6896: Ives responds to Chamberlain about TWIH inaccuracy (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: "K. M. Ives" <kives@gateway.net>

Greg definitely caught our attempt to "rewrite history." Desroches was not
Education minister under Duvalier. It was under the neo-Duvalierist CNG of
Gens. Henri Namphy and Williams Regala. Haïti Progrès regrets the error in the
English section.

But in his famous haste to lambast Haïti Progrès for anything, real or
imagined, Greg says that Desroches held "no position" under Duvalier. Well,
that's just the problem, you see. Because the Duvalier government apparently
issued "zombi checks" made out to his name.

Furthermore, Greg's attempt to cast Desroches as a crusader for justice
doesn't really ring true. What was he doing in the CNG long after it became
clear that it was just a neo-Duvalierist military junta? Even someone like
Gerard Gourgue resigned in Mar. 1986. In recent years, Desroches has
consistently acted as a front-man for a sector of the Haitian bourgeoisie --
posing as a "civil society leader," always proposing treacherous
"compromises." And as for Desroches's "insistence that leading members of the
old regime be arrested and tried" alleged by Greg... well, why does he have no
problem today wheeling and dealing with Convergence leader Hubert Deronceray,
a former Duvalier minister?

Kim Ives