<html>
<body>
<font size=3><br><br>
</font><h3><b>PAYOFFS TO HAITI’S RENEGADE SOLDIERS WON’T BUY PEACE
</b></h3><font size=4>Tue Jan 4,10:09 AM ET <br>
Op/Ed - USATODAY.com<br><br>
By DeWayne Wickham<br><br>
While the Bush administration wages war against terrorism in Iraq (news -
web sites), the government it propped up in Haiti has caved in to the
terrorists who've seized control of parts of that impoverished Caribbean
island nation.<br><br>
Last week, Haiti's interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue began handing
out checks to members of his country's former army, a brutal military
force that was disbanded in 1995. So far, more than 200 former soldiers
have received checks. The money, which the renegade soldiers say is back
pay that covers the past 10 years, is actually a thinly veiled blackmail
payment.<br><br>
Latortue agreed to dole out the checks, which are expected to total $29
million, after months of failed attempts to get the renegade soldiers to
turn in their weapons. In the year since they led the rebellion that
toppled the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's
former soldiers have created what amounts to a shadow government. They
hold sway in parts of the country that are beyond the reach of the
government and the small United Nations (news - web sites) peacekeeping
force that keeps it in power.<br><br>
Last year's rebellion was the second time Haitian soldiers had a hand in
removing Aristide from power. Back in 1991, a military coup forced him to
flee the country just months after he became Haiti's first democratically
elected president. During Aristide's absence, Haiti's army violently
suppressed opponents of its power grab.<br><br>
Aristide dumped army<br><br>
Aristide cashiered the entire army after he was restored to power in 1995
- replacing it with a lightly armed national police force. The police
were no match for the renegade soldier-led rebellion that swept across
Haiti a year ago.<br><br>
Aristide was replaced by Latortue, a Florida resident who was named
interim prime minister by a Haitian "council of elders" that
the Bush administration was instrumental in cobbling together. Shortly
after taking office, Latortue called the rebels "freedom
fighters," even though some of their leaders are widely thought to
have been part of the death squads that preyed upon Aristide's
supporters.<br><br>
"It just reaffirms the corruption of the nature of puppet
government," Bill Fletcher Jr., president of TransAfrica Forum, said
of the payment policy. His is a Washington-based group that monitors
events in African and Caribbean nations. "Any amount of money is
legitimizing their activities when every credible report indicates that
these guys are running around the countryside killing people, tracking
down Aristide's supporters and driving people underground," Fletcher
said.<br><br>
He makes a good point. According to Amnesty International, the rebel
force is led by Guy Philippe, a former army officer who is thought to
have been involved in a failed 2000 coup. Other leaders of the rebels
include Louis-Jodel Chamblain and Jean Pierre Baptiste, both members of a
paramilitary group that is accused of carrying out massacres and
assassinations in support of the 1991 coup.<br><br>
Why compensation?<br><br>
So what makes these men "freedom fighters" and deserving of
compensation for lost work? They got rid of Aristide, a former Catholic
priest who was widely backed by the poor to whom he once ministered. But
Aristide has been reviled by the country's elite, whose bidding the army
has historically done.<br><br>
In paying off the rebels, Latortue hopes to buy his government some time,
if not ultimately peace. He apparently believes that once their pockets
are filled with money from Haiti's cash-strapped government, the rebels
will lay down their weapons and go home.<br><br>
That's not likely to happen. Having cajoled Latortue into dipping deep
into the national treasury to satisfy their demands, there's little
chance that these terrorists will be satisfied. They know that once they
give up their weapons - and their control of pockets of Haiti - they will
lose their leverage with Latortue's government. Only defiance, not money,
will get them to do that.<br><br>
So far, the Bush administration - Latortue's patron - has not taken a
public stand on the Haitian government's attempt to end the insurgency by
throwing money at the band of thugs that ousted Aristide and now
threatens to undermine his replacement. That's too bad.<br><br>
Left to his own bad decision-making, Latortue has decided to appease
rather than confront Haiti's terrorists.<br><br>
DeWayne Wickham writes weekly for USA TODAY.<br><br>
<br>
******<br>
Forwarded by the Haitian Lawyers' Leadership Network<br>
******<br><br>
"Men anpil chay pa lou" is Kreyol for - "Many hands
make light a heavy load."<br><br>
<br>
</font><h3><b>See:</b></h3><font size=4>The Haitian Leadership
Networks' 7 "Men Anpil Chay Pa Lou" campaigns to help
restore Haiti's independence, the will of the mass electorate and the
rule of law. <br><br>
<br>
</font><h3><b>See:</b></h3><font size=4><a href="http://www.margueritelaurent.com/law/lawpress.html">http://www.margueritelaurent.com/law/lawpress.html</a><br>
<a href="http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/newsessaysreflections.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/newsessaysreflections.html<br>
</a></font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">The Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
</font><font size=3><a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">www.freedomarchives.org</a></font></body>
</html>