CARICOM demanding inquiry into Haiti ouster

[Judi Lynn]

CARICOM demanding inquiry into Haiti ouster
published: Thursday | March 4, 2004



THE 15-NATION CARICOM bloc yesterday called for an international inquiry
into the ouster of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and is looking
to "a body such as the United Nations" to institute the probe.
(snip)

At the same time, Mr. Patterson reiterated that the Heads of Government have
agreed that they are not prepared to deliberate with "thugs and anarchists"
parading as a new Haitian Government.
(snip)

Concerning an enroute stopover in Antigua:
He added that the Antiguan Government said that no state or airport officials were allowed to enter the plane, nor did anyone on the plane disembark.

"The declaration which was made by the operators of the plane disclosed that
there were no passengers aboard. Whether that indicates that those who were
on board were regarded not as passengers, but as cargo, is something which I
leave for you to determine," Mr. Patterson said.

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20040304/lead/lead2.html

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Article located and shared by a DU friend/reader/enthusiast, who sends greetings to Tinoire! :hi: :thumbsup:

[Judi Lynn]

1. Haiti one pawn in a larger war against Cuba, Venezuela, possibly Brazil

3/3/04

Why Haiti? Why now?

by J. Damu

(snip)
.....Despite this moral outrage committed against the long suffering people of Haiti, the first anywhere to successfully rise up against their slave masters, an act of defiance for which they’ve never been forgiven, the questions asked by many protestors, as on Monday hundreds streamed from San Francisco’s underground rail system to demonstrate against Bush’s latest crime, were, “Why Haiti?” and “Why now?”
(snip)

The removal of Aristide has been a long simmering coup in the making that dates back at least to the Clinton presidency and the refusal of Congress to release promised funding to the economically devastated island. However, the timing and execution of the Haitian coup has to be placed within a regional and world context. The coup - or extra-democratic process - that brought George Bush to the White House allowed him to hand over U.S. foreign policy decision making, as it effects the Western Hemisphere, to naturalized U.S. Cubans dedicated to the overthrow of the Cuban revolution.

Their policies, although geared to the overthrow of Fidel Castro and socialism in Cuba, converge neatly with U.S. designs to destabilize the Caribbean and Central-South American region and insure U.S. supremacy and access to Venezuela’s all-important oil.

Therefore, it is no surprise Otto Reich’s fingerprints are all over this week’s kidnapping of President Aristide. Otto Reich, you will recall, is the U.S. under-secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere who helped to orchestrate the short-lived kidnapping and ouster of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. That kidnapping was undone when the people rose up and re-installed Chavez, because the perpetrators of that kidnapping had failed to remove Chavez completely from the country. Not to make the same mistake twice.
(snip/...)

http://www.sfbayview.com/030304/whyhaiti030304.shtml

[Tinoire]

2. The Right has gone mad... / Stan Goff, Michael Ratner on Democracy Now

Thank you JudiLyn for digging up all of this information. Our empire is crumbling and we are desperately trying to stop that. We need oil. We need free labor. And we need to send a clear warning to all the little nations in our hemisphere that independent thought & action are not permitted. The 3 biggest enemies of the empire (enemies only because they care for their people more) are Castro, Chavez and Aristide who have been influencing all of the Carribbean and Latin America to "just say no".

Listen to this. I am going to listen to it again tomorrow when I'm not so tired because there's so much information in it. The best line is that "The reason there has never been a coup in the United States is because there is no American Embassy here". Stan Goff speaks towards the end. Have you ever read his book "Hideous Dream"? In it he explains how, when serving in Haiti after the Cedras coup, they were specifically forbidden to arrest "rebel" leaders. He tried to anyway because he didn't want to be part of the hypocrisy. Great book & great interview on DemocracyNow.

Peace and thanks for all you're doing!

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/03/1631253


We speak with the Center for Constitutional Rights' Michael Ratner about who the United Nations and Organization should recognize as the legitimate government of Haiti under international law and we take a look at the English translation of Aristide's resignation letter which he says is altered to omit a key phrase.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At the United Nations here in New York, Haitians and Haitian-Americans protested what they call the overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
As the Haitians demonstrated at the UN, as well as in San Francisco, Vice president Dick Cheney was giving a rare round of interviews to FOX News and CNN. He told both networks that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide had "worn out his welcome" as Haiti's president.

The removal of Aristide from Haiti has put the country's international diplomats into a difficult situation. Aristide claims he did not resign and says that the handwritten message in creole that the US says was his letter of resignation was mistranslated in English. The US says Aristide is gone and that the Haitian Supreme Court justice, Boniface Alexandre, is the interim president. So who speaks for Haiti internationally and at the United Nations?


Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/03/1631253