23937: Holmstead: (commentary) Jane's Weekly: Foreign Report (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: John Holmstead <cyberkismet5@yahoo.com>

Jane's Weekly
FOREIGN REPORT

16-DEC-2004

ISSUE: 2814

What happened in Haiti?

THE REMOVAL of Haiti's democratically elected
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide illustrates the high
cost of regime change and exposes the other side of
the coin for those who used moral arguments and
principles to oppose the US invasion of Iraq.

Although French President Jacques Chirac and the UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan opposed the US war in
Iraq against Saddam Hussein -- who killed hundreds of
thousands of his own people, invaded neighbouring Iran
and Kuwait and failed to fully co-operate with UN
weapons inspectors -- both were quick to back the
unilateral removal from office of President Aristide
by the US on 29 February.  Aristide may have been
inept but he was democratically elected to office, had
not indulged in mass murder and did not threaten
regional security.

It was widely accepted that several pro-Aristide
senators had gained office through fraud, but no one
has ever disputed that Aristide himself was fairly
elected president in November 2000.

To say that France backed the overthrow is an
understatement.  The French government instigated the
removal of a man that it had long despised. Demands by
Aristide for massive reparations from the former
colonial power proved the final straw for Paris.

Within hours of Aristide's removal from office on 29
February, US marines were patrolling the streets
alongside French Legionnaires.

An interim government was formed by Gerard Latortue, a
Florida-based businessman who worked for many years
for the UN Industrial Development Organisation.

The UN Secretary General -- apparently desperate to
mend fences with Washington -- quickly legitimised the
removal of Aristide, first by recognising the new
interim government within hours of the coup d'etat and
then by approving the deployment of a UN peacekeeping
force.  As members of the UN Security Council, France
and the US found little difficulty in mobilising
support for the toppling of a democratically elected
president from those countries that had backed their
respective positions on Iraq.

Annan laid the blame for the political crisis in Haiti
firmly at the door of Aristide, even though the
Haitian leader attempted a rapprochement with the
opposition.  He also chose to ignore the fact that the
opposition refused to speak to Aristide under any
circumstances and wanted nothing less than his removal
from office, either voluntarily or by force, from the
moment he was elected president.

But what makes Annan's swift approval of regime change
in Haiti all the more remarkable is the lingering
accusation that, far from resigning, Aristide was
kidnapped and flown out of the country by US Marines.
This has consistently been denied by the US and French
governments.  But a similar claim of 'voluntary'
resignation was made when another US bete noire,
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, was replaced by a
right-wing junta in April 2002.  The resignation was
proven to be untrue and the coup subsequently
collapsed.  By the time Aristide began denying that he
had resigned, he had already been deposited in the
Central African Republic.

Aristide continues to appeal for an international
investigation into events on 29 February.  But support
for such an inquiry has been limited to South Africa
(where Aristide is exiled), Cuba and the Caribbean
Community.

We're sorry

Other countries have been falling over themselves to
solidify, or mend fences with, France and the US, with
little concern over whether Aristide resigned, was
kidnapped or tricked into relinquishing power. Still
others see the crisis in Haiti as a matter, not of
regret, but an opportunity to gain a geopolitical
advantage.

Two countries immediately come to mind.  When the
French asked them to lead the UN peacekeeping force,
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
quickly seized the opportunity to affirm Brazil's
regional leadership and strengthen its claim for a
permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

Communist China also saw an opportunity.  For the
first time ever, Beijing now has a military presence
in the Western Hemisphere, albeit in the form of 123
riot policemen.  China has sent small numbers of
observers to previous UN peacekeeping missions but has
declined to send active units.  But the chance to
establish a presence in one of the few remaining
countries
retaining diplomatic relations with Taiwan proved too
irresistible.

However, China's objectives in the region go well
beyond Haiti.

Beijing gives every impression of wanting to supplant
the US in its own backyard.  Investment is growing,
trade soaring and military links deepening.  Only last
month, during a tour of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile,
Chinese President Hu Jintao predicted that China would
invest US$100 billion in Latin America over the next
decade.

But those participating in the Haiti adventure may
soon be having second thoughts.  The interim
government is struggling to prevent the country
sliding into violent anarchy and some regional leaders
are now claiming that
Haiti is worse off now than it was under Aristide.

In the last two months alone, more than 100 people
have been killed in fighting between illegal armed
groups.  Victims included three policemen who were
beheaded -- a form of killing directly inspired by
events in Iraq.
Sections of the country are effectively no-go areas,
controlled by armed gangs, many with links to the
drugs trade.

France and the US have blamed supporters of Aristide
and his Lavalas Party for the violence and yet many,
if not most, of the victims are from slum strongholds
of Aristide.



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