22369: Marina: Roger "Rudolph" Milceus responds to Sunday Independent article (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Marina <marinawus@yahoo.com>

Another outstanding answer of Roger "Rudolph" Milceus
to a South African journalist, concerning an article
published on June 13, 2004 in the "Sunday
Independent", read on:
-------------------------------------

Sent: Sunday, June 13, 2004 11:46 PM
Subject: Your Interview with Aristide


Dear Ms. Isaacson,

It is with great interest, but also shock and
disbelief, that I read your interview with Mr.
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (please note the correct first
name) in the June 13 edition of the Sunday
Independent.

As a Haitian citizen and a former supporter of
Lavalas, Aristide's political party, it pains me to
see that a man who has betrayed the aspirations of the
vast majority of Haitians - and especially the poor -
could obtain such a platform to continue fooling the
South African people, and indeed the world. When we
voted for Mr. Aristide, as the surprise candidate for
the FNCD party on December 16, 1990, we voted for the
man whom we thought would make a clean break from a
sordid past of 186 years of political, social and
economic misery. We were fed up with dictatorship,
corruption, human rights abuses, and other ills that
afflicted our beloved country. We were firmly
convinced that the FNCD's platform of "Justice,
Transparency, Participation" would finally deliver
results for the poor, who represent the vast majority
of the population. Alas, that was not meant to be, and
many of us rue the day when we placed our trust in
this neo-Duvalier dictator who only refined and
amplified  the tyrannical practices of François
Duvalier aka Papa Doc, so well documented throughout
history.

It is therefore not surprising that Aristide, knowing
that few in SA are aware of modern Haitian history,
engages in historic revisionism and outright lies that
will not be contested by your readership. It is
unfortunate that you did not see fit to challenge some
of his most egregious assertions; all of them are
actually, but in certain cases, he really surpassed
himself. So allow me to provide another assessment of
Mr. Aristide's presidency:

Political Developments
======================

Mr. Aristide's presidencies were marked by a
progressive slide towards totalitarianism. While
paying lip service to more participation by the
citizenry, Mr. Aristide proceeded to increase his grip
on power through constant violations of the
constitution:

+ Political parties were constrained in their ability
to organize meetings and marches against the policies
of the government. While I have nothing but contempt
for many of these politicians, I believe that they
have the right to exercise their political rights,
which were thwarted at almost every turn by Aristide's
police and his paramilitary groups, the chimeres. More
on that later.

+ Trade unions and many NGOs were relentlessly
harassed by the Aristide administration, which
actually sided with big business against the interests
of farm workers in several cases: the free-trade zone
in Ouanaminthe and the orange peel plantations in the
North (which sell to such outfits as Cointreau of
France.) Workers' rights were systematically trampled,
as Batay Ouvriye (a local union) and the Haiti Support
Group reported time and again.

+ Freedom of the press took a huge hit under the
Aristide presidency. Contrary to his assertion in your
article, his most recent presidency was marked by
systematic harassment of journalists and even by the
ignoble assassination of one radio journalist, Brignol
Lindor, in the town of Petit-Goave. You, of all
people, should be sensitive to this type of violation
as it affects your colleagues in Haiti. There is a
reason why Aristide was identified by the Reporters
without Borders association as a Predator of the Press
for two years running. See:
http://www.rsf..org/article.php3?id_article=3754
http://www.cpj.org/attacks01/americas01/haiti.html.

+ He politicized the Haitian National Police, to such
a point that the 14th class that emerged from the
police academy was made up almost exclusively of thugs
and delinquents that were loyal to him only. Some of
them received multiple promotions in record time in
order to occupy key positions that he wanted to
control.

What shocked many of us, veterans of the anti-Duvalier
and pro-democracy movements, was the resurrection by
Aristide of a "Tontons Macoutes"-like structure, the
"chimeres", with a modern and more violent twist.
Aristide decided to develop a paramilitary
organization beholden only to him, which would serve
as his shock troops for multiple purposes: 1) to cower
the citizenry into submission and fear, 2) to maintain
"discipline" in the slums so that these areas would
always vote for him and support him, 3) to engage in
illicit activities that would allow Aristide to earn
extra income for political purposes. It is no secret,
and certainly no surprise, that these organizations
doubled as drug trafficking rings, often in cahoots
with high-ranking members of the Haitian National
Police. The names of these leaders are now part of our
history: Paul Raymond, René Civil, Amiot Metayer
(whose assassination by Odonel Paul sparked the
Gonaives revolt which led to the resignation of
Aristide), and so many others.

