19408: Pierre Jean: On Impeachment and Aristide (Was Re: 19387: KawolinA: Re: 19348: radtimes: THE HAITI REDUX (fwd)) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Pierre Jean <pierrejean2004@yahoo.com>

Aristide may be a criminal and miscreant, but he also
is a political genius, at least when it comes to
maintaining power.

Many people have talked about the impeachment process
in Haiti. But if you know the Constitution of 1987,
then you will clearly see that it is completely
impossible for any impeachment proceeding to have been
launched against Aristide.

let's look at articles 185 and 186 of the
Constitution:

Article 185 - The Senate may constitute itself as a
High Court of Justice. the proceedings of this Court
are presided over by the President of the Senate,
assisted by the President and Vice President of the
Supreme Court as Vice President and Secretary,
respectively, except where the Justices of the Supreme
Court and officers of the public Prosecutor's Office
assigned to that court are involved in the accusation,
in which case, the Senators, one of whom shall be
designated by the accused, and the Senators so
appointed shall not be entitled to vote.

Artcile 186 - The House of Deputies, by a majority of
two-thirds (2/3) of its members, shall indict:

a. The President of the Republic for the crime of high
treason or any other crime or offense committed in the
discharge of his duties;

b. The Prime Minister, the Ministers and the
Secretaries of State for Crimes of high treason and
embezzlement or abuse of power or any other crimes or
offenses committed in the discharge of their duties;

c. Members of the Permanent Electoral Council and the
Superior Court of Auditors and the Court of
Administrative Disputes for serious offenses committed
in the discharge of their duties;

d. Supreme Court justices and officer of the Public
Prosecutor's Office before the Court for abuse of
authority;

e. The Protector of Citizens (Protecteur du citoyen).

And therein lies the rub.

By maneuvering to gain ALL seats in both the Senate
and the Lower House in 2000, Aristide wanted to make
sure that he would always control the Legislative
power so that no one would dare start the formation of
the High Court of Justice. Can you imagine Yvon
Neptune or Medard Joseph or Prince Sonson Pierre or
Gerard Gilles or Rudy Herivaux or any other Lavalas
senator start impeachment proceedings against
Aristide?

Let's be serious!

These Senators all owe their wealth and new-found
power to Aristide so they would never do anything to
harm him. Do you remember the rice and "tôle" scandal
where each Senator received from the Aristide
Foundation for Democracy vouchers for the distribution
of these goods which they instead SOLD for commercial
gains? Sonson Pierre had the courage to break away but
it was too little too late. He is tainted by his
actions following the December 17, 2001 failed coup
(or whatever that was supposed to be) when he
personally supervised the attacks against the
Opposition from a green Mitsubishi Nativa, brandishing
a slick new Uzi submachine gun.

With the Senate now limited to 9 members, and teh with
the Lower House completely disbabded, there is no
quorum to create a High Justice Court and to indict
anyone.

So whoever talks about legal impeachment proceedings
with Lavalas controlling all avenues of power since
2000 is either ignorant of the Haitian political
reality as we have lived it or totally delusional.