Latortue's House of Cards Crumbling in Haiti.
From: Erzilidanto@aol.com
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 03:37:29 EST
Subject: Latortue's House of Cards Crumbling in Haiti...
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Flashpoints Interviews Pina, November 9, 2004
Echevarria: Straight up, what do make of this...floating up right now to the
rest of the news, that the Haitian police are murdering Aristide
supporters. What do you make of this actually breaking through the hard
fought for silence on the part of the corporate media?
Pina: It's just that finally the killing has reached such a level that no
one can continue to deny it. It's been going on relentlessly since the
forced ouster of President Aristide on February 29th. The most interesting
news that's most recently surfaced of course is that there are nineteen
police officers who have just been implicated in a plot to assassinate
Lavalas political prisoners in the capital. That would include Prime
Minister Yvon Neptune, Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert, Father Gerard
Jean Juste, and a long list of hundreds who are being held in the capital.
Now, whether that extends to the thousands in the countryside, we don't
know how vast the plot was. You know I'm usually very critical of the
corporate media - that includes Reuters - but I do have to tip my hat to
Guyler Delva, who broke that story, otherwise we never would have heard
about it. But of course those nineteen officers, who are now under
investigation for plotting to assassinate Aristide supporters in the
jails, are getting what is the equivalent of a slap on the wrist and being
told to stay after school. They are only being placed under special orders
to appear at the police force's general inspection office daily, from 8
A.M. to 4 P.M. until...as they say, the allegations have been resolved.
Well, no one is being reprimanded, no one is being summarily fired;
basically, it's a slap on the wrist, even though what has come to surface
is that there are active forces within the Haitian police who have been
plotting to assassinate Lavalas political prisoners in the jail cells in
Port au Prince.
Echevarria: Now in fact this is very much a danger of the fox guarding the
henhouse in terms of this investigation. The list that you just
mentioned...of potential assassinations, if you will, has some pretty heavy
names on it. What do you think that this tells [us] about the impunity
with which the police have- especially with the backing of the Latortue
regime - have had with respect to being able to carry out their
intentions.
Pina: The Haitian police force is now almost entirely [made up of] former
military. This is the same Haitian military that committed tremendous
atrocities in 1991 after Aristide was forced from office in a brutal
military coup. This is the same military that was heavily involved in drug
trafficking. The Haitian police may not be called the Haitian military but
it in fact is the Haitian military today that constitutes the Haitian
police. There's also other interesting news that's recently come out,
which is that Roselor Julien who was the Cathoilic Church representative,
resigned yesterday from...the council that's preparing for the so-called
free and fair elections that are supposed to be held next year in 2005.
She resigned saying that she did so because she did not want to condone an
electoral farce. So not only are we seeing a lot of killing by the police,
extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, but now the entire reason
why the United States and France and Canada justified this intervention -
which was to hold new elections - is falling apart completely.
First of all,, Lavalas has already said that they will not participate in
the elections and now the electoral council, which is preparing for them,
is completely in disarray. And then of course it's hilarious to hear
Brazil announce yeaterday that its forces are going to extend their stay
in Haiti until the next elections are held in 2005. So apparently, Brazil
isn't even considering whether these elections are going to be free and
fair; they really just want to get this process over because they're
getting a lot of heat at home. Another interesting note about Brazil is
that last October 22nd the Defense Minister of Brazil, Jose Diegas,
resigned, because the Brazilian military had made a statement early in
October. The military high command had said that the military cuop that
the Brazilian military did in 1964 had been the result of "a popular call
in response to the subversive movement which had turned down dialogue."
Well who does that sound like? That sounds like Lavalas in Haiti today, so
it gives the appearance that what the Brazilian military cannot get away
with in its own country today, it's enjoying doing in Haiti.
Echeverria: That actually brings to me a question with respect to Brazil
and Haiti's relationship with CARICOM, and it seems to be in a very
uncomfortable position, because it just doesn't know what to do with
respect to the Latortue regime. How do you think that that plays into it?
Pina: There is another CARICOM meeting this week; I don't think there's
going to be any resolution, I don't think anything is going to change
because...the countries of Guyana, St. Kitts, St. Vincent-Grenadines have
said under no condition would they recognize the Latortue regime until it
did everything to disarm the former military. Well, how can you say
they're disarming the former military when now what they are doing is
simply turning them into Haitian police and giving them guns? Of course
now the United States has lifted the 13-year old arms embargo against
Haiti, which started back in 1991 after the first military coup against
Aristide, so you've got the former military being rehabilitated into the
police, and the police being,in fact, a de facto military force, being
re-armed and resupplied by the United States lifting that 13-year old
embargo. I don't think there's any way that CARICOM at this point, can
come to any resolution and they require a consensus, as you know, I don't
believe that they'll be able to find that consensus to recognize that
government given the current mayhem and disarray on the ground in Haiti
today.
Echevarria: I want to jump back just a few seconds to the elections and
what this resignation means. Do you think that may be a sign that, with
Latortue, that the fa\xe7ade may be starting to crumble a little bit?
Pina: Well, this resignation came on the heels of the business community.
Andy Apaid, who is the leader of the Group of 184, which was the so-called
opposition against Aristide, tried to shove down the electoral
commission's throat a $112 million proposal to actually have the balloting
be electronic during the next elections. Well how can you have electronic
ballotting in Haiti when areas of the capital don't receive more than six
hours of electricity per day? The person who resigned, Roselor Julien,
also stated that [that] it was a railroading and setting up [of] the
process so that Group of 184 could win the elections, to basically
legitimize the coup against Aristide February 29th. Now, in essence,
that's what Roselor Julien has stated.
Echevarria: Now you mentioned earlier that Lavalas has publicly stated
that they are going to boycott the elections. Doesn't that present a
danger that, by virtue of the fact that they don't present themselves at
the polls, that, just by defualt, that Latortue's regime would just take
control that way?
Pina: It's one thing to win unfair in an electoral farce, if you will.
It's quite another to rule without an electoral mandate. I think that the
international community; there's no way they're going to be able to
legitimize those elections if, indeed what I believe will be the case is
there's going to be a very low voter turnout...Lavalas is not only going to
boycott the elections as an organization, but I believe their base of
popular support are just simply not going to go to the polls; you're not
going to see long lines, and you're not going to see a high voter turnout;
you're going to see a very low voter turnout and I think its going to make
it increasingly difficult for the Latortue regime or whoever comes
afterwards, to claim that they have a mandate that represents the Haitian
people. And if you see the disarray that's going on on the ground right
now, it's only going to increase and get worse particularly after you have
this electoral farce in 2005.
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Forwarded by the Haitian Lawyers Leadership
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