22930: Esser: Were Canadians involved in a massacre in Haiti? (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. E s s e r <torx@joimail.com>

CMAQ
http://www.cmaq.net/fr/node.php?id=17805

Were Canadians involved in a massacre in Haiti?
Anthony Fenton,
August 9, 2004

by Anthony Fenton

On July 29th, the Commander of the Canadian Forces contingent in
Haiti, Lieutenant Colonel Jim Davis, acknowledged to a well-attended
media teleconference call that at least 1,000 people had been killed
in Port-au-Prince since February 29 th . He also acknowledged that
occupying forces took part in a massacre of between 40 to 60 Lavalas
civilians in the neighbourhood of Belair on March 12th.

Neither of these events merited mention in subsequent news reports.
On the contrary, the Toronto Star headline read “Haiti mission called
success: shops open, children smiling.” This is consistent with other
illusions presented to the Canadian public to characterize the
performance of Canadian Forces in Haiti. On July 29, new Minister of
Defence Bill Graham said, ominously, “Our mission in Haiti was
instrumental in bringing peace and stability to this troubled
country.”

The reality of the March 12th massacre Davis described is much
different from that which was reported at the time. Davis said “I'm
not denying that these things have taken place. The US battalion the
five previous evenings had taken ambush attacks. . . . You need to
appreciate what the [US] battalion was attempting to do, what it came
here to do. . . . It was chaotic on a night to night basis. . . .
Within a matter of days we had clamped down on things.”

The mainstream reports about the evening of March 12th only mentioned
a mere “two people slain by American troops” (Truro Daily News, March
13, 2004). According to a US Marine, “The two men killed late Friday
during a patrol had previously fired on the soldiers, although their
weapons were never discovered.” According to witnesses, however, “the
dead were bystanders,” and “those killed were not armed or militant.”
The brother of one of the deceased revealed, “He was playing
basketball when the Americans and French began firing.” Later, it was
reported in the National Post that “residents said as many as 11
people were killed in the cross-fire.”

Many people including eyewitnesses told the Quixote Center Emergency
Observation delegation to Haiti, March 23 to April 2nd, that as many
as 70 people were slain on March 12 during the events that were
described to the delegation as the “Belair Massacre.” Even
anti-Aristide people, such as the PAPDA's Camille Chalmers, told the
delegation to pay particular attention to human rights abuses by the
occupying forces. Chalmers spoke of “some 60 people” being killed on
March 12th in Belair.

While US Marines are “officially” implicated in the deaths of two
people it is unclear as to who carried out the rest of the killings.
The French were cited in official follow-up reports and eyewitnesses
repeatedly asserted that "international forces" were present on March
12th, with laser-guided machine-guns blazing, night-goggles, and
APCs. Since Colonel Davis is so familiar with the events of March
12th, the question of whether or not Canadian troops were involved in
the massacre merits serious scrutiny.

A small contingent of Canadian troops had arrived earlier that
evening and it is possible that they could have taken part in the
invasion. What requires further scrutiny, however, is the whereabouts
of Joint Task Force Two [JTF2] soldiers on this evening, as they were
indeed in Haiti on March 12th.

Despite Defence department denials regarding their presence in Haiti,
Canada's secret commandoes were photographed on March 3 rd in that
country, and they were “armed to the teeth,” equipped with
lightweight laser-guided machine guns and plenty of ammunition. This
revelation clarified that it was JTF2 forces that were sent down to
“secure the embassy” on February 25th, four days before the coup. It
might also account for the RDI report on the night of Aristide's
overthrow, that Canadian troops were present at the airport when
Aristide was flown to the Central African Republic. The RDI report
was quickly retracted and the presence of Canadian forces during
Aristide's overthrow were denied and have never since been
investigated. The Ottawa Citizen's David Pugliese confirmed that the
JTF2 was in Haiti until at least March 18th, and has written
extensively about how JTF2 activities are always shrouded in secrecy.

What is clear about the March 12 massacre is that the rest of the
people killed were piled into “ambulances that the soldiers had
brought with them” and carted away (another fact not denied by
Davis). The consensus amongst Haitian eyewitnesses who have come
forward is that this event would never have been reported had
residents of Belair been unable to secretly remove the two bodies
from the murder spree crime scene.

When reporters were alerted as to the events the next morning, all
but two of the bodies had vanished and the official word was that
only two people were killed.

This account doesn't even wash with that of Pierre Esperrance, head
of the US and Haitian elite-backed human rights group, the National
Coalition for Haitian Rights [NCHR]. Esperrance admitted during a
recent interview that his office had confirmed at least four of the
deaths in Belair on March 12th. His office refused to investigate the
massacre until over a month after it took place, admitting that the
people in Belair did not even trust the NCHR to do so.

Not coincidentally, the Belair Massacre also took place in the
context of an announced US military intention to “actively disarm”
Lavalas militants, according to US General Hill's declaration on
March 11th.

The questions posed to Davis were also in the context of the
Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti human rights report,
released on July 19th. Many gruesome photos and extensive details
reveal clearly the systematic persecution of Aristide and Lavalas
supporters since the February 29th coup. Covering only the Port au
Prince and Central Plateau areas, the IJDH report accounts for over
one thousand deaths. Relative to the overall estimated body count of
over 3000, the IJDH report only accounts for a “tiny fraction of the
violations committed during the period covered.”

Davis called into question the credibility and validity of the report
which he admits to having seen “parts of,” claiming, “photographs can
be produced, doctored.” Director of the IJDH, the well-respected
human and civil rights attorney Brian Concannon, said in response:
“If the Canadian Colonel was right in that all of these stories were
fake, that in fact all those disappeared people are alive and well,
that all the decapitated bodies are really faked photographs, that
would make my day, because that would be a lot fewer people who are
suffering from persecution. But the reality is that very good
information shows that there is this widespread persecution.”

There are many other questions outstanding as to Canada's role in the
planning and execution of the illegal regime change of a popular and
democratically-elected leader (and over 7,000 other elected
officials), and the subsequent politicide that is being carried out
to silence the voices of the Haitian masses while paving the way for
so-called “free and fair elections.” The general silence toward these
realities across Canada's political spectrum must be broken, these
realities must be exposed publicly, and a full inquiry into these
horrific matters must take place.

Also see Pugliese's “Canada's Secret Commandoes:
The Unauthorized Story of Joint Task Force Two.”

Anthony Fenton is an independent researcher, journalist, and activist
residing in Vancouver. He can be reached at apfenton@ualberta.ca.