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Guy
Philippe - Wanted by DEA on drug charges
AP,
July 20, 2007
***************
U.S.
and Haiti to continue Joint Offensive,
AP, July 20, 2007
*********
The
Real Reason For the Raid
Monterey
Herald, July 27, 2007
***************
The
Issue With US-DEA War on Drugs in Haiti-Partisan Bias/enforcement
***************
From
Thug to Freedom Fighters,
COHA, Larry Birns and Seth
DeLong, December 14, 2004
***************
Haiti's
Desperate Women
*********
Quick
glimpse of misery
***************
The
Freedom of the Press Barons: The media and
the 2004 Haiti Coup,
(Guy Philippe says the media
helped him with the coup d'etat, a lot.) Dominionpaper.ca
,
February 1, 2007
***************
Randall
Robinson on " An Unbroken Agony: Haiti: From Revolution to
the Kidnapping of a President,
Democracy
Now!,
July 23rd, 2007
************
Haiti
Debates Homegrown Army
LA
Times , July
27, 2007
***************
Former
Haitian Leaders begin to stir
LA
Times , Sept.
2, 2007
***************
|
Dessalines
Is Rising!!
Ayisyen: You Are Not Alone!
*********************
RandallRobinson.com
*********************
Anyone
remember Haiti? by Bill Fletcher Jr. |Baltimore
Times |8/3/2007
*********
Letters
To LA Times about "Haiti Debates Homegrown Army"
***************
It's
Neither Hope nor Progress when the International Community is Running
Haiti
(See Ban Ki-moon's "Hope
At Last For Haiti")
***************
Media
Lies and Real Haiti News
***************
Former
Haitian Leaders begin to stir
LA Times ,
Sept. 2, 2007
***************
***************
Examples
of Neocolonial Journalism
***************
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To subscribe,
write to erzilidanto@yahoo.com |
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Carnegie
Hall
Video Clip |
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No
other national
group in the world
sends more money
than Haitians living
in the Diaspora |
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The
Red Sea |
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Ezili Dantò's master Haitian dance class (Video clip)
Ezili's
Dantò's
Haitian & West African Dance Troop
Clip
one -
Clip two
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So
Much Like Here- Jazzoetry CD audio clip
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Ezili Danto's
Witnessing
to Self

Update
on
Site Soley |
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RBM
Video Reel
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Haitian
immigrants
Angry with
Boat sinking
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A
group of Haitian migrants arrive in a bus after being
repatriated from the nearby Turks and Caicos Islands,
in Cap-Haitien, northern Haiti, Thursday, May 10, 2007.
They were part of the survivors of a sailing vessel crowded
with Haitian migrants that overturned Friday, May 4 in
moonlit waters a half-mile from shore in shark-infested
waters. Haitian migrants claim a Turks and Caicos naval
vessel rammed their crowded sailboat twice before it capsized.
(AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
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Dessalines'
Law
and Ideals
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Breaking
Sea Chains |
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Little
Girl
in the Yellow
Sunday Dress

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Anba
Dlo, Nan Ginen |
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Ezili
Danto's Art-With-The-Ancestors
Workshops - See, Red,
Black & Moonlight series or Haitian-West African
Clip
one -Clip
twoance performance |
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In
a series
of articles written for the October 17, 2006 bicentennial
commemoration of the life and works of Dessalines, I wrote
for HLLN that: "Haiti's liberator and founding father,
General Jean
Jacques Dessalines, said, "I Want
the Assets of the Country to be Equitably Divided"
and for that he was assassinated by the Mullato sons of France.
That
was the first coup d'etat, the Haitian holocaust - organized
exclusion
of the masses, misery, poverty and the impunity of the economic
elite
- continues (with Feb. 29, 2004 marking the 33rd coup d'etat).
Haiti's peoples continue to
resist the return of despots,
tyrants and enslavers who wage war on the poor
majority and Black, contain-them-in poverty through neocolonialism'
debts, "free trade" and foreign "investments."
These neocolonial tyrants refuse to allow an equitable division
of wealth, excluding the majority in Haiti from sharing in
the
country's wealth and assets."
(See
also, Kanga
Mundele: Our mission to live free or die trying, Another Haitian
Independence Day under occupation; The
Legacy of Impunity of One Sector-Who killed Dessalines?;
The Legacy of Impunity:The
Neoconlonialist inciting political instability is the problem.
Haiti is underdeveloped in crime, corruption, violence, compared
to other nations,
all, by Marguerite 'Ezili Dantò' Laurent |
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No
other national group in the world sends more money than Haitians
living in the Diaspora |
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***************
(Click
on this link
http://www.democracynow.org/
article.pl?sid=07/07/23/141241
then click on "Watch 128k stream" or "Watch 256k stream"
to view Democracy Now! video footage showing tens of thousands of Haitians
demonstrating recently (July 16, 2007) in Haiti for return of Aristide
and release of the political prisoners; footages of Aristide after the
US kidnapping on a plane back from Central African Republic on a plane
chartered by Congresswoman Maxine Waters and Randall Robinson, et al
to return Aristide and his Haiti's first lady to Jamaica for temporary
asylum, and footages of interview with Randall Robinson on his new book
on Haiti, et al....(Democracy Now!, July 23, 2007)
********
Democracy
Now! Interview with Randall Robinson on Haiti (Audio)
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Haiti,
U.S. to Continue Joint Offensives
By STEVENSON JACOBS
Associated Press Writer
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — President Rene Preval said Friday that
Haiti and the United States will continue joint offensives against drug
trafficking, which he described as the biggest threat to his impoverished
Caribbean country.
