More unexpected guests? Exiled ex-president Aristide eyes return to Haiti

[EFerrari]

Source: Christian Science Monitor

By Ezra Fieser, Correspondent / January 20, 2011
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

A bizarre political week for Haiti that started with the return of one exiled former president is ending with another exiled leader maneuvering for repatriation.

As woes mounted for former dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier – who received more criminal charges on Wednesday – ousted ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide released a statement saying he’s prepared to return to Haiti.

“As far as I am concerned, I am ready,” Mr. Aristide wrote in a statement Wednesday that his spokesperson confirmed to the Monitor was authentic. “Once again I express my readiness to leave today, tomorrow, at any time. The purpose is very clear: To contribute to serving my Haitian sisters and brothers as a simple citizen in the field of education.”

Aristide has been living in exile in South Africa since 2004, when he was flown out of Haiti in what supporters described as a US-orchestrated coup d’état. Brian Concannon, a lawyer who has worked with Aristide, told the Monitor that Aristide applied for a passport but the Haitian government has not issued one.


Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2011/0120/More-unexpected-guests-Exiled-ex-president-Aristide-eyes-return-to-Haiti

[dipsydoodle]

1. US-orchestrated coup d’état

Sounds about right. Just can't keep their big noses out can they.



edit to add - some background here :

"President Aristide said that he had been lied to by the U.S. ambassador, who assured him that he was being taken to a press conference to talk with international and Haitian media. He was instead forced onto a plane and taken out of the country in a U.S. coup d'etat," according to Flounders. "President Aristide also pointed out the irony that Haiti, which only has 1.5 doctors for every 11,000 people, now has seen the closing of its primary medical school and that school is now being used to house U.S. Marines and other foreign soldiers."

President Aristide expanded on this point both in the press conference and in his interview on Democracy Now!: "In my country, after 200 years of independence—we are the first Black independent country in the world—but we still have only 1.5 Haitian doctors for every 11,000 Haitians. We created a university, we founded a university with the faculty of medicine that has 247 students. Once U.S. soldiers arrived in Haiti after the kidnapping, what did they do? They closed the faculty of medicine and they are now in the classrooms. This is what they call peace. This is the opposite of peace. Peace means investing in human beings, investing in health care, respect for human rights, not violations of human rights, no violations for the rights of those who voted for an elected President, and this is what it means. ... How can you imagine that you come to me, you want to be in peace, and you close my university and you send out 247 students of medicine in the country where you don't have hospitals and you don't have enough doctors. God, this is an occupation. When you protect killers, when you protect drug dealers like Guy Philippe, like Chamblain, when you protect the citizens of the United States in violating the law of the United States, Mr. Andy Apaid is a citizen of the United States, violating the Neutral Act, the way with this act will destroying our Democracy, and once we do that, then this is an occupation." (quotation from Democracy Now!)

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/665.html

[EFerrari]

2. How appalling is it that the US allowed Baby Doc back in

and not Aristide. And how aligned with the business interests that want to turn Haiti into Juarez.

[Judi Lynn]

3. You've got that right. It's a habit they don't intend to break, either, apparently.

Seems their position on the limits of their ability to control other governments is "Who's going to stop us?"

Aristide surely wasn't "exiled" by ordinary Haitians, we all know that much. They aren't the ones who loaded him onto a plane claiming if he stayed the _Bush-financed, trained, outfitted death squads would kill him, for sure. I guess he should feel blessed they didn't just go ahead and assassinate him, but then he would have become a martyr, and the population would have had a rallying point, just as they had when he was occupying the office for which he was elected.

The elites want the people to be leaderless, and helpless, unable to form any resistance against their own abuse and exploitation.

[EFerrari]

4. State seems to be applying pressure on Preval to decide their way today.

AmbassadorRice Ambassador Rice
by USEmbassyHaiti
We urge Haitian authorities to outline clear way forward to ensure timely inauguration of legitimate, democratically elected government.
4 hours ago

[Judi Lynn]

5. The timing is so creepy. They seem to believe they're in control, don't they?

We do know the State Department and the IRI will stoop to anything that gets them what they want.

[EFerrari]

7. They are in control. Haiti is a militarized work camp now

even if most people haven't understood it yet.

I wonder how long before Sean Penn is pressured to get out and so avoid being a witness.

/clarity

[dipsydoodle]

10. They've never got over the fact

they fucked up on the timing of the Cuban Revolution which left them insufficient time to replace Batista with someone of their own choice.

