Haiti Foreign Press Update

Michelle Karshan
Foreign Press Liaison
Email: mkarshan [at] aol.com


1. Claude Adams, CBC Dispatches: Izmery, Raboteau, "rebels"
2. Aristide deserves better from U.S. by Jesse Jackson
3. Aristide's Lawyers Preparing Complaints
4. US urged to probe Aristide 'coup' by Coralie Carlson
5. African Union Blasts Haiti Ouster by Anthony Mitchell
6. Cong. Barbara Lee and others for Investigatory Commission
7. AHP News - March 9, 2004 English Unofficial
8. Operation Enduring Sweatshop, Another Bush Brings Hell to Haiti, by Chris
Floyd, Counterpunch
9. Websites to visit




1. Thoughtful and chilling essay on Antoine Izmery, the Rabotaeau Massacre
and who the "rebels" really are, by Claude Adams, CBC Dispatches

http://www.cbc.ca/dispatches/ go down page and click on Listen to Claude's
essay to listen to the broadcast

2. Aristide deserves better from U.S. by Jesse Jackson, March 9, 2003 Chicago
Sun Times
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti states that he was kidnapped by
American forces, taken to a plane and shipped without knowing where he was going.
He ended up in the Central African Republic, while U.S. Marines landed to
provide protection to the interim government in Haiti and demand that the rebels
put down their arms.
The U.S.-engineered coup against Aristide has generated outrage throughout
the hemisphere and across the world.
Secretary of State Colin Powell states that Aristide's claim is ridiculous.
The United States did not kidnap him. He wanted to avoid bloodshed in his
country and resigned and asked for political asylum. Powell defends the Bush policy
toward Haiti and dismisses the global criticism as unfounded.
But beneath these apparently contradictory stories is a reality on which both
sides agree that implicates the United States directly in Aristide's
overthrow.
Both the administration and Aristide agree that the Haitian opposition,
mostly of the elite, loathed Aristide and feared the poor that he represented. Both
agree that the rebels were composed of former remnants of the deposed
dictatorship, thugs, drug smugglers and Papa Doc death squad members. Both agree that
the Haitian police were outgunned by rebels who had a sanctuary in
neighboring Dominican Republic, and access to machineguns and weapons beyond that of
the
sidearms carried by the police.
Both the administration and Aristide agree that as the rebels began shooting
police, terrorizing cities and ''taking them over,'' Aristide sought U.S.
assistance. Both agree that the United States refused to assist Aristide, the
democratically elected leader of Haiti.
Both agree that Bush representatives demanded that Aristide accept an
agreement that would make him essentially a figurehead president for the remainder of
his term, with the opposition joining with Aristide's party to appoint a
prime minister. If that agreement was reached, the United States announced it was
ready to send in Marines to provide security and disarm the rebels.
Both agree that the opposition refused to accept any agreement that kept
Aristide in office. Both agree that the administration did nothing to force the
opposition to sign, and refused to protect Aristide or the Haitian capital from
the rebels.
Both agree that Aristide was told the administration would not protect him or
his family unless he agreed to resign and leave. Both agree that armed
Marines escorted Aristide to the airport. Both agree that the plane took off with
Aristide having no idea where it would land.
Nothing more is needed to establish that the Bush administration was directly
implicated in a coup of the elected government of Haiti. The only
disagreement is in the details:
Was the CIA, which had long ties to the leaders of the rebels, aware of the
planned rebellion before it was launched? Did it assist or ''nod'' to the
rebels when asked? Did it know of the flow of arms to the rebels? If it knew, did
it do anything to intercept or impede that flow, or to warn the Haitian
government or the regional allies?
It is vital that Congress hold hearings on what the CIA and the State
Department and the Defense Department knew and how they acted on that knowledge.
But even without any further evidence, there is sufficient agreement on the
facts to establish that this administration aided and abetted the coup against
Aristide. And now it is working to put back in power the very Haitian elites
that its ideologues had supported from the beginning.
Aristide is now languishing in Africa. But under U.S. law, he has the right
to claim asylum in the United States. Unless it is afraid of the truth, the
administration should proffer an invitation to him.
After all, as Powell's own story establishes, he wouldn't be in need of
asylum if the Bush administration hadn't decided that he had to go.


