Paramilitaries

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.

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.

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

The politics of drugs in Haiti

Anthony — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 12:06:39 -0400

The politics of drugs in Haiti
HIP - The US Drug Enforcement Agency’s recent attempt to hunt down former policeman, paramilitary commander and presidential candidate Guy Philippe on drug charges can be traced back to a recent arrest in the town of Gonaives, Haiti.
Haitian police and Argentinean units of the UN arrested Wilfort Ferdinand, alias Ti Wil; on May 26 after he gave a lengthy interview on local radio station Radio Gonaives FM. Although news of Ferdinand's arrest received scant attention in the international press it was one of the top stories throughout Haiti the following day. Much of the reporting in the Haitian press focused on the shared history of Wilfort Ferdinand and Guy Philippe in leading paramilitary forces that helped to oust the government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The Freedom of the Press Barons: The media and the 2004 Haiti coup

Anthony — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 18:43:28 -0500

The Freedom of the Press Barons
The media and the 2004 Haiti coup
February 1, 2007
by Isabel Macdonald
The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca
In February 2004, the US, Canadian and French governments supported
an illegal coup d'etat that overthrew Haiti's democratically elected
government of the Lavalas party, led by Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In
late 2003, "civil society" groups--financed and supported through US
and Canadian government-funded "democracy enhancement" programs--
began calling for Aristide's ouster. They were joined in early
February 2004 by armed terror squads. In the pre-dawn hours of
February 29, 2004, President Jean Bertrand Aristide, who had been
elected with 92 per cent of the popular vote, was forcibly removed
from Haiti on a US government airplane, while Canada's Joint Task
Force 2 secured the airport.

Ignoring murder in post-coup Haiti

Anthony — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 18:18:53 -0400

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2937&printer_friendly=1
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR)
http://www.fair.org
Extra! July/August 2006
Invisible Violence
Ignoring murder in post-coup Haiti
By Jeb Sprague
In an eight-minute report (6/5/05) in which she rode in a U.N. armored personnel carrier and extolled the bravery of U.N. soldiers, NPR correspondent Lourdes Garcia-Navarro cited "human rights organizations" as saying that "things have improved since the Aristide days." The NPR report interviewed two members of the U.N. force, one U.S. police trainer, one Haitian police official and Gerard Latortue, the head of Haiti's unelected interim government. It neglected to quote any victims of the violence perpetrated by the Latortue regime or any human rights organizations critical of the governmental-sponsored violence-perhaps because they might have pointed out that such violence actually increased dramatically during Latortue's time in power.

RCMP backs murderous Haitian Police force

Anthony — Wed, 24 May 2006 20:00:19 -0400

RCMP backs murderous Haitian Police force
By Tim Pelzer
People's Weekly World
Since the US/Canadian/French-backed overthrow of elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Feb. 29, 2004, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have been training and supervising police in Haiti who are killing residents in poor neighbourhoods.
Two different RCMP officers have been in charge of the
United Nations Police Mission (UNPOL): David Beer, who came to Haiti directly from Iraq in May 2004, where he was teaching counter-insurgency tactics, and Graham Muir, who replaced Beer in mid 2005.
Today, Muir commands a 1,600-strong UNPOL contingent that includes 100 RCMP and Quebec Provincial Police officers, under the mandate of the Brazilian led UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), which is responsible for training and overseeing the Haitian National Police (HNP). As UNPOL Commissioner, Muir takes part in all high level planning and strategy meetings, be they military
or policing.

Haiti's Deadly Class Divide: Class war takes on a new meaning in Cite Soley

Anthony — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 13:58:57 -0500

Haiti's Deadly Class Divide:
Class war takes on a new meaning in Cite Soley
by Leslie Bagg and Aaron Lakoff
Port-au-Prince, January 10/06 - Driving into Cite Soley on January 8th, the day Haitians were supposed to go to the polls in a presidential election, there is no mistaking the fact that we are entering an occupied zone. The streets are almost deserted, the atmosphere tense, and UN armored personnel carriers patrol the streets.
Cite Soley, one of Port-au-Prince's poorest neighborhoods, is home to around 500,000 people living in abject poverty. According to Jean-Joseph Joel, the Secretary General of the local branch of Fanmi Lavalas, the area's residents are virtual prisoners, and their movements restricted by armed police at checkpoints. Vilified as bandits or chimeres by the elite-run press, he says they face persecution if they do manage to escape the neighborhood. There is no work and signs of malnutrition are obvious in the children.

SF Bayview Interview with Haitian Militant

Anthony — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 04:05:23 -0400

'We won't be peaceful and let them kill us any longer'
Bel Air interview with Rosean Baptiste
by Lyn Duf
(Originally appeared in San Francisco BayView 'National Black Newspaper,' http://www.sfbayview.com)

Since U.S.-funded death squads and "rebels" overthrew Haiti's popular democracy in February 2004, media reports have been filled with the voices of those with power, influence and money in Haiti. What's been missing are the voices of ordinary Haitians, members of the pro-democracy movement, who overwhelmingly oppose the new regime of Florida businessman turned prime minister, Gerald Latortue.
SF Bay View correspondent Lyn Duff spoke with Rosean Baptiste, a resident of Bel Air in Port-au-Prince, whose neighborhood has been targeted since 2004 for mass arrests and killings by both the United Nations and the Haitian National Police.

Fair Elections in Haiti: Imagine the Possibilities!

Anthony — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 01:40:43 -0400

Embassy, August 24th, 2005
OPED
By Jean Saint-Vil
Fair Elections in Haiti: Imagine the Possibilities!
All indicators suggest a fiasco for the scheduled fall elections in Haiti. The International Crisis Group (ICG) observed that 18 months after former President Jean Bertrand Aristide was forced out of the country, Haiti remains insecure and volatile. On the part of much of the population ICG saw "disenchantment, apathy and ignorance about the electoral process." Rightfully so, this reputable Geneva-based organization concluded it is essential and urgent that those conditions be reversed.