One Year Ago Today-Haiti Coup

[chlamor]

A rememberance of the coup a year ago today and the hope for a free and autonomous Haiti.
Here are a few snippets and images. For morw info on what the current situation is for the Haitian people go to: www.haitiaction.net


Some of the real motivations behind the recent US-led overthrow of President Aristide are emerging as US policymakers and their corporate henchmen hatch their plans to put Haiti in the fiscal vice grip of neoliberalism. According to Noriega, these plans would fall under the third of the "Principles of US Engagement in Haiti," which will see the US government encouraging "the Government of Haiti to move forward, at the appropriate time, with restructuring and privatisation of some public sector enterprises."

If anyone had doubts about whether or not Aristide was cow-towing enough to the United States and its imposition of neoliberal stratagem, one need only look at how quickly the interim government, in lockstep with the US and the Haitian Diaspora, are looking to fast-track this neoliberal stranglehold on the country now that he's gone. Clearly, Aristide was seen as some sort of barrier to US-style neoliberalism, which cannot tolerate any barriers to its advances
<snip>
Before February 29th, the US did not publicly state its allegiance to the "democratic opposition" in Haiti. The relationship between the US lending institutions and "civil society" was never explored by the mainstream press, even though multiple lending institutions are either known or alleged to have had financial connections to the opposition. USAID in particular has already stated its support for PromoCapital's "Haiti Reconstruction Fund",
<snip>
As other details are emerging regarding the US's role in training and funding the Haitian "rebels" in the Dominican Republic, and a rumoured US military occupation of Haiti's strategic Mole St. Nicolas ,one has to wonder at what point any of this will be made public knowledge.<17> As of writing, the most painful and violent consequences of US destabilization campaigns are being felt by targeted Haitian citizens. These people are being targeted for persecution due to their pursuit of democracy and freedom, and due to their desire to fulfill their human right to self-determination.
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/af4_20_4.html


US Navy photo USS Saipan departs for it's annual "humanitarian" mission in Haiti with an Expeditionary Strike Force. Will it provide Cité Soliel "relief" from it's dreams of democracy, while it helps Buteur with US imposed elections?



Previous attacks on their community by US Marines, Haitian police, Haitian SWAT teams and the current occupation by the UN has not destroyed the spirit of the community of Bel Air. A testimony to the resilency of the human spirit, they took to the streets once again on December 31, 2004 to demand the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

[FloridaPat]

1. Someone pointed out Haiti is 1/2 to Venezula. Haiti is so poor,

it's amazing it's even on the Bush radar. Maybe that's the requirement for taking over countries - they can't fight back.

[seemslikeadream]

2. Insurrection in the Making: The Crisis in Haiti February 2004

working links here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3092381


Members of the opposition force, who took control of the town of Gonaives last Thursday, remain in power five days later.


What is the Political Backdrop to the Conflict?

The crisis dates back to a political stalemate stemming from a contested election. In 2000—the same year that George Bush stole the US presidency—Haiti held elections for 7,500 positions nationwide. Election observers contested the winners of seven senate seats. President Aristide balked at first, but eventually yielded and the seven senators resigned. Members of Haiti’s elite, long hostile to Aristide’s progressive economic agenda, saw the controversy as an opportunity to derail his government.

Since 2001, human rights activists and humanitarian workers in Haiti have documented numerous cases of opposition vigilantes killing government officials and bystanders in attacks on the state power station, health clinics, police stations and government vehicles. The US government did not condemn any of these killings.

In January 2004, the opposition escalated its protests. At some demonstrations, government supporters, who represent Haiti’s poorest sectors, attacked opposition activists. Only then did US Secretary of State Powell issue a one-sided condemnation of “militant Aristide supporters.”

In a country as poor as Haiti, control over the institutions of the state is one of the only sources of wealth, making national politics an arena of violent competition. Similarly, in an environment of 70 percent unemployment, the prospect of long-term work as a paramilitary fighter leads many young men to join these forces.
more
http://www.madre.org/country_haiti_crisis.html



A woman walks past garbage near one of the most important markets in Port-au-Prince, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2004. The World Food Program has warned of a looming humanitarian crisis in northern Haiti because food trucks cannot get through barricades blocking the main road from Port-au-Prince to Cap-Haitien at Gonaives, which is taking its toll on daily life in the capital.


