17650: This Week in Haiti 21:41 12/23/2003 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

"This Week in Haiti" is the English section of HAITI PROGRES
newsweekly. For the complete edition with other news in French
and Creole, please contact the paper at (tel) 718-434-8100,
(fax) 718-434-5551 or e-mail at <editor@haitiprogres.com>.
Also visit our website at <www.haitiprogres.com>.

                           HAITI PROGRES
              "Le journal qui offre une alternative"

                      * THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

                      December 23 - 29, 2003
                         Vol. 21, No. 41

STATE AND DEFENSE DEPARTMENTS PREPARING FOR COUP IN HAITI

The U.S. State Department is preparing contingency plans for a
coup in Haiti, according to a relief agency memo to other non-
governmental organizations.

The email was sent out on Dec. 19 by Joan M. Maruskin, who works
at Church World Service's (CWS) Immigration and Refugee Program
in Washington. She wrote that "State has contingency plans
prepared" for a coup or civil war in Haiti. "There has been a
request from State for names and contact information of
organizations with people on the ground in Haiti, who can help
should the crisis occur," Maruskin wrote, asking groups to
contact her.

The request came from a "higher than mid-level" State Department
official she met informally at a retirement party. "She didn't
say that a coup was imminent," she told Haïti Progrès, "but
clearly the State Department is watching Haiti closely right
now."

Meanwhile, a well-placed official in Washington, who requested
anonymity, told Haïti Progrès that "there is a naval blockade
planned for Haiti if there is a major refugee outflow." The
encirclement  is above and beyond the usual U.S. Coast Guard's
refugee interdiction measures which most recently intercepted and
returned home 72 Haitian refugees on Dec. 17. The "blockade"
entails a "reinforced" naval ring, which was "set up by the
Defense Department three or four months ago." Furthermore, any
large outflows of refugees would be housed at the Guantanamo
Naval Base in Cuba, as they were during the 1991-1994 coup
d'état, according to Pentagon plans. "Enemy combatants" from the
on-going war in Afghanistan, a categorization concocted by the
Bush Administration to skirt international law, are also being
illegally held at Guantanamo.

Maruskin was immediately peppered with calls and emails from
people questioning whether CWS was supporting Washington's
campaign to topple the government of President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide. "That wasn't my purpose at all," she said. "We just
want to help if there is an outflow of refugees, to see that the
people are protected, have food and clothing, and are cared for."

She added, however, that in Washington's government circles,
"they don't like Haiti."

On Dec. 22, some three to five thousand demonstrators marched
through the streets of Port-au-Prince to call for Aristide's
ouster. Opposition-aligned media like Alterpresse and Radio
Métropole inflated the numbers of opposition marchers to "tens of
thousands" while the Associated Press's anti-Aristide
correspondent Michael Norton only pumped it up to 10,000. The
official police estimate was 3,000.

In response, a much larger crowd of several thousand Aristide
supporters spontaneously surrounded the National Palace, the
Haitian people's regular response to the opposition's coup-
threatening demonstrations in recent weeks.

Two people were killed in clashes between the two demonstrations
under circumstances that were not clear at press time.

"A growing number [of opposition demonstrations] employ street
violence as the means and proclaim the violent overthrow of the
elected government as the end," said a statement of the broad-
based Let Haiti Live Coalition, released Dec. 22. "Some
demonstrations have been led by prison escapees convicted of
crimes against humanity, others by supporters of former
dictatorships or leaders of coup attempts. Anti-government
demonstrators have thrown rocks, swung clubs, attacked government
buildings and occasionally shot bullets into pro-government
crowds."

"The majority of Haitians have seen enough political violence in
their history to reject a non-electoral solution to the political
crisis," the statement continues. "They have taken to the streets
by the tens of thousands to protect their hard-won but still
nascent democracy. Regrettably, a small  minority of
pro-government demonstrators have also employed violent means."

The statement, which seeks to change the U.S. government's
hostile and arrogant posture towards Haiti, notes that "the
Haitian government, like other democratic governments, has been
accused of corruption and mismanagement. These accusations should
be judged, as in other democracies, by the voters, not by mobs.
They should be decided in Haitian voting booths, not in foreign
embassies."

