didn't take a liking to that and he went and took the little boy's hand and rubbed it in the urine and mud and then wiped it in his face and in his mouth. You see, personally I thank God for not letting me see anything like that-with the kid getting kicked and this guy doing this-because I know I would be in Fort Leavenworth right now.
Later on that day I was eating my lunch and I knew, it just dawned on me, 'Oh my God, this lady hadn't eaten yet.' She hadn't eaten all day, and she's pregnant, because she couldn't hold her food down-the food that they were feeding her-so I took my little foam tray out there. I stopped eating and I took it out to her, and I was on my way back out to her cell with some apple juice and my supervisor comes out and he said 'Cole, what did you do with that food?' I said 'Well, I gave it to the pregnant woman.' He got a nasty attitude 'You go get it. You know it's against the rules.' Those words stuck-me-like-a-knife, you know, because when I had to go out there and look at that lady and take that food from her-and take that food out of that baby's mouth-man, that hurt me so bad because I was also thinking of my own child. What if somebody was doing my daughter like this?
The main reason I was arrested is because I disagreed with the tactics. When I refused my weapon I did that because-I didn't think it was right-but I was just thinking to myself, 'You know, I could really get this over with right now. I could end this uprising but who would I take out? Would it be the Haitians or would it be my comrades in the military?' So right there, I knew right then that that weapon was not for me, so I turned it in.
I don't think they're [the U.S.] gonna end up letting them in-which I hope and pray they do because it's the right thing to do. But they're [the Haitians] gonna be strong. They're gonna be strong and they're gonna fight 'till the last breath in their body is expelled. And they're gonna probably have another uprising and another uprising and another uprising, because that's what kind of people they are. They're strong yet compassionate, but they want what everybody in the world wants, what everybody is born with-their freedom."