[News] Haiti: Maxine Waters Blasts Powell & Witch Hunt in Haiti

[News at freedomarchives.org]

Note: there are 2 stories here.
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California Democrat Blasts Powell's Visit to Haiti
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=%5CPolitics%5Carchive%5C200404%5CPOL20040407a.html
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Morning Editor
April 07, 2004

(CNSNews.com) - In a furious press release on Tuesday, Rep. Maxine Waters 
(D-Calif.) condemned Secretary of State Colin Powell's recent visit to 
Haiti, calling it a "contemptible example of this administration's handling 
of the crisis in Haiti that it helped to create."

Waters, a close friend and staunch defender of ousted Haitian President 
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is angry that Powell "has accomplished nothing and 
[wasted] taxpayer dollars" by visiting the newly appointed prime minister.

Powell made a five-hour visit to Haiti on Monday, where he offered the 
"full support" of the United States for the country's interim leader -- and 
rejected the idea of having the United Nations investigate Aristide's ouster.

"I don't think any purpose would be served by such an inquiry. The facts 
are very well-known,'' Powell said. "It was six weeks ago that Haiti was on 
the verge of total security collapse. We prevented a blood bath and a coup 
from taking place.''

During his visit, Powell said the U.S. would give $9-million to a fund 
earmarked for building democracy in Haiti. That fund is managed by the 
Organization of American States.

Rep. Maxine Waters is not pleased. In her press release on Tuesday, she 
complained about Secretary Powell's refusal to "denounce the performance of 
Prime Minister Latortue, who was handpicked by the U.S."

Waters also complained about Powell's refusal to condemn "the blatantly 
illegal actions of criminals and drug dealers...who are still occupying and 
controlling the cities of Gonaives and Cap-Haitien."

Rep. Waters named Guy Philippe, Louis-Jodel Chamblain, and Jean Tatoune as 
being among those "criminals." She said they are the ones who threatened to 
kill Aristide and who stirred up violence in Port au Prince and other 
cities "where members of the Lavalas Party are found dead every day."

"It is absolutely shameful," said Waters, "for the U.S. to be aligned with 
these killers and, even at this late date, refuse to divest itself of this 
unholy alliance." She said Secretary Powell has neither "the desire nor the 
will to removes these killers from their role in Haiti's crisis."

Rep. Waters is deeply immersed in the politics of Haiti, a fact that has 
raised questions among some conservatives who wonder why she and other 
members of the Black Congressional Caucus have defended Aristide while his 
people suffered.

After Aristide was removed from Haiti (kidnapped, he said; voluntarily 
removed for his own protection, the U.S. said), he took temporary refuge in 
Africa. Against the wishes of the Bush administration, Waters flew to 
Africa to accompany him and his wife to Jamaica, where the Aristides are 
temporarily residing.

"We believe that President Aristide, in a sense, forfeited his ability to 
lead his people, because he did not govern democratically," National 
Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said in a mid-March television interview.

Haiti's interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue says he has signed an 
agreement to hold presidential elections next year, even though Haiti's 
constitution says elections must be held within 90 days.

"I think all political parties agree that elections cannot be held in 90 
days,'' Latortue was quoted as saying.

Rep. Waters called Latortue an "immoral" leader who is unfit to serve as 
prime minister.




Witch Hunt in Haiti

http://dominionpaper.ca/weblog/2004/04/witch_hunt_in_haiti.html
April 7, 2004

Right now there is a political climate in Haiti where anyone can get on the 
radio stations and accuse anyone else of a crime or with being associated 
with violent Lavalas gangs. It means that without proof they can say this 
about you and immediately you have to go into hiding, and immediately you 
have to be concerned with your own welfare; and immediately the death 
threats begin. That's the political climate that you have in Haiti today.

----------
These chilling comments come from a conversation that took place on the 
tail end of my recent trip to Haiti with the first large post-coup 
fact-findingdelegation. [1] During this trip - which lasted ten intense 
days - twenty-two of us met with numerous groups and individuals 
representing all sides of the socio-political spectrum in Haiti.

We interacted with representatives of many of Haiti's stakeholders, and 
also met with those outsiders who feel it is their place to determine how 
Haiti is governed. In this respect, the US, Canada, France, through their 
various institutional bodies have made themselves "de facto" stakeholders 
in Haiti. Such a framework becomes all the more clearer when we consider 
such comments as those made by OAS representative Luigi Einaudi at the 
Hotel Olaffson, December 31, 2003, on the eve of Haiti's bicentennial:

"The real problem with Haiti is that the international community is so 
screwed up that they're actually letting Haitians run the place."[2]

This is the same Luigi Einaudi, who, according to sources at the Canadian 
Embassy, was part of the "Ottawa Initiative on Haiti" at which, it was 
leaked by Denis Paradis, "regime change" was planned in Haiti, and there 
was discussion of the "need" for a military presence.

It is doubtful that Einaudi differs greatly in perspective from the likes 
of John Negroponte, Otto Reich, or Jesse Helms's accolyte Roger Noriega. 
All of these individuals have specialized in carrying out crimes against 
humanity in Latin America and the Caribbean over the years. As I learned 
these past 10 days, despite the silence of the mainstream media, atrocities 
*are* taking place in Haiti on a scale that is all too well-known, 
especially when we frame recent events against the most horrendous of the 
1980's. The tactics employed in Haiti also warrant comparison to the 
destabilization campaign against Jamaica's Michael Manley.

Along these lines, our first meeting set a certain tone for the remaining 
days. This was a group of Lavalas leaders, none of which had seen their 
families in days, and one of which had recently been abducted, beaten, and 
held captive for fifteen days with several other people.[3] When he was 
released he was told to immediately take his family and leave his home, 
never to return.

