CAR sore about Aristide snub

[Tinoire]

CAR sore about Aristide snub
03/03/2004 20:35 - (SA)

Bangui - Ousted Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide owes his life to the impoverished Central African Republic, which has given him refuge, and its allies, a government minister said here, ordering the ex-president to show them more respect.

"Ex-president Aristide wants to stay in Central Africa for a while, and we are a country that has friends who helped him get out of Haiti to get here," said Parfait M'bay, who government spokesperson and communications minister.

"He must be grateful to these countries. Because if he had not asked the United States and France to help him , president Aristide would be dead by now," said M'bay. ((!!!!!!))


<snip>

On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Charles Herve Wenezoui led a delegation of Central African ministers to meet Aristide and urge him to respect his host country's "legendary hospitality" and stop making disparaging comments about its allies.

<snip>

"We received orders from the highest state authorities to pass a message to president Aristide, that the Central African Republic has taken him in because of its legendary hospitality and that he must respect the rules of that hospitality," said Wenezoui. "We believe that president Aristide, who gave us a good impression when he arrived, should be on his best behaviour."


<snip>

http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,6119,2-11-1447_1492967,00.html

To even think that Aristide will shut up is to not know the Haitian people. My only fear is that his 2 young daughters were shipped to the US the night before the coup.

[aquart]

1. Who has Aristide's children?

[tkmorris]

3. I had heard

the day before Aristide left that his children were sent to France. It was on a majoe cable network report, though I don't recall which.

I have since heard something about them being sent to the US instead. I have no idea where they actually went though as I recall the reporter who mentioned them going to the US was completely full of crap in the rest of the stuff he reported so I wrote off the US story as probable nonsense.

[Tinoire]

6. France or US? I heard US (quoted above)

though the wife's family is, I think African, and maybe the kids were just routed through the US. I don't think Aristide would trust France with his kids. France has a history of treachery with Haiti when it comes to that. Frankly, I was stunned he sent them to the US. Will look for details when I get home.

[Say_What]

9. Mrs. Aristide in an interview last Friday said they're in the US

with her parents.

<clips>

...AMY GOODMAN: And you’ve had two girls, two children.

MILDRED ARISTIDE: Two girls.

AMY GOODMAN: And how old are they?

MILDRED ARISTIDE: Seven and five.

AMY GOODMAN: And you’ve sent them out of the country now?

MILDRED ARISTIDE: I did. On Tuesday night we did hear shooting near the palace, and the girls… The stress was not good for them, and so, because my parents are in the United States, I just decided to send them. So they are with them.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/28/0133217

[Freddie Stubbs]

4. How does he have children?

I thought that he was a Catholic priest?

[Tinoire]

7. Freddie, where have you been?

Aristide has not been a priest for a long time. He was a priest when he first started but the Church had problems with his leniency on voodoo and his Leftist positions.

He left the priesthood years ago and has been happily married for a while.

[htuttle]

8. He was married in 1996

I'd imagine that he would have had to leave the priesthood when he ran for President the first time, if not before.

Here's a bio:
http://www.haiti.org/aristide-bio.htm

(apparently, the rebels have not yet taken control of the official Haiti website...)

Ah, here's something on when he resigned from the priesthood in 1994:
http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/history/recent/priest.htm

It had to do with his political activities being incompatible with being a priest.
Here's what the website says:

"In September 1988, Father Aristide's parish church was attacked and burned by armed men believed to be members of a former Haitian secret police force. Twelve people were killed and about 70 others injured in the attack, but parishioners protected Father Aristide, which allowed him to escape.

"Within a month, the Salesians announced they were transfersing Father Aristide to Canada. However, thousands of Haitians -- including many of the slum dwellers where he served -- protested the move.

"Father Aristide refused to leave, and in December the Salesians announced his expulsion. They said: "His political commitment involved 'incitement to hatred and violence' and 'the glorification of class struggle, in direct opposition to the teaching of the Church.

