21094: Haiti INfo: Aristide furor widens (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Haiti Info <hainfo@starband.net>

Aristide furor widens
published: Sunday | April 4, 2004
By Myrtha Desulme, Contributor

MORE THAN a month after his abrupt departure from Haiti, former President
Jean-Berrand Aristide quietly rests in the serenity of Lydford Park,
faithful to the promise made to his Jamaican hosts, to keep a low profile.
The storm of international controversy raging around his deposition,
however, has reached mind boggling proportions in its scope and stridency.

Afrocentric asssociations throughout the Caribbean and the United States,
the American congressional Black Caucus, CARICOM, the Organisation of
African Unity, and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, have all taken the strong-armed
removal by the U.S. personally, as a direct affront to the sovereignty and
constitutionality of a black Caribbean state, which cannot be tolerated, in
view of the shockingly arrogant, dangerous and destabilising geopolitical
precedent set by Uncle Sam in collaboration with former colonial power,
France.

These groups are demanding either an investigation into the coup and
kidnapping, under the auspices of the United Nations and the OAS, or
immediate restoration of the democratically elected Government. While
Aristide supporters in Haiti demonstrate for his return, the Haitian
opposition which toppled him, is adamant in its position that he was nothing
more than a "dema-gogic and corrupt despot," etc., etc., from which Haiti
has been liberated. They have been busy flooding the Internet with vitriolic
open letters, aimed at the pro-Aristide groups, demanding that they remain
out of Haiti's internal affairs, while imputing to them the most nefarious
ulterior motives. They contend that Aristide's only positive legacy to Haiti
is the unprecedented cohesion which was achieved by all social sectors,
united in the struggle for his ouster.

Rebel chief Louis Jodel Chamblain has publicly declared that if Aristide
even thinks about returning to Haiti, that he will personally deal with the
ex-president's case. The South African opposition, Democratic Alliance, has
made the subject of Aristide a thorn in President Mbeki's side, ever since
he donated funds and lent his presence to the Haitian Bicentenary
celebrations, sabotaged by the nationwide disturbances, which Mbeki was the
sole world leader to attend.

In their latest political play, leading up to the April 14 elections, they
have requested that the National Prosecuting Authority investigate whether
the Government has contravened the National Conventional Arms Control Act,
by shipping weapons to Haiti, which turned up in Jamaica, using a South
African Airforce aircraft. The U.S. has threatened Jamaica over the return
of Aristide to the region, for fear that his proximity might spark renewed
violence in Haiti. Meanwhile, inside Jamaica, heated debate over the
acceptance of Aristide for a purported two-month stay, has taken place
between those who fear U.S. retaliation and those who applaud the courage
demonstrated by the PM and CARICOM, through their adoption of a principled
resolution in the face of U.S. pressure. It is truly regrettable that the
CARICOM leaders, led by PM Patterson, who sought to assist and integrate an
isolated sister nation, have encountered the hostility of the Haitian
opposition, which misinterpreted their support for Haiti, as support for
Aristide.

LATORTUE'S FAUX PAS

On Tuesday, March 30, Aristide's French lawyer, Gilbert Collard, lodged a
lawsuit in Paris claiming that U.S. and French officials forced him from
power. The suit, for 'threats, death threats, abduction and illegal
detention', claims that Aristide's resignation made "at night, while in the
hands of armed soldiers", was unconstitutional and therefore invalid. Ira
Kurzban, Aristide's American attorney plans to file a similar suit in the
U.S., against the American Government.The complicity of the Dominican
Republic, which hosted the rebels, while they were trained and armed by U.S.
Special Forces, has not been left out. CARICOM has reserved its decision, as
to its acceptance of the new interim Government in Haiti, and Chavez, in a
televised speech, has issued a call for all Latin American countries to
reject 'the impostor Government'.

BLUNDERS

Meanwhile, inside Haiti, just when it looked like Prime Minister Gerard
Latortue, given his purported reconciliation agenda, was well on his way to
winning a resounding victory in the contest for the head of state to commit
the greatest number of blunders in the shortest period of time. He appeared
on Saturday, March 20, on a platform with rebel leaders at a rally in his
hometown of Gonaives, flanked by none other than the OAS representative to
Haiti, David Lee, as well as other international officials. It suddenly
became clear, that his actions were no faux pas by an inexperienced
politician, but rather a calculated series of moves aiming to intimidate
Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas supporters, and keep them in check, in light of the
proximity of their leader, presently in Jamaica.

The New York-based National Coalition for Haitian Rights accused Latortue of
"fanning the flames of lawlessness". Coalition director, Jocelyn McCalla,
criticised Latortue for standing shoulder-to-shoulder with "thugs" including
rebel commander Jean-Pierre Baptiste, also known as Jean Tatoune, who
escaped from jail after being sentenced to two life sentences, for
involvement in the 1994 massacre of some 15 Aristide supporters.

