U.S. Congresswoman Wants Haiti’s Political Prisoners Released

[seemslikeadream]

U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Waters

...

In a letter also sent to President George Bush and Secretary of State nominee, Condoleeza Rice, Waters stated, "I urge you, as your last official acts of mercy and compassion for the Haitian people, to call for the immediate release of all remaining political prisoners and other Haitians who are being illegally detained in Haitian prisons, and to do whatever is required to expedite desperately needed humanitarian assistance.”

These she said include former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, former Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert, Senator Yvon Feuillé, former Deputy Rudy Hérivaux, and the well-known Haitian singer and community activist Anne Auguste (So Anne).

Waters, who was in St. Lucia yesterday for their ruling party’s convention, also said much work remains to stabilize Haiti and secure a better future for the Haitian people and slammed the interim government for not being able to solve the “urgent tasks.”

The congresswoman again called for the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide while also expressing her deep disappointment with the lack of leadership from the international community, including the United States, France, Canada and the United Nations peacekeeping forces.

“While international officials claim to be committed to democracy in Haiti, they have made no serious effort to disarm the thugs and killers who were involved in the coup d’etat or to demand that the interim government respect the human rights of the Haitian people. It is imperative that the United States demand that the interim government disarm the thugs and respect human rights.,” added Waters.
more
http://www.hardbeatnews.com/details2708.htm


Chaos keeps most foreign aid out of Haiti
Violence erupts as Powell meets with president in capital
Reed Lindsay, Chronicle Foreign Service

Thursday, December 2, 2004
Port-au-Prince, Haiti -- After President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in February, Haitians hoped life would get easier. They looked for millions of dollars in foreign aid to start flowing in.

But nine months later, only a fraction of the $1.4 billion promised by the international community has arrived. Unrelenting violence continues to rack the country, as Secretary of State Colin Powell found out when he arrived here Wednesday.

Gunfire erupted near the National Palace, an area that is an Aristide stronghold, while Powell was meeting inside with President Boniface Alexandre, Prime Minister Gerard Latortue and other Aristide opponents. There were no injuries, and it was not clear whether anyone was arrested.

"For six months, things were quiet because people expected things to get better after so many promises of aid and assistance from the United States, France and Canada," said Marcus Garcia, a Haitian journalist who directs Radio Melodie, a Port-au-Prince station. "But things are worse, especially for the poorest. ... Nothing has been done, not only by the international community but by the government itself."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/12/02/MNGPQA4SMO1.DTL


Dec 2, 2004 — By Andrew Hay

BRASILIA, Brazil, (Reuters) - U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti will not respond to international pressure to "use violence" against armed gangs and will rebuild the country as a "peacekeeping force, not an occupying force," the mission's Brazilian commander said on Thursday.

His comments and those of Brazil's foreign minister came a day after Secretary of State Colin Powell demanded U.N troops crack down on street gangs after gunfights broke out near him when he visited Haiti's interim leader at the presidential palace.

"We are under extreme pressure from the international community to use violence," General Augusto Heleno Ribeiro told a congressional commission in Brazil. "I command a peacekeeping force, not an occupation force … we are not there to carry out violence, this will not happen for as long as I'm in charge of the force."

"To do this would require a force of 100,000 men prepared to seek and kill in large numbers and this is not our role, nor do we want it," Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told Brazilian legislators.

more
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=298561

[struggle4progress]

1. Thank you, Maxine! eom

[Barkley]

2. Go Maxine!

I am glad to hear someone from my home state speak up about Haiti.

The US is always mouthing about democracy but its foreign policy diametrically it.

[donheld]

3. would to god

all Democrats had the iron spine of Maxine Waters

[seemslikeadream]

6. Conclusive Evidence of U.S. Role in Kidnapping and Coup

Haitian rebel leaders, Buteur Metayer, left, Guy Philippe, second from left, and T-Wil, right, along with an unidentified rebel, center, laugh during a rally in Gonaives, where the fighters announced a new name for their joint movement, the National Resistance Front To Liberate Haiti, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2004. An uprising aimed at ousting President Jean-Bertrand Aristide erupted in Gonaives, Haiti's fourth-largest city, on Feb. 5 and has spread to more than a dozen towns. Philippe was Aristide's police chief in Cap-Haitien until he was accused of fomenting a coup and fled to the Dominican Republic in 2002. (AP Photo/Walter Astrada)
Conclusive Evidence of U.S. Role in Kidnapping and Coup


PRESS ADVISORY
Monday, April 4, 2004
Media Contact: Dustin Langley 212-633-6646

As Bush Administration Scrambles to Shore Up Appointed Haitian Regime Commission to Present Conclusive Evidence of U.S. Role in Kidnapping and Coup

Date: Wednesday, April 7
Time: 6:30- 9:30 pm
Location: The Whitman Theatre at Brooklyn College

Panel to include: Rep. Maxine Waters, Rep. Major Owens, Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Ossie Davis, Gil Noble, Amy Goodman, Ron Daniels, and other prominent activists and journalists

The Bush Administration is facing a growing crisis over its role in the coup in Haiti and the kidnapping of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who continues to speak out about his abduction by the U.S. The 15-member organization of Caribbean nations, CARICOM, has refused to recognize the U.S.-installed regime and has called for an investigation, despite intense pressure and threats from the U.S. The 53-member African Union has raised the same demand.