Huh, never seen 'glorification of class struggle' being characterized as in direct opposition to the teaching of the Church before. At least not so openly.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

11. Well, when a man and a woman love each other...........................

[Tinoire]

5. His wife's parents

It was not clear where Aristide's wife, Mildred Trouillot Aristide, was. The couple had sent their two daughters to Trouillot's mother in New York City last week.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=589&e=1&u=/ap/20040229/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/haiti_uprising

Aristide, who has rejected calls to step down before his term ends in 2006, had accepted an internationally backed power-sharing plan that would allow him to remain as president but with significantly weakened authority. But his two small daughters left for the United States Wednesday, Aristide’s wife told CNN late Wednesday. "My children, I did choose to send them to my parents who are outside of Haiti because the stress is difficult on them," Mildred Aristide said in an interview with the cable network. "I did send them because the threat is real," Haiti’s first lady added.

http://www.hipakistan.com/en/detail.php?newsId=en55525&F_catID=&f_type=source

Aristide’s daughters flee to US

The two small daughters of Aristide left the stricken Caribbean island nation on Wednesday for the United States, Aristide's wife told CNN.

"My children, I did choose to send them to my parents who are outside of Haiti because the stress is difficult on them," Mildred Aristide said in an interview with the cable network.

"I did send them because the threat is real," Haiti's first lady added.

The two girls, both aged under 10, had only recently returned with their mother from a family visit in Miami.

http://iafrica.com/news/worldnews/305389.htm

I haven't heard a word of the children since :(

[redqueen]

10. Thanks for the update

We should start writing or calling to ask the news orgs about this.

[Say_What]

12. There's an URGENT ALERT about this with easy one click email

to contact MOC.

<clips>

...In the United States, send an Email to your congressperson calling for the following:

· President Aristide Should be given full access to the media and telephone communications restored.

· President Aristide should be free to go where he chooses, otherwise it is clear that this was a coup orchestrated by the United States and France.

· An immediate Congressional investigation should commence to determine the role that the U.S. played, directly and/or indirectly in Aristides removal from power, and in supporting the civilian and military opposition movement.

· A multilateral force, not controlled by the U.S., should be deployed to stabilize the situation and immediately disarm the military opposition.

· The Bush administration should commit to an emergency economic development package to rebuild the Haitian infrastructure.

· Free and fair democratic elections should be permitted without the interference of the U.S. or its allies.

To Email U.S. Senators and Congressional Reps with one click: http://capwiz.com/voice4change/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=5261001

Forward this as widely as possible: http://www.voice4change.org/stories/send2friends.asp?id=040303~v4c.asp

VOICE4CHANGE.ORG ~ uniting our voices ~ http://www.voice4change.org


http://www.unobserver.com/layout5.php?id=1493&blz=1

[redqueen]

14. Thanks!

:yourock:

[Tinoire]

15. Thank you :) n/t

[Judi Lynn]

31. Thanks for offering DU'ers a chance to communicate

with their Senators and Congresscritters, without having to spend an afternoon trying to remember all the important points to let them know there's a public here watching this whole sorry spectacle, with a keen sense of disgust, rage, shame, and horror.

These contacts DO matter. Washington needs some feedback. Thanks! :hi:

[redqueen]

2. !!!!

*sigh*

[Just Me]

13. I am concerned about their lives,...

,...since it is pretty evident that the corporate tyrants just want Aristide to shut up!!! My concern must be running pretty deep since I have dreamed three nights in a row that "white hats" nabbed Aristide and brought him safely to major media outlets to make his case which is in complete contradiction to how things usually play out.

[EX-CONservative]

28. Aristide...

Do you think the BFEE will kill Aristide?

[Say_What]

33. Probably not now because the world is way to aware of what happened

if/when he returns to Haiti, which he has said that he intends to, then that's another ball game, sadly.

[mopinko]

16. maybe this is just a naive question

but why didn't he come to the u.s.?

[Tinoire]

17. He wasn't going anywhere. He was standing fast against the coup

Additionally, after the US & France forcefully took him from Haiti, he was not give a choice on where he was going.