No End in Sight
Bookstore
Published by the Tribune, a Labour newspaper
1/30/04

Aristide's Lavalas Family is essentially a populist party, strong on pro-poor rhetoric but short on ideas of how to transform a country still divided between, on the one hand the 90 per cent of the population who are desperately poor peasant farmers and unemployed shanty-town dwellers and, on the other, the tiny elite running the import-export sector and the small light industry located in and around Port-au-Prince. Faced with an absence of foreign aid which could have been used for public works projects, thus providing the infrastructure and jobs to benefit the poorer sectors, the Government has settled on a two-pronged approach to the crisis.

http://www.americas.org/item_13433


AN ABSENCE OF FOREIGN AID


United Nations fears Haiti crisis


The United Nations has warned of an impending humanitarian crisis in Haiti, which has seen an escalation of violence, mainly in the north.
Aid agency officials said clashes between rebels and security forces were seriously disrupting the distribution of food to tens of thousands of people.

The World Food Programme has been helping about 25,000 people who lost their harvests in the December floods.

About 40 people have died in street violence since last Thursday.


Yvon Neptune visited a burned-out police station in Saint Marc
About 10 towns in north-western Haiti have been affected by the street violence, follows months of anti-government protests.

Christiane Berthiaume, spokeswoman for the UN World Food Program, said the violence was hampering aid deliveries.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3477657.stm


Flashpoints: Is the US...participating in the destabilization...of Haiti?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...


Haitian Rebels Take Over Another Town

Haitian rebels forced police out of another northern town and blocked a main road leading to the Dominican Republic, witnesses said Saturday as aid workers warned food was running out in northern cities and towns.

In Washington, members of the Organization of American States called on all parties to ensure a peaceful and democratic outcome to the 9-day-old rebellion aimed at ousting President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. About 50 people have died in the uprising.

Emergency supplies of flour, cooking oil, and other staples are projected to run out in four days in northern areas cut off by roadblocks guarded by rebels. The insurgents have seized Gonaives, Haiti's fourth-largest city, and burned down police stations in a dozen other towns.
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040214_686.html


Allows Embassy Staff to Leave Haiti

The State Department authorized on Tuesday the departure of family members and nonemergency employees of the U.S. Embassy in Haiti as a result of increased political violence in the country.

The travel warning also urged private Americans to get out of Haiti if they can do it safely and said embassy personnel could not leave the area around Port-au-Prince, the capital.

Additionally, the department advised U.S. citizens to scrap any plans for going to Haiti. "Americans are reminded of the potential for spontaneous demonstrations and violent confrontations between government supporters and students and other groups that oppose the government of Haiti," the warning said.
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040210_2170.html

Haiti rebels plan offensive
15/02/2004 07:03 - (SA)
Bloody clashes in Haiti
Haiti disappoints US - Powell

Gonaives - Witnesses say police have fled two more towns as Haitian rebels seeking to topple President Jean-Bertrand Aristide brought in reinforcements from the neighbouring Dominican Republic, including the exiled former leader of the eighties death squads and a former police chief accused of fomenting a coup.

Twenty commandos have arrived in Haiti, led by Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a former Haitian soldier who headed army death squads in 1987 and a militia known as the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH, which killed and maimed dozens of people between 1992 and 1994.

Guy Philippe, a former police chief who fled to the Dominican Republic after being accused by the Haitian government of fomenting a coup in 2002, also arrived in Gonaives to help the rebels prepare for an expected showdown with the government.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_14...

Armed Group Seizes Haitian City; 4 Killed


An armed opposition group seized control of Haiti's fourth-largest city Thursday, burning a police station, freeing prisoners and leaving at least four people reported dead and 20 wounded in clashes with police.

Members of the Gonaives Resistance Front began the assault shortly after noon in Gonaives, setting afire the mayor's home and then dousing the police station with fuel and lighting it while officers fled, Haitian radio reports said.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040205_1922.html


Rebels seize Haitian city

Gonaïves, Haiti — Hundreds of people looted a smouldering police station on Friday, a day after an armed opposition group took control of Haiti's fourth-largest city in the biggest uprising yet aimed at the overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

“The revolution has begun,” declared Dormessan Philippe, a 27-year-old in the crowd milling outside the police station.

At least seven people were killed in Thursday's attack — four civilians and three police officers — and 20 were wounded, according to the Haitian Red Cross. The four were anti-government militants killed in gunbattles with police, Gonaïves Resistance Front leader Wynter Étienne told Radio Vision 2000.

Mr. Étienne's group set ablaze a police station, the home of pro-Aristide Mayor Stéphan Moïse and a building housing a gas station and other businesses belonging to Mr. Moïse.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v4...


Rebels Kill at Least 3 Haitian Policemen

GONAIVES, Haiti - Police reinforcements fought bloody battles with gunmen as they tried to retake Haiti's fourth-largest city Saturday from rebels who seized it two days earlier in a challenge to President Jean- Bertrand Aristide.