Preval's comments were his first public remarks since U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration agents and Haitian authorities launched a forceful crackdown
on suspected drug traffickers in two coastal towns earlier this week.
The agents arrested a Haitian businessman allegedly tied to cocaine
traffickers but failed to capture their main target,
former rebel leader and presidential candidate Guy Philippe, who is
believed to be in hiding.
Preval said the operation resulted from meetings he held recently with
DEA Administrator Karen Tandy, and said more actions are planned.
"These aren't operations we want to advertise. We're not going
to say what the next step is but there will be other steps," Preval
told reporters during a joint press conference with visiting Canadian
Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
He called drug traffickers "the single biggest destabilizing factor
facing weak countries like Haiti," which has only a few thousand
poorly paid police and a notoriously corrupt judicial system.
Shortly after dawn Monday, five helicopters, two airplanes and at least
a dozen DEA and Haitian agents converged on the southern town of Les
Cayes and the northwestern town of Gonaives, both known receiving points
for South American cocaine bound for the United States.
The agents raided Philippe's two-story home in Les Cayes but found only
his wife, two children and maid. Philippe led the 2004 rebellion that
toppled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and has denied past
accusations of drug trafficking.
A U.S. law enforcement official said authorities were surprised they
didn't find Philippe and had already prepared a press release announcing
his capture. The official requested anonymity because the operation
is ongoing.
Preval said other suspects have already been extradited to the United
States.
Preval did not name the extradited suspects, but Haitian media have
identified them as Lavaud Francois, a Gonaives-based businessman arrested
in the DEA raid; Bernard Piquion, who was arrested in May with several
Haitian policemen as they allegedly transported cocaine; and Raynald
Saint Pierre, a former lieutenant in Haiti's disbanded armed forces.
The U.S. investigation is led by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami
and the DEA.
___
July 20, 2007 - 5:18 p.m. Copyright 2007, The Associated Press.
*********************
Randall
Robinson on " An Unbroken Agony: Haiti: From Revolution to the
Kidnapping of a President |
Monday, July 23rd, 2007
| Democracy
Now!
See also:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/23/141241
; and
RandallRobinson.com.
*********************************************
|
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Haiti's desperate women
by Paul McPhun, Citizen Special | Ottawa
Citizen.com
Published: Wednesday, July 25, 2007
While, according to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office, the purpose
of his recent trip was to "establish new partnerships in the Americas
and enhance Canada's relationships in Latin America and the Caribbean,"
let's hope his stop in Haiti makes people notice that thatcountry is embroiled
in a significant humanitarian crisis that has previously been largely
ignored.
Haiti has the grim distinction of being the poorest country in the western
hemisphere and having the highest level of maternal mortality. This may
be difficult to believe, considering it is only a four-hour flight from
Montreal. Haitians continue to suffer the consequences of systemic and
insidious violence, and women are among the most vulnerable victims.
Despite elections in 2006 and the presence of a United Nations stabilization
mission, Haiti continued to experience regular outbursts of violence:
kidnappings, rape, organized crime and confrontations between armed groups
and UN forces.
Haitian women waited to vote in their country's presidential election
in 2006.
The country lacks such basic necessities as safe places to give birth,
Paul McPhun writes.
  |

|
Photo:
Haitian
women waited to vote in their country's presidential election
in 2006. The country lacks such basic necessities as safe places
to give birth, Paul McPhun writes.
Daniel Aguilar, Reuters |
In this context of severe political
and social instability, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) opened an emergency
obstetric-care hospital in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, in March
2006. MSF's Jude Anne Hospital serves women who have little access to
health care, who live in the poorest neighbourhoods of the city and
are thus most marginalized and at risk of violence.
MSF's experience tells us that women living in the slums of Port-au-Prince
are exposed to violence daily. An expectant mother from the Cite Soleil
slum could be sexually assaulted by a family member, a neighbour, a
gang member or other assailant. She might get caught in the crossfire
of a conflict between armed groups, or she might experience psychological
trauma due to the violence.
Because she lives in a gang-controlled slum, she could be ostracized
by people from other parts of Port-au-Prince who fear that she might
be associated with the gang. Perhaps the sole caregiver for her children,
she struggles against the increased vulnerability that comes with extreme
poverty. She is forgotten by her society and the international community.
These women have very little choice, if any, when they seek health care.
The health-care system in Haiti is accessible only to those who can
afford it and thus remains out of reach to women living in the poor
areas of the city. Medical services in public hospitals are too expensive
for the majority of expectant mothers. Should a baby be born by normal
delivery, the mother would have to pay a $13 fee at a public hospital
-- six times the average daily salary of a working Haitian, and completely
unaffordable for an unemployed mother, despite a declaration made two
years ago by the interim government that maternal care should be offered
for free.
Since MSF opened Jude Anne, more than 10,000 babies have been delivered,
which amounts to 20 per cent of the estimated births in Port-au-Prince.
Thousands of mothers seek care at this hospital because they cannot
access or afford to get treatment anywhere else in the city.
These figures clearly indicate a massive and ongoing need for emergency
obstetric care for women living in the slums of Port-au-Prince, and
a humanitarian crisis deserving of worldwide attention.
