[News] Kofi Annan and General Heleno’s Complicity in Latortue’s Jackal Regime

[News at freedomarchives.org]

Aiding Oppression in Haiti: Kofi Annan and General Heleno’s Complicity in 
Latortue’s Jackal Regime

http://www.coha.org/NEW_PRESS_RELEASES/New_Press_Releases_2004/04.98%20Haiti%20Heleno%20the%20one%20.htm

• President Bush’s Haiti Policy undermines his proclaimed ideal of valuing 
democracy as well as stability.

• As Kofi Annan comes to Washington to meet with Secretary of State Colin 
Powell, among others, he is prepared to do Washington’s bidding regarding 
Haiti.

• Most likely, the interim government of Prime-Minister Gerard Latortue 
will indefinitely postpone, sabotage or find some other pretext to ban the 
pro-Aristide Lavalas party from participating in the 2005 presidential 
election.

• Among the responsibilities of MINUSTAH, the UN Peacekeeping force in 
Haiti, is to ensure the safety of the polling stations and the integrity of 
the electoral process. This means the UN peacekeeping mandate must prohibit 
Latortue and interim Justice Minister Bernard Gousse from further 
brutalizing Lavalas supporters.

• Though it remains unclear who is to blame for the four deaths on December 
15 in the pro-Aristide slum of Cite Soleil, MINUSTAH’s actions there could 
eventually provide part of the basis for banning Lavalas.

• The head of the UN Peacekeeping Mission, Brazilian Lieutenant-General 
Augusto Heleno, should be replaced given his deference, in word and deed, 
to Latortue’s excesses.

• President Lula is ultimately responsible for Heleno’s reckless actions. 
Does Lula know he is sacrificing Haiti’s poor for his international ambitions?

In a speech to the National Endowment for Democracy on November 6, 2003, 
President Bush stated, “Sixty years of Western nations excusing and 
accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us 
safe - because in the long run, stability cannot be purchased at the 
expense of liberty.” But while the administration appears earnest about 
promoting democracy in Iraq it has made little progress - in fact it has 
even regressed - in promoting democracy among America’s southern neighbors. 
While its relationship with most of Latin America has centered exclusively 
on trade agreements and, to a lesser extent, drugs and terrorism, its 
hardline anti-Aristide policy has led to overturning the same democratic 
principles it claims to be espousing in Baghdad.

Indeed, in Port-au-Prince, the Bush administration has shown that it 
strongly believes stability can only be purchased at the expense of 
liberty. In a stunning reversal of the administration’s pre-coup Haiti 
policy, Secretary of State Colin Powell went from denouncing the opposition 
as a gang of “thugs” to maintaining that Aristide had to reach political 
agreement with some of its elements. Powell’s flip-flop signaled the end of 
the constitutional government, since it then became clear to the opposition 
that the US would not hinder its openly stated strategy of non-negotiation 
with Aristide.

Regarding Kofi Annan, he comes to Washington today struggling to hold on to 
his job which is at risk over his son’s involvement in the Iraq 
oil-for-food scandal. To strengthen his position as Secretary-General of 
the United Nations, he will be prepared to make many concessions. One of 
the items of discussion with Secretary of State Powell will be the UN’s 
role in Haiti. Annan has, so far, been utterly compliant with the Bush 
administration’s efforts to marginalize ousted President Jean-Bertrand 
Aristide. In the days preceding the February 29, 2004 de-facto ouster of 
Aristide and his U.S. arranged flight into exile, Annan echoed U.S. policy 
in condemning Aristide as Haiti’s “failed” president and Powell’s cynical 
scenario that international peacekeepers would be sent to Haiti, but only 
if Aristide abrogated most of his constitutionally mandated authority. 
Annan’s backing of Powell’s strategy legitimated Washington’s goal of 
ridding itself of Aristide. At today’s talks, a politically weakened Annan 
is likely to discuss next year’s Haiti elections and how to minimize a role 
for the pro-Aristide Lavalas party.

Dark Days for Lavalas
The second coup d’etat launched against Haiti’s first 
democratically-elected leader achieved its goal of removing the former 
president – once again – from office and has since embarked on what is 
shaping up to be a scorched earth policy towards Lavalas supporters. Former 
Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, former Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert, 
Senator Yvon Feuille and former Deputy Rudy Herivaux are still being held 
in prison without any charges while pro-Aristide demonstrators, who 
constitute the overwhelmingly majority of the poor, are regularly rounded 
up or shot in the street by the rebel gangs or the ill-trained police 
force. The interim government even had the audacity to imprison the 
country’s most revered Catholic priest, Father Jean-Juste, though he was 
recently released.

Prior to the coup, the opposition groups - mainly the Group of 184 and the 
Democratic Convergence - refused to negotiate with Aristide. At the time, 
Democratic Convergence leader Evans Paul stated, “We are willing to 
negotiate through which door [President Aristide] leaves the palace, 
through the front door or the back door.” We have yet to see if Latortue 
will formally ban the Lavalas party: however, current trends suggest that 
the interim government will continue to tolerate extra-constitutional 
paramilitary units, such as members of the former army disbanded by 
Aristide, to repress Lavalas supporters both in their neighborhoods and at 
the polls. Ultimately, he may move to incorporate the ex-military into a 
still-to-be reconstituted armed force.

