19226: White: URGENT ACTION: Zap the corporate media on BOGUS Haiti coverage (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Randall White <raw@haitiaction.org>

URGENT ACTION ALERT from the Haiti Action Committee

Lots of vital info here. Spread it wide!!!

Will be on HaitiAction website soon so you can
provide a low bandwidth link to your friends, and
others.

Watch http://www.HaitiAction.net for the latest propaganda...
...I mean-I N F O R M A T I O N !!!


Dear supporters of Haiti:

As you know, Haitian democracy is under its
gravest threat since the 1991-1994 dictatorship.
As of this writing, armed groups led by former
Haitian military and FRAPH members have taken
control of Haiti's 2nd and 4th largest cities.
In both places, democracy supporters and police
have been tortured, killed and mutilated.  If the
terrorists succeed in taking Port-au-Prince,
there is every reason to expect a repetition of
Haiti's last unconstitutional power grab in 1991,
when 5,000 Haitians were killed, and hundreds of
thousands tortured or forced to flee the country.

The U.S. has responded to this threat to life and
to democracy by refusing to help fight the
terrorism unless the elected Haitian authorities
agree to an unconstitutional transfer of power to
unelected members of Haiti's opposition.

The number of terrorists is small, less than 500
by most accounts.  Some are well-trained former
soldiers and paramilitaries, but most are not.
They are only successful because of their
international support, and because the Haitian
police have been weakened by  three years of
embargoes, which now include an embargo on tear
gas and other police supplies.  The rebellion
could be quashed quickly by international support
for the Haitian police, without a foreign
peace-keeping force or exposing foreign troops to
combat.

The U.S. media has been systematically biased in
its coverage of Haitian events.  This bias is not
an academic issue, but a matter of life and
death.  Positive media coverage of the terrorists
and their allies  emboldens them, and the Bush
Administration uses unfair reporting about
Haiti's elected government and its supporters to
justify withholding support from Haiti's
democracy in its hour of need.  Both lead to
people getting killed.

The Haiti Action Committee encourages everyone
who supports democracy in Haiti or wants to avoid
a repetition of 1991's massive violence, to write
newspaper editors and complain about inaccurate
reports on Haiti.  Please write to your local
paper, as well as to national papers, Reuters and
AP, and NPR.  Letters should be short (less than
200 words or half a page).  You should choose the
one or two points that you feel most strongly
about, and leave other points for other writers.
Do not send attachments; they will not be read.
Letters must include the writer's home address
and home and business telephone numbers.

Below are short discussions of some of the most
common inaccuracies.  Feel free to borrow any
language, or use your own, as you think
appropriate.  Below that are addresses for
several newspapers.  For more information about
the situation in Haiti, visit www.haitiaction.net.

Thank you,

Haiti Action Committee
_____________________________________________

1.  The armed opposition are terrorists.  The
press often refers to them as "rebels" and treats
them as if they were fighting for some principle.
The leaders were responsible for thousands of
deaths, and hundreds of thousands of rapes,
beatings and other tortures during the 1991-1994
dictatorship.  They are doing the same things
now, bragging to the press about systematically
hunting down democracy supporters and executing
them.  They have announced repeatedly since
December their intention to attack any government
supporter in areas they control, and they have
kept their word.  Terrorist leader Louis Jodel
Chamblain was the #2 leader of the brutal FRAPH
death squad.  He has been convicted in absentia
at trials for the Raboteau massacre and the
assassination of businessman Antoine Izmery.
Co-leader Guy Philippe was a member of the
military during the dictatorship, and has been
implicated in a coup attempt and an attack on the
police academy in 2001, and several attacks in
the Central Plateau over the last two years.
FRAPH leader Jean Pierre, alias Tatoune, was
serving a life sentence for the Raboteau massacre
when he escaped in 2002.  He has been terrorizing
the Raboteau victims who fought so courageously
to bring him to justice (more on this below).

2.  The vast majority of  government supporters
are ordinary citizens with no history of violent
crime, but the press consistently refers to
people persecuted by the terrorists as members of
armed gangs or chimeres.  This implies that their
tortures, executions and mutilations are somehow
deserved.  In January 1991, September 1991,
December 2001 and today, the supporters of
democracy have again and again taken to the
streets to defend democracy.  Most have been
unarmed, and each time the majority of those
killed have been unarmed civilians.  Demonizing
them all is inaccurate, unfair, and an insult to
their courage.

