19876: White: Fwd: Rep. Maxine Waters' statement on Haiti 3-4-04 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Randall White <raw@haitiaction.org>


Statement by Rep. Maxine Waters
on the Overthrow of the Democratically-
Elected Government of Haiti

March 4, 2004


         Last Sunday, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the
democratically-elected President of Haiti, was effectively overthrown
by a group of heavily-armed thugs.  Yesterday, Ambassador Roger
Noriega, the Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, the
former chief of staff for Senator Jesse Helms and one of the
principal architects of our flawed Haiti policy, testified before the
Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere of the House International
Relations Committee on the situation in Haiti.  Despite Ambassador
Noriega's best efforts to avoid answering Members' questions, when I
and other Members pressed him for answers, he confirmed what was
already apparent; the United States conditioned the introduction of
military forces to stabilize Haiti on the departure of President
Aristide.

         We asked Ambassador Noriega why the United States failed to
protect President Aristide from the thugs that were trying to force
him out of office.  We asked Ambassador Noriega if he knew the
violent, criminal histories of Guy Philippe and Louis Jodel
Chamblain, who led the thugs into Port-au-Prince.  We asked
Ambassador Noriega if he knew who armed and trained these thugs.  We
asked Ambassador Noriega why the United States did nothing to disarm
them until after President Aristide was forced to leave Haiti.  We
asked Ambassador Noriega how a group of heavily-armed thugs with
criminal histories could overthrow a democratically-elected
government.

         Ambassador Noriega's testimony made it clear that our
government's actions and its inaction encouraged the overthrow of
President Aristide's government.  At the very least, we were
unwilling to take any steps to prevent the overthrow of the
democratically-elected President of Haiti.

         Ambassador Noriega's responses, while disturbing, were hardly
surprising.  Ambassador Noriega has pursued a policy of undermining
President Aristide's government for many years.  Ambassador Noriega
has a long history of being aligned with the anti-Aristide business
owners in Haiti and undermining the democratically-elected
governments of Haiti.  Ambassador Noriega has been working closely
with the opposition in Haiti.  The Ambassador's statements throughout
the political crisis that led to President Aristide's removal have
been extremely one-sided.  The policies underlying them have been
equally one-sided.

         For several years, the United States blocked $145.9 million
in development loans to Haiti by the Inter-American Development Bank.
These loans were supposed to fund health, basic education, rural road
development, potable water and sanitation programs, but the United
States government prevented the money from ever going to Haiti until
the Congressional Black Caucus intervened last year.  Denying Haiti
access to basic development assistance undermined the ability of the
elected government of Haiti to serve the needs of its people and
further impoverished a poor population.

         The United States government also helped to organize and
train the political opposition in Haiti.  The International
Republican Institute (IRI) has been providing the opposition training
for political party development, communications strategies, public
opinion polling, web site development and public outreach.  IRI has a
blatantly partisan approach.  It trains opposition groups but flatly
refuses to work with Lavalas party members or other supporters of
President Aristide.  IRI's Haiti Program is funded by American
taxpayers through the U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID).  IRI is currently operating under a two-year grant from
USAID obtained in late 2002.

         While I was in Haiti, I met with leaders of the opposition,
including Andre Apaid, the leader of the Group of 184.
Unfortunately, Andre Apaid is not the democratic leader that the
Administration would have us believe.  Andre Apaid was a
Duvalier-supporter, who allegedly holds an American passport and
operates sweatshops in Haiti.  Andre Apaid refused to accept the
CARICOM proposal as the basis for negotiations to resolve the
political crisis.  He repeatedly rejected President Aristide's offer
to negotiate, and he refused to participate in any negotiations
whatsoever.

         The opposition has accused President Aristide of drug
trafficking and corruption.  Yet when asked for documentation, they
have not been able to produce anything more than rumors, innuendos
and allegations.  No one has ever identified any money allegedly
stolen by President Aristide.

         President Aristide has given the United States special
authority to assist with drug interdiction efforts by allowing the
United States to interdict drugs in Haitian waters.  The government
of Haiti does not have the resources needed to wage a tough and
consistent war against drugs, and the President of Haiti begged the
United States for assistance to eliminate drug trafficking.

         Many of the thugs that took over Haiti in the last few weeks
are former members of the Haitian military or members of the feared
death squad known as the Front for the Advancement and Progress of
Haiti (FRAPH).  FRAPH members were responsible for numerous human
rights violations during the three years following the coup d'etat in
1991.  Guy Philippe, who yesterday declared himself the new chief of
Haiti's military, is a former police chief and military officer, who
was accused of a previous coup attempt in 2002.  Louis Jodel
Chamblain, was a leader of FRAPH and was convicted in abstentia for
his role in a 1994 massacre.  He has also been accused of drug
trafficking.

         When President Aristide disbanded the Haitian military
following his return to Haiti in 1994, the former military officers
were never disarmed.  Many simply went over the border into the
Dominican Republic, taking their M-1 and M-14 weapons with them.

         I am especially concerned by the possibility that the U.S.
government may have armed and trained the former military officers
and death squad leaders who carried out last Sunday's coup.  In 2002,
the United States supplied M-16's to the Dominican Republic,
supposedly for use along the Haitian border, and stationed 900 U.S.
troops alongside Dominican guards at the border.  Many of the thugs
that have taken over Haiti are now armed with M-16's.  The U.S.
government must investigate how these thugs were armed and explain
how the M-16's got into their hands.

         The United States has also maintained a ban on weapons sales
to Haiti.  This has left the Haitian police force ill-equipped to
maintain law and order in the face of groups of armed thugs, former
military officers and death squad members.  The people of the city of
St. Marc placed boxes, rocks and cars in the roads to protect
themselves from the approaching paramilitary groups.  The
Administration should explain why this ban on weapons sales was
maintained against Haiti throughout President Aristide's term in
office.

         Once the thugs had completely surrounded Port-au-Prince,
President Aristide was forced to leave Haiti.  President Aristide
called me on Monday morning and told me that Luis G. Moreno, the
Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, came
to his home in the wee hours of the morning with other diplomats and
U.S. Marines.  He said he was told to leave, and leave now, or he and
many Haitians would be killed.  He said he was kidnaped.

         This certainly has the appearance of a coup.

         I and other Members will pursue Congressional investigations
in all of the pertinent committees to determine the truth about our
government's role in the departure of President Aristide.  The
American people deserve to know how and why this Administration
allowed a democratically-elected government to be overthrown by a
group of heavily-armed thugs.