22804: This Week in Haiti 22:20 07/28/2004 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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                           HAITI PROGRES
              "Le journal qui offre une alternative"

                      * THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

                        July 28 - August, 2004
                           Vol. 22, No. 20

HAITI'S FORMER SOLDIERS ARE STICKING TO THEIR GUNS

In a July 8 press communiqué, the High Council of the National
Police (CSPN) issued an ultimatum to ex-"rebels" who control many
towns and cities in northern Haiti.

Headed by de facto Prime Minister Gérard Latortue and his
Interior minister, ex-general Hérard Abraham, the CSPN said it
was "preoccupied by the overwhelming reports of actions by former
soldiers and members of the [Resistance] Front," the small loose
network of armed groups which did almost no fighting but provided
the fearsome televised images of a pseudo-rebellion which
justified U.S. Marines kidnapping and exiling President Jean-
Bertrand Aristide on Feb. 29. "These people have established
themselves as a force of order and have substituted themselves
for the National Police (PNH) in the [departments of the] North,
the Center and the Artibonite," the note continued. "These former
soldiers and members of the Front illegally occupy PNH facilities
and undertake patrols." As of Sept. 15, the police will, "with
the help of the MINUSTAH [United Nations Stabilization Mission in
Haiti], proceed with the disarmament of all people found with
illegal arms, and these individuals will be prosecuted for having
illegal arms as of that date," the CSPN concluded.

This is quite an about-face for Latortue, who last March hailed
the Front's gunmen as "freedom fighters." Indeed, there has been
close collaboration in recent months between the ex-soldiers, the
remnants of the Haitian police, and the foreign occupation
forces. In Hinche, on the Central Plateau, ex-soldiers have even
been given posts by occupation authorities. In the northern city
of Cap Haïtien, the Front has carried out the arrests, and even
the trials and executions, of Lavalas "suspects."

Just this week, Col. Rodrigo Carrasco, commander of Chilean U.N.
troops in northern Haiti, admitted that the former soldiers were
illegally wearing uniforms and bearing arms. But U.N. troops are
reluctant to make any moves against the former soldiers, even
though they are supposed to seize illegal weapons. "Our role is
to not use force unnecessarily," Carrasco told the AP, " and they
are doing nothing bad."

But now, the U.S. wants to defang the unsavory "rebel" force it
helped train and arm because it threatens to become a counter-
power to the technocrat-puppets Washington has installed.
Furthermore, the U.S. and France have more political affinity for
Haiti's comprador bourgeoisie than for the neo-Duvalierist semi-
feudal landed oligarchy, or Macoute sector, of which most Front
gunmen are the armed expression.

In the "interim" coup government, the Provisional Electoral
Council (CEP) and many other state agencies, the occupation
authorities have favored bourgeois representatives at the expense
of the Macoutes. Disarmament of the former soldiers is the next
logical step.

But the former soldiers are resisting. They say the government
has no right to disarm them since they put it in power.
Furthermore, they argue, the constitution was never amended to
dissolve the Army, although Aristide did so by decree in 1995.
They are more constitutional than the de facto government, they
claim.

Joseph Jean-Baptiste, the ex-soldiers' representative in Hinche,
called for a nationwide mobilization to resist the disarmament
campaign. "The Feb. 29th regime must not forget that it inherited
its power thanks to the armed struggle by a collection of sectors
to overthrow President Aristide," he said. "There is no question
of the demobilized soldiers laying down their arms to obey the
hallucinations of a regime which has nothing to do with the
Constitution. Now we are going to organize peaceful marches
across the country to respond to the government and to MINUSTAH."

His comrade-in-arms ex-Capt. Rémicinthe Ravix added: "If they
want to kill us in the framework of their disarmament campaign,
they will have to kill us in our barracks [as the police stations
were called before the Army's dissolution]. If they have
dissolved the Constitution, they must clearly let us know it."

