By Myrtha Desulme, ContributorMORE THAN a month after his abrupt departure from Haiti, former President Jean-Berrand Aristide quietly rests in the serenity of Lydford Park, faithful to the promise made to his Jamaican hosts, to keep a low profile. The storm of international controversy raging around his deposition, however, has reached mind boggling proportions in its scope and stridency.
Afrocentric asssociations throughout the Caribbean and the United States, the American congressional Black Caucus, CARICOM, the Organisation of African Unity, and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, have all taken the strong-armed removal by the U.S. personally, as a direct affront to the sovereignty and constitutionality of a black Caribbean state, which cannot be tolerated, in view of the shockingly arrogant, dangerous and destabilising geopolitical precedent set by Uncle Sam in collaboration with former colonial power, France.
These groups are demanding either an investigation into the coup and kidnapping, under the auspices of the United Nations and the OAS, or immediate restoration of the democratically elected Government. While Aristide supporters in Haiti demonstrate for his return, the Haitian opposition which toppled him, is adamant in its position that he was nothing more than a "dema-gogic and corrupt despot," etc., etc., from which Haiti has been liberated. They have been busy flooding the Internet with vitriolic open letters, aimed at the pro-Aristide groups, demanding that they remain out of Haiti's internal affairs, while imputing to them the most nefarious ulterior motives. They contend that Aristide's only positive legacy to Haiti is the unprecedented cohesion which was achieved by all social sectors, united in the struggle for his ouster.
Rebel chief Louis Jodel Chamblain has publicly declared that if Aristide even thinks about returning to Haiti, that he will personally deal with the ex-president's case. The South African opposition, Democratic Alliance, has made the subject of Aristide a thorn in President Mbeki's side, ever since he donated funds and lent his presence to the Haitian Bicentenary celebrations, sabotaged by the nationwide disturbances, which Mbeki was the sole world leader to attend.
In their latest political play, leading up to the April 14 elections, they have requested that the National Prosecuting Authority investigate whether the Government has contravened the National Conventional Arms Control Act, by shipping weapons to Haiti, which turned up in Jamaica, using a South African Airforce aircraft. The U.S. has threatened Jamaica over the return of Aristide to the region, for fear that his proximity might spark renewed violence in Haiti. Meanwhile, inside Jamaica, heated debate over the acceptance of Aristide for a purported two-month stay, has taken place between those who fear U.S. retaliation and those who applaud the courage demonstrated by the PM and CARICOM, through their adoption of a principled resolution in the face of U.S. pressure. It is truly regrettable that the CARICOM leaders, led by PM Patterson, who sought to assist and integrate an isolated sister nation, have encountered the hostility of the Haitian opposition, which misinterpreted their support for Haiti, as support for Aristide.
LATORTUE'S FAUX PAS
On Tuesday, March 30, Aristide's French lawyer, Gilbert Collard, lodged a lawsuit in Paris claiming that U.S. and French officials forced him from power. The suit, for 'threats, death threats, abduction and illegal detention', claims that Aristide's resignation made "at night, while in the hands of armed soldiers", was unconstitutional and therefore invalid. Ira Kurzban, Aristide's American attorney plans to file a similar suit in the U.S., against the American Government.The complicity of the Dominican Republic, which hosted the rebels, while they were trained and armed by U.S. Special Forces, has not been left out. CARICOM has reserved its decision, as to its acceptance of the new interim Government in Haiti, and Chavez, in a televised speech, has issued a call for all Latin American countries to reject 'the impostor Government'.
BLUNDERS
Meanwhile, inside Haiti, just when it looked like Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, given his purported reconciliation agenda, was well on his way to winning a resounding victory in the contest for the head of state to commit the greatest number of blunders in the shortest period of time. He appeared on Saturday, March 20, on a platform with rebel leaders at a rally in his hometown of Gonaives, flanked by none other than the OAS representative to Haiti, David Lee, as well as other international officials. It suddenly became clear, that his actions were no faux pas by an inexperienced politician, but rather a calculated series of moves aiming to intimidate Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas supporters, and keep them in check, in light of the proximity of their leader, presently in Jamaica.
The New York-based National Coalition for Haitian Rights accused Latortue of "fanning the flames of lawlessness". Coalition director, Jocelyn McCalla, criticised Latortue for standing shoulder-to-shoulder with "thugs" including rebel commander Jean-Pierre Baptiste, also known as Jean Tatoune, who escaped from jail after being sentenced to two life sentences, for involvement in the 1994
massacre of some 15 Aristide supporters.