3. Aristide's Lawyers Preparing Complaints, by Angela Doland, AP, March 9,
2004

ROISSY, France (AP) - Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's legal
team is preparing cases accusing authorities in the United States and France
of abducting him and forcing him into exile, lawyers said Wednesday.

Aristide believes he is still president of Haiti and will use the courts in
his fight to return home, U.S. lawyer Brian Concannon said in Paris after
meeting Aristide in Central African Republic.

In the United States, ``there are preparations for a kidnapping case against
the American authorities,'' Concannon said, without providing further details.

Another American lawyer for Aristide, Ira Kurzban, has sent a letter to
Attorney General John Ashcroft asking the Justice Department to investigate the
circumstances of Aristide's departure on Feb. 29.

U.S. authorities say Aristide fled of his own will as his government
collapsed and rebels advanced on Port-au-Prince, but Aristide's lawyers claim U.S.
authorities forced him to board a 20-hour flight out of the country.

``He was not free to leave the plane,'' Concannon said. ``He was not free to
decide the plane's direction. He did not even know where the plane was going.''

Aristide also accuses France of working with the United States to force his
departure. In France, a lawyer is preparing a complaint for ``complicity in
abduction'' against four people connected with the Foreign Ministry, Concannon
said.

He identified them as: Thierry Burkard, France's ambassador to Haiti; Yves
Gaudel, the former ambassador; envoy Regis Debray; and Foreign Minister
Dominique de Villepin's sister, Veronique. She and Debray visited him in December to
demand his resignation, according to Aristide's French lawyer, Gilbert Collard.

Collard said he will file a legal complaint in France as soon as he receives
clearance from Aristide but would not name the targets of the complaint.

``At the very least, France was an accomplice,'' Collard said.

France's Foreign Ministry did not immediately return calls Wednesday seeking
comment. It said last week that officials had no preconceived ideas on how
Haiti's crisis should be resolved until just days before Aristide's resignation,
when the foreign minister himself suggested that Aristide step down.

U.S. officials strongly deny claims that Aristide was abducted. Secretary of
State Colin Powell has said they acted at Aristide's request and probably
saved his life.

At least 130 people were killed in the rebellion that ousted Aristide;
reprisal killings since his ouster have left at least 300 dead.

``As stated for several days, President Aristide resigned voluntarily, after
he initiated discussion of the matter with our rep in Haiti,'' a State
Department official said this week on condition of anonymity. ``We consider his
resignation final and hope that he will respect the constitutional process under
way.''

The ousted leader has been in Bangui since March 1 and is housed in a
presidential palace apartment.


4. US urged to probe Aristide 'coup' by Coralie Carlson in Miami, March 10,
2004

AN attorney for exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has asked the
US to investigate high-ranking US government officials involved in what
Aristide claims was a kidnapping and coup d'etat to remove him from office.

