18365: Ives: responds to Reid and seconds Saint-Vil re. Bicentennial Celebration

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: K. M. Ives <kives@toast.net>

Ralph Reid wrote:

"Oh, but I guess our trip doesn't count, since we were not known as
Aristide/Lavalas supporters, so we had no business being in Haiti for the
bicentennial. After all, that was what we were told by the Chimeres who
attacked us within 45 minutes of our arrival in Haiti."
This sounds pretty far-fetched. Reid insinuates that his party was
attacked
because they "were not known as Aristide/Lavalas supporters." Who were
these
supposed "Chimeres"? Were they just attacking anybody "they did not know"
as
being pro-Lavalas? Where did this happen? Under what circumstances? What
was
the nature of the "attack"?

Obviously, people don't judge others' political opinion by the shape of
their
head. Reid's "testimony" would need a lot more detail before it could pass
the
smell test.

In the days I spent in Haiti during the bicentennial, driving about at all
hours of the day and night, I never came across any "chimere" violence.
The
only attacks I know of (other than those against departing buses in
Gonaives,
some of whose occupants we interviewed) were when opposition demonstrators
attacked two colleagues attempting to film their antics on Nazon on Jan.
1. The
demonstrators blocked their car, demanded one's camera and flattened two
of
their tires, before allowing them to flee from the scene. Not exactly the
way
oppositions function under a "dictatorship."

"I don't know about Ms. Laurent, but I do know that the other people you
name
were escorted by armed security throughout their time in Haiti"
Reid knows nothing of the sort. As Jean Saint-Vil points out, at least two
of
them -- Danny Glover and Ron Daniels -- not only had no "armed escort,"
they
didn't even have a car. We gave them a ride back to their hotel and had a
nice
"unguarded" dinner with them in an open air cafe... late at night.

Making easily disproved assertions can undermine the credibility of all
one's
assertions.

Kim Ives