Ravix also guaranteed that the former soldiers are ready to
provide "security" to the Haitian people, whom the ex-"rebels"
have been blackmailing and terrorizing for the past five months.

Winter Etienne, the former resistance front leader in Gonaïves,
was only slightly more nuanced. "They cannot ask the soldiers to
lay down their weapons because they are Constitutionally
recognized," he said. "There are other ways to encourage harmony
between the government and these soldiers."

Another spokesman for the Macoute sector, former colonel Himmler
Rébu, called the proposed disarmament "dangerous and unjust" when
speaking in Hinche on July 10. "The time has come for the
soldiers to join in and do what they know how to do, that is to
assure the security of the nation," he said making a veiled call
for the Army's restoration, which is what most former soldiers
demand along with 10 years of back pay. "I think that it is an
incorrect and dangerous attitude on the part of the government.
It's in its interest to reflect. Because when these gentlemen
were risking their lives to fight what wasn't right, the
government wasn't even there." In a July 15 interview on Radio
Solidarité, Rébu went on to call the disarmament campaign
"unrealistic" and a "provocation."

Another Macoute spokesman, politician Reynold Georges of the
right-wing party ALAH, severely criticized the bourgeoisie's
"civil society" and the political parties calling for
disarmament, belatedly invoking nationalism. "Instead of
negotiating with Aristide, these people preferred to offer the
nation to foreigners," he said. "So it's normal that today they
want to disarm the former soldiers. Nevertheless, we say that the
Haitian army still exists."

Bourgeois spokesmen, like the Democratic Convergence's Micha
Gaillard, have tried to downplay the inter-ruling-class struggle.
"For our part, at the level of civil society and political
society, we are going to go along with disarmament," he said.
"This is not a conflictual matter."

De facto Justice Minister Bernard Gousse also minimized the
problem, saying the occupation authorities would use a mixture of
persuasion, bribery and force. "We must convince them they are on
the wrong path, offer jobs to some, retirement pensions to
others, reintegrate them into the police ... or use force if we
have to," he said.

But the former soldiers are sticking to their guns, with the
support of neo-Duvalierist politicians. As talk of elections
grows, Washington, Paris and the bourgeoisie want to make sure
everything is "stabilized."  The CEP this week announced that it
will need at least $100 million to carry out elections in three
stages. The Macoutes are crying hell.

Osner Févry asked two political parties to quit the CEP because
it is not representative and "not credible." The Macoute sector
sees that it has been pushed out so that the bourgeoisie and
imperialism can control the election's outcome.

"The president and the prime minister with a bunch of foreigners
in the international community would like to sell us this
merchandise, saying it will be a good election," Févry said.
"When the computers and millions of dollars start pouring in,
when people start getting paid off, then you'll hear that there
are elections because the U.N. foreigners did this, foreigners
did that... But all of that is a mascarade."

Despite their squabbles, the ruling groups continue to
collaborate in cracking down on the Haitian people, who
overwhelmingly reject the Feb. 29th coup. For example, on July 9,
the police swept through the capital's hillside slum of Belair
and arrested ten young men, throwing them in jail without
charges.

"They have treated us very badly," one of the prisoners told
Haïti Progrès. "We are more than 30 people in a single cell, and
we have to buy a bucket of water for 25 gourdes ($0.63) to
bathe."

Despite such periodic roundups, pro-Lavalas neighborhoods
continue to mount resistance. Most recently, hundreds of pro-
Lavalas demonstrators marched through the streets of Port-au-
Prince on July 15, President Aristide's 51st birthday, to demand
his return. A conclave of Lavalas mayors, held clandestinely in
July near the northern town of Milot, has called for a massive
anti-coup demonstration in Cap Haïtien on August 14, the 213th
anniversary of the Bois Caïman voodoo ceremony that initiated the
Haitian revolution.

All articles copyrighted Haiti Progres, Inc. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haiti Progres.

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