Haiti: Democracy Undone -- Jan 30-31 Disc/Time Documentary

by **StarmanSkye** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 9:58 pm

CBC and the Discovery/Time cable (neocon propaganda) channel will be broadcasting the documentary 'Haiti: Democracy Undone' during the next week; CBC NEWSWORLD BROADCAST TIMES: Sunday, January 29 at 8:00 PM ET (world premiere) Monday, January 30 at 3:00 AM ET Thursday, February 2 at 10:00 PM ET Friday, February 3 at 1:00 AM ET Friday, February 3 at 4:00 AM ET Discovery/Times BROADCAST TIMES: Monday Jan. 30 @ 8 and 11 pm (et) Tuesday Jan. 31 @ 4am, 7am, 12 pm and 3 pm (et). It appears from the program review that this documentary will accurately report at least some evidence re: the fact of America's leading role in overthrowing Haiti's popular democratically-elected government of President Aristide and his Lavalas Party, and the resulting politically-motivated murders, oppression, repression and violence that have since occurred. That it will air on the Discovery/Times (Propaganda) Channel is indeed a moderately-pleasant surprise. ***** <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/correspondent/060129.html">www.cbc.ca/correspondent/060129.html</a> After four postponements, voters in Haiti are once again scheduled to go to the polls. The February 7 vote follows a coup almost two years ago. In early 2004, when the government of Haiti faced a serious threat from armed rebels who had crossed the border from the Dominican Republic, the US government made it clear they supported the elected president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. "The policy of this Administration is not regime change,” Colin Powell, then US Secretary of State, said in testimony before a Congressional committee. A fews weeks later Aristide was overthrown. Haiti: Democracy Undone presents new evidence that in fact the US played a role in the coup that overthrew Aristide; that it had one foreign policy on Haiti but secretly carried out a very different policy. Jean-Bertrand Aristide The very first time Haitians elected their president was 1990. Their choice: Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest. But Aristide would serve less than a year before being overthrown in a military coup. Under international pressure, including from the US, Aristide returned to power in 1994 and served out the rest of his term. He was elected president for a second time in 2001. His opponents had already begun to organize. As the rebels took more towns and cities in February 2004, Aristide turned to the international community for help. The US sent in the Marines -- to protect the US embassy. By the end of the month Aristide had fled Haiti on an airplane chartered by the US government. An interim government backed by Canada, the US and France took over in Haiti. In the months since, life has been marked by widespread violence, chaos and economic collapse. Louis Jodel Chamblain In Haiti: Democracy Undone, Walt Bogdanich, a reporter with The New York Times, investigates the 2004 coup and the US role. That coup was led by Louis Jodel Chamblain, a former death squad leader, and Guy Philippe, a former police chief accused of drug trafficking by the US. While the US claimed they opposed any attempt to violently overthrow the Aristide government, Bogdanich finds that elements of the US government were sending the rebels a very different message. The investigation looks at the role of the International Republican Insitute, based in Washington. In 2004 the IRI, a non-profit organisation, received $36,000,000 in federal funds to promote democracy abroad. There have been earlier allegations of US support for the 2004 coup. This documentary presents new and overwhelming evidence that that was the case. Haiti: Democracy Undone is a co-production by CBC News: Correspondent, The New York Times and Discovery Times Television. The January 29 broadcast will be the world premiere. CBC NEWSWORLD BROADCAST TIMES: Sunday, January 29 at 8:00 PM ET Monday, January 30 at 3:00 AM ET Thursday, February 2 at 10:00 PM ET Friday, February 3 at 1:00 AM ET Friday, February 3 at 4:00 AM ET --unquote-- ***** The hypocrisy, abuse of power, unaccountability and illegitimacy of the Bush Administration and indeed the whole US National Security infrastructure that micromanages US Foreign Policy is nowhere more evident than in the US's despicable, underhanded role in undermining genuine participatory and representative government in Haiti. And STILL the facts of US's waging economic warfare on Haiti, surreptitiously arming a rebel-army of criminals and ex-army goons (providing several thousand M16s, pistols and uniforms to a quasi-mercenary mob secretly organized and directed in the neighboring Dominican Republic), witholding vital already-approved loans and economic aid, pressuring Aristide's US-based private-firm bodyguards to abandon their duty, leaving Aristide unprotected, and actually kidnapping Aristide under force-of-arms, has NOT been widely acknowledged --if at all--by the MSM (or by US 'officials') -- so this Discovery/Time showing of this program is pretty surprising. I'm certainly planning on watching, to note whether it accurately reflects many of these little-known facts and/or to what extent it tends to affirm the mythical rightwing /National Security State version of 'reality', ie. the US as a champion of 'self-rule democracy', freedom and human rights. I sure would like to know WHO in the Bush Regime, Pentagon, State Dept. and other rightwing groups were fundamentally involved in the monstrous crime of Haiti's regime change. As a major US propaganda organ, the NY Times in its Jan. 24 article, 'Fear and Death Ensnare UN's Soldiers in Haiti', not only avoids all reference to the US's thinly-disguised kidnapping of Aristide in early 2004 (which it simply refers to as the 'downfall' of Aristide's government), but it even manages a facade of naive innocence oblivious to supreme irony in reporting, "The violence has raised demands in capitals from Brasília to Washington to Ottawa for an explanation of what has gone wrong with Haiti's transition to democracy. What is clear is that the $584 million a year mission has failed to bring peace to Haiti, and the caretaker government has failed to bring elections." (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/24/international/americas/24haiti.html?pagewanted=all)">www.nytimes.com/2006/01/2...anted=all)</a> How can any self-respecting reporter write this kinda crap? (Ginger Thompson, in this horrible example of 'American journalism'). I mean, how Godamned Stooopid do the editors of the NY Times think we ARE, in overlooking the idiocy of 'demands' in Washington for an explanation on why Haiti's democratic transition has 'failed' -- when Washington is THE primary locus for the engineered destruction of Haiti's fully-functioning democracy in the first place (and not just once or most recently)? Just because 'Washington' aka the Bush White House and National Security State policy wonks decided Aristide's government wasn't 'acceptable' (because he was too closely responsive to the needs and desires of the majority poor, and an embarrassing powerful example to the entire Carribean?) was NOT a legal, moral, or even rational reason for the US to broker what was essentially a coup d'etat. In a modern, civilized world where the rule of law and political legitimacy are widely valued, those officials in the US bureaucracy responsible behind the scenes for causing Haiti's present tragedy would all be indicted and shamed for their actions, and US Foreign Policy and diplomatic agencies substantially reformed to prevent such enormous abuses from ever happening again. (Might as well wish upon a star, eh?) It's way past time for the UN to formally charge nations like the US who have made a mockery of laws and principles and agreements, and place the US on probation, perhaps subject to economic and diplomatic sanctions in order to 'encourage' cooperation and genuine support of democracy. Washington's duplicity and hypocrisy in the case of Haiti can't be as easily hidden or excused as with what it has done in Iraq or Afganistan -- so I suppose it's to be expected that the US has backed away from active public involvement in Haiti, and the propaganda has been ramped-up to keep the public dumbed-down and stupid. We can only speculate what kind of pressure and back-room deals have been offered to get Canada, Brazil and Jordan to take the lead in trying to 'fix' what the US broke. "A recent poll sponsored by the United States government indicated that the leading candidate is former President René Préval, considered a protégé of Mr. Aristide. The Aristide government was undone by a protest movement, led by people like the businessman Mr. Apaid, a revolt by former soldiers and police officers and American pressure. "They thought they could get rid of one government and have the country to themselves and their friends," a United Nations officials said, asking not to be identified out of fear that his comments could hurt his position in Haiti. "But Préval has come and ruined the party." How many more Iraqs, Afghanistans and Haitis will it take before the American public