29184: Morse (comment) Charles Arthur/Left v. Right (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

oloffsonram@aol.com

I've known Charles Arthur for quite a few years. We're not really drinking 
buddies but we've had our extended conversations during different regimes here 
in Haiti. If I were to describe Charles, I would say that he transends typical 
politics which are stuck in the quagmire of "left vs right". I get the feeling 
that a lot of people are only defending the notion of "left" or "right". For 
instance some one defending the Left may turn a blind eye when it's the Left 
thats burning down radio stations or attacking journalists. Just the same as 
some one from the Right finds a justification in "repression works" politics. 
Charles on the other hand doesn't seem to like dictatorial policies from the 
Left or Right. He always seems to be defending Haitian Workers against the left 
and the right. If some one were to tell me that Charles Arthur was involved in 
threatening peoples lives, I wouldn't believe them. Plain and simple. It would 
take a lot more than a letter on the internet or some
 one saying there's a police investigation for me to believe that Charles 
Arthur isn't a noble person.

As far as the notion that 8000 people were killed during Latortue's 2 years 
(thats 11 people a day, 330 people a month, for 24 months), I have a hard time 
swallowing that. No one else has those kind of figures. No one. The fact that 
there's a new "guestimate" proceedure thats given us these numbers (not to 
mention some one who uses a second identity to quote herself) makes it even 
harder to digest. I'm not pro Latortue by any means. I think he's a bum and 
I've said it before. I had band members arrested at my hotel with no warrants 
with no nothing, for no reason, during Latorture. Heavily armed, masked 
policemen parading inside the hotel intimidating my guests. I'm not saying by 
any means that I was at the front lines, but i do know for a fact that a lot of 
people left Belair, not when Latortue came to power, but when Aristide started 
using his gangs as his policing force.

You lawyers and spin doctors can sit in California or Miami or wherever it is 
you're from and write all the crap you want and if you convince some people 
that what you're saying is the truth, well then you're worth every bit of money 
your getting paid to say what you say and may God Bless you and may you 
continue to forever enjoy your rights of Freedom of Speech which both the Left 
and the Right, here in Haiti, have tried to greatly curtail.

Richard Morse
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