Ira Kurzban, who was for years the US legal representative for the ousted
president's government, said Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of
State Colin Powell, Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega and Luis Moreno,
the deputy chief of mission of the US Embassy, were behind Aristide's February
29 removal and forced him and his wife into exile in the Central African
Republic.
"Because they were kidnapped, by officials of the United States Government, a
claim has been filed," Kurzban said at a news conference in Miami's Little
Haiti.
"Whether the gun is pointed directly at your head, or whether the gun is one
mile outside of Port-au-Prince, it's clear that the United States planned to
have a coup d'etat."
US officials strongly deny the claims. Powell said they acted at Aristide's
request and probably saved his life.
A US State Department official dismissed Kurzban's allegations, saying
Aristide quit his office and fled on his own volition as his government collapsed.
At least 130 people were killed in the rebellion that ousted Aristide; reprisal
killings since his removal have left at least 300 dead.
"As stated for several days, President Aristide resigned voluntarily, after
he initiated discussion of the matter with our rep in Haiti," a State
Department official said. "We consider his resignation final and hope that he will
respect the constitutional process under way."
In his letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft, Kurzban asked that the
Justice Department launch a criminal investigation into the circumstances
surrounding the departure of Aristide - who insists he's still Haiti's president - and
his wife, Mildred Trouillot Aristide, who is a US citizen. They fled the
country aboard a US chartered plane.
Kurzban said US laws were violated, including those banning kidnapping, the
imprisoning of internationally protected persons and committing such acts
against a person on board an aircraft registered in the US or owned by an American.
He said Aristide's removal from office was also a violation of an
international treaty, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes
Against
Internationally Protected Persons. Kurzban said his call for an investigation
was the first step toward bringing the case before an international court.
Kurzban said Aristide authorised him on Friday to file the claim with the US
State Department on behalf of the Haitian government. Aristide's attorney in
France, Gilbert Collard, was filing a similar claim against that country, he
said.
"They want justice for what happened," he said. "They also want an
investigation into what happened."
5. Report: African Union Blasts Haiti Ouster by Anthony Mitchell, March 9,
2004, AP

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) - The African Union has condemned the ouster of
exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, saying he was removed from
power unconstitutionally, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

Now in exile in the Central African Republic, Aristide insists the United
States abducted him and forced him to leave his troubled Caribbean nation amid a
weekslong insurgency. The United States has dismissed the allegations.

The 53-member AU, which is headquartered in Addis Ababa, said the way
Aristide ``was removed set a dangerous precedent for duly elected persons.''

It added that it wished ``no action be taken to legitimize the rebel
forces,'' according to a statement published in the Daily Monitor.

Also Tuesday, Aristide's Miami-based attorney said he asked the United States
to investigate his client's ouster.

Ira Kurzban claimed the United States was behind Aristide's Feb. 29 ouster,
allegations U.S. officials have frequently denied.

``Because they were kidnapped, by officials of the United States government,
a claim has been filed,'' Kurzban said at a news conference in Miami's Little
Haiti.

A U.S. State Department official dismissed Kurzban's allegations, saying
Aristide quit his office and fled on his own volition as his government collapsed.

The AU said it also supported calls by the 15-nation Caribbean Community,
known as CARICOM, for an investigation under the auspices of the United Nations
to clarify the circumstances leading to his ``relinquishing the presidency.''

``The African Union has decided to undertake immediate consultation with both
CARICOM and eventually the United Nations in order to discuss the conditions
for a quick return to constitutional democracy,'' the statement said.

It also said the AU would accept Aristide being granted asylum in Africa.

AU Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare met Aristide in the Central African Republic
on Tuesday and declined to say if the African body was supporting Aristide.

``It isn't about support for one person. It's a principle,'' Konare said.
``If these changes do not take a democratic path, none of the problems will be
resolved.''

Chaos has swept Haiti since Aristide's ouster, sparking a frenzy of looting
and violence. At least 130 people were killed in the rebellion; reprisal
killings since Aristide's ouster have left at least 300 dead.

Aristide arrived in Bangui on a flight arranged by the United States on March
1 and has been staying in an apartment in the presidential palace since then.

About 95 percent of Haitians are descendants of African slaves brought to the
Caribbean nation by French colonialists.

6. Congresswoman Barbara Lee Introduces TRUTH (The Responsibility to Uncover
the Truth about Haiti) Act
- Bill Would Establish Independent Commission

Washington, DC - Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA), Congressional Black Caucus
Haiti Task Force Co-Chair, today introduced the TRUTH (The Responsibility to
Uncover the Truth about Haiti) Act today, which calls for an independent
bipartisan commission to uncover the facts about the Bush Administration's
involvement in the recent coup d'etat in Haiti. The bill was co-sponsored by CBC
Haiti Task Force Co-Chair John Conyers and 23 other Members.