CAR is a dirt, dirt, dirt, bullet-ridden nation that's a former colony of France. It is so poor that it hasn't been able to pay the salaries of civil servants in months. It didn't get its independence until 1960 (so much for the French government being a champion of democracy) & totally relies on US & French foreign aid.

It was the only country the US/France were able to "sweet-talk" (for how much?) into taking a kidnapped democratically-elected leader who was not requesting the asylum. No self-respecting country will "grant" asylum to someone who doesn't request it themselves and Aristide never requested it; he was adamant about not wanting asylum and well, seems pretty determined to expose this charade.

[berry]

18. There was a military coup in CAR just last year, apparently.

I haven't had time to follow this up, but it was mentioned in one of the articles at news24.com (a South African site, I gather). If CAR is being run by military thugs, they will likely be more sympathetic to Aristide's enemies than to him and the people of Haiti. Certainly, they would also be vulnerable to US and French pressure/threats, as well.

And there are people in S.A. who oppose giving asylum to Aristide. It sounds as if the word is out in the international community that any country that is too friendly towards Aristide will be put on the enemy list. But if so, someone somewhere should be reporting this. Can BushCo* have cowed the whole world? One can't help but wonder what threats are being used....

[Tinoire]

19. Jeez! - CAR 2003 Coup destabilizes Africa

Have Bush & Chirac been planning these things & for how long? USAID funding also involved in the CAR coup. I'm going to follow up on this a little tonight. Thanks

The "New World Order" is unfolding before our very eyes.


March 26, 2003
Posted to the web March 26, 2003

Charles Cobb, Jr.
Washington, DC

New questions about security and stability in Africa have been raised by two major events - the ongoing war in Iraq and the March 15 coup in the Central African Republic.

The start of the fighting with Iraq sparked protests across Africa and raised concerns about a possible backlash, particularly against the United States and Britain. In the Central African Republic, where President Ange-Felix Patasse was ousted by his former army chief of staff, Francois Bozize, the takeover comes at a time when many areas of conflict on the continent seem to be making meaningful steps towards resolution.

<snip>

Yet it was an elected government and in that sense a legitimate government. Nobody questioned its desperate need for financial assistance and the likelihood that without that assistance, given any number of coup attempts in the past, it would be extremely vulnerable to being overthrown.

Yes, this is interesting, particularly since Patasse's second election was achieved under the administration of the UN mission in the CAR. Their mandate was to oversee the election, and they did that. Then they withdrew. There is an interesting parallel with Congo Brazzaville up to the mid-90s in terms of the Lissouba government being democratically elected and eventually overthrown, with Angola playing a similar role to the one Chad has played in the CAR. And again, France and the international community were not really willing to back Lissouba.

<snip>

http://allafrica.com/stories/200303260649.html

===

African Union condemns CAR coup
Staff Reporter
BANGUI, 18 March 2003

The African Union has strongly condemned Saturday's coup in the Central African Republic.

BANGUI: France is evacuating its citizens from the country. The coup leader said he has suspended the constitution and the parliament, but is planning a transition back to democracy.

The man who led the coup in central Africa, former military chief Francois Bozize, calls it a temporary interruption of the democratic process.

In a national radio address late Sunday, he said he was dissolving the government and national assembly, and suspending the constitution. But he said is planning to meet with all of the country's political parties and, what he called, active forces of the nation to agree on a program of transition back to democracy. He said former heads of state would serve on this national transition council.

General Bozize promised to hold elections, but he did not say when. He said his government is one of peace and national reconciliation. :puke:

<snip>

Coup undermines NEPAD

South African President Thabo Mbeki, in his capacity as AU president, said the African Union opposes any unconstitutional transfer of power. He said the coup undermines the continent's efforts toward development and economic recovery.

>snip>

France said it is sending additional soldiers to the Bangui airport to support ((my italics)) the central African peacekeepers.

<snip>

http://www.africaonline.com/site/Articles/1,3,52446.jsp

===
(excerpt)

The landlocked and impoverished Central African Republic, one of the world's poorest countries despite its diamond mines, has never completely recovered from the mutinies in the 1990s, launched when soldiers were not paid.