At least three police were killed, and crowds mutilated the corpses.

...

Militants also have attacked police stations and forced out police in at least five small towns near Gonaives, Haitian radio reports said. Judge Walter Pierre told private Radio Ginen that armed men were occupying the police station in the town of Anse Rouge on Saturday and had confiscated weapons.

The rebellion had not yet reached Port-au-Prince, the capital, where throngs of government supporters marched Saturday to mark the third anniversary of Aristide's second inauguration.

more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=589&nci ...


DUer Snazzy predicts a coup in Haiti


Snazzy (1000+ posts) Sun Feb-08-04 06:52 PM
Response to Original message

1. Coup coming?
Wonder what Otto Reich and the rest of resurrected team Iran-Contra is up to lately. Seeing little hints of deja vu maneuvering in Venezuela, Columbia, Cuba. Wonder if something is up in Haiti.

No idea if the US is involved--don't recall any stories re: that recently, but watch for it. Certainly "we" haven't been doing enough to piss off the Western Hemisphere recently. There is room for improvement!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...


Published on Monday, February 9, 2004 by OneWorld.net
Haiti Unrest Spells Trouble for Aristide, Bush
by Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON -- A spreading and increasingly violent rebellion against Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is destabilizing the Caribbean nation in ways that could move it to the top of Washington's foreign-policy.

U.S. officials are deeply concerned that the violence, if not quickly ended, may well spark a new exodus of thousands of Haitian boat people headed for the United States. Reported plans to interdict refugees on the high seas and either repatriate them or transport them to hastily built camps at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba--as Washington did in the early 1990s--are already drawing fire.

While tensions have been building for months, last week's takeover by an anti-Aristide gang of Gonaives, the country's fourth largest city, has signaled a major escalation. The gang, which calls itself the Gonaives Resistance Front, was once loyal to the Haitian president but turned against him after the killing under mysterious circumstances of their leader last year.

The takeover set off a widespread looting and burning of government offices throughout the city. When police tried to retake the city, they were beaten back in fighting in which at least nine people were killed, including seven police.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0209-06.htm



Crowds Loot Haiti Port; Uprising Spreads

Hundreds of Haitians looted TV sets, mattresses and sacks of flour from shipping containers Sunday in this port town, one of several communities seized by rebels in a bloody uprising against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Using felled trees, flaming tires and car chassis, residents blocked streets throughout St. Marc a day after militants drove out police in gunbattles that killed two people. Many residents have formed neighborhood groups to back insurgents in their push to expel the president.

"After Aristide leaves, the country will return to normal," said Axel Philippe, 34, among dozens massed on the highway leading to St. Marc, a city of about 100,000 located some 45 miles northwest of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
http://www.mycaribbeannews.com/news/040209.htm



Dozens killed in Haitian riots
Last Updated Mon, 09 Feb 2004 18:01:03



PORT-AU-PRINCE - Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide faced increased pressure to resign Monday after four days of rioting led by armed rebels killed as many as 40 people and led to widespread looting.

Prime Minister Yvon Neptune accused the opposition of trying to mount a coup to overthrow Aristide, who won legislative elections in 2000, but international observers called the vote seriously flawed.

Three major centres, Gonaives, St-Marc and Grand Goave, were under control of the rebels on Monday, as well as several smaller towns.

http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/02/09/haiti_unrest040209


Haitian police retake major city

Television pictures showed people
looting from shipping containers

Haitian authorities have retaken a key northern city from rebels opposed to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Police, backed by helicopters, entered the port of Saint-Marc, about 65 miles (105km) north of the capital Port-au-Prince, city residents said.

Prime Minister Yvon Neptune flew to the city and urged all sides to help restore calm.

Earlier, Mr Neptune accused the civil opposition of trying to mount a coup as unrest continued to spread in Haiti.

About 10 towns in northwestern Haiti have been affected by the five-day street violence in which some 40 people have been reportedly killed.

An opposition spokesman denied backing the unrest and called for foreign intervention to avert civil war

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3470911.stm


Right wing-led rebellion convulses Haiti



Local residents line up at the Park Vincent in Gonaives, Haiti, to receive food from the international non-governmental organization CARE, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2004. (AP Photo/Walter Astrada)


Right wing-led rebellion convulses Haiti
By Richard Dufour
12 February 2004

...

The Gonaïves rebel group has been widely portrayed in the press as a criminal gang, based in the city’s slums, that until recently enjoyed the patronage of Aristide and his Lavalas party. “But at its upper echelons,” reports the Washington Post, “the group appears to be led by former members of the Haitian military, dissolved in 1994 when Aristide returned to power, and the paramilitary group that opposed him.”