The Let Haiti Live coalition, which represents over 100,000 North
Americans, said that it "is most deeply concerned that the U.S.
has covertly  and overtly supported the very forces that are now
calling for the destruction of Haiti's hard won democracy." It
called on Washington to "immediately and forcefully reiterate its
support for Haiti's Constitution and elected authorities. It
should make it absolutely clear that our government will not
support any group advocating violent or anti-constitutional
change in Haiti. It should ensure that no U.S. funds support any
group advocating such change, or any group engaging in or
supporting violent activities. It should investigate and
prosecute any activities on U.S. soil that support
unconstitutional change in Haiti."

North American and European diplomats, Haitian opposition
leaders, and even the National Coalition for Haitian Rights
(NCHR), a New York-based "human rights" group which has often
lent its service to Washington for demonization campaigns against
Haiti, have tried to discourage world leaders, like South
Africa's, from attending Haiti's bicentennial celebrations. "We
refuse to be party to efforts that seek to obliterate the history
and achievements of African people in the continent and elsewhere
in the diaspora," the South African government responded in a
Dec. 18 statement. "We will not join in the fray that seeks to
deny the people of Haiti the right to claim their heritage!
Consequently, both President Mbeki and Minister of Foreign
Affairs Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma will indeed join the peoples
of the world and Haiti in celebrating this bicentenary."

PARTIAL ROUND-UP OF LIES

Disinformation has been an important weapon used by Haiti's
opposition-aligned radio stations in the destabilization campaign
against Haiti's elected government. Opposition demonstrators have
threatened radio stations, newspapers and reporters whom they
perceive as pro-government. In a Dec. 15 dispatch,  the Haitian
Press Agency (AHP) reported that opposition callers accused Radio
Solidarité of disinformation. The station was forced to close for
a day when threatened with arson. AHP then gave a list of stories
by opposition-aligned radio stations which were subsequently
proven false.

"1.- Last month, journalists based in Gonaïves reported that a
baby had been burned beyond recognition in a fire that broke out
during a police operation. The following day it was revealed that
this infant had never existed and that the presumed mother had
had an abortion two weeks earlier.

"2- Two weeks ago, the media broadcast reports that severed heads
had been discovered in several neighborhoods of the city.  In
reality, one head was found, that of a bandit killed by the
residents of Delmas. But the head had been moved around to
several different locations as an expression of satisfaction at
the bandits demise before the police intervened.

"3.- Also two weeks ago, the media affirmed that the leader of
the Northern Opposition Front, Jean-Robert Lalanne, suffered
gunshot wounds during an attack perpetrated by supporters of the
government. Quoting opposition officials, these media
organizations stated that the attackers wore t-shirts displaying
a picture of President Aristide.

"One day later, Jean Robert Lalanne acknowledged that he had not
been injured by gunshots and that he could not accuse government
supporters of responsibility for his injuries, which were
inflicted with a knife. In any case, great confusion continues to
surround the circumstances of the injury.

"4.- Last week, much of the press reported that the Director
General of the Ministry of the Interior, Bell Angelot, had gone
into exile as had two popular organization leaders, Paul Raymond
and René Civil. In reality, these three individuals were working
as usual in Port-au-Prince.

"5.- Some of the media also reported [Dec. 12] that a student was
killed the day of the demonstration by the Group of 184. However
until now it has been impossible to learn the identity of the
student or where he was killed.

"6- During a demonstration by the opposition [Dec. 13] led by
Théodore Beaubrun, known as Lòlò, some reporters stated that they
had been forced to go into hiding due to the presence of members
of popular organizations armed with machetes and axes who wished
to kill them. However reporters from Radio Solidarité, as well as
other media who were also at the scene of the demonstrations,
said that nothing like that had happened and that the story was
pure fabrication. There have been countless similar cases in
recent weeks.

"7- On the same Friday, some radio stations reported that a
weapons warehouse allegedly belonging to the police had been
looted in Delmas 2. According to local residents, no such
incident took place in the neighborhood. Some members of the
Haitian National Police also stated that the security forces had
no reports of lost weapons.

"8.-At daybreak [on Dec. 15], several media organizations
reported that there were anti-government demonstrations from
Pétion-Ville all the way to Canapé-Vert. In reality all that was
evident were several flaming tires in the road that were quickly
removed by the police.

"The risk of disinformation arises also from the fact that some
members of the media choose to gather information by telephone
from anonymous listeners to the station's broadcasts," the AHP
concluded.

All articles copyrighted Haiti Progres, Inc. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haiti Progres.

                               -30-