"We strongly condemn the unholy alliance, which the interim government has
struck with the Gonaives rebels," declared McCalla. Amnesty international
and CARICOM have also denounced this association. Latortue is, however, not
likely to lose any sleep over these condemnations. The interim Government
has found the state coffers empty, and allegations of Aristide's US$800
million fortune, have now ballooned to a purported US$2.3 billion.

WITCH HUNT

On Friday, March 26, Justice Minister Bernard Gousse told the Associated
Press, that the interim Government had decided to bar 37 ex-members of
Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Government from leaving Haiti, as part of a
sweeping probe into corruption and other crimes. This was explained as 'an
insurance policy' to make sure they don't try to flee investigations. Among
those barred from leaving are former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and
ex-police chief Jocelyne Pierre. In an interview with Agence France Presse
from his hiding place inside Haiti, ex-Prime Minister Neptune sought to
alert the world that 'the witch hunt had started'.

Most of those grounded ran Government ministries, and were on the boards of
the central bank, the main public sector and utility companies, the main
port and the international airport. Some close allies of Aristide's are
involved, including Yvon Massac, who ran social security.

Justice Minister Gousse has tried to reassure, that the 37 persons barred
from travelling are deemed innocent until proven guilty, and explained that
PM Latortue is merely trying to "reckon with everything in the past" and
discuss the "repressive nature" of Aristide's Government.

Amanus Mayette, leader of a government organisation Bale Wouze, who is cited
along with ex-Prime Minister, Yvon Neptune, for the February 13 killing of
50 opposition members in the "Scierie massacre", was arraigned in a
helicopter.

Human Rights Watch warned last week, that fighters in the rebel-held north
were illegally detaining former Aristide officials and journalists who
supported him.

In his first public declaration since the departure of Aristide, M. Lavaud,
the leader of Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas declared that the Alexandre-Latortue
administration was persecuting "Lavalassiens", and requested assistance from
the press and the human rights organisations.

He called for the disarmament of Lavalas supporters, while asking them to
stand by for upcoming elections.

In June 2003, Jacques-Baudoin Kettant, allegedly one of the biggest drug
barons of Haiti, was unsuspectingly summoned to the presidential palace by
Aristide, where he was arrested by DEA agents. In the course of his Miami
trial, Kettant testified that he shipped 500 kilos of cocaine a month to the
U.S., and he also is reported to have made damaging allegations against
Aristide.

Earlier this month, Oriel Jean, chief of palace security for Aristide from
2001 to 2003, who worked for Haiti's government for a dozen years, was
arrested in Toronto and extradited to Florida. He appeared in court in
Miami, to face charges of conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the United
States, and was ordered held without bond.

'TRUMPED UP' EVIDENCE

Guidy Mamann, Jean's Toronto-based attorney, has said prosecutors are using
'trumped up' evidence to pressure Jean for information about Aristide.
According to court documents, the witnesses, none of whom were named, told
authorities that Jean made demands which were illegal and questionable.

On October 30, 1993, a day before Aristide's scheduled return to Haiti,
after his three years of exile, which followed the 1991 military coup,
Aristide addressed a packed session of the United Nations General Assembly.

In a dramatic move, he told the diplomats, that the military government of
Haiti had to yield the power, which would end Haiti's role in the drug
trade, financed by Colombia's Cali cartel. He revealed that, Haiti was the
transit point for nearly 50 tons of cocaine, worth more than a billion
dollars, providing Haiti's military rulers with $200 million in profits.

John Kerry, who headed a Senate subcommittee, investigating drugs and
international terrorism, had developed detailed information on drug
trafficking by Haiti's military rulers, which led to the indictment in 1988,
of Lt. Col. Jean-Claude Paul. The indictment came just a month before
December 20, when thousands of U.S. troops went crashing into Panama, and
arrested Manuel Noriega who, like Paul, was also under indictment for drug
trafficking in Florida. In November 1989, Col. Paul was found dead after he
consumed a traditional Haitian good will gift, a bowl of pumpkin soup.

After Panama, the cocaine cartels began to seek transit points for the
booming cocaine industry. A natural candidate was Haiti, lying just south of
the Bahamas, in the Windward passage, the most direct route from the
Colombian coast to Florida.

Evidence points to the fact that several Caribbean and Latin-American
states, use the drug trade to shore up their sagging balance-of-payments,
and to break the oppressive economic hegemony of the U.S. in the hemisphere.
The State Department, through the DEA and the CIA, has extensive files on
these states, which they do not necessarily use, but keep as a trump card up
their sleeve, until such time, when it becomes politically expedient, as
justification for toppling a government.