3.  Haiti's Police force is stretched thin, in
large part because of the multiple embargoes
against Haiti.  The U.S. has led a development
assistance embargo against Haiti for three years,
and prematurely cancelled its police training
program, which stunted the force's development.
The U.S. has also refused export licenses for the
private sale of police supplies, including tear
gas and lethal and non-lethal weapons.  This
leaves the police without adequate training,
material, transport and weapons.   The U.S. also
undermined the police force from the beginning by
using police training for intelligence service
recruiting.  When the American director of the
training program complained, she was fired (Legal
Times, March 1, 1999).

4.  International support for the Haitian police
would by itself end the armed rebellion, without
a major peace-keeping force.   The armed groups
fighting to topple Haiti's elected authorities
are not numerous and most are not well-trained (a
few are highly trained former military and
paramilitary, some U.S.-trained). A very small
amount of support by the international community
at the beginning of this year- providing minimal
support to the Haitian police, such as tear gas,
transport, money, training, perhaps some weapons,
and preventing the terrorists from crossing over
from the Dominican Republic- would have nipped
the violence in the bud.  Although the putschists
have gained momentum, cutting off their supplies
and providing additional support to the Haitian
police would adequately resolve the problem now.


5.  The U.S. has long-standing ties to the
terrorist leaders.  Louis Jodel Chamblain was the
number two leader of FRAPH, a violent
paramilitary organization founded with U.S.
encouragement in 1993.  U.S. government sources
have confirmed the claims of FRAPH's top leader,
Emmanuel Constant, that U.S. intelligence
officials encouraged him in his activities, and
paid him a monthly salary
(www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/06/grann.htm).
Constant has been allowed to live freely in New
York, despite a 1995 deportation order and a 2000
murder conviction.  Constant admits to being
active in Haitian affairs.  Another top leader,
Guy Philippe, received specialized U.S. training
as a member of the Haitian armed forces, and
again as a member of the Haitian National Police.
The Dominican Republic allowed both Chamblain and
Philippe to operate from its territory, despite
requests for Philippe to return to face charges
of organizing several coup d'etats, and for
Chamblain to answer murder charges.

6.  The so-called civilian opposition to the
government have extensive ties to Haitian
dictatorships.  The most prominent member of the
opposition, Andre Apaid, had his assets frozen by
the U.S. Treasury for his support for the
1991-1994 de facto dictatorship.  He is an
American citizen, whose support for violent
regime change in Haiti violates the U.S.
Neutrality Act.  He acquired his Haitian
citizenship with documents fraudulently claiming
that he was born in Haiti, when he was born in
New York.  He led the fight to keep the Haitian
minimum wage at its current rate, about
$1.60/day.  Another prominent member of the
opposition, Leslie Manigat, was installed as
President by a military dictatorship in 1987
three months after the dictatorship cancelled
elections by allowing paramilitary and military
massacres at  polling sites.  Several other
members, including Hubert de Ronceray, were
prominent Duvalierists.  Others, including Evans
Paul, collaborated with the de facto dictatorship.

7.  The so-called civilian opposition is closely
linked to the violent opposition.  Although some
of its members, under U.S. pressure, have
recently distanced themselves from the violent
methods, they continue to publicly and explicitly
support the violent groups' goals.  The violent
groups have, over the course of several months,
maintained that they are collaborating with the
civilian opposition.  Civilian demonstrations in
Port-au-Prince have been planned to coincide with
violent actions, and have been intentionally
provocative, placing increased pressure on an
over-extended police force.  Last weekend,
civilian opposition leaders called for a delay in
responding to the international compromise
proposal, in order to give the terrorists time to
attack Cap Haitian, which they did on Sunday.
The U.S. has explicitly linked the violent and
the civilian opposition, by refusing to support
the elected government against the violent groups
unless it agrees to unconstitutional
power-sharing with the civilian opposition.

8.  President Aristide was duly elected, and the
Constitution provides for a five year term ending
on February 7, 2006.   Prime Minister Neptune was
approved by Parliament, according to the
Constitution's provisions.  Although the press
does not deny these facts, it discusses changes
in the powers of the President and Prime Minister
without noting that these changes violate the
Constitution.

