a356: Jean Jean-Pierre comments on post a331 by Benodin/ William Jasper (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JJEANPIERRE1@aol.com

That  Mr. William Jasper wants to carry on his dithyrambic diatribe against
Aristide is his constitutional right (besides, those who are paid to defend
Aristide should do their job).  But to paint a killer like Roger Lafontant -I
know it for a fact as he executed Tony Romain, a former colleague musician
and friend of mine- as just  a  "former Duvalierist cabinet minister" is a
slap to all of us who grew up under Duvalier.

I do not want to waste my time debunking every single assertion he made in
post a331 as his single source is the traditionally biased US State Department
human rights report.  I want to, however, make the following  points.

Everyone knows that on the night of the 1991 bloody militarycoup it  was
highly unlikely that Aristide, who was already under the gun, could order the
killing of Roger Lafontant.  The sanguinary Lafontant was, by all means,
going to be the beneficiary of the coup were he alive the morning after (he
and Sylvio Claude were then the most popular politicians -save Aristide- in
the country) . The picture of his dead body, as appeared in the Haitian
weekly Haiti en Marche showed he was sporting white shirt and tie, not his
prison uniform.   Did the army officer (remember the military coup was
already going on) who according to the US State Department received the order
from Aristide dress Lafontant and then killed him?  Want to buy a bridge?

Lafontant was no friend of the military.  He was one of the pillars of the
Volontaires de la Securite Nationale (the Tonton Macoutes) created in July
1959 - in the wake of the failed invasion staged by Dominique (older brother
of Jean Dominique), Perpignant, Pasquet and al… - to "balance" the Haitian
Army.  in the early sixties, as a medical student, he began his nefarious
career spying for Duvalier causing the deaths of untold numbers of fellow
students.
One morning during the early eighties, with his eyes welled with tears,
Colonel Prosper Avril once begged (on his knees) Lafontant not to strip him
of his epaulettes at the Haitian national palace.  With a sadistic smile
Lafontant just did that and then fired him from the army.
By the way, that same day, Lafontant single-handedly  kicked out of the
military many other officers including then Colonel Fritz Romulus.

Mr. Jasper also mentioned Castro "esteemed comrade" as one of those Aristide
used as models.
As far as I am concerned I -and suspect a bunch of other Haitians- only
wished that Castro had landed in Morne La Selle instead of Sierra Maestra.
Today, 95% Haitians would know how to read and,  in spite of a 40 year old
criminal embargo,  enjoy one of the best (especially preventive) health care
system in the Americas . Even though as a petit  bourgeois who aspired to
become a big bourgeois, I probably would be out of Haiti today… Eh! Who
knows? But as a human being and a damn good  Haitian I would be happy for my
poorer compatriots.

Jean Jean-Pierre