New Haitian leader is a US trained murderer

[diamond geezer]

he feared Haitian army, disbanded by Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is making a comeback. We take an in-depth look at the paramilitary leader who now claims to be in control of the Haitian police and military: Guy Philippe, a former Haitian police chief who was trained by US Special Forces in Ecuador in the early 1990s.
For many Haitians, it is like a real life nightmare is once again becoming a reality. The feared Haitian army, disbanded by Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is making a comeback. And what is particularly disturbing to veteran Haiti observers and human rights organizations is the man who now claims to be in control of the Haitian police and military.

He says the man he most admires is former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet. He praises the former dictator as the man who "made Chile what it is.'" Next to Pinochet, his second greatest hero is Ronald Reagan. The man is paramilitary leader Guy Philippe, a former Haitian police chief who was trained by US Special Forces in Ecuador in the early 1990s.

The Haitian government and the private US security firm hired in 1998 by Haiti to protect the president accuse Philippe of master-minding a deadly attack on the Police Academy in July 2001 and of an attempted coup in December 2001. When he is discussed in the corporate media, he is almost always referred to simply as a rebel leader, a former police chief.

But human rights groups paint a different picture.

Human Rights Watch reported Friday that during Philippe's term as police chief of the Port-au-Prince suburb of Delmas from 1997 to 1999, international monitors "learned that dozens of suspected gang members were summarily executed, mainly by police under the command of Inspector Berthony Bazile, Philippe's deputy."

Yesterday, Philippe and his paramilitaries retook control of the former Haitian Army headquarters across from the National palace. Philippe declared to the international press that he himself is now in control of 90% of Haiti's armed forces. In an address on Haitian Radio, Philippe declared, "The country is in my hands." He summoned 20 police commanders to meet with him yesterday and warned that if they failed to appear he would arrest them.

Also yesterday, Philippe announced he would arrest Haitian Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, who is a top official of Aristide's Lavalas party. Democracy Now! heard from sources in Haiti that Neptune's home was burned and looted and that he was being pursued by armed gangs. People close to Neptune told us he fears for his life. Local radio reported that Neptune was evacuated from his office by helicopter as Guy Philippe led a mob in a march to the office. Meanwhile, there are reports of regular execution-style killings on the Haitian seaside.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/03/1631258

Yet another democracy overthrown with the help of the US, king of hypocrisy.

[poopyhead]

Yet another democracy overthrown with the help of the US, king of hypocrisy.

Is democracy such a good idea for a country such as Haiti? In a country plagued by starvation, poverty, lack of infrastructure (thus an inability to properly disseminate information), and only 50% literacy, can the masses actually be charged to effectively choose officials let alone govern themselves? Democracy is an over-utilized platitude often bandied about by moralistic liberals in order to give their ideas some sort of tie to "the people". Lest we forget that democracy is rule by the uneducated poor (a very true definition in the case of Haiti) which, by it's nature, leads to tyranny. While the rise of a military dictatorship is certainly scary so is the idea of a democracy especially in a poor and for the most part homogeneous population, this can lead only to a tyranny of the majority which will suppress and persecute those who think, act, look, or behave differently, thereby strangling the only hope of progression from within. Haiti needs some sort of intervention and the formation of a temporarily strong government (not a military dictatorship) in order to organize and elevate the country out of the depths of poverty in which it now wallows is in my eyes possibly a good idea.

[takao]

how many percentage of americans voted on the last election ?

lously 51,30% nearly exactly the same percentage like _Iran_ (austria: 80,4% and that's consider a low election turnout)
one the one side george W.bush (close) on the other side conservatic islamics which won..

the 'better educated,richer' americans voted for the conservative bush...
the really poor,and bad educated iranians voted for the conservative islamic party

so whats the problem with americans ? are they poor ? don't think so ..one of the richest countries of the world ...are they bad educated ? don't think so..


Lest we forget that democracy is rule by the uneducated poor (a very true definition in the case of Haiti) which, by it's nature, leads to tyranny. While the rise of a military dictatorship is certainly scary so is the idea of a democracy especially in a poor and for the most part homogeneous population, this can lead only to a tyranny of the majority which will suppress and persecute those who think, act, look, or behave differently, thereby strangling the only hope of progression from within.

i wouldn't consider george bush a tyran but his government is acting like one:
*'persecute those who think, act, look, or behave differently' reminds me of bush who wants to forbid 'gay marriage'
*'if you aren't with us you are against us', 'old europe' for somebody from a german-speaking country this reminds me of a very dark, dark age
*US Government-War-Propaganda : heard before .. open history book of your choice...
*'war on terrorism' yeah war _really_ stops terrorism...look at israel how it works there..or russia
...
..
.

btw: War-News are censored in the US since the end of vietnam.... 'free press' in america ? illusion

[Sayhey]

I posted this last week in another thread. It is from Findlaw's (http://writ.news.findlaw.com/mariner/20040301.html) site. It is instructive concerning the thugs that have come to power in Haiti with US assistance.

