8 People Die During Gang Feud in Haiti

[Judi Lynn]

Dec 7, 4:27 AM EST

8 People Die During Gang Feud in Haiti
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- At least eight people were killed in a Haitian slum during a gang feud set off by the weekend murder of a police officer, a U.N. official said.

A former rebel leader who helped topple Haiti's first freely elected president criticized its newest one, accusing President Rene Preval's government of being soft on armed gangs and failing to stem a bloody tide of street violence.

Breaking a long silence, Guy Philippe said efforts by Preval and Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis to negotiate a peace agreement with the gangs has not reduced killings and kidnappings in the capital of Port-au-Prince.

"The Alexis-Preval government hasn't done anything to stop the insecurity," Philippe said in an interview Tuesday with Haitian broadcaster Radio Metropole. "The prime minister is still negotiating with gangs ... and there have been no results."
(snip/...)

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/H/HAITI_GANG_FEUD?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-12-07-04-27-14

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It appears the larger news services are going to keep promoting these paramilitary murderers as the spokesmen for the Haitian community, although they are wretched, ultra-violent paid lackeys of U.S. right-wingers, International Republican Institute, both in the last overthrow of a Haitian President, and during the Presidency of _{George W. Bush's} father.

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Haiti Background: Guy Philippe
by haiti news
Wednesday Feb 25th, 2004 4:18 PM

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.
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.
(snip)

Guy Philippe is a former member of the FAD'H (Haitian Army). During the 1991-94 military regime, he and a number of other officers received training from the US Special Forces in Equador, and when the FAD'H was dissolved by Aristide in early 1995, Philippe was incorporated into the new National Police Force. He served as police chief in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Delmas and in the second city, Cap-Haitien, before he fled Haiti in October 2000 when Haitian authorities discovered him plotting what they described as a coup, together with a clique of other police chiefs. Since that time, the Haitian government has accused Philippe of master-minding deadly attacks on the Haitian Police Academy and the National Palace in July and December 2001, as well as hit-and-run raids against police stations on Haiti's Central Plateau over last two years.
(snip)

Guy Philippe, former police chief of Cap-Hatien and Duvalier death squad leader in the 1980s, was named l'Arbonite's chief of armed forces. Philippe fled Haiti in 2002 to the Dominican Republic after it was discovered that he was plotting a coup. Philippe returned to Haiti with former death squad leader Louis Jodel Chamblain, and had up to 50 armed supporters with him. Jean Pierre Baptiste, who calls himself General Tatoune, lead the march into the city. He was one of the leaders of the uprising that overthrew Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier in 1986. Under the military regime of the early 1990's, he joined the paramilitary outfit FRAPH (Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti) and was serving life in prison in Gonaves for his role in a 1994 massacre. A close associate of Chamblain, Emmanueal 'Toto' Constant, who lead the coup against Aristide in 1991, has admitted CIA financing for the movement. It has also been claimed that these paramilitaries received "some form" of training while in the Dominican Republic. These paramilitary thugs now control most of Haiti's north, and the rebels are today threatening an attempt to take Port-au-Prince.
(snip)

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2004/02/25/16714471.php



Profile: Guy Philippe
Positions that Guy Philippe has held:
Police Chief in Cap-Haitien, Haiti
Guy Philippe participated in the following events as an activeparticipant:
Early 1990s Haitian Guy Philippe is trained by US Special Forces in Ecuador.

Entity Tags: Guy Philippe
1995 Guy Philippe joins the new Haitian National Police and is posted at Ouanamithe near Haiti’s northern border with the Dominican Republic.

Entity Tags: Guy Philippe
1997-1999 Guy Philippe serves as police chief in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Delmas. According to Human Rights Watch, “dozens of suspected gang members ... summarily executed, mainly by police under the command of Inspector Berthony Bazile, Philippe’s deputy.” Philippe will later deny the allegation in an interview with the Miami Herald.

Entity Tags: Guy Philippe, Berthony Bazile
October 18, 2000 The prime minister of Haiti says that Guy Philippe and others are planning to overthrow the Aristide government. Philippe and the other plotters flee across the Dominican border before they can be arrested.

Entity Tags: Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Guy Philippe
(2001-2004) The United States Government funds and trains a 600-member paramilitary army of anti-Aristide Haitians in the Dominican Republic with the authorization of the country’s president, Hipolito Mejia. The funds—totaling $1.2 milllion—are directed through the International Republican Institute (IRI) on the pretext of encouraging democracy in Haiti. In order to evade attention, the paramilitary soldiers appear at their training sessions dressed in the uniforms of the Dominican Republic national police. The training—provided by some 200 members of the US Special Forces—takes place in the Dominican villages of Neiba, San Cristobal, San Isidro, Hatillo, Haina, and others. Most of the training takes place on property owned by the Dominican Republic Government. Technical training, conducted once a month, takes place in a Santo Domingo hotel through the IRI. Among the Hatians that take part in the program are known human rights violators including Guy Philippe and Louis-Jodel Chamblain. Democracy Now!, 4/7/2004; Radio Mundo, 4/2/2004; Xinhau News Agency (Beijing), 3/29/2004; Newsday, 3/16/2004]

Entity Tags: Guy Philippe, International Republican Institute, Louis-Jodel Chamblain
February 2003 Stanley Lucas, who is the point man in Haiti for the Republican-dominated International Republican Institute (IRI) based in the Dominican Republic, meets with Haitian rebel Guy Philippe and his men. Three months later the group will cross into Haiti and attack a hydroelectric power plant. Lucas has long ties to the Haitian military (see Early May 2003). After the toppling of Aristide’s government 12 months later, it will be learned that the group had been funded and trained through the IRI (see (2001-2004)).

Entity Tags: International Republican Institute, Stanley Lucas, Guy Philippe
Early May 2003 A group of at least 20 paramilitary soldiers—trained and funded by the US (see (2001-2004)) —cross into Haiti from the neighboring Dominican Republic and attack a hydroelectric power plant on Haiti’s central plateau. Shortly after the attack, Dominican authorities, at the behest of the Haitian government, arrest five men, including Guy Philippe, in connection with the paramilitary operation. But they are quickly released by the Dominicans who say there is no evidence of their involvement in the attack. Philippe is interviewed by the Associated Press afterwards and asked what he is doing in the Dominican. Philippe, who mentions to the reporter that he would support a coup against Aristide, refuses to “say how he makes a living or what he does to spend his time in the Dominican Republic.” Less than one year later, Philippe will participate in the overthrow of the Aristide government. On the same day the five men are detained, Haitian authorities raid the Port-au-Prince residence of mayoral candidate Judith Roy of the Democratic Convergence opposition. The Haitians claim to find “assault weapons, ammunitions, and plans to attack the National Palace and Aristide’s suburban residence.” The Haitian government contends that Roy is close to Philippe.

Entity Tags: Judith Roy, Democratic Convergence, Guy Philippe
(March 15, 2004) Guy Philippe orders 30-year-old anti-Aristide paramilitary leader, “Ti Gary,” to “go into the La Savanne neighborhood and kill Lavalas supporters.” When Ti Gary refuses, Philippe’s deputy shoots him with a shotgun in the leg.

Entity Tags: Guy Philippe, Ti Gary
April 29, 2004 In an interview with the Miami Herald, Haitian rebel Guy Philippe says that his paramilitary group, the Front de Resistance, would soon be laying down its arms and founding a new political party, the Front de Reconstrucion Nationale. He adds that he will consider running as the party’s candidate for president. “We have to do a poll and see who has the advantage,” he explains. “If the poll says I am the person, I will be the person.” If elected president, Philippe says his first priority would be reestablishing the Haitian national army. “This would be a professional army, not the one we had,” he says, reasoning that “ou can’t have foreigners invest without security.” Next on his agenda, Philippe continues, would be “education, education, education.” And unlike Aristide, whose policies often conflicted with the interests of Haiti’s wealthy elite— “who have maintained a stark class system in Haiti for 200 years” —Philippe’s policies would avoid antagonizing them. “They have a key role in this country,” he explains. Philippe claims that he and other rebels, whom human rights groups have demanded be excluded from politics in post-Aristide Haiti (see March 3, 2004), are being misrepresented. For example, he contends that Louis-Jodel Chamblain, who was convicted in absentia for his involvement in the Raboteau Massacre (see April 18-22, 1994), is in fact a hero. “I’m sorry, but Chamblain is a hero. A lot of people love him here. He offered his life for his countrymen.” An unnamed US official tells the Miami Herald, “It’s a very scary thought. It’s all the same guys. Talk about taking one step forward and two steps back.”
(snip/...)

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=guy_philippe

[Judi Lynn]

1. More on man quoted in news article posted above, Guy Philippe:

USAID, the CIA, and the Coup in Haiti
Neil Elliott
Published Saturday, February 28th, 2004

The first democratic government of Haiti appears to be in its death throes. To add vicious insult to continuing injury, the American mainstream media continue to present Haitian affairs as the sorry result of the dismal leadership of one man, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, despite the best efforts of the United States. The headline that graced the Star Tribune’s front page on February 18th – “USA, France reluctant to intervene in Haiti” – would be laughably absurd if the reality it obscured were not so dreadful.



One doesn’t have to wander far from the Associated Press wires to find abundant information about the United States’ enthusiastic long-term “intervention” in Haiti. The so-called “democratic convergence” that has dogged Aristide’s elected government is, in fact, a tiny group of malcontents who are working with elements of the Bush administration to turn Haiti into one vast sweatshop zone.

Having been soundly rejected in every election in which they’ve run against Aristide’s grass-roots “Lavalas” party, they’ve used millions of USA tax dollars to organize street demonstrations, buy up radio and television stations, and, most recently, field a vicious army of thugs, styling themselves the “Cannibal Army,” who have attacked police stations and set about occupying Haitian cities.

All this has been funded from the USA Agency for International Development (USAID), under the guise of its falsely so-called “Democracy Enhancement” program. USAID has long been notorious for channeling money to the tiny pro-business elite and its armed goons. It was USAID money that helped a CIA agent persuade Emmanuel “Toto” Constant to organize the murderous FRAPH in 1991. That terrorist organization was responsible for some 5,000 murders in the wake of the military coup that removed Aristide from his first term as elected president. Constant now lives as a real estate agent in Brooklyn, thanks to the protection of the USA State and Justice departments.
(snip/)

http://www.world-crisis.com/analysis_comments/442_0_15_0_C35/



Guy Philippe

[MrPrax]

2. The Lancet Report ...

you'll never hear about...

Police and political groups linked to Haiti sex attacks

More than 30,000 women and girls - half under the age of 18 - were raped in Haiti's capital city in the chaotic two years following the ousting of the country's democratically elected president, a survey has suggested. About 8,000 people were killed during the same period.

The survey highlights the extraordinary violence at a time when the country was headed by an interim government imposed by the international community, following the enforced departure of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. "Our results indicate that crime and systematic abuse of human rights were common in Port-au-Prince," the researchers from Wayne State University in Michigan said. "Although criminals were the most identified perpetrators of violations, political actors and UN soldiers were also frequently identified.

....

Despite the election of Mr Preval, violence and rape has continued. Last Friday several hundred rape victims marched through the centre of Port-au-Prince, their faces covered by veils, to highlight the ongoing crisis. Organiser Eramithe Delva, of the Commission of Women Victims for Victims (KOFAVIV), said: "We are veiling our faces because this is how they come to our homes to rape us, beat us, destroy our homes, burn our things."

....

Sexual assault as a form of political repression has a long history in Haiti. A court in New York last week heard evidence against Emmanuel " Toto" Constant, a Haitian now living in the US, who led military death squads that raped and tortured followers of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in the early 1990s.

Independent

________

If you didn't hear about the report into the sectarian violence and 'quagmire' in Haiti, your not alone.
________

You Are a Dog. You Should Die!

You are a dog ... you should die. We are going to necklace you," whispered a British-accented caller into the phone. It 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, had received. According to police officials, Kolbe first began receiving threatening calls 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 by the Wayne State University School of Social Work with Dr. Royce Hutson, 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, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

...

In response to Arthur's allegations of "bias", Kolbe replies, "I am in no way a Lavalas propagandist as Arthur implies. Just because I wrote about Haiti and do not believe Aristide was a dictator, that does not make me Fanmi Lavalas. That is ridiculous," she said. "This survey was conducted fairly and accurately. The researchers conducted themselves without bias and interviewed and gathered information from 1260 randomly selected homes. To insinuate that the report is misleading is to allege a grand conspiracy involving dozens of people including our university's ethics committee which had full knowledge of my past history in Haiti and had no problem with it when they approved our research protocols."

A Haitian resident of London, who wishes to remain anonymous due to the death threats, explains that on Sept. 2 Charles Arthur told her and several other people that "We need to find this woman?s phone number so people can contact her and complain to her directly." The following day a flyer emblazed with Kolbe's photo was released titled "Who is Athena Kolbe?" Respond to Fanmi Lavalas Propaganda!!!!" Another witness, wishing to go unnamed due to the fear of being targeted, explains that Arthur was responsible for distributing the fliers. The flyer's text is identical to portions of Arthur's letter to the Lancet, which he posted online. It ends by encouraging people to "ask her why she is hiding her affiliation with Fanmi Lavalas" and gives Kolbe's phone numbers, email address, home address, and the address and phone number of her family members.

ZMag