Haiti in the News
Archives: 4/04-12/05

Denial in Haiti  12/31/2005 Consortium News: "Major U.S. news organizations, including the New York Times, also have had to grapple with star reporters, like Judith Miller, who shed professional skepticism and parroted administration propaganda as news. A similar issue has now arisen in Haiti, where a stringer for the Times and the Associated Press appears to have done work for the U.S.-funded National Endowment for Democracy. After the story broke, the AP severed its relationship with the stringer and the Times is investigating."

Denial in Haiti: AP reporter REGINE is wearing two hats ( 0)  12/30/2005 Haiti Action: "Regine Alexandre, whose name appears as an AP by-line at least a dozen times starting in May of 2004, and appears as a contributor to two NY Times stories, is a part of an NED "experiment" to place a representative on the ground in countries where the NED has funded groups."

Lavalas base reconfirms support for jailed priest, condemns sham elections  9/21/2005 SF Bay View: "Cell phones and fixed telephone lines were lit up for most of the day Sunday with communications between hundreds of meetings held throughout Haiti by members of Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s Lavalas party, Haiti’s largest political party. The primary topic was the development of a response to the decision of Haiti’s electoral council (CEP) to bar Catholic priest Gérard Jean-Juste as their Lavalas presidential candidate."

Masked Haitian police took Kevin Pina and Jean Ristil away today Demand their immediate release - contact info below  9/15/2005 SF Bay View

5,000 soccer fans witness Haitian police machete massacre  8/31/2005 SF Bay View

20 Massacred in Port-au-Prince Soccer Stadium, Jailed Jean-Juste Mulls Presidential Run  8/26/2005 Democracy Now

35 killed in latest Haiti unrest  8/12/2005 Agence France Press: "The staggering figure came as nine suspected criminals were killed in a police operation in the Port-au-Prince slum of Bel Air today, police said. Police this week have conducted raids in Port-au-Prince neighbourhoods considered bastions of supporters of former president Jean Bertrand Aristide, who fled the country amid a popular uprising last year." The French do not want to forgive Aristide his demand that they return the reparations Haiti was forced to pay for daring to be free of colonialism.

Haiti frees rebel leader blamed in deaths  8/12/2005 AP: "A Haitian rebel leader who once led a paramilitary group accused of killing and torturing thousands of people has been released from prison, his lawyer said Friday. Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a leader of the armed uprising that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February 2004, was released Thursday from the National Penitentiary, attorney Stanley Gaston said. Chamblain, 51, was jailed in April 2004 on two counts of murder. He was acquitted but kept in prison while authorities investigated allegations that he masterminded a 1993 fire that devastated part of Cite Soleil, a vast waterfront shantytown outside of Port-au-Prince, Gaston said."

Murdering Haiti  8/10/2005 SF Bay View

U.S. sends guns to Haiti before elections  8/6/2005 AP: "The United States will provide Haitian police with firearms and tear gas to aid the fight against militants ahead of elections this fall, the American ambassador said Friday. The shipment is an exception to the arms embargo that the United States imposed on the Caribbean nation in 1991, U.S. Ambassador James Foley said. "Given the state of insecurity in this country, the attempts to create chaos, we had to do our best to protect the people from the forces of insecurity and criminality,'' Foley said. U.S. officials previously acknowledged giving 2,600 used firearms to the Haitian National Police last year to help re-equip and professionalize the force. Haitian officials have claimed that police are outgunned by gangs and militants, some of whom are loyal to ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Human rights groups, however, have alleged that the force is corrupt and brutal and responsible for unjustified killings. Foley did not specify the arrival date for the $1.9 million shipment, which officials said will include some 3,000 handguns, several hundred rifles and tear gas."

UN admits Haiti force is not up to the job it faces  7/30/2005 Independent, UK: "International forces in Haiti are to be bolstered by hundreds of extra troops following an admission by the UN's top peacekeeping official that the soldiers it has are not sufficiently trained and equipped. The move comes amid mounting evidence that UN forces may have recently killed up to two dozen civilians."

Wave of protest condemns UN massacre of poor in Haiti - Protest campaign spreads to 5 countries and 15 cities  7/27/2005 SF Bay View

Why the U.S. and France hate Haiti  7/27/2005 SF Bay View

July 6, 2005: Haiti, the Gaza Strip of the Caribbean  7/20/2005 SF Bay View: “Two helicopters flew overhead. At 4:30 a.m., UN forces launched the offensive, shooting into houses, shacks, a church and a school with machine guns, tank fire and tear gas. Eyewitnesses reported that when people fled to escape the tear gas, UN troops gunned them down from the back.” – from a report by a San Francisco-based labor/human rights delegation that was in Haiti on Wednesday, July 6, when UN forces committed a massacre against the residents of the neighborhood of Cité Soleil"

Protest UN ‘peacekeeper’ massacres in Haiti  7/20/2005 SF Bay View: "According to the eyewitness account from a Haitian (who shall remain anonymous for this report) who was present in Cité Soleil during the operation and who did get some film footage of the operation as it unfolded, a very different picture emerges. Like the official UN account, he reported that UN forces surrounded Cité Soleil, sealing off the alleys with APCs and troops. He reported that not one, but two helicopters flew overhead. From this point on, his account diverges considerably from the official UN account. He reported that at 4:30 a.m., UN forces launched the offensive, shooting into houses, shacks, a church and a school with machine guns, APC cannons and tear gas. The eyewitness reported that when people fled to escape the tear gas, UN troops gunned them down from the back. UN forces shot out electric transformers in the neighborhood. People were killed in their homes and also just outside of their homes, on the way to work. According to this account, one man named Leon Cherry, 46, was shot and killed on his way to work for a flower company. Another man, Mones Belizaire, was shot as he got ready to go to work in a local sweatshop and subsequently died from a stomach infection. A woman who was a street vendor was shot in the head and killed instantly. One man was shot in his ribs while he was trying to brush his teeth. Another man was shot in the jaw as he left his house to try and get some money for his wife’s medical costs; he endured a slow death. Yet another man named Mira was shot and killed while urinating in his home. A mother, Sonia Romelus, and her two young children were killed in their home, reportedly by UN fire after UN forces lobbed a 83-CC gas grenade into their home. The video footage taken by this eyewitness during the operation shows many of these killings while they were occurring. While it does not show images of the UN troops as they were firing into the community, one can view at least 10 unarmed people either in the process of being killed or who were already killed."

Washington pressed to consider re-sending US forces to Haiti  6/5/2005 AFP

UN covers for Haiti’s killer cops, threatens American journalist  5/25/2005 SF Bay View

Join the Free Haiti Movement by Marguerite Laurent, Esq.  5/18/2005 SF Bay View

The Reporters Without Borders Fraud  5/13/2005 Marguerite Laurent: [This article deals only marginally with Haiti, but it is crucial to understand the context of RSF's anti Lavalas bias and their reporting on Haiti that has been severely lacking in objectivity. D. Esser] "The strong suspicions that have surrounded the dubious and partisan activities of Reporters without Boarders (RSF) were not unfounded. For many years, various critics have denounced the largely political actions of the Parisian entity, particularly with regards to Cuba and Venezuela, whose characteristics that utilizes propaganda is obvious. The positions of RSF against the governments of Havana and Caracas are found in perfect correlation with the political and media war that Washington carries out against the Cuban and Venezuelan revolutionaries. Finally the truth has come to light. Mr. Robert Ménard, secretary general of the RSF for twenty years, has confessed to receiving financing from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an organization that depends on the U.S. Department of State, whose principal role is to promote the agenda of the White House for the entire world. Ménard was indeed very clear. “We indeed receive money from the NED. And that hasn’t posed any problem.” (1) Former U.S. president, Ronald Reagan, created the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in 1983, during a period in which military violence took the place of traditional diplomacy in order to resolve international matters."

S.Africa's ANC seeks Aristide return to Haiti  5/13/2005 Reuters: "South Africa's ruling ANC party intensified its campaign on Friday for the return to Haiti of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide as part of a drive to restore order and end bloodshed in the Caribbean country. Aristide was forced to leave Haiti 14 months ago in the face of an armed rebellion and pressure from Washington and Paris, and now lives in exile in South Africa. He says his expulsion amounted to a coup and failed to bring peace to his country of 8 million people, the poorest country in the Americas. "The constitutional order must be restored, which should include the creation of conditions for the return of all exiles, including President Aristide, and the organisation of free, peaceful and fair democratic elections," the African National Congress (ANC) said in its weekly newsletter. In a scathing commentary on events in Haiti, the ANC urged the United Nations to work with regional groups like the Caribbean Community (Caricom) to end what it said was the persecution of members of Aristide's Lavalas party, illegal arrests and summary executions. "Urgent steps need to be taken to end the brutalisation of Haiti's population and open the way for a meaningful national dialogue towards the restoration of the country's constitutional order," the ANC said."

