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25491: Kondrat (Question) Re: 25474: (news) Chamberlain: Lawlessness in Haiti (fwd)




From: Peter Kondrat <petekondrat@yahoo.com>

Looking back on two recent US interventions

Let's be clear from the outset: even the most
over-the-top opponents of the constitutional
government of Haiti would not (I don't believe) put
him in the same league as the overthrown head of the
Iraqi state. But I note an interesting parallel
between those who still support the disaster in Iraq
and those who support the disaster in Haiti: despite
overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the
Saddam-haters and the Titid-haters justify the forced
removal of their bogeyman. The death and the misery
and the chaos that is a direct result of  the
arrogant, misguided US intervention are still seen as
worth it, because the bogeyman has been given his
comeuppance.

Aristide was corrupt; Sadam was brutal; Clinton was
promiscuous ... these are the excuses that are offered
to justify toppling (or in the case of Clinton-haters,
attempting to topple) governments. Irresponsible in
the extreme.

In the Haiti instance, those who still stand atop the
rubble that is Haitian civil society and crow, "How
wonderful that the Yankees overthrew our bogeyman and
brought us anarchy!" have the added shame that they
supported the dissolution of a constitutional
government, and supported its replacement with a
completely ineffective and unresponsive "interim"
"government," one that is now entirely incapable of
meeting the most basic needs of Haitian citizens.

Just as the American people will call to account those
who brought such suffering to the Iraqi people and to
US miltary personnel, so too should the Haitian people
-- and all people who oppose US meddling in the
affairs of sovereign nations -- hold accountable those
who supported the removal of the constitutional
government, a course of action that has led such
suffering and havoc in Haiti.

Peter Kondrat

--- Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu> wrote:


From: Greg Chamberlain
<GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

(St. Petersburg Times, June 23, 2005)

Danger arises from all quarters in Haiti

By DAVID ADAMS



MIAMI - A friend recently began sending me copies of
her family's personal
e-mails from Haiti.

She wanted me to get an insider's glimpse of how
desperate things have
gotten  down there, asking only that I not publish
any
names.

The correspondence reveals a scenario more shocking
than I imagined,
tantamount to a total breakdown of society and the
outbreak
of urban, class war. Security has so totally
collapsed that armed gangs now
operate with impunity,  carrying out brutal
carjackings, home invasions and kidnappings in broad
 daylight. U.N.
peacekeepers who took over security in Haiti a year
ago after
the  ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide seem
powerless to stop the
violence.

In one e-mail, a middle-aged businesswoman described
how families have
become  virtual prisoners in their homes in recent
weeks
due to the uncertainty of when armed criminals will
strike.

"Every day you go out, you wonder if they'll kidnap
you, since there are
many  every day, and some (of the victims) are
people you
know," she writes. "So when will it be your turn?"

Police confirm up to 10 reported kidnappings a day.
In the great majority
of  cases, families do not bother to contact the
police.
Haiti's tiny and  ill-disciplined force is already
hopelessly overwhelmed
and lacks the proper  training to negotiate ransoms.
Many Haitians also suspect - with good reason - that
corrupt officers are
involved in the crimes.

Among the latest kidnapping victims earlier this
month: a husband and wife
seized as they were opening their pharmacy business;
a
woman and four children  on their way to school; and
the former head of
protocol at the presidential  palace.

Cases run from relatively minor carjackings to the
most brazen and horrific
  assaults. One man had his pickup truck seized at
gunpoint and was told he could buy it back for
$20,000. He negotiated the
price down to $10,000, only to have the pickup
stolen
again two weeks later.

Some homes are no longer safe, either. In one case
in the capital, armed
men  raped a woman and her 10-year-old daughter,
then
kidnapped a 9-month-old  baby.

In another case, a 60-year-old woman was kidnapped,
stripped and tortured.
Her captors warned that Haiti's light-skinned, mixed
race elite were all now  targets.

Much of the violence is attributed to gangs from
Aristide's slum
strongholds,  who appear to be conducting an
orchestrated
destabilization campaign to scuttle elections due
later this year.

Aristide loyalists have broadcast hit lists of their
targets - bourgeois
businessmen - on the radio.

Victims also report that some of the kidnapping
rings use safe-houses in
middle class neighborhoods, possibly with ties to
police
and other businessmen  involved in drug trafficking.

The sad truth today is that violence is coming from
all sides, according to
a  recent report by the highly respected
Brussels-based International Crisis Group, which
monitors Haiti. While
pro-Aristide groups may be sponsoring some of the
violence,
it noted that "extreme urban poverty" and the
failure of public
institutions were just as much to blame.

In the 17 years that I have been covering Haiti,
it's hard to recall a more
  desperate situation than exists today.

It wasn't supposed to be this way.

When U.S. troops were sent to Haiti last year after
Aristide's fall, there
was hope the country might be put back on the
democratic path. Those hopes  proved short-lived.

The U.N. peacekeepers say they were not prepared for
this kind of urban
war.  Nor were U.S. officials. Late last month the
U.S.
Embassy in Port-au-Prince  announced it was
downsizing. It recommended all
American citizens leave the  country, even advising
on
the safest routes to get to the international
airport, which is surrounded
by slums. This week Canada also warned its citizens
not
to travel to Haiti.

Efforts to improve the security situation are being
made. International
donors met in Montreal last Friday to speed up
delivery
of $1.3-billion in  financial aid pledged to Haiti.
The United Nations also
voted Wednesday to beef up its peacekeeping mission
with 1,000 troops.

But judging by the e-mail I have been reading, hope
is wearing thin.

Businesses are closing. School is out, and everyone
who can is escaping to
spend  time with relatives in the United States,
Canada
or France.

One e-mail ends: "One almost has the impression of
being suicidal if you
decide to stay."



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