This week in Haiti
Washington Rekindles Fire Under AristideIt is ironic in today's one-superpower world that Washington always seeks to shroud, however unsuccessfully, its aggression behind an "international coalition." In most of its wars and meddling over the past 50 years, the U.S. has usually commandeered compliant international bodies such as the United Nations (UN), Organization of American States (OAS) or North American Treaty Organization (NATO) to act as fig-leaves and assistants, or, failing that, concocted ad hoc "alliances," such as the nebulous one supposedly backing Washington's new war against Afghanistan.
Similarly, the U.S. has just engineered a new international coalition to camouflage its continuing low-intensity war against the Haitian people. It is predictably and incongruously being called the "Group of Friends," and has been convened under the aegis of the OAS, Washington's proxy of choice in the Western Hemisphere.
According to an Oct. 2 OAS press release, the Group of Friends is "an informal advisory group" to OAS Secretary General César Gaviria and will "will also help to represent views and issues to the political authorities in Haiti and to the Haitian people," which both, one can only deduce, need assistance in understanding what they must do. The Group of Friends is composed of Argentina, Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Chile, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, the United States and Venezuela, as well as France, Germany, Norway and Spain in their role of Permanent Observers.
More precisely, the Group of Friends has been set in place just as negotiations, which have been stalled for three months, are set resume around Oct. 15 between the Democratic Convergence (CD), a tiny U.S.-backed opposition front, and President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas Family party (FL). In the words of U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Brian Dean Curran, the Group of Friends will "accompany the protagonists, urge them on, and assist them in finding a compromise to the present crisis," which stems from Washington's disapproval of the FL's sweep of last year's municipal, parliamentary and presidential elections.
Following the usual timing and script, the State Department's Richard Boucher issued an Oct. 4 statement welcoming the "Group of Friends on Haiti" -- he probably intended no pun. He said the U.S. "strongly supports the mediation role of the [OAS] in Haiti," even though OAS by-laws explicitly prohibit the body from meddling in the internal affairs of member states. Although Washington has repeatedly derailed Haiti's democracy movement with coups and dictators, Boucher asserted that the U.S. and the Group of Friends were interested in "putting Haiti back on track in its quest for democracy, economic development, and respect for human rights," as if they, rather than the Haitian people, were deciding where Haiti is going and how. Boucher then issued a far-from-diplomatic command: "Now is the time to reach a compromise that will make it possible for Haiti to move forward."
Understandably, the CD was delighted with the Group of Friends' formation and Boucher's remarks, and the FL was not. For example, the CD's Serge Gilles, speaking on Radio Metropole, found the U.S. position "completely normal" and reminded the listeners that "the U.S. Congress voted a law on [Haiti's] May 21st [parliamentary] elections and we are obliged to respect that law." Gilles has apparently become such a servant of Washington that he has forgotten that he lives in Haiti under Haitian laws and legislatures. Anyway, the "U.S. Congress" did not pass a "law" but a non-binding Concurrent Resolution, sponsored by the arch-conservative Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC), which merely expressed the Senate's dismay at the FL's electoral victory (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 18, No. 17, 7/12/00).
Meanwhile, Culture and Communication Minister Guy Paul backhanded Boucher's statement. "I don't think a State Department note is going to put any pressure on us to sit down and find an agreement," he said. "This is purely an agreement among Haitians, and it is something which we have been pursuing for a year and which we will continue to pursue."
FL spokesman Jonas Petit was even more direct. "Those threats are not going to make us do what is important for us, for our lives," he said.
But that is not exactly true. Aristide and the FL have become ensnared in endless debilitating negotiations by succumbing to Washington's pressure, "inviting" the OAS to mediate, and entertaining the illusion that the U.S. will one day release millions of dollars of blocked aid and loans for "good behavior."