Economic Disaster
=================

Forgotten in the discussions regarding Aristide's true
record is Aristide's dismal economic performance which
contributed to the greatest slide into misery of the
Haitian population since such statistics have been
measured. Despite all of his claims, Aristide had no
vision and no desire to lift the masses from their
abject poverty. In fact, his real ambition as he
confided to some people in his entourage was to become
the richest and most powerful Haitian alive. So he
neglected to develop meaningful economic policies. The
results?

+ For three years running, the Executive failed to
implement a budget matching the needs of the country,
especially in the areas of education, health care and
infrastructure.

+ GDP growth was negative throughout Aristide's
presidency.

+ Corruption became even more rampant than before,
with embezzlements and misappropriations of funds
becoming the norm. Recent investigations into shady
contracts at the state-owned electricity and
telecommunication companies have revealed a pattern of
shell companies obtaining no-bid, legal but unethical
contracts on the strength of recommendations coming
straight from Aristide himself. These companies are
headed by businessmen close to Aristide, namely people
like Jean-Marie Vorbe, Fred Beliard, Lesly Lavelanet
(brother-in-law of his wife), etc.

+ Contrary to his assertion that he built 104 schools,
Aristide in fact was Mr. anti-Education. He personally
rejected the modernization of our educational
curriculum and worked to make sure that the Ministry
of Education would not function properly. He also
politicized the Ministry by forcing the Director of
National Exams to hire as testers and examiners many
of his militant supporters who had no qualifications
to grade national exams. This led to the strike of
civil servants within the Ministry, a strike which was
repressed by the police. In fact, the Education hero
in this case is Mr. Preval (Aristide's hand-picked
successor from 1996 to 2001) who, in spite of efforts
by Aristide to sabotage his achievements, built more
schools than any other President in our history. Mr.
Aristide is claiming the achievement of another
president in this case.

+ Aristide personally contracted for his security with
an American private security company, the Steele
Foundation, to the tune of $1.5 million per year.
Notwithstanding the fact that it was a clear lack of
respect for the Haitian National Police unit that was
supposed to provide his security, this incredible
contract was paid by Haitian taxpayers out of a meager
budget which shortchanged many essential social
services. It is estimated that the amount paid to the
Steele Foundation could have provided jobs for 1,500
additional teachers per year or covered the treatment
of an additional 1,400 HIV-positive patients per year.

+ Instead of beefing its ministry of Foreign Affairs
staff, Haiti paid $7 million to foreign lobbyists
(Americans for the most part, many with ties to the
Congressional Black Caucus.) To put it into
perspective, the Dominican Republic, our neighbor and
a much-wealthier country, spent only $1.2 million over
the same period, with much more impressive results to
boot. So why all this spending on expensive lobbyists?
Was that the best use of Haitian taxpayers' monies?
See:
http://www.haitipolicy.org/content/1945.htm
http://www.fletcherledger.com/2004/viewpoints/031504viewpoints/022304viewpoints_Haiti.htm

+ Last but not least, the Aristide government
encouraged the now-infamous Ponzi scheme that robbed
Haitians out of 600 million gourdes (about US$30
million at the time) and wiped out the savings of the
working poor and the lower middle class, the two
branches of our society that had the most to lose and
the least protection in our society. This scheme,
actively promoted by Aristide himself in 2001 in a bid
to undermine the influence of the formal banking
sector, collapsed dramatically by the end of 2002 with
no effort by the financial authorities, the National
Cooperative Council, or the Executive to prevent the
collapse. Government officials accepted huge bribes
from the cooperatives promoters to grant them safe
passage to other countries so that they would not be
prosecuted and could abscond with the millions they
stole. We don't understand to this day Why the
Aristide government couldn't promote a policy of
inclusion of the less fortunate in the established
banking sector instead, which is one of the better
regulated and supervised industries in Haiti, or
inclusion in the micro finance institutions which have
developed an excellent track record in Haiti, is a
mystery to us. Aristide promised to reimburse
defrauded investors - which sent the wrong signal by
having the government bailout the promoters - and then
RENEGED on the promise. Instead, the government
arrested and jailed Rosemond Jean, the leader of a
movement seeking justice for the cooperative members,
on trumped-up charges of terrorism and illegal weapons
possession.

For more details, see
http://www.haitiprogres.com/2002/sm020724/eng07-24.html.
Coming from a newspaper that supports Aristide, this
is quite telling.

