13973: Ives responds to Nadal & Louissaint (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: K. M. Ives <kives@toast.net>

Nadal (13943) writes:

"Furthermore I want to add that Mrs.Mireille Durocher Bertin has never been
a leader of FRAPH. She was the legal adviser of General Cedras and it was
her right to be in this position. That was her choice."

Durocher Bertin sat on FRAPH's leadership committee. This was not a Haiti
Progres exclusive. Several other radios reported on this at the time. While
she was never seen (to my memory) at the raucous FRAPH press conferences,
she was working with Toto & Co. behind the scenes, which is no surprise.
She also acted as the chief of staff for de facto puppet President Emile
Jonassaint.

Louissaint (13956) writes:

"I am not surprised that Haiti Progres, a gossip newspaper, writes anything
about anyone. No wonder that Haiti en Marche (also pro-lavalas) and Haiti
Progres do not get along... "

Haiti Progres does not print gossip or hearsay. Even people who don't like
our editorial stance admit that. Perhaps Mr. Louissaint is confusing the
paper with Haiti Observateur. Meanwhile, the above assertion itself
contains gossip: that Haiti en Marche and Haiti Progres "don't get along."
We have no problems with our colleagues at Haiti en Marche and have cordial
relations with them, despite natural editorial differences.

As for the Washington Post article that Louissaint posts, I attach Haiti
Progres' analysis of the same events.

Kim Ives


Haiti Progres
"This Week in Haiti"
April 5, 1995

The Bertin Assassination: Lavalas Hit or CIA Plot?

 Few Haitians were shedding tears this week over the death of putschist
lawyer, Mireille Durocher Bertin. As a high profile spokesperson for the
Haitian military during the coup, Bertin actively supported the murder,
torture and imprisonment of tens of thousands of Haitians. She often
advised coup leader General Raoul Cédras as he committed "crimes against
humanity," in the words of President Aristide, and acted as the chief of
staff for de facto puppet President Emile Jonassaint, under whom repression
reached its zenith.

 But in the US mainstream press this week, Bertin is lionized as an
"opposition figure" and "an expert in international law." Consider the
beginning of a Mar. 31 Associated Press dispatch movingly titled, "Her Last
Days" - "She was setting up an opposition party running her busy law
office, redecorating her home, writing and publishing a newsletter and
making time to educate her four children," oozed journalist Michelle Faul.

 As the week progressed, however, the laments for Bertin became a
full-fledged trial of the Aristide government, which now stands accused of
the murder. The US government asserts that the killing was "masterminded"
by Haitian Interior Minister Mondésir Beaubrun, who vehemently denies the
charge.

 Leading the attack are inveterate coup supporters like reactionary
columnist Robert Novak, who claims in an April 3 column to have unearthed
an "enemies list compiled by President Aristide's supporters." Novak went
on to assert that "it is common knowledge in Haiti that a shadow government
is headed by notorious former prime minister Réné Préval" who oversees a
"commando unit greatly feared by the political opposition" as well as "the
flow of weapons to the commando units" through coastal town of St. Marc.
His insinuation is, of course, that the supposed "commando unit" rubbed out
Bertin.

 One might dismiss Novak's accusations, like that of a 30-person "hit
list," as the mere rantings of the fringe which the columnist represents.
But the same day, the Associated Press reported that Bertin "was among more
than 100 people on a hit list discovered by the U.S. government days before
the slaying." Other reports speak of a 96-person list. The simultaneous
discovery of hit lists made it clear that a sector of the US government and
media were out for blood.

 On April 4, the Washington Post launched another missile. While not
"suggesting Aristide knew of or sanctioned the killing," writer Douglas
Farah notes that Aristide's "unwillingness to take steps against Beaubrun,
despite heavy U.S. pressure and the advice of some of his closest advisers,
has revived old questions about the president's willingness to tolerate
abuses among those who have shown loyalty to him." Beaubrun is already
tried and convicted!

 In fact, the Bertin killing has all the hallmarks, not of a Haitian
government plot, but of a CIA operation. The machine-gunning of Bertin and
her client, Eugene Baillergeau, had the precision of a professional
hit-squad. The killers used high-tech radio equipment and weapons. It was
also done in broad daylight in downtown Port-au-Prince, where it would
maximize public trauma and, most importantly, press coverage.