The paramilitary group to which the Post alludes was known as FRAPH. During the three-year rule of the military junta that deposed the first Aristide government in September 1991, FRAPH death squads carried out a campaign of terror aimed at stamping out support for Aristide, who because of his earlier opposition to the Duvalier dictatorship and promises of social reform enjoyed widespread popular support.

Among the very first actions taken by the U.S. marines who restored Aristide to power in 1994 was to raid FRAPH’s headquarters and seize thousands of documents. To this day, the U.S. government refuses to turn the FRAPH files over to Haitian authorities or to extradite Emmanuel Constant, FRAPH’s founder-leader. Constant, who now lives in New York, has admitted that he was a CIA operative.

Initially the opposition’s political leaders—a disparate group of businessmen, ex-Aristide supporters, former Duvalierists and supporters of the 1991 coup—refused to condemn the Gonaïves uprising. But with the United Nations warning of an imminent humanitarian crisis in Haiti and US newspaper editorialists raising fears that Haiti’s descent into civil war could trigger a massive influx of Haitian refugees, they began issuing statements disassociating themselves from the violence.

Their objective, however, remains unchanged. By provoking social chaos they hope to convince Washington to use its economi,c political and military might to force Aristide, whose term ends only in 2006, from office. André Apaid, a sweatshop owner who heads one of the two main opposition groups, declared, “We continue to maintain the nonviolent approach. But the sooner the international community recognizes that Mr. Aristide is the cause of the chaos, the sooner a peaceful process to a transition can take place. The more the wait, the more costly it will be to the United States and the world.”
more
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/feb2004/hait-f12.shtm...


Haiti Uprising Leaves at Least 47 Dead

By IAN JAMES
The Associated Press
Thursday, February 12, 2004; 2:32 AM

GONAIVES, Haiti - President Jean-Bertrand Aristide vowed to serve out the rest of his term despite an armed uprising that has left at least 47 dead, sparked looting and reprisal killings, and weakened his presidency.

The United States has ruled out intervention, but the White House rebuked Aristide's government for the violence and called on the leader to respect human rights.

Wearing stolen police helmets and carrying stolen weapons, rebels on Wednesday patrolled the streets of Gonaives, Haiti's fourth-largest city, in a search for detractors and government supporters. One accused government hitman was doused with gasoline and set ablaze; another was shot to death.

In the port city of St. Marc, south of Gonaives, police attacked rebels who were holed up in a slum and gunmen loyal to Aristide torched homes. Photographers saw three dead bodies with bullet wounds to their heads. Witnesses said the victims were anti-Aristide activists.

more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A35231-2004Feb...
http://www.iwar.org.uk/pipermail/infocon/2004-February/...

Haitian Rebels Take Over Another Town

Haitian rebels forced police out of another northern town and blocked a main road leading to the Dominican Republic, witnesses said Saturday as aid workers warned food was running out in northern cities and towns.

In Washington, members of the Organization of American States called on all parties to ensure a peaceful and democratic outcome to the 9-day-old rebellion aimed at ousting President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. About 50 people have died in the uprising.

Emergency supplies of flour, cooking oil, and other staples are projected to run out in four days in northern areas cut off by roadblocks guarded by rebels. The insurgents have seized Gonaives, Haiti's fourth-largest city, and burned down police stations in a dozen other towns.

more
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040214_686.html
http://www.ifa-usapray.org/IFI/HaitiPrayerAlerts/Haitia...



Haiti rebels plan offensive
15/02/2004 07:03 - (SA)

Bloody clashes in Haiti

Haiti disappoints US - Powell

Gonaives - Witnesses say police have fled two more towns as Haitian rebels seeking to topple President Jean-Bertrand Aristide brought in reinforcements from the neighbouring Dominican Republic, including the exiled former leader of the eighties death squads and a former police chief accused of fomenting a coup.

Twenty commandos have arrived in Haiti, led by Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a former Haitian soldier who headed army death squads in 1987 and a militia known as the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH, which killed and maimed dozens of people between 1992 and 1994.

Guy Philippe, a former police chief who fled to the Dominican Republic after being accused by the Haitian government of fomenting a coup in 2002, also arrived in Gonaives to help the rebels prepare for an expected showdown with the government.

Working with rebels
more
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_14...


Haiti Rebels Kill Police Chief, Officers

Haiti's rebellion spread to the central city of Hinche on Monday as rebels and former soldiers killed at least three officers at a police station. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide pleaded for foreign help to stop the bloodshed.

The rebels descended on the police station in Hinche, about 70 miles northwest of Port-au-Prince, according to a Haitian security official who spoke on condition of anonymity. They killed district police chief Maxime Jonas, pushed police out of the city and threatened government supporters, the official said.