Drug Trafficking
================

While the problem of drug trafficking started in
earnest in the early 1990's under the rule of the
military dictators (1991-1994) with such notorious
criminals as colonels Jean-Claude Paul and Michel
François, the development of a narco-state really
emerged under Aristide's rule. It became so blatant,
with a number of Colombian drug dealers living the
life in Haiti and the incredible rags-to-riches
stories of a number of Aristide cronies, that one must
wonder Aristide merely tolerated the drug trade or
whether he was deeply involved in it. At the end of
the day, the outcome lies in the hands of a grand jury
empanelled in Miami, Florida, which is looking into
the issue in Haiti. As of this writing, the United
States Drug Enforcement Agency has in custody more
than a dozen individuals who were deeply implicated in
the drug trade in Haiti. Noteworthy are:
+ Oriel Jean - personal chief of security for Aristide
who was extradited from Canada
+ Jean Nesly Lucien - former chief of the Haitian
National Police under Aristide
+ Evintz Brilliant - Head of the drug enforcement team
of the Haitian National Police under Aristide
+ Rudy Therassan - former head of investigation of the
Haitian National Police under Aristide
+ Hermione Leonard - former head of the West
Department precinct under Aristide
+ Senator Fourel Celestin - who surrendered to US
authorities directly in Haiti for fear of being
assassinated by drug-dealing colleagues; Senator
Celestin, a former army physician, was Mr. Aristide's
close advisor from the time he returned in 1994 and
managed the National Place from October 1994 until
February 1996.
+ Jacques Beaudouin Ketant - Haitian drug kingpin who
was on the FBI's 10 most wanted list; Ketant financed
many of Aristide's political campaign activities and
paid "royalties" to most of the high-ranking staff of
the Haitian National Police
+ Elie Aubert aka ED1 - another drug kingpin who came
from nowhere to become a construction magnate; he
financed the printing of all of Aristide's posters and
banners for his 2000 presidential campaign.

With this in mind, you understand why it is difficult
to stomach the many lies proffered by Aristide in your
interview. You seem to accept his statements at face
value, but I would submit that journalistic ethics
would require you to investigate some of his claims.
For the record, you may visit the following sites for
additional information on the Aristide years:

+ Report published on February 4, 2003, by Merrill
Smith, coordinator of the US Committee on Refugees,
entitled "DEMOCRACY UNRAVELING - Political Violence in
Haiti 2002"  This report can be found in Adobe Acrobat
(PDF) format at the following address:

http://www.refugees.org/downloads/haiti_0203.pdf

+ Read the following communiqué from the National
Coalition on Haitian Rights, a well-respected Haitian
human rights organization:

http://www.nchr.org/hrp/safety_communique.htm

+ Just one tiny example of the gratuitous brutality of
Aristide's chimeres. This event marked the beginning
of the end for Aristide as his minions violated one of
the few institutions that no leader in Haitian history
(not even Duvalier nor the military) had ever touched:
the state university.

http://www.kwabs.com/hotnews27.html.

When you take all of the above into account, you
understand why the notion that Aristide presided over
a democracy rings hollow. Democracy is not just about
elections; Hitler was also democratically elected,
after all. It is about the rule of law, the
establishment of solid institutions, freedom of
_expression and of the press, respect of human rights
and civil liberties, none of which we really enjoyed
under Aristide. It is also said that he was
democratically elected, but the November 26, 2000
elections were so rife with abnormalities, not to
mention the very low turnout at the polls, that the
"democratic" claim is questionable.

Finally, I believe that the debate over President
Aristide's presence in South Africa is a red herring.
President Mbeki - like CARICOM - has demonstrated to
Haitians his allegiance to a man over a nation
suffering under tyranny, and that is his prerogative.
With the millions of dollars Aristide and his wife are
controlling overseas, it is amazing that the South
African government would use taxpayers' money to pay
for his upkeep. Better you than us.

I hope that Aristide will be back in Haiti very soon
... to be tried for his crimes against the Haitian
people, embezzlement and corruption, and maybe drug
trafficking charges. The investigations are
continuing, and the revelations pouring in. It is only
a matter of time before the indictments start rolling
in.

Yours truly,

Roger "Rudolph" Milceus
mailto:rl75218@laposte.net


----------------------------------

For those of you who have not read Ms. Isaacson
article, click on the link below:

Big guns stoke war to prove blacks can't rule
Jean-Baptiste Aristide says in an interview that the
UN, US and France are among the villains who impugn
his name.
(Click here for the full story )

Visit http://www.sundayindependent..co.za for the more
great online news and views.







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