19747: radtimes: Squeezing Life Out of Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________

         PM Wednesday, March 3, 2004

         Squeezing Life Out of Haiti

JEAN BELIARD LUCIEN, jblucien@radiolakay.com, http://www.radiolakay.com
General manager of Radio Lakay, a New York City-based radio station that
serves Haitian-Americans, Jean Beliard Lucien said today: "An elected
government has been overthrown by an armed rebellion under the watch of the
U.S.... This year is the bicentennial of Haiti's independence. Aristide's
asking France to pay back for money that Haiti was forced to pay for its
independence is one of the leading causes of his fall; once he did that,
France set out to destroy Aristide's image.... I have been critical of
Aristide, he failed to really root out corruption, but the people who are
taking over now are criminals."

MICHAEL RATNER, mratner@igc.org, http://www.ccr-ny.org,
http://www.democracynow.org
President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Ratner said today:
"Aristide is still lawfully the president of Haiti. International law does
not recognize governments imposed by coup.... Apparently Aristide was
forcibly taken out of Haiti -- that violates international treaty and
subjects the U.S. to proceedings at the International Court of Justice."

STAN GOFF, sherryandstan@igc.org
Author of "Hideous Dream: A Soldier's Memoir of the U.S. Invasion of
Haiti," Goff just returned from Haiti.

BRIAN CONCANNON Jr., brianhaiti@aol.com,
http://haitisupport.gn.apc.org/concannon.html
Concannon is a human rights lawyer with the International Lawyers' Office,
established by the Haitian government to help victims prosecute human
rights cases. He said today: "Guy Philippe, the U.S.-trained
self-proclaimed new army chief, was implicated in running drugs, executing
suspected gang members, attacking the National Palace and trying to blow up
a hydro dam, even before he started killing his former police colleagues.
Louis Jodel Chamblain, co-founder of Haiti's brutal FRAPH death squad, was
convicted for several atrocities committed during Haiti's last
dictatorship, in 1991-1994. Both are now living up to their legends,
hunting down and executing government supporters, emptying the jails,
spraying whole neighborhoods with gunfire...."

JULIANNE MALVEAUX, jmnia@aol.com, http://www.juliannemalveaux.com
Malveaux, an economist and commentator, said today: "The U.S. government
held up a World Bank $500 million loan to Haiti for two years. Such actions
helped destabilize the government of the populist president who identified
with the large number of Haitian people subsisting on a few dollars a day."

WAYNE MADSEN, WMadsen777@aol.com
Author of the recent article "Venezuela Redux In Haiti," investigative
reporter Madsen is available to talk about individuals forming U.S. policy
in Haiti. He said: "They include the State Department's Assistant Secretary
for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roger Noriega (a one-time staffer for Sen.
Jesse Helms and promoter of El Salvador death squad leader Roberto
D'Aubuisson), U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Negroponte (a promoter of
Honduran death squads while he was ambassador to Honduras), Iran-contra
felon Elliott Abrams (who is now at the National Security Council), and
Otto Reich, Noriega's predecessor who was not confirmed by the Senate and
who organized a similar coup in April 2002 against Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez Frias. They are supported in their efforts by the
'neo-conservative' elements in the Pentagon, White House, State Department
and media who set the stage for the U.S. war against Iraq...."

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

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