Civil unrest in Haiti

[Agent provocateur]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/02/...i.ap/index.html (http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/02/08/haiti.ap/index.html)


I hold France, the U.S. and elitist Haitian imperialist collaborators responsible for Haiti's woes.

[DeadMan]

I beleive they have started a civil war. But you know, the US will probably stick there nose in and turn it into some Republic's Revolution mayhem. Isn't Haiti currently under US backed control?

DeadMan.

[Pete]

From what I have been reading on CBC and Globe and Mail I do not know what to think. It seems that you have a populist turned power-grabber against former military people who established a military dicatorship in the early 90's and a popular revolt. All at the same time. And it seems that the latter two are in some kind of alliance.

Quite a confusing situation I would say.

Who is responsible? I have no clue.

Can anyone fill me in on the President? What is his ideology, and the 'rebels?' What are thier ideologies?


Isn't Haiti currently under US backed control

From what I understand the popularly elected president was ousted by a military coup, and then reinstated with international, mostly US, support. Then he gave up power as was the constitutional case in Haiti. His successor served for his term, then the current president (Artiside or somethinglike that) was reelected for a second term, and now he has revolt on his hands as the opposition boycotted the last elections and they were deemed unfair by observers.

So yes he is US backed... but.. I don't know. The situation is beyond me, and the CBC backgrounder was not as thorough as it usually is.

[Agent provocateur]

Haiti's president Aristide is a former priest--- I think of liberation theology persuasion. France really hurt Haiti by making Haiti pay "compensation" (read: tribute) to France after France lost Haiti as a colony in 1804. Haiti had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars because it was weak and France was stronger ("might makes right"). Then the U.S. meddled in so much it is pitiful supporting the dictator dynasty Duvalier.

"I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in." Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler War is a Racket

A short William Blum excerpt

Haiti, 1987-94:
The U.S. supported the Duvalier family dictatorship for 30 years, then opposed the reformist priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Meanwhile, the CIA was working intimately with death squads, torturers, and drug traffickers. With this as background, the Clinton White House found itself in the awkward position of having to pretend ---- because of all their rhetoric about "democracy"----- that they supported Aristide's return to power in Haiti after he had been ousted in a 1991 military coup. After delaying his return for more than two years, Washington finally had its military restore Aristide to office, but only after obliging the priest to guarantee that he would not help the poor at the expense of the rich, and that he would stick closely to free-market economics. This meant that Haiti would continue to be the assembly plant of the Western Hemisphere, with its workers receiving literally starvation wages.

A longer History (This is a chapter from Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, by William Blum)


http://members.aol.com/bblum6/haiti2.htm

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/US_...ons_WBlumZ.html (http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/US_Interventions_WBlumZ.html)

[pandora]

A Haitian gentleman I spoke to who is strong in the art community, Haitian art is unbelievable blending French and African said that he hoped [this being three years ago] that President Jean Betrand Aristide would one day lie in the sand on the beach in Haiti where the President executed and buried many prisoners in mass graves. My friend said he had friends buried there and that U.S. placed [the U.S. restored him throough military intervention in 1994] President Jean Betrand Aristide didn't believe in paying for prisoners to be maintained. He also arrested easily.. .it looks as if by the New York Times reports that the Rebels and residents are going after police, there may be a correlation there.
"Rebels have clashed with the police in at least 11 towns, stealing weapons from police stations before setting them ablaze. In three towns, rebel leaders said they had appointed mayors and police chiefs." NYT
"The National police force alone cannot re-establish order" Prime Minister Mr. Neptune

According to my friend Aristide was not much of an improvement, and in some ways as bad if not worse than his predecessor Papa Doc in terms of arrests and lack of civil liberties. Noam Chomsky wrote a splendid book on Haiti citing results of U.S. intervention and control on the island.
The arrests and killing of prisoners shady trials may have caused this, for as Agnostic Front says in such times, "NO Justice, JUST US, JUstice"
People must have a legal system that is accountable, no one wants to disappear. With the Patriot Act we must look to our own borders in this.
Cheers Pandora

[Guerilla22]

Haiti is just another example of a impoverished nation whose people have been subjected to years of oppression under a brutal dictatorship and now are suffering from corrupt politicians. The fact of the matter is there have been many uprisngs throughout the years and the uprisings will continue, as long as the Haitian people contiue to suffer.

I definitely epathize with the Haitian people and I hope that they do overthrow Aristide and the rest of the governmnet and replace them with individuals who will actively seek to improve the situation of the Haitian people.

[Marxist in Nebraska]

I do not know enough about what is going on in Haiti currently. I was looking at part of an article earlier today, here (http://www.freedomroad.org/milmatters_21_haiti.html), that put up a perspective somewhat different than those presented above. The article suggests that the instigators are would-be military dictators, being supported by the United States. The mass resistance is suggested as exaggerated, and prompted by superficial appeals by the military to the terrible poverty suffered by most Haitians.

[Agent provocateur]

I support Aristide. I support his liberation theology outlook. He can't do much because the U.S. has short-circuited his regime but he is doing what he can. Uncle Sam has pretty much castrated Aristide from doing anything constructive that will wrest the wealth from the elite.

Check out Haiti for yourself.

http://precious.org/haiti/photos/Pictures%...s%20of%20Haiti/ (http://precious.org/haiti/photos/Pictures%20of%20Haiti/)

http://precious.org/haiti/photos/Pictures%20of%20Haiti/kidslots.jpg