Haiti Solidarity

[guysanto*]

http://www.cmaq.net/en/node.php?id=19506

<b><p align=justify>Haiti Solidarity
yves engler, Tuesday, 11/01/2005


Brothers and friends, I am Toussaint L'Ouverture, my name is perhaps known to you. I have undertaken vengeance. I want liberty and equality to reign in San Domingo.


January 1 was the 201st birthday of the first nation of free people in the Americas. Its citizens are descendents of the only successful slave rebellion in human history.

The country is of course Haiti, which in its 201st year finds itself occupied, not just by International Monetary Fund or World Bank policymakers, but by well-armed foreign soldiers. Some in the international community want to deepen and extend this occupation. They call it making Haiti a UN protectorate.

All this, it should be noted, follows last February's f
oreign-orchestrated overthrow of Haiti's constitutional order: the elected president and hundreds of elected mayors, council members and senators throughout the country were forced from office. The poor – especially those associated with ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas party — have been the primary victims of the recent upheaval. Food prices have skyrocketed, thousands of government workers fired, and thousands more jailed or killed.

The Canadian government, through the Ottawa initiative and soldiers sent to "secure" the airport the night Aristide was forced out of the country, has played no small role in orchestrating Haiti's recent social/humanitarian disaster. Fortunately, however, our country is not preordained to play a destructive role in Haiti, even if we have an under-acknowledged colonial legacy.

On a recent trip to Haiti I found that many people were perplexed by Canada's current policy towards their country. Those I talked to generally had positive things to say
about Canada's role after the 1994 restoration of Aristide. Some people asked if Canada's Haiti policy changed because Paul Martin took power. Others pointed out that it might be Ottawa trying to curry favour with Washington after not (officially) joining the Iraq debacle. (One person thought it might have something to do with Canada never having its own colonies: Haiti is just the right size, he said.) Whatever our government's motives, the Haitians I talked to all said Canada is currently playing a destructive role in their country.

Ten months of Canadian-backed terror against the poor of the hemisphere's poorest country is enough. It's time to change our government's anti-democratic and elite-friendly policies in Haiti. Haiti solidarity activism, which has been slow to take off, should become the Canadian left's top foreign policy concern.

Why Haiti more than other conflicts?

Canada also has a significant presence in Afghanistan but the domestic situation there is substantially
more complex. The occupation in Afghanistan is not so clearly anti–poor or anti-democratic. The constitutional order Canada helped overthrow in Haiti represented the poor majority and it is the poor who currently face the brunt of the repression.

Opposition to Israel's brutal occupation of Palestine is critical but U.S. opinion/action is of overwhelming importance to change. Successful Canadian solidarity work could (and should) move Canada towards the position of the rest of the world: condemning Israeli policy at the UN, which would certainly be of some help to Palestinians. But without the U.S. halting its vast sums of military aid and continuous UN vetoes it's unlikely that the Canadian left could accomplish a great deal more.

Iraq is clearly a larger humanitarian catastrophe than Haiti but again we have little control over Iraq's destiny. In Haiti, on the other hand, Canada is acting aggressively to legitimize the murderous installed regime by giving cash, through Paul Martin's recent v
isit and by playing host to the recent Montreal conference with some of the Haitian Diaspora. Canada is also in charge of the entire 1600-member UN police force. The UN police are coordinating with the Haitian police — increasingly reconstituted with former military officers — that are responsible for a large number of the political assassinations.

In our age of "war on terror" the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine obviously take on an even greater political significance than the immense suffering of those countries' inhabitants. The conflicts contribute to racism against Arabs and Muslims in Canada, for example (all those anti-Arab rants in the Asper-owned papers.).

In the same way, the overthrow of Haiti's elected government and the recent deterioration of living conditions is intertwined with deep seeded racism. Mainstream reporting about Haiti has a significant undercurrent of "look at those poor blacks unable to govern themselves." T
he discussion about turning Haiti into a UN protectorate is just the extension of this racist idea. (Iraq is stable enough for elections but Haiti isn't?).

More fundamentally it's not a coincidence that the campaign to de-stabilize the country gained momentum as Haiti prepared to celebrate 200-years of independence. The world's powers have never taken kindly to Haitian independence; not when slaves defeated the English, Spanish and French empires between 1791 and 1804 nor when the Lavalas government broke ties between Haiti's police and the U.S. in 1999. (This came four years after the Army, created by the U.S. during its occupation of 1915-1934, was disbanded.)

Haiti's anti-colonial, pro-black and anti-oppression symbolism is an integral part of its history. The slave-holding nations, hoping to crush its example, refused to recognize its independence. For 60 years the U.S. refused recognition and the colony of Canada, with slaves in Montreal until 1834, wasn't a great deal kinder.


The right, especially the active white supremacist elements in the Republican Party, have used Haiti to advance their racist world view. But the left, aside from a few black Pan-Africanists, has done little to combat the right's racism toward Haiti and has mostly forgotten any connection with Haiti's inspiring example of human liberation.

How many of us have read about Toussaint L'Ouverture? Or the slaves who liberated themselves, their island and provided support for Latin American independence? Our children should learn about Haiti's shining example of fighting human oppression, not just about how that country is very poor.

If we want to move forward with our struggle for liberation we need to be grounded in our successes. All the more so when right-wing forces use Haiti's successful slave rebellion to humiliate and destroy its people today.