On Wednesday, April 7, the Haiti Commission of Inquiry will initiate a public inquiry of the role of the Bush Administration in the crisis in Haiti. Delegations that visited both the Central African Republic and the Dominican Republic will present conclusive evidence that U.S. Special Forces armed, trained, and directed the "rebels" and engineered the abduction of President Aristide.

The preliminary report from the Commission states, "two hundred U.S. Special Forces soldiers came to the Dominican Republic as part of 'Operation Jaded Task,' with special authorization from President Hipólito Mejia. We have received many reports that this operation was used to train Haitian rebels. We have received many consistent reports of Haitian rebel training centers at or near Dominican military facilities. We have received many consistent reports of guns transported from the Dominican Republic to Haiti, some across the land border, and others shipped by sea."

Johnnie Stevens of the International Action Center, a member of the delegation to the Central African Republic, said, "The U.S.-installed Prime Minister, Gerard Latortue, has hailed the paid mercenaries as freedom fighters, and had thus discredited himself among the Caribbean nations."

Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a desperate bid to lend some credibility to the Latortue government, is now visiting Haiti for the first time. This attempt to put U. S. weight behind the isolated colonial-style regime is a response to its growing isolation. Sara Flounders, of the International Action Center, said, "This visit by Powell is a sign of the Bush Administration’s growing isolation and disarray. The U.S. is desperately trying to shore up a discredited regime in the face of international opposition to the appointed government of Haiti after the stinging rebuke directed at the U.S. by the recent CARICOM meeting." Flounders is a member of the Haiti Commission of Inquiry and was part of the delegation to the Central African Republic, where she visited with President Aristide shortly after his kidnapping.

Kim Ives from Haiti Progres, who was part of the delegation to the Dominican Republic, told the media, "In the course of our investigation here, we met with many Haitians who were forced to flee Haiti following the coup d'etat of Feb. 29. Their testimony gave very concrete names and faces to the stories of violence which we have heard that the so-called rebels, trained and assembled in the Dominican Republic, have carried out in Haiti over the past month. We were also touched by the tears of refugees who told us of how they are apprehensive over the fate of their loved ones left behind in Haiti."

http://www.iacenter.org/haiti_0407press.htm


US Troopers Secretly Land in Dominican Republic

The military training operation nicknamed Jaded Task took by surprise Dominican Foreign Ministry.

The US Army started today a training operation in the Caribbean country as part of routine maneuvers of the Southern Command. The landing had been kept so secretly that Dominican Foreign Ministry Hugo Tolentino was reported... by the TV.

As per the first reports, the US troops are training Dominican soldiers on anti-terrorism operations in the north of the island. When the national media started announcing the landing, country's Foreign Minister was having a lunch. Tolentino said that, as chief of the Dominican diplomacy, he should have been formally advised, as personally requested to the Dominican Army and the US Embassy to Santo Domingo.

(snip)

However, the most interesting thing, here, is that the Communist Party of the Dominican Republic did know about the operations. This correspondent had access to two formal communications issued by the US Embassy including details of these activities, during the Communist summit held in Buenos Aires in January. There, the US ambassador to Santo Domingo reported about 10.000 soldiers coming to the Dominican Republic to take part of the training.

Moreover, the communists and other leftist forces in the country made know such documents to the local media in November. According to the denounce, US soldiers can freely enter and leave the country without any kind of permission. Also, they can do it through owned means of conveyance.
more
http://english.pravda.ru/world/2003/02/20/43514.html


Congresswoman Maxine Water's Statement on Kidnapping of Aristide


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 1, 2004 Contact: Ron Dungee
[phone]


Congresswoman Maxine Waters' Statement on Kidnapping of Haitian President Aristide


"I spoke to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide by telephone this morning and he told me that did not resign. He said he was kidnapped by American military and U.S. diplomats and military officials and was being held in the Central African Republic.

"Mr. Aristide said that Luis G. Moreno, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, came to his home in the wee hours of the morning with other diplomats and with U.S. Marines. He said he was told to leave and leave now or he and many Haitians would be killed.

"He told me, 'The world must know it was a coup. I was kidnapped. I was forced out. That's what happened. I did not resign. I did not go willingly. I was forced to go.'

