United States

Return to Port-au-Prince: "All the Time We are Hungry and Now We Have No One"

Anthony — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:05:03 -0400

http://www.counterpunch.org/terrall08282008.html
Counterpunch.com
August 28, 2008
"All the Time We are Hungry and Now We Have No One"
Return to Port-au-Prince
By BEN TERRALL

As I flew from JFK to Port-au-Prince Airport on August 11, a fellow journalist handed me the front section of that day’s New York Times with a laugh. My friend pointed to a passage in an article about Russia’s war with Georgia that had prompted her bitter chuckling.

The piece quoted Ambassador Zalmay Khalizad of the United States, who charged that the Russian foreign minister had told Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice “that the democratically elected president of Georgia ‘must go.’” Khalizad described the Russian’s comment as “completely unacceptable.”

Of course, Washington’s posturing as a beacon of peace and freedom has become increasingly more ludicrous as wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue with no end in sight and Bush explains that we do not torture while testimony to the contrary accumulates around the globe. But the U.S. role in supporting the February 29, 2004 rightist coup in Haiti makes the hypocrisy of Khalizad’s statement especially galling.

Haiti: Aristide and the removal of Alexis

Anthony — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:46:10 -0400

ttp://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/4_13_8/4_13_8.html
HIP - Port au Prince, Haiti — The situation in Haiti was thrown into further confusion on April 12 as the Haitian parliament passed a vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis. Led by rightists in Haiti's parliament such as Senators Youri Latortue, Adris Riche and renegade Lavalas party Senator Roudy Herveaux , the vote of censure was passed on April 12, 2008 at 11:55 am EST.
President Rene Garcia Preval, following controversial U.N.-sponsored elections in 2006, appointed Alexis as Prime Minister. Alexis served for an administration touted as a coalition government backed by the United States and the international community that included members of the so-called opposition that forced former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile in 2004. Alexis' administration gave the final appearance of a legal veneer to the ouster of Aristide and his political movement known as Lavalas by co-opting former grass-roots leaders into his government.

Peter Hallward Untangles the Truth About Haiti From a Web of Lies

Anthony — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 21:08:52 -0500

Peter Hallward Untangles the Truth About Haiti From a Web of Lies
By: Joe Emersberger - HaitiAnalysis.com
In "Damning the Flood: Haiti, Aristide, and the Politics of Containment" Peter Hallward meticulously explains how, on February 29 of 2004, the U.S. managed to "topple one of the most popular governments in Latin America but it managed to topple it in a manner that wasn't widely criticized or even recognized as a coup at all." Imperial powers do not reinvent the wheel when it comes to undermining democracy in poor countries. Hallward identifies valuable lessons for people who wish to limit the damage that powerful countries inflict on the weak.
The narrative he presents is not complicated, but to present it he must expose countless lies and half truths and brilliantly explore many simple questions that corporate journalists invariably failed to ask.

Haiti's wealthy prosper while the poor decline

Anthony — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 11:10:14 -0500

Haiti's wealthy prosper while the poor decline
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/1_29_8/1_29_8.html
HIP - Port au Prince, Haiti — Cite Soleil, a seaside shantytown of more than 300.000 people residing in homes made of cinder blocks with tin roofs, has been described as poorer than India's infamous slums of Calcutta. On any given day it teems with the life's blood of Haiti's poorest citizens.
Despite the twists and turns of what residents describe as several foreign interventions, members of the community still recount with pride how they served as a launching site for former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's first election campaign in 1990.

Yannick Jean, a frail 70 year-old woman whose longevity itself is a testament to hope, spoke in hushed tones as she washed her clothes in a ditch of dirty water, "We were the ones who presented Aristide to Haiti when he ran for president. He was our greatest hope. I am waiting for him again."

UN Occupiers Accused of Human Rights Violations in Haiti

Anthony — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:21:07 -0500

UN Troops Accused of Human Rights Violations in Haiti
by Maria Luisa Mendonça | January 21, 2008
Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP)
http://americas.irc-online.org/
The UN Security Council decided in October 2007 to extend the mandate of the MINUSTAH (United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti) through Oct. 15, 2008. The Brazilian Government is responsible for coordinating the MINUSTAH forces that include approximately 9,000 troops. Yet there is very little discussion in Brazil about the country's role in the occupation of Haiti, and especially, about the accusations leveled against the UN troops for their participation in human rights violations.

Pentagon's troubling role in Haiti

Anthony — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:53:27 -0500

Pentagon's troubling role in Haiti
HIP - Port au Prince, Haiti - Most people do not know that the Pentagon is directly involved in funding pacification programs in Haiti due to the presence of a large UN mission in that country. A reminder of the Defense Department's role in Haiti came Friday when protesters burned tires outside of Cite Soleil's mayor's office to call attention to a $20 million program called the "House of Justice" initiative.

One of the protesters who spoke via telephone on condition of anonymity stated, "We are taking this action to draw attention to the fact that our country is now being run almost completely by the US government. Although the UN may cover for them, it has always been the US who called the shots."

Haiti's Debt

Anthony — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 12:02:52 -0500

Haiti's Debt
http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/emersberger040108.html
by Joe Emersberger
Despite being the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti
lags behind many countries in the Americas in obtaining debt relief through
a program run by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

This Week in Haiti: Peter Hallward: MAKING SENSE OF THE 2004 COUP

Anthony — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 20:48:17 -0500

HAITI LIBERTE - "Justice. Verite. Independance."
* THIS WEEK IN HAITI *
December 19-24, 2007
Vol. 1, No. 22
AN INTERVIEW ON WBAI
PETER HALLWARD: MAKING SENSE OF THE 2004 COUP

Did He Jump or Was He Pushed? Aristide and the 2004 Coup in Haiti

Anthony — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 16:01:38 -0500

Did He Jump or Was He Pushed? Aristide and the 2004 Coup in Haiti
by Peter Hallward
December 15, 2007
haitianalysis.com

Haiti: Another Occupation Extension Looms

Anthony — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 20:30:11 -0400

HAITI LIBERTE
"Justice. Verite. Independence."
* THIS WEEK IN HAITI *
September 5-11, 2007
Vol. 1, No. 7
ANOTHER OCCUPATION EXTENSION LOOMS
by Kim Ives
The United Nations Security Council mandate for the UN's military occupation of Haiti runs out on October 15, 2007. Now the UN has cranked up its public relations machinery, generating a flurry of conferences, declarations, and appointments, all aimed at selling the longest possible mandate extension to the Haitian and world public.
The campaign to prolong the occupation was kicked off by none other than Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary General, during a visit to Haiti on Aug. 2 (see Haiti Liberte, Vol. 1, No. 3, Aug. 8, 2007). During his visit, he declared that the United Nations Mission to Stabilize Haiti (MINUSTAH) "will not leave until Haiti's future is assured," saying that would require "at least another year."