19648: Esser: Re: 19633: Patikoul69: A closer look at the kidnapping allegation... (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. E s s e r <torx@joimail.com>

"Patikoul69" writes: "...They are so quick to blast the US government
but somehow they never see the Millions of people who were suffering
and the thousands who died under Aristide's dictatorship..." While
you are certainly entitled to your belief that Jean-Bertrand Aristide
ran a dictatorship, it would help if you define such. A commonly used
definition is that a dictatorship is a government headed by a
dictator or more generally any authoritarian or totalitarian
government. It is often equivalent to a police state, but the term
"dictatorship" refers to the way the leaders gain and hold power, not
the watch kept on the citizens. In this context: how do you apply
this definition to the deposed government of Aristide? Did not even
Powell admit recently that Aristide was elected; he didn't keep the
opposition from submitting credible reports about el;ection fraud,
which they weren't able to furnish, agreed to new elections and
anyhow his margin of victory, even if the election had it's problems,
would indicate that Aristide came not to power by means of a coup,
fraud or armed "rebels".

As to the thousands who died under Aristide, as a person very much
interested in human rights, I would like to have more documentation
about that. Maybe Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International or even
the mainstream press has reported on that. Please share your sources
with us.
.