Cité Soleil under siege: Haiti’s elite, UN and fat cat NGOs paralyzed  4/27/2005 SF Bay View: "Evidence shows these poor neighborhoods have been victims to fragmentation and incendiary type bombs lobbed into the community by UN forces over the past few days. One victim of the shrapnel explained: “We were sleeping when the bomb exploded. It sent metal fragments to kill people everywhere. It landed in a large pool of water that became filled with fire before exploding. It nearly burned down my house. At first I didn’t feel anything, but my son said I was bleeding from my side.” A Lavalas militant stated, “The Jordanians are the most brutal among the UN forces. We are not stupid. We realize the Jordanian people could never live up to the one-man one-vote formula dictated to us by the international community. We have contact with Jordanians who say they are living under an undemocratic dictatorship in their own country. “What has the U.S. promised them in military aid to oppress our people in the name of democracy? Look it up in the record. Every single nation that is participating in the UN coalition in Haiti receives large funding from the Pentagon. All we ask is that you do your homework."

US admits 2,600 weapons sent to Haiti  4/24/2005 Scotsman: "THE US government gave more than 2,600 weapons to bolster Haiti’s controversial police force last year despite allegations of human rights abuses and a more than 13-year-old arms embargo, officials at the State Department and US Embassy said. The officials rejected allegations of a massive $7m shipment of arms and ammunition to Haiti in 2004, but conceded that the US had given a smaller amount of arms to the Haitian government in the form of bilateral assistance. An official at the State Department added that the US government was considering a request by the Haitian government to approve the sale of an additional $1.9m in weapons this year."

Denuncia Aristide que EEUU y Francia cometen un holocausto negro en Haití  4/22/2005 Jiribilla

Time for Apologies - The Brazilian Military and Human Rights in Haiti  4/13/2005 NarcoNews: "At the end of March the international GNO Global Justice Center and the Human Rights Program of Harvard University released a report that shook the trust of the international community in the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), commanded by Brazilian troops. The report not only claims that the peace forces are not fulfilling the mandate, but also actually accuses them of violating human rights. “The time for excuses if over,” says the report (PDF). Global Justice president James Cavallaro teaches law at Harvard and has been denouncing the human rights situation in Brazil for many years. He was in the country twice, in December 2004 and February of this year, together with other researchers, to talk to and gather information about the work of the troops. He gave Narco News the following interview:"

Police kill Haitian rebel leader  4/9/2005 BBC: "Haitian police have killed a prominent rebel leader in a suburb of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Ravix Remissainthe was one of the key figures in a three-week uprising that ousted former President Jean-Bernard Aristide, who fled Haiti last year. Ravix was wanted by police in connection with the murder of four officers in February and several other attacks on police stations."

Disarming Haitian Gangs Is A Tough Task For U.N. Peacekeepers  3/27/2005 AP: on Black News

Haiti: The price of freedom  3/25/2005 Progreso Weekly: "The most unfortunate of American nations was the only one on earth obligated to pay in gold for its liberty. In 1814, France demanded 150 million francs because, due to its revolution, it lost its most prosperous colony where 450,000 slaves, exploited by 40,000 whites, produced almost all of the sugar and coffee that Europe consumed. There was bartering and the figure was rounded off to 90 million. When in 1883 all payments were terminated, Paris recognized Haiti’s independence. In 2003, 189 years later, Jean Bertrand-Aristide, the only Haitian president elected on two occasions, demanded that the contribution be returned which he calculated to currently represent 21.685 million dollars. Jacques Chirac sent Regis Debray who, with the ambiguity that characterizes him, acknowledged the legitimacy of the charge as much as the repayment demanded. But instead of paying, France joined the U.S. in removing Aristide from the presidential palace at gunpoint, and sending him to the confines of Africa."

Police brutality in Port au Prince puts UN mandate to the test  3/23/2005 SF Bay View: "On Monday, Feb. 28, Haitian National Police opened fire on several thousand unarmed demonstrators in Bel Air, killing five and wounding dozens. Brazilian troops, part of the United Nations MINUSTAH mission in Haiti, witnessed the incident and did not intervene at the time. This is not the first time that the UN has witnessed extrajudicial executions by the Haitian National Police without intervening. In fact they have been directly involved in training the police, so they are not merely casual observers but also shoulder a heavy burden of responsibility for the widespread police violence since the overthrow of the democratically elected government."

Yvon Neptune and Haiti's Political Prisoners - Jailed Without Charges  3/16/2005 Counterpunch: "On March 9, Senators Christopher Dodd (D-CT), Tom Harkin (D-IO), James Jeffords (I-VT) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) sent a letter to interim Prime Minister Latortue, in which they wrote, "If no charges have been brought against Mr. Neptune, we demand that he be immediately released." That same day, a UN Security Council press statement on Haiti was issued, emphasizing Neptune's imprisonment and calling on the government to "expedite all pending cases and to ensure due process for all citizens." The senators' letter and the Security Council statement follow on the heels of Representative Maxine Waters' (D-CA) March 7 trip to Haiti, during which she met with Neptune and fellow inmates Jocelerme Privert, Aristide's former minister of the interior, and Jacques Mathelier, a former executive delegate. Unhesitatingly calling the men political prisoners, she issued a press release demanding that, "The interim government's repression of dissenters like Prime Minister Neptune must end immediately. The whole world is watching." Arrested June 27, 2004, Neptune, along with Privert, is accused, but not yet charged, with killings that occurred in Saint Marc during the 2004 revolt against Aristide. Most independent observers have concluded that the accusations are without foundation."

Aristide, one year later  3/16/2005 SF Bay View: "Exclusive interview with Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Pretoria, South Africa"

Aristide's Lavalas puts UN duplicity to the test in Haiti  3/16/2005 SF Bay View: "Evidence continues to mount of the United Nation's complicity in an on-going campaign by the U.S.-installed government of Gerard Latortue to terrorize and exterminate sympathizers of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's political party, known as Lavalas. Despite detailed documentation of innumerable massacres committed by the Police Nationale de Haiti (PNH) over the last five months, the UN insisted in a new report released on Feb. 25 that "the general security environment across Haiti has improved." "

Walking a tightrope between hope and fear: Northern Haiti one year after the coup  3/16/2005 SF Bay View: "During the first months of the coup, repression against Aristide supporters was especially severe in this area. People reported that pro-democracy activists and their families were rounded up and stuffed into shipping containers then left to die at sea, thousands of elected officials fled to the mountains, radio stations were burned, and schools and literacy programs closed down."

Aristide, one year later - Exclusive interview with Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Pretoria, South Africa  2/23/2005 SF Bay View

Haiti’s coup regime slammed at World Social Forum in Brazil  2/16/2005 SF Bay View

Haiti: Human rights situation critical  2/15/2005 Washington Times

Father Gérard Jean-Juste brings a message of unity to the Bay Area  2/2/2005 SF Bay View: "Last weekend hundreds of Californians had the honor of hearing the words of Father Gerard Jean-Juste, beloved Haitian liberation theologian and recently released political prisoner. California was his last stop on a long journey across continents through Miami and Washington, D.C., to South Africa and back again."

UN peacekeepers exchange fire with gunmen in Haiti  1/6/2005 AP

UN peacekeepers storm Haiti slum  12/15/2004 BBC: the UN doing the US's dirty work - "Hundreds of troops moved into the Cite Soleil district by land, sea and air. The UN says they will stay for at least two months before handing control to local police. Cite Soleil is a stronghold of the former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's supporters, and often witnesses factional violence. Dozens of people are said to have been killed since fighting increased in early September in the area, home to 500,000 people."

Hundreds of UN troops invade Port au Prince ‘hood  12/15/2004 SF Bay View: "Sustained and heavy gunfire erupted in the pro-Aristide neighborhood of Cité Soleil at about 3 a.m. Tuesday morning, followed by an incursion into the area by hundreds of Brazilian and Jordanian troops of the United Nations."

