28968: please post this anonymously : Paul Raymond: "activist" or Aristide goon? (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

How pro-Aristide factions are supporting
  former OP criminal Paul Raymond

  Paul Raymond: "activist" or Aristide goon?

On July 25, 2005, a surprising unsigned post appeared on www.haitiaction.org, a 
pro-Aristide website. Entitled "Haiti: Pro-democracy activists deported from 
the Dominican Republic", the piece decries the lawful extradition of Paul 
Raymond to Haiti. It paints Raymond, a well-known Aristide supporter as an 
exemplary, peaceful community activist, to wit: "... a prominent Haitian 
grassroots leader and tireless defender of Haiti's poor ...", "... a founding 
member and coordinator of Haiti's base community church, Ti Kominote Legliz 
(TKL) ...", "... a well-known proponent of liberation theology and an activist 
in the popular movement calling for the return of President Aristide and 
constitutional democracy ..."

Mr. Raymond may well have been a member of the base community church, and we 
may accept that he had at one time been a proponent of liberation theology. But 
his deeds and pronouncements while Aristide was in a power certainly belie any 
notion that Mr. Raymond had stayed faithful to his original beliefs. It is 
surprising that, with his long record of incendiary, hateful and downright 
murderous language, coupled with an untold number of violent and illegal acts, 
that haitiaction.org would even call for the release of this criminal.

One of the controversial aspects of liberation theology is that one of its 
strands does teach violence as a means to break free of "oppression". Indeed, 
certain liberation theologians "will in some cases regard a particular action 
(e.g., killing) as sin if it is committed by an oppressor, but not if it is 
committed by the oppressed in the struggle to remove inequities. The removal of 
inequities is believed to result in the removal of the occasion of sin [i.e., 
the oppressor] as well." ( Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand 
Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983), 592 ) We need to question, however, whether 
any of Paul Raymond's violent acts fit within the "acceptable" context of 
violence preached by some liberation theologians. A more general question is, 
to what extent is liberation theology not just a means to achieve "revenge" 
rather than an attempt to establish a more balanced society? Did Aristide mean 
to right the wrongs of exclusion and oppression, or did he use
 liberation theology simply to elevate himself and his cronies to power?

Perhaps we should take a stroll down memory lane and revisit Paul Raymond's 
activities.

February 21, 2001
Haiti Torn by Hope and Hatred As Aristide Returns to Power
Washington Post Foreign Service | Friday, February 2, 2001; Page A01
By EDWARD CODY


    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- The death threat came in a chilling Creole 
_expression. Unless the opposition to President-elect Jean-Bertrand Aristide 
backed off, righteous crowds would kill 80 of Haiti's establishment 
politicians, journalists and clerics, turning their "blood to ink, their skin 
to parchment and their skulls to inkwells."

Twenty Haitian reporters were summoned to hear the warning read out on Jan. 9 
at St. Jean Bosco, a burned-out church whose shell remains a monument to 
Aristide's days there as a liberation theology priest. Paul Raymond, a militant 
in the slum's "Little Church Community," named the opposition figures one by 
one, as several dozen activists affiliated with Aristide's Lavalas political 
movement shouted, "Long Live Aristide! Long Live Aristide!"

Realizing the significance of what they had just heard, the reporters rushed 
back to their radio and television stations. By nightfall, Port-au-Prince, the 
Haitian capital, was buzzing with the news. Opposition politicians demanded 
Raymond's arrest. Foreign embassies and the papal nuncio issued condemnations. 
People waited for Aristide to emerge from his luxurious home to disavow the 
threat made in his name. But they waited in vain.

[...]
  October 18, 2001
Letter from NCHR to Jean-Marie Cherestal, Prime Minister


    [...]

3. The Refusal to Execute Certain Warrants

Several individuals close to the ruling powers are the objects of judicial 
proceedings. One can name, among others, the case of Richard (Chacha) SALOMON, 
René CIVIL of "Jan l Pase l Pase" (JPP), Paul RAYMOND of Ti Kominite Legliz 
(TKL) of St. Jean Bosco, and Ronald CAMILLE, known as Ronald CADAVRE, currently 
the new "Bos Pent" .

These individuals are being "actively sought-after" by the police for the 
investigation surrounding the assassination of the director of Radio Haiti 
Inter, Jean Léopold DOMINIQUE and the station's guard Jean Claude LOUISSANT, 
and for the murder of Fritzner JEAN aka Bobo. Nevertheless, these men circulate 
without worry throughout the capital and make public appearances in areas 
patrolled by police officers.