The United Nations last year ended a peacekeeping mission it sent in 1999 to replace the French-backed African force that restored order after the mutinies, but U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned in January that peace was in danger.

Civil servants have been on sporadic strike for months to protest against the government's failure to pay up to two years of salary arrears.

http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/africa/05/28/central.shooting/

The Central African Republic, a country rich in minerals including gold, diamonds and uranium, has been plagued by coups and frequent changes of government, nearly all of them military, since independence from France in 1960.

http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,6119,2-11-1447_1333856,00.html

[mopinko]

21. so you are saying

that it does smell that he is not HERE!! i am trying to envision a real victim of a real coup being really evacuated by u.s. troops, and then dumped in some back water country. if this was a real coup, mr and mrs aristide would be sleeping in the lincoln bedroom, and speaking on cnn.

[Judi Lynn]

24. Of course you're right!

If Bush had clean hands in this matter, it would be treated in a conventional way, as in the man would have been given safe passage out, and arrangements would be made later in deciding where he would choose to live permanently.

As his children were escorted to safety in the U.S., why was he not also given the same courtesy?

Damned right, it definitely stinks.

[berry]

26. This is amazing! (but shouldn't be, I know)

I'm sorry I had to post and run, and couldn't check up on that info about the coup in CAR. But you have done an amazing job of collecting info. Thank you SO much! (I now have a lot more reading to do.)

The thing is, it DOES all seem to link together in a grand plan of stupefying proportions. These coups all seem cookie-cutter copies, from the same simple recipe. Well, sure, why change something that's proven to work? Even the coincidence of some conflagration elsewhere in the world, diverting media and world attention at the exact time of the coup, seems suspect. (The US had info about likely attacks on the Shiites two weeks ago, it was reported. Or maybe I'm reaching, here.)

Anyway, I've also read recently (but can't remember where) that Africa was going to be a priority next for BushCo (though apparently it hasn't been totally ignored up to now despite the lack of media attention--who knows who the "Roger Noriega" for Africa is in the State Dept, busily working to achieve some unimagined disaster?). And of course in Africa there ARE resources, so there is no mystery about why the US (and various ex-colonial allies) might be interested. And *Bush did do a "royal" tour of Africa a while ago. Who knows what cronies * and his gang have there? (On consideration, Joe Wilson might know--I wonder what he thinks of all this.)

Ah. I'm just blithering now. I'd better go read something so I can contribute facts instead of conjecture.

Thank you so much, Tinoire. I've been reading everything you've posted on Haiti, and am deeply grateful for the education. Watching this coup unfold has been like getting a glimpse of hell, pure evil. How very much worse it must be for those who know Haiti intimately. Words do not suffice...

[Tinoire]

32. Timeline: Central African Republic (France backing coups there)

Timeline: Central African Republic

A chronology of key events:
1880s - France annexes the area.

1894 - France sets up a dependency in the area called Ubangi-Chari and partitions it among commercial concessionaires.

1910 - Ubangi-Chari becomes part of the Federation of French Equatorial Africa.

1920-30 - Indigenous Africans stage violent protests against abuses by concessionaires.

1946 - The territory is given its own assembly and representation in the French parliament; Barthelemy Boganda, founder of the pro-independence Social Evolution Movement of Black Africa (MESAN), becomes the first Central African to be elected to the French parliament.

1957 - MESAN wins control of the territorial assembly; Boganda becomes president of the Grand Council of French Equatorial Africa.

Independence

1958 - The territory achieves self-government within French Equatorial Africa with Boganda as prime minister.

1959 - Boganda dies.

1960 - The Central African Republic becomes independent with David Dacko, nephew of Boganda, as president.

1962 - Dacko turns the Central African Republic into a one-party state with MESAN as the sole party.

1964 - Dacko confirmed as president in elections in which he is the sole candidate.

The Bokassa era

1965 - Dacko ousted by the army commander, Jean-Bedel Bokassa, as the country faces bankruptcy and a threatened nationwide strike.

