18191: White: The campaign by mainstream press to initiate a bloody Haitian civil war (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Randall White <raw@haitiaction.org>


The campaign by mainstream press to initiate a bloody Haitian civil war

by Marguerite Laurent, Esq.
Chair, The Haitian Lawyers Leadership


It's déjà vu.

What we are witnessing in Haiti today is the anatomy of a Coup D'etat. The
game it seem is, if one can't get the Haitians to kill one another, in
significant enough numbers, for the international
cameras, then have a virtual or media
Coup D'etat, telling all and sundry that the majority in Haiti no longer
supports the freely elected Haitian president. Perhaps, if this lie is repeated
often enough, it might come true.

That seems to be the strategy, as evidenced by the wave of not simply
negative press but distorted press about Haiti in recent months. Witness, for
instance, the recent AP story about a "student demonstrator" who died because a
police tear gas canister hit him. AP reported the story, NPR repeated it, the
mainstream press repeated it. Turned out, it was not a student demonstrating
against Aristide but a pro-Aristide person coming
home, who accidentally got hit by
the tear gas canister in the melee caused by the increasingly violent-prone
anti-Aristide demonstrators. But the retractions are never as vociferous as the
pronouncements, which in effect, seem to want to advocate and make Readers
believe:  that, that unpopular monster Aristide is killing idealistic,
pro-democratic, non-violent students!!!!

This is so far from the actual truth as to put in question the intent of the
people spreading these images and "news" footages. For, the verifiable truth
is that the so-called opposition in Haiti has lost most of its credibility with
the majority of Haitians - the Haitian poor - in Haiti. That's the verifiable
truth.

And, if the anti-Aristide minority had ever had any credibility whatsoever,
they lost it, completely and irrevocably on January 1, 2004, when they tried to
sabotage the greatest sacred day set forth, to commemorate Haiti's 200-year
anniversary. January 1, 2004,  was an important event for the Haitian majority.
Yet the so-called "opposition" has time and time again embrace all the things
the Haitian people will not embrace, like return of the Haitian army, strikes
that force the schools to close and children to not be educated,
neoliberalism policies, sabotage, vile propaganda
and now, increasingly, violence.

Haiti represents the first nation of enslaved workers to win their
independence in combat and form their own nation.
That was something the Haitian people
did celebrate peacefully and in large gatherings on January 1, 2004. But, the
U.S./Euro supported "opposition," lost their credibility not only because they
tried to obstruct the Haitian people's celebrations but because while the
Haitian people are starving under a U.S./Euro embargo, this anti-Aristide
opposition is being financed to the tunes of millions of dollars.

But, in trying to obstruct the Haitian people's bi-centennial celebrations
with monies from foreigners, this anti-Aristide opposition simply revealed
themselves to be anti-Haitian and pro-foreign interests in Haiti. But it now
appears, from the current daily demonstration
they are staging, that because they
were unsuccessful in their attempt at Coup D'etat before Jan. 1, 2004, that has
made them increasingly more and more violent since January 1, 2004. This story
of the Haitian people and its 200-year-old-struggle with right wing
reactionary and undemocratic forces is hardly ever reported.

Besides, these very few students demonstrating with the opposition
politicians in no way represent the overwhelming
majority of students in Haiti. Yet, the
mainstream press seems to report the opposite.

The deal is: highlight ALL the negative press to be found out there, and, if
that's what your searching for, there's a TON of it, on Haiti and Haiti's
people. Show how backward and undemocratic
we-Haitians are. And, don't even bother
to verify your facts.

Witness, for instance, the New York Times' recent retraction.  But it goes
deeper. The mainstream media is taking their information ONLY from the
anti-Aristide camp, so that's all the public ever hears.

Another example of a media spin is Mr. Orlando Marville, a former OAS chief,
recent article entitled "Haiti: When Will It End" dated January 25, 2004, and
published in something called the Nation, Barbados.

Said Mr. Marville, a former OAS official no less, and, still presumably well
connected, straight-up twisted the facts and straight-up publicly expressed
his impotence and political frustrations that CARICOM has NOT yet fallen in
behind the party line and media spin campaign and
censored and isolated Aristide
and his people's government!

Orlando Marville, writes and I quote:

  "As North Americans are wont to say, it is deja vu all over again. Like
President Preval, when the Senate refused to appoint his nominee as Prime
Minister Š.. Aristide has decided to rule by decree. The mandate of the
Parliament has expired and he intends to rule by presidential decree, evidently
beyond the date of the end of his mandate. He has
also made another of his empty
promises to have elections in six months." (Emphasis added)

Yep, indeed, it's déjà vu, Mr. Orlando Marville. 200-years of déjà vu.

Mr. Marville's piece is filled with propaganda and misstatements. Not the
verifiable truth. For instance, the majority of Haitians believe it is the
stonewalling and impasse created by the tiny
US-supported group of Haitians, making
up no more than 4% of the total Haitian population called "the opposition"
that has caused Parliamentary elections not to be
held. Aristide did not "decide
to rule by decree.....evidently beyond the date of the end of his mandate" as
Mr. Marville writes.

But Haitians trying to stem the tide of half-truths and lies are traveling
uphill and the terrain is getting steeper and steeper. For, the ordinary U.S.
citizen just cannot believe that credible institutions like the New York Times,
Reuters, AP, CNN, NPR and even former OAS delegates, would participate,
directly or indirectly, in a campaign to
destabilize and destroy a freely elected
government.

But it's true.

We have in a Haiti today a tiny group, supported by the wealthiest
organizations in the world, such as IRI, NED,
US-State Department, USAID, IMF, IDB,
World Bank and the European Union, trying to
topple a populist government without
going through elections.

As in the Marville  piece, the aforementioned mainstream papers also ignore
the Aristide government's mandate, ignore the US-led economic embargo on Haiti
for four years, ignore the $3 million paid last year by USAID and nearly $1
millions paid by the European Union to Aristide biggest detractors in Haiti and
ignore the Haitian majority's support for the Aristide government and the rule
of law.

Instead these papers seem to relish in reporting daily anti-Aristide
demonstrations with such little regard for facts
and details that if I hadn't been in
Haiti myself, watching some of those demonstration, with my own two eyes, I
would today believe there is no support for the
Aristide government and that the
"students demonstrators" and "opposition" to Aristide make up the
overwhelming majority of Haiti's population.

But the verifiable truth is the exact opposite. So the question is, why are
the AP, Reuters, New York Times, Wall Street journal, Washington Post, etc.
filing reports on Haiti more interested in the "oppostion-to-Aristide's" and
their media spin and half-truths, than with the
facts and whole truth? Is it that
the truth doesn't serve their institutionalized racism and big-business
interests? This seems incredulous, in this age and time.

What's clear is that the campaign to initiate a bloody Haitian civil war is
being conducted at the highest levels.

Hopefully the afore-mentioned U.S. press and media outlets will reconsider
and remember the basic tenets of journalistic reporting. Hopefully they are not
willing to continue to have the blood of innocent Haitians on their hands.

If that's the case, I would urge they, at least make a better effort to
VERIFY their facts before printing it. It's past time for AP, Reuters, New York
Times, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, CNN, CBS, NBC, etc. to stop
taking the "news" solely from Haitian journalist
and radio outlets intent on civil
war and destabilization in Haiti because of personal ambitions, financial
interests, or their impotence and political frustration with Aristide. What's
being reported should be verified first. That would be good journalism.

Marguerite Laurent, Esq.
Chair, The Haitian Lawyers Leadership