23689: (pub) Esser: Tearing up the UN Charter - The UN's erosion continues in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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

ZNet Haiti Watch
http://www.zmag.org/lam/haitiwatch.cfm

Tearing up the UN Charter
The UN's erosion continues in Haiti
 
Flashpoints Radio Interview
http://flashpoints.net/

October 20, 2004
 
Dennis Bernstein interviews
Kevin Pina and Brian Concannon


Bernstein: UN peacekeepers are now collaborating with the Haitian
police and death squads, in a bloody purge of thousands of
pro-democracy supporters of President Jean Bertrand Aristide. A
spokesperson for the puppet government of Gerard Latortue stated
after a raid on the Bel Air neighbourhood, "when we stormed the slum
the bandits apparently had time to transport the weapons in[to]
another slum." In other words, they didn't find anything. The
characterization of pre-democracy activists as "bandits" and
"terrorists" has been a mainstay of the U.S.- installed government
after Aristide was overthrown by the U.S. [,Canada, and France]. The
presence of battalions of former soldiers, including convicted death
squad activists in the country only add to the bloody nature of the
ongoing purge of the pro-democracy movement. This is a serious
situation.

In a brazen public statement, a former leader of Haiti's military
death squads gave Haitian authorities an ultimatum: to put Aristide
supporters away, or, as he stated, "otherwise we'll operate our own
operations to render them harmless." This is an ongoing bloodbath;
the whole world is not watching. Joining us to talk about the
breaking situation in Haiti is Kevin Pina; he's Flashpoints special
correspondent in Port au Prince; and [to] Brian Concannon; he is an
international human rights attorney, has worked with the
international lawyers office in Port au Prince, worked with the
victims of death squads from prior coups. I want to thank both of you
for joining us on Flashpoints. It is a very serious situation; we've
got UN peacekeepers collaborating with so-called Haitian police? This
is rather extraordinary. Kevin, tell us as much as you can about the
ongoing roundups, what's been taking place in the last 72 hours,
who's been arrested, who's under attack, who's been killed, who's in
hiding. Is Father Jean-Juste still alive?

Pina: Well, the situation worsens. Today I've received several
frantic phone calls, today alone, from people claiming, not claiming,
[that] these guys with black hoods who claim to be the Haitian
National Police, forced their way into their homes, broke things in
their homes, searching for God knows what. This happened to many,
several people today alone. It seems as if the Haitian police, backed
up by the UN peacekeepers, are arbitrarily entering homes, continuing
to arbitrarily arrest individuals, who they consider to be associated
with the Lavalas political party. In other ominous developments, I
received several reports today from Cap Haitien, the second-largest
city in Haiti, that members of the former military are actually
openly patrolling with Chilean forces assigned to the United Nations.
They are openly patrolling now with United Nations forces in the
second largest city in Haiti.

Father Jean-Juste still remains incarcerated; he was visited again
today by another priest friend of mine; his spirits are high, the
government has yet to formally accuse him or formally bring a charge
against him. He's not alone though, there are many other people who
have been arbitrarily arrested, who are being incarcerated now
without trial, without seeing a judge. The situation continues to
worsen every day, and it seems as though they are looking to blame
anybody but themselves for what happened on September 30th, when the
Haitian police fired on unarmed demonstrators, which sparked this
latest round of violence.

The UN commander, the Brazilian General Heleno, has accused John
Kerry - that's how desperate they are to blame somebody else - for
the violence saying that in a March 7th New York Times interview that
he had encouraged supporters of Aristide, saying that he would have
sent troops to protect him, and that Aristide supporters took that as
a green light that if he's elected President then Aristide will be
returned. Then you have the Gerard Latortue government attacking the
government of South Africa, claiming that they're harbouring Aristide
while he is organizing and orchestrating, and is behind the violence
that broke out here in Haiti. Everyone, the Latortue government and
the United Nations, are trying to blame everyone else, except look at
their own responsibility for what has occurred since the police were
allowed to fire on unarmed demonstrators September 30th.

Bernstein: What have we heard from the traditional human rights
groups, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, United Nations
human rights investigators? I would imagine that the United Nations
would be taking a special interest here since we have the Brazilian
General who is in charge of the UN peacekeeping troops, first of all,
coming out against Kerry, throwing, as you say, Kerry into the mix,
[and second of all,] collaborating on these sweeps through these
neighbourhoods. It has really been equated now, it's a clear equation
that if you are a supporter, if you are a part of the pro-democracy
movement, of the beautiful Lavalas pro-democracy movement of
President Jean Bertand Aristide, you are now considered a terrorist.
I'm wondering, is anybody interested in the slaughter? I haven't
heard it posed anywhere.