"This whole false crisis started when the Haitian government allowed OAS observers to meddle and overrule the Provisional Electoral Council [CEP], which was the supreme judge of last year's elections," said Ben Dupuy, secretary general of the National Popular Party (PPN) in a large Haitian community meeting in Miami on Sept. 30, the tenth anniversary of the 1991 coup d'état. "Five U.S. Supreme Court judges decided that George W. Bush won last year's U.S. presidential election, which was filled with irregularities. The OAS didn't cry fraud and intervene. What makes them think they can override the constitutional final arbiter of Haiti's elections?"
Indeed, many popular organizations have become fed up and see that the negotiations are just a tool to erode the Haitian people's will to resist U.S. neoliberal dictates. "The negotiations cannot go on indefinitely because it is the people who pay the price," said Calire Jean-Jacques of the Majority Civil Society, an FL-aligned mediating group formed as a counterweight to the CD-aligned Civil Society Initiative (ISC). "We think that after three months, if the negotiations have not resolved the so-called crisis, then the government should do what it has to and we will rely on our own resources... This crisis is a planned crisis."
Washington may also want to end the game. Luigi Einaudi, the OAS assistant secretary general and veteran State Department official, is scheduled to arrive in Haiti on Oct. 10. Asked how he interpreted Einaudi's arrival and the upcoming round of negotiations, Paul Edouard of the ISC said: "I think, in fact, this is the last chance."
Thousands in New York, and Throughout the World,
Protest U.S. Bombing of Afghanistan
by Greg DunkelOctober 7 marked the beginning of the U.S. war against Afghanistan in the name of fighting "terrorism." As the bombs began falling, ten to twelve thousand people marched from Union Square in New York to Times Square, where they held a rally. Some speakers were militantly against the war, while others were more defensive and tried not to appear "unpatriotic."
David Klein, a veteran from the Vietnam Veterans Against War, said: «I don't want to see more Americans die because of a militarist cowboy, or be dragged into a war, a long conflict. That's where I think Bush is taking us.»
Margarita Lopez, a city councilwoman from the Lower East Side, shouted: «Not in my name, not in the name of New York City, not in the name of my district, you're not going to kill anyone in Afghanistan, Pakistan, or anyone in the Middle East.» Some Middle Eastern shop-owners in her district have been harassed or physically assaulted.
Haitian unionist Ray Laforest of the Haiti Support Network (HSN) also addressed the rally. "Ten years ago, when President Bush's father realized that Aristide was not doing his bidding, he sanctioned a coup in Haiti in which thousands were killed, tortured, raped, disappeared, and terrorized," he said. "One of the main people responsible for this terror was a Haitian CIA agent, Emmanuel 'Toto' Constant, who headed the death-squad called FRAPH. Today he lives somewhere around New York under U.S. protection. If George W. Bush was half serious about combating terrorism, he would immediately arrest and extradite Constant, who was called a terrorist by his none other than former President Clinton. Let's start by fighting terrorism at home, not by bombing Afghanistan where more innocent people will die."
Elsewhere in the world, the U.S. attack drew official criticism in Iran, Sudan, Lebanon and Malaysia, among other countries, and protests in Muslim nations from Egypt to Indonesia. In Pakistan, thousands of supporters of the Taliban burned buildings, battled police, and demanded holy war against the U.S.. Two U.N. offices were among the targets. One person was killed and 26 were hurt in the southwestern city of Quetta.
Across Europe, people held mostly small anti-war demonstrations. In Brussels, NATO's base, about 300 protesters waved red flags and posters proclaiming «No war for oil» outside the U.S. Embassy.
In Greece, more than 2000 anti-globalization activists and leftists marched on the U.S. Embassy in Athens. The demonstrators chanted «Americans, murderers of the peoples» and «Bush, you are the terrorist.»
Demonstrations also took place in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, while in Germany peace marches were held in Berlin Monday evening. Other protests were planned in cities in Spain and Britain.
In Istanbul, Turkey -- NATO's only Muslim member -- members of a left-wing party held an anti-U.S. protest while about 400 Muslim worshippers chanted anti-American slogans at the end of afternoon prayers.