 Immediately 16 FBI agents were dispatched to Haiti to investigate the
killing. (The deployment violates laws restricting the FBI to investigating
US domestic matters). Of course, the FBI will not only be nosing around the
Aristide government, but also popular and democratic organizations who
might also be accused by the "suspects" being held.

 The crux of the US case rests on the accusations of these "suspects,"
brothers Eddy and Patrick Moise, who have a long history in Haiti as
"agents provocateurs," as the Haitian government has characterized them.
They head an ultra-left group called the Front of United Militants (FMR)
and participated in the 1991 "Vent de la Tempête" destabilization campaign
against the Aristide government. After the 1991 coup, the FMR staged a
riotous and absurd occupation of the Canadian embassy to discredit others
seeking diplomatic refuge. In a show televised on Haitian state television
during the coup, Eddy Moise called on his partisans to burn down the US and
Canadian embassies and ended his appearance saying: "Long live Kadhafi!
Long live Castro! Long live Aristide!"

 The Moises have now reappeared in the latest events. The US picked up 6
"suspects," including the brothers, 6 days before Bertin's Mar. 28
assassination. The "suspects" told the US of the plot to kill Bertin. The
US advised the Haitian government. Justice Minister Jean-Joseph Exumé
advised Bertin and offered protection. Bertin refused. After the killing,
the US asserts that the "suspects" accuse Beaubrun of heading the plot. The
April 4 Washington Post also reports that US officials say "the grey Izuzu
jeep the Moise brothers were driving when they were arrested was registered
to the minister of the interior. An Uzi submachine gun was found in the
vehicle, along with Beaubrun's direct, private telephone number, and
several thousand dollars in cash." Also found, of course, was the
all-incriminating "hit list." The article goes on to allege that the Moises
met with Beaubrun to plot the killing, and that Haitian government
officials tried to pay off the brothers not to testify against them.

 The Washington Post also says that "Aristide's unwillingness to suspend
the minister have plunged U.S.-Haitian relations to their lowest level
since U.S. troops occupied Haiti." There was a previous public spat between
the Aristide government and Washington in late February, when US officials
claimed that hundreds of Aristide loyalists were "infiltrated" into the
interim police force.  This crisis also connotes a struggle between Haiti
and the US for control over the Haitian army and police. Beaubrun, as
Interior Minister and former army general, plays an important role in these
areas.

 Following Aristide's return to Haiti last October, Beaubrun, who remained
in the Haitian army throughout the coup, was promoted to army chief of
staff under Brig. Gen. Bernardin Poisson, the former fire chief who was
given the top army job. As a member of the army high command, Beaubrun was
appointed to a commission overseeing the army's future. He also sat on the
commission assigned to select and screen soldiers for the interim police
force. His rise is linked to his friendship with former Port-au-Prince
police chief Pierre Cherubin, who followed Aristide into exile.

 Like all army officers above the rank of major, though, he was ousted by
President Aristide in February and then made Interior Minister. He also
took up the Interior Minister's position on the Superior Council of the
National Police (CSPN), the main body overseeing the "new" police force.
But US officials were unhappy about him. Amb. Robert Gelbard, the head of
US State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics Matters who is
directing the US program on the reformed Haitian army and police, called
him a "murderer" last January. The remarks referred to Beaubrun's alleged
killing of two Haitian soldiers during a protest at army headquarters on
Dec. 26. Beaubrun denies the allegations.

 It is certain that the Bertin assassination plays right into the hands of
the pro-coup "opposition" in this electoral period. Many Duvalierists will
rush to pick up the torch of Bertin's recently formed party, the Movement
for National Integration.

 The Bertin affair may also reflect the continuing rivalry between
President Clinton's White House versus the CIA and the Pentagon.  This
"hard-line" sector, which was behind the 1991 coup in the first place, also
was instrumental in turning back the Harlan County in October 1993, when
CIA agent and FRAPH leader Emmanuel Constant was sent with his band of
thugs to dance on the Port-au-Prince docks, thereby providing the pretext
for the flight of the troop ship, the scrubbing of the UN troop deployment,
and the failure of Aristide's first projected return on Oct. 30, 1993.  The
Bertin killing and its ensuing "scandal" achieves the same: it discredits
Clinton and undermines Aristide, both of whom the "hard-line" never
trusted.

 As for the Haitian government, by wishing at all costs to reconcile with
the putschists and please the United States, it has allowed itself to be
set-up like a bowling pin.

 The final irony, of course, is that if there was any justice in Haiti,
Bertin would be alive today, albeit behind bars.