18226: Dilize: Yes, there is a Bush campaign, supported by the media, for regime change in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dilize@aol.com

On Feb. 3, 2003 Love Haiti, writes,  on the Corbett List:


"Let me see if I get this straight. The writer (Marguerite Laurent, Esq.)
wants us to believe Aristide spin doctors and  distrust  IRI, NED, US-State
Department, USAID, IMF, IDB, World Bank and the European Union, AP, Reuters, New
York Times, Wall Street
Journal, The Washington Post, CNN, CBS, NBC, NPR and even former OAS
delegates in the grand global "conspiracy" to discredit Aristide. Because
Aristide is an honorable man."

(From: love haiti <loveayiti@hotmail.com>Subject: 18206: RE: loveayiti ;
18191: White: Marguerite Laurent, Esq.)

Marguerite Lauren, responds:

Yes, Love Haiti, there is systemic campaign to incite civil war in Haiti. But
the powers-that-be (i.e. IRI, NED, US-State Department, USAID, IMF, IDB,
World Bank and the European Union, AP, Reuters, New York Times, Wall Street
Journal, The Washington Post, CNN, CBS, NBC...) don't want to discredit
Aristide based on his actual character and political record alone. No. They are
waging a campaign of misinformation, misstatements and outright lies that affects
not just the Aristide government, but the majority of the Haitian people who
voted for him.  What's happening in Haiti today is not really about Aristide
or the opposition. It's about getting big-business a "favorable business
environment" in Haiti. That means having a dictatorship, ruling by force and keeping
the Haitian people in such fear, impasse and chaos, they are too terrorized
to be asking for more participatory democracy, more transparency, or their
Civil Rights, the minimum wage and well-lit non-toxic work space.

I founded the Haitian Lawyers Leadership back in 1994 and we brought a
judicial reform agenda to Haiti which did not fit into the structural adjustment and
neoliberalism plans of USAID, IDB, WB, IMF and the big-business policies ala
Checchi and Brown & Root/Halliburton's State Department cronies then wanting
to gorge on the foreign aid and contracts  gravy train to be divvied up in
Haiti.  The Haitian Lawyers Leadership Judicial reform agenda for Haiti was about
skills transfer between Haitian professionals of the Diaspora, Haitians
reforms that fitted Haiti's culture and history, institutionalizing the rule of law
and making domestic improvements in Haiti. But, back then, as today, U.S.
State Department insiders where there in Haiti to, not simply return Aristide, but
to destroy what was left of the grass roots Lavalas organizations and keep
democracy from taking root.

For contrary to all you've heard, it is the Haitian people's successes in the
last 10 to 14 years, after almost 200 year of being ruled by an anti-Ayisyen
ruling elite that is the problem.

About the mainstream media, see the pictures for yourself:

Does this crowd supporting Aristide look "small" to you, as the New York
Times reported! Do the Haitians in these pictures look like their are being as
oppressed as we are told by the minority opposition? See for yourself -
http://www.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=67b0de21b3443592e4d3 .

As Jean Saint Vil say's these are "true pictures (of Haiti as it is today)
not opinions." How does it compare with what you have been reading lately on the
news, Love Haiti.

If you are still unconvinced, check out the grudging New York Times'
retraction about its coverage of the January 1, 2004, bi-centennial event, and
confusing Haiti's 2000 parliamentary elections with the presidential election, et..

Check out the Council of Hemispheric Affairs' recent report, which also state
exactly what I said about the IRI, NED, USAID, etc. at
http://www.coha.org/NEW_PRESS_RELEASES/New_Press_Releases_2004/04.03_Haiti_Ari
stide.htm;

Check out this Julia Lutsky article which touches on, among other things,
what makes up the "favorable business conditions" needed for big business to make
big profits in Haiti. The point is participatory democracy outside the U.S.
affects big businesses bottom line. For, if there is no chaos, political
impasse or violence in Haiti, how would they be able to take advantage and continue
to fleece dry the Haitian people. Fact is, authentic participatory democracy,
which is where Haiti's peoples want to take their current electoral democracy,
certainty would not provide a good USAID-US/Euro "business climate. " (See,
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/295.html on "Haiti sweatshops: Your
taxes at work - pushing wages down", by Julia Lutsky, dated March 23, 1996.)

