19173: Haiti - Insurrection in the Making (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Anthony Fenton <apfenton@ualberta.ca>

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=54&ItemID=5043

Haiti - Insurrection in the Making
by Yifat Susskind; A MADRE Backgrounder ; February 25, 2004


A political crisis that has been brewing in Haiti since 2000 exploded
during the second week of February 2004. Members of an armed
movement seeking to overthrow Haiti's President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
went on a rampage in a dozen Haitian towns, killing more than 60 people.
The towns remain under siege by criminal gangs led by former
paramilitary members.

There is great concern for the families in these areas, since the armed
vigilantes have cut road and telephone access to communities, emptied
prisons and blocked convoys of food aid from reaching impoverished
areas.

The blockade of food aid is particularly worrisome since, according to the
UN Food and Agriculture Organization, nearly half of all Haitians lack
access to even minimum food requirements. Hospitals, schools, police
stations and other government buildings have been burned and looted.
Meanwhile, the US Department of Homeland Security has begun
preparations for the internment of up to 50,000 Haitian refugees at the US
naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, signaling that the US expects a
much greater escalation of violence in Haiti.

 What is the Political Backdrop to the Conflict? The crisis dates back to a
political stalemate stemming from a contested election. In 2000-the same
year that George Bush stole the US presidency-Haiti held elections for
7,500 positions nationwide. Election observers contested the winners of
seven senate seats.

President Aristide balked at first, but eventually yielded and the seven
senators resigned. Members of Haiti's elite, long hostile to Aristide's
progressive economic agenda, saw the controversy as an opportunity to
derail his government.

Since 2001, human rights activists and humanitarian workers in Haiti
have documented numerous cases of opposition vigilantes killing
government officials and bystanders in attacks on the state power station,
health clinics, police stations and government vehicles. The US
government did not condemn any of these killings.

In January 2004, the opposition escalated its protests. At some
demonstrations, government supporters, who represent Haiti's poorest
sectors, attacked opposition activists. Only then did US Secretary of State
Powell issue a one-sided condemnation of 'militant Aristide supporters.'

In a country as poor as Haiti, control over the institutions of the state is
one of the only sources of wealth, making national politics an arena of
violent competition. Similarly, in an environment of 70 percent
unemployment, the prospect of long-term work as a paramilitary fighter
leads many young men to join these forces.

Who is the Opposition? Like the so-called opposition to the Chavez
government of Venezuela, Haiti's opposition represents only a small
minority (8 percent of the population according to a 2000 poll). With no
chance of winning through democratic elections, they rely instead on
armed violence to foment a political crisis that will lead to the fall of the
government. Using their international business connections, especially
ties to the corporate media, the opposition has manufactured an image of
itself as the true champion of democracy in Haiti.

The gangs that have placed thousands of Haitians under siege are
reportedly armed with US-made M-16s, recently sent by the US to the
government of the Dominican Republic.

The gangs are directly linked to two groups financed by the Bush
Administration: the right-wing Convergence for Democracy and the
pro-business Group of 184.

The Convergence is a coalition of about two dozen groups, ranging from
neo-Duvalierists (named for the Duvaliers' dictatorship that ruled Haiti
from 1957-1986) to former Aristide supporters. These groups have little in
common except their desire to see Aristide overthrown.

According to the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, the opposition's 'only
policy goal seems to be reconstituting the army and the implementation of
rigorous Structural Adjustment Programs.'

The Convergence is led by former FRAPH paramilitary leaders (including
Louis Chamblain, Guy Phillipe and Jean Pierre Baptiste) who carried out
the bloody 1991 coup d'etat, in which the CIA-trained and -funded FRAPH
overthrew Aristide, killed 5,000 civilians and terrorized Haiti for four
years.

The Convergence is supported by the Haitian elite and the leadership of
the US Republican Party (through the National Endowment for Democracy
and the International Republican Institute).

