24404: Cidihca: Fw: [Humanitarians, except in Haiti By Sarah Falconer (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Cidihca <edition@cidihca.com>

Subject: Humanitarians, except in Haiti By Sarah Falconer





Humanitarians, except in Haiti
Sara Falconer



Haitian action Photo: Autonomy & Solidarity


It's been easy, during the past two years, for Canadians to be smug
about not sending military forces to Iraq. We sure are peace-loving
humanitarians, compared to you-know-who, right? Only it's not so much
that we didn't commit troops... but that we couldn't. Because we're
too busy in Haiti.
What went down in Haiti has been a matter of contention ever since
democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced to
flee in February 2004, accusing the United States of overthrowing him
in a coup d'état.

The U.S., Canada and France have joined UN forces in supporting
the "interim" government of Prime Minister Gerard Latortue.
Meanwhile, organizations including Amnesty International and Human
Rights Watch have documented the killing of hundreds of Aristide
supporters by police and the detention of almost a thousand political
prisoners.

Yves Engler, of the newly formed Haiti Action Montreal, spent five
days there in December, and is frustrated that while there has been a
widespread local outcry about the war in Iraq, Canada's role in Haiti
has gone unchallenged. "In Iraq our government is not the main
perpetrator." While the major media outlets have shown their usual
skill in avoiding mention of these issues, even the anti-imperialist
Left has been inexplicably silent.

Haiti, site of the only successful large-scale slave revolt in human
history and the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, is little
more than a tragic and confusing mess to many outsiders. In January,
the Center for the Study of Human Rights released a report that aimed
to clarify things.A team led by attorney Thomas Griffin interviewed
government officials, businessmen, gang members, victims of violence
and advocacy groups. The 54-page report gives a gut-wrenching and
emotionally devastating inventory of human rights abuses, insane
brutality and citizens living in fear.

Investigators also found that Canada and the U.S. played key roles in
the destabilization campaign leading up to Aristide's expulsion.
Groups like the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and
the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) still have
fingers firmly jammed in the pie, and RCMP officers train the
infamous Haitian National Police.

In the most impoverished neighbourhoods, where hundreds of thousands
live, "the police routinely enter to conduct operations which are
often murderous attacks, often with firepower support from the UN
Civil Police and Peacekeeping forces," according to the report. Worse
yet, investigators confirmed that the former Haitian Army "death
squads," disbanded by Aristide, have reformed.

Despite killings and injuries every single day, the Red Cross, funded
by the Canadian government, refuses to enter areas like the destitute
Bel Air.

Over 700 supporters of Aristide's Lavalas party, including former
Senate members and 70-year-old folk singer "So-Anne" Auguste, remain
in prison without charges or access to lawyers. On December 1, guards
killed 10 prisoners during an alleged riot, according to the official
count. Later, inmates and other witnesses reported that the guards
had actually "executed" between 40 and 100.

The entire Griffin report is available at
www.law.miami.edu/news/368.htm