[Catherina]

6. Aristide, quit yapping. Just get on a plane and head back

There are no provisions under Haitian law to exile people. Nothing's standing in your way other than that passport. JC Duvalier flew in on a French diplomatic passport, do what he did after getting one from Chavez or another sympathetic ally.

[EFerrari]

8. He's already had one near brush with death when they just dropped him

and his wife in Central Africa.

There are no provisions in Honduran law for exile either and the same usual suspects ran President Zelaya out.

[Catherina]

11. True that but he's 60 years old

There are 17 year olds who die for a cause. If Aristide cares about the poor as much as he says he does (and I believe he does), he should resign himself to risking his life for them.


I realize, of course, that that's really easy for me to say.

[Bacchus39]

9. yep, Duvalier had an expired passport. Aristide should just go n/t

s

[rabs]

12. Jean-Jacques Dessalines’ Constitution and "Blan Mannan"

Dessalines’ Law is in Dessalines’ 1805 constitution; it’s certainly in the Haitian Act of Independence. (See, Proclamation Pour Abjuration De La Nation Française– Liberte Ou La Mort! Du Général en chef du Peuple de Hayti
www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/dessalines.html#libete )

Dessaline’ Law is most recognized by Haitians as follows:

“…Never again shall colonist or European set foot on this soil as master or landowner. This shall henceforward be the foundation of our constitution.”

“…No whiteman of whatever nation he may be, shall put his foot on this territory with the title of master or proprietor, neither shall he in future acquire any property therein…”

Dessalines’ ideals established Haiti as a Black nation. Dessalines’ Law dealt with the question of land ownership; the question of equitable wealth distribution in Haiti; how to keep Haitian sovereignty and uphold the well-being of the Black masses whose fathers were in Africa. (See, Three Ideals of Dessalines, www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/dessalines.html#3

--- snip --------

But alas, the Haitian Constitution was unilaterally amended by the US, in 1918, during their first occupation of Haiti to allow foreigners to own property in Dessalines’ land. The 1987 Constitution reasserted some of Dessalines’ Law. The 1991 and 2004 US-sponsored and orchestrated coup d’etats, very much like the Dessalines’ assassination and the first Haitian coup d’etat in 1806, have, similar aims: the reversals of Dessalines’ law in Haiti.

This epic struggle, of the US/Euro tribes’ goliath determination to dominate the materially poor Black masses in Haiti, continues….

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

Blan Mannan by Feliks Moriso Lewa (One of Haiti's greatest writers/thinkers)
Translated to English by members of HLLN

Blan mannan – Lowly Pariah white

Don’t put words in my mouth
i say there are good whites and there are bad whites
the worst of the whites are the lowly pariah whites

Don’t make me say what I’ve never said
i say there are good blacks and there are bad blacks
the worst of the blacks are the rich blacks

I’m told French whites now do whatever they want
in Jean-Jacques Dessalines’ country
tell them I’m damn well coming to kick them out

I’m told the French are kicking
Dessalines’ children in the ass
tell them to prepare for my wrath
I’m planning another November 1803 especially for them

Tell them that when they hear me coming
they better pack up and leave
no matter how bleak the night
a new dawn inevitably will come

There are good blacks and there are bad blacks
there are good whites and there are bad whites
Dessalines did not kill the Polish whites
the worst of the whites are the lowly pariah whites

Dessalines who is my history teacher
tells me the only good white
is the white that shoots the bad whites
Please, don’t make me say what I won’t say

****

English Translation by Frantz Jerome in collaboration with other members of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network, for the FreeHaitiMovement – Dessalines Is Rising, October 17th events
www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/dessalines.html

Ezili Dantò
HLLN
Oct. 5, 2006

PS.
Ezili Dantò’s Note: Different English equivalents for the pejorative term“Blan mannan” were put forward by the Haitians at HLLN including: “red neck,” “white trash,” “poor white,” “average farmer,” “pariah white.” And even “creole white” was put forward because, at one epoch in Haiti, the term “Creole” was also used to refer to all Europeans who were born or grew up in a colony. Another explanation offered was that when it’s used in common language in Haiti “blan mannan” usually means “yon blan ki pa kenbe kòl; ki sankoutcha; k ap mache sal oswa chifonnen nan lari.”

Any defects or limitation in the final translation and chosen English equivalents of this Moriso Lewa unofficial translation is the sole responsibility of Ezili Dantò as head of HLLN.

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

[Catherina]

13. One can only imagine the fury that ignited on the part of the colonial powers

That's very powerful. Thank you.