The Group of 184 is represented by Andy Apaid, a Duvalier supporter and
US citizen who obtained a Haitian passport by fraudulently claiming to
have been born in Haiti. Apaid owns 15 factories in Haiti and was the
main foe of Aristide's 2003 campaign to raise the minimum wage (which,
at $1.60 a day, was lower than what it had been 10 years earlier).

By demanding that the opposition be included in any resolution of Haiti's
political impasse, the US has greatly empowered these forces. While the
opposition perpetuates Haiti's political deadlock, the US embargo (see
below) guarantees the island's economic strangulation. Aristide's
opponents hope that these combined tactics will achieve what they cannot
win through democratic elections: the ouster of Aristide.

Why is it so hard to get a clear picture of what's happening in Haiti? Media
Manipulation

-> One reason is that the opposition has succeeded in mobilizing the
mainstream media to create an image of Aristide as a tyrant and the
opposition as democratic freedom fighters. For example, international
media have run several stories comparing the opposition to the
movement to overthrow Haiti's long-time Duvalier dictatorship. Although
the Haitian government has condemned attacks by its supporters on
opposition forces, mainstream media did not report the condemnations

-> Most international coverage of the crisis in Haiti comes from the large
wire services, Reuters and the Associated Press. These wire services
rely almost exclusively on Haiti's elite-owned media (Radio Metropole,
Tele-Haiti, Radio Caraibe, Radio Vision 2000 and Radio Kiskeya) for their
stories. The outlets are owned and operated by the opposition. For
example, Andy Apaid, spokesman for the Group of 184, is the founder of
Tele-Haiti.

-> Progressive journalists have accused these stations of exaggerating
reports of violence by government supporters and ignoring violence by
opposition forces. These stations air commercials inciting Haitians to
overthrow the government.

 US Double-Speak

-> Another reason for confusion is that the Bush Administration is
upholding a long US tradition of talking about respect for democracy in
Haiti while supporting the country's most anti-democratic, pro- business
forces. o The US has encouraged the opposition to refuse to participate in
elections and, at the same time, declared that elections in Haiti will only
be considered legitimate if the opposition participates.

-> Powell says that the US is 'not interested in regime change.' But the
Administration is supporting a disinformation campaign in the US media,
maintaining an embargo that is intensifying hunger and disease amongst
Haiti's poorest and supporting the sponsors of armed, vigilante violence
that has already killed scores of people.

What is the role of the US in Haiti? The US was the main supporter of the
Duvalier dictatorship. In 1986, when Haiti's pro-democracy movement
finally succeeded in overthrowing the hated dictator, he was ferried to
safety by the Reagan Administration.

Only with the rise of Aristide, Haiti's first democratically elected
president,
did US support shift from the Haitian leadership to those who
orchestrated the 1991 coup d'etat.

In 1994, public pressure and fear of an influx of Haitian 'boat people' led
the Clinton Administration to reverse the coup d'etat and restore Aristide to
power.

The Republican leadership strongly opposed the intervention. In 1995,
when Republicans took control of Congress, they pushed to cancel US
aid to Haiti and to finance the opposition by reallocating federal funds to
Haitian non-governmental organizations opposed to Aristide.

In 2000, the Republicans exploited Haiti's electoral controversy as an
opportunity to discredit Aristide. The Bush Administration pressured the
Inter-American Development Bank to cancel more than $650 million in
development assistance and approved loans to Haiti -- money that was
slated to pay for safe drinking water, literacy programs and health
services.

The seven contested senators are long gone, but the embargo remains in
place, denying critical services to the poorest people in the hemisphere.

What is Aristide's record? The US allowed Aristide to be reinstated on the
condition that he implement a neoliberal economic agenda.

Aristide complied with some US demands, including a reduction of tariffs
on US-grown rice that bankrupted thousands of Haitian farmers and
maintenance of a below- subsistence-level minimum wage.