"Mr. Aristide told me he was being held under guard in Central Africa's Palace of the Renaissance and felt like he was in jail.

"I also spoke with President Aristide's wife, Mildred. The first thing Mildred said was, 'The coup d'état is complete. It has been completed.'

"I talked to the president and his wife for about 15 minutes. He was anxious to get the word out that he did not leave voluntarily, that he was kidnapped, that he was forced out.

"President Aristide told me he had not been abused, but he sounded angry, stressed, determined; really anxious that people know he was kidnapped, that he did not go willingly, that he was forced out.

"I am deeply saddened that the United States government appears to be complicit in the overthrow of President Jean Bertrand Aristide. The Bush Administration refused to lead an international peacekeeping force to end the violence in Haiti and allow President Aristide to finish his term in office; then the Administration forced him out of the country in the dark of night.

"Last Thursday, the Congressional Black Caucus had an emergency meeting with President Bush, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell. We laid out a very clear case for intervention and asked the president to lead an international effort to keep the peace, stabilize the volatile situation and preserve the government of Haiti's first democratically elected president.

"I have visited Haiti three times since the first of the year and was able to provide first hand information about what was going on in that country. I explained that the so-called opposition was a conglomeration of former supporters of the dictatorial Duvalier regime. Andre Apaid, an American citizen in charge of the Group of 184 started this coup three weeks ago. Guy Philippe, who was exiled to the Dominican Republic after he tried to stage a coup in 2002 was leading a band of exiled military criminals, thugs and murderers-some convicted in absentia for killings they committed in ousting Aristide from office when he was first elected. These were the people pursuing a coup d'état to return Haiti to the corrupt dictatorial rule of the past.

"The CBC asked the president to intervene immediately to stop the bloodshed in Haiti. Scores of Haitian people had been killed and thousands of others held hostage as Philippe and his army of thugs seized town after town as they advanced toward Port-au-Prince. We pointed out that the obstacle to a peaceful solution was not Aristide. I was in Haiti when Aristide signed off on a peace proposal worked out by CARICOM (the Caribbean Community) and others in the international community. It was the opposition that rejected the proposal and refused to negotiate a peaceful resolution of the crisis.

"However, we did not go to the White House to ask for help in Haiti solely for humanitarian reasons. We went there because the United States government was actively involved in the creation of this crisis and had an obligation to do something about it. For several years, the United States blocked $145.9 million in development loans to Haiti by the Inter-American Development Bank. These loans were supposed to fund health, basic education, rural road development, potable water and sanitation programs. Blocking those loans further impoverished the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Our government prevented the money from going to Haiti until the Congressional Black Caucus intervened last year.

"We tried to impress upon the president that the situation of Haiti was extremely critical and immediate action was needed. We did not need a massive military presence in Haiti and it did not need to be a lengthy occupation. All we asked was that the United States and other countries provide immediate assistance to Haiti to strengthen the Haitian police so that they could restore law and order. We could have been in and out in a short period of time, but the president asked for more time to think about it. He was holding out for a political solution to the crisis.

"Now we know the political solution for which he was holding out.

"The thugs and military criminals have accomplished their mission of deposing Aristide with the overt approval and support of the Bush Administration. Now, other members of the Aristide Administration are seeking asylum in other countries.

"This should have been prevented and could have been prevented if the Bush Administration had acted to help stabilize the situation in Haiti

http://www.house.gov/waters/pr040301.htm

[Judi Lynn]

4. Why would this not surprise us?

From the last article, discussing the Brazilian peacekeeping commander General Augusto Heleno Ribeiro's remarks:

He cited the United States, France and Canada among countries pressing for the use of force against armed groups.

It's a shame France has been sucked in by this, and supports _Bush's villany. Is it logical to imagine they feel obligated, since Haiti fought France and won its independence, even though a tiny, tiny country? I would imagine France will ALWAYS repudiate any movement within Haiti toward bettering the condition of the entire populatiton, rather than courting the favor of wealthy industrialists, and offering the population up as virtual slaves to them, through their outrageous sweatshops operated by outsiders soley for their own benefit.

_Bush never had the wellbeing of the Haitian population at heart. God forbid. The entire purpose was to remove the beloved leader of the country who returned to his elected position with Bill Clinton's support.

It was a blow against populist leaders who don't put corporatism and the U.S. first.

Anyone who doesn't greatly respect Maxine Waters is a rightwing psychopath. She has more courage than the entire Republican Congress, and great wisdom, as well. People like her will be remembered with genuine admiration and esteem. Just NOT like a Republican.

What the world could do with more people like Ms. Waters......

[Hekate]

5. Go Maxine! Makes me proud to say I'm from the same state

When I look at the lineup we've managed to deliver to the House of Representatives, it reminds me of the Capitol Steps' parody sung the year Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer were elected to the Senate: "Wish they all could be California girls"!

Hekate