19193: Hallward: Insurrection in the Making

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Peter Hallward <peter.hallward@kcl.ac.uk>

=======================

Haiti - Insurrection in the Making

by Yifat Susskind, in Z Magazine, February 25, 2004

(source: http://www.zmag.org/ZNET.htm).


A political crisis that has been brewing in Haiti since 2000
exploded during the second week of February 2004. Members of an
armed movement seeking to overthrow Haiti's President,
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, went on a rampage in a dozen Haitian
towns, killing more than 60 people. The towns remain under siege
by criminal gangs led by former paramilitary members.

There is great concern for the families in these areas, since the
armed vigilantes have cut road and telephone access to
communities, emptied prisons and blocked convoys of food aid from
reaching impoverished areas.

The blockade of food aid is particularly worrisome since,
according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, nearly half
of all Haitians lack access to even minimum food requirements.
Hospitals, schools, police stations and other government buildings
have been burned and looted. Meanwhile, the US Department of
Homeland Security has begun preparations for the internment of up
to 50,000 Haitian refugees at the US naval base in Guantánamo Bay,
Cuba, signaling that the US expects a much greater escalation of
violence in Haiti.

 What is the Political Backdrop to the Conflict? The crisis dates
back to a political stalemate stemming from a contested election.
In 2000-the same year that George Bush stole the US
presidency-Haiti held elections for 7,500 positions nationwide.
Election observers contested the winners of seven senate seats.

President Aristide balked at first, but eventually yielded and the
seven senators resigned. Members of Haiti's elite, long hostile to
Aristide's progressive economic agenda, saw the controversy as an
opportunity to derail his government.

Since 2001, human rights activists and humanitarian workers in
Haiti have documented numerous cases of opposition vigilantes
killing government officials and bystanders in attacks on the
state power station, health clinics, police stations and
government vehicles. The US government did not condemn any of
these killings.

In January 2004, the opposition escalated its protests. At some
demonstrations, government supporters, who represent Haiti's
poorest sectors, attacked opposition activists. Only then did US
Secretary of State Powell issue a one-sided condemnation of
'militant Aristide supporters.'

In a country as poor as Haiti, control over the institutions of
the state is one of the only sources of wealth, making national
politics an arena of violent competition. Similarly, in an
environment of 70 percent unemployment, the prospect of long-term
work as a paramilitary fighter leads many young men to join these
forces.

Who is the Opposition? Like the so-called opposition to the Chavez
government of Venezuela, Haiti's opposition represents only a
small minority (8 percent of the population according to a 2000
poll). With no chance of winning through democratic elections,
they rely instead on armed violence to foment a political crisis
that will lead to the fall of the government. Using their
international business connections, especially ties to the
corporate media, the opposition has manufactured an image of
itself as the true champion of democracy in Haiti.

The gangs that have placed thousands of Haitians under siege are
reportedly armed with US-made M-16s, recently sent by the US to
the government of the Dominican Republic.

The gangs are directly linked to two groups financed by the Bush
Administration: the right-wing Convergence for Democracy and the
pro-business Group of 184.

The Convergence is a coalition of about two dozen groups, ranging
from neo-Duvalierists (named for the Duvaliers' dictatorship that
ruled Haiti from 1957-1986) to former Aristide supporters. These
groups have little in common except their desire to see Aristide
overthrown.

According to the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, the opposition's
'only policy goal seems to be reconstituting the army and the
implementation of rigorous Structural Adjustment Programs.'

The Convergence is led by former FRAPH paramilitary leaders
(including Louis Chamblain, Guy Phillipe and Jean Pierre Baptiste)
who carried out the bloody 1991 coup d'etat, in which the
CIA-trained and -funded FRAPH overthrew Aristide, killed 5,000
civilians and terrorized Haiti for four years.

The Convergence is supported by the Haitian elite and the
leadership of the US Republican Party (through the National
Endowment for Democracy and the International Republican
Institute).

The Group of 184 is represented by Andy Apaid, a Duvalier
supporter and US citizen who obtained a Haitian passport by
fraudulently claiming to have been born in Haiti. Apaid owns 15
factories in Haiti and was the main foe of Aristide's 2003
campaign to raise the minimum wage (which, at $1.60 a day, was
lower than what it had been 10 years earlier).

By demanding that the opposition be included in any resolution of
Haiti's political impasse, the US has greatly empowered these
forces. While the opposition perpetuates Haiti's political
deadlock, the US embargo (see below) guarantees the island's
economic strangulation. Aristide's opponents hope that these
combined tactics will achieve what they cannot win through
democratic elections: the ouster of Aristide.

Why is it so hard to get a clear picture of what's happening in
Haiti?

Media Manipulation

-> One reason is that the opposition has succeeded in mobilizing
the mainstream media to create an image of Aristide as a tyrant
and the opposition as democratic freedom fighters. For example,
international media have run several stories comparing the
opposition to the movement to overthrow Haiti's long-time Duvalier
dictatorship. Although the Haitian government has condemned
attacks by its supporters on opposition forces, mainstream media
did not report the condemnations

-> Most international coverage of the crisis in Haiti comes from
the large wire services, Reuters and the Associated Press. These
wire services rely almost exclusively on Haiti's elite-owned media
(Radio Metropole, Tele-Haiti, Radio Caraibe, Radio Vision 2000 and
Radio Kiskeya) for their stories. The outlets are owned and
operated by the opposition. For example, Andy Apaid, spokesman for
the Group of 184, is the founder of Tele-Haiti.