But Aristide resisted privatizing state-owned resources, because of
protests from his political base and because he was reluctant to
relinquish control over these sources of wealth.

Aristide eventually doubled the minimum wage and -- despite the
embargo -- prioritized education and healthcare: he built schools and
renovated public hospitals; established new HIV-testing centers and
doctor-training programs; and introduced a program to subsidize
schoolbooks and uniforms and expand school lunch and bussing
services.

Aristide has tried to walk a line between US demands for neoliberal
reforms and his own commitment to a progressive economic agenda. As
a result, he has lost favor with parts of his own political base and Haitian
and US elites.

Aristide has also been criticized for turning a blind eye to human rights
abuses committed by his supporters and by advocates of good
governance for rewarding loyalists with government posts regardless of
their qualifications. (a patronage system even more extensive than the
one that has filled the Bush Administration with former CEOs and
corporate lobbyists.)

So Should Progressives Support Aristide? The current crisis is not about
supporting or opposing Aristide the man, but about defending
constitutional democracy in Haiti. In a democracy, elections-and not
vigilante violence-should be the measure of 'the will of the people.'
Aristide has repeatedly invited the opposition to participate in elections
and they have refused, knowing that they cannot win at the polls.

How Should the Crisis be Resolved? MADRE supports the proposal of
the Caribbean Community (CARICOM, a consortium of Caribbean
governments) which:

Rejects any violent overthrow of the government and insists that any
change in government be in compliance with Haiti's constitution.

Calls on the opposition to accept Aristide's offer to take part in elections
in
order to break the impasse that has frozen Haiti's government for the past
several years.

Calls on the international community to provide economic assistance to
Haiti in order to alleviate the country's grinding poverty and create some
foundation for economic and political stability.

MADRE also calls on the Bush Administration to:

Unequivocally denounce the opposition and cease any financial, political
or military support for its forces.

Lift the embargo that is denying urgently needed development aid and
health programs to Haitian women and families.

Some Statistics on Haiti

-> The richest 1% of the population controls nearly half of all of Haiti's
wealth.

-> Haiti has long ranked as the poorest country in the Western
Hemisphere and is the fourth poorest country in the world.

-> Haiti ranks 146 out of 173 on the Human Development Index.*

-> Life expectancy is 52 years for women and 48 for men*.

-> Adult literacy is about 50%.*

-> Unemployment is about 70%.*

-> 85% of Haitians live on less than $1 US per day.*

-> Haiti ranks 38 out of 195 for under-five mortality rate.*

*Source: 'Investigating the Effects of Withheld Humanitarian Aid,' a report
of the Haiti Reborn/Quixote Center.

MADRE is working to deliver emergency supplies of food and medicine to
women and families in Haiti. In recent weeks, armed gangs seeking to
overthrow Haiti's government have prevented food supplies from reaching
impoverished communities and attacked government clinics and
hospitals. MADRE is working with a local, progressive community-based
organization that has a long record of successfully delivering aid to those
most in need, even in times of crisis.

Please support this emergency campaign for women and families in Haiti
by making a tax-deductible contribution to MADRE.

Haiti Support Group press release - 23 February 2004

 Return of the FRAPH/FAD'H

The reappearance of the FRAPH/FAD'H is nothing less than a stinking
stain on today's Haiti. - In December 2003, the Workers' Struggle (Batay
Ouvriye) organisation succinctly summed up the main protagonists in the
struggle for political power in Haiti: "Lavalas and the bourgeois opposition
are two rotten buttocks in a torn pair of trousers."

Today, 23 February 2004, as Haitians wake up to the news that the
northern city of Cap-Haitien has fallen to a rebel force composed of
former Haitian Army (FAD'H) soldiers led by FRAPH leader, Louis Jodel
Chamblain, we can perhaps continue with this analogy, and say:

"The reappearance of the FRAPH/FAD'H is nothing less than the
excrement that's making a stinking stain on the torn trousers that is Haiti
today."