1972 - Bokassa declares himself president for life.

1977 - Bokassa proclaims himself emperor and renames the country the "Central African Empire".

1979 - Bokassa ousted in a coup led by David Dacko and backed by French troops after widespread protests in which many school children were arrested and massacred while in detention.

1981 - Dacko deposed in a coup led by the army commander, Andre Kolingba.

1984 - Amnesty for all political party leaders declared.

1986 - Bokassa returns to the Central African Republic.

1988 - Bokassa sentenced to death for murder and embezzlement, but has his sentence commuted to life imprisonment.

Ban on parties lifted

1991 - Political parties permitted to form.

1992 October - Multiparty presidential and parliamentary elections held in which Kolingba came in last place, but are annulled by the supreme court on the ground of widespread irregularities.

1993 - Ange-Felix Patasse beats Kolingba and Dacko in elections to become president, ending 12 years of military rule. Kolingba releases several thousand political prisoners, including Bokassa, before standing down as president.

Army mutinies

1996 May - Soldiers stage a mutiny in the capital, Bangui, over unpaid wages.

1997 November - Soldiers stage more mutinies.

1997 - France begins withdrawing its forces from the republic; African peacekeepers replace French troops.

1999 - Patasse re-elected; his nearest rival, former President Kolingba, wins 19% of the vote.

2000 December - Civil servants stage general strike over back-pay; rally organised by opposition groups who accuse President Patasse of mismanagement and corruption deteriorates into riots.

Coup bid

2001 May - At least 59 killed in an abortive coup attempt by former president Andre Kolingba. President Patasse suppresses the attempt with help of Libyan and Chadian troops and Congolese rebels.


Sacked army chief General Francois Bozize

2001 November - Clashes as troops try to arrest sacked army chief of staff General Francois Bozize, accused of involvment in May's coup attempt. Thousands flee fighting between government troops and Bozize's forces.

2002 February - Former Defence Minister Jean-Jacques Demafouth appears in a Bangui court to answer charges related to the coup attempt of May 2001.

2002 October - Libyan-backed forces help to subdue an attempt by forces loyal to dismissed army chief General Bozize to overthrow President Patasse.

2003 March - Rebel leader Francois Bozize seizes Bangui, declares himself president and dissolves parliament. President Ange-Felix Patasse is out of the country at the time. Within weeks a transitional government is set up.

2003 October - National reconciliation talks held in Bangui, organised by President Bozize in an effort to put an end to mutinies, rebellions.

2003 November - First post-independence president, David Dacko, dies in hospital in Cameroon.
=================

France Defends Its Latest Coup
By IRIN 16/1/04
Jan 16, 2004, 12:58

France donated on Thursday 46 military vehicles and equipment, worth US $3.2 million, for use by the army and the gendarmerie in the Central African Republic (CAR).

French Ambassador Jean Pierre Destouesse made the donation, on behalf of his government, to CAR leader Francois Bozize during a ceremony in the capital, Bangui. Bozize is also the defence minister.

The donation, part of France's effort to improve security in its former colony, included communication equipment for the vehicles.

<snip>

Destouesse said that the new CAR army would now be able to prevent the entry of foreign troops "who loot the country," or foreign rebels "who transform your territory into a lawless space". He was referring to former rebels from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who entered the CAR in 2001 and 2002 to help the then President Ange-Felix Patasse to fight rebels loyal to Bozize.

Giraud said on Wednesday that apart from the ongoing training programmes, France would also give attention to the training of young army officers.

<snip>

http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:oREABMfey1wJ:www.ocnus.net/artman/publish/article_9779.shtml+france+coup+bozize&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

====

France gives asylum to CAR 'rebel'


France has given permanent sanctuary to a former Central African Republic (CAR) army chief accused of plotting a coup last year.
General Francois Bozize left for France a few weeks ago from Chad, where he had been living since his dismissal in October last year, the Chadian Government has said.

<snip>

General Bozize had been accused, together with 600 others, of plotting a coup attempt in May last year.

