Says AlterPresse, (Fr) “A plethora of activities [conferences, exhibits, ceremonies] … started last weekend to commemorate the bicentennial (October 17, 2006) of the assassination of the founder of the Haitian nation, Jean-Jacques Dessalines. … Members of the Presidential Commission for the Bicentennial invite all to meditate on the work of Dessalines and to use this reflection towards the reconstruction and advancement of the country. Following the proclamation of the country's independence in 1804, Dessalines was the first Haitian head of state … He was assassinated in a ambush in 1806.”