9.  The press repeatedly refers to "fraudulent
elections in 2000."  There was no documented
fraud in the November 2000 elections, in which
President Aristide and 1/3 of the Senate were
elected.  The only international monitors for
those elections found the official Electoral
Commission results to be consistent with their
observations.  Subsequent U.S.-sponsored Gallup
Polls confirmed the official figures for turnout
and results.  The only documented, systematic
problem with the earlier May 2000 legislative and
local elections were the calculation of run-off
percentages for eight senate seats.  Those were
resolved long ago, when one of the seats was
re-run, and those holding the other seven
resigned to eliminate the crisis (in 2001).   By
all accounts, those eight seats did not affect
the balance of power in the legislature.

10.  The press repeatedly refers to a fall in
President Aristide's popularity, without
providing any basis for the statement.  President
Aristide and his allies have won every single
democratic election ever held in Haiti by a
landslide.  Although some elections were
controversial, the controversy has always been
about the extent of the landslide, not its
existence.  Although there have been increasing
anti-government demonstrations in the last few
months, every one has been matched by a larger,
pro-government demonstration.  Many supporters of
Aristide and the constitutional process are
putting their lives on the line to combat the
terrorists.

11.  The Haitian government is often described as
intractable, when it has in fact made many
enormous concessions, some of them unprecedented
in modern history.  In 2001, seven sitting
senators resigned.  In 2002, the remaining
legislators agreed to early elections, and the
government agreed to an Electoral Counsel
dominated by government opponents.  In 2003, the
government obtained the resignation of two police
chiefs to please the opposition and the
international community.  Late last year, the
government agreed to a compromise set out by the
Catholic Bishops Conference, which promptly
withdrew the proposal.  Recently the government
has agreed to a series of onerous concessions
through the CARICOM and OAS processes.  In
return, neither the violent opposition, its
civilian allies, or the international governments
that support them have conceded anything.

-----------------------------------
Addresses for Letter to the Editor:


New York Times:
letters@nytimes.com
Letters to the Editor
The New York Times
229 West 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036
fax (212)556-3622.

Washington Post:
letters@washpost.com
Letters to the Editor
The Washington Post
1150 15th Street Northwest
Washington, DC 20071

Associated Press:
Michelle Faul
mfaul@ap.org

National Public Radio

Comment Line: 202 513-3232 weekdays
10:00am-5:00pm(sometimes they play these on the
air).
Morning Edition: Morning@npr.org
All Things Considered: atc@npr.org
send copies of all comments on reporting to ombudsman@npr.org

Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/-helpSectionContactUs.jhtml


Boston Globe:
letter@globe.com
Letters to the Editor
The Boston Globe
P.O. Box 2378
Boston, MA 02107-2378
Or by fax to (617) 929-2098

Los Angeles Times:
Letters@latimes.org

Miami Herald:
HeraldEd@herald.com
The Readers' Forum
The Miami Herald
One Herald Plaza
Miami, Florida 33132-1693
Fax: (305) 376-8950

South Florida Sun-Sentinel:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-letterseditor.customform
-------------------------

More information on the terrorist leadership:


Louis Jodel Chamblain
Chamblain was the National Coordinator (the #2
position) of the Front révolutionnaire pour
l'avancement et le progrès haïtien,
(Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and
Progress) known by its acronym - FRAPH - which
phonetically resembles the French and Creole
words for 'to beat' or 'to thrash'. FRAPH was
formed during the 1991-94 military regime, and
was responsible for numerous human rights
violations before the 1994 restoration of
democratic governance.

Chamblain was the operational leader of FRAPH,
while co-leader Emmanuel Constant did the public
relations. Chamblain organized attacks against
democracy supporters, issued FRAPH ID cards, and
obtained official recognition for FRAPH from the
dictatorship. Among the victims of FRAPH under
Chamblain's leadership was Haitian Justice
Minister Guy Malary. He was ambushed and
machine-gunned to death with his body-guard and a
driver on October 14, 1993. According to an
October 28, 1993 CIA Intelligence Memorandum
obtained by the Center for Constitutional Rights:
"FRAPH members Jodel Chamblain, Emmanuel
Constant, and Gabriel Douzable met with an
unidentified military officer on the morning of
14 October to discuss plans to kill Malary."
(Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, the leader of FRAPH,
is now living freely in Queens, NYC.)

