23797: (radio) Esser: Latortue's House of Cards Crumbling in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser <torx@joimail.com>

Latortue's House of Cards Crumbling in Haiti
 
November 11, 2004

Kevin Pina  interviewed by
Solange Echevarria
 
Flashpoints Radio
http://www.flashpoints.net

Echevarria: Straight up, what do make of this.floating up right now
to the rest of the news, that the Haitian police are murdering
Aristide supporters. What do you make of this actually breaking
through the hard fought for silence on the part of the corporate
media?

Pina: It's just that finally the killing has reached such a level
that no one can continue to deny it. It's been going on relentlessly
since the forced ouster of President Aristide on February 29th. The
most interesting news that's most recently surfaced of course is that
there are nineteen police officers who have just been implicated in a
plot to assassinate Lavalas political prisoners in the capital. That
would include Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, Interior Minister
Jocelerme Privert, Father Gerard Jean Juste, and a long list of
hundreds who are being held in the capital. Now, whether that extends
to the thousands in the countryside, we don't know how vast the plot
was. You know I'm usually very critical of the corporate media - that
includes Reuters - but I do have to tip my hat to Guyler Delva, who
broke that story, otherwise we never would have heard about it. But
of course those nineteen officers, who are now under investigation
for plotting to assassinate Aristide supporters in the jails, are
getting what is the equivalent of a slap on the wrist and being told
to stay after school. They are only being placed under special orders
to appear at the police force's general inspection office daily, from
8 A.M. to 4 P.M. until.as they say, the allegations have been
resolved. Well, no one is being reprimanded, no one is being
summarily fired; basically, it's a slap on the wrist, even though
what has come to surface is that there are active forces within the
Haitian police who have been plotting to assassinate Lavalas
political prisoners in the jail cells in Port au Prince.

Echevarria: Now in fact this is very much a danger of the fox
guarding the henhouse in terms of this investigation. The list that
you just mentioned.of potential assassinations, if you will, has some
pretty heavy names on it. What do you think that this tells [us]
about the impunity with which the police have- especially with the
backing of the Latortue regime - have had with respect to being able
to carry out their intentions.

Pina: The Haitian police force is now almost entirely [made up of]
former military. This is the same Haitian military that committed
tremendous atrocities in 1991 after Aristide was forced from office
in a brutal military coup. This is the same military that was heavily
involved in drug trafficking. The Haitian police may not be called
the Haitian military but it in fact is the Haitian military today
that constitutes the Haitian police. There's also other interesting
news that's recently come out, which is that Roselor Julien who was
the Cathoilic Church representative, resigned yesterday from.the
council that's preparing for the so-called free and fair elections
that are supposed to be held next year in 2005. She resigned saying
that she did so because she did not want to condone an electoral
farce. So not only are we seeing a lot of killing by the police,
extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, but now the entire
reason why the United States and France and Canada justified this
intervention - which was to hold new elections - is falling apart
completely.

First of all,, Lavalas has already said that they will not
participate in the elections and now the electoral council, which is
preparing for them, is completely in disarray. And then of course
it's hilarious to hear Brazil announce yeaterday that its forces are
going to extend their stay in Haiti until the next elections are held
in 2005. So apparently, Brazil isn't even considering whether these
elections are going to be free and fair; they really just want to get
this process over because they're getting a lot of heat at home.
Another interesting note about Brazil is that last October 22nd the
Defense Minister of Brazil, Jose Diegas, resigned, because the
Brazilian military had made a statement early in October. The
military high command had said that the military cuop that the
Brazilian military did in 1964 had been the result of "a popular call
in response to the subversive movement which had turned down
dialogue." Well who does that sound like? That sounds like Lavalas in
Haiti today, so it gives the appearance that what the Brazilian
military cannot get away with in its own country today, it's enjoying
doing in Haiti.

Echeverria: That actually brings to me a question with respect to
Brazil and Haiti's relationship with CARICOM, and it seems to be in a
very uncomfortable position, because it just doesn't know what to do
with respect to the Latortue regime. How do you think that that plays
into it?

Pina: There is another CARICOM meeting this week; I don't think
there's going to be any resolution, I don't think anything is going
to change because.the countries of Guyana, St. Kitts, St.
Vincent-Grenadines have said under no condition would they recognize
the Latortue regime until it did everything to disarm the former
military. Well, how can you say they're disarming the former military
when now what they are doing is simply turning them into Haitian
police and giving them guns? Of course now the United States has
lifted the 13-year old arms embargo against Haiti, which started back
in 1991 after the first military coup against Aristide, so you've got
the former military being rehabilitated into the police, and the
police being,in fact, a de facto military force, being re-armed and
resupplied by the United States lifting that 13-year old embargo. I
don't think there's any way that CARICOM at this point, can come to
any resolution and they require a consensus, as you know, I don't
believe that they'll be able to find that consensus to recognize that
government given the current mayhem and disarray on the ground in
Haiti today.

Echevarria: I want to jump back just a few seconds to the elections
and what this resignation means. Do you think that may be a sign
that, with Latortue, that the façade may be starting to crumble a
little bit?

Pina: Well, this resignation came on the heels of the business
community. Andy Apaid, who is the leader of the Group of 184, which
was the so-called opposition against Aristide, tried to shove down
the electoral commission's throat a $112 million proposal to actually
have the balloting be electronic during the next elections. Well how
can you have electronic ballotting in Haiti when areas of the capital
don't receive more than six hours of electricity per day? The person
who resigned, Roselor Julien, also stated that [that] it was a
railroading and setting up [of] the process so that Group of 184
could win the elections, to basically legitimize the coup against
Aristide February 29th. Now, in essence, that's what Roselor Julien
has stated.

Echevarria: Now you mentioned earlier that Lavalas has publicly
stated that they are going to boycott the elections. Doesn't that
present a danger that, by virtue of the fact that they don't present
themselves at the polls, that, just by defualt, that Latortue's
regime would just take control that way?

Pina: It's one thing to win unfair in an electoral farce, if you
will. It's quite another to rule without an electoral mandate. I
think that the international community; there's no way they're going
to be able to legitimize those elections if, indeed what I believe
will be the case is there's going to be a very low voter
turnout.Lavalas is not only going to boycott the elections as an
organization, but I believe their base of popular support are just
simply not going to go to the polls; you're not going to see long
lines, and you're not going to see a high voter turnout; you're going
to see a very low voter turnout and I think its going to make it
increasingly difficult for the Latortue regime or whoever comes
afterwards, to claim that they have a mandate that represents the
Haitian people. And if you see the disarray that's going on on the
ground right now, it's only going to increase and get worse
particularly after you have this electoral farce in 2005.
.