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Posted: Wednesday November 19th, 2003 03:23 |
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MONTREAL (CP) - The Haitian government is seeking permission to launch a $2.5-million lawsuit against a Quebec lawyer who said prostitution is part of the island country's culture.
Yves Andre Le Boutillier ignited a firestorm of controversy last week when he made comments which members of the province's black community have interpreted as racist.
In defending a Haitian client charged in a teen prostitution ring, the Quebec City lawyer said prostitution is a norm in the Caribbean country's culture just as smoking cannabis is in Jamaica.
"Prostitution in that environment is normal," Le Boutillier said.
The Haitian government was so appalled that its consulate in Montreal filed papers in court on Tuesday seeking permission to launch a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the 100,000 Haitians living in Canada. Organizers want $25 in compensation for each person.
"It's not the first time that comments like these were made and I think that this time we have to take a meaningful stand," said Gerard Pierre, a lawyer representing the consulate.
A judge will hear the case Jan. 30.
Le Boutillier said late last week the media had misinterpreted his comments.
"What I said is that in Haiti there is a lot of prostitution."
Meanwhile, a human rights group is also preparing a civil rights complaint to the Quebec Human Rights Commission on behalf of Haitians and Jamaicans. The group is seeking $6,000 in moral and punitive damages against Le Boutillier for each person who joins the complaint.
The commission has already initiated an investigation to determine if the comments violated the province's charter of human rights.
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TechNoir
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Posted: Monday February 16th, 2004 04:49 |
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Haitian rebels vow to topple Aristide
'In Haiti, fighting dictatorship is what we do.' In the port city of Gonaives, Andrew Gumbel finds the leaders of the uprising in confident mood
15 February 2004
The rebels who have taken over the Haitian port city of Gonaives are in ebullient mood. It has been 10 days since they over-ran the town's police force, burned down the police station and jail, and threw up barricades around the outskirts of town to keep forces loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide at bay.
The police have tried to retake control just once, only to beat a hasty retreat after an unspecified number were gunned down or "necklaced", their bodies mutilated and paraded around town. Since then, Gonaives has been left largely alone, a symbol of defiance against President Aristide's authority. It is also a vital strategic asset, since Haiti's only half-decent north-south road passes through Gonaives; rebel control is slowly choking off the northern half of the country.
For the rebels this isn't just a stunt. It is the start of a revolution they have every intention of seeing through to its logical conclusion: the downfall of the man once hailed as Haiti's very own Nelson Mandela but who is now reviled for his autocratic leadership style and utter failure to deliver any progress on the country's dire economic and social woes.
"We keep hearing the police are coming, but they will come just to die," said Winter Etienne, the mayor of free Gonaives and spokesman for the rebel movement. "We have more than 200 trained soldiers. And we have as many arms as we have people - if they do not have guns, they have machetes."
He and his fellow rebel leaders clearly mean business. Other towns that rebelled in Gonaives's wake have been quickly retaken and pummelled into submission through house-burnings and threats against anti-Aristide activists, but Gonaives is proving much more resilient.
The barricades on the road into town - buses clustered on a bridge, an armed checkpoint, burned-out trucks in the road, broken bottles and concrete bollards - would not pose much of a challenge to a decently equipped modern army. But in Haiti, where the only uniformed forces are police driving Toyota Landcruiser 4WDs, they are more than adequate to the task.
The rebels brandished an array of automatic and semi-automatic weapons that promised to outgun the ill-equipped police. And more seems to be on the way. Mr Etienne led a group of journalists to a heavily guarded wooden shack by the port where he showed off the rebels' newest asset - a former regional police chief and former army officer called Guy Philippe who has long been a sworn enemy of the President's. Mr Philippe, flanked by 12 paramilitary supporters, came out with some spirited rhetoric about taking the rest of the north and then marching on Port-au-Prince, the capital, to finish the job. "In Haiti, fighting dictatorship is what we do," he said.
The civilian boss of Gonaives, Butteur Metayer, even bragged that his men could do a better job in Iraq than the US. The occasion might have been stronger on theatrics than on hard reality, but it was the strongest indication to date that members of the armed forces disbanded by President Aristide a decade ago are now regrouping with the intention of seizing power.
Mr Philippe is a figure as feared as he is respected. He participated in the 1991 coup that deposed Mr Aristide after his first abortive ascent to the presidency. And he was fingered in a mysterious concatenation of events at the end of 2001 that Mr Aristide's entourage denounced as another coup attempt, forcing him to flee into exile in the Dominican Republic.
That 2001 "coup" - suspected by many to have been a hoax mounted by the President's men as an excuse to crack down on the opposition - is in many ways at the root of the current revolt.
President Aristide's man in Gonaives at the time was Butteur Metayer's brother Amiot, who embarked on a campaign of repression against opposition sympathisers so severe that the Organisation of American States and other groups pressured the government into arresting him and throwing him into jail. Amiot Metayer - nicknamed "le Cubain", or the Cuban - had more supporters than the government may have realised, however, because one month after his incarceration a group of them drove a bulldozer through the wall of the Gonaives prison and released him.
At that point, Mr Aristide chose to make up with Mr Metayer and put him in charge of Gonaives' lucrative customs and excise business. By all accounts, the Cuban spread the wealth around the community, Robin Hood style, thus cementing loyalty towards him even further. The international community was outraged that the Aristide government let Mr Metayer go after his prison breakout. According to the Metayer family, the first act of the new US ambassador, Richard Foley, on presenting his credentials last September was to tell Mr Aristide to put him behind bars again within 48 hours.
Right on that 48-hour deadline, on the evening of 21 September 2003, Amiot Metayer disappeared. His body later surfaced 50 miles south of Gonaives, with the top of his skull missing, his eyes gouged out and his heart removed. The town was in no doubt that President Aristide had ordered his murder, and vowed to take revenge.
At first it staged simple street demonstrations, but passions rose as the police used increasingly brutal tactics to quash the rebellion. People were killed and houses were burned. "Death was everywhere," Etienne Winter said. "We got mobilised and pulled all our supporters out of hiding." Insurrection quickly followed.
Diplomats and seasoned observers in Port-au-Prince said yesterday they believed Guy Philippe might well have the manpower and weaponry to extend the rebellion to other towns. Anti-Aristide sentiment is reaching boiling point, not helped by the repressive tactics of the police and the so-called "chimères", armed thugs from the slums sponsored by the government to maintain order.
Meanwhile, the Gonaives rebellion risks triggering a crisis in the north. Already towns are suffering electricity blackouts, petrol shortages and dwindling food supplies. The rebel leaders said that if anyone was hungry they would be welcome to come to Gonaives and join the revolution.
Source: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=491733
Last edited on Monday February 16th, 2004 13:09 by TechNoir
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Posted: Monday February 16th, 2004 04:54 |
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Haitian death squad commanders join rebels in bid to topple president Aristide
By Andrew Gumbel in Port-au-Prince
16 February 2004
Armed rebels demanding the overthrow of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's president, were back on the offensive yesterday, pushing out from their stronghold in Gonaives into three small northern towns with the help of former army officers and death squad commanders returning from exile in the Dominican Republic.
The rebels, calling themselves the Anti-Aristide Resistance Front, were reported to have retaken Dondon, a small town they briefly held last week, and attacked police in Sainte Suzanne. Both are on the way to the real prize, the northern port of Cap-Haitien, which is the country's second-largest city. Trou-du-Nord, near the Dominican border, was also reported to be under attack.
Since the rebellion broke out 10 days ago, police and armed civilians loyal to the president have fought to maintain control in Cap-Haitien; burning houses of suspected opponents and intimidating others with constant volleys of gunfire. Much of the north has been without power or fuel supplies, and food convoys have not been able to get past Gonaives on the road north, raising the risk of a major humanitarian crisis.
The pro-government forces now face a new challenge, as prominent members of the army that Mr Aristide disbanded in 1994 have appeared in Gonaives, claiming to have brought the men, money and firepower needed to take over the country.
Visiting journalists have seen only a handful of uniformed men and no heavy weaponry, but the rebels say they are concentrating their forces in another town about 30 miles east of Gonaives. The new leaders include Louis-Jodel Chamblain, who commanded army death squads in the 1980s, following the end of the Duvalier dictatorship, and went on to found a militia called the Front for the Advancement of Progress in Haiti, which fomented trouble after the 1991 coup that toppled Mr Aristide following his first ascent to the presidency.
Another key figure is Guy Philippe, a sworn enemy of the president's, who participated in the 1991 coup and was later police chief in Cap-Haitien.
Opinions differ on how quickly, or how effectively, the rebellion might spread, but international observers are increasingly concerned about the prospect of a protracted, low-level civil war. The United States is particularly concerned that protracted unrest in Haiti could lead to a flood of refugees heading towards Florida; something the Bush administration wants to avoid at all costs in an election year in which Florida could, like last time, play a pivotal role in determining the next occupant of the White House.
Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, met representatives of a number of western hemisphere groups in Washington on Friday, to try to agree a coherent response following a spate of ambiguous, even contradictory, statements concerning Mr Aristide's future.
In the end, they said they would accept "no outcome that in any way illegally removes the elected president of Haiti". Mr Powell ruled out US military intervention, although the group said that some lesser form of support, such as sending police reinforcements, might be possible. Unofficial reports from Haiti and the US suggest the latter may be making contingency plans to receive tens of thousands of Haitian refugees at its Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.
Outside support of Mr Aristide is likely to remain lukewarm. The European Union and US withdrew aid from Haiti three years ago in protest at what they said were flawed legislative elections won overwhelmingly by Mr Aristide's Lavalas party.
Many observers in Haiti blame the withdrawal of aid for the president's increasingly repressive leadership and dependence on armed gangs and drug dealers from the slums.
They say the West over-reacted, since the only question in the contested election was the extent of Lavalas's victory, and is, therefore, partly to blame for triggering the present crisis in the country.
Source: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=491733Last edited on Monday February 16th, 2004 13:10 by TechNoir
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Posted: Monday February 16th, 2004 10:00 |
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12 February - Jamaica yesterday signalled that it would not recognise a Haitian government that did not emerge from a constitutional and democratic process - a position that foreign minister K.D. Knight is likely to urge on the United States when he travels to Washington today at the head of a Caribbean Community delegation to discuss Haiti's political crisis. In a statement last night announcing today's trip to Washington, the foreign ministry left no doubt that Jamaica, and apparently Caricom - an economic and political grouping of Caribbean nations - would not countenance the overthrow of Aristide in the months of violence that has gripped Haiti. "Mr Knight emphasised that any unconstitutional removal of the government would result in a non-recognition of that which replaces it, which has serious implications for the people of Haiti," the foreign ministry said.
Knight is being accompanied to Washington by his Bahamian counterpart, Fred Mitchell, Jamaica's non-resident ambassador to Haiti, Peter Black, and Caricom's assistant general secretary, Colin Granderson. The regional delegation is expected to talk to the State Department's assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere region, Roger Noriega, as well as the secretary-general of the Organisation of American States (OAS) Cesar Gavaria, who has long attempted to mediate in what was a simmering crisis. They will also meet members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Capitol Hill.
"A democratically elected government can only be removed through constitutionally accepted means," said Knight yesterday. "At the same time we want to make it clear that President Aristide has a significant role to play in restoring law and order in Haiti, and they will have to honour any agreement arrived, in ensuring that this happens." (Jamaica Observer)
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Posted: Monday February 16th, 2004 10:04 |
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| http://www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org/whats_new_index.html
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TechNoir
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Posted: Monday February 16th, 2004 11:53 |
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Thanks @Tahliba
Another useful news source for keeping track of the unfolding situation is
http://ipsnews.net/caribbean.asp
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Posted: Monday February 16th, 2004 12:49 |
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PROPAGANDA WARNING AND ANALYSIS: I wish to note that since I originally posted this I have found out that Amy Wilentz is part of the anti-Aristide propaganda machine. Furthermore, the so-called Haiti Democracy Project are the US-backed Washington arm of the anti-Aristide opposition whose objective is to overthrow democratically elected African majority rule in Haiti by using the now classic US strategy of low-intensity warfare. Rather than deleting this post, I am letting it stand as an example of the sometimes subtle, other times blatant anti-Aristide propaganda that is now being spread via various media.
The thing about this particular article is that it is a relatively subtle piece of character assassination on Aristide. It doesn't directly accuse him of being a dictator, anti-democratic and power-hungry, but reading the article would make the unwary reader more prone to believing that was the case.
Haiti's Man of the People Lost His Way
Amy Wilentz, 2004-02-15
Haiti Democracy Project web page item #1616 (http://www.haitipolicy.org)
February 15, 2004
By S armed revolt swept through town after town in Haiti last week, it was hard not to conjure up visions from the country's violent past. Bloody overthrows are the norm in Haiti: There have been 30 coups in its 200-year history.
The country has virtually no institutions. Even when they are there in name, people cannot turn to them to help solve problems.
Having no system has become the system.
Haitians have accommodated themselves to an extemporaneous existence. To get a telephone line, you have to know someone.
Self-styled electricians climb poles and steal for their neighborhood whatever current there happens to be, charging for the service. Garbage pickup is whimsical at best. The Ministry of Justice is lethargic and mysterious. Courts function sporadically, sometimes at a judge's caprice.
In general, work gets done on an ad-hoc basis, depending on connections. Scribes at typewriters still sit under trees near customs at the airport; they write letters for the illiterate and fill out documents, but those documents can rarely be recovered later. It's a pretend bureaucracy ripe for corruption.
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a former priest, rose through the ranks of an institution, the Roman Catholic Church, which survived in Haiti because it is financed from abroad, from lot bo dlo, or the other side of the water. Nonetheless, he has also been a master of Haiti's nonlinear, back-channel culture.
From childhood, Mr. Aristide learned little respect for the hierarchies of institutions. He grew up in the southwest countryside, where a handful of men who owned the land were in charge and where what is known in Haiti as "the Republic of Port-au-Prince" was a distant dream.
Though the country's elected leader, he was often the first to point out that the few institutions that had survived were complicit in the evils of the society and in the oppression he sought to curb.
Haiti has few institutions for good reason. It was born out of the rejection of institutions, and has perceived them as vehicles of subjugation. In 1791, Haitian slaves rebelled against France, the grandest power of the day, and began the world's only successful slave revolution. By 1804, the slaves had defeated the armies of Napoleon and created their own country.
This history plays into the present. The slogan of the most bloody-minded slave leader, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, was "Koupe tet, boule kay'' - "Cut off the head, burn down the house" - words that echo today among the armed gangs opposed to Mr. Aristide.
"Haitian history is full of attempts to build institutions,'' said Jocelyn McCalla, director of the National Coalition for Haitian Rights, "but then they are destroyed or completely ignored. Since the revolution, which was a fantastic thing, Haiti has been insulated and isolated from other parts of the world. It lacks communication, education, sophistication - the kind of training that leads to real institution building."
In part because of its lack of institutions, Haitian society works on a "big man,'' or gwo neg, principle. A big man can fix things, whether on the village or the national level.
Today, such a man could be a mayor or a legislator, but is just as likely, in the Haitian countryside, to be a voodoo priest or a big agricultural cultivator. This man decides the community's direction, distributes needed funds and punishes wrongdoers. He is subject to the whim of his people only if he is no longer effective; then they usually desert him.
Mr. Aristide has always been an able leader in that old-fashioned manner. Yet, in 1990, in a twist of history, he became Haiti's first legitimately elected president, who was supposed to lead his country into an era in which the rule of law and institutions would prevail.
But Mr. Aristide was soon ousted by a military coup, and was only reinstated with American support, in 1994. "Because of the coup," Mr. McCalla said, "he saw in institutions like the army or the police the very instrument that could affect another coup against him." Upon his return, he disbanded the army and kept the police to a minimum.
But without a force of order to fall back on, it has been impossible for Mr. Aristide to carry out any social agenda, and for a long time now he has not seemed to have the inclination or the budget to try.
The most flagrant example of his disregard for institutions came in 2000, when he allowed irregularities in an election that gave him a clear legislative majority. The United States responded by stopping all funds, says Robert Maguire, director of the international affairs program at Trinity College in Washington and a longtime Haiti observer. "This became a resource-starved government very quickly,'' Mr. Maguire said, "Aristide could not deliver on any of his big promises about education and healthcare and so forth, and he couldn't even really do street patronage."
In other words, Mr. Aristide in some way stopped being a big man, even though he was the president, because he could not deliver the goods.
What is happening now is not simply the result of Mr. Aristide's leadership style. "This is happening because of irrefutable Haitian truths," Mr. Maguire said. "The country is deeply polarized between the included and the excluded, the elite rich and the poor masses, between the urban dweller and the rural villager. Aristide represented something unique and important. He rose to power as someone who was not part of the political class and not put in by the army. His support came solely from the Haitian people."
It turns out, however, that the Haitian people have a limited supply of patience.
Amy Wilentz is the author of "The Rainy Season: Haiti Since Duvalier."
Source: http://www.haitipolicy.org/content/1616.htmLast edited on Thursday February 19th, 2004 20:58 by TechNoir
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Posted: Monday February 16th, 2004 13:05 |
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PROPAGANDA WARNING AND ANALYSIS: I wish to note that since I originally posted this I have found out that the so-called Haiti Democracy Project are the US-backed Washington arm of the anti-Aristide opposition whose objective is to overthrow democratically elected African majority rule in Haiti by using the now classic US strategy of low-intensity warfare. Rather than deleting this post, I am letting it stand as an example of the sometimes subtle, other times blatant anti-Aristide propaganda that is now being spread via various media.
Note how members of the Lavalas movement are portrayed as assorted forms of criminals and thugs: killers, gangsters and drug-dealers. Do these stereotypes sound familiar to you? They should do, as this is often how black people are portrayed in the media. Funny thing is that Lavalas consists of the black majority poor, whereas the opposition (including the Group of 184) consist of the elite and the middle-class with members being white or mulattos. In the case of Apaid, his roots are Arab.
Slum May be Key to Haiti’s Fate
Tim Collie, Staff Writer. South Florida Sun Sentinel, 2004-02-15
Haiti Democracy Project web page item #1612 (http://www.haitipolicy.org)
February 15, 2004
CITE SOLEIL, Haiti -- The fate of this divided nation may hinge on a slum built atop a landfill that is one of the most explosive social tinderboxes in the Western Hemisphere.
Six square miles of narrow alleys, festering shantytowns and cramped cinderblock hovels, Cite Soleil -- "Sun City" -- is the bedrock of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's power in Haiti. Its vast labyrinth of tiny streets and divided turf is a metaphor for Haiti's politics, which are a maze of brutal street justice, dark plotting and daunting conspiracy theories.
With some 200,000 residents, it is the largest of a string of slums along Port-au-Prince's waterfront that collectively account for a quarter of the capital city's population. Street gangs with names like "The Last Occasion" hold sway over drug networks, protection rackets and prostitution rings.
It is here that Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas Party recruits the young to toughs known as chimere, who thwarted a march by anti-Aristide opposition parties last Thursday, and who again may be on the streets for another anti-Aristide protest scheduled for today.
Following a long tradition in Haitian politics, these street soldiers menace and intimidate opponents of whoever occupies the Presidential Palace.
Consequently, Cite Soleil is the seat of Aristide's power, with supporters among the chimere and the many poor Haitians who struggle to survive here.
But if that power -- built on political patronage, shared suffering and cash -- wanes for Aristide, the whole country could slip into chaos, say human rights activists, diplomats and even slum dwellers here.
Cite Soleil could go the way of Gonaives, where the assassination of a gang leader named Amiot Metayer in September set in motion an anti-Aristide uprising two weeks ago that spread to 11 cities and resulted in dozens of deaths. Disaffected anti-government partisans, calling themselves the Gonaives Resistance Front, still control Gonaives, Haiti's fourth largest city, which sits on a major road linking the north and south.
In Boston, a rough Cite Soleil neighborhood at the center of opposition protests in November, reporters touring the slum on Friday were abruptly cut off by two SUVs filled with gun-toting street soldiers. Their leader, Robinson Thomas, would speak only briefly to a reporter because he said two of his top lieutenants had been killed earlier in the week -- allegedly by Lavalas gangs.
"It's just not safe to talk right now, even on my own turf, because you never know who is watching, when they might launch a hit," said Thomas, 27, who is better known in Haiti by his street name Labanye ("The Banner.")
"Lavalas is losing control here, and they want to regain it by killing me and other gang leaders," said Thomas. "If they kill me, they'll have an uprising here, but I'll be dead, so that doesn't do me any good."
Top leaders killed
During the last four months, some of the top leaders of Cite Soleil's major gangs have been killed. Posters on many storefronts celebrate Thomas's former boss, Rodson Lemaire, one of the top four or five gang leaders in Cite Soleil. His body was found riddled with bullets in late October after he broke ranks with Lavalas.
Last weekend, five people were killed who were reportedly aligning themselves with the Group of 184, a coalition of business groups, trade unions and student organizations that has called for Aristide's resignation. The group contends Aristide should step down over contested 2000 legislative elections that were swept by the Lavalas Party. Aristide has refused, despite international criticism and growing violence in Haiti among more radical opponents of his government in many parts of Haiti.
"Cite Soleil was Aristide's fiefdom, but he's losing control," said Pierre Esperance, head of the National Coalition for Haitian Rights, one of the country's leading human rights groups. "What happened last weekend was more score settling. Lavalas needs to keep control, especially after what happened in Gonaives, so when there are signs of disloyalty, or when people know too much or are no longer needed, they are dealt with."
In November, Boston residents erected barricades and shouted "Down with Aristide!" after the death of Lemaire, known as Colobri ("Hummingbird") . Posters along the storefronts here openly vow retribution for his death against Fritz Joseph, Cite Soleil's mayor and a staunch Lavalas partisan.
"Boston is ground zero right now because that's where Lavalas feels most threatened," said Ernst Sentil, 29, who recently fled the neighborhood under threats for his support of the Group of 184. "People are being shot, their family members kidnapped.
"What keeps Lavalas support up right now is money and guns, especially guns," Sentil said. "They supply the weapons, and turn a blind eye on whatever the criminal actors are involved in. But they don't have the support of the average people there. They are just living in fear, without schools, food or health care. Their lives have not changed under Aristide."
Lemaire vs. Lavalas
What turned Lemaire against Lavalas isn't clear. It may have been money, or simply a perceived lack of respect from Aristide. In July, he led an attack against members of the Group of 184 who were attempting to hold a rally for their "New Social Contract," a political platform for the reform of Haitian society. But after about 30 Group of 184 members and several reporters were injured in a rock-throwing melee, some gang members publicly condemned Lavalas. One, named Johnny Occillius, gave an interview on local radio saying he and others were paid $12,500 by Lavalas to disrupt the rally. He then fled to the United States.
But members of the chimere who broke up Thursday's demonstrations scoff at such talk. Though witnesses said they saw chimere taking money from a car during Thursday's failed demonstrations, they denied receiving pay from Lavalas. They are the outraged poor people, they say, who voted for a popular president in a legitimate election in 2000. Now Haiti's wealthiest residents, who are leading the calls for Aristide to resign, are once again trying to usurp the role of the poor masses, they say.
"We want a president to stay in office, a president who works for us, the poor people in the streets, not these rich Arabs," said Evans Vital, 34, a chimere captain, referring to Andy Apaid, the third generation Haitian of Lebanese ancestry who leads the Group of 184.
Added 24-year-old Etienne Guiny, another chimere member: "Who is going to feed the street woman who has to pay 110 Haitian dollars (about $12) for a small bag of rice? Do you think Andy Apaid, or these 184 people are going to do that? These people are going to Cite Soleil and trying to find people to overthrow our president. We are not going to let that happen. Look at what happened in Gonaives."
Speculating on Lavalas
But Thomas said that the Fanmi Lavalas might be fracturing, splitting into camps whose political leaders run different gangs in Cite Soleil. The men that killed his two lieutenants are commissaires (commissars), he said, who were dispatched by Lavalas to kill him.
"I think what is going on is that the patrons are changing as different people fall out with Aristide in the (Haiti's Presidential) palace," said Thomas, who grew up in Cite Soleil. "My patrons were dumped by Aristide, so they had to clean house. That meant coming after [Lemaire] -- man, I grew up with this guy, really loved him -- and now coming after me."
Thomas recalled how excited his family was at Aristide's first election in 1990. People loved the street priest, he said, and believed he would change their fortunes.
"I remember telling my mother that Aristide was going to be president--I must have been 11-- and it was so exciting," he said in an interview Saturday. "But nothing has changed. The conditions in this place are horrible, just horrible for people, and he's done nothing about them.
"How it works is that they pay us to maintain control here--I've been given $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 to do some bad things. Things I cannot talk about now because I'm not safe out of this country yet," Thomas said. "But I have to tell you I regret it now, because it didn't really help anybody here."I really think that Aristide should go, or at least give the social contract a chance," he said, referring to the Group of 184's improvement plan. "People are at least curious to see what it says, if the people like Apaid really mean it. But they cannot find out more about it, because it's just dangerous to talk that stuff in Cite Soleil now."
What makes the situation so frightening to many observers in Haiti is that, unlike previous eras in the country's history, there is no strong government police or military authority to hold back the well-armed chimere gangs. The army was disbanded after a U.S.-led invasion that reinstalled Aristide to power in 1994, and the 5,000-man police force has been weakened by corruption, political favoritism and poor training.
Attempting to retake Gonaives back last weekend from the gangs, the national police were easily repulsed.
"That's what makes this a fairly unique moment. Before there was always a central military authority, for good or for ill, that kept order and chaos to a minimum," said Robert Fatton, a Haiti-born scholar of the country at the University of Virginia. "Now I don't know what you've got. If the police force falls apart, and Aristide loses control of Cite Soleil, then the whole place could easily erupt into chaos."
Tim Collie can be reached at tcollie@sun-sentinel.com or at 954-356-4573
Copyright © 2004, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Source: http://www.haitipolicy.org/content/1612.htm Last edited on Thursday February 19th, 2004 20:59 by TechNoir
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Posted: Monday February 16th, 2004 17:01 |
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Technoir,
I may not be Haitian and may not know everything about Haitian culture/people, but from reading several Caribbean mags, I think that the US has picked the wrong side to go on( Aristide's side that is). Many of his people consider him to be a dictator, like Baby Doc Duvalier. Just to think, the world thought that this guy was a good guy who wanted the US better Haiti and the Haitian people. Everytime I read about Aristide, it's never good. Everyday, the people wants to demolish him and this is justifiable. The people are still starving, his people are being throwning and tortured because they are speaking up for themselves...Wow! right now I don't know. I thought that Baby Doc was the worst dictator for Haiti. I'll change that. It's bad when other Haitians carry that same attitude, not that baby Doc would make a positive difference for his former country as we all witness years ago.( And speaking of him, he expressed an interest to coming back to Haiti to preside. Not a good idea. I think he needs to stay in France.)
Supposedly Colin Powell said that he( Aristide) should accept attempts from the Catholic church for peace talks, but I don't know. If Aristide really wanted to make peace with his people, none of these miniwars would be taking place in his country I do not think he would be serious about it if he accepted them..I also feel that the Us should play a role in this. I think we are also partly to blame for this. While there were no guarantees of being able to tell a potential good/bad president for Haiti, we sent a guy back wishing that he would restore democracy into his country and we never really did any checkups to see if this guy was keeping his promise for a better Haiti. In general, we just didn't care about those guys. After Bill Clinton. Jimmy Carter, Colin Powell and others said something about it, that was it, no more Haiti and they wonder why so many Haitians flee their homeland for Florida. Hmmmm?!!
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Posted: Monday February 16th, 2004 17:49 |
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@CeeCee
I have little knowledge of Haiti beyond what I have read here and there. It wouldn't surprise me at all to find that the US's policies (or the lack thereof) towards Haiti contributed substantially to the current situation.
My concern however is the following, given lack of institutions, resources, leadership and lack of a sociopolitical culture that can function effectively in lieu of these things, Haiti is on the verge of either becoming a failed state or returning to the day of Duvalier-style dictatorships. None of the foreseeable scenarios offer much hope of Haiti making much needed changes to its political economy.
US intervention (IMHO) has by and large been harmful and I think that the US has meddled enough in Haiti's affairs. Ideally, Caricom would intervene and act as in a peacekeeping/honest broker role but I would be surprised if they were up to it.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. There are others on BN who are far more knowledgeable than I on these matters and might have something to say about them.
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Ijexa
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Posted: Monday February 16th, 2004 19:46 |
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@TechNoir
***Shakes head***
Look... disregard what CeeCee has written... one can only understand the current situation in Haiti if one has a thorough knowledge of the historical and social circumstances that provide the foundations of the current crisis...
Any such understanding will show that if you read between the lines... that America and the Dominican Republic have not even the slighest love for Aristide... and that the current destabilisation process is currently taking place with the unspoken blessing of the U.S.... and why Haiti as a symbol of African resistence and independence will NEVER... I repeat will NEVER be allowed to thrive and suceed...
A lot of back ground historical and contemporary information much written by Africans... can be read at:
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/index.html
Another unspoken aspect of the current instability is that the Opposition is largely lead by "Mulattos" and have a great deal of clandestine support from the U.S. and the Dominican Republic... with the level of spin and propaganda in the reporting of events that are taking place in Haiti is shown in the following article...
http://www.blackcommentator.org/73/73_haiti_pina.html
But the events in Haiti are straight out of the CIA handbook on the destabilisation of a country... this includes the infilitration of workers and student unions... the use of systematic terror... the almost random killing of members of the civilian population... all of this is covered... and is currently taking place in Haiti as we speak...
Ijexa
Last edited on Monday February 16th, 2004 20:00 by
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Tahliba
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Posted: Tuesday February 17th, 2004 11:48 |
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one can only understand the current situation in Haiti if one has a thorough knowledge of the historical and social circumstances that provide the foundations of the current crisis...
Ain't that a truth 
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Posted: Wednesday February 18th, 2004 01:33 |
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Technoire. Great work my brother for posting so much valuable stuff. Needed to take time on this one, to reflect a bit and read plenty before responding.
Haiti, has strong resonance to me for too many reasons. First, being from the "French Caribbean", my country has long long relations with Haiti, until it fell off, completely the Caribbean political landscape so to speak into the abyss.
Large numbers of Jacobins, as they were called lived in my country, from which they planned both the overthrow of the monarchy, but also left to go to Haiti to support the overthrow of slavery and create the first African independent state. We speak the same language,[Wycliff Jean is a shared hero] and many African cultural practices, but not as pure as Haitains, who are probably the most purest Africans in terms of cultural practices in the Caribbean, for obvious reasons.
People from our island and the region, specialising in Obeah and that type of practice, traditional medical practioners etc, are forever going from the region to Haiti and vice versa.
Haiti has easily the most attractive men and women in the Caribbean, highly intelligent and gifted people in many areas etc.
So this news is very painful, and what I am parituclarly concerned about, is the culture of violence in Haiti, which as one of the articles you posted already indicated; in terms of finding bodies with heads cut off, eyes gouged out and the like.
This is terrifying, if you understand the pysche and culture. Probably if there is one set of people we fear in our region and we do not fear many in the French Caribbean given our exemplary history of being specialist in extreme violence and fighting, is Haitians. Haiti and Haitians know violence like nobody else. Note only in that country do you have formal death squads. Jamaica had something simiilar, but that was child's play by comparsion.
The type of slave regime, as CLR James outlined in his classic must read Black Jacobins, in Haiti was unprecedented, with Trinidad being second. The murder and torture and the scale of the killing of Africans, was never experienced elsewhere. Consequently, why the revolution under Toussiant La'Overture, finished off by my hero Dessailnes was probably one of the most vicious pieces of history ever.
Our people fought a war of total extermination, against the white man. They wiped out and culled the mixed race population the way you would seal pups in their tens of thousands. Brutal, unsparing, necessary and carthatic. Africans regained their sense of humanity and respect as human being by teaching the enemy a lesson they would never forget, and change the whole slave regime world wide driving fear into whites.
Haiti is the only place in the Caribbean where organised mass poisoing of white people took place, by black women Al Queda style. We poisoned plenty, but not like in Haiti. You can imagine what whites did to black women in particular, who they caught as part of these actions.
Problem is this, they[whites] never forgot, or forgave.Ever. Hence the foreign policy of both France and the US towards the island. Our people had their independence paid for in blood and mass loss of life but could not get money, or aid, or international recognition to sell our goods and services etc.
President Warren of the US invaded after the first world war, on the ground of protecting US interest and imposed their man, which the people removed in due course. Papa Doc and his son, whose bodies should be dug up and degraded, inflicted a regime of violence, murder and the use of obeah and all sorts of African practices to terrfiy and control the populace, diminishing the population with mass graves all over the place.
The Duvallier's thirty or so year rule, destroyed the country, while the world and their US buddies looked the other way. Half castes who hate the African in Haiti, and the word HATE is an under statement. The malewe'[African poor] is less than dirt itself.
If a 'gwan boog,' as we called them[big boss], is driving in his jeep and sees a bueatiful Haitian African woman and wants her, he can do what he wants there and there to her. Given they are backed by animalistic death squads and have no qualms in culling the local population, what resistance do they expect?
So knowing the culture, my first concerns goes to the malewe[poor Africans], who we know whatever the outcome, are going to be tortured and murdered like animals in a massive coral. African black life is so cheap there, televisons will not even cover these kind of things, unless it is their interest to do so.
So those are my initial thoughts. Will get back when I finish read Ijexa and other links, I think Talibahs, but depressing all the same.
I just wonder when will god give the Afrian in Haiti peace. Because from day one they are public enemy number one. This is an extension of the same war Toussaint and Dessalines put in to progress two centuries ago.
Peace Out.
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Tahliba
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Posted: Wednesday February 18th, 2004 08:49 |
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Stolen jewel
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. The majority of workers in Haiti are on only 14 cents an hour. When a single parent was asked how she made ends meet on $1.11 a day she said that it cost her: 'the US equivalent of 44 cents a day for transportation to and from work--there is no public transportation'. She also spent about 30 cents for lunch. This meant that she went home at the end of a nine hour day with the equivalent of 33 cents in her pocket.
The Haiti Files does more than just expose the dire poverty in the country. Through a series of articles it exposes the reason why that poverty exists. The history of Haiti is traced from its beginnings as a Spanish colony, when it was known as the Pearl of the Antilles because of the massive wealth produced there, to its fight for independence from France and its continuous struggle to remain independent from France, then Britain and then the US.
The United States has had the most influence in the history of Haiti. In the 1915 invasion by the US an internal US marines inquiry revealed the extent of the brutality involved: 3,250 rebels killed and 400 executed. When they finally left 20 years later the structures that maintained future regimes were set in place by the US. These were refined by US puppet Papa Doc Duvalier into his paid thugs the Tonton Macoutes.
This cycle of repression seemed to come to an end with Haiti's first democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1991. This was short lived. Seven months later the army took power. The coup exposed the inherent US hypocrisy. The then US secretary of state, James Baker, declared 'this junta is illegal', and an embargo was declared. The book exposes very well the contempt the US had for Aristide. At one point the junta had the main highway between Haiti and the Dominican Republic recovered due to the increased traffic that was breaking the embargo.
Aristide, instead of relying on the mass movement which helped him to power, decided to negotiate.
He struck a deal with the junta in which he would return to Haiti as president and the US would install their own puppet as prime minister. This tactic failed when the US failed to implement the plan.
The book also goes through the outrageous policy of the US government towards refugees, on the one hand attacking totalitarian regimes while at the same time using forced repatriation back to Haiti and locking up refugees in Guantanamo military base.
The Clinton administration's policies continue the previous policy of preaching about democracy whilst using every means at their disposal to ensure bloodthirsty dictators remain in power, and promoting the interests of US big business in Haiti at whatever the human cost. This book is a brilliant exposure of American hypocrisy and brutality in Haiti and the failure of Aristide to use the only real weapon he had, the people of Haiti themselves.
John Barrie
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Tahliba
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Posted: Wednesday February 18th, 2004 09:04 |
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SOLDIER, SOLDIER
Hideous Dream
Stan Goff
Soft Skull Press £13.99
Hideous Dream, Stan Goff's stunning account of the American invasion and occupation of Haiti in 1994, raises similar questions about the US military machine as the debacle of the occupation of Iraq. Goff was a master sergeant and operations chief for a Special Forces team whose mission was to 'stop a revolution'. And Goff doesn't just tell us what happened--he shows us how, cynically and ruthlessly, this was done. So we learn what it meant to ordinary Haitians when the US designated the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH), the death squad network based on the former tonton macoutes, as the 'legitimate political opposition'.
Goff's clarity has several sources: his understanding of US imperialism and its impact on soldiers' lives; his compassion for the local people; and his courage to examine the contradictions between his emerging socialist politics and his life as a professional soldier. Goff is smart and funny, and he writes beautifully. He is also a compellingly honest guide to an occupation whose intimate everyday reality was as absurd and horrific as the Valkyrie helicopter ride in Apocalypse Now.
Goff draws on a remarkable amount of experience to describe the macho privilege of the Green Berets. He was a 19 year old grunt in Vietnam, then later took part in the US interventions in Guatemala, El Salvador, Grenada, Panama, Venezuela, Honduras, South Korea, Colombia, Peru and Somalia. He also taught at West Point. He's good on theory, and on what it takes to coerce men into battle.
In Haiti Goff became 'politically unreliable' because he interpreted orders in response to the democratic concerns and wellbeing of the Haitian poor. He faced a possible courtmartial, but was allowed to retire when the army investigator learned how much he had to tell.
He is particularly good on the US military hierarchy. Vain, self serving officers compete for hardware, prestige, service medals and high salaries, while avoiding all personal risk. In Haiti as elsewhere, careerist officers were complacent, ill informed bureaucrats who depended on the Special Forces to do their bidding in a 'politically sensitive' environment.
Yet Goff is utterly damning about the Special Forces too. He describes it as a racist organisation where soldiers freely refashion SS insignia for their personal use. Through his eyes we see a war worshipping subculture of men, where weapons are icons, survival is through deadly competition, and 'adherents need enemies, and enemies need to be easily identified'. But for all his anger, Goff also describes himself and his fellow soldiers as men whose bodies, emotions and intelligence are scarred by the same virulent sexism and racism they turn against the locals.
Perhaps the most astonishing part of Goff's account is how little purpose or direction the Special Forces teams had. Each unit operated virtually autonomously, making up the rules as they went along. They were an elite echelon of wreckers, repairing nothing, only enforcing 'stability' through fear and bullying. In a contained theatre of war like Haiti, wrecking and incompetence were part and parcel of the military project. Elsewhere, in Afghanistan or Iraq, where the scale of the intervention is far greater, the stakes far higher, the local resistance armed and world opinion harsh, the same arrogant, wrecking style reveals US military incompetence for what it actually is.
Nancy Lindisfarne
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Tahliba
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Posted: Wednesday February 18th, 2004 10:26 |
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http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2001/01jan-feb/corp9.html
http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0208-05.htm
http://www.towardfreedom.com/aug00/haiti.htm
Recent articles
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=2&ItemID=4997
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=54&ItemID=4967
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Tahliba
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Posted: Wednesday February 18th, 2004 10:42 |
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http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Aristide/Eyes_Heart_Aristide.html
excerpts from the book 'Eyes Of The Heart' by Jean-Bertrand Aristide
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TechNoir
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Posted: Wednesday February 18th, 2004 14:26 |
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@Ijexa and @Tahliba in particular,
I am overwhelmed with all the highly informative links you are posting. I've been slow to post further because I want to be sure to read and understand all the links before making more posts.
I just wanted to publically acknowledge the excellent work you are doing on this thread shining the light of knowledge on the darkness of ignorance about Haiti.
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Posted: Wednesday February 18th, 2004 15:25 |
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Technoire, you took the words out of my mouth. I was dreading having another quick look on this thread and findin even more information. PLEAZZZEEE..good people slow down just a tad. Some of us are trying to read this info seriously, and frightened we might get overrun with information. Information overload I think is the term.
Talibah thanks for that title Solidier Solidier. Already actioned that one. Finding time to read it with all this info pouring in, is going the be the challenge.
The Black Commentator links provided by Ijexa were great. But Ijexa nothing new there, just the old Intelligence tactic of news construction and disemmination, mastered by the CIA. There is a CIA brieifing manual put together as part of the Caribbean and Latin American Feild Office's programme to remove Prime Minister Manley of JA where these tactics are explained in idiots terms for its various agents and operatives.
So recognised the moves in a second when I check the link you posted. Yep classic US double gaming, playing both sides of the fence and probably orchastrating sh*t from the "get go"; or at least jumping on the opportunity.
Some thoughts off the top of my head. Concerning the murder of the dude Metayer. Very odd the whole thing, or could be very straight forward. Often we look for complex explanations when the matter is straight forward or just cock up and bad judgement.
Cannot accept anyone but an idiot is going to allow a major opposition leader involved in nasty stuff to break out of prision, and then legitimise his actions by giving or conceding power to him. No way...
That man in my eyes does not have long to live, simple. But the question to who killed him is a slippery one, because Aristide and his people are too obvious a focus of attention, while others have a concrete material interest to stir the pot and have an exemplary track record in the dirty tricks department.
But even if I accept the man needs to be dealt with and I do, because power is not an intellectual debating society and I would want my man head on a pole figuratively. But to kill him and desecrate the body in that manner, doesn't make sense to me. It would be far better if they did a Jimmy Hoffa on him and he disappeared period and leave no trace of the body.
Suspicion is suspicion, proof is proof. People can think what they want, but there is no body. What is even more odd, is that it is obvious that such an act and the way it was carried out simply cannot be in Aristides interest from a basic point of logic never mind historical experience.
If Metayer was so influential he could bust out of jail brazen and walk about the place, and then in effect be forgiven;, as he obviously has the support from the organised sections of the state eg police, paramilitaries and more shady units, killing him in this manner is red rag to a bull given the fact that his people obviously have sufficient support, for him being in effect pardoned for his crimes and breaking out of jail.
Given that no leader is a one man ban, and if you kill the general, a quick reshuffle will have that position filled with another who is almost duty bound to take revenge, to feed the needs of his people. The whole thing does not make sense to me.
By the way the tactic of digging out eyes and stuff is standard Special Forces tactics used in Cambodia ,Vietnam; and in fact we had a couple of cases in Antigua near a military base where two local girls were found raped and dismembered in a manner which we know is US military. They teach these techniques via their special advisors when training these death squads etc,in order to terrify the opposition.
Fred
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Posted: Wednesday February 18th, 2004 19:05 |
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The following article provides some insight into the Bush Administration's thinking on the current crisis.
This Week In Haiti 11 Feb 2004 - As Haiti’s Contras Launch Major Offensive:
Washington Suggests Aristide’s Removal
Haiti’s “armed opposition� launched its most lethal offensive yet last week, creating the civil strife that many suspect Washington seeks to justify foreign military intervention in the country. On Feb. 10, State Department officials gave their first public hints that they would favor President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s resignation.
CARICOM representatives are flying to Washington this week to meet with Bush administration officials about the crisis in Haiti. A State Department official contacted by Haïti Progrès Feb. 10 would not comment on whether Aristide’s removal was on the meeting’s agenda. He would only repeat that “President Aristide is the democratically elected leader of his country.�
Meanwhile, in one of the largest mobilizations in recent years, hundreds of thousands of Haitians marched and rallied in Port-au-Prince on Feb. 7, the anniversary of the 1986 fall of the Duvalier dictatorship, to demand that Aristide fulfill his five-year term, which ends Feb. 6, 2006. Thousands more held similar anti-coup demonstrations in provincial cities. Pro-government popular organizations have begun setting up barricades and taking up arms in the capital and other cities like Jacmel, Cayes and Cap Haïtien to prevent the spread of the armed opposition’s attacks.
The offensive began on the morning of Feb. 5 when the newly constituted Front of Revolutionary Resistance of Gonaïves (FRRG) attacked that city’s police headquarters with automatic weapons fire and grenades. Many civilians and several policemen were killed in the five-hour gun battle that ensued, although it is not clear how many from numerous conflicting reports. Eventually the police withdrew. The attackers overran the station and freed all the prisoners in jail, “among them lots of criminals whom courts had convicted,� said a Feb. 7 police communiqué. “They looted, burned vehicles, burned the homes of several citizens... and then burned down the police headquarters.� The rebels also burned down the hotel and home of former Gonaïves mayor Stephen Topa Moïse as well as the offices of the Artibonite Department’s government representatives, called delegates.
Leaders of the FRRG include Jean “Tatoune� Pierre, who was convicted and jailed for his role in the April 1994 Raboteau massacre but freed in an Aug. 2002 prison break (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 20, No. 21, Aug. 7, 2002 ); Butteur Métayer, who alighted in Gonaïves from Miami last September after the mysterious murder of his brother, a pro-Aristide popular organization leader (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 21, No. 29, Oct. 1, 2003 ); and Winter Etienne, the former government-appointed director of the Gonaïves hospital and a member of the Open Gate Party (PLB).
The next day, armed men from the opposition-aligned organization RAMICOS attacked the police station 25 miles south of Gonaïves in the town of St. Marc, which also straddles the strategic main artery to Haiti’s north. They also looted and burned the customs house and some containers. The police rapidly retreated, apparently in cahoots with the attackers, for whom they left behind all the station’s weapons and ammunition. One of the station’s commanders, a former Haitian army soldier, is known to be close to fellow former soldier and rising opposition leader, Dany Toussaint, who recently defected from Aristide’s Lavalas Family party (FL).
Police complicity appears to have been involved in at least a few of the other town takeovers by the opposition. While reports are conflicting, the armed opposition appears to have, at least briefly, controlled about ten smaller towns, among them Trou du Nord, Saint-Raphaël, Dondon, Marchand-Dessalines, Ennery, Gros-Morne, L’Estère, Anse-Rouge, Petite Rivière de l’Artibonite, as well as Grand Goâve in the south. In many cases, public buildings and the homes of government officials or supporters were burned or looted. Reports of these takeovers, however real or brief, provided fuel for the panic which opposition controlled radio stations, and consequently their corporate media information dependents, have sought to spread.
Both the Haitian bourgeoisie’s and foreign corporate media reports have sought to project the image that the Haitian government is tottering, part of the psychological preparation which usually has preceded engineered interventions or coups in past decades throughout Latin America.
However, the watchword heard around Haiti this past week was “Nou pap mawòn ankò,� meaning we won’t go into hiding again, a reference to the bloody 1991-1994 coup which killed over 5000 Haitians. “There is a big difference between the political opposition, which we respect, and the terrorist opposition, which we must overpower so that they don’t spill blood and sow sorrow again in the country,� Aristide declared Feb. 7 to the multitudes which greeted him in the capital’s seaside slum of Cité Soleil, in just one of the speeches he made that day. “The dew dances until the sun rises,� he said, using a Creole proverb to declare that the Haitian people were now waking up to the danger of a coup.
Indeed the population seems to have responded enthusiastically to Prime Minister Yvon Neptune’s call on Feb. 8 for the Haitian people to assist the police in beating back “the armed branch of the opposition.� On Feb. 8, popular organizations militants, some armed, threw up barricades in the capital’s Canapé Vert and Carrefour neighborhoods; shortly afterwards, the opposition postponed its announced march until Feb. 12. Opposition marches have often been provocative and violent.
The opposition also threatened to takeover the southern city of Jacmel, prompting people to take to the streets there with demonstrations and barricades.
The police attempted to take back control of Gonaïves on Feb. 7. According to the opposition, they were ambushed and suffered some 14 dead. According to Neptune, a heavily-armed police unit took back control of the town but then the insurgents attacked the police station “using the people from the town’s population as a shield. To prevent a bloodbath, the police stopped the operation and retreated.� The police suffered several wounded and one fatality from the SWAT unit, an officer named Douckens Guistinvil, according to a “provisional� police report.
Associated Press photographs widely circulated on the Internet show the body of an unidentified SWAT policeman being dragged through the streets on Feb. 7. In another, a woman is cutting an ear off the corpse.
With support from the local populations, police succeeded in retaking St. Marc, Grand Goâve and Dondon on Feb. 9. Neptune flew by helicopter to both St. Marc and Grand Goâve where he was greeted by cheering throngs of government supporters.
On Feb. 10, popular organizations took up positions around the northern city of Cap Haïtien to prevent rebel attacks there. On Feb. 7, they burned down the local relay of Radio Vision 2000, a powerful USAID-spawned powerful opposition-aligned station. On Feb. 8, barricades went up at the city’s bottleneck entrance, and gunfire crackled during the day and night in its outlying suburbs. The armed opposition, in particular Dominican Republic-based former police chief Guy Philippe, has made no secret of their plans to capture Cap, Haiti’s second largest city. Presently cut off from the capital at Gonaïves, the city, UN aid workers are warning, faces a possible food crisis. Gas supplies have already dwindled.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher gave the first inkling that the Bush administration is preparing the ground for Aristide’s unconstitutional removal. “[W]e recognize that reaching a political settlement will require some fairly thorough changes in the way Haiti is governed and how the security situation is maintained,� Boucher coyly responded when asked if Washington thought the elected president should remain in office until the end of his term.
Reuters also reported that a “senior State Department official said proposals for a resolution were under discussion which could involve Aristide’s departure from office, although he did not specify who was making the proposals.� The unnamed official then told Reuters: “It’s clear from the kind of proposals that have been made and the discussions that are being held that when we talk about undergoing change in the way Haiti is governed, I think that could indeed involve changes in Aristide’s position.�
On Jan. 30, the State Department authorized the voluntary departure of non-emergency personnel and their families from the U.S. embassy in Haiti and issued a travel warning for U.S. citizens to “defer travel to Haiti� and, those already in Haiti, “to consider departing the country.�
The Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) excoriated Washington for its hypocrisy in a Feb. 10 press memorandum. “Rather than demanding that the opposition immediately choose its representatives to the Provisional Electoral Council and end its cat-and-mouse game aimed at sabotaging any prospect of parliamentary elections (which the opposition almost certainly would lose), Washington is unable to hide its pro-opposition bias, even though it cannot be seen as backing the overthrow of a democratically-elected president,� the note said. “Given the rebels’ ideological and financial ties to the U.S. — they are generously funded by U.S. taxpayers through the International Republican Institute —Washington’s open denouncement of their obstructionism could have an electrifying positive effect. Yet, this has not been forthcoming, partly because U.S. hemispheric policy is guided by a small group of extremists with strong ideological ties to former Senator Jesse Helms, who simplistically see Aristide as the Caribbean’s next Castro.�
Given its broad, if grudging, popular support, the government is unlikely to be overthrown by the rebels themselves. Foreign muscle may be needed for that.
An opposition spokesman denied backing the armed opposition’s violence but called for foreign intervention to avert civil war, according to the BBC. “For a long time, we have been warning the government that this is where they wanted to bring the situation,� said Ben Dupuy, secretary general of the National Popular Party (PPN), one of the government’s leftist allies. “Washington along with the traditional ruling classes have been strangling and destablilizing Haiti to create the conditions so they can cry ‘anarchy’ and justify yet another military intervention. This was the excuse in 1915, and they want to use it again today.�
U.S. troops, however, are bogged down in Afghanistan and Iraq, Dupuy explained, so they might resort to a proxy force. “The Dominican Army works closely with the Pentagon, by which it has recently been rearmed,� he said. “Or perhaps they’ll try to orchestrate a CARICOM force or some other combination.�
In any such scenario, the armed opposition or foreign troops would face a very hostile reception from an armed and angry Haitian people. “With President Aristide, the people began a real revolution,� said Pierre Antoine Lovinsky, head of the September 30 Foundation which champions victims of the 1991 coup. “And that revolution will not go backwards. The people will prove that.�
Source: http://www.haiti-progres.com/eng02-11.html
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Posted: Thursday February 19th, 2004 18:37 |
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A powerful article on Haiti by Randall Robinson
http://www.blackcommentator.org/71/71_robinson_haiti.html
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Posted: Thursday February 19th, 2004 20:17 |
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Background information on the people behind the opposition and a useful timeline of events preceding the current situation.
http://www.blackcommentator.org/67/67_pina.html
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Posted: Thursday February 19th, 2004 21:10 |
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For those who have been following this thread, I have edited two of my previous posts prepending Propaganda Warnings and Analyses. These illuminate the disinformation campaign currently being waged against the Aristide Administration and the black majority poor that democratically elected it.
I have done a fair bit of reading now (and I'm not done yet) and now have a firmer grasp of what is going on and who the players are. Thanks again to @Ijexa for pointing me towards http://www.blackcommentator.org/ It has proved to be an invaluable resource.
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Posted: Thursday February 19th, 2004 21:22 |
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For those of you who haven't already seen it, I have posted a highly informative and insightful article in another thread:
Low-Intensity Warfare in Haiti: An Interview with Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer
http://www.blackchat.co.uk/theblackforum/forum32/1854.html
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Posted: Thursday February 19th, 2004 21:25 |
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I have also posted a review of Stan Goff's book:
Hideous Dream: A Soldier’s Memoir of the U.S. Invasion of Haiti
http://www.blackchat.co.uk/theblackforum/forum27/1852.html
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Posted: Thursday February 19th, 2004 21:38 |
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Stan Goff gives his analysis of the current crisis, he believes the US State Department's goal is to declare Haiti a "Failed State" so that it can take control of Haiti's fate:
http://www.blackcommentator.org/78/78_haiti.htmlLast edited on Thursday February 19th, 2004 21:41 by TechNoir
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Ijexa
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Posted: Thursday February 19th, 2004 22:14 |
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@TechNoir
No probs Bro... this is what it's about... the sharing of information...
And with posting this thread... I've had to go back and look at a lot of information... so it's all good...
But it is interesting to plot the workings of destabilisation... and we can see the same strategem in Venezuela... Zimbabwe... Iraq... etc...
There's just a great deal of information available which needs to be read... because at some stage... this access which we all take for granted will disappear...
Take care...
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Posted: Thursday February 19th, 2004 23:06 |
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Ijexa wrote:
But it is interesting to plot the workings of destabilisation... and we can see the same strategem in Venezuela... Zimbabwe... Iraq... etc...
This thought did occur to me as I was reading. The Group of 184 could be the MDC's twin in terms of how it operates. Also the racial and class dynamics at work are very reminescent of Venezuela. Aristide is in a very similar position to Chavez.
There's just a great deal of information available which needs to be read... because at some stage... this access which we all take for granted will disappear...
Yes, China are already blocking access to "subversive" sites. The methods developed and refined in the building of the Great Firewall of China with the collaboration of US corporations like Cisco could easily be applied in the so-called "democratic" West at some point in the name of anti-terrorism. There are however technical countermeasures available to deal with that, if it should happen.
Last edited on Thursday February 19th, 2004 23:08 by TechNoir
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Posted: Friday February 20th, 2004 00:08 |
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@TechNoir
Hmmmm...?
***Shakes head***
That's why I need to get my progamming up to scratch...
But here's some stuff for your archives both containing background information on the history of Haiti and the Revolution...
Even if you can't read it now... the story and lesson of Haiti is crucial for Africans both on the continent and in the Diaspora...
http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/history/revolution/revolution.htm
http://www.greenanarchist.org/books/guinea.html
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Posted: Friday February 20th, 2004 20:50 |
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The following was taken from the another site the poster was a guy named Dude
What's happening in Haiti?????
And more to the point, when is an international armed force going to go in there and try and do something about it?
I've heard the French are making some noises toward going in. But isn't there some kind of inter-Caribbean Armed Forces treaty, or something, a bit like the ECOWAS (Economic Commission of West African States) which Ghana, Cote D'Ivoire, Nigeria, and other West African states signed up to, and which promotes mutual understanding and of course military assistance on occasion.
Don't the Jamaican army and the Trinidadian army have some kind of role to play here? Or if not, what's the situation with regard to international interference in the Caribbean? Are there no military pacts? Or do these countries not have standing armies?
Not that one should expect miracles, after all the O.A.U could not stop what happened in Burundi and Rwanda; but at least Nigeria and the other ECOWAS countries moved in and brought Liberia's violence to at least a temporary halt, and got Charles Taylor to step down.
Please let us know the situation. I'm actually a bit surprised that no-one here has brought this up before.
Posts: 1032 | From: Azania | Registered: Fri January 31 2003
  
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Posted: Friday February 20th, 2004 21:47 |
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Talibah. That's the best joke I have heard for a long while. Now unless somebody slipped something by me, and I have an interest here. The Caribbean has no standing armies whatsoever. So whatever paper agreements remain paper. Fundamental to our so called independence is that we have no standing armies, which as you can appreciate is a contradiction in term ,as your army and security force is what in the final instnance guarentee/protect our freedom.
Literally all serious military intervention will come from either the US or France and it is detailed in the small print. Our white fathers will protect us. The Jamaican Defense Force and those kind of organisations are joker business.
Fred
Here is something to give you a wry smile in 1982 6 white supremacist KKK members took over the island of Dominica by approaching it by dingy and walking into town and spreading panic, until they managed to organise themselves. That is our armies...Today it is much better because of drugs etc has led to the beefing up of defense forces. But they still aint ready...
In Africa you hav serious vioble countries like Nigeria and Ghana etc who have proper armies.....
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Posted: Sunday February 22nd, 2004 02:29 |
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I've been recently watching some of the Cold War series on the UK History channel. It has provided very real insights into US foreign policy and covert operations. Last night's looked at US interventions in Cuba, Guatemala, Chile, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Grenada from the 1950s to 1990. Quite the eyeopener.
One thing that becomes clear, any leader who proposes land reform and/or creates policies to help the poor is going to find himself and his country being subject to a low intensity warfare onslaught that is well nigh irresistible.
Fidel Castro is just about the only leader who has survived such an assault on himself and his nation. I fear that Aristide doesn't have a clue about what he is really dealing with and what action he should take to protect himself and Haiti.
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Posted: Sunday February 22nd, 2004 16:22 |
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A collection of articles on Haiti
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Haiti/Haiti.html
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Posted: Monday February 23rd, 2004 14:16 |
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Tahliba wrote:
Recent articles
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=2&ItemID=4997
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=54&ItemID=4967
Thank you @Tahliba, excellent informative articles.
The second article on the US Double Game in Haiti filled in a lot of details. For instance, the fact that Apaid isn't even a Haitian was a revelation. It also does a good job of dissecting the disinformation campaign against Aristide.
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Posted: Monday February 23rd, 2004 17:36 |
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Technoir,
Likewise. Being an African-American, I only know Haiti through the concerned words of some people from the Haitian community and by reading on certain caribbean related news about it. I may not know anything about Haitian poitics, but you don't have to be a Haitian to know who is the bad guy in this situation. Just look at the problems that Aristide has caused his people.
This is the worst that I've see Haiti. Even when Baby Doc was in power it didn't seem as incredibly bad as it is with Aristide's dictatorship. Maybe I didn't know everything about Baby Doc, other than he was a bad man( as a kid), but I never recalled that much mess and a pending possible civil war about to break out there. I'll be 33 and I was 6 or 7 when I learned about Baby Doc( the son). Correct me if I'm wrong, but I never recalled it being this bad or did I miss out on something?
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Posted: Monday February 23rd, 2004 17:50 |
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@Cee Cee. Sis you really cannot compare Aristed with the Duvalliers. If you do not understand the Duvallier regime then you cannot claim to know anything about Haiti. Pure evil comes to mind. That family destroyed the island in human resources and people and infrastructure anything to maintain power and US backing.
@Technoire said.
"One thing that becomes clear, any leader who proposes land reform and/or creates policies to help the poor is going to find himself and his country being subject to a low intensity warfare onslaught that is well nigh irresistible.
Fidel Castro is just about the only leader who has survived such an assault on himself and his nation. I fear that Aristide doesn't have a clue about what he is really dealing with and what action he should take to protect himself and Haiti".
Last point first. Correct Aristide does not have a clue and study his background and ideology and beliefs. He is decent enough, but is not a radical, or a military man who intuitively understands the nature of the game in question.
It is axiomatic and always has been, that any government in the Caribbean which threatens US hegomony and influence and interest will be subject to counter insurgency campaigns and failing that outright invasion. That is the basic rubric of Caribbean and Latin American reality. So before one speech is delivered in anger, knowing how to counter the US and its tactics, have to be well in hand.
People may cry about lack of freedoms and degree of surveilance in Cuba, but that is a price people pay for keeping the US out. The Grendadian revolutionary leaders understood this only too well.
Fred
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Posted: Tuesday February 24th, 2004 00:41 |
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CeeCee wrote:
Likewise. Being an African-American, I only know Haiti through the concerned words of some people from the Haitian community and by reading on certain caribbean related news about it. I may not know anything about Haitian poitics, but you don't have to be a Haitian to know who is the bad guy in this situation. Just look at the problems that Aristide has caused his people.
I have been educating myself about Haiti through reading many of the links posted to this thread and through doing my own research, it has been a real eyeopener. Strongly recommend you do the same before making your mind up about what is happening in Haiti.
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Posted: Tuesday February 24th, 2004 02:19 |
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Latest news is heavy.
Monday, February 23rd, 2004
Haiti in Crisis: Armed Gangs Capture Second Largest City
Armed gangs captured Haiti's second-largest city Cap-Haitien and are threatening to march on the Haitian capital Port au-Prince within 15 days. We go to Haiti to hear a report from the ground.
Gangs of armed groups captured Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second-largest city on Sunday claiming their biggest victory in weeks-long violence that has driven government forces from half the country.
Gang leader Guy Philippe told the Associated Press "I think that in less than 15 days we will control all of Haiti" and fears are increasing that the democratically-elected government of Jean Bertrand Aristide could soon be overthrown in a violent coup d'etat.
A total of 12 known people were reportedly killed in a gunbattle when a force of about 200 insurgents met slight resistance at the Cap-Haitien airport.
All four police stations in the city were looted and set on fire, while hundreds of prisoners were reportedly set free.
A day earlier, Aristide accepted a U.S.-backed peace plan in which he would remain president with diminished powers, sharing a government with his opponents. The opposition reacted coolly to the proposal saying any plan must include Aristide's resignation. They will make an official announcement later this afternoon.
* Kevin Pina, an independent journalist and filmmaker who has spent the past 4 and a half years living and working in Haiti. He joins us from the Haitian capital Port au-Prince.
TRANSCRIPT
AMY GOODMAN: We go for a previous report from Kevin Pina in Port au-Prince, Haiti.
KEVIN PINA: Good Morning.
AMY GOODMAN: It's good to have you with us.
KEVIN PINA: It's clear as you said yesterday, there was an attack in the second largest city of Haiti, Cap-Haitien. We are receiving sporadic reports that the Jodel Chamblain and the paramilitary death squads attacked the main police station, set it afire and apparently withdrew. At the same time, it appears that the Haitian police have fled in their paths. I spoke last night with someone who is responsible for the presidential security in the palace. He had said there's a lot of money that's being thrown around right now. Several policemen have returned from Cap-Haitien and said several comrades have actually received sums of cash in order to abandon their posts. I cannot confirm that, but later this afternoon, they're going to try to set up an interview with the policemen who are making that allegation.
At the same time, the Haitian government has all but directly accused the Dominican Republic, and by extension the United States of having aided and abetted and certainly having harbored Guy Philippe and Jodel Chamblain. Guy Philippe is the former head of the Haitian police in Cap-Haitien and Jodel Chamblain is the former second in command of FRAPH, the Front for Advancement. Which was created to forestall Aristide's return in 1994. They are making this accusations citing the fact that Philippe and Chamblain and large contingents of armed former military and FRAPH were able to come from across the Dominican border. They also claim that last May 6, there was the largest hydroelectric facility in the country which was attacked by forces that crossed from the Dominican Republic into Haiti. They shut down the hydroelectric facility. The next day, the Dominican authorities arrested Guy Philippe. One day later, May 8, they released him again citing there was not enough evidence. The Haitian government believes that what the Dominican government has been doing is harboring and aiding and abetting what they consider to be the terrorists, who have used the Dominican Republic to make armed incursions across the border, and assassinating officials and returning to the safe haven of the Dominican Republic.
AMY GOODMAN: We just have 15 seconds. I want to ask about today, the U.S.-backed peace plan that Aristide says he will accept. Opponents say they won't unless Aristide resigns.
KEVIN PINA: Well, they have been giving signals they are not going to accept anything short of his resignation. At the same time, President Aristide has made it clear that if he were to resign, it would only -- he believes it would only open up another period of coup d'etat in the country. He believes the best way to establish democratic conditions in the country is for him to return to office.
AMY GOODMAN: Guy Philippe says within 15 days he will have taken Port au-Prince.
KEVIN PINA: I don't know if that's possible. Certainly not without a lot of deaths. I don't believe that they're going to go gentle into the night.
AMY GOODMAN: I want it thank you for being with us. We'll continue to follow the story. That was Kevin Pina, reporting from Port au-Prince, Haiti. This is Democracy Now!.
Source: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/23/1526224
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Posted: Wednesday February 25th, 2004 17:52 |
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I was just watching an ITV broadcast about the violence in Haiti, to end they showed pictures of the carnival with a man putting a live snake head in his mouth and the reporter ended with, "Fear, like Voodoo, is in the blood..."
That had NOTHING to do with n e thing he talked about earlier in the broadcast. So why add it on!!
 I watched ITV national/regional news last night all the stories were negative and all were about ethnic ppl.
1) Dwayne Chambers drug story
2) The indian girl found dead-her family saying it wasnt an honour killing
3) A somalian school boy died after a fight over a chair with a boy from Iraq.
*And im sooo sure there was no news concerning non-ethnic ppl 2...  *
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Tahliba
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Posted: Thursday February 26th, 2004 21:36 |
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http://www.trinitydc.edu/academics/depts/Interdisc/International/PDF%20files/Haiti-7.final.pdf
linked from the Haiti Support Group Newsletter http://www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org
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