Home > Black Lawyers Blasts Kidnapping of Aristide
National Conference of Black Lawyers
Blasts Kidnapping of Aristide
The National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL)
expresses its maximum outrage and disgust with the
imperialist, lawless and brutal campaign of terrorism
that has been inflicted on the people of Haiti by the
Bush Administration. According to reports, the United
States has resorted to the methods of petty gangsters by
kidnapping Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide at
gunpoint, orchestrating a coup and forcing the country’s
democratically-elected leader into exile. Furthermore,
NCBL condemns in the strongest terms the Bush
Administration’s callous, hypocritical and racist policy
on Haitian refugees. NCBL demands immediate answers to
questions about U.S. involvement with armed terrorists
who have destabilized the island nation, and calls for
the formation of a global Pan-African alliance of
organizations that will be prepared to counter future
imperialist intervention through coordinated economic
warfare.
The forced departure of President Aristide from Haiti
came amidst an ongoing, full-scale armed attack on the
country by bands of thugs who are former members of the
disbanded Haitian army and secret police force that
operated under the leadership of former dictators Raoul
Cedras and Jean-Claude ("Baby Doc") Duvalier. These
former military/police goons were noted for their
barbarity and tortures inflicted on countless members of
the civilian population. They were responsible for a
coup in 1991 that forced Aristide from office. Observers
like the Haiti Action Committee have reported that,
after Aristide’s return to power in 1994, many of the
thugs fled to the neighboring Dominican Republic, where
they commenced training in terrorist tactics that were
recently unleashed in a merciless campaign to
destabilize the island.
Armed thugs causing chaos in an underdeveloped country
for the purpose of setting the stage for a "regime
change" is an all-too-familiar scenario that has
historically been masterminded by the U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA). It occurred in 1976 in
Jamaica when the CIA provided high-powered weapons to
opponents of then-Prime Minister Michael Manley who was
regarded by Washington as having too cozy a relationship
with Fidel Castro. It occurred in Nicaragua during the
1980s when the CIA organized and financed terrorist
opponents of the Sandinista government. It has likewise
occurred in various countries in Africa, like Ghana and
Congo. It occurred in Grenada in 1983, when the U.S.
invaded the tiny island. More recently, we have
witnessed a similar failed coup attempt in Venezuela,
and threats directed at Zimbabwe because that country
dares to return land to its indigenous citizens.
For several reasons, President Aristide is not viewed
with favor by the West. After Aristide’s re-election in
2000, he refused the U.S. demand to privatize Haitian
state monopolies. Washington answered by freezing $600
million in assistance to Haiti. Aristide also led a
campaign to have France pay Haiti $22 billion in
reparations for blackmailing newly-independent Haiti
with a threat of an international embargo in 1804.
"Coincidentally," France was first to demand that
Aristide step down. Given the fact that, historically,
the U.S. government, via the CIA, has repeatedly
interfered with Haiti’s internal affairs to prop up the
dictatorship of the Duvalier family and the Haitian
business elite, NCBL is compelled to ask whether yet-
again, the U.S. has engaged in illegal covert activities
to further the Bush Administration’s policy of pre-
emptive regime change. Such actions, as well as the
kidnapping of a head of state are flagrant violations of
domestic criminal law, and basic principles of
international law, including various provisions of the
United Nations Charter that are intended to protect
sovereign countries from both violent and peaceful
foreign intervention in matters that are within the
country’s domestic jurisdiction.
NCBL must note as well that the U.S. has traditionally
presented itself as a place of refuge for people from
around the world who fear persecution in their
respective homelands. However, it is clear that U.S.
refugee policy, in practice, is determined by race. In
2002, there were approximately 10.4 million refugees
worldwide â€" the majority of whom were people of color.
Nevertheless, the US continues to offer shelter
disproportionately to white refugees. This fact is once
again made blatantly clear by Bush’s recent statement
that no Haitian refugees will be allowed to enter the
U.S. despite the great civil unrest occurring in their
country. Such a statement is in direct conflict with a
refugee policy that claims to consider each case
individually, and it reeks of racism. NCBL opposes this
racist treatment of refugees of African descent.
NCBL stands firmly in support of President Aristide, and
we offer our full support to those courageous members of
the Congressional Black Caucus and others who have dared
to defy the U.S. political establishment and expose the
lies of the Bush Administration and its lackeys in the
corporate mass media. Finally, NCBL calls upon all
organizations of people of African ancestry, and others
of goodwill, to establish an Independent Action Alliance
for the purpose of preventing future Haiti-like
occurrences by coordinating global mass actions to
impact the health of selected multi-national
corporations, and the economies of western governments
that choose to use criminal methods to undermine
legitimate, democratically-selected leadership, and to
otherwise frustrate efforts at African peoples’ self-
determination.