Pina: Well, Amnesty International let out a report today about the
arrest of Father Jean-Juste. They are actually sending a delegation,
which will arrive next Tuesday and will be here through November
14th. God knows why they haven't been speaking out louder against the
arbitrary arrests, against arrests that obviously are in violation of
the Haitian constitution. Today again the Haitian police, backed up
by the United Nations, attempted to enter the slum of Bel Air and
were repelled once again by the residents. This just continues and
gets worse. We expect that tomorrow there will be a great escalation
within the capital.

Bernstein: Kevin, this is a civil war, correct? What we are seeing
now, not really a civil war, we are seeing a growing resistance
movement coming out of what was a very, very large pro-democracy
movement in support of, in that case, President Jean Bertrand
Aristide. We are seeing a growing resistance, aren't we?

Pina: Daily the resistance is growing and its getting more and more
tough in terms of its response to protecting and claiming the right
to defend its communities. The Haitian police, with arbitrary
arrests, the former military who were basically given the keys to the
capital by the United Nations, they now parade through the streets
and patrol the streets openly and with semi-automatic weapons. The
United Nations' General Heleno seems to have enough forces to be able
to back up the Haitian police in these arbitrary arrests, but he
claims he doesn't have enough forces to stop the Haitian military
from killing anybody who dares to utter Jean Bertrand Aristide's name
in the capital today.

Bernstein: Also joining this discussion is Brian Concannon. He is a
legal expert; worked with the international office of lawyers in Port
au Prince, Haiti, protected, advised, counselled, and helped to
represent victims of death squads of former U.S. supported coups.
Brian Concannon, let's talk about the behaviour, what we're seeing
happening in the streets in terms of the Latortue government. They
obviously have a police force, there are these former military that
are present, there are the UN peacekeeping forces, help us sort this
out. What is legal for instance under the Haitian government and the
Haitian constitution?

Concannon: Almost nothing. The Haitian constitution was thrown out
the window on February 29th in the wake of President Aristide's
departure. The government, even if you accept that it was a
legitimate transitional government, which I don't, their mandate
ended on June 1st when they should have had elections, and now
they're not talking about elections for at least another fourteen,
fifteen months from here. So, to begin with you have a completely
unconstitutional government. The unconstitutional government was the
one that invited the UN and of course they did not negotiate the
terms of engagement with the UN that [were] supportive of democracy.
And you have UN troops, which, as Kevin has mentioned, do not have
the stomach to confront the rebels or anybody with a gun, but are
very courageous in surrounding radio stations to help the arrest of
three unarmed legislators. They're very courageous in going after
John Kerry; they're very courageous about going into poor
neighbourhoods and shooting people. And this is obviously an illegal
situation for the UN to be in. This is an illegal situation for the
Haitian police to be doing this.

And one of the worst things about it, you talked about how we've done
a lot of work with the de Facto 1991-94 dictatorship, and to some
extent we have gone back to those days, in the sense that you have
paramilitary groups going down and mowing people down; you have the
police doing some official killing [of] people. But also in some ways
we're going also way far back beyond the de facto regime to the
Duvalier dictatorships, because the de facto regime wouldn't dare go
into a church and send masked men to drag out priests who are serving
a meal to poor children. That was something that not even Baby Doc
would have done and we have to go back to Papa Doc to do that. You
didn't have in the de facto dictatorship; they didn't surround radio
stations and pull Senators and deputies dragging out of them because
they said the wrong thing. This is just such an obvious blatant slap
in the face to the Haitian constitution, to the basic fundamental
documents of human rights law; it's almost inconceivable that this
type of thing could be happening in 2004.

Bernstein. Brian, you also have represented President Aristide in
certain aspects since he was taken out of the country and essentially
overthrown by the U.S. government. We're hearing now attacks on the
government of South Africa, letting President Aristide use, as they
say, the 'hospitality' of the South African government to plan this
violent attack on the U.S. installed government. Has there been any
response from President Aristide? What is your take on this attack?

Concannon: President Aristide has been laying low, as far as I can
see, on all of these issues. There is, of course, no proof that he's
been involved in any destabilizing activity in Haiti. In fact,
President Mbeki had a forceful response saying that this was a
complete fabrication and that there was absolutely no basis given.
One of the most distressing aspects of what's going on lately is that
Prime Minister Latortue can say that Aristide is backing these rebels
and he's backing the violence without presenting any proof and all of
the sudden its presented as gospel in the newspapers. In the same
way, Prime Minister Latortue or the Minister of Justice Bernard
Gousse can say that Lavalas partisans are killing police and that
[there's] this "Operation Baghdad" stuff, again, with absolutely no
proof, and that's printed in the papers. And, in contrast, the things
that Kevin's been reporting to you about people who come talk to him
about attacks in their houses, we have the same thing every day in
the office, you have people coming in with extremely credible,
consistent, and corroborated information. They can give you dates,
they can tell who was killed, they can show you photos of who was
killed, they can explain who did it, they can explain how it was
done. That information will not get into the mainstream media but the
Minister of Justice can say whatever unsubstantiated allegations he
wants against either President Aristide or the pro-democracy movement
in Haiti and all of the sudden that's front-page news.

