19661: Esser: Regime Change in Haiti; The Bush Dominoes keep falling (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Al-Jazeerah
http://www.aljazeerah.info
Opinion Editorials

March 2, 2004
Regime Change in Haiti; The Bush Dominoes keep falling
By Mike Whitney


"Will I resign? No, I will not resign, I will fulfill my term and I
will not allow criminals and terrorists to take over." Jean Bertrand
Aristide

"This long-simmering crisis is largely of Mr. Aristide's making. His
failure to adhere to democratic principles has contributed to the
deep polarization and violent unrest that we are witnessing in Haiti
today." Press Secretary, Scott McClellan

The Bush Administration
most explicit example of contempt for democracy we
United States has had 2000 Marines ready for immediate deployment to
the beleaguered island, but has held back until Haiti
democratically elected President
force of arms. It is currently being reported by the BBC that Mr.
Aristide was escorted to the plane in which he made his dawn escape
by US Marines already in the country. This only adds to the suspicion
of US complicity in the President

Aristide pleaded for help from the international community, and
particularly the United States, saying that perhaps only a few dozen
marines could salvage his presidency. The US flatly refused,
condemning the Aristide government to certain collapse. The
culpability for that collapse resides entirely with the Bush
Administration.

We cannot imagine what conclusions are being drawn by the various
leaders in the Middle East who are now being presented with Mr.
Bush
launch democratic reforms in their own countries while at the same
time, witnessing the flagrant duplicity of the Administration
actions in Haiti. Are we to believe that Bush and co. have a genuine
interest in democracy when then they refuse to even lift a finger to
help a struggling neighbor in their own back yard? Instead, they
issue a steady stream of criticism at the elected government (via the
media) which further emboldens the rebel leaders to continue their
onslaught.

Things really started going downhill for the Aristide Government when
the Bush Administration began their well-calculated attack on its
legitimacy. As Scott McClellan said, 
into question his fitness to continue to govern."

Really? Then who should govern, if not the man who was elected by
over 80% of the Haitian population? Not every country accepts the
idea that the Supreme Court should decide elections. Some nations
still entertain the archaic notion that the president should be
chosen by popular mandate, a view that has been regrettably abandoned
in the US. The action taken in Haiti is an affront to the basic
principle of representative government.

Statements like McClellan
that Bush supported the overthrow of Aristide by the dubious gang of
terrorists and misfits who instigated the coup. As ex-ambassador
Richard Holbrook opined, they are nothing more than 
drug-lords and criminals.
plug on Aristide and must accept responsibility

As Democracy Now reported earlier this week, 
the armed insurrection in Haiti right now are well known to veteran
Haiti observers and, for that matter, the US intelligence agencies
that worked closely with the paramilitary death squads which
terrorized Haiti in the early 1990s. People like Louis Jodel
Chamblain, the former number 2 man in FRAPH, Guy Philippe, a former
police chief who was trained by US Special forces in Ecuador and Jean
Tatun, another leader of FRAPH.


a democracy in this hemisphere to be terminated by a brutal military
coup of persons who have a very, very sordid history of gross
violations of human rights?" (Democracy Now)

Ira Kurzban, the Miami-based attorney who has served as General
Counsel to the Haitian government since 1991, said that the
paramilitaries fighting to overthrow Aristide are being backed by
Washington.

"I believe that this is a group that is armed by, trained by, and
employed by the intelligence services of the United States. This is
clearly a military operation, and it's a military coup." (Democracy
Now)

"There are enough indications from our point of view, at least from
my point of view, that the United States certainly knew what was
coming about two weeks before this military operation started,"
Kurzban said. "The United States made contingency plans for
Guantanamo." (Democracy Now)


the 1991-1994 coup. Because it is a military operation. It's not a
rag-tag group of liberators, as has often been put in the press in
the last week or two.

So, why has the Bush Administration decided to rid itself of the
Aristide Government?

Aristide has always sought to address the crushing poverty and hunger
of his countrymen. After following the 
from Washington during the 1980
was in shambles. US subsidies to American farmers left 
nation even hungrier.

Aristide knew that 
in which we cannot survive, or, refuse, and face death by slow
starvation.
world countries. For them, free trade is not so free.

International donors to poorer countries base their loans on a
neoliberal economic plan; lower tariffs, tight monetary control and
privatization. These oftentimes have a devastating affect on fragile
economies.

As Aristide said, 
state assets.
loans. When Aristide balked on the sale of state owned cement and
flour plants, the hammer came down. The IMF threatened 
all funds to Haiti. The international media followed suit with a
frenzy of condemnation and character assassination.

This is a familiar pattern for the leaders of countries who try to
resist the seizure of their most valuable resources and assets from
outside corporations.

And, this is essentially how Aristide fell from grace with the Bush
administration. He refused to comply with the economic regimen that
forces poor countries to deepen their poverty and surrender their
assets. He defied the highway robbery that disguises itself as 
trade

As we can see, he paid for his defiance.

Make no mistake; this form of despotism is now backed by the full
force of the United States Military, the gendarmes of the new
economic order.

Aristide is just the latest victim.
.