The police have given all the pretexts for not executing these warrants. In the 
past, did Haitians not witness the actions of a general in the Army, soliciting 
the intervention of the Court of Cassation regarding a warrant, in order to 
justify the Army's refusal to arrest Dr. Roger LAFONTANT ? What has changed? 
Are we in the presence of a new Roger LAFONTANT? A new version of the Haitian 
Army that now uses a different name? Is the National Police - like the army - 
an institution that consumes nearly eighty percent (80%) of the budget for the 
Ministry of Justice, nothing more than an auxiliary of the public powers?

These are just some of the dark areas on which the CSPN must shed some light. 
The Haitian population needs to know; it has the right to know.

[...]


  October 30, 2001
Letter from the Platform of Haitian Human Rights Organizations (POPDH)


    The Platform of Haitian Human Rights Organizations (POHDH) brings to the 
attention of the national and international community the existence of a list 
of fifteen human rights workers threatened with assassination, including: 
Pierre ESPERANCE, Treasurer (POHDH) and Executive Director (National Commission 
on Human Rights/NCHR), Viles ALIZAR, Program Director, NCHR; Serge BORDENAVE, 
Secretary General of POHDH; Jean Simon SAINT HUBERT, Executive Secretary of 
POHDH. This threat is RELATED to denunciations made by the Platform and the 
NCHR related to political influence on the National Police of Haiti, and to the 
ongoing grave violations of human rights in Haiti.

The POHDH takes this threat very seriously. In March 1999, POHDH treasurer, 
Pierre ESPERANCE, was the subject of an assassination attempt that had been 
previously announced in leaflets thrown in the courtyard of the institution.

The POHDH recalls that for some time now, leaders of Haitian Human Rights 
Organizations have been the objects of threats for their criticism of President 
Jean Bertrand Aristide's executive order calling for "Zero Tolerance" of 
lawlessness. Paul RAYMOND and Rene CIVIL, two individuals close to the centers 
of power of the President's Lavalas movement, have demanded that the movement 
apply the rule of zero tolerance to defenders of human rights.

The POHDH denounces this situation, which brings back memories of the DUVALIERS 
and their military governments. The POHDH reminds the authorities that the 
Haitian people were not responsible for the military coup of the 16th of 
December 1990 and resisted that coup d'Etat and the surge in political 
assassinations based on a belief in real democracy and scrupulous respect for 
human rights. The assassination of defenders of human rights is not the 
solution to the multiple problems which are facing the country, but a simple 
attempt to destroy the thermometer which indicates the degree of human rights 
violations in the country.

Faced with these circumstances, the POHDH demands that the government apply the 
Declaration of Paris, which compels it to assure protection for defenders of 
human rights.

Serge BORDENAVE
Secretary General

  July 1, 2002
OAS Report on the December 17, 2001 Events


    [...]

M. Joseph Guyler Delva déclina devant la Commission les détails des menaces 
qu’il avait reçues. Il indiqua spécifiquement les menaces de mort que lui 
avaient faites les dirigeants des Organisations Populaires qui s’identifient 
avec Fanmi Lavalas. Par exemple, M. René Civil l’a accusé publiquement de 
travailler dans l’intérêt des «colons blancs». Le 11 janvier 2002, il dût 
quitter précipitamment l’Hôtel Plaza à Port-au-Prince où il prononçait une 
conférence sur «La liberté de la presse en Haïti» en compagnie de M. Robert 
Ménard de «Journalistes sans frontières». Tous les deux furent contraints de 
s’enfuir car M. René Civil et M. Paul Raymond, accompagnés des membres de leurs 
groupes manifestaient devant l’hôtel et y pénétrèrent pour les attaquer. Les 
dirigeants des Organisations Populaires susmentionnées soutenaient que ce genre 
de conférences discréditait le Gouvernement. M. Delva informa que Paul Raymond 
l’avait accusé d’être un agent de M. Ménard, et que lui et M. Ménard
 avaient distribué des armes à travers le pays pour déstabiliser le 
Gouvernement. Toutes ces accusations n’avaient pour objectif que de justifier 
le traitement qu’ils voulaient lui réserver.
  http://haitianmofo.blogspot.com/2005/07/how-pro-aristide-factions-are.html