About 50 rebels descended on the police station in Hinche, about 70 miles northwest of Port-au-Prince. They killed district police chief Maxime Jonas, pushed police out of the city and freed prisoners from the jail before burning the station.

Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a former Haitian soldier who led a paramilitary group known as the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH, which killed and maimed hundreds of people between 1991 and 1994, reportedly led the attack, according to witnesses.
more
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040216_1303.html
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-02/17/con...

Haiti rebels bring in reinforcements from Dominican Republic, fortify nort
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...


Posted on Mon, Feb. 16, 2004

Dominican government calls for more help for Haiti

PETER PRENGAMAN


SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - The Dominican government on Monday called for more international assistance to quell the Haitian uprising, saying the violence could hurt the Caribbean region.

Meanwhile, authorities suspended an open air border market frequented by hundreds of Haitians and Dominicans because of tensions over the killings of two Dominican soldiers last weekend.

Secretary of Foreign Relations Frank Guerrero Prats said Monday the situation in Haiti wouldn't be solved without the help of other countries.

"It's time for the international community, multilateral organizations and friendly governments to act with urgency to combat a worsening crisis that could be detrimental for the entire region," Guerrero said in a statement, responding to written questions by The Associated Press.

more
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/breaking_news ...
http://discuss.agonist.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1 ;action=display;threadid=16213;start=50


American missionaries leave violence-swept Haiti

Leaving behind an island aflame in civil strife, a planeload of American missionaries urged to leave Haiti flew into Palm Beach International Airport Tuesday.

"They're doing the best they can, but it's getting closer and closer to Cap Haitien," Hubele said...

..roadblocks and street violence of recent weeks were preventing missionary groups from getting supplies at the airports and distributing them around the island..

more
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/nation/79...

[seemslikeadream]

3. The Crisis in Haiti February 2004

Haiti rebels bring in reinforcements from Dominican Republic, fortify northern stronghold
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=365394
France May Send Troops to Quell Haiti Uprising


France may send troops to its strife torn former colony Haiti but first wants President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to push for talks to calm the country’s uprising.

The international community, including France, is ready to mobilise but “that supposes a spurt of effort by Haiti’s political class, that President Aristide commits himself to a respect of civil peace. That’s his first responsibility,” French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said today.

France has military resources at its overseas territories in the Caribbean near Haiti that could be rapidly deployed in the event of an emergency and a decision to intervene, de Villepin said.

Aristide has appealed for international help to quell the uprising that has killed more than 50 people and destabilised the country. Rebels have taken control of parts of the north and centre of Haiti.

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2541273

Powell Sees No Foreign Forces for Haiti for Now
13 minutes ago
By Saul Hudson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday all but ruled out foreign forces going to Haiti to quell an armed revolt despite spiraling violence and a surge in exiles returning to oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Criticized for doing too little to prevent spreading chaos in the poorest nation in the Americas, Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said his emphasis was on promoting a negotiated settlement through Caribbean mediators.

Last week, the top U.S. diplomat warned the opposition against trying to unseat Aristide and said he was talking to other countries in the region about possibly sending police to Haiti. On Tuesday, he made clear his preference was for police to be sent once the violence had abated.

"There is frankly no enthusiasm right now for sending in military or police forces to put down the violence that we are seeing," Powell told reporters.

more
http://haiti-info.com/article.php3?id_article=1304

French Considering Haiti Peacekeepers
1 hour, 12 minutes ago

By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Haiti's premier said his country was in the throes of a coup and appealed Tuesday for international help — even as Washington and Paris stated reluctance to use force to stop the blood uprising.

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin called an emergency meeting Tuesday to weigh the risks of sending peacekeepers and how otherwise to help the impoverished island, a former colony that is home to 2,000 French citizens.

"Can we deploy a peacekeeping force?" he asked on France-Inter radio, noting it "is very difficult" when a nation is in the midst of violence.

He said France had 4,000 troops in its Caribbean territories of Martinique and Guadeloupe trained in humanitarian work. "We are in contact with all of our partners in the framework of the United Nations (news - web sites), which has sent a humanitarian mission to Haiti to see what is possible."
more

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040217/ap ...


The A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition denounces any intervention by the Bush Administration against the democratically elected government of Haiti and its President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. We oppose the financial embargo of this Caribbean country by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank at the instruction of the U.S. government. We condemn any CIA support for the anti-democratic opposition and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) programs it has in Haiti to funnel money to the opposition.

