HAITI: Who Killed Who And Why?

[Dirk39]

investigator, 08.03.2004 20:47

Six people were killed yesterday at at an anti-Aristide demonstration in Haiti.
This has been blamed on pro-Aristide gunmen but where is the proof?


By far the largest demonstrations in the streets of Haiti over the last week have been in support of ousted President Aristide who remains in exile in the Central African Republic. This is the case despite the fact that the corporate media have been generally going along with the US administration's cleched storyline of 'evil dictator toppled by popular uprising'and the US and French military have allowed Phillipe to continue to terrorise the population of Haiti with armed mercenaries.

Todays CAR international press conference by Aristide, brought about by the pressure of pro-Aristide activists on the CAR govt has helped to challenge this line in the media and make it less a clear truth and more a clear example of US spin. The events surrounding Aristides departure now bring to mind the words of another US gangster 'we made him an offer he couldn't refuse.'

Yesterday a smaller demonstration by anti-Aristide coup supporters was met with violence when six people were shot dead. The anti-Aristide organisers were openly angry at the US force for lack of protection and 'being no-where to be seen'.

Today, as if in reply, it was reported by the BBC that 'A US spokesman said on Monday that one of the six people killed was shot by US marines who were returning fire at gunmen.' http://www.bbcnews.co.uk. However no reports of the identity of the killed gunman have yet been published by the US.

Another more sinister story is also possible. If we believe Aristide when he accuses the US govt of kidnapping him and of lying to the world when they say he resigned, then it is not too far fetched to imagine a CIA special forces unit under the command of the same decision makers who forced Aristide out, predicting the prospect of media reports of a smaller demonstration against Aristide than the one for him, as a problem that needs to be addressed.

It is then, a gruesomely convenient event for the US Govt. when the most important aspect of the demonstration reported is not the smaller turnout than at the pro-Aristide one, but the fact that six people were shot dead.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/world/2004/03/286586.html

Hello from Germany,
Dirk

[seemslikeadream]

1. Dirk you should discuss this with Tinoire

in LBN

[sylvlake]

2. Missing the Point what is the Point

Hati is a mess, an intentional mess, a rabbit to be pulled from the
hat when the time is appropriate. Red herring or albortross of old
american impirialism, its a distraction of attention. I imagian that the
people of Hati would like to think that their suffering is more than
that, but alas such is the case. Only the French, Oil discovery, or an
unusual change of sociological attitude can solve the problems of
Hati. They are the orphans of Americas shadow.

[Lis]

3. Haiti

I have put together a lot of information on Haiti here: http://www.bush2.net/haiti.htm - I think the U.S. has acted totally sketchy about this whole situation.

[seemslikeadream]

4. Noam Chomsky Must Read! US-Haiti, An Analysis

Noam Chomsky Must Read! US-Haiti, An Analysis
By Noam Chomsky
Mar 9, 2004, 15:51

Those who have any concern for Haiti will naturally want to understand how its most recent tragedy has been unfolding. And for those who have had the privilege of any contact with the people of this tortured land, it is not just natural but inescapable. Nevertheless, we make a serious error if we focus too narrowly on the events of the recent past, or even on Haiti alone. The crucial issue for us is what we should be doing about what is taking place. That would be true even if our options and our responsibility were limited; far more so when they are immense and decisive, as in the case of Haiti. And even more so because the course of the terrible story was predictable years ago -- if we failed to act to prevent it. And fail we did. The lessons are clear, and so important that they would be the topic of daily front-page articles in a free press.

The basic contours of what led to the current tragedy are pretty clear. Just beginning with the 1990 election of Aristide (far too narrow a time frame), Washington was appalled by the election of a populist candidate with a grass-roots constituency just as it had been appalled by the prospect of the hemisphere's first free country on its doorstep two centuries earlier. Washington's traditional allies in Haiti naturally agreed. "The fear of democracy exists, by definitional necessity, in elite groups who monopolize economic and political power," Bellegarde-Smith observes in his perceptive history of Haiti; whether in Haiti or the US or anywhere else.

The threat of democracy in Haiti in 1991 was even more ominous because of the favorable reaction of the international financial institutions (World Bank, IADB) to Aristide's programs, which awakened traditional concerns over the "virus" effect of successful independent development. These are familiar themes in international affairs: American independence aroused similar concerns among European leaders. The dangers are commonly perceived to be particularly grave in a country like Haiti, which had been ravaged by France and then reduced to utter misery by a century of US intervention. If even people in such dire circumstances can take their fate into their own hands, who knows what might happen elsewhere as the "contagion spreads."

The Bush I administration reacted to the disaster of democracy by shifting aid from the democratically elected government to what are called "democratic forces": the wealthy elites and the business sectors, who, along with the murderers and torturers of the military and paramilitaries, had been lauded by the current incumbents in Washington, in their Reaganite phase, for their progress in "democratic development," justifying lavish new aid. The praise came in response to ratification by the Haitian parliament of a law granting Washington's client killer and torturer Baby Doc Duvalier the authority to suspend the rights of any political party without reasons. The law passed by a majority of 99.98%. It therefore marked a positive step towards democracy as compared with the 99% approval of a 1918 law granting US corporations the right to turn the country into a US plantation, passed by 5% of the population after the Haitian Parliament was disbanded at gunpoint by Wilson's Marines when it refused to accept this "progressive measure," essential for "economic development." Their reaction to Baby Doc's encouraging progress towards democracy was characteristic - worldwide -- on the part of the visionaries who are now entrancing educated opinion with their dedication to bringing democracy to a suffering world - although, to be sure, their actual exploits are being tastefully rewritten to satisfy current needs.


http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_5557.shtml

[sylvlake]

5. Hope from Afar

Help Hati,
I mean for real. We (in the US) are in the throws of our own struggle for
democracy. What can we do, given our obvious racial bias towards this county.
Set up another puppet dictatorship, rig more elections, how much time
can you expect to be spent by an increasingly inconvienenced public on a half
island country that has been painted with such a dispariging brush.
Hati must fix itself with the help of the african american public of the U.S. or
France, or the U.K.. Know one else is going to Help, or for that matter give a
damn. The international community? Which has done what latley, except
aided the invasion of sovregin nations.

[Zorra]

6. Republicans orchestrate coups and start

wars. It's what they do. They interfere with other countries and their governments. Venezuela is probably next; you can bet that they are already working on it. Republicans send their School of the Americas thugs everywhere in the third world, vicious, ruthless, trained assassins that will kill anyone in order to disrupt any government that refuses to be a puppet of the US.

I'm sure we pay them very well.