Paul McPhun is operational manager for Haiti for Medecins Sans Frontieres,
Canada.© The
Ottawa Citizen 2007
*************
Quick glimpse of misery in Haiti
Aug 03, 2007 04:30 AM
Carol Goar, TheStar.com
The emergency team at Jude Anne Hospital, which provides childbirth
care to Haiti's poorest women, no longer has to perform triage in the
parking lot. Médecins Sans Frontières, which opened the
hospital a year ago, has now added a second building.
That is how progress is measured in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's wretchedly
poor capital, said Paul McPhun grimly. He is operations manager for
the aid agency's Canadian section, which is responsible for the obstetric
hospital.
McPhun and his colleagues were pleased that Prime Minister Stephen Harper
visited Port-au-Prince two weeks ago on his tour of Latin America. They
would have liked it better if he'd come to their hospital.
"We have an obligation to show politicians the realities of life
in Haiti," he said. "We want people to see the humanitarian
crisis, not just the recent security gains."
It is true, McPhun admits, that the scale of violence in crime-ridden
Port-au-Prince has abated in the last year or so. But basic health services
remain out of reach for most Haitians. The country has the highest maternal
mortality rate in the Western Hemisphere.
Women simply can't afford hospital care. It costs $13 to deliver a baby
in a state hospital, assuming no complications. That is six times the
average daily wage of a Haitian who is lucky enough to have a job (60
per cent don't). A caesarean section costs $55, not counting drugs and
post-surgical care.
Jude Anne Hospital charges nothing. It is one of five free hospitals
run by Médecins Sans Frontières in the Haitian capital.
When it opened in March of 2006, the staff expected to handle 300 births
a month. By September, exhausted medical teams were delivering 1,300
babies a month – about one every half-hour.
That's when the parking lot became a makeshift triage centre.
It is not surprising that Harper didn't visit the facility. It does
not receive – or want – funding from the Canadian government.
For Médecins Sans Frontières, neutrality is essential.
"We are one of the few aid organizations that can go into the slums,"
McPhun explained. "That's because the people with the guns know
we are not affiliated with the police or the security forces, who receive
support from Canada and the United States."
Nor would the Prime Minister and his entourage have found photogenic
children or grateful aid recipients at Jude Anne Hospital. A mother
who gives birth there has little to look forward to.
She has a 35 per cent probability of dying before her 40th birthday.
Her child has a 12 per cent chance of dying before the age of 5.
She will live in one of Port-au-Prince's gang-controlled ghettos, where
the threat of sexual assault and armed conflict are ever-present. She
will probably be among the 56 per cent of Haitians who live on less
than $1 a day.
Harper got a glimpse of this misery as his motorcade, guarded by armed
United Nations soldiers, made its way through Cité Soleil, one
of the poorest neighbourhoods in Port-au-Prince. He visited a hospital
– Sainte-Catherine-de-Labouré – that receives funding
from the Canadian government. He delivered a blood analysis machine
to speed up its HIV/AIDS testing. He seemed genuinely moved by the hardship
around him.
"I think all of us, as fellow human beings, as people who have
our own families, can only begin to understand the true difficulties
and challenges that so many people in this country face on a day-to-day
basis," he said.
Harper stayed in Haiti for only six hours. His primary focus was improving
public security. He made no change in Canada's aid commitment of $100
million a year.
McPhun gives the Prime Minister credit for going to Port-au-Prince.
"I think a high-profile visit can only be a positive thing."
But he wishes Harper had stayed longer, seen more and recognized that
healthy babies matter as much as safe streets.
|
|
***********************
Haiti: Former Rebel Leader Remains
On The Lam
Hardbeatnews,
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Tues. July 24, 2007: Former Haitian rebel leader,
Guy Philippe, who gained popularity for his assistance in the ouster
of President Jean Bertrand Aristide, now claims a game is being played
to “eliminate” him.
Philippe, who remains in hiding after U.S. anti-drug agents raided his
home on July 16th, insists in a taped audio message that he has no links
to drug trafficking.
In the message delivered and aired on Radio Caraibes, Haiti's most widely
heard radio station, Philippe insists, “Clearly this is a political
game that is happening. They're trying to destroy me; they're trying
to eliminate me.”
The radio station said an unidentified individual delivered the recording
on a CD Saturday.
Philippe’s home in the coastal city of Les Cayes was raided by
US agents and Haitian police last week but he managed to escape and
remains on the lam.
Haitian cops say a warrant has been issued for Philippe’s arrest
on drug trafficking charges. – Hardbeatnews.com
|
Reprinted
from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com
US forces tried capturing Haitian rebel
Published on Monday, July 23, 2007
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (UPI): US forces out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
used helicopters and jets to try to capture a former Haitian rebel leader
accused of trafficking drugs.
However, Guy Philippe -- who ran for president of Haiti in 2006 -- was
not recovered by US Drug Enforcement Agency officials and is said to
be hiding, The Miami Herald reported Friday.
The 39-year-old Philippe in February 2004 led an insurrection that prompted
former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to leave Haiti.
********
Copyright© 2007 Caribbean Net News at www.caribbeannetnews.com
All Rights Reserved, Licence is granted for free print and distribution.
*********************
Real reason for Haiti
raid
JOHN YEWELL
Monterey County Herald
Article Last Updated:07/26/2007 01:26:51 AM PDT
There were new suggestions this week that a raid 10 days ago by Haitian
police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration may have been an
attempt to silence one of the leaders of a 2004 coup that toppled Haitian
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide — a coup many believe was orchestrated
by the United States.