wakes UP, and realize the absolute LAST thing the US ruling class wants is free elections and social justice for the world's majority oppressed, struggling peoples, here OR anywhere? Starman ****** <a href="http://www.guerrillanews.com/headlines/5701/Haiti_Turning_into_Canada_s_Iraq">www.guerrillanews.com/hea...ada_s_Iraq</a> Haiti Turning into Canada's Iraq Tue, 25 Oct 2005 11:41:06 -0700 Summary: It is fairly clear that Canada was acting at the request of the United States, that the Canadian government saw this as an opportunity to play a constructive role in assisting our nearest ally in a situation that was considerably less controversial than Iraq. [Posted By gaanjah_mama] By Jared Ferrie Republished from thetyee.ca The political meltdown around a coming election in Haiti could tarnish Canada's peacekeeping reputation. Canada is taking a lead role in Haiti’s reconstruction, but increasing violence and political repression is making free and fair elections impossible, critics warn. Canada is the third largest donor to Haiti, after the United States and the European Union. Canada has contributed $180 million for Haiti’s reconstruction over the next two years, including over $26 million for the upcoming elections. But there are thousands of political prisoners in Haiti, according to journalist Kevin Pina, and Canada has the daunting task of reforming the police, court and prison systems “The situation is horrible right now,” said Pina, an American who has lived in Haiti for the past six years. “You have a situation where the majority political party is basically confronting a campaign of extermination. It’s a nightmare situation and Canada is up to its neck in it.” Pina was in Vancouver on Friday to screen his documentary Haiti, The Untold Story. Growing criticism Activists have been crying foul ever since a coup overthrew Jean Bertrand Aristide in February 2004, but criticism is building from human rights groups and other observers as conditions in the western hemisphere’s poorest country go from bad to worse. Supporters of Aristide’s Lavalas party “have been targeted in police sweeps across poor neighbourhoods of the capital where support for their party is strong,” according to Amnesty International. The human rights watchdog reported in July that Reverend Gerard Jean-Juste, an outspoken Aristide supporter, “was taken to Pétionville police station by officers from the Haitian police and the UN civilian police force, CIVPOL.” Canada has contributed 100 police officers to CIVPOL, which is in charge of training the Haitian police. Jean-Juste remains in prison, along with other Lavalas leaders including former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune. The Brussells-based think tank International Crisis Group has also accused the transitional government of using “its power to persecute former Lavalas leaders and supporters, such as Yvon Neptune, mostly without charge or trial.” In a written response to The Tyee, Foreign Affairs spokesperson Pamela Greenwell said, “Canada believes that in the interest of national reconciliation in Haiti, the case of former Prime Minister Neptune must continue to follow the legal course.” Neptune has been held without trial since June 2004. When asked about Canada’s ability to lobby for the release of political prisoners, Greenwell responded, “Given the weakness of Haiti’s judicial system in this regard, Canada is working to help define priorities that would lead to significant improvements.” Elections at risk Reports of political repression are casting a shadow over the December elections, which Canada, along with other countries involved in the preparations, hope to hold up as a symbol of their successful attempt to rebuild the country. “The whole point of elections is that they are free and fair, and if they’re not free and fai,r then we shouldn’t be there supporting the process,” said Michael Byers of UBC’s Liu Institute for Global Issues. Byers, an international law expert, said that although the UN authorized military intervention, the Security Council resolution was careful neither to condone nor condemn the coup that initiated the current crisis. “Certainly, there’s reason to be very concerned about the fact that Aristide was forced or felt it necessary to leave the country,” Byers added. “He was a democratically elected president.” Democracy undone Some critics say that countries including Canada put pressure on Haiti by withholding aid and then rushed in to support the unelected opposition when Aristide’s government fell. They claim the strategy was led by the United States and backed up by Canada and France. ”(Canada’s) foreign policy was in lock step with the Bush administration when they destabilized the government by freezing aid,” said Pina. Byers noted that Canada followed America’s lead in getting involved in the imbroglio of post-coup Haiti. “It is fairly clear that Canada was acting at the request of the United States, that the Canadian government saw this as an opportunity to play a constructive role in assisting our nearest ally in a situation that was considerably less controversial than Iraq,” he said. This is not Canada’s first sojourn into the perpetually troubled country. Canada participated in the UN-sanctioned intervention in the mid-1990s that restored Aristide to power after he was overthrown the first time. Retired Canadian Forces Major Roy Thomas, who took part in the mission, said that venture was ill fated. “We invested the troops, time, and money to put Aristide back in power then stood by when he was sent again into exile,” said Thomas, adding that a decade later it appears, “nothing has changed.” In the lead-up to the coup that toppled Aristide, human rights abuses and deteriorating security were cited by the US, Canadian and French foreign ministers as reasons that Aristide should step down. AI: ‘a major setback’ But activists point out that human rights have taken a step backwards since Aristide’s departure. “The scale of which human rights abuses are taking place – there’s no comparison,” said Anthony Fenton, a Vancouver-based activist and co-author of the recently published Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority. “This was a very young democracy that was overthrown and there were problems, but the seeds for democracy were being planted,” said Fenton who returned from a two-week visit to the country on October 4th. “Now those seeds have been torn out and the soil has been overturned. Haiti’s gone back 50 years.” A May 3rd Supreme Court decision mirrors Fenton’s words: the sentences of 15 members of the military and a paramilitary organization, who had participated in a massacre of pro-Aristide villagers, were rescinded. At the time of their convictions, in 2000, the UN called the ruling a “landmark for justice in Haiti.” Amnesty International said that the decision to overturn the sentences “constitutes a major setback in the fight against impunity in Haiti.” Thomas pointed out that Aristide’s government was not without its problems, including widespread corruption and abuse of power. Still, he said, Lavalas came to power democratically. “But this election is a bit of theatre,” he said. Reputation at risk Pina accused Canada, along with the US, France and the UN, of supporting a transitional government of elites who are using the police, courts and prisons to repress political freedoms in order to maintain their grip on power. “I think that ultimately (the Canadian) government’s reputation is going to be irreparably harmed, irreparably tarnished when all is said and done and the truth comes to light,” said Pina. ******* community.discovery.com/groupee/ forums/a/tpc/f/966101732/m/5441953618/r/8181977618 Posted 1-13-2006: "My husband and I were waiting with much anticipation for this documentary. I put an alarm for it in my PocketPC, and we rearranged some dinner plans with friends in order to stay home and watch it. On the appointed evening (originally scheduled Jan. 9) I couldn't find it anywhere. I thought perhaps I'd mistyped the date or time, but we'd seen the ad so many times that we were sure it should be on. "Something very strange has happened. When I first did a search in Google using the terms [Haiti "democracy undone" discovery] I got lots of hits. Today when I use the same search terms, I get 5 hits, 3 of which are references to your posts Dennis, and 2 of which don't seem to have any reference to Haiti at all. "Everything on the Internet regarding this documentary has just disappeared? What in the world is going on?" ***** The rescheduling isn't especially suspicious in itself, as networks will drop programs and re-air them for various reasons, but the google subject search-archive dropout the above post points-out sure is. What's up with THAT? -- Did google 'erase' most references to Haiti: Democracy Undone?Did Discovery-Time initially decide to drop the program because it was too politically 'sensitive' (or pressure from the neocons/Washington), but then succumb to public or special-interest pressure (another clique willing to challenge the State Dept's hypocritical, murderous Foreign Policy?) to air it anyway? Sure seems like SOMETHING is going-on behind the scenes. --S