From Thugs to Freedom Fighters to Thugs Haiti is Unraveling and No One is Saying Anything  12/14/2004 Counterpunch: "Surprisingly, not even Annan's personal representative in the country, the highly regarded Chilean diplomat Juan Gabriel Valdés, has vigorously condemned Latortue and his cronies. To the contrary, Annan and his aides have bestowed a modicum of undeserved political legitimacy on the new government by acquiescing, at every step, to Secretary Powell's see-no-evil policy regarding the egregious excesses of the Latortue regime and its multiple sins of omission. Annan has shown little intent to protect the legitimacy of the constitutional process nor has he insisted that Aristide be accorded the respect due to a democratically-elected president. Annan also joined Powell in demanding that Aristide negotiate with the opposition (to which Aristide willingly agreed), thereby eventually hoodwinking the former President into exile. Nor did Annan raise questions regarding Aristide's imposed successor, the expatriate Latortue, who later was to pathetically describe those who Powell earlier had labeled "thugs," as "freedom fighters." Of course, these were the same "freedom fighters" who terrorized the countryside during General Raoul Cedras' 1991-1994 military regime, and were responsible for upwards of 5,000 civilian deaths."

"We Must Kill the Bandits!" Lula's Troops in Haiti  11/17/2004 Counterpunch: "In an interview broadcast October 8 on Haiti's Radio Metropole, UN Commander General Augusto Heleno Ribero Pereira of Brazil showed his true colors. Discussing police raids in poor neighborhoods, he declared, "we must kill the bandits [i.e. Aristide supporters] but it will have to be the bandits only, not everybody." The general ignored the killers and thugs freed by anti-Aristide paramilitaries who broke open jails as they took over a number of towns in the winter of 2004. UN forces cooperate with these paramilitaries, many of whom helped overthrow Aristide in 1991. The Haiti Accompaniment Project cited "numerous reports that the UN military command in the North coordinates its activities with Guy Philippe, the rebel leader who is responsible for major human rights violations including assassinations in the period preceding the coup."...Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva recently commented, "Our solidarity is being tested by the Caribbean crisis in Haiti." In truth, it is the solidarity of international activists with Lula's government that is being tested. As Brazil angles for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, many progressives around the world cannot help but wonder how much complicity with brutal repression Lula will countenance in order to look "credible" to Washington."

Haiti: Police kill child in neighborhood shooting spree  11/17/2004 SF Bay View

Haitian Asylum-Seeker Dies in Immigration Custody; Haitian Rights Coalition Calls for Full Investigation  11/17/2004 US NewsWire

U.S. lifts arms embargo to Haiti as violence grows  11/2/2004 Final Call

Media Disinformation on Haiti  10/25/2004 Global Research

Haiti cop killed in street-clearing raid  10/25/2004 IOL, South Africa

Defaming Mr Mbeki  10/21/2004 Jamaica Observer: "We, however, are having to re-assess our analysis of Mr Latortue and are edging towards the conclusion that the interim prime minister's frequent outbursts are not the result of ineptitude, but part of some grand strategy, whose end-game we have not determined. For how else can we explain Mr Latortue's latest statement about a respected world leader, whose hue and view of the world Mr Latortue may not have found to be endearing? We, of course, refer to Mr Latortue's comment on Sunday that Mr Thabo Mbeki, the prime minister of South Africa, was failing to respect international law, ostensibly for providing asylum to the deposed Mr Aristide."

Haiti: Rebellion in Bel Air  10/20/2004 SF Bay View

Haiti on alert as tensions rise  10/16/2004 BBC

Cuban doctors continue saving lives in Haiti  10/14/2004 Granma

D.C. Group Blames Powell, Latortue For Violence In Haiti  10/13/2004 HardbeatNews

Cuban doctors continue saving lives in Haiti - A 64-strong brigade is currently working in Gonaïves, badly damaged by Hurricane Jeanne  10/13/2004 SF Bay View

Aristide Calls For Dialogue In Haiti  10/12/2004 HardbeatNews

Haiti’s Gerard Pierre-Charles Is Dead  10/12/2004 HardbeatNews

Senate chairman arrested in Haiti  10/3/2004 BBC: "Police have arrested Haiti's Senate president and two other politicians, all of them supporters of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The arrests are linked to the killing and beheading of three police officers… The headless bodies of three police officers were found on Friday, sparking fears that Mr Aristide's most violent supporters might be imitating Iraqi kidnappers. They policemen are believed to have been killed during violent rallies in support of Mr Aristide's return from his exile in South Africa. "Aristide's partisans have begun an urban guerrilla operation they call Operation Baghdad," said human rights activist Jean-Claude Bajeux. "The decapitations are imitative of those in Iraq, and they are meant to show the failure of US policy in Haiti." " Bajeux is a former Arisitide minister who turned against him.

The Tragedy of Haiti: Victims of the Storms  9/30/2004 Black Commentator

Agony piled on agony in Haiti  9/26/2004 BBC

Cuba has 600 doctors and health experts in Haiti  9/22/2004 AFP

China will send troops to Haiti  9/6/2004 Washington Times

Haiti as Imperial Prison - The Attica of the Americas  8/29/2004 Counterpunch

‘We still have dignity’  8/18/2004 SF Bay View: "The dismantling of popular education under the new U.S-backed regime in Haiti by Haiti Information Project"

Haiti has not been forgotten  8/16/2004 Final Call: "In essence, then, we cannot get over, or get beyond, what has taken place in Haiti. In large part, this is because the effects of the events of February 2004 in Haiti continue to unfold. It is also because the motivations behind the Bush administration’s duplicity and destabilization in Haiti remain central to their approach to handling other international flash points. Unless the underlying approach is challenged and ultimately rejected, we will never be able to get over February 29th, because that will be only one day in a terrible line of infamies."

Activists across US launch week of support for protests in Haiti  8/12/2004 SF Bay View: "Beginning a week of non-violent demonstrations in the United States, representatives of the Bay Area-based Haiti Action Committee today called for all people of conscience to support the Haitian people’s ongoing struggle for basic freedoms. The U.S. actions are in support of peaceful protests being staged under dire conditions in Haiti. The Haiti demonstrations will be held in the area of Cap-Haitien and Milot in the North of Haiti Aug. 12-14. That region has seen brutal crackdowns on the popular mass movement Lavalas by paramilitary forces. Meanwhile, candlelight vigils, pickets and teach-ins are planned in various U.S. cities in solidarity with Haiti."

Revolutionary greetings from Ayiti (Haiti)  8/12/2004 SF Bay View

Gonsalves Challenges Caricom on Haiti  8/5/2004 Haiti Action Net: "Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent & the Grenadines, says he has no intention of sitting down in the councils of Caricom with any representative of the so-called Government of Haiti. He says he will not consider the presence of Haitian represntatation in Caricom until certain minimum conditios are met –principally, the restoration of democracy and the stabilisation of law and order."

Human rights horrors in Haiti  8/4/2004 SF Bay View: "The May 2000 elections were not flawed and neither were the presidential elections. Out of over 7,000 positions, a mere eight were disputed, seven of which involved Lavalas candidates. The dispute, importantly, had nothing to do with the election process to the extent that they were deemed “free and fair” without any significant violence or disruption. The dispute was over the process of tabulation, which should have seen these eight seats go to a runoff vote. Desperate for anything that might cast aspersions on the overwhelmingly popular Lavalas party, and to bolster their destabilization efforts, the “opposition” with help from their “friends of Haiti,” proceeded to blow this minor instance out of proportion. The head of the CEP (Provisional Electoral Council), Leon Manus, was evidently in on the destabilization plan, as he was reportedly involved in the Oct. 17 attempt - by seven School of the Americas-trained paramilitaries, including Guy Philippe - to overthrow President Preval before the November elections."

In re-ignited Haitian Revolution, which side is Cruising Into History on?  8/4/2004 SF Bay View: "Haitians at the forum who strongly support democracy and oppose rule-by-force expressed concerns about the mission of the Ron Daniels’ cruise, to celebrate Haiti’s independence when the Haitian people are today not free and an unelected government is in control with foreign troop support and former FRAPH convicted felons, drug dealers, rapists and ex-Haitian military have appointed themselves judge, jury and executioner of Haitian law and justice in contravention to the will of the peaceful masses in Haiti. They say Daniels’ cruise should not be allowed to be used by the Latortue regime as “evidence” of the legitimacy of their unconstitutional rule nor as pretext to further oppress and brutalize the Haitian people struggling to regain their independence and sovereignty."