Guy Philippe, the target of the raid, avoided capture and is now in
hiding. He has since been heard on Haitian radio claiming his attempted
arrest was for political reasons.
Between his alleged drug affiliations and human rights abuses, Philippe
has few friends in the government of current Haitian President Rene
Preval or in the United States. But according to a report this week
by Kevin Pina, writing for the Haiti Information Project, there may
be another explanation for the DEA grab.
According to Pina, on May 27, after the arrest of Wilfort Ferdinand,
another coup participant, Philippe went on Haitian radio and "began
to name names of business and political leaders who backed the paramilitary
insurgency against Aristide's government by providing arms, ammunition
and logistical support."
"High on (Philippe's) list," Pina continued, "was Andy
Apaid, the leader of the civil society organization called the Group
184."
Seven weeks after Philippe's radio broadcast, the DEA went after him.
In July 2004, Salon reported that Group 184, along with a group called
the Democratic Convergence, was supported by the International Republican
Institute, dominated by Bush loyalists and funded by the National Endowment
for Democracy, the U.S. Agency for International Development and conservative
groups.
Aristide's supporters have long suspected American support in the overthrow
of his democratically elected government. Now here is Philippe, a man
they had vilified, pointing a finger that leads to the U.S. government.
Salon quotes Thayer Scott, then communications director for the IRI,
saying that the "IRI played an advisory role in Group of 184's
formation." Hardliners in Group 184, Salon reported, "tapped
Guy Philippe, a U.S.-trained former Haitian police chief with a dubious
human rights record," to lead a coup.
The IRI's liaison to the Haitian opposition was Stanley Lucas, who,
according to the New York Times, was accused by U.S. Ambassador Dean
Curran of undermining diplomatic efforts in Haiti. The IRI denies this.
"Stanley Lucas was not IRI's 'point man in Haiti,'" said Lisa
Gates, IRI press secretary, in an e-mail to The Herald. "In fact,
IRI was not operating in Haiti during the time in question."
That's not what the Bush administration was saying. During a Senate
hearing on March 10, 2004, 10 days after Aristide's overthrow, Sen.
Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., asked Roger Noriega, then assistant secretary
of state for the Western Hemisphere, about a USAID grant to the IRI
that specifically limited Lucas' activities.
"The approval of the new grant was conditioned on the IRI (Haiti)
director, Stanley Lucas, being barred from participating in this program
for a period of time because the U.S. ambassador in Haiti had evidence
that he was undermining U.S. efforts," according to Salon. "Is
that not true as well?" Dodd asked Noriega.
"Yes, sir," Noriega said.
"Is Stanley Lucas still involved?" asked Dodd.
"As far as I know, he is still part of the program," Noriega
replied.
The connection between Lucas and Philippe is less clear. Philippe says
they are old friends, and the Times suggests there is circumstantial
evidence the two worked together. The IRI says the USAID investigated
their alleged connection in 2004 and found "no evidence."
But USAID, which has international skeletons in its own closet, shares
political sympathies with the IRI. Claiming it exonerates the IRI is
a little like Bush's 2000 election being certified by Katherine Harris,
who was Florida's secretary of state at the same time as she served
as the co-chairwoman of Bush's Florida campaign.
Without question, Philippe and Lucas shared contacts among Aristide's
opponents, and Andy Apaid may have been the fulcrum. Within 24 hours
of Apaid rejecting a political compromise with Aristide, according to
Salon, Philippe launched his coup, which ended with the U.S. hustling
Aristide out of the country against his will.
And if Pina is right, Aristide's opponents, including the IRI, might
be plenty nervous with a talkative Philippe on the run.
John Yewell is The Herald's night city editor. His column runs Thursdays.
He can be reached at jyewell@montereyherald.com.
|
********************* |
Anyone
remember Haiti?
by Bill Fletcher Jr.| Baltimore Times |Originally posted 8/3/2007
One of the most striking features of the mainstream US media is its ability
to 'disappear' certain issues and stories irrespective of their importance.
Case in point: Haiti. For all intents and purposes, Haiti has vanished
from public view. With the notable exception of Randall Robinson's new
and well-received book, An Unbroken Agony: Haiti from Revolution to the
Kidnapping of a President, there is almost nothing out there that would
give one any sense of what has been happening in Haiti since the 2006
electoral victory of Rene Preval, let alone the developments that transpired
during and after the February 29, 2004 US-assisted coup that overthrew
democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Unless one is studying the actual situation in Haiti, the most that the
casual?and even interested?US observer would gather is that Haiti is in
near continuous chaos. The information provided to us here in the USA
is so weak and partial that one is inclined to throw one's hands up in
the air and proclaim that it is all too messy to understand.
Yet, the situation is far more complicated than we have been led to believe.
Most recently a story broke with the assistance of the Haiti Information
Project (www.teledyol.net/HIP/about.html). Guy Philippe, one of the principal
leaders of the coup against President Aristide, appears to have begun
a new career singing: he has been 'singing' about the individuals and
organizations that helped to back the 2004 coup against Aristide.
Philippe, and his former aide Wilfort Ferdinand, alleged that they were
currently being pressured to take up arms and overthrow the Preval administration.
For whatever reason, Philippe went on to name names, including many prominent
individuals from within the historic ruling elite of Haiti, as well as
additional forces that had been involved in the supposed 'peaceful' opposition
to President Aristide pre-February 2004.