UN Legitimacy at Risk
What can the international community and MINUSTAH, the UN’s peacekeeping 
force, do to ensure that Aristide’s supporters will be allowed to 
participate in the next election, scheduled for November 2005? At a 
minimum, there are two tasks confronting UN Special Representative to Haiti 
and MINUSTAH head, Chilean diplomat Juan Gabriel Valdes. First, MINUSTAH 
must begin to enforce its mandate, which states that the first duty of the 
UN force is to provide support for the transitional government, “to ensure 
a secure and stable environment within which the constitutional and 
political processes in Haiti can take place.”

Currently the UN force, led by General Augusto Heleno of Brazil, is highly 
prejudiced in the use of its power. Far from abiding by the impartial 
language of the mandate “to support the constitutional and political 
processes under way in Haiti . . . and foster principles and democratic 
governance and institutional development,” MINUSTAH continually sides with 
the inherently lawless Haitian police during the latter’s repeated raids on 
Aristide supporters, and with a Justice Minister who has no regard for due 
process. As described by Chief of Mission of the Haiti embassy in 
Washington, Raymond A. Joseph, to COHA, “a situation of war exists in 
Haiti. In war a lot of things are not quite legal, but you have to take 
measures to protect yourself.”

But often these measures go much too far. As reported by the Haiti 
Accompaniment Project, a coalition of US-based organizations devoted to 
documenting human rights violations in Haiti, in the lead up to the 
February 2004 coup and immediately afterwards, “there were large-scale 
killings and the systematic burning of the homes of people identified as 
members or supporters of Fanmi Lavalas. The cities of Petit Goave, 
Gonaives, and Cap-Haitian have been particularly hit hard by the violence.” 
For MINUSTAH to be perceived as a legitimate peacekeeping force, General 
Heleno must address the egregious human rights abuses perpetrated daily by 
the rebel gangs and anti-Aristide factions, as well as those by 
pro-Aristide vigilantes. Haitians, the majority of whom supported Aristide 
(in the elections of 1990 and 2000 he won two thirds of the vote), will 
never view the UN force as anything but the international wing of 
Latortue’s oppressive regime until it metes out justice impartially, 
regardless of one’s suspected party affiliation.

The second task of the UN is to put much more pressure on Latortue and his 
rogue Justice Minister Bernard Gousse to release political prisoners and 
respect due process. This action would satisfy a necessary, but by no means 
sufficient, condition for the upcoming elections. Nevertheless, the 
situation looks grim for the inclusion of the majority Lavalas party in 
next year’s elections. As noted by the Haiti Accompaniment project, “Fanmi 
Lavalas has experienced the brunt of repression since the coup. Many 
leaders have left the country or are in internal exile. Many Lavalas 
members and supporters have had their homes burned, have lost jobs, and 
have been separated from their families.”

MINUSTAH must be as diligent in protecting pro-Lavalas groups and human 
rights organizations, like the Aristide Foundation for Democracy, Lafanmi 
Selavi and the Coordination des Femmes Victimes d’Haiti (COFEVIH), as it 
gives the appearance of slavishly acting as Latortue’s hit squad. Perhaps a 
constructive first step in this direction would be replacing General 
Heleno, who has displayed neither particular competence in the field nor 
sufficient diplomatic tact, as head of MINUSTAH mission.

Latortue’s Stooge
In an interview with Haiti’s Radio Metropole on October 8, General Heleno, 
during what must have been an unguarded moment, declared: “We must kill the 
bandits, but it will have to be the bandits only, not everybody.” This 
statement might even be comforting if we knew it were directed at the 
roving rebel gangs, former death squad members and rapists - released or 
broken out from prison following the chaos brought on by the pre-coup 
turbulence - who terrorized the country throughout the rule of the military 
junta (1991 – 1994). As one COFEVIH member claimed, “the same people who 
raped us in 1991 are again in power. All those prisoners who were let out 
are raping women.” Unfortunately, the general was not referencing such 
brigands but rather the pro-Lavalas, poor urban youths. His focus on 
Aristide’s supporters as the alleged culprits of the violence sweeping the 
country is also seen in the following imprudent interview he gave to the 
Brazilian state news agency: “Statements made by [John Kerry] created false 
hopes among pro-Aristide supporters. His statements created the expectation 
that instability and a change in American policy would contribute to 
Aristide's return." Heleno was referring to Senator Kerry’s remark last 
March that he would have intervened militarily in order to protect 
President Aristide.

Clearly, Heleno was eager to place blame for inciting the shootings and 
unwarranted arrests carried out in raids in the pro-Aristide slums of 
Port-au-Prince at the feet of John Kerry. But even more ominously, he 
implies what the Security Council has never said; that advocating 
Aristide’s return to Haiti would be illegal. Essentially, Heleno was saying 
that had Kerry not exhibited the sheer audacity of suggesting that the 
Haitian people should be led by their democratically-elected president, the 
violence could have been avoided. Given that the Brazilian commander 
apparently sees his mandate extending only to aiding the current regime’s 
suppression of the Lavalas democracy movement, he needs to be withdrawn for 
the sake of the Haitian people, the sake of the UN’s credibility and, 
lastly, for the sake of Lula’s democratic credentials.


This analysis was prepared by COHA Senior Research Fellow, Seth R. DeLong, 
Ph.D.

December 16, 2004

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