19292: Esser: Bush Call Off Your Dogs (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

The Black Commentator
http://blackcommentator.com

Commentary
Feb 26 2004

Bush Call Off Your Dogs
U.S. can end the killing it started in Haiti


In willful ignorance and with every bad intention, the U.S. corporate
media ask the ridiculous question, Should the US intervene in Haiti,
or not? The bloody answer screams back from the Haitian mountains and
cities: Washington has already intervened militarily in Haiti,
through its surrogates’ armed invasion from the Dominican Republic.

The Americans set loose the dogs of war, and can rein them back in –
if Washington chooses. Any discussion that fails to acknowledge the
U.S. role in nurturing the several-hundred-man force that has
systematically overrun much of the country, is a conversation
divorced from reality.

Peace cannot be built on lies – especially lies told by those who
initiated the war. It is fully within the Bush men’s power to
stabilize the situation in Haiti today, right now. It is obscene that
Colin Powell feigns frustration in the current crisis, as if it is a
conflict between forces beyond his control. Men who nominally work
for the Secretary of State – most notably Assistant Secretary for
Western Hemisphere Affairs Roger Noriega – have cultivated the
closest of ties with the soldiers and secret police of the old
Haitian regime, and with the flabbier but no less vicious “political”
opposition to Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s popularly elected government.
In a February 13 article, the Council on Hemispheric Affairs noted
that “the president’s Latin American team headed by the State
Department’s Roger Noriega and Dan Fisk, along with the White House’s
Otto Reich, all but openly support the unseating of an Aristide
government.”

The Americans are on intimate terms with the thugs that have brought
war to Haiti. As reported in Hidden from the Headlines: The U.S. War
Against Haiti, published by the San Francisco-based Haiti Action
Committee, “Groups of former Haitian military have received arms,
training and shelter within the Dominican Republic with the clear
knowledge of U.S. authorities.” These heavily armed bands have
attacked police, infrastructure targets and Aristide supporters along
the border areas and deep inside Haiti since the beginning of the
Bush Administration, with not a peep from the U.S. State Department.

The Dominican Republic has been a safe haven for the disbanded
Haitian army and secret police since 1994. Under the Bush regime,
these contra sanctuaries have operated as military bases –
unthinkable absent the permission of the American-armed Dominican
military. This month’s invasion – the final putsch – was launched
from these bases. The U.S.-backed units are “very, very well-armed,
some of them are equipped with grenade launchers,” says the Haiti
Action Committee’s Pierre Labossiere, who maintains contact with
grassroots organizations inside the country. “This is the strategy
that was in preparation all this time in the Dominican Republic.”

The International Republican Institute, whose website proclaims a
mission of “party building” in Haiti, oversaw and financed the
creation of both the armed “Democratic Convergence” contras and the
conspicuously rich and light-skinned civilian opposition umbrella
Group 184. The key Republican-opposition meetings that led to these
formations took place in the Dominican Republic.

U.S. Ambassador to Haiti James B. Foley is more an advisor to the
opposition than an envoy to the government.  Colin Powell praises
Foley as an “old hand at building coalitions for freedom" – a
euphemism that, in the U.S. view, does not include President
Aristide. It is possible that Powell is truly frustrated at his
purported inability to persuade the lilliputian opposition in
Port-au-Prince to graciously accept what the Americans are prepared
to offer: an unearned place in the government. Whether the pull and
tug between superpower and servant is a charade or not, one thing is
perfectly clear: The U.S. and their Dominican friends have the power
to call back or neutralize the relatively small bands of Haitian
ex-military, at will. Such action would avert “bloodbath” and “exodus
by sea” scenarios almost instantaneously. The paramount demand of
every peace-seeking party should be: Americans, call off your dogs.

Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rep. Maxine Waters have acted righteously. "It
is my belief that [Group 184 leader] André Apaid is attempting to
instigate a bloodbath in Haiti and then blame the government for the
resulting disaster in the belief that the United States will aid the
so-called protestors against President Aristide and his government,"
said Waters, on February 11. The California Congresswoman this week
urged Secretary Powell “to correct the record and tell the press and
the public the truth, namely, that Andre Apaid's intransigence is the
reason that negotiations have not gone forward.”

Rev. Jackson’s February 16 remarks were more pointed:

"Is the United States concerned about restoring the rule of law and
democratic rule in Haiti, or is this another example of 'regime
change?' Opponents of the Aristide Government rejected calls for a
democratic election, and now are unleashing a violent attempt to
seize power they could not win through elections. Inaction by the
U.S. State Department amounts to sanctioning the opposition forces.
We therefore appeal to the Secretary of State to uphold our nation's
democratic principles, and withdraw all political and financial
support to those seeking to overthrow President Aristide."

The United States is already treating Haiti as a “failed state” (see
last week’s ), the term used by a growing number of corporate
commentators and so-called “security experts.” States that Washington
labels as failed are consigned to a netherworld where national
sovereignty is nullified. The current issue of Haiti-Progres sees
ominous historical parallels to Haiti’s current crisis:

Haiti this week started to look a lot like the Congo in 1960.

That was when the U.S. and Belgium, the Congo's colonial master until
June 1960, fomented a rebellion against newly elected Prime Minister
Patrice Lumumba. The rebellion, which not coincidentally flared in
the oil and mineral rich Katanga province, was led by Moise Tshombe,
a wealthy plantation owner who was backed by 10,000 Belgian troops.

Lumumba unwisely invited in United Nations "peace-keepers" to fend
off the attack. Instead of helping him, the UN forces disarmed
Lumumba's troops, thus aiding Tshombe's rebellion. Meanwhile, the CIA
helped Col. Mobutu Sese Seko seize power in a September 1960 coup
d'état. Mobuto then arrested Lumumba and turned him over to Tshombe,
who had him murdered. Could this scenario be repeating itself in
Haiti today?

Carnival festivities ended on Wednesday in Haiti. The dance of death
goes on.