Interestingly enough, shortly after Philippe began to 'sing,' Haitian
police and the US Drug Enforcement Administration apparently decided that
Philippe was part of an illegal narcotics operation. They then moved to
have him arrested. It appears that Philippe has been on the run ever since.
There are several interesting things about this story. The first is that
it starts to sound a lot like that of Panama's former President Manual
Noriega who, after being a very loyal US-paid operative, was turned upon
by his former sponsors and illegally snatched from office in 1989. History
definitely seems to repeat itself.
The second piece of interest is that Philippe confirmed what many of us
thought all along, i.e., that much of the alleged 'peaceful opposition'
to President Aristide was nothing of the sort, but was rather one wing
of a combined US-backed destabilization operation aimed at the ouster
of the democratically elected chief of state.
Once again the mainstream US media served the interests of the dominant
forces in US foreign policy who seek the removal of any leader deemed
to be the slightest bit independent and prone towards policies that the
US finds objectionable. Rather than taking a critical eye towards events,
the mainstream US media, when it came to Haiti, largely served as the
mouthpiece of the Bush administration as it ratcheted up the pressure
on Aristide, ultimately swooping him up and into a brief forced exile
in the Central African Republic [Note: President and Mrs. Aristide currently
reside in exile in South Africa, conditions far different-for the better-than
those they encountered in the Central African Republic].
The third piece takes us full circle. When US policy has been discredited,
it is often easier for the mainstream US media to completely ignore the
'facts on the ground.' Thus, we get this ?code of silence? over Haiti,
which only the most dedicated observers (particularly within the Haitian
exile community in the USA) are able to penetrate. Even then, with facts
in hand, these voices are largely ignored.
It is for these and other reasons that African-American media outlets,
whether printed, radio, television or Internet, become so vital in revealing
the truth.
Haiti has not faded away. Rather the crimes that have been perpetrated
against the people of Haiti, in our name, continue only with a veil of
secrecy and indifference. The time has certainly come to rip away that
veil.
*
Bill Fletcher, Jr. is an international and labor writer and activist.
He is the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum and can be reached
at papaq54@hotmail.com
Source:
http://www.btimes.com/news/Article/Article.asp?NewsID=81110&sID=16
*********************
See also: The
Issue With US-DEA War on Drugs in Haiti-Partisan Bias/enforcement
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/drugs.html
It's
Neither Hope nor Progress when the International Community is Running
Haiti
(See Ban Ki-moon's "Hope
At Last For Haiti")
***************
Media
Lies and Real Haiti News
***************
|
*********************
The Freedom of the Press Barons
The media and the 2004 Haiti coup
by Isabel Macdonald, February
1, 2007
The
Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca
http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/976
|

|
Anne-Marie
Issa, Director of Radio Signal FM, Vice President of the Association
Nationale des Medias Haitiens, and Steering Committee Member of
the Group of 184
|
In
February 2004, the US, Canadian and French governments supported an
illegal
coup d’etat that overthrew Haiti’s democratically elected
government of the Lavalas party, led by Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In late
2003, “civil society” groups--financed and supported through
US and Canadian government-funded “democracy enhancement”
programs--began calling for Aristide’s ouster. They were joined
in early February 2004 by armed terror squads. In the pre-dawn hours
of February 29, 2004, President Jean Bertrand Aristide, who had been
elected with 92 per cent of the popular vote, was forcibly removed from
Haiti on a US government airplane, while Canada’s Joint Task Force
2 secured the airport.
Critics of the 2004 coup d’etat in Haiti have argued that biased
international media coverage played a role in justifying the coup and
Canada’s involvement. However, in interviews that I conducted
as part of a research trip to Haiti in late 2005 and early 2006, many
of the leaders of the US, Canadian and French government-backed movement
that toppled Haiti’s elected government went much further in their
assessment of the media’s role of the media in the coup.
In the eyes of Guy Philippe, the US Special Forces-trained commander
who led the armed movement against Aristide, the “international
media, the media leaders helped us a lot. And thanks to them we were
able to overthrow the dictator. And without them I don’t think
that we could have.” Leaders of the aforementioned “civil
society” groups also emphasized that the media were very important
in their movement. The Association National des Medias Haitiens (ANMH),
an association of the owners of the largest Haitian commercial media
stations in Port-au-Prince, was formally a member of the anti-Aristide
“civil society” coalition. In the lead-up to the coup, the
ANMH, which meets weekly, acted as a space of “co-ordination,
decision making, enabling the different commercial media outlets to
forge agreements” and enabling a “very strong impact on
public opinion,” according to one of its members. As the association’s
vice president explained, “It was our own way as the media to
combat the dictatorship”. She added that the ANMH media owners
"made it our job to cover all the demonstrations" against
Aristide.
Many anti-Aristide demonstration organizers report that they were able
to advertise their events for free on these stations, and many of the
184-affiliated media organizations had a policy of refraining from identifying
the anti-Aristide demonstrators’ numbers (particularly if they
were not impressive). As one ANMH media owner explained, “we always
support the pro-democracy demonstrations,” and “sometimes
we advance fantastical numbers because we don’t want the public
to draw the wrong conclusion.” He added that if a group has 10
people but they want you to say 2000 or 300,000, if you say 10…you
can make enemies, you can damage the group and their credibility. It
can create animosity, so it’s better not to talk about…if
the media are interested in the greatest number of people coming out…they
will talk about how [the demonstration] is just starting.