by **seemslikeadream** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 12:44 am

WHILE I SIT HERE TRYING TO THINK OF THINGS TO SAY <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_25_pro_18.jpg" style="border:0;"/> SOMEONE LIES BLEEDING IN A FIELD SOMEWHERE <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_27_pro_4_r.jpg" style="border:0;"/> SO IT WOULD SEEM WE'VE STILL GOT A LONG LONG WAY TO GO <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_26_pro_18.jpg" style="border:0;"/> I'VE SEEN ALL I WANNA SEE TODAY <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_28_pro_6.jpg" style="border:0;"/> WHILE I SIT HERE TRYING TO MOVE YOU ANYWAY I CAN <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_24_pro_150.jpg" style="border:0;"/> SOMEONE'S SON LIES DEAD IN A GUTTER SOMEWHERE <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_22_pro_34.jpg" style="border:0;"/> AND IT WOULD SEEM THAT WE'VE GOT A LONG LONG WAY TO GO <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_24_pro_123.jpg" style="border:0;"/> BUT I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_20_pro_11.jpg" style="border:0;"/> SWITCH IT OFF IT WILL GO AWAY <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_24_pro_133.jpg" style="border:0;"/> TURN IT OFF IF YOU WANT TO <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_23_pro_76.jpg" style="border:0;"/> SWITCH IT OFF OR LOOK AWAY <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_21_pro_62.jpg" style="border:0;"/> WHILE I SIT AND WE TALK AND TALK AND WE TALK SOME MORE <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_18_pro_30.jpg" style="border:0;"/> SOMEONE'S LOVED ONE'S HEART STOPS BEATING IN A STREET SOMEWHERE <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_28_pro_20.jpg" style="border:0;"/> SO IT WOULD SEEM WE'VE STILL GOT A LONG LONG WAY TO GO, I KNOW <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_18_pro_11.jpg" style="border:0;"/> I'VE HEARD ALL I WANNA HEAR TODAY <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_28_pro_5.jpg" style="border:0;"/> TURN IT OFF IF YOU WANT TO (TURN IT OFF IF YOU WANT TO) <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_22_pro_6.jpg" style="border:0;"/> SWITCH IT OFF IT WILL GO AWAY (SWITCH IT OFF IT WILL GO AWAY) <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_19_ap_pro_4.jpg" style="border:0;"/> TURN IT OFF IF YOU WANT TO (TURN IT OFF IF YOU WANT TO) <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_25_pro_8.jpg" style="border:0;"/> SWITCH IT OFF OR LOOK AWAY (SWITCH IT OFF OR LOOK AWAY) <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_28_pro_19.jpg" style="border:0;"/> SWITCH IT OFF <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_26_pro_20.jpg" style="border:0;"/> SWITCH IT OFF <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_23_pro_97.jpg" style="border:0;"/> SWITCH IT OFF <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_13_pro_23.jpg" style="border:0;"/> SWITCH IT OFF <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_12_pro_29.jpg" style="border:0;"/> SWITCH IT OFF <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_13_pro_50.jpg" style="border:0;"/> TURN IT OFF <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_13_pro_9.jpg" style="border:0;"/> thanks phil collins for the words my heart to the people of Haiti Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=seemslikeadream@rigorousintuition>seemslikeadream</A> at: 1/28/06 9:52 pm

by **seemslikeadream** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 12:58 am

Conclusive Evidence of U.S. Role in Kidnapping and Coup PRESS ADVISORY Monday, April 4, 2004 As Bush Administration Scrambles to Shore Up Appointed Haitian Regime Commission to Present Conclusive Evidence of U.S. Role in Kidnapping and Coup Date: Wednesday, April 7 Time: 6:30- 9:30 pm Location: The Whitman Theatre at Brooklyn College Panel to include: Rep. Maxine Waters, Rep. Major Owens, Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Ossie Davis, Gil Noble, Amy Goodman, Ron Daniels, and other prominent activists and journalists The Bush Administration is facing a growing crisis over its role in the coup in Haiti and the kidnapping of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who continues to speak out about his abduction by the U.S. The 15-member organization of Caribbean nations, CARICOM, has refused to recognize the U.S.-installed regime and has called for an investigation, despite intense pressure and threats from the U.S. The 53-member African Union has raised the same demand. On Wednesday, April 7, the Haiti Commission of Inquiry will initiate a public inquiry of the role of the Bush Administration in the crisis in Haiti. Delegations that visited both the Central African Republic and the Dominican Republic will present conclusive evidence that U.S. Special Forces armed, trained, and directed the "rebels" and engineered the abduction of President Aristide. The preliminary report from the Commission states, "two hundred U.S. Special Forces soldiers came to the Dominican Republic as part of 'Operation Jaded Task,' with special authorization from President Hipólito Mejia. We have received many reports that this operation was used to train Haitian rebels. We have received many consistent reports of Haitian rebel training centers at or near Dominican military facilities. We have received many consistent reports of guns transported from the Dominican Republic to Haiti, some across the land border, and others shipped by sea." Johnnie Stevens of the International Action Center, a member of the delegation to the Central African Republic, said, "The U.S.-installed Prime Minister, Gerard Latortue, has hailed the paid mercenaries as freedom fighters, and had thus discredited himself among the Caribbean nations." Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a desperate bid to lend some credibility to the Latortue government, is now visiting Haiti for the first time. This attempt to put U. S. weight behind the isolated colonial-style regime is a response to its growing isolation. Sara Flounders, of the International Action Center, said, "This visit by Powell is a sign of the Bush Administration’s growing isolation and disarray. The U.S. is desperately trying to shore up a discredited regime in the face of international opposition to the appointed government of Haiti after the stinging rebuke directed at the U.S. by the recent CARICOM meeting." Flounders is a member of the Haiti Commission of Inquiry and was part of the delegation to the Central African Republic, where she visited with President Aristide shortly after his kidnapping. Kim Ives from Haiti Progres, who was part of the delegation to the Dominican Republic, told the media, "In the course of our investigation here, we met with many Haitians who were forced to flee Haiti following the coup d'etat of Feb. 29. Their testimony gave very concrete names and faces to the stories of violence which we have heard that the so-called rebels, trained and assembled in the Dominican Republic, have carried out in Haiti over the past month. We were also touched by the tears of refugees who told us of how they are apprehensive over the fate of their loved ones left behind in Haiti." Operation Jaded Task US Troopers Secretly Land in Dominican Republic <a href="http://english.pravda.ru/world/2003/02/20/43514.html">english.pravda.ru/world/2...43514.html</a> The military training operation nicknamed Jaded Task took by surprise Dominican Foreign Ministry. The US Army started today a training operation in the Caribbean country as part of routine maneuvers of the Southern Command. The landing had been kept so secretly that Dominican Foreign Ministry Hugo Tolentino was reported... by the TV. As per the first reports, the US troops are training Dominican soldiers on anti-terrorism operations in the north of the island. When the national media started announcing the landing, country's Foreign Minister was having a lunch. Tolentino said that, as chief of the Dominican diplomacy, he should have been formally advised, as personally requested to the Dominican Army and the US Embassy to Santo Domingo. (snip) However, the most interesting thing, here, is that the Communist Party of the Dominican Republic did know about the operations. This correspondent had access to two formal communications issued by the US Embassy including details of these activities, during the Communist summit held in Buenos Aires in January. There, the US ambassador to Santo Domingo reported about 10.000 soldiers coming to the Dominican Republic to take part of the training. Moreover, the communists and other leftist forces in the country made know such documents to the local media in November. According to the denounce, US soldiers can freely enter and leave the country without any kind of permission. Also, they can do it through owned means of conveyance.