In re-ignited Haitian Revolution, which side is Cruising Into History on?  8/4/2004 SF Bay View: "Haitians at the forum who strongly support democracy and oppose rule-by-force expressed concerns about the mission of the Ron Daniels’ cruise, to celebrate Haiti’s independence when the Haitian people are today not free and an unelected government is in control with foreign troop support and former FRAPH convicted felons, drug dealers, rapists and ex-Haitian military have appointed themselves judge, jury and executioner of Haitian law and justice in contravention to the will of the peaceful masses in Haiti. They say Daniels’ cruise should not be allowed to be used by the Latortue regime as “evidence” of the legitimacy of their unconstitutional rule nor as pretext to further oppress and brutalize the Haitian people struggling to regain their independence and sovereignty."

CARICOM leaders won’t recognize Haiti  7/26/2004 Final Call

Haitian rebels still armed  7/24/2004 AP: "Under international pressure, the new government has ordered factions to give up their guns in less than two months, but it has shown little willingness to confront ex-soldiers controlling parts of the countryside despite the presence of United Nations peacekeepers. The rebels, for their part, say no one can force them to disarm."

Street children who supported President Aristide still being imprisoned and killed - 3,000 march on Aristide’s birthday anyhow  7/21/2004 SF Bay View

Did the Bush Administration Allow a Network of Right-Wing Republicans to Foment a Violent Coup in Haiti?  7/20/2004 Democracy Now: "We speak with Max Blumenthal contibutor to Salon.com and author of a new investigative piece that examines the role of the United States in destabilizing the democratically-elected government of Jean Bertrand-Aristide through the International Republican Institute, a federally-funded [frequently by NED], nonprofit political group backed by powerful Republicans close to the Bush administration."

Human Rights Violations in Haiti - February - May 2004  7/19/2004 Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti: "This document contains a partial list of human rights violations reported to the staff of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) from the end of February until mid-May 2004. The report focusses on attacks against grassroots activists and residents of poor urban and rural areas in Haiti, the type of victims whose stories are often overlooked in reporting on Haiti. The report contains several graphic photographs of victims of human rights violations. Although the photographs are disturbing, they are accurate reflections of Haiti's extremely disturbing reality. By presenting the situation in its entirety, we hope to decrease the chances that others will suffer the same fate."

Wyclef Jean gives Montreal hip hop crew some exposure on his new CD  7/17/2004 CP: Jean was anti-aristide prior to the coup - "Jean, who sings in Creole on the disc, hopes his project will bring attention to Haiti's political woes. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's former president, was forced from office early this year by rebels. "I hope to see a restoration of peace," said Jean, noting Canada is doing its part by sending police officers later this month to help restore stability in the state."

Haiti's PM blames media for problems with Caricom  7/17/2004 Trinidad Express

Senate votes to end Haiti clothes duties  7/16/2004 AP

Caribbean Leaders See Hope for Haiti Ties  7/16/2004 Black America Web: "Five Caribbean foreign ministers say they were satisfied with Haiti’s pledge to hold elections and uphold justice, indicating the path has been cleared for resuming diplomatic ties. The delegation soon will make a report to the 15-member Caribbean Community, Barbados Foreign Affairs Minister Billie Miller said. It remained unclear how soon the regional bloc could decide on restoring ties that have been suspended since the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide four months ago. "We hope that this impasse will come to an end soon," Miller told reporters Wednesday, standing beside interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue at Port-au-Prince's airport."

Haiti Donor Conference Will Be Crucial Test of International Community's Commitment  7/16/2004 Oxfam

The other regime change  7/16/2004 Salon: "On Feb. 8, 2001, the federally funded International Republican Institute's (IRI) senior program officer for Haiti, Stanley Lucas, appeared on the Haitian station Radio Tropicale to suggest three strategies for vanquishing Haiti's president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. First, Lucas proposed forcing Aristide to accept early elections and be voted out; second, he could be charged with corruption and arrested; and finally, Lucas raised dealing with Aristide the way the Congolese people had dealt with President Laurent Kabila the month before. "You did see what happened to Kabila?" Lucas asked his audience. Kabila had been assassinated. IRI's communications director, Thayer Scott, in an interview with Salon, characterized Lucas' radio remarks as "a comparative analysis of countries that embrace democracy and those that do not." Whatever the case, Lucas and IRI, a nonprofit political group backed by powerful Republicans close to the Bush administration, did more than talk. Throughout the last six years, IRI, whose stated mission is to "promote the practice of democracy" abroad, conducted a $3 million party-building program in Haiti, training Aristide's political opponents, uniting them into a single bloc and, according to a former U.S. ambassador there, encouraging them to reject internationally sanctioned power-sharing agreements in order to heighten Haiti's political crisis. Moreover, Lucas' controversial personal background and his ties to Haitian opposition figures with violent histories -- including some who participated in a coup against Aristide in February -- raise questions about whether IRI's Haiti program violated its own guidelines and those of its funders."

UN mission condemns clashes in Haiti, urges efforts to promote stability  7/16/2004 UN: "The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) today condemned clashes which left a number of police dead in the capital, Port-au-Prince. The Haitian police responded to yesterday's attacks with MINUSTAH's backing."

3,000 Lavalasien Demonstrate on President Aristide's Birthday  7/15/2004 Haiti Action Net

Aristide’s Party Urged To Participate In Haiti’s 2005 Election  7/15/2004 HardBeat News: "Barbados Foreign Affairs Minister Billie Miller has reportedly urged members of Jean Bertrand Aristide’s party, the Family Lavalas, to participate in the planned 2005 election."

‘The whole country is Lavalas’  7/14/2004 SF Bay View: "Still, the demonstrators stood openly and defiantly before the embassy. As one Brazilian soldier took photos of the crowd, a man shouted, "Take my photo. I'm not afraid. This is our country." " [What is Lula doing in Haiti?]

Politics of deceit on Haiti  7/14/2004 Trinidad & Tobago Express: "Indeed, political trickery or deceit has been present from the start of implementation of a USA/French plan to get rid of President Jean Bertrand Aristide to the present maneouvrings and pressures to extend legitimacy to an interim regime in Port-au-Prince of which the irrational Gerard Latortue is Prime Minister. Some of the political chicanery is being played out today in Port-au-Prince where a five-member Caricom Foreign Ministers delegation will be concluding discussions with the Haitian authorities."

Haiti ex-rebels threaten to take up arms again  7/13/2004 Reuters: "The government cannot disarm the military that we are. We are combatants; we know how to fight; we have fought Aristide, and we'll fight again if necessary," former Col. Remissainthe Ravix told Reuters on Tuesday. He claimed to lead a group of nearly 2,000 former soldiers. "If they think they can confiscate our weapons, They can try it, but they'd better watch out," Ravix said."

Spanish parliament backs more troops to Afghanistan, police to Haiti  7/7/2004 AFP: a good left-wing government, hard at work.

Haiti's 'natural' disaster a consequence of unnatural trade policies  7/7/2004 SF Bay View

Witch hunt in Haiti intensifies  7/7/2004 SF Bay View: "After a violent military coup drove Aristide from power, Neptune became a prime target for anti-government militants. His home was looted and burned. Rebel leader Guy Philippe led a mob in a march on his office. After the installation of Gerard Latortue's puppet regime, Neptune, along with other former officials, was barred from leaving the country. Fearing for his life, he went into hiding. News that his arrest warrant had been issued came shortly after he publicly denounced the new government's policies. The authorities allege that Neptune was the mastermind of a "massacre" in the town of St. Marc during February. The sole basis for this allegation seems to be a report issued by the National Coalition for Haitian Rights, a "human rights" organization with close ties to Lavalas opponents and Washington."

Caribbean Bloc Won't Recognize Haiti Gov't  7/6/2004 AP

St Vincent won't recognise Haiti's interim gov't  7/6/2004 AP

"Progressive" Latin American Leaders Support the Coup in Haiti  7/3/2004 Counterpunch: "The shameful fact, however, is that this time the occupation is being carried out by not only by the French, whose savage imperial history there is well known, and by the Canadians (perennial handmaidens of the US), but by Argentina, Brazil, and Chile--three nations who have themselves been victimized by the covert operations establishment of the United States, and governments who are making the now-specious claim that they are "progressive." The Haitian people and their popular organizations are utterly astonished by this grotesque betrayal and unabashed political opportunism. More than one Haitian with whom I spoke while there for three weeks in June posed the question: How will these allegedly leftist governments respond when and if we attack them?"