In this context, one anti-Aristide demonstration organizer reports that
at one demonstration in January 2003, “we were 20,” but
when they called in to the radio, “we said we were thousands.”
In contrast, many Haitian commercial media organizations did not cover
the pro-Lavalas demonstrations that were taking place around the same
time and which were, according to independent journalist Kevin Pina,
often much larger in size.
In fact, in the lead-up to the coup, they instituted an ANMH-wide ban
barring Aristide, the president of Haiti, from speaking on the airwaves.
When the ANMH stations
did provide coverage of pro-Lavalas events, meaningful media access
for Lavalas-affiliated organizers was completely precluded. The ANMH’s
Radio Signal FM continued to report on Lavalas events; however, the
goal of this coverage was, in the words of one of its journalists, “to
be there at the chimere’s[an epithet commonly used to refer to
Lavalas supporters as gangsters] demonstrations because [we] had to
inform the population that there was a risk…Aristide’s partisans
are known to be violent and we described their violence—that’s
all.” ANMH journalists whom I interviewed reported heavy editorial
pressures from their bosses.
Several Canadian and international newswire journalists told me they
relied on the ANMH radio stations, particularly the association’s
Radio Metropole station, around the time of the coup. One deputy bureau
chief at a major international newswire agency stated that the agency’s
staff reporter in Haiti “relied heavily on Radio… Metropole,
[sweatshop owner and coup leader André] Apaid’s radio stations;”
it made him “wonder if we could trust any of what we’d been
reporting.” However, many international journalists, including
Canadian journalists, were relying on this wire service in the lead-up
to the coup.
Canadian journalists’ reliance on ANMH sources has a broader institutional
dimension. The Haitian media owners’ association has a longstanding
relationship with Reseau Liberté, an NGO whose staff includes
CBC and Radio Canada journalists, and which is financed by the Canadian
International Development Agency (CIDA). According to CIDA, this Canadian
tax-payer funded alliance between Canadian journalists and the anti-Aristide
media owners cartel is sowing the seeds for the development of “professional
journalism,” which is a cornerstone of the Canadian government’s
promotion of “democracy” in Haiti. US and Canadian government-sponsored
“democracy promotion” is generally acknowledged by critical
researchers to promote a model of rule by elites, in which popular participation
is curbed. In other words, these programs seek to export the very same
undemocratic systems that are a hallmark of political life in the US
and Canada. It could be said that Canada promotes the “professional
journalism” needed for “democracy” by supporting the
Haitian equivalents of Conrad Black.
*
See also:
Examples
of Neocolonial Journalism
***************
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http://www.latimes.com/news/
na tionworld/world/latinamerica/
la-fg-haitiarmy30jul30,1 ,7087357.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Haiti debates a homegrown army
The country today is patrolled by U.N. troops. 'We should be doing this
for ourselves,' some say.
By Carol J. Williams
Times Staff Writer
July 30, 2007
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — "In this land, we are the only masters,"
the Haitian national anthem proudly boasts of this country that in 1804
overthrew slavery and colonization.
But for more than a dozen years, Haiti has been without an army, dependent
on a politicized national police force and foreign troops of the United
Nations who protect its leaders, respond to natural disasters and quell
violence in some of the hemisphere's most wretched slums.
That galls Joseph Alexandre, a 49-year-old lawyer who saw his military
career and family heritage of service abruptly end in 1995 when then-President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide disbanded the army that had been complicit in
his 1991 ouster.
"We should be doing this for ourselves," Alexandre, who holds
the rank of major, said of patrols here by U.N. military units from
Nepal, Croatia, Bolivia and more than a dozen other countries. "Each
time I have to pass foreign soldiers in our streets, it's like a knife
stabs me in the heart."
With its history of military rule and the involvement of politically
corrupted army factions in numerous coups, Haiti has a tainted legacy
of leadership in uniform. But as security has improved in recent months
and Haitian government institutions recover from three decades of political
turmoil, talk has turned to reconstituting the national army born of
the slave rebellion.
A citizens commission impaneled two years ago to explore the pros and
cons of rebuilding the army concluded in its recent report that this
nation of 8 million, with more than 1,100 miles of coastline and a 223-mile
border with the Dominican Republic, could and should have its own armed
forces. A New York management consultancy, Fordworks Associates, also
recommended in a review commissioned by the post-Aristide interim government
that Haiti create a limited national armed force to handle border, coastal
and international security affairs.
The proposals pleased former soldiers and nationalists but met with
little enthusiasm in the fledgling government of President Rene Preval.
During last year's presidential campaign, Preval suggested that the
army be permanently abolished.
Aristide's 1995 action demobilized the 7,500 troops then in service
but failed to address the constitutional requirement that Haiti stand
up both police and defense forces. Preval's parliamentary faction has
ordered further study of the army issue by a panel of experts yet to
be named, putting off any formal decision for months, if not years.
The recommendations have nonetheless stirred public debate, at least
among the country's economic, social and political leaders increasingly
chafing under the ever-expanding foreign military presence.
Georges Michel, a historian and writer who served on the citizens commission,
believes Haiti would benefit from a small armed force, commensurate
with its resources, to patrol the coastline and Dominican border, through
which Colombian cocaine makes its way to Europe and the United States
and contraband weapons flow to a worldwide array of hot spots.