The TRUTH Act calls for the commission to investigate, among other
questions, the following: 1) Did the U.S. Government impede democracy and
contribute to the overthrow of the Aristide government? 2) Under what
circumstances did President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resign, and what was the role of
the
United States Government in bringing about his departure? 3) To what extent
did the U.S. impede efforts by the international community, particularly the
Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries, to prevent the overthrow of the
democratically-elected Government of Haiti? 4) What was the role of the United States
in influencing decisions regarding Haiti at the United Nations Security
Council and in discussions between Haiti and other countries that were willing to
assist in the preservation of the democratically-elected Government of Haiti by
sending security forces to Haiti? 5) Was U.S. assistance provided or were U.S.
personnel involved in supporting, directly or indirectly, the forces opposed
to the government of President Aristide? 6) Was U.S. bilateral assistance
channeled through nongovernmental organizations that were directly or indirectly
associated with political groups actively involved in fomenting hostilities or
violence toward the government of President Aristide?

Following the makeup of the WMD commission called for in H.R. 2625
legislation by Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) last year, the TRUTH commission would
be
made up of ten members, five chosen by the Democratic congressional leadership
and five by the Republican congressional leadership.

"The Bush Administration's efforts in the overthrow of a
democratically-elected government must be investigated," said Lee.
"All of the evidence brought forward thus far suggests that the
Administration has, in essence, carried out a form of 'regime
change,' a different variation than it took in Iraq, but still regime
change. The American people and the international community deserve to know
the truth, and this bill will offer the opportunity to
investigate the long-term origins of the overthrow of the Haitian
government and the impact of our failure to protect democracy."

###



7. AHP News - March 9, 2004 - English translation (Unofficial)
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gérard Latortue is to be the next prime minister, according to an
announcement by a member of the "Council of the Wise"
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Port-au-Prince, March 9, 2004 -(AHP)- One of the members of the Council of
the Wise, Anne-Marie Issa, announced that the council submitted on Tuesday
afternoon (6:00 PM) to provisional president Boniface Alexandre the name of the
person it has chosen to be the new prime minister.

The council's choice is Gérard Latortue, an official with the UNIDO (UN
Industrial Development Organization), who is also a consultant in international
relations and a former Minister of Foreign Affairs during the administration of
former President Leslie Francois Manigat.

According to diplomatic sources, the designation of Mr. Latortue was the
result of a compromise. The Americans supported general Hérard Abraham, the French
wanted business leader Smark Michel.

After a vote on Sunday of the seven members of the council to choose from
among three candidates for prime minister, three of them had voted for former
general Hérard Abraham, three for Smark Michel from the private sector, and one
had voted for Gérard Latortue.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Residents of Cap-Haïtien call for an investigation into the fate of numerous
Haitians arrested following the capture of the city of Cap-Haitien on February
22
------------------------------------------------------------------------



Port-au-Prince, March 9, 2004 -(AHP)- Many residents of Cap-Haïtien who have
sought refuge in Port-au-Prince are appealing to human rights organizations
including Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch to dispatch an
investigation in the wake of reports regarding the fate of several citizens arrested
by
armed individuals who had taken control of the city of Cap-Haïtien on February
22.

The captives who were arrested following the arson attack against the police
station are said to have been locked away for several days inside a container
before being dumped into the sea while still inside the container.

According to the same reports, several police officers and supporters of
Fanmi Lavalas were murdered.

"Only an investigation conducted by serious and independent organizations
could make it possible to assess the veracity of these accusations," said the
residents.

Many supporters of President Aristide are also said to have been massacred in
the city of Saint- Marc (98 km north of the capital) the day following the
departure of the Chief of State.

Some of the alleged victims, including police officers are said to have been
burned alive according to the reports. The victims are accused of having taken
part in actions that resulted in the reassertion of government control over
the Saint-Marc police station, which had fallen into "rebel" hands.

During that effort, at least four "rebels" were killed.


AHP March 9, 2004 1:30 PM


***The Platform of Haitian Human Rights Organizations (POHDH) on Tuesday
asked Léon Charles, the new acting head of the national police, to ban the
circulation of all vehicles without license plates as well as those that have tinted
windows.

In an open letter sent to the director of the Haitian National Police, the
POHDH stated that these measures would enable the human rights organizations to
do their work more effectively.