Aristide's premier surrenders  7/1/2004 Miami Herald: "Yvon Neptune, the prime minister under ousted Haitian President Aristide, is being held in connection with the killings of several Aristide opponents in St. Marc."

Aristide backers fearful in exile  7/1/2004 South Florida Sun Sentinel

Report of the Haiti Accompaniment Project  6/29/2004 Haiti Action Net

French soldiers and U.N. Troops invade the home Mayor of Milo, Jean Charles Moise  6/23/2004 Haiti Action Net

US citizen Cassey Auguste, 22, murdered in Haiti  6/23/2004 SF Bay View

Affidavits portray Haiti as a chaotic drug haven  6/20/2004 Sun Sentinel, FL: "Days before President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced out of Haiti, a notorious cocaine trafficker stood before a federal judge in Miami and said Aristide, once his friend, had turned Haiti into "a narco-country." "

Affidavits portray Haiti as a chaotic drug haven  6/20/2004 Sun Sentinel, FL: "Days before President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced out of Haiti, a notorious cocaine trafficker stood before a federal judge in Miami and said Aristide, once his friend, had turned Haiti into "a narco-country." "

Marines blamed for Haiti abuse  6/19/2004 Miami Herald: "An Amnesty International report blamed the Haitian and U.S. governments for human rights abuses in Haiti."

Aristide Followers Demand His Return to Presidency in Haiti  6/19/2004 PL: "Thousands of followers of overthrown Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide demanded his return to power and blamed the United States for his removal from power, official sources reported today. Some five thousand people peacefully demonstrated along the streets of the capital, accusing Washington of kidnapping the legally elected Haitian president last February 29. They also warned the authorities that they would boycott the coming general elections if the former president continues abroad.

Uruguayan Defense Minister to Visit Haiti  6/19/2004 PL: "Uruguayan Defense Minister Yamandu Fau will visit Haiti July 7-8 to get acquainted with affairs linked to the deployment of UN peace forces in this country. Fau told the press his visit to Haiti responds to an invitation by his counterpart from Brazil, which is commanding the UN peace forces in the Caribbean island."

Gov. Bush’s visit to Haiti raises economic hopes to distressed nation  6/17/2004 Sun Sentinel, FL

French and UN troops invade home of mayor of Milo, Haiti  6/16/2004 SF Bay View: "Since this year’s Feb. 29 coup d’état, foreign troops in Haiti have absolutely refused to respect or be bound to Haitian law, its Constitution or sovereignty. The U.S. Marines and now French and U.N. soldiers seem instead to be establishing a record of terrorizing people targeted for arrest in the dead of night and treating Haitians, even a 5-year-old Haitian child, as in the So Anne’s home invasion, like criminals, especially if they are affiliated with the Lavalas party, which remains Haiti’s strongest and most popular democratic party and movement. What is most disturbing about this pattern is the single-minded focus on arresting primarily Lavalas voices with a well-known popular support base and credible reputations. Even under the new U.N.-led troops, the pattern is continuing with this current hunt for Mayor Moise of Milo."

Disease, hunger dog Haiti flood victims  6/15/2004 ENN: "Doctors are fighting to prevent multiple epidemics among survivors from the drowned Haitian town of Mapou, one of the worst-hit areas in floods that killed about 2,600 people three weeks ago. A small team of doctors from Cuba and from the Paris-based Doctors Without Borders are fighting outbreaks of mosquito-borne fevers like malaria and dengue in Mapou, which is still under water following the May 24 floods."

The Flooding and the Coup - An interview with Paul Farmer  6/14/2004 Znet: "In central Haiti there have been no Marines, and there are no Haitian policemen. Many of the latter were shot by the "rebels," who are really the former military who came in across the border near us. And although I hear there are Chilean troops in Hinche (in the Central Plateau) the other cities and towns you visited are all pretty much in the hands of former Haitian military. They are the people who in the past stole our ambulances, took members of our staff hostage, etc. They've been pretty tame recently, but then again, who is there to stand up to them?"

Dedican Festival del Caribe a huella francohaitiana en Cuba  6/10/2004 Sierra Maestra

Haiti: Background to a Coup  6/9/2004 Dollars & Sense: Articles on Haiti from the D&S Archive

Haiti's sin: Fighting to live and be free from European and American chains  6/9/2004 SF Bay View

Ayuda, no marines  6/7/2004 El Habanero

Haiti en El Habanero  6/7/2004 El Habanero: series of articles on Haiti in Cuban paper.

HAITI & VENEZUELA--COUP & EMPIRE  6/5/2004 From the Wilderness: by Stan Goff - "Many people continue to believe that the US supported Aristide's return to the Haitian presidency in 1994 because the Clinton administration supported democracy. Nothing could be further from the truth. The intelligence summaries we received during his reinstallation were violently anti-Aristide, and the policies pursued from Day One were designed to ensure Aristide's neutralization as the leader of Haiti. He spent three years in talks with the United States trying to gain support for his return, and during that time the United States placed increasing pressure on him – especially by allowing the body count of the Cedras-Francois coup government to increase at the expense of Aristide activists from the Lavalas movement he founded."

Toll from deadly floods tops 3,300 on Hispaniola  6/5/2004 Globe & Mail, Toronto

The Haiti Crisis: Aristide Is Not the Issue  6/4/2004 Bella Ciao: by Bill Fletcher, Jr. "Following the coup, many progressives reacted, understandably, by defending President Aristide-the- person. But this misses the point about the coup’s upending of constitutional rule. It also fails to address the complications that President Aristide found himself facing as a result of the conditions that he accepted when he was returned to power in 1994. At that time, the U.S. government imposed on President Aristide a set of conditions that were the equivalent of handcuffing him. He was expected to adopt, almost wholesale, the economic approach that has come to be known as the Washington Consensus. This included the elimination of thousands of civil service positions and the advancement of a privatization agenda. The United States and multilateral lending institutions demanded this approach of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, one emerging from a history of political despotism and neo-colonialism. For better or for worse, President Aristide accepted these parameters."

Ex-Haitian police commander pleads innocent to Miami drug charge  6/4/2004 Miami Herald

Ex-Haitian police commander pleads innocent to Miami drug charge  6/4/2004 Miami Herald

Brazil´s ambitions in Haiti  6/4/2004 Radio Netherlands

Aftermath of Haiti's floods  6/2/2004 Baltimore Sun

Former Haitian senator to face cocaine-smuggling charge  6/2/2004 Sun Sentinel: "The U.S. investigation into drugs, money and corruption under Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide stretched Tuesday from the ranks of the Haitian National Police into the upper echelon of the Senate and ruling political party. Fourel Celestin, a former president of the Senate and member of Aristide's Famni Lavalas Party, was taken into custody Tuesday at the Miami offices of the Drug Enforcement Administration. He is being held without bail." [Meanwhile, industrial strength traffickers continue to roam Haiti, supported by the new government.]

Former Haitian senator to face cocaine-smuggling charge  6/2/2004 Sun Sentinel: "The U.S. investigation into drugs, money and corruption under Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide stretched Tuesday from the ranks of the Haitian National Police into the upper echelon of the Senate and ruling political party. Fourel Celestin, a former president of the Senate and member of Aristide's Famni Lavalas Party, was taken into custody Tuesday at the Miami offices of the Drug Enforcement Administration. He is being held without bail." [Meanwhile, industrial strength traffickers continue to roam Haiti, supported by the new government.]

Propaganda and Destabilization in Haiti  6/2/2004 Znet

U.N. peacekeepers take command from U.S.-led Haiti force, face uncertainty with few troops on ground  6/1/2004 AP

No normality, little food, heavy repression  5/27/2004 WW: "Gérard Latortue, the Boca Raton, Fla., business consultant appointed defacto prime minister after the Feb. 29 coup against Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, visited France and Belgium May 12-14. The main purpose of his trip--besides pleading for money from the European Union--was to renounce Aristide's demand for $21 billion in reparations from France."