Today Haiti faces a serious threat to its nascent democracy. Armed gangs led by disbanded military officers, right-wing FRAPH coup makers who overthrew President Aristide in his first term and then conducted a reign of terror, and the death squad Ton Ton Macoutes movement loyal to the old Duvalier regimes, are invading cities, burning police stations, killing and beating Lavalas Movement supporters, and attempting to violently remove the elected government from office.

The whole world (except the CIA and some business interests) took hope when the Haitian people, through the Lavalas Movement headed by former priest Jean Bertrand Aristide, came to office with a landslide victory in 1990. The whole world (except the CIA and some business interests) mourned when a military coup overthrew Aristide in 1991. Aristide is now serving again as elected president and the same forces that opposed him before continue their efforts to overthrow him.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. President Aristide's efforts to respond to the desperate needs of Haiti's poorest citizens has been crippled from the beginning by U.S. government manipulation of aid and international loans, and by a complete cut-off of international aid and loans since 2000. In a country as poor as Haiti, whose riches were looted by its colonial masters, cutting off international assistance has had a corrosive effect on society, opening the way for a re-emergence of the violent, right-wing forces of the past. A.N.S.W.E.R. demands that the U.S. government release all aid money appropriated by Congress for the Haitian government and to remove its block on international loans and grants.
(snip/...)

http://www.actionsf.org/ansst040212.htm


In a telephone interview from the Maryland jail where he is being held for deportation, Emmanuel Constant, the founder of FRAPH, said that from the moment American troops landed he was under pressure from the U.S. military to help it maintain a form of balance in Haiti between groups supporting President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and those opposing him.

Constant said he was told by the American military early in October 1994 that I should ease up the tension and avoid confrontation by giving a speech in which I promised to be a constructive opposition to Aristide. That speech was delivered soon afterward, and Constant maintained it was approved by the U.S. government, by the embassy people in advance.

In the interview, Constant acknowledged that he had been an informant of the Central Intelligence Agency before the American invasion but said he now feels betrayed. They have the wrong man in jail, he said. I've been an ally of the United States.

Haitian government officials and foreign diplomats here said it appeared the Defense Department and American intelligence agencies were acting to weaken Aristide, whom they had long distrusted. These officials suggested that U.S. government agencies might also have been trying to protect Haitian informants who might be useful in the future but had been discredited by the collapse of the military dictatorship that overthrew Aristide.
more
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/190.html
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/index-bab.html

Venezuela's Chavez Says U.S. Backed Coup

By ALEXANDRA OLSON
Associated Press Writer
February 17, 2004, 3:37 PM EST
CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez angrily accused the United States on Tuesday of backing a coup in 2002 and of helping Venezuela's opposition stage another attempt to overthrow him.

Chavez also accused the Bush administration of spreading lies about his government to justify its demise, saying it used similar tactics in Iraq, and of falsely charging Venezuela with supporting Colombian rebels.

He said the United States was providing hundreds of thousands of dollars to Venezuelan groups that organized a petition for a recall referendum on his rule -- and to groups that are plotting his ouster.

"The government of Washington is using the money of its people to support -- not only opposition activities -- but acts of conspiracy," Chavez said in a speech to small business owners.

"The government of the United States is attacking the Venezuelan people again, just like they attacked the people of Iraq," he added.

more
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20040216-094812-5466r.htm

American missionaries leave violence-swept Haiti

Leaving behind an island aflame in civil strife, a planeload of American missionaries urged to leave Haiti flew into Palm Beach International Airport Tuesday.

"They're doing the best they can, but it's getting closer and closer to Cap Haitien," Hubele said...

..roadblocks and street violence of recent weeks were preventing missionary groups from getting supplies at the airports and distributing them around the island..

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/nation/79 ...

U.S. Troops Not Likely Going to Haiti
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=370818

Rebels target Haiti's second-largest city


Frightened police barricaded themselves inside their station Wednesday and said they could not repel a threatened rebel attack on Haiti's second-largest city, the last major government bastion in the north. Officers in other towns deserted their posts with no guerrillas in sight.... There were fears that rebels have infiltrated the northern port and more were headed that way.

“We have machetes and guns, and we will resist,” carpenter Pierre Frandley said.

Even as police made clear they were too scared to patrol the streets of Cap-Haitien, militant defenders of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide vowed to take a stand against the 2-week-old rebellion,,,

Bush officials are privately discussing ideas for a possible constitutional succession before Mr. Aristide's term expires in February 2006...Haitian government spokesman Mario Dupuy called both options “unacceptable.” “They are tantamount to admitting the legitimacy of a coup d'état against the government,” he told The Associated Press.