"We strongly condemn the unholy alliance, which the interim government has struck with the Gonaives rebels," declared McCalla. Amnesty international and CARICOM have also denounced this association. Latortue is, however, not likely to lose any sleep over these condemnations. The interim Government has found the state coffers empty, and allegations of Aristide's US$800 million fortune, have now ballooned to a purported
US$2.3 billion.
WITCH HUNT
On Friday, March 26, Justice Minister Bernard Gousse told the Associated Press, that the interim Government had decided to bar 37 ex-members of Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Government from leaving Haiti, as part of a sweeping probe into corruption and other crimes. This was explained as 'an insurance policy' to make sure they don't try to flee investigations. Among those barred from leaving are former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and ex-police chief Jocelyne Pierre. In an interview with Agence France Presse from his hiding place inside Haiti, ex-Prime Minister Neptune sought to alert the world that 'the witch hunt had started'.
Most of those grounded ran Government ministries, and were on the boards of the central bank, the main public sector and utility companies, the main port and the international airport. Some close allies of Aristide's are involved, including Yvon Massac, who ran social security.
Justice Minister Gousse has tried to reassure, that the 37 persons barred from travelling are deemed innocent until proven guilty, and explained that PM Latortue is merely trying to "reckon with everything in the past" and discuss the "repressive nature" of Aristide's Government.
Amanus Mayette, leader of a government organisation Bale Wouze, who is cited along with ex-Prime Minister, Yvon Neptune, for the February 13 killing of 50 opposition members in the "Scierie massacre", was arraigned in a helicopter.
Human Rights Watch warned last week, that fighters in the rebel-held north were illegally detaining former Aristide officials and journalists who supported him.
In his first public declaration since the departure of Aristide, M. Lavaud, the leader of Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas declared that the Alexandre-Latortue administration was persecuting "Lavalassiens", and requested assistance from the press and the human rights organisations.
He called for the disarmament of Lavalas supporters, while asking them to stand by for upcoming elections.
In June 2003, Jacques-Baudoin Kettant, allegedly one of the biggest drug barons of Haiti, was unsuspectingly summoned to the presidential palace by Aristide, where he was arrested by DEA agents. In the course of his Miami trial, Kettant testified that he shipped 500 kilos of cocaine a month to the U.S., and he also is reported to have made damaging allegations against Aristide.
Earlier this month, Oriel Jean, chief of palace security for Aristide from 2001 to 2003, who worked for Haiti's government for a dozen years, was arrested in Toronto and extradited to Florida. He appeared in court in Miami, to face charges of conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the United States, and was ordered held without bond.
'TRUMPED UP' EVIDENCE
Guidy Mamann, Jean's Toronto-based attorney, has said prosecutors are using 'trumped up' evidence to pressure Jean for information about Aristide. According to court documents, the witnesses, none of whom were named, told authorities that Jean made demands which were illegal and questionable.
On October 30, 1993, a day before Aristide's scheduled return to Haiti, after his three years of exile, which followed the 1991 military coup, Aristide addressed a packed session of the United Nations General Assembly.
In a dramatic move, he told the diplomats, that the military government of Haiti had to yield the power, which would end Haiti's role in the drug trade, financed by Colombia's Cali cartel. He revealed that, Haiti was the transit point for nearly 50 tons of cocaine, worth more than a billion dollars, providing Haiti's military rulers with $200 million in profits.
John Kerry, who headed a Senate subcommittee, investigating drugs and international terrorism, had developed detailed information on drug trafficking by Haiti's military rulers, which led to the indictment in 1988, of Lt. Col. Jean-Claude Paul. The indictment came just a month before December 20, when thousands of U.S. troops went crashing into Panama, and arrested Manuel Noriega who, like Paul, was also under indictment for drug trafficking in Florida. In November 1989, Col. Paul was found dead after he consumed a traditional Haitian good will gift, a bowl of pumpkin soup.
After Panama, the cocaine cartels began to seek transit points for the booming cocaine industry. A natural candidate was Haiti, lying just south of the Bahamas, in the Windward passage, the most direct route from the Colombian coast to Florida.
Evidence points to the fact that several Caribbean and Latin-American states, use the drug trade to shore up their sagging balance-of-payments, and to break the oppressive economic hegemony of the U.S. in the hemisphere. The State Department, through the DEA and the CIA, has extensive files on these states, which they do not necessarily use, but keep as a trump card up their sleeve, until such time, when it becomes politically expedient, as justification for toppling a government.