In September 1995, Chamblain was among seven
senior military and FRAPH leaders convicted in
absentia and sentenced to forced labor for life
for involvement in the September 1993
extrajudicial execution of Antoine Izméry, a
well-known pro-democracy activist. In November
2000, Chamblain was convicted in absentia in the
Raboteau massacre trial.

In late 1994 or early 1995, Chamblain went into
exile to the Dominican Republic in order to avoid
prosecution. He was regularly spotted by Haitian
expatriates and international journalists in
public.

Guy Philippe
Guy Philippe is a former member of the FAD'H
(Haitian Army). During the 1991-94 military
regime, he and a number of other officers
received training from the US Special Forces in
Ecuador, and when the FAD'H was dissolved by
Aristide in early 1995, Philippe was incorporated
into the new National Police Force. He served as
police chief in the Port-au-Prince suburb of
Delmas and in the second city, Cap-Haitien,
before he fled Haiti in October 2000 when Haitian
authorities discovered him plotting what they
described as a coup, together with a clique of
other police chiefs. Since that time, the Haitian
government has accused Philippe of master-minding
deadly attacks on the Haitian Police Academy and
the National Palace in July and December 2001, as
well as hit-and-run raids against police stations
on Haiti's Central Plateau over last two years.

Ernst Ravix
According to the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights report on Haiti, dated 7 September
1988, FAD'H Captain Ernst Ravix, was the military
commander of Saint Marc, and head of a
paramilitary squad of "sub-proletariat youths"
who called themselves the Sans Manman (Motherless
Ones). In May 1988, the government of President
Manigat tried to reduce contraband and corruption
in the port city of Saint Marc, but Ravix, the
local Army commander, responded by organizing a
demonstration against the President in which some
three thousand residents marched, chanted, and
burned barricades. Manigat removed Ravix from his
post, but after Manigat's ouster, he was
reinstated by the military dictator, Lt. Gen.
Namphy.

Ravix was not heard of again until December 2001
when former FAD'H sergeant, Pierre Richardson,
the person captured following the 17 December
attack on the National Palace, reportedly
confessed that the attack was a coup attempt
planned in the Dominican Republic by three former
police chiefs- Guy Philippe, Jean-Jacques Nau and
Gilbert Dragon - and that it was led by former
Captain Ernst Ravix. According to Richardson,
Ravix's group withdrew from the National Palace
and fled to the Dominican Republic when
reinforcements failed to arrive.

Jean Tatoune
Jean Pierre Baptiste, alias "Jean Tatoune", first
came to prominence as a leader of the
anti-Duvalier mobilizations in his home town of
Gonaives in 1985. For some years he was known and
respected for his anti-Duvalierist activities but
during the 1991-94 military regime he emerged as
a local leader of FRAPH. On 22 April 1994, he led
a force of dozens of soldiers and FRAPH members
in an attack on Raboteau, a desperately poor slum
area in Gonaives and a stronghold of support for
Aristide. Between 15 and 25 people were killed in
what became known as the Raboteau massacre.

In 2000, Tatoune was put on trial and sentenced
to forced labor for life for his participation in
the Raboteau massacre. He was subsequently
imprisoned in Gonaives, from where he escaped in
August 2002, and took up arms again in his base
in a poor area of the city. He has led numerous
terrorist attacks in Gonaives over the last four
months, including police killings, destruction of
government buildings and attacks against the
Raboteau victims who testified in the case
against him.

Jean-Baptiste Joseph
Joseph is a former Haitian Army sergeant who,
following the disbanding of the FAD'H in 1995,
headed an association of former FAD'H members.
The formation of the Rassemblement des Militaires
Révoqués Sans Motifs (RAMIRESM), the Assembly of
Soldiers Retired Without Cause was announced at a
1 August 1995 press conference in Port-au-Prince.
During 1995 and 1996, RAMIRESM was closely
associated with Hubert De Ronceray's
neo-Duvalierist party, Mobilization pour le
développement national, (MDN) Mobilization for
National Development.

On 17 August 1996, Joseph was one of 15 former
soldiers arrested at the MDN party headquarters
and accused of plotting against the government.
Two days later, approximately twenty armed men,
reportedly in uniforms and thought to be former
soldiers, fired on the main Port-au-Prince police
station, killing one bystander.

Since then nothing had been heard of Joseph,
until he emerged in Hinche with the rebel forces
last week. The right-wing MDN party is a leading
member of the Democratic Convergence coalition.