<snip>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2353945.stm

====

France dispatches troops to Central African Republic
By Chris Talbot
24 March 2003

France has stepped up its military presence in Africa by sending 300 troops to the Central African Republic (CAR) following a coup on Saturday March 15. The troops are officially there to secure the airport and help evacuate French citizens from the capital, Bangui.

Although France has formally condemned the coup, its leader, General Francois Bozize, was recently in exile in Paris and has asked for more French troops to be sent to help stabilise the country. Everything points to France working behind the scenes to further its imperialist ambitions in Africa.

<snip>

<snip>

Patasse had also been supported by the rebel group from the DRC—the Mouvement de Liberation du Congo (MLC) led by Jean-Pierre Bemba. This outfit, based in the north of the DRC and backed by Uganda, was under pressure from a western imposed ceasefire that cut across its diamonds for armaments trade. Its forces moved into CAR where they were hated by the population, accused of mass rapes and human rights violations. Under pressure from the west, the MLC was forced to withdraw at the beginning of this year.

<snip>

Bozize suspended the constitution and dissolved government and parliament, but has declared his coup was only a “temporary break” with democracy—a reference to the fact that Patasse was supposedly elected to office in 1999. He has met with CAR’s army and police chiefs, who are apparently offering their support, and with opposition political leaders.

<snip>

As well as France, official condemnation of the coup has come from the UN, the African Union, and the US. However, there seems to be little real opposition to the military strongman Bozize establishing his control as a welcome alternative to the unstable regime of Patasse. France has called for “a real, all-inclusive dialogue” to establish government in CAR: a call that has been supported by the US. ((The Chimp's government))

<snip>

Chad obtained $3.7 billion backing from the World Bank to build an oil pipeline from Chad through Cameroon to the coast. Despite protests from human rights groups and environmentalists, the construction of the pipeline is ahead of schedule and the first oil will be pumped through later this year. Although only five percent of oil revenues go to the producing region, the oil production will considerably boost Chad’s role in central Africa.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/mar2003/car-m24.shtml

=======


What the Wall Street Journal report ignored was France and TotalFinaElf's complicity in the country's poverty, the leadership's corruption and the stumbling blocks already encountered by Exxon in its drive to pipe oil from Chad.

There's not an regular Chadian citizen, in the bush where I lived, who will take tea with a Frenchman -- it was to my advantage to garble "la langue celeste," at times. It's because Chadian oil wells have long been drilled and capped and sat upon by France, while jerry-rigged president Deby sits in his mansion, purchased by our anti-nation-builders, of course. At least, this is what nearly any native on the street will tell you, and they believe it as firmly as they believe that their votes don't count, come election time.

French fighter jets routinely fly over remote parts of the Chadian bush, where my American parents still live. Ask any hut-dwelling native, and he'll explain: "l'huile!"


===


The World Bank conservatively estimated an average price of about $15 a barrel for the life of the project, which would give the field -- expected to reach about 225,000 barrels a day -- a value of about $15 billion. A World Bank official on the project says the revenue split between the oil companies and Chad will depend on many factors, including the price and quality of the oil. But in general terms, the agreement sets Chad's share of the royalties at 12.5%.
This share is low compared with other African oil deals, but the companies and the World Bank say it reflects the high political risk and greater development and transportation costs of the Chad project, and also the fact that the oil is expected to be of lower quality. Exxon and its partners in the consortium would divide the rest according to their interests in the project.

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB105640140158920000-H9jeoNglaB2nJ2vaIGIbamBm4,00.html

==


The French state prosecutor on Thursday demanded a five-year prison term for the former president of the state-run oil giant Elf Aquitaine, Loik Le Floch-Prigent, saying he and two other former ranking officials were "at the heart" of a vast corruption network. The prosecutor, Catherine Pignon, sought eight-year prison terms for the former No. 2 man at Elf, Alfred Sirven, and for the company's former Africa chief, Andre Tarallo. . The prosecutor asked for a fine of E380,000 ($444,600) for Le Floch-Prigent and a E5 million fine each for Sirven and Tarallo. . Pignon justified the severe sentences she sought by the "importance of the personal enrichment" in question, the position held by each person in the company and the "recurring or occasional character in the participation" of the crimes.