For, when big-business, profit-over-people US/Euro interests come to the
developing world, they are looking for the greatest pool of available labor at the
lowest wages imaginable. That means, they are looking for developing nations,
such as Haiti, where high unemployment, poverty, malnutrition, misery and
desperate needs automatically generate low  wages - 30 cents an hour or lower in
Haiti.  The lowest, cheapest labor in the Western Hemisphere!

Love Haiti, if your want to know a more balanced truth about Haiti's people's
commitment to democracy, to have all minority opposition members go to
election, check out the Press release from the organizers of the Solidarity For
Haiti 2004 Conference dated January 3, 2004, at Port-au-Prince reproduced below,
for you, in its entirety.

If you want to hear about the media campaign against the Haitian people who
still want their vote respected, check out "Hidden Behind the Headlines" on the
Haitiaction.org website;

I would reiterate that the world's major news media are manufacturing the
news coverage in Haiti and slanting it for their own business purposes. Thus, the
world's media slant their coverage to minimize Haitians' support for their
government - http://www.sfbayview.com/010704/motherofliberty010704.shtml

Love Haiti, I just returned from Haiti where "hundreds of thousands
celebrated Haiti's 200th birthday peacefully and joyfully." I spoke to directly to as
many of the women and men of Haiti as I could, I can summarize what's happening
with these three viewpoints:

Viewpoint one: A Radio Metropole reported said to me, in effect: "If the
elites in Haiti don't want Aristide to rule Haiti, he MUST resign. He's got to go
because the elites don't want him. The economic elites in Haiti don't need to
go to elections!" Basically that's what Andre Apaid, Jr. stands for.

Viewpoint two: The highest level OAS delegate said, to a journalist, in my
presence and before at least four other people, including Jean St Vil, that the
problem with Haiti today is that:  "The international community is so
screwed-up and divided that Haitians are running Haiti!"

Viewpoint Three: Finally, the unreported or underreported viewpoint the
public does not hear about; the verifiable fact which is muted and distorted by the
mainstream media is this one: It is what counts above and beyond the
shenanigans of the above two sectors tearing Haiti apart. And that is, (are you
listening Love Haiti), that the nation of Haiti, the overwhelming majority of
Haitian peoples, the mass Haitian electorate just want to live free of these daily
demonstrations and strikes and have their 2000 presidential vote for Aristide
respected!

At the demonstrations I attended in Dec. 2003-January 2004, the overwhelming
Haitian people's consensus was, in effect, "we won't go into hiding as we did
back in 1991-1994"; "this time, Aristide shall finish his 5-year term and we
Haitians won't be cheated out of 3 or any years as we where last time"; "there
shall be no more violent overthrough of duly elected governments in Haiti ever
again"; "any politician who wants to rule us, who wants democracy in Haiti,
should go to elections.

That third viewpoint, Love Haiti, is what the Haitian people today, in 2004,
stand for.

That is what the mainstream press is not reporting. The Haitian people want
their basic human rights respected. They want their vote respected. They want
and are struggling for Haitian self-rule, Haitian self-determination, a
domestic Haitian economy, peaceful co-existence with all sectors within their
society, and, to celebrate the rest of the 2004 bi-centennial year paying respect to
their ancestors in peace without the opposition's foreign-sponsored and
supported obstructions.