Haiti and the insanity of ‘official’ denial  5/26/2004 SF Bay View: "As many as nine peaceful demonstrators were killed in Haiti on May 18, as tens of thousands of people took to the streets despite the risk - and reality - of violent repression by international forces and a militarized Haitian police force. These demonstrators were calling for an end to the illegal occupation by U.S., Canadian and French forces and for the return of overthrown President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The mainstream media has already done its best to cover this up, which isn’t difficult considering that most corporations no longer have journalists covering Haiti, save for Associated Press (AP), Reuters and the Miami Herald. The readership of these sources has scarcely been privy to any of the realities in Haiti for quite some time."

Haiti Solidarity Week summit demands return of exiled government, end to bloody reprisals  5/26/2004 SF Bay View

Haitian lawyers respond to Marine spokesman - You are there to win - but the Haitian masses will not let you  5/26/2004 SF Bay View

Statement from prison of Sò Anne, Annette Auguste, Haitian folksinger and champion of the poor  5/26/2004 SF Bay View: "Throughout my imprisonment, the ceaseless campaign of repression and assassination against the base of the Lavalas political party has continued. Militants of our movement who are credible and well recognized leaders in their neighborhoods are being assassinated by the new militarized police force under the control and direction of the so-called MIF, which is in reality being directed by the U.S. Marines. Leaders of our movement are still being arrested and others forced into hiding in a concerted effort to break the back of the Lavalas movement, which still sees Jean-Bertrand Aristide as the only legitimate and constitutionally elected president of Haiti."

US Marines dispute Bay View’s account of Haiti Flag Day protest  5/26/2004 SF Bay View: detailed statement refuting the Marines' account - "On Thursday and again on Saturday, the Bay View received email messages from U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. David Lapan, spokesman for the Multinational Interim Force in Haiti, wanting to “correct the record regarding MIF forces and U.S. Marines.” Lapan is disputing our coverage of the May 18 protest by 30,000 to 50,000 Haitians, headlined “At least 9 demonstrators killed during huge march on Haiti’s Flag Day,” in last week’s Bay View. This response to Lapan by journalist and documentary filmmaker Kevin Pina, an eyewitness, is followed by Lapan’s first message, then by responses from Pierre Labossiere and Wanda Sabir and finally by Lapan’s second message."

U.S. arrests popular Haitian singer  5/24/2004 Newsday

America's Contempt for the World - Bushwhacked in the Caribbean  5/23/2004 Counterpunch: by Randall Robinson

Brazil to send 1,200 troops to Haiti  5/20/2004 CNN

At least 9 demonstrators killed during huge march on Haiti’s Flag Day - Marchers face down US Marines, shout ‘Liberty or death,’ ‘Bring back Aristide’  5/19/2004 SF Bay View: "The demonstrators came out in massive numbers. They attempted to march peacefully and had no weapons, only the Haitian flag. But as the crowd got bigger, it is reported the Marines got madder and more surprised, more frustrated, and started shooting directly into the crowds. People in the hundreds of thousands were singing “Libete ou lamo” (Liberty or death) and refusing to be intimidated, even as their fellows kept being cut down by police and U.S. Marine bullets."

Pro-Aristide demonstration leaves one dead  5/18/2004 AP: "Thousands of demonstrators called for the return of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Tuesday during a Flag Day rally that turned violent when riot police fired warning shots and tear gas. At least one man was killed."

Haiti, a man-made tragedy  5/17/2004 AfroCubaWeb

2004 Ousting of Jean-Bertrand Aristide  5/17/2004 Center for Cooperative Research

Former Haiti police chief arrested  5/17/2004 CNN: "U.S. federal agents have arrested Haiti's former national police chief in Miami, as part of the Drug Enforcement Administration's ongoing investigation into drug trafficking in the Caribbean nation, according to a DEA spokesman and court documents."

Former Haiti police chief arrested  5/17/2004 CNN: "U.S. federal agents have arrested Haiti's former national police chief in Miami, as part of the Drug Enforcement Administration's ongoing investigation into drug trafficking in the Caribbean nation, according to a DEA spokesman and court documents."

Haitians Seized, Abused by US Marines - Women, Children Subjected to Hood Treatment  5/13/2004 Black Commentator: "At 12:30 in the morning of May 10, approximately 20 U.S. Marines executed a military assault on the Port-au-Prince home of 69-year-old Annette Auguste, a.k.a. Souer Anne. Auguste’s residence is part of a compound that includes four other apartments that were also invaded by the U.S. military forces. The troops covered the heads of 11 Haitians with black hoods and then forced them to lay face down on the ground while binding their wrists with plastic manacles behind their backs. The victims of this terrifying U.S. military invasion included five-year-old Chamyr Samedi, 10-year-old Kerlande Philippe, 12-year-old Loubahida Augustine, 14-year-old Luckman Augustine, and seven adults. The Marines blew up a vehicle and a substantial part of Auguste’s three-story house, leaving behind c4 and c5 explosives paraphernalia including blasting caps and igniters. Not a single member of the Haitian National Police force (PNH) or the de facto Haitian government was present when the U.S. forces attacked the residence, said the arrestees. All the detainees except Auguste were released after questioning… Annette Auguste has been a frequent target of the Haitian elite, due to her close ties with President Aristide. She is the leader of PROP (Pouvwa Rasembleman Organizacion Popile), a popular Lavalas organization. She is also a singer of Haitian folk songs and is open about her practice of voodoo, officially recognized as a national religion for the first time in Haitian history under the Aristide administration. Ms. Auguste’s religious beliefs and practices have led to many unfounded, disparaging rumors and a campaign of demonization against her."

Emergency Action Alert - Demand the immediate release of Anne Auguste (Sò Anne)  5/13/2004 Haiti Action: "Haitian singer and Lavalas activist arrested on Mother's Day - Protest this illegal and immoral action by the United States Marines! Demand Sò Anne's immediate release! Your calls, faxes and e-mails will make a difference to keep Sò Anne alive, to deter brutal treatment and to expedite her release. Please contact Ambassador James Foley directly at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince. Call on Secretary of State Colin Powell at the U.S. State Department in Washington, and contact your Senators and Representatives. Call early and call often."

U.S. Marines arrest Haitian singer and activist So Anne on Mother’s Day  5/13/2004 SF Bay View: "So Ann is an elderly woman on medication and has yet to be charged or to see a judge in accordance with the 48-hour rule under the Haitian Constitution. This is an urgent call to action. Please contact Secretary of State Colin Powell, your local congressperson, the Congressional Black Caucus and the media to denounce the arrest of So Anne, the systematic terror campaign against Lavalas demonstrators, and the treatment of Haitians like So Anne and her 5-year-old great grandson Shashou by the U.S. command with the Multinational Interim Force in Haiti."

SA considers Aristide sanctuary  5/10/2004 BBC

Summary Report of Haiti Human Rights Delegation—March 29 to April 5, 2004  5/9/2004 National Lawyers Guild

Black Caucus Meets Haitian Prime Minister; Critics Bristle  5/6/2004 Black America Web: "Members of the Congressional Black Caucus held a morning meeting with interim Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue Wednesday. Afterward they met with Secretary of State Colin Powell to discuss rebuilding Haiti, the crisis in Iraq and upcoming G-8 and NATO summits. CBC Chairman Elijah Cummings told Powell that caucus members "are concerned about the humanitarian problems and efforts currently ongoing in Haiti," Paul Brathwaite, CBC executive director told BlackAmericaWeb.com… Bill Fletcher Jr., president of TransAfrica Forum, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public on the economic, political and moral ramifications of the United States as it affects Africa and the Caribbean, said that the caucus should not have recognized Latortue. Latortue's administration is "an illegal puppet regime,” said Fletcher. “It has no international credibility. It’s completely illegitimate. According to the Haitian constitution, you have to have been living Haiti to have an office of that level."

CONGRESSWOMAN WATERS DENOUNCES THE ILLEGALLY APPOINTED PRIME MINISTER GERARD LATORTUE AND HIS VISIT TO CAPITOL HILL  5/5/2004 Maxine Waters

‘To be Lavalas is to be a criminal’  5/5/2004 SF Bay View: "We talked for more than an hour about a wide range of issues, including the U.S. presidential race, in which Haitians show a great interest, because most hate Bush so much for overthrowing Aristide."

Haiti Since the Coup  5/4/2004 NarcoNews: "Thousands killed or in hiding as coup government consolidates power with the help of paramilitaries and U.S. and French troops."