<snip>

The trial culminated an eight-year investigation into a system by which Elf allegedly paid out and received enormous commissions, inflated bills and used other devices to personally enrich a chosen few, from African leaders to some of the defendants.

http://www.andresgentry.com/thoughts/2003/06/chad_oil_trust_.html

====

Fuck them all. France, Russia, Britain, Canada and the US are carving up the world based on oil, water and free labor. Brand new spanking uniforms. IMF. World Bank. So much evil. This all just goes on and on and on and it won't stop until people like us FORCE this exploitation to stop.

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=france+oil+chad

[Darranar]

20. Be happy, Aristide!

Be grateful to those who overthrew you... Who cares about that little thing called "democracy"? You weren't totally compliant with US business interests, therefore you are lucky they didn't kill you.

Be glad, you brutal dictator*!

*Any leader not acting in complete accordance with the interests of the US elite.

[Just Me]

25. "Brutal dictators",...should be brought out of their white housed closets,

,...dontcha' think?

I am becoming increasingly horrified by the demons clothed in democracy.

YIKES!!!!

Assholes *sigh*,...

[daleo]

22. A little piling on here

Be grateful to your 'rescuers' - a little extra humiliation ordered up by Bushco to rub Aristide's nose in it, and any other wayward elected leaders, or those who support democratic principles. It is like Cheney going duck hunting with Scalia - corrupt ruling classes like to let everyone know what they really think of us, every once in a while.

[Judi Lynn]

23. I'd like to point out the level of involvement of the first Bush admin.

in the first coup:

(snip) An October 1994 article by journalist Allan Nairn in The Nation magazine quoted Constant as saying that he was contacted by a US Military officer named Col. Patrick Collins, who served as defense attache at the United States Embassy in Port-au-Prince. Constant says Collins pressed him to set up a group to "balance the Aristide movement" and do "intelligence" work against it. Constant admitted that, at the time, he was working with CIA operatives in Haiti. Constant is now residing freely in the US. He is reportedly living in Queens, NY. At the time, James Woolsey was head of the CIA.

Another figure to recently reemerge is Guy Philippe, a former Haitian police chief who fled Haiti in October 2000 after authorities discovered him plotting a coup with a group of other police chiefs. All of the men were trained in Ecuador by US Special Forces during the 1991-1994 coup. Since that time, the Haitian government has accused Philippe of master-minding deadly attacks on the Police Academy and the National Palace in July and December 2001, as well as hit-and-run raids against police stations on Haiti's Central Plateau over the following two years.

Kurzban also points to the presence of another FRAPH veteran, Jean Tatun. Along with Chamblain, Tatun was convicted of gross violations of human rights and murder in the Raboteau massacre.

"These people came through the Dominican border after the United States had provided 20,000 M-16's to the Dominican army," says Kurzban. "I believe that the United States clearly knew about it before, and that given the fact of the history of these people, probably very, very deeply involved, and I think Congress needs to seriously look at what the involvement of the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency has been in this operation. Because it is a military operation. It's not a rag-tag group of liberators, as has often been put in the press in the last week or two."
(snip)

http://www.newswithoutborders.org/

[Tinoire]

27. Thank God for the truth!

"These people came through the Dominican border after the United States had provided 20,000 M-16's to the Dominican army," says Kurzban. "I believe that the United States clearly knew about it before, and that given the fact of the history of these people, probably very, very deeply involved, and I think Congress needs to seriously look at what the involvement of the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency has been in this operation. Because it is a military operation. It's not a rag-tag group of liberators, as has often been put in the press in the last week or two."

Kurzban says he has hired military analysts to review photos of the weapons being used by the paramilitary groups. He says that contrary to reports in the media that the armed groups are using weapons originally distributed by Aristide, the gangs are using highly sophisticated and powerful weapons; weapons that far out-gun Aristide's 3,000 member National Police force.