The Haiti Support Group wholeheartedly endorses Amnesty
International's 16 February press release which stated, "The last thing
that the country needs is for those who committed abuses in the past to
take up leadership positions in the armed opposition."

As a solidarity organisation that believes that internationally-recognised
human rights standards can lend valuable protection to individuals and
organisations struggling to overthrow tyranny and dictatorship, we are
deeply concerned that the Haitian opposition - grouped in the Democratic
Platform - has failed to unequivocally condemn the emergence of
notorious human rights abusers at the head of the armed movement to
oust President Aristide.

We are also greatly alarmed to see statements in the media which
indicate that the rebel force intends to reinstate the disbanded Haitian
Army (FAD'H). Ever since its creation during the US occupation (1915-34),
the Haitian Army's primary roles have been to defend the country's tiny and
reactionary economic elite and to repress movements for political change.
We fully expect a reborn Haitian Army to play exactly the same role.

For this reason, the Haiti Support Group - a solidarity organisation that
has supported the Haitian people's struggle for justice, human rights,
equitable development and participatory democracy since 1992 - cannot
accept that a reborn Haitian Army will serve the best interests of the
Haitian majority.

In this context, we are obliged to point out that elements within the
Democratic Convergence opposition coalition have long intimated their
support for the reinstatement of the Haitian Army, and that, more recently,
the continued silence on this issue on the part of the Democratic Platform
is a strong indication that it is willing to accept a reborn Haitian Army in
exchange for the early departure of President Aristide.

As the desperately grim scenario unfolds in Haiti, we are reminded once
again of this extract from an article published in The Washington Post
newspaper on 2nd February 2001:

The (Democratic) Convergence was formed as a broad group with help
from the International Republican Institute, an organisation that promotes
democracy that is closely identified with the U.S. Republican Party.

It includes former Aristide allies - people who helped him fight Haiti's
dictators, then soured as they watched him at work. But it also includes
former backers of the hated Duvalier family dictatorship and of the military
officers who overthrew Aristide in 1991 and terrorised the country for three
years. The most determined of these men, with a promise of anonymity,
freely express their desire to see the U.S. military intervene once again,
this time to get rid of Aristide and rebuild the disbanded Haitian army.
"That would be the cleanest solution," said one opposition party leader.
Failing that, they say, the CIA should train and equip Haitian officers exiled
in the neighboring Dominican Republic so they could stage a comeback
themselves."

Background on rebel leaders whose forces are now in control of over half
of Haiti: Louis Jodel Chamblain Chamblain was joint leader - along with
CIA operative Emmanuel 'Toto' Constant - of the Front révolutionnaire pour
l'avancement et le progrès haïtien, (Revolutionary Front for Haitian
Advancement and Progress) known by its acronym - FRAPH - which
phonetically resembles the French and Creole words for 'to beat' or 'to
thrash'.

FRAPH was formed by the military authorities who were the de facto
leaders of the country during the 1991-94 military regime, and was
responsible for numerous human rights violations before the 1994
restoration of democratic governance.

Among the victims of FRAPH under Chamblain's leadership was Haitian
Justice Minister Guy Malary. He was ambushed and machine-gunned to
death with his body- guard and a driver on October 14, 1993. According to
an October 28, 1993 CIA Intelligence Memorandum obtained by the
Center for Constitutional Rights: "FRAPH members Jodel Chamblain,
Emmanuel Constant, and Gabriel Douzable met with an unidentified
military officer on the morning of 14 October to discuss plans to kill
Malary." (Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, the leader of FRAPH, is now living
freely in Queens, NYC.)

In September 1995, Chamblain was among seven senior military and
FRAPH leaders convicted in absentia and sentenced to forced labour for
life for involvement in the September 1993 extrajudicial execution of
Antoine Izméry, a well-known pro-democracy activist. In late 1994 or early
1995, it is understood that Chamblain went into exile to the Dominican
Republic in order to avoid prosecution.