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What is apparent is that Washington must install a new Latin American policymaking team on an emergency basis. The group of ideologues now holding key positions in the policymaking process is incapable of bringing a peaceful resolution of Haiti’s present grave situation. Realizing the past ineffectiveness of the OAS’ leadership and political will on the Haitian issue, the United Nations should make the increasingly perilous situation in Haiti an item on its agenda and quickly decide, on an expedited basis, to dispatch a collective police force to the island consisting of units from Haiti’s fellow CARICOM countries, as well as France and Canada. Secretary Powell, at this late date, also should instruct the country’s opposition that it either must participate in the country’s electoral process by negotiating with the government on various processes spelled out by the CARICOM and OAS initiatives, or be considered irrelevant.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Feb04/Birns-Leight0218.htm

Official: Aristide Rejects Calls for Vote (Haiti)


Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has rebuffed Bush administration suggestions that he convene early presidential elections as a way to defuse the country's accelerating political crisis, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday.

While rejecting any Haitian opposition efforts to remove Aristide by force, administration officials are privately discussing ideas for a possible constitutional succession before Aristide's term expires in February 2006.

U.S. officials worry that the current crisis would only worsen if Aristide is forced to flee. One option being discussed internally is a transfer of power, with Aristide's consent, to a temporary governing board made up of Haitians who would run the country until a new president was elected.

It is not clear how much support that proposal has at top levels of the administration. Haitian government spokesman Mario Dupuy said Port-au-Prince, the capital, that his government could not accept any proposal involving a change in the election date or an early handoff of power.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040218_1898.html

Secretary Powell’s Non-Policy towards Haiti

Secretary of State Colin Powell’s current policy toward Haiti can be described at best as irrelevant, and at worst as a covert effort to stand by as a coup de main comes down on Haitian democracy as a result of the forcible removal of President Aristide from office. Secretary Powell’s position is that dispatching a peace force to the island at this time is premature and that the proper procedure instead would be for the Aristide government to achieve a political settlement with the opposition prior to any decision about the introduction of outside forces.

Powell’s stance is completely devoid of credibility since it condemns Haiti to precisely what the Secretary of State has previously stated that the U.S. wanted to avoid: “regime change” through an extra-constitutional change of government in Haiti whereby “the elected president . . . is forced out of office by thugs.” A peace force is needed now, when a constitutionally-elected government risks being overthrown by an opposition that increasingly is being taken over by armed war criminals from the era of military rule, and not, in the unlikely eventuality after a political settlement occurs, when presumably such forces would no longer be required.

One therefore must conclude that U.S. policy is now definitively characterized by a two tier strategy: on the one hand, Powell places Washington on the side of the rest of the hemispheric community in committing the U.S. solidly against recognizing the forcible overthrow of a democratically-elected government, as codified by OAS resolutions at Lima and Santiago. On the other hand, Washington paradoxically comes forth with a paradigm that inevitably will lead to the demise of constitutional rule in Haiti – something that his sadly inadequate Latin American team of ideologues, led by Roger Noriega and Otto Reich, have been whispering about for many weeks, namely regime change and the removal of Aristide through some unspecified process.

The Reality in Haiti

Interested overseas parties have joined Powell in stressing that outside forces would be introduced only after a political settlement had occurred between contending forces in Haiti. Powell has been joined by his French and Canadian counterparts in laying down a scenario whereby the outside community “would come forward with a police presence to implement the political agreement the sides come to.” But this formula flouts dramatic realities on the ground. To begin, the legitimate government of Haiti is being threatened by a relatively small group of armed militants against which the country’s 4,000-member untrained and under-equipped police force cannot adequately cope. Furthermore, most of the violence up to now has been at the hands of the so-called non-violent opposition, and is now being joined by increasingly violent factions. The island’s most influential of opposition faction, the Group of 184, subscribes to a “zero-option” strategy whereby it adamantly refuses to enter into a dialogue, let alone be prepared to negotiate with the Aristide government under any terms or conditions. This policy is central to the opposition’s survival because such negotiations, if successful, would lead to elections which its candidates would almost certainly lose.
http://www.coha.org/NEW_PRESS_RELEASES/New_Press_Releases_2004/04.09_Secretary_Powell%27s_Non-Policy_Towards_Haiti.htm


U.S. Sending Military Assessment Team to Haiti

The United States is assembling a small military team to travel to Haiti to assess the security situation and gauge whether the American Embassy is properly protected amid political violence in the Caribbean nation, U.S. defense officials said on Thursday.
A military team of three or four people from U.S. Southern Command, based in Miami, is due to travel to Haiti within 48 hours at the request of U.S. Ambassador James Foley, said chief Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita.
http://www.sabcnews.com/world/south_america/0,2172,74377,00.html


Haitian Rebels Give Aristide Ultimatum
Rebels in Haiti are threatening to "liberate" the capital if President Jean-Bertrand Aristide does not step down.