Rights abuses seen in Haiti  4/30/2004 Brattleboro Reformer, VT: "The Cabot resident said constant armed patrols by U.S. Marines instilled a feeling of unease among street dwellers, who live in constant fear of increasingly deplorable social and political conditions brought on by the recent unseating of President Jean Bertrand Aristide… Despite being the largest political party in the island republic, the Lavalas Family Party -- of which Aristide was a member -- has been excluded from having any representation in the government, Legare said. To make matters worse, people thought to be in support of Lavalas are being systematically rounded up by police forces, while the multinational coalition -- comprised of nearly 2,600 U.S., Canadian, French and Chilean troops -- stand by and watch. "Our government is saying they were opposed to these rebels, these former paramilitary personnel," he said. "But when you go there and look around, we're really not doing anything about it." Many of Aristide's supporters and Lavalas members are in hiding, since the president fled the nation, Legare said, which has caused the widespread poverty throughout Haiti to become progressively worse. Supporters living in fear of the police have been leaving homes and jobs. "It's very clear that members and supporters of Aristide's party are being targeted," he said. "They're being arrested, they're being beaten, they're being killed." "

Haiti Update IX: The Justice of the Strong  4/29/2004 Africana: "The founder of the notorious death squad known as the Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress (FRAPH) has been convicted in abstentia and sentenced to life in jail… Chamblain's surrender occurred at the same moment a conference of international donors met in the capital. The coincidence of these two events cannot be ignored. The current Haitian government, which has praised the rebels as freedom fighters, stands to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the world (and especially in the eyes of international donors) if it cracks down on its war criminals during this crucial period. Ironically this carefully-crafted and timed event reflects the significant power wielded, not by the new government, but by Chamblain himself."

AUMENTA LA VIOLENCIA Y LA CRIMINALIDAD LUEGO DE LA OCUPACION  4/29/2004 ArgenPress

U.S. Returns 651 Haitian Intercepted at Sea  4/28/2004 AP

Police stations burned in Haiti  4/27/2004 CNN: "Attackers set ablaze two police stations hours before Chilean troops began patrolling the city of Hinche during the first deployment of the U.S.-led multinational force in Haiti's rebel-held Central Plateau."

US bullying Caricom over Haiti? Two planned meetings in jeopardy if interim regime not recognised  4/26/2004 Jamaica Observer: "The stand-off has put in jeopardy two meetings planned between the US and Caricom - an April 29 meeting of officials set for St Vincent and the Grenadines, and a high-level meeting on crime and security in the Bahamas scheduled for May 3. The latter meeting was to include a senior administration official, the US secretary for Homeland Security, Tom Ridge. The foreign ministers and officials of Caricom, meeting last Thursday and Friday in Barbados as the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR), variously described Washington's activities as "arrogance" and "bullying tactics". If the US insisted on its demand for Caricom's "recognition" or "engagement" with the interim regime in Port-au-Prince, before the community heads of government are ready to make such a decision, said one foreign minister, "I can tell you that the meeting with Mr Ridge will not take place"."

A Tribute for Thugs in Haiti  4/24/2004 Black World Today: "Mumia Abu-Jamal has been in a Pennsylvania prison since 1982. Abu -Jamal will celebrate his 50th birthday in prison on Saturday, April 24. Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (H. Rap Brown) languishes in a prison in Georgia. Assata Shakur and Nehanda Abiodun are exiled in Cuba. Yet, Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, the leader of the Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress (FRAPH), has been allowed to live freely in New York, despite a 1995 deportation order and a 2000 murder conviction in Haiti. He remains at liberty in Queens, New York, and was recently granted a permit to work."

Haiti's Return to the Future The Repression of Dissent  4/24/2004 Counterpunch

Caribbean leaders ponder Haiti probe  4/24/2004 Miami Herald

Rebel commander surrenders to Haitian justice officials  4/24/2004 The News, Pakistan

Plan Haiti Emerges  4/22/2004 Dissident Voice: "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. This appears to be taking shape around the proposed Hero Act legislation, introduced into the Senate in February of 2003 by Mike Dewine, and co-sponsored in the House by prominent Congressional Black Caucus members. [3] While the CBC are demanding an investigation into Aristide's departure, they have yet to issue a statement concerning the new status of the Hero Act. [4] During his recent trip to Haiti, Colin Powell plugged the Hero Act in an interview with elite-owned Radio Metropole: "We have the Hero Act before Congress now...We would like to see the Act passed and I will be examining and discussing it this week with our Congress." [5] "

Vodou priest wants Haiti religion recognized  4/22/2004 Sun Sentinel, FL: "Max Beauvoir, 68, of the Temple of Yehwe in Mariani, Haiti, said politicians, humanitarian organizations, and Christian leaders from abroad have refused to acknowledge the role of the religion in the country's culture for 200 years. As a result, Haiti is on the brink of total collapse, and he believes Vodou gods are upset."

US and France block UN probe of Aristide ouster  4/21/2004 SF Bay View

Why have a group of Caribbean women have spoken out against the coup in Haiti?  4/16/2004 AWID

How Haiti's Sacrifice is Uniting the African Union, CARICOM  4/16/2004 Black Commentator

Return to Haiti The American Learning Zone  4/14/2004 Counterpunch: "We heard from people who witnessed night--time raids against Lavalas. In one case in the poor neighborhood of Bel Air, we were told U.S. helicopters came with blinding lights, heavily armed U.S. fired into crowds, killing between five and twenty persons (March 17). Members of our group interviewed relatives of victims and eyewitnesses to this attack. In case after case, we were told that known criminals and former army men were incorporated into the police. They harassed or beat Lavalas supporters and hounded for "arrest" former government officials. A stream of people came to see us from their hiding places at great risk to tell us this. Jeremy was one. Now 21, he met Aristide at age 11. He worked for Children's Radio (Radio Ti Moun) funded by Aristide's foundation. Jeremy tearfully recalled the past month: He fled the radio station as it was trashed. He was chased and saw his young companions beaten. He ran from his aunt's house as three former military came looking for him. They shot his aunt and she died on the way to the hospital. This happened a week before we arrived. Jeremy had been afraid to go to her funeral. Haiti should be a learning zone for all Americans who would understand and counter the imperial U.S. policy of intervention world--wide. If the U.S. can get away with covert and overt support for a "rebellion" in Haiti led by former military and para--military, many of whom have been convicted of murders and other human rights violations dating to the last coup, it will be psyched for similar operations in Venezuela and perhaps even in Cuba. The evidence is clear: U.S. weapons (intended for the Dominican army) were smuggled into Haiti by former Haitian military and para--military, many of whom were trained and long funded by the CIA and other U.S. agents. U.S. money, both government and private, flowed into the coffers of NGOs attached to the "opposition" -- the right--wing Convergence and the neo--liberal "Group of 184," led by the Haitian business elite (including the sweat--shop owners) and widely publicized by the ultra--conservative "Haiti Democracy Project"(HDP) in Washington, D.C. Among the funders and organizers of the opposition were the IRI and NDI, the international NGOs closely tied to the U.S. Republican and Democrat Parties respectively. IRI and HDP operatives were present at meetings organized by FRAPH (a CIA--funded para--military group) and former Haitian military in the Dominican Republic -- at which Dominican authorities claimed plans were laid a year ago for a Haitian coup."

French Defense Minister to visit Haiti amid Police Firings  4/14/2004 Prensa Latina, Cuba

‘Tell the T.R.U.T.H. about Haiti!’  4/14/2004 SF Bay View: "Congresswoman Barbara Lee, co-chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Haiti Task Force, last month introduced the T.R.U.T.H. (The Responsibility to Uncover the Truth about Haiti) Act, H.R. 3919, which calls for an independent bipartisan commission to uncover the facts about the Bush administration’s involvement in the recent coup d’état in Haiti. The bill was co-sponsored by Congressman John Conyers and 23 other members of the Congressional Black Caucus. She and other experts and eyewitnesses will discuss the bill and the situation on the ground in Haiti at a forum tonight, Wednesday, April 14, 7 p.m., at the First Congregational Church, 27th St. and Harrison, in Oakland."