Haiti's social movements, I was told by people there, have enough strength to once again overcome the country's small elite and create a mor
e just system. But foreign powers are interfering and supporting Haiti's elite, moving the balance of powers in the elite's favour. That is why our solidarity is of utmost importance.



For those interested in organizing or taking part in demonstrations (planned for Saturday February 26th) in Canada or throughout the world commemorating the one year anniversary of the overthrow of Haiti's constitutional order get in touch with Anthony at afenton@riseup.net

For those interested in bringing Haitian speakers to Canada or the northeast of the US get in touch with yves at (514) 807 – 9037 or yvesengler@hotmail.com

Anyone planning on attending the World Social Forum who might be interested in outreaching with our Brazilian, Argentinean and Chilean comrades please get in touch with yves.

[guysanto*]

Canada is also in charge of the entire 1600-member UN police force. The UN police are coordinating with the Haitian police — increasingly reconstituted with former military officers — that are responsible for a large number of the political assassinations.

Could someone clarify for me the current and respective roles of Canada and Brazil in the occupation of Haiti?

[jafrikayiti*]

Guy, I don't have the references at hand now but I believe Engler is right. Whereas Brazil leads the military component of the U.N. Occupation forces in Haiti, it is a Canadian (Beer) who leads the Police component. Furthermore, Canada has taken a lead role in coaching the Police and the judicial system.

So far, I am not at all happy with the signs of this "coaching". Especially when I have on video tape, the current Canadian Ambassador bragging to a group of Haitians here in Ottawa (on December 9, 2004) about the fact that it is Canada that intervened to stop the Americans from firing Bernard Gousse - the Minister who is better known to Haitians as the Minister of Injustice. The Canadian ambassador also stated about Ti-Will, Guy Phillippe and Jean Tatoune, "I know these people. We work with them." Now, in view of the revelations found in Tom Griffin's report these are indeed VERY disturbing statements from
a man who is also quoted as saying: "We hope that Aristide is going to disappear... I believe that he should never come back."

The diplomat then said that Aristide's political party, Lavalas, could be cut loose from its ties to the corrupt leader….

You may want to read more about this dude because I find it amazing how these folks openly admit to setting up an “inquiry” to satisfy their "hope” that “it will show Aristide is guilty of so many criminal actions...”. Inquisition seems a more appopriate word for their plan. But I guess these folks must on rare seconds remember they are “diplomats” after all.

Sorry for the sarcasm…. but their blatant and racist arrogance does have that effect on me sometimes.

http://www.embassymag.ca/html/index.php ... /aristide/

[jafrikayiti*]

More on MINUSTHA's reality beyond the "Brazilian" front :

http://pm.gc.ca/eng/news.asp?id=315

"Canada ... leads the MINUSTAH civilian police operation with David Beer as the UN civilian Police Commissioner, .... one of the largest contributors of civilian police to the mission.

In March 2004, as part of the UN-mandated, U.S.-led Multinational Interim Force, approximately 500 Canadian Forces personnel, consisting of an infantry company group, national support and command elements and a helicopter squadron comprised of six CH 146 Griffon helicopters, were deployed to Haiti. The Canadian contingent remained in Haiti to facilitate the transition to the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), and redeployed to Canada in mid-August 2004. Canada continues to provide Canadian Forces personnel to the MINUSTAH headquarters, including the Chief of Staff, Colonel Barry MacLeod."


You may want to read the U.N. 's amazin
g rendition of the longest day in the history of the U.N. (February 29, 2004) Where, resolutions were drafted and adopted, troop deployment authorized and carried out at 3 times the speed of light..

http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/m ... round.html

"Early on 29 February, Mr. Aristide left the country." (he evaporated out?)


" His letter of resignation was read out by the Prime Minister, Yvon Neptune"

(to whom, when and where? see Neptune's own denounciation of this when he declared "The resignation of the President is not constitutional because he did that under duress and threat. The chief of the Supreme court was brought here into my office by representatives of the international community. I was not invited or present when he was sworn in."
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/KP/kp3_2_4.html ).

The U.N. Official spin continues...

"Within hours, Boniface Alexandre, the President of the Supreme Court, was sworn in as interim President, in accordanc
e with the constitutional rules of succession. On the evening of 29 February, the Permanent Representative of Haiti to the United Nations submitted the interim President’s request for assistance, which included the authorization for international troops to enter Haiti. Pursuant to that request, the Security Council adopted resolution 1529 (2004) authorizing the Multinational Interim Force (MIF) and declaring Council’s readiness to establish a follow-on United Nations stabilization force to support continuation of a peaceful and constitutional political process and the maintenance of a secure and stable environment. MIF, immediately started its deployment to Haiti, as authorized by that resolution. In consultation with the interim President and the then-Prime Minister, steps were taken to form a transitional government. On 17 March 2004, the Prime Minister, in consultation with the Conseil des sages (a group of eminent persons), formed a 13-member transitional Government..."

Where in hell does the Hait
ian Constitution make allowance for a so-call "group of eminent persons" ? What the U.N. is trying to hide here is the fact that legitimate Prime Minister, Yvon Neptune (who has since been arrested by the illegal puppet Prime Minister put in place by the colonial powers) IS IN JAIL Precisely because he refused to help them cover up the coup.

Again see this important interview given by Prime Minister Neptune prior to his arrest and, just hours after the multinational coup d'état

http://www.haitiaction.net/News/KP/kp3_2_4.html