New rebel leader Guy Philippe has urged the international community Thursday, to convince Mr. Aristide to resign quickly -- or else the rebels will take over the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince and other cities.
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http://english.epochtimes.com/news/4-2-19/19981.htm


U.S. to Send Military Team to Haiti

(AP) - The Bush administration said Thursday it would send a military team to Haiti to assess the security of that country and its embattled leader, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The Pentagon announcement came as Aristide declared he was "ready to give my life" to defend Haiti, indicating he was not prepared to give up power.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/fc?cid=34&tmpl=fc&in=World&...
Ottawa set to deliver ultimatum to Aristide


Ottawa and Port-au-Prince — Canada, the United States and other Western countries are sending a high-level delegation to Haiti to demand that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide replace his prime minister, release political prisoners, reform the police and begin dealing with other opposition demands.

Mr. Aristide has already promised to do these things, but he doesn't seem to be following through, Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham said yesterday.

"We've agreed, all of us, to a joint démarche to say, 'Look, you've got to live up to your obligations,'." Mr. Graham told reporters as pro-Aristide gangs tried to gain control in parts of Haiti.
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Americans Flee Haiti as Police Abandon More Outposts in Rebellion
Government Supporters Burn Homes

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Americans began fleeing Haiti on Friday after insurgents torched police outposts and threatened new attacks in a spreading rebellion against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who defiantly declared he's ready to die for his nation.

In Haiti's west, pro-Aristide supporters burned down homes in a seaside neighborhood and fired guns above the heads of residents who jumped into the ocean for safety.

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http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAVEALEWQD.html


Haiti rebels declare independence and Americans leave
A rag-tag band of rebels who have seized more than a dozen towns in northern Haiti yesterday declared themselves an independent country and named a government and president.

Some 20,000 people watched in the main square of the city as rebel leader, Buter Metayer, arrived for a rally, after the insurgents named him their president.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1152342,00.html



As I write this there is an attempt to start a civil war in Haiti, engineered in the United States of America and supported by its lapdogs in Caricom and the Organization of American States. Former Haitian military men who have received "some form" of training and logistical support while hiding out in the neighboring US semi-colony, the Dominican Republic, are systematically attacking the Haitian National Police at primary strategic points along the entire route from Port-au-Prince to the Dominican Border near Ouanaminthe. Only Cap Haitien has not fallen so far as St Marc, Gonaives, and Trou du Nord a town at a key bridge between the border and Cap Haitien has been ransacked by right-wing paramilitaries, who are the armed wing of a US-funded "opposition" that cloaks itself in the name Convergence Democratique, and now falsely claims no connection with this activity.

The ridiculous names like Gonaives Resistance Front that these right-wing paramilitaries have assigned themselves are already being echoed in the capitalist press, which also refers to them, idiotically, as "rebels," and to their activities as the activities of "crowds." A contact I spoke with hours ago who returned from Port-au-Prince today told me that the real crowds are those who are fleeing these fascist coup operations in the North and the massive PRO-Aristide demonstrations in the capital. This contact said the situation here is very similar in many respects to the US-supported attempt to overthrow another democratically elected government, that of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.
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http://www.counterpunch.org/goff02142004.html


Haiti's police flee rebels in droves
Haiti's poorly trained and equipped police — accused of crimes ranging from brutalizing suspects to trafficking in drugs — is putting up little resistance as rebels move against the government.

"We do not know who we are protecting," said Cpl. Louis Larieux, 40, a rookie policeman in the capital, Port-au-Prince. "Things are bad. We don't have the reinforcements."

Although they look menacing in their black knee pads, helmets and bullet proof vests, the fear is visible on their faces when dealing with rioters.

Confronted by rebels including ex-soldiers from Haiti's disbanded army, their inclination has been to run. Paid the equivalent of $125 a month, they number fewer than 4,000. But it's not known exactly how many remain on the job...
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CARE Haiti launches largest urban food distribution in 50 years
Gonaïves, Haiti (Feb. 17, 2004) -- CARE is launching the largest urban food distribution in its 50 years of work in Haiti, the international humanitarian organization said Tuesday. The emergency relief action should be enough to meet important needs of the entire population of the city of Gonaïves. Civil unrest has effectively cut off Gonaïves from the rest of the country, creating food shortages and high prices.
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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/1077310295 ...


Aristide Supporters Attack Students in Haiti
Supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide armed with guns, rocks and machetes attacked an opposition student march in the Haitian capital on Friday as foreigners fled the country torn by an armed rebellion.
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http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=4735829