21990: radtimes: Coup d'Etat - This Time in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

Coup d'Etat - This Time in Haiti

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/052104D.shtml

   By Marjorie Cohn
   t r u t h o u t | Perspective
   Thursday 20 May 2004

   In 1953, the CIA overthrew Iran's democratically elected government. It
took 47 years to report that coup d'etat to the American public.
Twenty-seven years after the CIA engineered the coup that ousted Chile's
democratically elected president, the agency's report finally saw the light
of day. How long will it take for the United States government to admit its
role in forcibly removing the Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
whose people had elected him with 80% of the vote?

   Colin Powell, now denying Bob Woodward's explosive report about the
Iraqi debacle, also denies the U.S. did anything untoward when the Marines
put the Aristides on a plane to the Central African Republic on February
29. Yet the Bush Administration adamantly opposes an independent
investigation of the Aristides' departure and the quick installment of a de
facto government in Haiti.

   If it has nothing to hide, why did the U.S. State Department threaten
the Caribbean Countries (CARICOM), who called for the United Nations to
investigate the situation in Haiti? Indeed, the Bush Administration has
made a habit of resisting independent investigations - of the Cheney energy
task force, the 911 Commission, and the lead-up to the Iraq war.

   The irony of George W. Bush's claim that he invaded Iraq to bring
democracy to the Iraqi people was not lost on President Aristide and his
wife, whom I visited in Jamaica last month. President Aristide is grieving
not just for himself, but also for the millions of Haitians, many of whom
are in hiding from the notorious criminals who are the power behind Haiti's
de facto government.

   President Aristide told us the coup was not just about 8 million people
and democracy in Haiti. It is also, he said, about the right of the African
people to reparations for the bitter legacy of slavery in Haiti. When
threatened with a French invasion and the restoration of slavery in 1825,
the Haitian government agreed to pay France 150 million francs in return
for recognition as a sovereign state. France insisted upon restitution for
its loss of slave "property."

   That debt has crippled Haiti ever since. It took 100 years to repay, and
in the process, Haiti's education, healthcare system, and infrastructure
were eviscerated. President Aristide incurred France's wrath by demanding
the French pay restitution to Haiti, $21 billion in today's currency, for
the unjust debt. France joined the United States in engineering the removal
of President Aristide from Haiti.

   What did President Aristide do to offend the United States enough to
remove him from power? During his first term, President Aristide had
resisted privatization. The U.S. feared this threat to globalization would
spread to other parts of the Caribbean and Latin America - the old domino
theory. Since President Aristide's election in 2000, the U.S. tried to
sabotage Haiti's fledgling democracy by imposing a crippling economic aid
embargo, which prevented $550 million in promised international aid from
reaching Haiti.

   The coup in Haiti was executed through surrogates in the Dominican
Republic, as well as members of the dissolved Haitian army and former
paramilitary organizations. U.S. diplomats told the Aristides they would be
killed if President Aristide did not sign a resignation letter. Under
extreme duress, he signed a letter, which the State Department-hired
interpreter would not characterize as a resignation. The Aristides were
held incommunicado for 20 hours as they were flown to the Central African
Republic. The U.S. had refused to send troops to protect the Aristide
government. Yet one hour after he left Haiti, the U.S. ordered troops to Haiti.

   The National Lawyers Guild delegations to Haiti verified brutal and
indiscriminate repression against the civilian population since the coup.
It is incumbent upon the United Nations to immediately address this
emergency. The forcible removal of the Aristides from Haiti violates the
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against
Internationally Protected Persons, a treaty ratified by the U.S.

   Since March 15, the Aristides have been in Jamaica, where they were
granted temporary asylum. The United States has exerted intense pressure on
Jamaica and the other CARICOM countries to recognize the de facto
government in Haiti. As a result, the Aristides must leave Jamaica and
travel to South Africa, which has granted them asylum until the situation
in Haiti stabilizes and they can return. Spokesman Joel Netshitenzhe said
the South African government supports the call for an investigation into
President Aristide's removal from Haiti and seeks to build an international
consensus against unilateral regime changes.

   As we took leave of the Aristides in Jamaica, President Aristide quoted
the slave general Toussaint l'Ouverture, who led the successful rebellion
that ousted the French from Haiti in 1804: "In overthrowing me, you have
cut down in San Domingo [Haiti] only the trunk of the tree of black
liberty. It will spring up again by the roots for they are numerous and
deep." The Haitian people, who have endured insufferable hardships at the
hands of colonial powers, hold the roots of liberty within themselves.

   -------

   Marjorie Cohn, a contributing editor to t r u tr h o u t, is a professor
at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, executive vice president of the National
Lawyers Guild, and the U.S. representative to the executive committee of
the American Association of Jurists.

.