The organization also asked Mr. Charles to ban the circulation of vehicles
bearing expired license plates.

For his part, the new acting director of the police declared that disarmament
will be his priority.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Buteur Métayer seeks a place for his front in the new government
------------------------------------------------------------------------


Port-au-Prince, March 9, 2004 -(AHP)- The president of the armed opposition
front of Gonaïves, Buteur Métayer, pressed his claim Tuesday for a role in the
new government.

The first attacks against the police stations were launched by members of
this front on February 5 in Gonaïves when at least ten people including police
officers were killed.

Buteur Métayer urged provisional president Boniface Alexandre to meet with
members of the front before taking any decision.

" It is thanks to the action of the front that you are president today", he
said to Mr. Boniface.

Buteur Métayer pointed out that the members of the front expect the
opposition platform to give them their share of the pie in Gonaïves itself, where they
have established themselves.

In addition, several members of the international community, speaking on
condition of anonymity expressed criticism about what they called the
intransigence of the opposition political platform in light of its absence at the
swearing-in ceremony of Boniface Alexandre.

" If they do not wish to advance, we will advance without them" said a
diplomat.

A spokesperson for the platform, Micha Gaillard, attempted Tuesday to explain
the non-participation by members of his political coalition at Monday's
ceremony as being due to their not having been properly invited according to
prevailing standards of protocol.

According to reliable sources, members of the platform were displeased that
Senator Yvon Feuillé was invited in his capacity as president of the National
Assembly.

However, Mr. Gaillard said that the platform is disposed to work with the new
president to move the country forward.


AHP March 9, 2004 1:30 PM

------------------------------

** A taxi driver was killed Monday night on the airport road in
Port-au-Prince by U.S. Marines.

The soldiers opened fire on the vehicle because the driver refused to comply
with the order to stop.

According to witnesses, the driver drove around the barricade because he did
not understand the language (English) in which he was addressed.

His cousin who was traveling with him was injured.


AHP March 9, 2004 2:00 PM




Evans Paul asks that consideration be given to Guy Philippe's call to take
up arms



Port-au-Prince, March 9, 2004 -(AHP)- A spokesperson for the opposition
political platform, Evans Paul, declared Tuesday that he is in favor of the
possibility that the men of the northern front led by the former police commissioner
of Delmas, Guy Philippe, take up arms once again in order, he said, to
guarantee security for the population.

Evans Paul thus echoed the comments of Guy Philippe regarding what he called
the laxness of the international forces relating to the question of
disarmament.

"The question of the men of Guy Philippe taking up arms again should be
considered in a thoughtful manner", he said.

At the same time, Joseph Jean-Baptiste, the spokesperson for the demobilized
Haitian military forces in the Center geographic Department, declared Tuesday
that he is in a position to work together with the national police to assure
security for the population.

According to Joseph Jean Baptiste, one of the main collaborators of FRAPH
leader Louis Jodel Chamblain, this region, considered to be the main headquarters
of the Haitian military, has no need of any presence of the multinational
force.


AHP March 9, 2004 1:30 PM



The United States grants emergency humanitarian assistance to Haiti in the
amount of $1,340,000
------------------------------------------------------------------------


Port-au-Prince, March 9, 2004 -(AHP)- The United States government has
decided to provide emergency humanitarian assistance to Haiti in the amount of
somewhat more than one million three hundred forty thousand dollars, channeled
through the US Agency for international Development (USAID).

In a press release dated March 9, the U.S. Embassy in Haiti announced that a
delegation of USAID has already carried out a two-day visit to Haiti this
week to evaluate the present situation and the activities put in place with
respect to this assistance.

For his part, the United Nations Resident Humanitarian Coordinator in Haiti,
Adama Guindo, issued an emergency appeal this Tuesday for $35 million for
Haiti, a country where the agencies of the UN are still not able to act due to the
absence of security.

According to Adama Guindo, this appeal is designed to see to the most urgent
needs of more than three million people over the next six months, starting
with children and women among the 8.3 million people in the country, in the areas
of nutrition, health care, water and sanitation.

