Haiti - Insurrection in the Making

A MADRE Backgrounder on the Crisis in Haiti
by Yifat Susskind, Associate Director

http://www.madre.org/country_haiti_crisis.html

A political crisis that has been brewing in Haiti since
2000 exploded during the second week of February 2004.
Members of an armed movement seeking to overthrow
Haiti’s President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, went on a
rampage in a dozen Haitian towns, killing more than 60
people. The towns remain under siege by criminal gangs
led by former paramilitary members.

There is great concern for the families in these areas,
since the armed vigilantes have cut road and telephone
access to communities, emptied prisons and blocked
convoys of food aid from reaching impoverished areas.
The blockade of food aid is particularly worrisome
since, according to the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization, nearly half of all Haitians lack access
to even minimum food requirements. Hospitals, schools,
police stations and other government buildings have
been burned and looted. Meanwhile, the US Department of
Homeland Security has begun preparations for the
internment of up to 50,000 Haitian refugees at the US
naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, signaling that the
US expects a much greater escalation of violence in
Haiti.

What is the Political Backdrop to the Conflict? The
crisis dates back to a political stalemate stemming
from a contested election. In 2000-the same year that
George Bush stole the US presidency-Haiti held
elections for 7,500 positions nationwide. Election
observers contested the winners of seven senate seats.
President Aristide balked at first, but eventually
yielded and the seven senators resigned. Members of
Haiti’s elite, long hostile to Aristide’s progressive
economic agenda, saw the controversy as an opportunity
to derail his government.

Since 2001, human rights activists and humanitarian
workers in Haiti have documented numerous cases of
opposition vigilantes killing government officials and
bystanders in attacks on the state power station,
health clinics, police stations and government
vehicles. The US government did not condemn any of
these killings.

In January 2004, the opposition escalated its protests.
At some demonstrations, government supporters, who
represent Haiti’s poorest sectors, attacked opposition
activists. Only then did US Secretary of State Powell
issue a one-sided condemnation of ’militant Aristide
supporters.’

In a country as poor as Haiti, control over the
institutions of the state is one of the only sources of
wealth, making national politics an arena of violent
competition. Similarly, in an environment of 70 percent
unemployment, the prospect of long-term work as a
paramilitary fighter leads many young men to join these
forces.

Who is the Opposition? Like the so-called opposition to
the Chavez government of Venezuela, Haiti’s opposition
represents only a small minority (8 percent of the
population according to a 2000 poll). With no chance of
winning through democratic elections, they rely instead
on armed violence to foment a political crisis that
will lead to the fall of the government. Using their
international business connections, especially ties to
the corporate media, the opposition has manufactured an
image of itself as the true champion of democracy in
Haiti.

The gangs that have placed thousands of Haitians under
siege are reportedly armed with US-made M-16s, recently
sent by the US to the government of the Dominican
Republic.

The gangs are directly linked to two groups financed by
the Bush Administration: the right-wing Convergence for
Democracy and the pro-business Group of 184.

The Convergence is a coalition of about two dozen
groups, ranging from neo-Duvalierists (named for the
Duvaliers’ dictatorship that ruled Haiti from
1957-1986) to former Aristide supporters. These groups
have little in common except their desire to see
Aristide overthrown.

According to the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, the
opposition’s ’only policy goal seems to be
reconstituting the army and the implementation of
rigorous Structural Adjustment Programs.’

The Convergence is led by former FRAPH paramilitary
leaders (including Louis Chamblain, Guy Phillipe and
Jean Pierre Baptiste) who carried out the bloody 1991
coup d’etat, in which the CIA-trained and -funded FRAPH
overthrew Aristide, killed 5,000 civilians and
terrorized Haiti for four years.

The Convergence is supported by the Haitian elite and
the leadership of the US Republican Party (through the
National Endowment for Democracy and the International
Republican Institute).

The Group of 184 is represented by Andy Apaid, a
Duvalier supporter and US citizen who obtained a
Haitian passport by fraudulently claiming to have been
born in Haiti. Apaid owns 15 factories in Haiti and was
the main foe of Aristide’s 2003 campaign to raise the
minimum wage (which, at $1.60 a day, was lower than
what it had been 10 years earlier).

By demanding that the opposition be included in any
resolution of Haiti’s political impasse, the US has
greatly empowered these forces. While the opposition
perpetuates Haiti’s political deadlock, the US embargo
(see below) guarantees the island’s economic
strangulation. Aristide’s opponents hope that these
combined tactics will achieve what they cannot win
through democratic elections: the ouster of Aristide.