by **seemslikeadream** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 1:09 am

working links here <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1307941" target="top">www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1307941</a> Who's who of the Haiti Coup - death squad veterans and convicted murderers <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_28_pro_19.jpg" style="border:0;"/> Rebel leader Louis-Jodel Chamblain talks with other rebels at their headquarters in the Mont Joli Hotel in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, Saturday Feb. 28, 2004. (AP Photo/Pablo Aneli). Louis-Jodel Chamblain Convicted assassin and leader of death squads Chamblain was the number 2 man in the FRAPH death squad which participated in the campaign of terror during the 1991 coup against Aristide. Terrorising supporters of Aristide's Lavalas Family party, the group was blamed for thousands of killings before a US intervention ended three years of military rule in 1994. "I am scared of what I did, not of what I didn't do," Chamblain told the AP. "I never committed murder. I am not a terrorist. I am not a drug dealer. I am not a criminal." He was, however, convicted in absentia and sentenced to life imprisonment for the September 11, 1993 murder of Aristide financier Antoine Izmery, who was dragged from Mass in a church, made to kneel outside and shot. Chamblain was also convicted for the April 23, 1994 massacre in the pro-democracy region of Raboteau. A CIA intelligence memorandum implicated him in the October 14, 1993 assassination of Justice Minister Guy Malary who, with his bodyguard, was ambushed and machine-gunned. According to the CIA memorandum, dated October 28, 1993, and obtained by the Centre 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 was the founder of FRAPH. http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20040307T04000... ... Analysis: Haiti's diverse rebels The exiles' leader is Louis Jodel Chamblain, 50, who fled to the Dominican Republic in 1994. A former sergeant, he is accused taking part in a number of atrocities during the years of military rule. He was suspected of involvement in a 1987 election massacre, in which 34 voters were killed and a civilian-run ballot aborted. In 1993 in co-founded the Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress - Fraph, which sounds like "hit" in French. The group is accused of killing thousands of supporters of Mr Aristide. Plots Mr Chamblain denies involvement in any paramilitary activities and describes himself as a "Haitian patriot". He returned from exile with another controversial former soldier, Guy Philippe, 35. Aristide supporters are being hunted down across the north Trained in the United States and Ecuador, he was a senior security official under President Rene Preval, a civilian elected in 1995. Now Mr Philippe and Mr Chamblain are allies, and celebrating their capture of Cap-Haitien, the country's second city at the weekend. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3515267.stm 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. http://www.haiti-progres.com/eng02-25.html The most disturbing figure in the rebel leadership is Louis Jodel Chamblain. He is reported to have led the insurgents’ attacks on Central Plateau towns, including the regional capital of Hinche. Chamblain was a sergeant in the Haitian army (FAd’H), and a member of the elite Corps des Leopards. He left the army in 1989 or 1990 and reappeared on the scene in 1993 as one of the founders of the Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress (Front révolutionnaire pour l’avancement et le progrès haïtien, FRAPH). Known as its number two leader, he had a reputation for violence and action (in contrast to the better known and more media-friendly Emmanuel “Toto” Constant). In the report of Haitian Truth and Justice Commission, there is a statement by Emmanuel Constant that explains that FRAPH’s central committee was composed of himself, Chamblain, Mireille Durocher-Bertin, a lawyer who was murdered in 1995, and Alphonse Lahens (a prominent Duvalierist). Chamblain was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for the 1993 murder of businessman and activist Antoine Izmery, as well as for involvement in the 1994 Raboteau massacre. He is also implicated in the assassination of Justice Minister Guy Malary, who was ambushed and machine-gunned to death with his body-guard and a driver on October 14, 1993. According to a 1993 CIA Intelligence Memorandum obtained by the U.S.-based 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.” Chamblain escaped to the Dominican Republic in 1994, after the U.S. military intervention in Haiti, and returned to the country in late 2003 or early 2004. http://www.flashpoints.net/Haiti_Rebel_Leaders.html <img src="http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2004/WORLD/americas/02/29/haiti.revolt/story.boniface.ap.jpg" style="border:0;"/> Novak's friend Boniface Alexandre When Caribbean neighbor Jamaica gave asylum to Aristide two weeks ago, an infuriated LaTortue immediately recalled Haiti's ambassador to Kingston. A second return of Aristide as a free man is ruled out. Boniface Alexandre, the Supreme Court chief justice who became provisional president upon Aristide's resignation under Haiti's constitution, is a careful jurist who measures his words -- except when it comes to Aristide. "He cannot come back to Haiti," Alexandre told me. Aristide will return only if it is decided to indict and extradite him, Justice Minister Bernard Grousse informed me. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn200403... Haiti: Marines patrol and rebels disarm While Aristide has been replaced by interim President Boniface Alexandre, his real authority in Haiti has come into question, particularly now that rebel forces have entered the city and proclaimed their intention to reinstate the military. Led by 36-year-old former military officer Guy Philippe -- who Tuesday proclaimed himself the "military chief" in Haiti -- the rebels began taking over cities in the North in early February with the intention of forcing Aristide's resignation. The rebels and Haiti's political opposition -- though not aligned -- had been calling for Aristide to step down after what has been termed faulty elections in 2000 and widespread allegations of human rights abuses and corruption. Since completing their sweep of the Caribbean nation, the rebels said days ago that they would put down their weapons at the request of the president, then appeared to modify their stance as Haiti's second coming of the military. Many of the rebels were soldiers in the nation's army when Aristide disbanded it in 1995. The president was ousted in a military coup in the early 1990s then restored to power in 1994 with the help of 20,000 U.S. troops. http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20040303-123122-1... 29 February 2004 Haitian President Resigns, Supreme Court President Sworn In U.S. deploys Marines as initial contingent of multinational force Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned and departed Port-au-Prince the morning of February 29, resolving the impasse at the root of violence in Haiti in recent weeks, according to the U.S. State Department. In a February 29 statement, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that the United States facilitated Aristide's safe departure and noted that Haitian Supreme Court President Boniface Alexandre has been sworn in as head of state until presidential elections are held. The statement called on all Haitians to respect the peaceful and constitutional succession, and added that the United States will deploy U.S. Marines as the intitial contingent of a multinational force. The U.S. will also work with the international community to seek a United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing international support for Haiti's transition, the statement said. Under a plan crafted by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the U.S. and international community "will facilitate the urgent formation of an independent government that will represent the interests of all of the Haitian people." Following is the text of the statement: Statement by Richard Boucher, Spokesman Statement on the Resignation of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti Jean-Bertrand Aristide has resigned as president of the Republic of Haiti, submitting a letter of resignation before departing Port-au-Prince safely early this morning. At President Aristide's request, the United