[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
#3694: Special Report to Corbett List (fwd)
From: kevin pina <cariborganics@hotmail.com>
Canadian National Sought in Haiti
Reported by Kevin Pina
Port au Prince, Haiti- May 18, 2000- Less than one week before Haiti's
scheduled election, the Haitian National Police have issued an "arrest on
sight" order for a Canadian national on charges of "activities suspected of
being destabilizing to democratic order." The suspect was identified as 53
year-old Lynn Garrison who claims Canadian citizenship and is known to have
served as advisor to former military strongmen General Raoul Cedras and
Chief of Police Michel Francois. Cedras, who led the 1991 coup in Haiti,
was last reported to be living in Panama while Francois was indicted in the
US on charges of narcotics trafficking in 1997.
Garrison was described in a June 1994 interview in the Toronto Globe and
Mail as "a former Canadian born fighter pilot?playing the improbable role of
advisor to the military regime, public relations man for the 1991 coup, and
intelligence source for attacks by American conservatives on exiled
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide." Garrison has made public claims he was
the source for the "psychological profile" of former Haitian president
Jean-Bertrand Aristide that was presented by the CIA's Brian Latelle to the
US Senate in 1993. In that report, Aristide was described as mentally
unbalanced, on lithium, and having been confined to a Canadian mental
institution in the 1980's.
Garrison's name surfaced May 11th following a raid at two addresses in the
capital of Port au Prince. The raid resulted in the arrest of eight members
of the former Haitian military and a warrant was also issued for the arrest
of Serge Justafort who remains at large. Police sources confirmed that Mr.
Justafort is the chief of security for rental installations operated by the
US diplomatic mission in Haiti.
In addition to the arrests, police confiscated equipment used to manufacture
identification cards bearing the logo of the former Haitian military.
Aristide disbanded the military in 1994 when he returned to Haiti after the
Clinton Administration dispatched 20,000 troops with the stated purpose of
restoring democracy. In an apparent challenge to Haiti's fledgling
democracy, police sources have confirmed that the operation was devised to
recruit membership for an eventual resurgence of the armed forces. For a
nominal fee of roughly $25 in US currency, recruits were guaranteed a
position in the army and then issued a new identification card.
Mr. Garrison's whereabouts are presently unknown but a police spokesperson
stated he has been "circulating throughout many regions of the country for
several days" engaging in activities to "destabilize democracy" in the
Caribbean nation. Police have not elaborated on the charges and their
investigation continues.
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com