21892: Simidor Re: 21855: Vilaire: Re: 21815: Simidor on Arrest of So Ann (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Daniel Simidor <karioka9@mail.arczip.com>


Lookee here, Vilaire.  I was against US intervention in 1994 and I’m against it today.  I’m opposed to the US war against Iraq, and I’m against Iran or Syria invading the US under the pretext of looking for American WMDs.  If you’re looking for somebody to blame for GI misbehavior in Haiti, I suggest you ask the people who invited them in the first place -- Aristide first and foremost.

I’m liberal to a degree, I value civil liberties and the constitution as much as the guy next door.  But I also believe in that old time religion, especially when those trampled on other people’s rights come up for a taste of their own medicine.  (On second thought, “a taste of their own medicine” would be a “zero tolerance” bullet in the neck...)

Now since my “can't-do-no-wrong, Mr. Gousse” is not likely to be lurking on this list, I will attempt to answer some of the questions Vilaire raises about dame Auguste’s arrest.


>-Why was it carried out by U.S marines who, surprise, surprise, did so with
>disproportionate force?

Disproportionate force would be to drop a 10,000 pounds bomb on a Lavalas lean-to, or to shoot the family dog with a missile.  As it were, no one got hurt, except that poor dog of course.  Where are those pesky animal rights people when you really need them?

>-Why did they arrest everyone at the house, including a minor as young as 5-6
>years old?

I emphatically share Vilaire’s sense of outrage: the poor child should have been left alone in the house, with the decapitated dog.


>-Why did the Marines put hoods over their heads?

Because they belong to a secret klavern in Uncle Sam’s army?  Or because they want to escape retaliation from alleged Lavalas snipers?

>-For what was So Ann arrested? There's a major discrepancy here: U.S Marines
>say they had to arrest her because she constituted a danger to the forces of
>occupation whereas you claim "The public outcry in P.au.P is that she was the
>intermediate between Aristide and various gangs in Belair, Delmas and Cité
>Soleil." Well, what's the deally yo?

Because the Marines are superstitious?  Because they were bored?  Because they heard from a reliable source that Sò Ann was stocking Haitian WMDs, aka rigwaz?  Or because of a problem in translation?  On the other hand, from the perspective of Haitian justice, was there enough probable cause for her arrest as someone who conspire to deprive her fellow Haitians of their right to protest?  You decide.

Vilaire continues as sternly as before:

>Many of us protested and cried foul when Lavalas jettisoned those "niceties"
>and we need to do so now with equal fervor.

The holier-than-thou pro-Aristide faction was quite silent on that chapter until recently.  Kathleen Burke made that point quite succinctly in post #21859.

>There's nothing silly about
>demanding those in positions of power to respect the Constitution -- whether under
>Lavalas, Latortue-Alexandre or an occupation.

What is silly is for people who aided and abetted Aristide in setting up his hegemonic agenda to be lecturing Aristide’s most recent victims about human rights.  The recent Let Haiti Live "report" is an abomination in that genre.

>Well, there's the problem: a
>military occupation. It would indeed be silly to expect a force of occupation,
>whose very status is illegal and a violation of the country's Constitution, to be
>bothered with such niceties.

US intervention was mandated by the UN Security Council.  In that sense it is not “illegal.”  Again, would Vilaire and the Lavalas supporters denounce the US presence with such fervor if Bush had sent in the Marines before Feb. 29 to bail Aristide out?  Or would they be hard at work convincing the world that this intervention, much like in 1994, is not really an intervention?

“Lafyèv la pa nan dra, se nan san li ye”
“The fever is in the blood, not in the sheets” (Haitian proverb)

Daniel Simidor