Special court can right Haitian wrongs (Japan Times)

[struggle4progress]

Haiti's present ruler, Gerard Latortue, chosen by a group of U.S.-approved Haitian "wise persons," is a transitional caretaker with almost no power to govern his country or restrain his own police force from carrying out acts of violence.

The situation in Haiti continues to deteriorate as the government intimidates, arrests and kills member of Lavalas, Aristide's party, as revenge for similar killings carried out by Aristide's government.

Last October, the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince called the Ministry of Health demanding emergency vehicles to remove more than 600 corpses that had been deposited there, the result of killings that had taken place in the previous weeks. <snip>

Adults are not the only targets of police violence. Child welfare workers say the rate of beatings and killings of street children has increased five times since the ouster of Aristide. These murders are carried out by the police, death squads and the military. <snip>

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/geted.pl5?eo20050322a2.htm

[HawkerHurricane]

1. Excuse me?

"The situation in Haiti continues to deteriorate as the government intimidates, arrests and kills member of Lavalas, Aristide's party, as revenge for similar killings carried out by Aristide's government."

This is the first I've heard of Aristide's government having any killings. Is it true, or did they pull that out of their ass as an excuse to execute/murder the memebers of the legitimately elected government?

[lenidog]

3. If Aristides government didn't kill their opponents

it would have been seen as an unnatural act for an Haitian government probably also against the Haitian constitution.

[struggle4progress]

4. I believe the Japan Times account is garbled. The situation ...

... in Haiti has been "difficult," at least, for quite a long time. Here, for example, is HRW in mid-February of last year:

Haiti: Aristide Should Uphold Rule of Law
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/02/14/haiti7476_txt.htm

It seems entirely clear to me that the Bush administration set out to destabilize the Aristide government, by pulling international monetary strings, long before armed insurgents "somehow" suddenly entered the country -- but in some sense the government is the natural target of criticism whenever civil society begins to break down, for whatever reason.

What's behind the Japan Times account seems to me to be the ordinary "some truth on both sides" averaging, which is a lazy alternative to discussion of concrete details. The simple fact of the matter is that such mush is what predominates at first when an issue like this first begins to break through the popular consciousness: so I'm inclined to read the Japan Times article as an indication that there is a growing international awareness of a serious problem in Haiti.

Incidently, as we begin to succeed in our fight against the Bushista machine, we should expect similar "truth-by-averaging" pablum to proliferate about issues in the US ...

[lenidog]

2. It is going to take a hell of a lot more than a court

to even begin to fix Haiti. I think making sure there is enough food an drinkable water should be the starting place. Someyimes I think that the best solution to Haiti is to move everyone elsewhere and burn the place down to the bedrock. I swear soemtimes there is some truth to the legend that a Caribe shaman cursed the land to never know happiness.

[struggle4progress]

5. Food and water. You are absolutely right. eom