A force of about 2,000 would be both affordable and sufficient, Michel
said, describing the overstaffed U.N. mission as wasteful and lacking
in the motivation that Haitians have to protect their homeland. He said
he had been in contact with officials of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
who are prepared to help train a Haitian force once its structure is
reformed to make it less susceptible to political manipulation.
"We are actually quite happy that Aristide erased the blackboard
so completely so we can start with a blank page," Michel said.
Still, he expects the preparation of a new force to take at least five
years, if an army should ever be approved.
With unemployment afflicting at least 70% of the population, there is
broadening sentiment that an army would offer work to young Haitians
and restore a professional path proudly trod by generations.
"Military service was always a career option for those who wanted
to serve their country and a way to better oneself socially and economically,"
said Francois Rodnez, who has worked as a teacher since Aristide's action
ended a 15-year military career.
"We had an army for almost two centuries before one man chose to
disband
it," said Maurice Lafortune, a businessman who served on the citizens
panel. "It was an institution mistrusted by one man, not by all
Haitians."
Opponents of restoring the armed forces, including Aristide's former
interior minister, Jocelerme Privert, argue that Haiti can ill afford
to bankroll its own defense.
The U.N. mission's annual price tag now tops $500 million — the
equivalent of Haiti's entire budget.
"We have to choose between buying tanks and helicopters or building
schools and hospitals," said Privert, one of the few Aristide lieutenants
still in Haiti trying to navigate the new political waters.
Preval has said he expects U.N. forces to remain in Haiti throughout
his presidency, which runs to February 2011, to maintain peace and security
while his government struggles to resuscitate an economy that is the
poorest in the Americas.
A major component of the U.N. mission is the training and equipping
of the Haitian National Police, which will need another six or seven
years to reach its goal of 14,000 officers, said Fred Blaise, spokesman
for the U.N. police, which make up about one-fifth of the foreign forces.
Blaise, a Boca Raton, Fla., police officer on leave to help the U.N.
mission in his native Haiti, argues that putting together an army at
this point would be a distraction and a drain on resources.
"I can envision, after the Haitian National Police reach their
numbers, that the country could use some kind of national guard to respond
to disasters," he said. "But it's premature to talk about
an army."
Former soldiers such as Alexandre disagree.
"We are ready to put on our uniforms tomorrow," the lawyer
said of a 2,500 strong former soldiers association. "Our only reservation
is that after so many years, some of them may be too tight."
carol.williams@latimes.com
******************************************
|
******************************************
LA Times on a Haitian Army -
An example of how LA
Times spin the truth, manipulates information, promotes the views of
the Haitian elites and Bush Neocons and sell it to their unwary readers
as the "Haiti's view"
Ezili Dantò's Note on the LA Times'
bias coverage of Haiti news, August 7, 2007
Below are two "Letters to the Editor" (one from Joan W. Drake
and the other
from Ezili’s HLLN) published on August 6, 2007, by the LA Times.
Both letters
are responding to a July 27, 2007 LA Times article, written by LA Times
reporter, Carol J. Williams entitled "Haiti
Debates Homegrown Army"
Notice how in printing Marguerite Laurent/HLLN's letter to the editor,
the LA
Times fairly gutted the original to edit out our opinion that the LA
Times
has a history of voicing the minority perspective of the tiny morally
repugnant Haitian elites and dishing it up to the American public as
"Haiti's" view, while simultaneously pushing the Bush State
Department
propagandas and profit-over-people policies in Haiti.
In this case, though the LA Times has deigned to print our criticism,
the
portions it deleted illustrates and emphasizes how it is still merrily
continuing its shabby and bias coverage of Haiti along with sneakily
and
self-servingly appearing to generously print opposing views to unwary
readers
who have no idea what was deleted or edited out.
Contrary to the article's spins, HAITI is NOT debating the desirability
of
remobilizing the Haitian army. The Bush State Department and the Haitian
sycophants and unelected Haitian “technocrats” and “experts”
imposed on
Haiti, brought there by the 2004 Bush-orchestrated coup d'etat and carried
into office while Haiti was under occupation, they are the ones needing
the
bloody Haitian army and foreign forces to maintain their control over
the
Haitian masses. They are the ones discussing and trying hard to push
forward
with re-establishing the Haitian army, over, that is, the objection
of the
majority of Haitians. But you won't learn this from reading Carol Williams’
article on Haiti. That article tells the opposite of what's true in
Haiti. It
puts forward the wishes of the Haitian elites, coup d’etat folks
and U.S.
State Department in an effort to manufacture consent and acceptance
for
another US-made Haitian army in Haiti.
Below, we copy HLLN's original letter to the LA Times, in its entirety.First,
notice how the LA Times completely deleted our comment about Williams’
presumptions and implication that President Aristide alone, (like a
dictator), de-mobilized the bloody Haitian army without the Haitian
masses’
full blessings and favor.
Then, remember how Williams’ article had cited a report commissioned
two
years ago (in 2005) under the Latortue Regime by a “citizen commission”
as if the imposed Boca Raton regime was a legitimate Haitian government
able to voice the views of Haiti’s citizens and not a US puppet
government, imposed through force, on the people of Haiti. Two years
ago, when the masses of Haiti’s citizens had no liberty whatsoever
and where being slaughtered in the poor and populous neighborhoods,
and where fighting for their lives against the remnants of the former
Haitian military and paramilitaries given jobs and integrated in
Haiti, as “police” by the US/UN occupiers, this was when
the then in-power
U.S. puppet government (interim government) and officials, most of whom
still, today, hold their same political positions in Haiti and abroad,
concluded Haiti should have its own armed forces and commissioned the
report
recommending to remobilize the Haitian army.