[Judi Lynn]

29. U.S. policy damaging to Haiti

Mar 4, 2004
Akenji Ndumu
U.S. policy damaging to Haiti



In January, members of Global Justice, an official justice advocacy group in Washington, along with 13 students from across the country, visited Zanmi Lasante, a medical center in Haiti. There we witnessed optimism amid the despair that is Haiti. Throughout the trip we couldn't escape the looming shadow of U.S. foreign policy in perpetrating the suffering of Haiti's poor. What hand, you may ask, does the United States really have in the situation in Haiti right now?

Haiti's modern politics are complex and have been marked by shady politics and shifting alliances. What is important to consider is the class divide in Haiti, where a vast majority of people are desperately poor, while the rest are well-off. There is almost no middle class, and minority rule has taken place in Haiti for close to 190 years.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide was an incredibly popular and fearless priest who helped deliver Haiti's poor from the hands of Duvalier family dictatorships (more often than not supported by U.S. Cold War politics) and was elected by a wide margin to the presidency. He was deposed seven months later in a coup led by the deposed military leaders, who perpetrated repression and murder, most notably the massacres at Raboteau in central Haiti. When U.S. military intervention during the Clinton administration restored Aristide to power, a lot of the former military leaders were either prosecuted and jailed or fled to the neighboring Dominican Republic. Aristide returned to power, weakened by economic restructuring deals he had to concede to as leverage for being put back in power. He was re-elected in December 2000. Ever since then, the minority opposition coalition in Haiti (which is indirectly funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development) has sought to undermine Aristide's presidency.

Because of flawed legislative elections in 2000 (the presidential elections were internationally recognized as legitimate), in which seven seats were rightfully contested, the opposition has moved to stall the process of democracy by calling for the president to step down, despite having secured the resignation of six of those legislators. The United States supported this by halting all humanitarian and development aid into the country, undermining a government already strapped for cash. The opposition has refused every single international deal to have elections because they know full well they would never win any popular vote in Haiti. Many "popular" protests in the Haitian capital have seen significant participation by people paid to protest. What becomes apparent, then, is the United States has been hell-bent on Aristide's ouster. One of Aristide's most vocal opponents was Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), and his staffer Roger Noriega is now in charge of Haitian policy at the State Department under Colin Powell. This is not to say that the Aristide government does not have shortcomings. Accusations of corruption and violence are leveraged against Aristide, despite the fact that he has by far one of the best human rights records of any Haitian leader.
(snip/...)

http://www.inform.umd.edu/News/Diamondback/archives/2004/03/04/commentary4.html

[Judi Lynn]

30. Are these guys rotten, or WHAT?

(snip) Philippe, who was trained in the United States and Ecuador and assigned to the police after Aristide disbanded the army, was suspected of plotting a coup in 2000. He was also implicated in a mysterious attack on the National Palace in December 2001 and arrested and released by the Dominican Republic authorities in 2003 after an investigation into a plot to launch a new coup in Haiti.

Chamblain, an army officer accused of heading death squads during the last years of Jean-Claude Duvalier's rule, suspected of taking part in a 1987 election massacre, joined with Emmanuel "Toto" Constant to form the Front for the Advancement of Progress of the Haitian People, which brutally attacked Aristide supporters and set fire to entire neighborhoods. The group, which had ties to the CIA, is blamed for many of the 3,000 to 5,000 deaths during the three years after a military junta deposed Aristide.

Chamblain was also convicted in absentia in 1995 for the murder of prominent businessman and Aristide supporter Antoine Izmery, who was dragged from a church, forced to kneel and shot in the head. Chamblain claims he is ready to face any tribunal because "my hands are clean, my conscience is clean and my pockets are empty."
(snip)

The path is now clear for rightists and predatory groups -- that cadre of super rich businessmen created during the Duvalier years -- as well as assorted drug dealers, corrupt police, military and paramilitary.
(snip/...)

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/8101313.htm
(Hardly a leftie news source!)

[Say_What]

34. "friends" of the state department--they armed them just like they did

Osama. What a country! :mad: