Reuters: U.S. radio ad fuels debate on Haitian sovereignty

[Eugene]

U.S. radio ad fuels debate on Haitian sovereignty

By Joseph Guyler Delva
Reuters
Sunday, September 24, 2006; 11:27 AM

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - A radio ad urging Haitians to reveal
illegal weapons caches to the U.S. Embassy has angered politicians and
fueled debate on whether the troubled Caribbean nation has become
a tacit U.S. protectorate.

The embassy denied any attempt on its part to undermine Haiti's
sovereignty but critics say U.S. authorities have appropriated the
proper role of the Haitian police.

In a paid commercial broadcast in Creole on Haitian radio, U.S.
officials promise compensation to those who provide information
about people who have weapons or on the location of those weapons.

-snip-

Efforts by police and U.N. peacekeeping forces to disarm slum gangs
and former members of Haiti's disbanded army have had little success,
despite assurances by some gangs that they would hand over their guns
after President Rene Preval, a one-time Aristide ally, was elected
this year.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/24/AR2006092400251.html

[struggle4progress]

1. Slaveholders and wannabe slavers have hated and feared Haiti since 1791,

when the wretched of the earth revolted against The Ownership Society: the possibility that such an enterprise might succeed, and might set a positive example, has terrified the sweatshop-owning class ever since.

The Reaganites became their propaganda against Aristide when he was still doing slum-work; after he became Haiti's first elected President, the CIA under Bush I funded a coup and set up death-squads in the country. His second successful Presidental campaign did not improve The Ownership Society's attitudes towards Aristide: Bush II did everything in his power to destabilize Haiti and finally supported a second coup, kidnapping the elected President Aristide in the dark of night and deporting him back to Africa. The aftermath has been entirely predictable: thousands of political murders.

It would be ridiculous to debate about the significance of a US Embassy offer to reward people reporting weapons caches. The US bought the weapons and expected those holding the weapons to follow US orders; but in current climate of violence, there are calls for the US to limit the damage; and having only slight insight and few contacts, The Ownership Society can't think of many ways to get the weapons back except by broadcasting reward offers.


"You Are a Dog. You Should Die!"
Death Threats Against Lancet's Haiti Human Rights Investigator
By JEB SPRAGUE and JOE EMESBERGER

"You are a dog ... you should die. We are going to necklace you," .. was the latest in a round of death threats that Athena Kolbe, Human Rights Investigator and Master's level social worker at Wayne State University, .. first began receiving .. at home and on her cell phone at 4:00 AM on the morning of Monday September 4.

Kolbe, who co-coordinated a human rights study carried out in late 2005 .., led a team of twelve Haitian interviewers in surveying 1260 randomly selected households in the greater Port-au-Prince area. The Haitian researchers interviewed Port-au-Prince residents about their experiences with human rights abuses since the installation of Gerald Latortue as interim Prime Minister following the violent overthrow of Haiti's elected President ..

The Lancet article .. "Human Rights Abuse and Other Criminal Violations in Port-au-Prince Haiti: A Random Survey of Households" .. estimates that 8000 persons were murdered and approximately 35000 sexually assaulted in the greater Port-au-Prince area between February 2004 and December 2005 ...

http://www.counterpunch.org/sprague09112006.html

[Judi Lynn]

2. Thanks for pointing out why Bush's administration is trying to get those

weapons.

I hope they fail in this effort.

The world needs physical evidence to explain to the slow learners just how this "coup" came about. They need to be shown what happens when they just look the other way decade after decade, and U.S. right-wingers meddle in the lives of the helpless poor in the filthiest, most unforgivable, most brutal ways possible.