17434: Blanchet: Senator Toussaint denounces the despotic, anarchistic path chosen by the Aristide Administration (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: maxblanchet@att.net

AlterPresse
November 24, 2003

Senator Toussaint denounces the despotic, anarchistic
path chosen by the Aristide Administration

Translated by Max Blanchet

Port-au-Prince, November 24, 2003 – Senator Dany Toussaint formally
takes his distance from the despotic, anarchistic path taken, according
to him, by the Lavalas administration.

According to the senator, this path leads in practical terms to the
suppression of public freedoms, systematic repression, subordination
and politicization of institutions such as the judiciary and the police and
manipulation of the masses, notably popular organizations through ruse,
lies and propaganda.

In an interview given to Radio Kiskeya on November 22, Dany Toussaint
states that he believes it is still possible for Lavalas to recover by
undertaking a courageous, critical evaluation of its policies.

While he reaffirms that he belongs to the Lavalas movement, Dany
Toussaint proclaims loudly that he is unwilling to follow in President
Jean Bertrand Aristide’s path, which can only lead, according to him,
to “death, jail or at best exile.”

The MP, elected in the challenged elections of May 21, 2001, proposes
a bureaucratic, legal system that would promote the free functioning
of institutions, the primacy of laws, as well as responsible participation
by citizens.

According to Toussaint, the main goals of this system would be the
defense of human rights, the establishment of democracy and the
fight against illicit drug trafficking. In this perspective, he stigmatizes
personal power by challenging the notion that “one lone man” could
change Haiti.

Along the same line of argument, Dany Toussaint deplores the fact
that the Group of 184 (made up of civil society’s associations and
the private sector) could not present its social contract on November
14. He states that he intended to find about the contents of that
document and for that reason, he intended to go to the Champ de
Mars when he found out through the media what was happening
there.

According to the senator, it is inconceivable that the government
could be so “intolerant” because the Group of 184’s social contract
 “could have opened up a debate that would undoubtedly benefit
democracy.”

While discussing the issue of the politicization and drift of the police,
Dany Toussaint calls upon police officer to respect scrupulously
their constitutional mission and to accompany the people. A
former military officer, he reminds them of his personal experience
and that of many of his army colleagues who, at the end of the 80’s,
“systematically refused to obey their superiors’ orders urging them
to use their weapons against the population, political leaders, and
journalists.

According to Dany Toussaint, what is currently happening in the
country constitutes “a net setback” with reference to realized gains.
For the Lavalas MP, what we are witnessing “constitutes the total
negation of democracy.”

“Today’s regime resembles more and more those that preceded it,”
declares the senator. He denounces the reign of “brute force” and
the return to the “state of nature” accompanied by “odious and
revolting crimes” as was the case with the murder of the Lavalas
gang leader Amiot Metayer in Gonaives.”

As for the two members of the Group of 184 still in jail, namely Henri
Baker and David Apaid, Dany Toussaint deems the government’s
demarche to be grotesque and without a shred of “judicial or legal
basis.”

Dany Toussaint views the actual situation as being far from what
was projected in the White Book of Fanmi Lavalas and deplores the
fact that “Lavalas prefers to use members of popular organizations
in the perpetration of reprehensible acts instead of providing them
training and stable employment.”

The senator thinks that the members of these groups may be aware
of the difficult situation in which they find themselves given that
many of their leaders have disappeared under circumstances as
yet unclear. But he added, “they may be past the point of no return
given that they have no choice but to defend Lavalas since the
opposition is not giving them any guarantee.”

Dany Toussaint came out of the silence he had observed for many
months on the occasion of the release on November 21 of a book
entitled, “ The State of Shock” by his colleague, Senator Pierre
Sonson Prince. In that book the senator, who belongs to Fanmi
Lavalas, the party in power, criticizes the drift of the regime.

Senator Toussaint gave his statement a the time when the US
Government had cancelled the visa of Minister of the Interior
of the Lavalas government, Jocelerme Privert. This decision
followed the cancellation of the Group of 184's meeting due to the
violent actions of government’s followers reinforced by the
Haitian national police’s passivity.