See further "Haiti, Mother of Liberty in the San Francisco Bay View,

which reports:



"While the world's major news media minimize Haitians' support for their

government, this picture tells the truth: A sea of Haitians came out New
Year's Day to celebrate their bicentennial and the leadership of President
Aristide. " See photo and  read full article at:

http://www.sfbayview.com/010704/motherofliberty010704.shtml


Marguerite Laurent, Esq.
Chair, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network

Press release from the organizers of the Solidarity For Haiti 2004 Conference
January 3, 2004, Port-au-Prince

On Saturday, January 3, 2004, Fondasyon 30 Septanm (Haiti) with the Haiti
Action Committee (USA) convened the Solidarity For Haiti 2004 Conference. A group
of more than 100 people, from Haiti, Africa, Europe and North America coming
from over thirty organizations met to discuss how to support democracy in
Haiti, and to fight disinformation about current events in Haiti.

We sons and daughters of Haiti and true friends of Haiti, who came and saw
with our own eyes how the vast majority of the Haitian people celebrated the
bicentennial with pride, and in peace, declare:

1) Our engagement to work with the people of Haiti to end social exclusion in
Haiti;

2) Our commitment to work with the Haitian people to protect their
sovereignty, including: a) the right of the Haitian people to elect their own leaders;
b) the obligation of foreign diplomats to respect national and international
laws (including the 1963 Vienna Convention) concerning their activities in
Haiti; c) the right of the Haitian people to be free from foreign meddling,
including financing of groups fomenting violence and social conflict in Haiti;

3) Our commitment to help the Haitian people force the former colonial powers
to return funds taken from Haiti (reparations). Especially France, which
crippled the Haitian economy with the so-called debt of independence, which Haiti
was forced to pay over 100 years (restitution of $21 billion); as well as the
United States, which plundered Haiti's national reserves during the nineteen
years of occupation (1915-1934).

4) Our commitment to help the Haitian people achieve political stability, and
our unequivocal support for the Constitution's 5 year presidential mandate-
not one day less, not one day more.

5) Our commitment to help the Haitian people invest in peace and overcome
fear, making 2004 a YEAR OF PILGRIMAGE FOR ALL PEOPLE WHO LOVE FREEDOM to come
and support Haiti, the Mother of Liberty.

---------------------------------
Members of the following groups participated in the Conference

10th Department Organization for Haitian Empowerment (USA/Haiti)
AKASAN: Ayisyen K Ap Soutni Ayisyen Nètalkole (Canada)
Association Jeunes, Ouvriers, Universitaires, et Paysans Haitiens (AJOUPA)
(Haiti/USA)
CIJ (Haiti)
Coalition Against Police Abuse (USA)
Collectif Etudiant Haitien (Haiti)
Crowing Rooster Arts (USA)
CSTP/SSH (Haiti)
Confederation des Travailleurs Haitiens (Haiti)
Fanm Viktim Leve Kanpe (Haiti)
Fondasyon 30 Septanm (Haiti)
Federation des Transporteurs Publiques Haitiens (Haiti)
Global Exchange (USA)
Global Justice (USA)
Haiti Solidarity Network (USA)
Haiti Action Committee (USA)
Haiti Progres (USA)
Jaku Konbit (Canada)
KONSA (Haiti)
Let Haiti Live Campaign (Haiti/Canada/USA)
National Lawyer's Guild (USA)
NOTA (Haiti)
Oganizasyon Fanmi Lavalas (Haiti/USA)
Partners in Health (Haiti/USA/Peru)
Pax Christi (Haiti/USA)
Radio Ginen Dizyèm (Haiti/USA)
Radio Nouveaute de Boston (USA)
Rezo Kominikasyon Pou Avansman Demokrasi (Haiti)
Rezo Intenet Kreyoles (Canada/USA)
SODIMIN (Haiti)
SOPUDEP (Haiti)
Tele-Haiti Diaspo (USA)
Urban Institute for Pro-Active Social Change (USA)
Veye-Yo (USA)

For Authentication:
_______________________
Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine
Fondasyon 30 Septanm

*****