Why is it so hard to get a clear picture of what’s
happening in Haiti? Media Manipulation

o One reason is that the opposition has succeeded in
mobilizing the mainstream media to create an image of
Aristide as a tyrant and the opposition as democratic
freedom fighters. For example, international media have
run several stories comparing the opposition to the
movement to overthrow Haiti’s long-time Duvalier
dictatorship. Although the Haitian government has
condemned attacks by its supporters on opposition
forces, mainstream media did not report the
condemnations

o Most international coverage of the crisis in Haiti
comes from the large wire services, Reuters and the
Associated Press. These wire services rely almost
exclusively on Haiti’s elite-owned media (Radio
Metropole, Tele-Haiti, Radio Caraibe, Radio Vision 2000
and Radio Kiskeya) for their stories. The outlets are
owned and operated by the opposition. For example, Andy
Apaid, spokesman for the Group of 184, is the founder
of Tele-Haiti.

o Progressive journalists have accused these stations
of exaggerating reports of violence by government
supporters and ignoring violence by opposition forces.
These stations air commercials inciting Haitians to
overthrow the government.

US Double-Speak

o Another reason for confusion is that the Bush
Administration is upholding a long US tradition of
talking about respect for democracy in Haiti while
supporting the country’s most anti-democratic, pro-
business forces. o The US has encouraged the opposition
to refuse to participate in elections and, at the same
time, declared that elections in Haiti will only be
considered legitimate if the opposition participates.

o Powell says that the US is ’not interested in regime
change.’ But the Administration is supporting a
disinformation campaign in the US media, maintaining an
embargo that is intensifying hunger and disease amongst
Haiti’s poorest and supporting the sponsors of armed,
vigilante violence that has already killed scores of
people.

What is the role of the US in Haiti? The US was the
main supporter of the Duvalier dictatorship. In 1986,
when Haiti’s pro-democracy movement finally succeeded
in overthrowing the hated dictator, he was ferried to
safety by the Reagan Administration.

Only with the rise of Aristide, Haiti’s first
democratically elected president, did US support shift
from the Haitian leadership to those who orchestrated
the 1991 coup d’etat.

In 1994, public pressure and fear of an influx of
Haitian ’boat people’ led the Clinton Administration to
reverse the coup d’etat and restore Aristide to power.

The Republican leadership strongly opposed the
intervention. In 1995, when Republicans took control of
Congress, they pushed to cancel US aid to Haiti and to
finance the opposition by reallocating federal funds to
Haitian non-governmental organizations opposed to
Aristide.

In 2000, the Republicans exploited Haiti’s electoral
controversy as an opportunity to discredit Aristide.
The Bush Administration pressured the Inter-American
Development Bank to cancel more than $650 million in
development assistance and approved loans to Haiti —
money that was slated to pay for safe drinking water,
literacy programs and health services.

The seven contested senators are long gone, but the
embargo remains in place, denying critical services to
the poorest people in the hemisphere.

What is Aristide’s record? The US allowed Aristide to
be reinstated on the condition that he implement a
neoliberal economic agenda.

Aristide complied with some US demands, including a
reduction of tariffs on US-grown rice that bankrupted
thousands of Haitian farmers and maintenance of a
below- subsistence-level minimum wage.

But Aristide resisted privatizing state-owned
resources, because of protests from his political base
and because he was reluctant to relinquish control over
these sources of wealth.

Aristide eventually doubled the minimum wage and —
despite the embargo — prioritized education and
healthcare: he built schools and renovated public
hospitals; established new HIV-testing centers and
doctor-training programs; and introduced a program to
subsidize schoolbooks and uniforms and expand school
lunch and bussing services.

Aristide has tried to walk a line between US demands
for neoliberal reforms and his own commitment to a
progressive economic agenda. As a result, he has lost
favor with parts of his own political base and Haitian
and US elites.

Aristide has also been criticized for turning a blind
eye to human rights abuses committed by his supporters
and by advocates of good governance for rewarding
loyalists with government posts regardless of their
qualifications. (a patronage system even more extensive
than the one that has filled the Bush Administration
with former CEOs and corporate lobbyists.)

So Should Progressives Support Aristide? The current
crisis is not about supporting or opposing Aristide the
man, but about defending constitutional democracy in
Haiti. In a democracy, elections-and not vigilante
violence-should be the measure of ’the will of the
people.’ Aristide has repeatedly invited the opposition
to participate in elections and they have refused,
knowing that they cannot win at the polls.

How Should the Crisis be Resolved? MADRE supports the
proposal of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM, a
consortium of Caribbean governments) which:

Rejects any violent overthrow of the government and
insists that any change in government be in compliance
with Haiti’s constitution.

Calls on the opposition to accept Aristide’s offer to
take part in elections in order to break the impasse
that has frozen Haiti’s government for the past several
years.

Calls on the international community to provide
economic assistance to Haiti in order to alleviate the
country’s grinding poverty and create some foundation
for economic and political stability.