During this same meeting we were also told that the US Marines had recently 
slaughtered, in one night, 78 people in the Belair neighborhood of Port au 
Prince. Reportedly, the US [and other foreign occupiers] had brought 
ambulances with them in anticipation of a bloodbath. All but two of the 
people murdered were carried away in these ambulances. Now no one will know 
the identities of those killed.We were told that the interim government, 
led by the US has the intent to destroy popular organizations.

One popular organization in particular is under attack. Since they - 
Lavalas - represent the majority of the population, according to the most 
credible sources, they are the primary target for destruction. The 
US-spawned idea being that once the fear of a militarized Haitian police 
and a trigger-happyUS military are instilled in these people, they will 
think twice about disrupting the new political process that is being 
imposed on them.

Followers of the news might ask themselves why demonstrations against the 
occupation abruptly stopped after March 11th. The 'alleged' massacre in 
Belair should be considered against this, since it occurred around this 
time. It is safe to say that there have been no demonstrations in Port au 
Prince since the Belair massacre.

Importantly, two anti-Aristide groups - PAPDA and the National Coalition 
for Haitian Rights [NCHR] - corroborated the story of the massacre. Camille 
Chalmers of PAPDA, perhaps in a move that demonstrates his guilt over 
having helped create the conditions for the illegal occupation, ackowledged 
hearing people "talking about 60 people dying in one day in Belair.Where 
Chalmers denounces such human rights abuses as well as the US occupation, 
his group [in a preemptively contradictory manner] did contribute greatly 
to the demonization of Aristide, which culminated in his removal and the 
eventual presence of the imperial forces. PAPDA has been 'rewarded' by the 
illegitimate regime with a Ministry position [Environment] for one of its 
members. At this point the reader should be asked to reconsider Tom Reeves' 
"double games".[4]

This applies equally to NCHR who claim on the one hand to be a legitimate 
Human Rights watchdog, but on the other refuse to investigate reported 
crimes such as the atrocities in Belair. The NCHR did not deny knowledge of 
these murders, and would only say that "it is too dangerous to enter 
Belair" to investigate. Too dangerous, for American allies perhaps.

Such reprisal killings[as put by Chalmers and others] are a daily 
occurrence in Haiti nowadays, though of course you would not know this from 
reading the mainstream corporate media. A significant part of the big liein 
Haiti requires that the media join the Bush and Boca Raton regimes [5] in 
denying the existence of any such atrocities. An image of the interim 
government being on the right track[6] has to be contrived so as to lend 
legitimacy to the new status quo that is being imposed on Haitians.

Daily around 4:00 P.M, lists of names are read over the elite-controlled 
radio stations. Considering Kevin Pina's "disinformation loop"[7], we have 
to interrogate why the Associated Press and Reuters are not reporting the 
reading of these lists. This interrogation might benefit from awareness of 
Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky's "Propaganda Model", specifically its 
"Worthy and Unworthy Victims chapter.[8]

By sundown those whose names are read on these lists [and others] are quick 
to find a suitable place to hide. We witnessed this phenomenon first hand 
during our recent stay. Dozens of people risked their lives coming to see 
us - from hiding - in order to share their stories. Many of these people 
testified to the fact that close friends have already been disappearedor 
killed. These people also confirmed the atrocities in Belair, perpetrated 
by the joint Haitian police and imperial military forces.

We were also told that the few funerals that families were able to have 
[since most bodies were carried away] were attacked by Haitian police, and 
several more people were subsequently killed. A Western human rights lawyer 
in Haiti told us that she arrived at the location where these latest 
victims were being burned. She arrived too late to identify any of the 
remains, which had by then been reduced to ash.

It is in this general context of a witch-hunt that the succession of lies 
on the part of the Bush Administration must be considered. Aristide 
apparently left to prevent a bloodbath. [9] Emerging from a recent trip to 
Haiti there is widespread testimony that the US is actually carrying out 
bloodbaths of their own. Meanwhile, an illegal government is being formed, 
democracy is being undermined, self-determination is being deprived, 
refugees are being illegally repatriated, while the corporate press 
obediently suppresses the truth, and a disempowered, heavily indoctrinated 
society laps the disinformation up.

While most of the dissenting views that are managing to warrant mainstream 
coverage concern the investigation into Aristides departure, there has been 
next to nothing yet concerning US perpetrated [or condoned] atrocities. 
This is because the US government, the Boca Raton Regime, and the corporate 
press are in denial of them, so they have not yet been reported. It is my 
own view that these issues need to be investigated urgently and all those 
who claim to stand in solidarity with Haiti should act to facilitate this 
process immediately.

[1] These views are solely those of the author and do not [necessarily] 
reflect those of the delegation. My role during the delegation was as 
political activist and journalist. The identity of certain quoted 
interlocutors will for the time being remain anonymous, as will the 
identity of those whom we met with that are currently in hiding.

[2] Two parties who were present have confirmed these statements.

[3] Lavalas is President Aristides political party.

[4] http://www.zmag.org/weluser.htm, etc.

[5] Latortue has resided in Boca Raton for many decades. His Minister of 
the Interior, Herard Abraham, who is known to advocate a return of the 
military, also hails from Boca Raton.

[6] See: U.S. expresses optimism about situation in HaitiFrom the Dept of 
State http://www.reliefweb.int March 30, 2004.

[7] See http://www.blackcommentator.com and zmag.org

[8] In "Manufacturing Consent" [2002], pp. 37-87.

[9] This is a paraphrase. On Powells recent visit to Haiti and comments in 
this context see Powell Rejects Probe of Aristide Departure From Haiti, AP Says
posted by anthony_fenton in 
<http://dominionpaper.ca/weblog/international_news/index.html>international 
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