Bernstein: I want to come back to you Kevin, in Port au Prince. There
was an astoundingly troubling story that came out of Brazil from
Martine Costes in Rio de Janeiro. This was on Saturday on I think it
was the Saturday morning news edition. He talked about, the whole
story was about how the Brazilian leadership in the UN peacekeeping
forces in Haiti was something that the Brazilians were now proud of,
that the General was welcomed, there was cheering from both soccer
teams.I don't know what the heck they were talking about but he never
mentioned a Haitian, he never talked to a Haitian, and the only
reference to President Aristide was that Aristide gangs, roaming, had
surfaced and were making the situation worse. Do you want to talk
about, sort of the characterization of Aristide gangs and also what
the situation really is because obviously he didn't have a clue,
didn't care, wasn't there and was just reporting simply on, I guess,
Brazil.

Pina: You know, it's interesting because General Augusto Heleno is
the head of the UN peacekeeping mission here, a Brazilian General. As
I said, again, the man takes absolutely no responsibility for
allowing the Haitian police to have fired on unarmed demonstrators on
September 30th, which started this latest round of violence. But more
than that he seems to be quite comfortable allowing the former
military to enter the capital and, again, the former military is now
patrolling with Chilean forces in Cap Haitien, openly. You've got to
remember that Brazil had a coup in 1964 and after that the Brazilian
military pretty much ran that government and its politics for, more
than 15 years, almost 18 years. And of course those were days when
the Brazilian military was used by the wealthy elite there to impose
their will on the population, to impose their program for so-called
progress in Brazil and those were horrible days of arbitrary arrest,
torture and murder, which were seen as necessary evils by the
Brazilian military.

It seems as though General Heleno is nostalgic for those days
[through] the way in which he is clearly accommodating Haiti's former
military. And he must have known, anyone who does any cursory study
of Haitian history would know that by allowing the Haitian military
to enter the scene in any capacity would enrage the majority of the
population who withstood and were brutalized after that 1991 military
coup against Aristide after he was elected President the first time
in 1990. It's just outrageous that either these people aren't doing
their history and/or Heleno longs for those good old days in Brazil.
It's fascinating to watch these guys on the ground here.

Concannon: Let me add something, because I think his [Kevin's]
criticism may actually be a little bit too diplomatic. In the words
of General Heleno himself, this was a quote on the BBC, he said "we
must kill the bandits but it will have to be the bandits only, not
everybody." And at the beginning of your show you mentioned how
"bandits" is a code-word for being poor, black and a government
supporter. And so the UN involvement in this is not merely allowing
things to happen; they are affirmatively supporting it; they are
providing back-up to people when they go into these poor
neighbourhoods, they secured the perimeter of the radio station when
they made that arrest. They're much more than negligently letting
these things happen. They are playing an active role.

Bernstein: And we're hearing scary figures. We're hearing reports
that perhaps the Latortue government is saying that 25,000 people
either have to be purged or exiled for them to begin, to sort of, get
rid of the pro-democracy movement and, if you will, start from
scratch, then we'll have an election or something like that. So,
we're talking about this government talking in large numbers of
people being hurt, jailed, beaten, killed, or exiled. Kevin, before
we say goodbye I want you to just give us a sense e of what people
are saying on the street, what is the feeling at the grassroots
level, in terms of, it does appear that they're given no chance but
to resist.

Pina: Well, the witch-hunt continues. The climate of witch-hunt
against anyone associated with Lavalas continues, and yes, people
feel as if they've been cornered and they have nowhere to turn except
to defend themselves. And, time and time again I hear people say 'you
know, we're going to continue our protests, we're going to continue
to demand that the President we elected return, and if they're going
to continue the violence against us we're going to defend ourselves.'
I keep hearing that day in and day out and that's why I say tomorrow
I think is going to be a very interesting day here in Port au Prince,
because I think the gloves are off, and tomorrow is going to be a day
of reckoning in many ways.

Concannon: Let me add that Father Jean-Juste is a pivotal figure in
this, because he was someone who was always advocating resistance to
tyranny, but he always advocated in a non-violent way. He was always
pushing saying 'no, we're not going to use their tactics, their
strategies.' But now you have someone like him who's been one of the
most open and prominent supporters of non-violence, and he's a very
popular person; he's known in Haiti, he's known in the US, he's got
all of this international prestige, and if they can go after him,
then it's very hard to make the argument to anybody in Haiti that you
should eschew violence.

Bernstein: Final words, Kevin.

Pina: You know, it's like I said yesterday, I think it's important
for me to state again, which is [that] nothing on the scale or the
level that we're seeing done against Lavalas today was ever done to
the so-called opposition to Aristide, that had accused him of being a
dictator. And, again, it's almost as though their accusations of
dictatorship against Aristide have become their own self-fulfilling
prophecy here in Haiti today.
.