Home > Haiti’s army turns back the clock
No Sweat (UK)
March 29,2004
By Charles Arthur
It didn’t take long for the new order in Haiti to reveal
itself. The day after President Aristide ’left’ for
exile, 34 union members at the Ouanaminthe garment
assembly factory run by the Dominican Grupo M company,
were fired. The next morning, when the 600-strong
workforce decided to strike, a group of armed men
launched a violent attack. Some unionists were
handcuffed, many others were beaten up, and the workers
were forced back inside the factory.
The aggressors were members of the so-called rebel
force, fresh from their victory over the government of
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. They said they had
been called to the factory by management, to deal with
workers "causing trouble".
As in so many Haitian towns, the Ouanaminthe insurgents
had taken over from the police. Their leaders say they
are former members of the Haitian Army, the FAD’H, a
force demobilised by Aristide in 1995. Some, such as Guy
Philippe and Gilbert Dragon, were trained by the US in
Ecuador and flown home to senior positions in the new
Haitian police force in the mid-1990s.
When Aristide’s predecessor, President Rene Preval,
discovered them plotting a coup back in October 2000,
Philippe, Dragon and a handful of other police chiefs,
fled to the neighbouring Dominican Republic. There they
carried on plotting, meeting with representatives of
Haitian opposition parties such as Paul Arcelin and
Jean-Baptiste Joseph, and with former members of the
FAD’H death squad, the FRAPH, like Louis Chamblain.
Throughout 2003, their followers conducted a low level
insurgency in the remote border region with the
Dominican Republic that claimed around 30 lives. In
February, their campaign suddenly caught fire and within
weeks, an armed insurrection had toppled Aristide. The
rebels’ leader Guy Philippe triumphantly told a press
conference in the capital, Port-au-Prince: "I am the
chief." Asked what he meant, he said, "the military
chief."
Although the insurgents’ links to the businessmen
heading the Group of 184 coalition that led the anti-
Aristide protest movement remain sketchy, it is clear
that the armed and unarmed elements of the rebellion are
moving closer together.
When downtown Port-au-Prince was besieged by looters in
early March, Maurice Lafortune, head of the Chamber of
Commerce and a leading figure in the Group of 184,
called on Philippe and his men to restore order. Another
G184 leader, the sweatshop owner, Charles Henri Baker,
could hardly contain his admiration for the
"liberators", speaking of the need for an army to
protect businesses from "the mob". Political party
leaders, including the long-time US favourite, Evans
Paul, held friendly talks with Philippe and other
insurgent leaders.
Amnesty International protested about the apparent
political influence of convicted murderers such as
Chamblain and the Goniaves FRAPH chief, Jean Tatoune.
"The last thing the country needs is for those who
committed abuses in the past to take up leadership
positions," it said.
As ever though, the US attempted to maintain the
existent power structure during the transition. Philippe
quickly announced his men would lay down their arms,
after a dressing down from senior officers in the US
military intervention force. Days later, Philippe
responded to the murder of demonstrators celebrating
Aristide’s departure, with the words: "very soon I will
be obliged to order my troops to take up arms again."
Continued violence and instability in Haiti, will
increase the pressure to re-instate the FAD’H. Foreign
governments that have committed peace-keeping troops
want their forces out as soon as possible, and the
political parties that control the interim government
are beholden to the forces that enthroned them.
Behind the scenes, members of the country’s tiny elite,
especially the assembly sector businessmen who bankroll
the political parties, want the FAD’H back to guarantee
the established order. It has done so ever since its
creation during the US occupation of 1915-34.
Charles Arthur is director of the Haiti Support Group
solidarity organisation: www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org and
author of ’Haiti in Focus; a guide to the people,
politics and culture.’"
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