States facilitated his safe departure from Haiti. . In conformity with Haiti's constitution, Supreme Court President Boniface Alexandre has been sworn in as head of state until presidential elections are held. We have been informed that Prime Minister Yvon Neptune will continue to serve as Haiti's head of government until a successor is appointed in the next days, within the framework of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Plan of Action. We call on all Haitians to respect this peaceful and constitutional succession and to refrain from any actions that will undermine national reconciliation. We urge all Haitians to cooperate with the international community as it supports measures to build a more just society and to help defeat the scourge of poverty and disease. The decision by President Aristide to resign resolves the political impasse that is the root of the violent unrest in Haiti in recent weeks. Therefore, the United States will deploy a contingent of U.S. Marines as the initial contingent of a multinational interim force. We have been informed that several other countries are prepared to move quickly to join this mission. During the course of the day we will continue consulting with our partners in CARICOM and the Organization of American States, as well as Canada and France, to seek a resolution of the United Nations Security Council authorizing international support for a peaceful and constitutional transition in Haiti. As envisaged under the CARICOM plan, the international community will facilitate the urgent formation of an independent government that will represent the interests of all of the Haitian people. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/200... ... <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_23_pro_94.jpg" style="border:0;"/> André “Andy” Apaid, Jr., Last December, after a powwow with the International Republican Institute in Santo Domingo, the Haitian opposition returned to Port-au-Prince to establish the “Group of 184,” a supposedly broad front of “civil society” organizations modeled on similar anti-government coalitions in Chavez’s Venezuela and Allende’s Chile. The head of the “184" today is André “Andy” Apaid, Jr., also head of Alpha Industries, one of the oldest and largest assembly factories in Haiti. On Nov. 11, Haiti’s Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert confirmed that Apaid is indeed a U.S. citizen, a rumor which had been circulating since the industrialist’s emergence on the political scene. According to Privert, Apaid was born to Haitian parents in the U.S. and came to Haiti in 1976 as a foreign businessman on a visitor’s visa. After five years, any foreigner can obtain Haitian nationality by naturalization under the Constitution’s Article 12, but “Andy” Apaid has never done this, according to the government. Andy is following in the political footsteps of his father. As founder of Alpha Sewing in the 1970s, André senior was a close to dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier and remains “a notorious Duvalierist,” according to Eric Verhoogen in the Multinational Monitor (April 1996). Apaid senior headed up the “civil society” (read: bourgeoisie) campaign to support the 1991-1994 military coup against President Aristide, which successfully eased U.S. sanctions on the export of goods from Haiti’s assembly sweat-shops. “When asked at a business conference in Miami soon after the coup in 1991 what he would do if President Aristide returned to Haiti, Apaid replied vehemently, ‘I’d strangle him!’” Verhoogen wrote. “At the time, Apaid was heading up the United States Agency for International Develop-ment’s (USAID’s) PROMINEX business promotion project, a $12.7 million program to encourage U.S. and Canadian firms to move their businesses to Haiti.” http://www.haiti-progres.com/eng11-12.html ANDY APAID JR.: The most outspoken leader of the opposition coalition, Apaid is a factory owner born in the United States. His family fled Haiti under Francois Duvalier, or "Papa Doc," who ruled from 1957 to 1971. Favoring pressed pastel shirts and gold-rimmed glasses, Apaid looks like a Miami businessman but says he is totally Haitian at heart. "I am just as much a part of this country as anyone," Apaid, in his early 50s, said recently. "That's why I am saying we must choose another path for the country." But without a constitutional amendment, he will never become president because of his dual nationality. He has rejected the U.S.-backed settlement plan, saying Aristide must leave office. http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/0204/26haitiwho.ht... The most outspoken leader of the opposition coalition, Andre (Andy) Apaid is a factory owner born in the United States. His family fled Haiti under Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, who ruled from 1957 to 1971. Favoring pressed pastel shirts and gold-rimmed glasses, Apaid looks like a Miami businessman but says he is totally Haitian at heart. "I am just as much a part of this country as anyone," Apaid, in his early 50s, said recently. "That's why I am saying we must choose another path for the country." But without a constitutional amendment, he will never become president because of his dual nationality. http://www.sptimes.com/2004/03/01/Worldandnation/Key_fi... ... The Washington-backed Democratic Convergence opposition front and the Haitian bourgeoisie’s “Group of 184” civil society front (G184), led by a U.S. citizen and sweatshop magnate André “Andy” Apaid, Jr. (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 21, No. 35, 11/12/03), have been quick to embrace, foment and urge on the student demonstrations. So on Dec. 11, about 10,000 students, with the G184 and Democratic Convergence leaders in tow, marched through the streets of the capital. (Bourgeois radio stations inflated the demonstration up to 5 fold). On hand were Apaid, former Haitian Army colonel Himmler Rébu, Convergence leader Evans Paul, writer Gary Victor, the head of the Civil Society Initiative (ISC) Rosny Desroches, and dissident Lavalas senators Prince Sonson Pierre and Dany Toussaint. Later that day on Radio Kiskeya, Toussaint virtually called for a coup by saying that the “international community” was reluctant to remove Aristide from power only because they feared anarchy would result. But, he reassured them, he could “restore order within 48 hours” due to his connections in the police and former army. http://www.haiti-progres.com/2003/sm031217/eng12-17.htm... Propaganda is to a democracy what violence is to a dictatorship. (William Blum) <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_25_pro_1.jpg" style="border:0;"/> Evans Paul The Kerry report claims Martinez is the bag man for Colombia’s cocaine cartels, and supervises bribes paid to the Haitian military. According to Miami attorney John Mattes, who is defending a Cuban-American drug trafficker cooperating with U.S. prosecutors, Martinez was paid $30,000 to bribe Haitian authorities into releasing two drug pilots jailed in Haiti after the engine in their plane conked out, forcing them to land in Port-au-Prince. Martinez claims innocence from his lavish home in Petionville, an ornate suburb where Haiti’s ruling class live, overlooking the slums of the capital. He runs the casino at the plush El Rancho Hotel, that prior to the embargo realized nearly $50 million in business each week, a cash flow adequate to conceal a major money laundering operation. But the most disturbing allegations have been of the role played by the CIA in keeping many of the coup leaders on the agency’s payroll, as part of an anti-drug intelligence unit set up by the U.S. in Haiti in 1986. Many of these same military men have had their U.S. assets frozen, and are prevented from entering this country because of their role in overthrowing Aristide, and subsequent human rights violations, including torture and murders of political opponents, raising the question—was the U.S. involved in a cocaine coup that overthrew Aristide? Former Democratic party head and current secretary of commerce Ron Brown headed a law firm that represented the Duvalier family for decades. Part of that representation was a public relations campaign that stressed Duvalier’s opposition to communism in the cold war. United States support for Duvalier was worth more than $400 million in aid to the country, before the man who called himself Haiti’s President-for-Life was forced from the country. Even Duvalier’s exit from Haiti, in February 1986, is shrouded in covert intrigue and remains an unexplored