Who Removed Aristide?  4/13/2004 Znet: "Haiti's leaders were desperate for recognition, since the island's only source of revenue was the sugar, coffee, cotton and other tropical produce it had to sell. In 1825, under threat of another French invasion and the restoration of slavery, Haitian officials signed the document which was to prove the beginning of the end for any hope of autonomy. The French king agreed to recognise Haiti's independence only if the new republic paid France an indemnity of 150 million francs and reduced its import and export taxes by half. The 'debt' that Haiti recognised was incurred by the slaves when they deprived the French owners not only of land and equipment but of their human 'property'. The impact of the debt repayments - which continued until after World War Two - was devastating. In the words of the Haitian anthropologist Jean Price-Mars, 'the incompetence and frivolity of its leaders' had 'turned a country whose revenues and outflows had been balanced up to then into a nation burdened with debt and trapped in financial obligations that could never be satisfied.' 'Imposing an indemnity on the victorious slaves was equivalent to making them pay with money that which they had already paid with their blood,' the abolitionist Victor Schoelcher argued."

In Haiti, Food Serves as Instrument of Control  4/11/2004 LA Times

Marines deal with Haitian gangs  4/11/2004 Stars & Stripes

Haiti, main issue in NY meeting between UN and Caricom heads  4/11/2004 Trinidad & Tobago Express

U.S. Troops in Haiti Hampered by Mandate  4/10/2004 AP: "Haitians accuse the Americans of being trigger-happy and note French troops have not once fired or been fired at. Also, Haiti is a former French colony and its Creole language is close to French. ...Also, the interim government installed with U.S. support is seen as an elite in a shady alliance with the ex-soldiers, including convicted human rights violators. U.S.-led coalition members helped police detain two top rebel figures last week — actions which may help dispel that perception. "It's hard to take seriously our efforts in Haiti given they (Marines) are working alongside ... known killers," said U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat who supports Aristide."

Aristide no, Lavalas yes  4/10/2004 Palm Beach Post

French, U.S. Troops Detain Haitian Rebels  4/9/2004 AP: "Wilford Ferdinand, a former rebel commander who had been accused of kidnapping a Haitian police officer, was detained briefly on Wednesday by French troops and Haitian police, French military spokesman Maj. Xavier Pons said. Also, U.S. and French forces on April 3 helped Haitian police arrest Jean Robert, a rebel sympathizer and gang leader accused of terrorizing supporters of then-president Aristide in northeast Haiti." Detained briefly…

Brazil ready to take over Haiti mission in July  4/9/2004 CNN

U.S. Finds $1.1 Million in Coke on Ship from Haiti  4/9/2004 Reuters

Haiti Does Not Need an Army, Powell Says  4/9/2004 VOA

Haiti: Armed groups still active  4/8/2004 Amnesty International: "At the end of a 15-day mission to Haiti, Amnesty International is deeply concerned for the security of the civilian population. Despite the presence of the Multinational Interim Force (MIF), a large number of armed groups continue to be active throughout the country. These include both rebel forces and militias loyal to former President Aristide. Amnesty International is particularly concerned for the safety of judges, prosecutors, criminal investigators, victims, witnesses and human rights defenders involved in prosecutions relating to past human rights abuses. Judge Napela Saintil, the chief judge in the trial of those responsible for the 1994 Raboteau massacre, was severely beaten on 30 March by an armed man. The judge told Amnesty International delegates that his attacker had threatened him for the part he played in the conviction, in absentia, of Louis Jodel Chamblain, one of the participants in the massacre."

Haiti's former interior minister arrested on allegations he planned killings  4/7/2004 AP

‘Haiti Coup: International Implications in the U.S. and Haiti’  4/7/2004 SF Bay View: "Yet, despite all the money and economic embargoes and campaigns of misinformation, on Feb. 29, 1 million Aristide supporters showed up at the capital (in Port-au-Prince).” This, Lovinsky said, shook up the opposition which had strongholds in cities throughout the island. In one city, the mercenaries killed a police chief in an exchange of gunfire, while the huge barricade blocking the north and east entrance to the capital city, Port-au-Prince, also offered safety to President Aristide, because nothing could get through to the U.S. embassy, to anyone. President Aristide’s order to remove the barricade, Lovinsky felt was a bad idea; however, the people stayed mobilized as they followed the executive order and removed it “instead of building it higher.” The blockage returned after 6 p.m. daily. Then, on Feb. 28-29, a serious battle between the mercenaries and civilians took place. “The U.S. embassy saw that the mercenaries were going to fail even though they had heavy weapons. The shear numbers of people would have finished them off. So the U.S. dispatched 50 Marines to Port-au-Prince. It was a trick. No local embassy was threatened. There was no one in Port-au-Prince who thought in terms of the government failing or losing the battle for democracy,” Lovinsky said. If the U.S. hadn’t acted when it did, later that same day the legitimate Haitian police force would have had tear gas and other supplies to control the massive insurgence that threatened to consume their manpower. South Africa had responded to Aristide’s plea, and a plane with supplies sat in a Jamaica hanger the same day Artistide was flown to the Central African Republic, Feb. 29. Talk about ships passing in the night."

US seeks graft charges against Aristide  4/7/2004 Sydney Morning Herald: "American judicial authorities are looking into prosecuting the former Haitian president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, on corruption charges, the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, said. "There are inquiries being made . . . to see if there is any evidence of wrongdoing on his part," Mr Powell said at a news conference with the new interim prime minister, Gerard Latortue, in Port-au-Prince on Monday. Mr Aristide went into exile in February after widespread violence and looting. A US indictment against him on drug trafficking or other international charges would further inflame political tensions between those who claim he was forced into exile by US troops and others, like Mr Powell, who say the Americans saved his life."

US seeks graft charges against Aristide  4/7/2004 Sydney Morning Herald: "American judicial authorities are looking into prosecuting the former Haitian president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, on corruption charges, the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, said. "There are inquiries being made . . . to see if there is any evidence of wrongdoing on his part," Mr Powell said at a news conference with the new interim prime minister, Gerard Latortue, in Port-au-Prince on Monday. Mr Aristide went into exile in February after widespread violence and looting. A US indictment against him on drug trafficking or other international charges would further inflame political tensions between those who claim he was forced into exile by US troops and others, like Mr Powell, who say the Americans saved his life."

Witch Hunt in Haiti  4/7/2004 The Dominion, Canada: “Right now there is a political climate in Haiti where anyone can get on the radio stations and accuse anyone else of a crime or with being associated with violent Lavalas gangs. It means that without proof they can say this about you and immediately you have to go into hiding, and immediately you have to be concerned with your own welfare; and immediately the death threats begin. That’s the political climate that you have in Haiti today.”

Aristide Aide Accused of Killings Plot  4/6/2004 AP: "Pierre Esperance, a human rights activist, said there were reports that more than 50 people were killed during mid-February in St. Marc. Reporters who were in the town at the time of the attacks reported seeing less than five bodies. Last year, a former city employee in the Aristide stronghold and seaside slum of Cite Soleil fled Haiti after claiming Privert had ordered gangs to kill Aristide opponents in Port-au-Prince. Privert denied the allegations at the time."

U.S. considers prosecuting Aristide, Powell says in Haiti  4/6/2004 NYT

Powell Urges Haiti on Government Posts  4/5/2004 AP: "Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday was urging Haiti's leaders to make sure government posts are not given to leaders of the February insurrection who are criminals or human rights violators."

Haiti's Army Turns Back The Clock  4/2/2004 Znet: "It didn't take long for the new order in Haiti to reveal itself. The day after President Aristide 'left' for exile, 34 union members at the Ouanaminthe garment assembly factory run by the Dominican Grupo M company, were fired. The next morning, when the 600-strong workforce decided to strike, a group of armed men launched a violent attack. Some unionists were handcuffed, many others were beaten up, and the workers were forced back inside the factory. The aggressors were members of the so-called rebel force, fresh from their victory over the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. They said they had been called to the factory by management, to deal with workers "causing trouble"."

Haiti in the News
Archives: 4/04-12/05

Contacting AfroCubaWeb

Copyright © 1997 AfroCubaWeb, S.A.
Last modified: January 14, 2010

	AfroCubaWeb

Haiti in the News Archives: 4/04-12/05

Contacting AfroCubaWeb

Copyright © 1997 AfroCubaWeb, S.A. Last modified: January 14, 2010

Haiti in the News
Archives: 4/04-12/05

Copyright © 1997 AfroCubaWeb, S.A.
Last modified: January 14, 2010