MADRE also calls on the Bush Administration to:

Unequivocally denounce the opposition and cease any
financial, political or military support for its
forces.

Lift the embargo that is denying urgently needed
development aid and health programs to Haitian women
and families.

Some Statistics on Haiti · The richest 1% of the
population controls nearly half of all of Haiti’s
wealth. · Haiti has long ranked as the poorest country
in the Western Hemisphere and is the fourth poorest
country in the world. · Haiti ranks 146 out of 173 on
the Human Development Index.* · Life expectancy is 52
years for women and 48 for men*. · Adult literacy is
about 50%.* · Unemployment is about 70%.* · 85% of
Haitians live on less than $1 US per day.* · Haiti
ranks 38 out of 195 for under-five mortality rate.*

*Source: ’Investigating the Effects of Withheld
Humanitarian Aid,’ a report of the Haiti Reborn/Quixote
Center.

MADRE is working to deliver emergency supplies of food
and medicine to women and families in Haiti. In recent
weeks, armed gangs seeking to overthrow Haiti’s
government have prevented food supplies from reaching
impoverished communities and attacked government
clinics and hospitals. MADRE is working with a local,
progressive community-based organization that has a
long record of successfully delivering aid to those
most in need, even in times of crisis.

Please support this emergency campaign for women and
families in Haiti by making a tax-deductible
contribution to MADRE.

Haiti Support Group press release - 23 February 2004

Return of the FRAPH/FAD’H

The reappearance of the FRAPH/FAD’H is nothing less
than a stinking stain on today’s Haiti. - In December
2003, the Workers’ Struggle (Batay Ouvriye)
organisation succinctly summed up the main protagonists
in the struggle for political power in Haiti: "Lavalas
and the bourgeois opposition are two rotten buttocks in
a torn pair of trousers."

Today, 23 February 2004, as Haitians wake up to the
news that the northern city of Cap-Haitien has fallen
to a rebel force composed of former Haitian Army
(FAD’H) soldiers led by FRAPH leader, Louis Jodel
Chamblain, we can perhaps continue with this analogy,
and say:

"The reappearance of the FRAPH/FAD’H is nothing less
than the excrement that’s making a stinking stain on
the torn trousers that is Haiti today."

The Haiti Support Group wholeheartedly endorses Amnesty
International’s 16 February press release which stated,
"The last thing that the country needs is for those who
committed abuses in the past to take up leadership
positions in the armed opposition."

As a solidarity organisation that believes that
internationally-recognised human rights standards can
lend valuable protection to individuals and
organisations struggling to overthrow tyranny and
dictatorship, we are deeply concerned that the Haitian
opposition - grouped in the Democratic Platform - has
failed to unequivocally condemn the emergence of
notorious human rights abusers at the head of the armed
movement to oust President Aristide.

We are also greatly alarmed to see statements in the
media which indicate that the rebel force intends to
reinstate the disbanded Haitian Army (FAD’H). Ever
since its creation during the US occupation (1915-34),
the Haitian Army’s primary roles have been to defend
the country’s tiny and reactionary economic elite and
to repress movements for political change. We fully
expect a reborn Haitian Army to play exactly the same
role.

For this reason, the Haiti Support Group - a solidarity
organisation that has supported the Haitian people’s
struggle for justice, human rights, equitable
development and participatory democracy since 1992 -
cannot accept that a reborn Haitian Army will serve the
best interests of the Haitian majority.

In this context, we are obliged to point out that
elements within the Democratic Convergence opposition
coalition have long intimated their support for the
reinstatement of the Haitian Army, and that, more
recently, the continued silence on this issue on the
part of the Democratic Platform is a strong indication
that it is willing to accept a reborn Haitian Army in
exchange for the early departure of President Aristide.

As the desperately grim scenario unfolds in Haiti, we
are reminded once again of this extract from an article
published in The Washington Post newspaper on 2nd
February 2001:

– The (Democratic) Convergence was formed as a broad
group with help from the International Republican
Institute, an organisation that promotes democracy that
is closely identified with the U.S. Republican Party.
It includes former Aristide allies - people who helped
him fight Haiti’s dictators, then soured as they
watched him at work. But it also includes former
backers of the hated Duvalier family dictatorship and
of the military officers who overthrew Aristide in 1991
and terrorised the country for three years. The most
determined of these men, with a promise of anonymity,
freely express their desire to see the U.S. military
intervene once again, this time to get rid of Aristide
and rebuild the disbanded Haitian army. "That would be
the cleanest solution," said one opposition party
leader. Failing that, they say, the CIA should train
and equip Haitian officers exiled in the neighboring
Dominican Republic so they could stage a comeback
themselves."