facet of the career of Lt. Col. Oliver North. Shortly after Duvalier’s ouster, North was quoted as saying he had brought an end to Haiti’s nightmare, a cryptic statement that was never publicly perused by the Iran-Contra hearings. Francois and his men have a history of involvement in the torture of opponents and death-squad-style murders of Aristide supporters. In one recent incident, attaches mobbed Port-au-Prince City Hall to prevent the capital’s mayor, Evans Paul, an Aristide supporter, from entering his offices. One person was killed and 11 wounded during the September 8th incident, when the mob opened fire on Aristide supporters. Witnesses say the attack began when attaches dragged two of Paul’s aides from a car, viciously beating an Aristide official. Francois is also considered responsible for the murder of Justice Minister Guy Malary. http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/415.html Another top figure in the opposition coalition, Paul is a former mayor of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, who was in hiding from the brutal military regime during much of his term until U.S. troops arrived in 1994. Paul, who is in his late 40s, was head of a center-left coalition that nominated Aristide for president in 1990. Paul managed Aristide's successful election campaign but broke ranks after Aristide left him out of his inner circle. http://www.sptimes.com/2004/03/01/Worldandnation/Key_fi... ... EVANS PAUL: Another top figure in the opposition coalition, Paul is a former mayor of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, who was in hiding from the brutal military regime during much of his term until U.S. troops arrived in 1994. Paul, who is in his late 40s, was head of a center-left coalition that nominated Aristide for president in 1990. Paul managed Aristide's successful election campaign but broke ranks after Aristide left him out of his inner circle. A playwright and journalist when dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier ruled Haiti, Paul was jailed for opposing him. http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/0204/26haitiwho.ht... <img src="http://www.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNews/images/20021103/commonwealth_visa_021103/160_denis_coderre_qp_021103.jpg" style="border:0;"/> DENIS CODERRE: Canada's minister responsible for the Francophonie — of French-speaking countries that include former French colonies like Haiti — was minister for citizenship and immigration in January 2002, which would have put him in touch with Canada's large Haitian community. Coderre oversaw the implementation of a new act to protect refugees and migrants. A political scientist, Coderre was first elected to Canada's House of Commons in 1997. In 1999, he joined the federal Cabinet as secretary of state for amateur sport and helped establish the headquarters for the World Anti-Doping Agency in Montreal. Coderre came to Haiti declaring, "We clearly don't want Aristide's head. We think Aristide must remain in place." http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/0204/26haitiwho.ht... <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/feb_23_pro_97.jpg" style="border:0;"/> Guy Philippe: Profile In 2000, Haitian authorities said they had discovered Philippe was plotting a coup with a group of other police chiefs. Philippe fled to the Dominican Republic, the country that shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. Haitian and U.S. authorities say that Philippe was involved in drug trafficking while he was police chief in Cap-Haitien, as well as during his exile in the Dominican Republic, although he has never been officially accused of any drug crimes. The Haitian government has accused Philippe of organizing an attack on the police academy in Petionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, in July 2001, and another attack in December 2001 on the national palace. The Organization of American States investigated, but was unable to find out who was behind the attacks. Philippe was thought to have been in exile, but in February 2004, he appeared at a news conference at the side of one of the leaders of the anti-Aristide rebels. His rebel group, the National Front for the Liberation of Haiti, is largely made up of former soldiers who lost their jobs when the military was demobilized. http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/haiti/philippe.html 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. http://www.haiti-progres.com/eng02-25.html The leader of the insurrectionary forces, Guy Philippe, age thirty-five, trained by the United States as an army officer in Ecuador. He was integrated into the new Haitian National Police in 1995 and his first command post was in Ouanaminthe, on the northern border with the Dominican Republic. Later, in about 1997 to 1999, he served as police chief for Delmas, a large urban district on the north side of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. During his tenure there, the UN/OAS International Civilian Mission learned that dozens of suspected gang members were summarily executed, mainly by police under the command of Inspector Berthony Bazile, Philippe’s deputy. On October 18, 2000, Haiti’s prime minister announced that Philippe and other officers were plotting a coup d’etat. Before they were arrested, however, the men escaped over the border to the Dominican Republic. http://www.flashpoints.net/Haiti_Rebel_Leaders.html 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. http://www.haiti-progres.com/eng02-25.html <img src="http://www.realcities.com/images/miami/miamiherald/8188/67046192424.jpg" style="border:0;"/> Jean-Pierre Baptiste - nom de guerre is Jean Tatoune Among the rebel leaders was the notorious Jean-Pierre Baptiste, smiling and looking triumphant. It did not seem to matter that Mr. Baptiste, whose nom de guerre is Jean Tatoune, had been freed by rebels last year from a prison where he had been serving a life sentence for his participation in the killings of Aristide supporters in Gonaïves in 1994. Mr. Latortue hailed the rebels as "freedom fighters." http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/29/international/america... Haiti: Perpetrators of serious past abuses re-emerge Haiti Support Group The emergence of former paramilitary leaders convicted of past human rights violations as leaders of the armed opposition force is fuelling a conflict that has already taken too many lives, said Amnesty International as the crisis in Haiti continues to deepen. "At the best of times, the spectre of past violations continues to haunt Haiti," Amnesty International said today. "At this crucial stage, when the rule of law is so fragile, 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." On 14 February Louis Jodel Chamblain, a notorious former paramilitary leader, reportedly gave an interview to a Haitian radio station to say that he had joined the armed movement seeking to overthrow President Jean Bertrand Aristide. He was accompanied by a former police commissioner. In September 1995 Chamblain was among seven senior military and paramilitary leaders convicted in absentiaand sentenced to forced labour for life for involvement in the September 1993 extrajudicial execution of Antoine Izméry, a well-known pro-democracy activist. Chamblain had gone into exile to avoid prosecution. Chamblain has reportedly joined forces with the leaders of the armed opposition based in Gonaïves. Another of the leaders, Jean Pierre Baptiste, alias "Jean Tatoune", is also a former paramilitary leader who was sentenced to forced labour for life for participation in the 1994 Raboteau massacre. He was among the prisoners who escaped from Gonaïves prison during the August 2002 jailbreak of Amiot 'Cubain' Métayer, deceased leader of the formerly pro-government group which violently took over control of Gonaïves on 5 February. Gang members under Jean Tatoune's direction have been accused of numerous abuses against government officials and supporters, as well as other Gonaïves residents, over past months. "The Haitian authorities must do everything in their power to arrest these individuals, who have both already been convicted of serious violations," Amnesty International said. "For their part, political opposition parties must condemn the emergence of these notorious figures at the head of the armed movement to oust Aristide, and must do everything in their power to demonstrate their own commitment to human rights and the rule of law." Background Information Louis Jodel Chamblain and Jean