-> Progressive journalists have accused these stations of
exaggerating reports of violence by government supporters and
ignoring violence by opposition forces. These stations air
commercials inciting Haitians to overthrow the government.

 US Double-Speak

-> Another reason for confusion is that the Bush Administration is
upholding a long US tradition of talking about respect for
democracy in Haiti while supporting the country's most
anti-democratic, pro- business forces. The US has encouraged the
opposition to refuse to participate in elections and, at the same
time, declared that elections in Haiti will only be considered
legitimate if the opposition participates.

-> Powell says that the US is 'not interested in regime change.'
But the Administration is supporting a disinformation campaign in
the US media, maintaining an embargo that is intensifying hunger
and disease amongst Haiti's poorest and supporting the sponsors of
armed, vigilante violence that has already killed scores of
people.

What is the role of the US in Haiti? The US was the main supporter
of the Duvalier dictatorship. In 1986, when Haiti's pro-democracy
movement finally succeeded in overthrowing the hated dictator, he
was ferried to safety by the Reagan Administration.

Only with the rise of Aristide, Haiti's first democratically
elected president, did US support shift from the Haitian
leadership to those who orchestrated the 1991 coup d'etat.

In 1994, public pressure and fear of an influx of Haitian 'boat
people' led the Clinton Administration to reverse the coup d'etat
and restore Aristide to power.

The Republican leadership strongly opposed the intervention. In
1995, when Republicans took control of Congress, they pushed to
cancel US aid to Haiti and to finance the opposition by
reallocating federal funds to Haitian non-governmental
organizations opposed to Aristide.

In 2000, the Republicans exploited Haiti's electoral controversy
as an opportunity to discredit Aristide. The Bush Administration
pressured the Inter-American Development Bank to cancel more than
$650 million in development assistance and approved loans to Haiti
-- money that was slated to pay for safe drinking water, literacy
programs and health services.

The seven contested senators are long gone, but the embargo
remains in place, denying critical services to the poorest people
in the hemisphere.

What is Aristide's record? The US allowed Aristide to be
reinstated on the condition that he implement a neoliberal
economic agenda.

Aristide complied with some US demands, including a reduction of
tariffs on US-grown rice that bankrupted thousands of Haitian
farmers and maintenance of a below- subsistence-level minimum
wage.

But Aristide resisted privatizing state-owned resources, because
of protests from his political base and because he was reluctant
to relinquish control over these sources of wealth.

Aristide eventually doubled the minimum wage and -- despite the
embargo -- prioritized education and healthcare: he built schools
and renovated public hospitals; established new HIV-testing
centers and doctor-training programs; and introduced a program to
subsidize schoolbooks and uniforms and expand school lunch and
bussing services.

Aristide has tried to walk a line between US demands for
neoliberal reforms and his own commitment to a progressive
economic agenda. As a result, he has lost favor with parts of his
own political base and Haitian and US elites.

Aristide has also been criticized for turning a blind eye to human
rights abuses committed by his supporters and by advocates of good
governance for rewarding loyalists with government posts
regardless of their qualifications. (a patronage system even more
extensive than the one that has filled the Bush Administration
with former CEOs and corporate lobbyists.)

So Should Progressives Support Aristide? The current crisis is not
about supporting or opposing Aristide the man, but about defending
constitutional democracy in Haiti. In a democracy, elections-and
not vigilante violence-should be the measure of 'the will of the
people.' Aristide has repeatedly invited the opposition to
participate in elections and they have refused, knowing that they
cannot win at the polls.

How Should the Crisis be Resolved? MADRE supports the proposal of
the Caribbean Community (CARICOM, a consortium of Caribbean
governments) which:

Rejects any violent overthrow of the government and insists that
any change in government be in compliance with Haiti's
constitution.

Calls on the opposition to accept Aristide's offer to take part in
elections in order to break the impasse that has frozen Haiti's
government for the past several years.

Calls on the international community to provide economic
assistance to Haiti in order to alleviate the country's grinding
poverty and create some foundation for economic and political
stability.

MADRE also calls on the Bush Administration to:

Unequivocally denounce the opposition and cease any financial,
political or military support for its forces.

Lift the embargo that is denying urgently needed development aid
and health programs to Haitian women and families.





SOME STATISTICS ON HAITI

-> The richest 1% of the population controls nearly half of all of
Haiti's wealth.

-> Haiti has long ranked as the poorest country in the Western
Hemisphere and is the fourth poorest country in the world.

-> Haiti ranks 146 out of 173 on the Human Development Index.*

-> Life expectancy is 52 years for women and 48 for men*.

-> Adult literacy is about 50%.*

-> Unemployment is about 70%.*

-> 85% of Haitians live on less than $1 US per day.*

-> Haiti ranks 38 out of 195 for under-five mortality rate.*

*Source: 'Investigating the Effects of Withheld Humanitarian Aid,'
a report of the Haiti Reborn/Quixote Center.




On Wed, 25 Feb 2004 14:38:12 -0600 (CST) Bob Corbett
<corbetre@webster.edu> wrote:

>
> Peter, alas, my e-mail program which is not browser based can
only read > text messages.  I can't open attachments.
> > Bob
> >

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peter.hallward@kcl.ac.uk