Background on rebel leaders whose forces are now in
control of over half of Haiti: Louis Jodel Chamblain
Chamblain was joint leader - along with CIA operative
Emmanuel ’Toto’ Constant - of the Front révolutionnaire
pour l’avancement et le progrès haïtien, (Revolutionary
Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress) known by
its acronym - FRAPH - which phonetically resembles the
French and Creole words for ’to beat’ or ’to thrash’.
FRAPH was formed by the military authorities who were
the de facto leaders of the country during the 1991-94
military regime, and was responsible for numerous human
rights violations before the 1994 restoration of
democratic governance.

Among the victims of FRAPH under Chamblain’s leadership
was Haitian Justice Minister Guy Malary. He was
ambushed and machine-gunned to death with his body-
guard and a driver on October 14, 1993. According to an
October 28, 1993 CIA Intelligence Memorandum obtained
by the Center for Constitutional Rights: "FRAPH members
Jodel Chamblain, Emmanuel Constant, and Gabriel
Douzable met with an unidentified military officer on
the morning of 14 October to discuss plans to kill
Malary." (Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, the leader of
FRAPH, is now living freely in Queens, NYC.)

In September 1995, Chamblain was among seven senior
military and FRAPH leaders convicted in absentia and
sentenced to forced labour for life for involvement in
the September 1993 extrajudicial execution of Antoine
Izméry, a well-known pro-democracy activist. In late
1994 or early 1995, it is understood that Chamblain
went into exile to the Dominican Republic in order to
avoid prosecution.

Guy Philippe 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.

Ernst Ravix According to the Inter-American Commission
on Human Rights report on Haiti, dated 7 September
1988, FAD’H Captain Ernst Ravix, was the military
commander of Saint Marc, and head of a paramilitary
squad of "sub- proletariat youths" who called
themselves the Sans Manman (Motherless Ones). In May
1988, the government of President Manigat tried to
reduce contraband and corruption in the port city of
Saint Marc, but Ravix, the local Army commander,
responded by organising a demonstration against the
President in which some three thousand residents
marched, chanted, and burned barricades. Manigat
removed Ravix from his post, but after Manigat’s
ouster, he was reinstated by the military dictator, Lt.
Gen. Namphy.

Ravix was not heard of again until December 2001 when
former FAD’H sergeant, Pierre Richardson, the person
captured following the 17 December attack on the
National Palace, reportedly confessed that the attack
was a coup attempt planned in the Dominican Republic by
three former police chiefs- Guy Philippe, Jean-Jacques
Nau and Gilbert Dragon - and that it was led by former
Captain Ernst Ravix. According to Richardson, Ravix’s
group withdrew from the National Palace and fled to the
Dominican Republic when reinforcements failed to
arrive.

Jean Tatoune Jean Pierre Baptiste, alias "Jean
Tatoune", first came to prominence as a leader of the
anti- Duvalier mobilisations in his home town of
Gonaives in 1985. For some years he was known and
respected for his anti-Duvalierist activities but
during the 1991-94 military regime he emerged as a
local leader of FRAPH. On 22 April 1994, he led a force
of dozens of soldiers and FRAPH members in an attack on
Raboteau, a desperately poor slum area in Gonaives and
a stronghold of support for Aristide. Between 15 and 25
people were killed in what became known as the Raboteau
massacre.

In 2000, Tatoune was put on trial and sentenced to
forced labour for life for his participation in the
Raboteau massacre. He was subsequently imprisoned in
Gonaives, from where he escaped in August 2002, and
took up arms again in his base in a poor area of the
city. At various times he has spoken out against the
government, and at other times in favour of it, but
since September 2003 he has allied himself with the
followers of murdered community leader, Amiot Metayer,
and vowed to overthrow the government by force.

Jean-Baptiste Joseph Joseph is a former Haitian Army
sergeant who, following the disbanding of the FAD’H in
1995, headed an association of former FAD’H members.
The formation of the Rassemblement des Militaires
Révoqués Sans Motifs (RAMIRESM), the Assembly of
Soldiers Retired Without Cause was announced at a 1
August 1995 press conference in Port-au-Prince. During
1995 and 1996, RAMIRESM was closely associated with
Hubert De Ronceray’s neo-Duvalierist party,
Mobilisation pour le développement national, (MDN)
Mobilisation for National Development.

On 17 August 1996, Joseph was one of 15 former soldiers
arrested at the MDN party headquarters and accused of
plotting against the government. Two days later,
approximately twenty armed men, reportedly in uniforms
and thought to be former soldiers, fired on the main
Port-au-Prince police station, killing one bystander.

Since then nothing had been heard of Joseph, until he
emerged in Hinche with the rebel forces last week. The
right-wing MDN party is a leading member of the
Democratic Convergence coalition.