Guy Philippe Guy Philippe is a former member of the FAD'H (Haitian
Army). During the 1991-94 military regime, he and a number of other
officers received training from the US Special Forces in Equador, and
when the FAD'H was dissolved by Aristide in early 1995, Philippe was
incorporated into the new National Police Force. He served as police chief
in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Delmas and in the second city,
Cap-Haitien, before he fled Haiti in October 2000 when Haitian authorities
discovered him plotting what they described as a coup, together with a
clique of other police chiefs. Since that time, the Haitian government has
accused Philippe of master-minding deadly attacks on the Haitian 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
last two years.

Ernst Ravix According to the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights report on Haiti, dated 7 September 1988, FAD'H Captain Ernst
Ravix, was the military commander of Saint Marc, and head of a
paramilitary squad of "sub- proletariat youths" who called themselves the
Sans Manman (Motherless Ones). In May 1988, the government of
President Manigat tried to reduce contraband and corruption in the port
city of Saint Marc, but Ravix, the local Army commander, responded by
organising a demonstration against the President in which some three
thousand residents marched, chanted, and burned barricades. Manigat
removed Ravix from his post, but after Manigat's ouster, he was reinstated
by the military dictator, Lt. Gen. Namphy.

Ravix was not heard of again until December 2001 when former FAD'H
sergeant, Pierre Richardson, the person captured following the 17
December attack on the National Palace, reportedly confessed that the
attack was a coup attempt planned in the Dominican Republic by three
former police chiefs- Guy Philippe, Jean-Jacques Nau and Gilbert Dragon
- and that it was led by former Captain Ernst Ravix. According to
Richardson, Ravix's group withdrew from the National Palace and fled to
the Dominican Republic when reinforcements failed to arrive.

Jean Tatoune Jean Pierre Baptiste, alias "Jean Tatoune", first came to
prominence as a leader of the anti- Duvalier mobilisations in his home
town of Gonaives in 1985. For some years he was known and respected
for his anti-Duvalierist activities but during the 1991-94 military regime he
emerged as a local leader of FRAPH. On 22 April 1994, he led a force of
dozens of soldiers and FRAPH members in an attack on Raboteau, a
desperately poor slum area in Gonaives and a stronghold of support for
Aristide. Between 15 and 25 people were killed in what became known as
the Raboteau massacre.

In 2000, Tatoune was put on trial and sentenced to forced labour for life
for his participation in the Raboteau massacre. He was subsequently
imprisoned in Gonaives, from where he escaped in August 2002, and
took up arms again in his base in a poor area of the city. At various times
he has spoken out against the government, and at other times in favour of
it, but since September 2003 he has allied himself with the followers of
murdered community leader, Amiot Metayer, and vowed to overthrow the
government by force.

Jean-Baptiste Joseph Joseph is a former Haitian Army sergeant who,
following the disbanding of the FAD'H in 1995, headed an association of
former FAD'H members. The formation of the Rassemblement des
Militaires Révoqués Sans Motifs (RAMIRESM), the Assembly of Soldiers
Retired Without Cause was announced at a 1 August 1995 press
conference in Port-au-Prince. During 1995 and 1996, RAMIRESM was
closely associated with Hubert De Ronceray's neo-Duvalierist party,
Mobilisation pour le développement national, (MDN) Mobilisation for
National Development.

On 17 August 1996, Joseph was one of 15 former soldiers arrested at the
MDN party headquarters and accused of plotting against the government.
Two days later, approximately twenty armed men, reportedly in uniforms
and thought to be former soldiers, fired on the main Port-au-Prince police
station, killing one bystander.

Since then nothing had been heard of Joseph, until he emerged in Hinche
with the rebel forces last week. The right-wing MDN party is a leading
member of the Democratic Convergence coalition.

apfenton@ualberta.ca