Haiti: The Past Is Prologue
By JOANNE MARINER
----
Monday, Mar. 01, 2004

Jean-Bertrand Aristide, president of Haiti until yesterday, has ceded power. Pressed to resign by the U.S. and French governments, and facing a threatened rebel assault on Port-au-Prince, Aristide was flown out of the country early Sunday morning.

By the end of the day, the U.S. had already sent the first military troops of a planned multinational force to restore order to Haiti. It marked the third time in less than a century that the U.S. has intervened there militarily.

The last such U.S. intervention, just under than a decade ago, is worth recalling now. There is the striking symmetry, to begin with: In 1994, the United States sent troops to Haiti to facilitate Aristide's return to the presidency; now, it's sending troops because it convinced him to leave.

But there is another symmetry, as well, that merits examination. In 1994, the U.S. had little use for efforts to bring justice to the victims of violent human rights abuses committed under military rule. Rather than assisting in the prosecution of human rights crimes, it preferred to placate the perpetrators: to overlook violence rather than to confront it. Indeed, in several different ways, the U.S. directly impeded efforts to prosecute past human rights crimes in Haiti.

Why is this history relevant now? Because the authors of those past abuses are back. Louis Jodel Chamblain, a former paramilitary responsible for countless atrocities under the military government that ruled Haiti from 1991 to 1994, is a leading commander in the insurgent coalition that fought to oust Aristide. Jean-Pierre Baptiste, a less prominent paramilitary from the same period, is also among the rebel forces.

And a large number of the insurgents -- perhaps the main body of their forces-- are former officers and soldiers of the Haitian army. Responsible for killings, rape, torture and other violent abuses during military rule, the army was disbanded in late 1994, a thoroughly discredited institution.

The Recycled Paramilitary

Louis Jodel Chamblain is, beyond any doubt, the most shocking figure to have reemerged among the rebels. A sergeant in the Haitian army until 1989 or 1990, Chamblain was one of the founders in 1993 of the paramilitary group known as the Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress (FRAPH). As FRAPH's second in command, and its operational leader, he had a reputation for violence and action.

"I was never paramilitary chief," asserted Chamblain in a recent interview with the New York Times. "I was the leader of a political organization. FRAPH helped people and brought the Haitian people together."

FRAPH's repressive activities, in fact, helped lead nearly 100,000 Haitians to flee their country. At least 3,000 people were killed during military rule, and many thousands more suffered torture, rape, beatings, extortion, arbitrary detention and other abuses.

The U.S. Role in Impeding Justice

But in 1994, when U.S. forces entered Haiti, they allowed FRAPH members, notorious military officers, and other perpetrators of human rights crimes to escape unhindered into exile. Indeed, the U.S. government pushed hard for the passage of a broad amnesty law that would have officially barred the prosecution of the countless crimes committed under military rule. Failing in that effort, it impeded the prosecution of such crimes by refusing to return incriminating documents that it had seized from military offices, and by granting Emmanuel Constant, an infamous FRAPH leader with CIA ties, protection from deportation in the United States.

Chamblain himself escaped to the Dominican Republic after the U.S. intervention, as did other former soldiers and paramilitaries. Although he was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for a 1993 murder and a 1994 massacre, he never served a day behind bars for his crimes.

Chamblain's case, unfortunately, is rather more paradigmatic than exceptional. Although the Haitian government took some steps to achieve accountability for the abuses committed under military rule, including prosecuting some of the leaders of an infamous massacre, the demands of justice went largely unmet.

The army was disbanded but never fully disarmed, and its worst abusers remained free. Demobilized soldiers organized into groups to defend their interests, and became increasingly alienated, resentful and dangerous. In recent years, as conditions in Haiti worsened, a group of former soldiers began mobilizing near the border of the Dominican Republic in the central part of the country. That group, joined by reinforcements, laid the groundwork for the armed uprising of this February.

Impunity

So now that Aristide is gone, what can be expected next? Guy Philippe, the leader of the rebellion that led to Aristide's ouster, has already stated that he expects his men to be part of the new government. And it would not be surprising for Philippe to pressure that government to issue a broad series of pardons to benefit men like Chamblain.

But if the United States wants stability in Haiti, it should recognize that impunity encourages violence and unrest. In 1994, by letting Chamblain and his ilk off the hook, the U.S. helped sow the seeds of the current crisis. Now that the U.S. is back in Haiti for another round, it should not make the same mistakes twice.