Finally, combine this with Ms. Williams inexcusable errors (i.e. Ms.
Carol J.
Williams completely spun a tall tale, virtually writing that the demobilized
Haitian army was a "homegrown army,” that is, “the
national army born of the
slave rebellion.”) and you’ll see how the LA Times cleverly
manipulates
information to express the views of the Haitian elites, but sells it
as the
national Haiti view.
The LA Times double standards and biases are obvious. Its paper has
liberally
criticized President Aristide and his U.S.-ousted government. But even
in the
portions of HLLN's letter, which the LA Times chose to print, its editorial
board, tellingly edited out the names HLLN cited of the "tainted...Haiti
leadership (in uniform)" - the military tyrants of Haiti (Cedras,
Philippe,
Francois), trained by the United States of America. Thus, blunting,
obfuscating our criticism, cuddling the Bush/Neocon State Department
and
covering up the Haitian elite’s tyrannical role in present day
Haiti.
Marguerite "Ezili Dantò" Laurent, Esq.
Chair, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN)
August 7, 2007
******************************************
******************************************
Printed Letters To The Editor, from LA
Times
******************************************
Let Haiti decide what it needs
- Re "Haiti
debates having a homegrown army,"
July 30
The Haitian army was not homegrown. It was formed by an act of the U.S.
Congress. Its most memorable officers were only distinguished by their
bloody history of disenfranchising and suppressing the interests of
Haiti's masses on behalf of the economic elite they protected and the
U.S. interests they were created to secure. The people of Haiti suffered
unimaginable torture, arbitrariness and death under the former Haitian
army, which never defended the interests of Haiti, but only those of
its creator, the U.S.
Marguerite Laurent Stamford, Conn. The writer is the founder of the
Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network.
****
- In response to your article on a Haitian army, I can only ask, why
would Haiti choose to fund an army when it cannot fund a national infrastructure?
Haiti lacks schools, hospitals, roads, potable water and sewage systems,
and adequate electric power, not to mention jobs.
Haiti is very unlikely to enter into international combat with a 2,000-member
force and, if attacked with modern weapons systems, would have fragile
defenses specifically because it lacks the items mentioned.
Lacking roads, power and an educated and literate public sector workforce,
Haiti is unlikely to be able to staff an efficient and ready armed force
of any strength sufficient to ward off an attack either from without
or within.
You refer to a study commissioned with a New York City firm under Haiti's
previous administration that recommends an army. I rather think that
President Rene Preval is in a better position to determine the needs
of his country.
Joan W. Drake Washington
******************************************
******************************************
Original HLLN Letter to LA Times:
Dear Editor,
In an article entitled "Haiti
Debates Homegrown Army",
Ms. Carol Williams of the LA Times writes, "...talk has turned
to reconstituting the national army born of the slave rebellion."
The Haitian army, Carol Williams, is writing about, was not HOMEGROWN,
it was formed by an Act of US Congress while Haiti was under occupation
for nineteen years (1915-1934). It's most memorable officers (Cedras,
Michelle Francois) were all trained at Fort Bening in Georgia or by
US Special Forces (Guy Philippe) and are only distinguished by their
bloody history of disenfranchising and suppressing the interests of
Haiti's masses on behalf of the rich multinational corporations and
the economic elites in Haiti they protected and the US interests they
were created to secure. Ms. Williams writes a gross lie, shows tremendous
incompetence and insults Haiti's great warrior ancestors, who took up
arms against Euro-US slavery and colonialism, when she identifies this
foreign-created Haitian army as "the national army born of the
slave rebellion." Also, contrary to the information in the article,
President Aristide did not get rid of the US-created Haitian army nonchalantly
as an arbitrary one-man decision as Williams indicates.... The people
of Haiti suffered unimaginable torture, arbitrariness and death under
the former Haitian army and after a US/Bush-sponsored Coup d'etat in
1991, which cost more than 5,000 Haitian lives, the PEOPLE of Haiti
wanted nothing to do with the bloody Haitian army that NEVER defended
the interests of Haiti, but that of its creator, the U.S.
One can only surmise that Ms. Carol Williams is either careless in her
writings or that the LA Times is purposely taking on the State Department's
interests to re-mobilize the bloody Haitian army to serve its neoliberalism
purposes and sweatshop kingpins interests in Haiti. How do such embedded
journalists keep a straight face, for as usual, they quote Haitians
with a vested interest in the Haitian army's remobilization and not
any of their millions of innocent Haitian victims.
Marguerite Laurent, Esq.
Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network ("HLLN")
August 1, 2007
www.ezilidanto.com
See also: It's
Neither Hope nor Progress when the International Community is Running
Haiti
(See Ban Ki-moon's "Hope
At Last For Haiti")
***************
Media
Lies and Real Haiti News
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Vodun: The Light and Beauty of Haiti
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/ezilidanto_bio.html
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Dessalines
Is Rising!!
Ayisyen: You Are Not Alone!
"When you make a choice,
you mobilize vast human energies and resources which otherwise go untapped...........If
you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you
disconnect yourself from what you truly want and all that is left is
a compromise." Robert Fritz
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