14145: Karshan: Attorney for Govt of Haiti Responds to Lawrence Pezzullo article in Herald (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: MKarshan@aol.com

Ira Kurzban, Esq., the attorney for the Government of Haiti responds to
Lawrence Pezzullo's article carried in December 15th's Miami Herald:

"Lawrence Pezzulo, the man who was fired by President Clinton, for his
inability to find a solution to the military dictatorship in Haiti now offers
a plan to undermine the democratically elected president of the country.

Unfortunately, in all of Mr. Pezzullo's years in the State Department he
apparently never learned the simple truth that our government should be in
the business of respecting democratically elected governments not trying to
destory them simply because we don't like the president chosen by the people.
It is a little ironic for Mr. Pezzullo to be making these suggestions now,
because he was the person who bemoaned the CIA's efforts to prevent the
restoration of Jean Bertrand Aristide during the first coup.

To say that Mr. Pezzullo is overstating both the violence in Haiti and the
oppposition to President Aristide is stating the obvious. What is not obvious
is that he is ignoring the fact that the same forces who prevented President
Aristide's return in 1993 when Pezzullo, in his usual strong man tactics
shoved the Governor's Island accords down the throat of the Haitian people,
are now trying to subvert Aristide's second election.

Mr. Pezzullo, like many of the professional Aristide haters, ignores the fact
that the
struggle in Haiti is not about Aristide at all. The struggle is about
empowering poor people to have some say in their lives. The poor who
represent the overwhelming majority of Haitians voted for Aristide. Mr.
Pezzullo would like to call together all the elites in Haiti who have always
opposed Aristide to have a new coup. And for what end? So they can pursue the
same policies that resulted in 32 coups in Haitian history.

The ironic part of Pezzullo's plan is that he ignores the fact that it is
President Aristide who has repeatedly called for elections and it is the
opposition that represents virtually no one in Haiti but themselves that has
refused to participate in elections. It is time that people like Mr. Pezzullo
and the other professional Aristide haters respect the democratic process.
President Aristide was elected president for a five year term. His term
expires in February 2006.

If Pezzullo and others don't like it they should do what we do in the
U.S.----organize an opposition and run for office, not plot the overthrow of
the government. If Mr. Pezzullo's plan were applied to the U.S. he could be
arrested for plotting the overthrow of the government and federal prosecutors
would be considering whether he and others like him are violating the
Neutrality Act for interfering in the democratically elected government of
Haiti."

Ira Kurzban, Esq.
Attorney for the Government of Haiti
December 15, 2002