He also announced that two officials of the UN Department of Peacekeeping
arrived this Tuesday in Port-au-Prince on a mission to prepare the way for the
arrival of the UN's stability force which will in time replace the Multinational
Interim Force.


AHP March 9, 2004 3:30 PM
---------------------------------------

---------------------------------------

8. Operation Enduring Sweatshop, Another Bush Brings Hell to Haiti, by Chris
Floyd, Counterpunch, March 10, 2004
This week, the Bush administration added another violent "regime change"
notch to its gunbelt, toppling the democratically elected president of Haiti and
replacing him with an unelected gang of convicted killers, death squad leaders,
militarists, narcoterrorists, CIA operatives, hereditary elitists and
corporate predators - a bit like Team Bush itself, in other words.
Although the Haiti coup was widely portrayed as an irresistible upsurge of
popular discontent, it was of course the result of years of hard work by Bush's
dedicated corrupters of democracy, as William Bowles of Information
Clearinghouse reports. Bushist bagmen funded the political opposition to President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, smuggled guns to exiled Haitian warlords, and carried out a
relentless strangulation of the county, cutting off long-promised financial
and structural aid to one of the poorest nations on earth until food prices
were soaring, unemployment spiked to 70 percent, and the broken-backed government
lost control of society to armed gangs of criminals, fanatics and the merely
desperate.
Meanwhile, Haiti was forced to pay $2 million a month on debts run up by the
murderous <U.S.-backed> dictatorships that had ruled the island since the
American military occupation of 1915-1934. The Haitian press, controlled by
cronies of the former dictators, supplied the lazy American media with reams of
stories about Aristide's "tyranny." These were swiftly followed by thunderous
denunciations from the Bush Regime. Wholesale murders of government officials and
Aristide partisans by Bush-backed opposition gangs were, of course, demurely
ignored - as were Aristide's own condemnations of violence by his supporters.
The old reliable "madman" trope was also brought out for an airing, with
constant press drumbeats about Aristide's "mental instability." (America's
designated targets are always "deranged monsters," although sometimes, when they prove
politically useful again, they miraculously recover their wits, like Libya's
Moamar Gadafy.)
The ostensible reason for Bush's deadly squeeze play was Haiti's disputed
elections in 2000. That vote, only the nation's third free election in 200 years,
was indeed marred by reports of irregularities - although these were not
nearly as egregious as the well-documented hijinks which saw a certain runner-up
candidate appointed to the White House that same year. There was no question
that Aristide and his party received an overwhelming majority of legitimate
votes; however, out of the 7,500 offices up for grabs, election observers did find
that seven senate results seemed of dodgy provenance.
So what happened? The seven disputed senators resigned. New elections for the
seats were called, but the opposition - two elitist factions financed by
Washington's favorite engines of subversion, the Orwellian-monikered "National
Endowment for Democracy" and "International Republican Institute" - refused to
take part. The government broke down because the legislature couldn't convene.
When Bush came in, he tightened the screws of the international blockade of the
island, insisting that $500 million in desperately needed aid could not be
released unless the opposition participated in new elections - while he was
simultaneously paying the opposition not to participate.
The ultimate aim of this brutal pretzel logic was to grind Haiti's destitute
people further into the ground and destroy Aristide's ability to govern. His
real crime, of course, was not the Florida-style election follies or the
reported "tyranny." Are you kidding? Bush loves that stuff - witness his eager
embrace of the nuke-peddling dictatorship of Pakistan, the human-boiling hardman of
Uzbekistan, the torture-happy tyrant of Kazakhstan, the drug-running warlords
of Afghanistan, and so forth.
No, Aristide did something far worse than stuffing ballots or killing people
- he tried to raise the minimum wage, to the princely sum of two dollars a
day. This move outraged the American corporations - and their local lackeys - who
have for generations used Haiti as a pool of dirt-cheap labor and sky-high
profits. It was the last straw for the elitist factions, one of which is
