27050: Re: 26995: Michel(reply): Cost of a New Haitian Army (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Lance,

An army is simply not needed in Haiti. The old military class that evolved
out of the revolutionary army and the slave holders security personnel(noire
et mulat(whatever that means)) is long gone. What has transpired is the
direct descendant of an army created and trained to take over the function
of the U.S. occupation troops. A whole lot of people mistakenly believe that
the military establishment should take the function of a national
gendarmery. The simple solution is a national gendarmery that is subject not
the political whimsy of the politically appointed interior ministry but an
arm of an independent judiciary.

The lack of security is used to reinforce fascist tendencies within the
state AND within the praxis of the Haitian people themselves. That lack of
security cannot be seperated from the endemic corruption of the Haitian
state AND business class and sadly the judiciary and the police are
involved. A solution would be to make the Haitian judiciary AND police force
subject to budgetary and administrative oversight INDEPENDENT of the Haitian
state.  A tran snatioanlization of this critical function for example :
Interpol and/or other institutionalize  transnational police organization
along with regular audit of the finances of those who bear arm in the name
of the society and of those who decision makes judiciary decisions would go
a long way toward helping solve problems that seem intractable BECAUSE no
one has an incentive to obey the law.

The incentive is such that EVEN if one is not criminally minded an investor
or a business owner or even home owner has no choice to privatize the this
critical function with a PRIVATE security detail and other mechanism of
organize brutality to defend their interest.
The special forces under Duvalier and the military were not trained to go to
war with the Dominicans but with our own citizens.

The question of caretaker legal aperture must be put on the table.

Sincerely,

Jean-Marie Herve Michel, Jr.