Tatoune both belonged to the paramilitary organisation FRAPH, formed by military authorities who were the de facto leaders of the country following the 1991 coup against then-President Jean Bertrand Aristide. FRAPH members were responsible for numerous human rights violations before the 1994 restoration of democratic governance. The group was at first known as the Front révolutionnaire pourl'avancement et le progrès haïtiens, Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress. The acronym FRAPH phonetically resembles the French and Creole words for 'to beat' or 'to thrash.' Antoine Izméry was gunned down in the Church of the Sacred Heart in Port-au-Prince on 11 September 1993, while attending mass. The mass was being held to commemorate the fifth anniversary of a massacre committed during an attack on Aristide, then a parish priest, on 11 September 1988 at the St. Jean Bosco Church in La Saline, a shanty town on the outskirts of the capital. After the 5 February attack in Gonaïves, unrest spread to nearly a dozen towns in the center and north of Haiti. Concerns are increasing about the humanitarian situation in the towns under control of anti-government forces and other areas cut off by the conflict. The first demonstration of the political opposition since the violence began took place in Port-au-Prince on 15 February; demonstrators were confronted by rock-throwing government supporters, and police used tear gas and fired their guns into the air to disperse both groups. http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engAMR360062004?Op... Public Document http://www.oneworld.net/article/view/79531/1 / Jean Pierre Baptiste ("Jean Tatoune") is another FRAPH member convicted in the Raboteau massacre trial and sentenced to forced labour for life. Others convicted of or indicted for human rights abuses escaped from the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince on Sunday 29 February in the atmosphere of lawlessness that followed the departure of President Jean Bertrand Aristide. AI fears that they may join the rebel forces, thus gaining access to weapons and potentially to positions of influence. Police and judicial officers, witnesses and human rights defenders involved in past prosecutions may be at risk of reprisal attacks from those they helped bring to justice. http://web.amnesty.org/pages/hti-100304-action-eng Even US officials acknowledge that the leaders of the Haitian coup d’etat are “death squad veterans and convicted murderers,” (NYT 2/28/04). Two of these are Louis-Jodel Chamblain and Jean-Pierre Baptiste, leaders of FRAPH (Haitian Front for Advancement and Progress), a murderous rightwing group that was funded by the US for many years and played a leading role in overthrowing Aristide in 1991. FRAPH’s name, according to the Times, is a play on the French “frapper” (“to hit”). Both Chamblain and Baptiste have been convicted of political murders. Chamblain, a former Haitian Army officer, has been hiding in the neighboring Dominican Republic. Baptiste was serving a life sentence until he recently broke out of jail. http://www.ucimc.org/feature/display/16099/index.php Mr. Latortue has no democratic mandate. Haitians are bitterly split between Aristide supporters and opponents, and both sides are heavily armed. Clearly, he needs to reach out to those on both sides of this divide who want to move their country forward. But Mr. Latortue aided neither national reconciliation nor his own shaky legitimacy by the unseemly ceremony he took part in last Saturday. Ferried by American military helicopters to the city of Gonaïves, where the anti-Aristide revolt began, he stood on a stage with killers like Jean-Pierre Baptiste. Mr. Baptiste, who escaped from prison in 2002, is a death squad leader convicted of participating in a 1994 massacre of Aristide supporters. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/24/opinion/24WED2.html?t... 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. http://www.haiti-progres.com/eng02-25.html <img src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39858000/jpg/_39858973_haitileader_afpfact.jpg" style="border:0;"/> Butteur Metayer Butteur immediately assumed command of his brother's army, soon renamed the Artibonite Resistance Front. The situation in Gonaives rapidly disintegrated, and some said Butteur's tactics were just as cruel as paramilitary operations in previous years. The Times of London reported that Butteur's army "left the rotting bodies of dead policemen to be eaten by wild pigs and have taken several other towns in the interior, where they murdered more policemen." Butteur sometimes sported a Hyatt Orlando golf shirt and bands of bullets across his chest. He challenged Aristide openly during press conferences at the family home. Aristide, said Butteur and the other rebels, had become corrupt, relying on armed gangs and siphoning money away from the poor, away from schools, giving it to his supporters. http://www.sptimes.com/2004/03/04/Worldandnation/Haitia... ... Amiot Metayer's Sept. 22 assassination led to protest rallies in Gonaives that eventually boiled over into rebellion. He had been the leader of the Cannibal Army street gang, which Butteur Metayer says was armed by Aristide's Lavalas Party to terrorize the president's opponents in the city -- a charge Aristide denied. Metayer was viewed by many people in Gonaives as a Robin Hood who lavished gifts on slum dwellers and his killing angered supporters. After Butteur Metayer launched the rebellion, former soldiers of the disbanded Haitian army crossed the border from the Dominican Republic to join the uprising. It was the former troops who gave impetus to the push that put half of Haiti in rebel hands within two weeks. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,112992,00.html Aristide finally had Metayer arrested last year after months of pressure from the OAS, which demanded he be tried for allegedly burning homes of opponents. Gang members rammed a tractor into the prison to free him in September, and Metayer's bullet-riddled and mutilated body was found days later. "They took out his eyes. They took out his heart," Latortue said. Metayer's brother, Butteur, assumed leadership of the gang; he claimed Aristide ordered his brother's killing to keep him from publicizing damaging information about him. With his death prompting the uprising that brought about Aristide's downfall, Metayer has become a hero in the town. Many feared him. Others saw him as a Robin Hood who lavished gifts on slum-dwelling Aristide supporters. Thousands of them have fled the city since the Feb. 5 gunbattle in which Metayer's men killed several police officers and torched government buildings. http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/03/20/haiti.... / The city of Gonaives, where the slaves finally overcame Napolean's forces and gained independence has been one of the most political cities in the country. In the 1980s, the city was again the center of independence when rebel forces defeated the brutal (U.S. supported) Duvalier dictatorship. The country has experienced 30 coups since gaining its independence. As of February 5, it seems the country is thrown into armed conflict again. Rebel forces began a violent effort to overthrow the Aristide government and take control of the capital. Over 40 people been killed and more than a dozen cities seized by the rebels. Gonaives is now in the hands of what the newly named "Artibonite Resistance Front" (formally known as the Cannibal Army). Led by two brothers, Amiot and Butteur Metayer, the Gonaives chapter of the resistance has received "reinforcements" from neighboring Dominican Republic. The men who have joined the resistance from abroad are largely former military leaders of Haiti, exiled or hiding from histories of torture and abuse. Butteur Metayer told the Associated Press that Louis-Jodel Chamblain, former soldier from Haiti responsible for death squads in the 1980s and atrocities following the 1991 military coup is gathering forces for the resistance as well. Back in Orlando, Metayer and his sister also have gratitude for another person: President Bush. "I don't know how to thank him" for encouraging Aristide to get out, said Gertrude Metayer. http://www.thesnapper.com/news/2004/02/19/NationWorldIs... ... <img src="http://www.wehaitians.com/march_21_free_8.jpg" style="border:0;"/> The new Prime Minister of Haiti, Gerard Latortue, waves duirng a visit to his hometown, Gonaives, Haiti on Saturday, March 20, 2004.(AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

