17085: (Hermantin) Miami-Herald-Aristide has made a mockery of constitutional rule in Ha (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


Posted on Fri, Oct. 31, 2003

IRA P. LOWENTHAL,

Aristide has made a mockery of constitutional rule in Haiti




The Oct. 27 column by U.S. Reps. Barbara Lee and John Conyers, Avert
constitutional crisis, reads as though it were penned by one of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide's lobbyists. There is no constitutional crisis
pending in Haiti, nor could there be. Aristide has seen to it that he, his
cronies and henchmen have trampled every basic constitutional precept
protecting this suffering nation from the reemergence of one-man rule,
kleptocracy and repression.

Peaceful protest has been stifled by Aristide's armed thugs, whose
operations recall those of the dreaded Tonton Macoutes and paramilitary
forces that supported Haitian dictators.

Journalists are harassed, forced into exile or assassinated. Jurists and
other officials have fled the country rather than execute Aristide's
personal directives. Political and civic leaders who oppose Aristide's march
to supremacy are targeted for elimination -- along with their families. Even
the president's minions are starting to defect.

By making an example of one of them about a month ago -- a provincial gang
leader assassinated with two bullets to the eyes, presumably for having seen
too much -- Aristide may have finally overstepped the bounds of politically
acceptable behavior in Haiti. The nation is erupting in protest. Violence is
the regime's response.

Yet Lee and Conyers counsel Haitian democrats to put ''political interests
aside'' and move toward ''successful'' elections under Aristide's
unchallenged stewardship. Disingenuous? Perhaps. Self-serving? Surely. For
there is nothing more alluring to Congressional Black Caucus members than
standing along with Aristide on Jan. 1, 2004 -- the 200th anniversary of
Haitian independence.

Yet Haiti's leading artists, intellectuals and writers recently circulated a
petition asking the world to boycott the commemoration of this signal
achievement.

founding board member, Haiti Democracy Project, Miami

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