21361: Arthur - introducing Ambassador Duly Brutus (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Charles Arthur writes:

Some readers will be interested to know that since 13 April 2004, Haiti's
representative to the Organisation of American States (i.e. its ambassador) has
been Duly Brutus. Who he, you may ask? Well, have a look at some snips from old
issues of Haiti Progres below, and then consider that the new Haitian
ambassador to the USA is none other than Raymond Alcide Joseph (the editor and
co-publisher of the far-right newspaper, Haiti Observateur) and that one name
apparently under consideration for Haiti's ambassador to the Dominican Republic is
one Louis-Jodel Chamblain!?!?!?!!!....

extract 1 : April 19, 1995 - Haiti Progres
Duly Brutus, the deputy secretary of PANPRA, is also emerging as an important
PR man for the pro-putschist sector in this period. Instrumental in
organizing Jimmy Carter's visit to Port-au-Prince this past February, where the former
president attempted to organize the right-wing parties into a coherent bloc,
Brutus clearly has some powerful friends in Washington. This week the Wall
Street Journal spelled out his, or more likely his Washington handlers',
complaints in an op-ed. Brutus repeated the charge that the election is being rigged by
Aristide. "Without a strong and independent judiciary, without a functioning
parliament that can give voice to the many disparate views and visions of a
nation's future, and without institutions that can guarantee fair and free
elections, there can be no democratic government," he said. The key words here are
giving "voice" to the "many disparate views," the very same line used by
Lawrence Pezzullo in a recent Washington Post article. (Pezzullo wrote, "a
participatory political culture in which all Haitians have a voice.") It is also the
same logic used by the US Embassy when pushing for "reconciliation" – code for
preserving the military-macoute sector and ensuring impunity for those who
murdered more than 5,000 people during the coup regime. ("We could go to
Washington and say the US system is not fair because there are no Nazis in the
Congress, or that it would be more democratic if the Ku Klux Klan was represented,"
responded one senior Haitian government official in February.)

In fact, Brutus and PANPRA are prominent coup criminals. They were part of
Marc Bazin's coalition, the ANDP "Alliance," in the Dec. 1990 presidential
elections and supported the Sept. 1991 coup by taking part in the government of
Marc Bazin when he headed the civilian facade for the coup's military leaders.
While this history was not mentioned by the Wall Street Journal, at a recent
Socialist International meeting in Port-au-Prince, Serge Gilles was booed because
of his support for the coup, although the International has judiciously
refrained from expelling PANPRA for its ignominious collaboration.

extract 2 : July 12, 1995 - Haiti Progres

Duly Brutus, a leader of the pro-coup social democratic party PANPRA which is
also calling for nullification of the vote, now stands accused of rigging a
fire at a polling station in his hometown of Limbe and then blaming it on the
PPL. According to the Associated Press, two election officials in Limbe are
alleged to have received a $1,400 bribe from Brutus to set the fire.