by **starroute** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 10:10 pm

<a href="http://rightweb.irc-online.org/analysis/2004/0404iricambodia.php">rightweb.irc-online.org/a...mbodia.php</a> <blockquote>Quote:<hr>A not-so-fine line exists between foreign support to foster democratization and the direct funding of a single political party. The first type of democracy promotion helps create a level playing field for governing and opposition parties alike; the second undermines democracy by interfering in the process from afar. In Cambodia, the International Republican Institute (IRI) has crossed far over this line in its support of the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP). . . . On the whole, U.S. policy supported the electoral process in a neutral fashion. The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh funded long-term election observers in many Cambodian provinces. Several other U.S. government-funded agencies, including the Asia Foundation and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), sponsored nonpartisan debates, distributed voter guides, and funded domestic election monitors. IRI, by contrast, channeled its funding and technical assistance to the SRP, which it refers to as “the democratic opposition.” Rainsy has repeatedly been guest of honor at IRI events in Washington, such as an April 2003 banquet co-hosted by the Heritage Foundation. In October 2002, IRI channeled a $450,000 grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to start the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), a nongovernmental organization led by a former Funcinpec senator, Kem Sokha. Cambodia already has a number of respected, neutral human rights organizations, but CCHR operates in “partnership” with IRI and provides reporting of rights abuses that are of particular political utility. When CCHR allegations of pre-election violence differed from that of other organizations, for instance, IRI routinely quoted CCHR’s reports. Conveniently, the CCHR expatriate adviser is married to the IRI country director. . . . IRI’s vendetta is supported by key Republican leaders in the U.S. Congress, most vehemently by Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who is majority whip and chair of the Senate’s Foreign Operations Subcommittee. McConnell’s chief of staff, Paul Grove, is a former IRI representative in Cambodia and Asia director at IRI in Washington. In one in an extraordinary series of op-ed articles published in 2002 and early 2003, McConnell and Grove wrote, “It is in America's interests that the opposition win ... it is time for the State Department to take sides.” This was followed by calls for “regime change” and attempts to link the “paranoid evil dictator” Hun Sen to the war on terrorism.<hr></blockquote> <a href="http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/pen-l/2000m11.4/msg00219.htm">archives.econ.utah.edu/ar...g00219.htm</a> <blockquote>Quote:<hr>American assistance to Otpor and the 18 parties that ultimately ousted Milosevic is still a highly sensitive subject. But Paul B. McCarthy, an official with the Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy, is ready to divulge some details. McCarthy sits in Belgrade's central Moskva Hotel, enjoying the satisfaction of being in a country that had long been off limits to him under Milosevic. When he and his colleagues first heard of Otpor, he says, "the Fascistic look of that flag with the fist scared some of us." But these feelings quickly changed. For those Americans intent on bringing democracy to Serbia, the student movement offered several attractions. Its flat organization would frustrate the regime's attempts to pick a target to hit or compromise; its commitment to enduring arrests and even police violence tended to shame the long-squabbling Serbian opposition parties into uniting; it looked more effective in breaking fear than any other group; it had a clear agenda of ousting Milosevic and making Serbia a "normal" European state; and it had the means to sway parents while getting out the critical vote of young people. "And so," McCarthy says, "from August 1999 the dollars started to flow to Otpor pretty significantly." . . . At the International Republican Institute, another nongovernmental Washington group financed partly by A.I.D., an official named Daniel Calingaert says he met Otpor leaders "7 to 10 times" in Hungary and Montenegro, beginning in October 1999. Some of the $1.8 million the institute spent in Serbia in the last year was "provided direct to Otpor," he says. By this fall, Otpor was no ramshackle students' group; it was a well-oiled movement backed by several million dollars from the United States.<hr></blockquote> Also, Brent Scowcroft is a member. (But then, he seems to be a member of just about everything.)

by **BajaSur** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 4:45 am

<a href="http://www.narconews.com/Issue40/article1580.html">www.narconews.com/Issue40...e1580.html</a> January 26, 2006 “I think they are going to kill a lot of innocent people when they [the UN MINUSTAH forces] go into Cité Soleil. It’s going to be like Fallujah. They are going to kill a lot of innocent people. I remember being in there, I realized, wow a lot of people are going to die in here. I realized I was a survivor.” -Frank Eaton <snip> The mainstream media has continuously ignored visible examples of Haitians being killed by the United Nations and massacres carried out by the infamous Haitian National Police, the HNP forces often wear masks, and their hooded “machete army” attaches, have been well documented by journalists from the Haiti Information Project (www.haitiaction.net). Human rights and immigration lawyer Thomas Griffin documented the dire situation in Cite Soleil in an investigation by researchers at Miami University. Ignoring the war against the poor in Haiti, the press has focused on the kidnappings, disregarding the numerous crimes against humanity at the hands of the HNP and MINUSTAH. ``````````````````````````````````````````````````` Two articles from above link; First is about situation in Cite Soleil the second is an interview with kidnapped survivor/journalist Frank Eaton. `

Haiti: Democracy Undone -- Jan 30-31 Disc/Time Documentary

Haiti: Democracy Undone -- Jan 30-31 Disc/Time Documentary

Re: Re:WHILE I SIT HERE TRYING TO THINK OF THINGS TO SAY

Re: Conclusive Evidence of U.S. Role in Kidnapping and Coup

Re: Haiti: Democracy Undone -- Jan 30-31 Disc/Time Documenta

Re: International Republican Institute and IFES

UN Plans to Invade Cité Soleil

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