18610: Esser: US Administration 'Back Doors' Democracy in Haiti? (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Eseer torx@joimail.com

US Foreign Aid Watch

US Administration 'Back Doors' Democracy in Haiti?
Date: Friday, February 13 @ 22:09:20

By: David G. Johnson


Officially, the state department maintains "We will accept no outcome
that is not consistent, that  in any way, illegally attempts to
remove the Elected President of Haiti". The State department held a
meeting on 02/13/2004 with the Caribbean Community, the Organization
of American States and Canada in order to discuss the growing crisis
in Haiti. Haiti is currently experiencing violent unrest within the
country which has caused parts of the country to become cut off from
much needed food, and fuel.


According to MSNBC:

The current crisis has been brewing for more than two months and
entered a deadly phase a week ago when a gang of thugs stormed police
stations in Gonaives, a major seaport of 200,000 located 70 miles
north of the capital of Port-au-Prince. The revolt quickly spread to
nearly a dozen other towns in northern Haiti and has killed nearly 50
people. But the uprising appears to be running out of gas after
police units and pro-government militias regained control in three of
the strife-torn towns earlier this week.


Thugs attacking police stations, perhaps they've stumbled onto an Al
Qaeda nest, Huh? What if it turned out that those thugs are alleged
to be 'our' thugs, and their lead spokesman was actually a person
that has been accused of tax evasion and operating sweatshops in
Haiti.  He is the spokesman for a collection of organizations called
the 'Group of 184' and some of the groups have received funding from
European Commission and the United States. It is claimed their
spokesman, Andre Apaid, "continues to use inflammatory language,
denounce President Aristide, refuse[s] to negotiate and demand[s]
that President Aristide leave his democratically-elected presidency".
The opposition group counters by accusing Aristide of corruption and
drug trafficking and supporting para-military activity.


There certainly doesn't seem to be any lack of name calling going on
in Haiti, but maybe you should be asking how the situation arose in
the first place.  In the interest of being brief,  Haiti has been
plundered or exploited for its resources (cheap labor and sugar)
since right after 1492 and up until Aristide became president. He was
out of office for one term and then re-elected to be the president of
Haiti until 2006.  That latest election is widely reported as being
fraudulent, with the added implication that Aristide was elected
fraudulently.


Not so, according to several accounts of the election including this
one from the State department right after the election:

Washington -- Initial reports from over 200 international observers
deployed throughout Haiti during that country's May 21 parliamentary
and municipal elections indicate that the credibility of the vote is
"so far acceptable," says the Organization of American States (OAS).



Later in September, they state:

Miami -- Haiti's "unwillingness to engage seriously with the
international community" regarding its "flawed" May 21 elections
means that the United States "will not be able to continue [its] past
close relationship" with the government of that Caribbean nation,
says Luis Lauredo, U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American
States (OAS).

Instead, the United States will pursue a policy that "distinguishes
between the people of Haiti and its government," Lauredo said
September 14 at the Americas Conference, presented by the Miami
Herald. "In the absence of meaningful and tangible change," he
warned, the United States will not support Haiti's presidential
election for November 26 either "financially or through observation
missions or otherwise."


Lauredo said nearly all U.S. assistance to Haiti will be channeled to
the people of Haiti through private non-governmental organizations
rather than through the Haitian government.

And finally after the November Election they state:

Yesterday, presidential and other elections were held in Haiti.
According to local and international media in Haiti, as well as
analysis from resident diplomatic missions including our own, voter
turnout was low. Although there were reports of isolated violence,
the balloting appears to have taken place without significant
incident.


So what is the big deal? According to this report:

The issue which originally sparked the "election controversy," the
eight contested senate seats, was resolved in July 2001. With the
encouragement of President Aristide, seven of the senators whose
first round victories were questioned resigned. The issue of the
eighth senator was resolved by his re-election in November 2000
(Government of Haiti, Issue Paper on the Electoral Process, 2/7/03).

So why would the United States cut off aid and sponsor violent
opposition groups in order to force Aristide to resign?


Let's take a look at the record of Aristide's accomplishments listed
in a press release from  Representative Maxine Waters, released after
her recent trip to Haiti in order to view the situation first hand :

President Aristide is pursuing a progressive economic agenda in
Haiti.  Under his leadership, the Haitian government has made major
investments in agriculture, public transportation and
infrastructure.  On February 7, 2003, the government doubled the
minimum wage from 36 to 70 gourdes per day, despite strong opposition
from the business community.  There have also been a number of
reforms to prohibit trafficking in persons and protect the estimated
400,000 children from rural villages who work as domestic servants in
households in the cities.

 President Aristide disbanded the military when he returned to office
and has a police force of only 5,000 for a country of 8 million
people.  The United States aborted its efforts to support and train
the new police force and currently has a ban on selling guns and
equipment to Haiti.  This policy effectively denies Haitian law
enforcement officers the essential equipment that they so desperately
need to maintain order and enforce the rule of law.

President Aristide has given the United States special authority to
assist with drug interdiction efforts by allowing the United States
to interdict drugs in Haitian waters.  The government of Haiti does
not have the resources needed to wage a tough and consistent war
against drugs, and the President of Haiti is begging the United
States for assistance to eliminate drug trafficking.

The United States has even denied export licenses for non-lethal
weapons such as tear gas for use in crowd control by the Haitian
Police.  It seems that the common people are always the ones that
suffer the most from a misguided foreign policy.


In this case, look at what two members of Partners in Health
Organization have to say regarding the embargo:

The lack of development aid has been a burden, but even more
troubling has been the embargo on humanitarian assistance and loans.
For example, loans totaling $146 million (for health sector
improvement, education reform, potable water enhancement, and road
rehabilitation) already approved through the Inter-American
Development Bank have been blocked by the United States in response
to alleged irregularities during May 2000 legislative elections.

After the presidential election of November 2000 (widely recognized
as free and fair), the funds were to be released, but the Bush
administration used its veto power to continue to block release of
funds on the grounds that Haiti has not demonstrated an adequate
commitment to governing the country in a democratic manner -
objections not heard during the long years of dictatorship.

I'm sure that the State Department Spokesman misspoke when he made
the following statement during a briefing on 02/13/2004 regarding
what needs to done in Haiti:

... overall, what does everybody have to do, to stabilize the
situation, to get to a peaceful, negotiated and democratic and
constitutional outcome to this, um, that involves responsibilities
that the government has, especially the government in terms of
calming the situation, taking steps to end the violence, taking steps
to institute responsibility among its own security forces, it has
responsibilities that the opposition have, to try to maintain
a climate of violence, and reach a negotiated settlement....


Note: I listened to his statement several times in order understand
exactly what he said, it is my opinion that the above transcription
is as accurate as I could make, I suggest that everyone listen to it
and decide for themselves.

His statement ranks up there with Chicago's Mayor Daley saying "The
police aren't here to create disorder, they're here to preserve
disorder."


This article comes from U.S. Foreign Aid Watch Organization
http://www.foreignaidwatch.org/

The URL for this story is:
http://www.foreignaidwatch.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=633



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