actually led by an American citizen and former Reagan-Bush appointee, manufacturing
tycoon Andy Apaid.
Apaid was the point man for the rapacious Reagan-Bush "market reform" drive
in Haiti. Of course, "reform," in the degraded jargon of the privateers, means
exposing even the very means of survival and sustenance to the ravages of
powerful corporate interests. For example, the Reagan-Bush plan forced Haiti to
lift import tariffs on rice, which had long been a locally-grown staple. Then
they flooded Haiti with heavily subsidized American rice, destroying the local
market and throwing thousands of self-sufficient farmers out of work. With a
now-captive market, the American companies jacked up their prices, spreading
ruin and hunger throughout Haitian society.
The jobless farmers provided new fodder for the factories of Apaid and his
cronies. Reagan and Bush chipped in by abolishing taxes for American
corporations who set up Haitian sweatshops. The result was a precipitous drop in
wages -
and life expectancy. Aristide's first election in 1990 threatened these cozy
arrangements, so he was duly ejected by a military coup, with Bush I's
not-so-tacit connivance.
Bill Clinton restored Aristide to office in 1994 - but only after forcing him
to agree to, yes, "market reforms." In fact, it was Clinton, the privateers'
pal, who instigated the post-election aid embargo that Bush II used to such
devastating effect. Aristide's chief failing as a leader was his attempt to live
up to this bipartisan blackmail. As in every other nation that's come under
the IMF whip, Haiti's already-fragile economy collapsed. Bush family retainers
like Apaid then shoved the country into total chaos, making it easy prey for
the warlords whom Bush operatives - many of them old Iran-Contra hands -
supplied with arms through the Dominican Republic, the Boston Globe reports.
When Aristide called for an international force to stem the terrorist attack,
Bush refused. When Aristide agreed to a deal, brokered by his fellow leaders
in the Caribbean, that would have effectively ceded power to the Bush-funded
opposition but at least preserved the lineaments of Haitian democracy - Apaid
and the boys turned down the offer, with the blessing of their paymasters in
Washington, who suddenly claimed they had no influence over their recalcitrant
hired hands. When Aristide asked for American protection as the rebel gang
closed in on the capital, Bush refused.
Instead, Aristide was told by armed American gunmen that if he didn't resign,
he would be left to die at the hands of the rebels. Then he was bundled onto
a waiting plane and dumped in the middle of Africa. Within hours, the
Bush-backed terrorists were marching openly through Port-au-Prince, executing
Aristide's supporters.
Guess they won't be asking for two dollars a day now, eh? Mission
accomplished!
Exactly two hundred years ago, Haitian slaves overthrew their French masters
- the first successful national slave revolt in history. What Spartacus
dreamed of doing, the Haitian slaves actually accomplished. It was a tremendous
achievement - and the white West has never forgiven them for it. In order to win
international recognition for their new country, Haiti was forced to pay
"reparations" to the slaveowners - a crushing burden of debt they were still paying
off at the end of the 19th century. The United States, which refused to
recognize the country for more than 60 years, invaded Haiti in 1915, primarily to
open it up to "foreign ownership of local concerns." After 19 years of
occupation, the Americans backed a series of bloodthirsty dictatorships to protect
these "foreign owners."
And still it goes on. Now Bush, just like his father, has overthrown
Aristide, and for the same reason: he represented a threat to their "natural order" -
unchecked rule by thuggish elites, gorging on the toil and blood of others.
Terrorism, despotism, torture, WMD trafficking: all of these can countenanced,
even embraced. But the alternative offered, imperfectly, by Aristide -
democratic, capitalist, but with "a prejudice for the poor," as enjoined by the
Gospels - this evil can never be tolerated.


9. Websites to visit:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs http://www.maehaitiinfo.org/
Haiti's Embassy to the US http://www.haiti.org
Haiti Support Group (London) http://haitisupport.gn.apc.org/
Haiti Action Committee http://haitiaction.org/
KPFA Radio/Flashpoints
Main Page: http://www.flashpoints.net/
Haiti Coverage: http://www.flashpoints.net/archive/archive-2004-Haiti.html
Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/index.pl
Haiti Coverage: http://www.democracynow.org/static/haiti.shtml
AHP News in French http://www.ahphaiti.org