The Threat of Democracy
Putting details aside, what has happened since is eerily similar to the overthrow of Haiti’s first democratic government in 1991. The Aristide government, once again, was undermined by US planners, who understood, under Clinton, that the threat of democracy can be overcome if economic sovereignty is eliminated, and presumably also understood that economic development will also be a faint hope under such conditions, one of the best-confirmed lessons of economic history. Bush II planners are even more dedicated to undermining democracy and independence, and despised Aristide and the popular organizations that swept him to power with perhaps even more passion than their predecessors. The forces that reconquered the country are mostly inheritors of the US-installed army and paramilitary terrorists.
— Noam Chomsky, U.S.-Haiti, ZNet, March 9, 2004
Why can’t Haiti get the attention of the domestic anti-war movement like Iraq has? That seems like an easy question at first. After all, we don’t have 130,000 troops killing and dying in Haiti. But the UN has troops killing in Haiti. And the U.N. is on record asking the U.S. to send ““scarier troops.” No word yet on whether we will oblige. But we’ve been busy.
While the troops the U.N. has have their hands full cleansing the country of pro-Aristede “bandits,” France, Canada and the U.S. are working to create a new corpo-fascist government after the U.S.-sponsored coup that deposed the democratically elected and still popluar Jean-Bertrand Aristide. All this is happening in your name.
Elections are being rigged in your name. — Infants and older children are being shot in their mothers’ arms in your name. — An elderly woman, an activist who spoke against the coup regime, has been jailed in isolation for over a year without charges in your name. — A priest, the de facto head of the opposition to occupation has been beaten and is currently jailed in isolation without charges in your name. They are not alone as others disappear in your name.
Haiti is dying in your name.
So what do we do?
Get informed on the issues:
You can get a good, quick education about the history of human rights in Haiti from this very good, comprehensive, well-sourced article at Human Rights for All. That’s where I found the Chomsky quote at the top of this post.
Haiti Action is a good source for news, like the latest jailing of Father Jean-Juste, the expected Lavalas candidate for president in the upcoming elections.
The Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti collects news about the occupation of Haiti and sponsors a program called Half Hour a Week for Haiti:
The Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) invites you to make a weekly contribution to justice in Haiti through its Half-Hour for Haiti program. Each Tuesday we will post an activity that you can do to help support justice in Haiti over the following week, usually in less than half an hour. Some activities will be IJDH action alerts- sending emails or faxes or making phone calls to policymakers- some will be action alerts or petitions from other organizations. Some activities will be reading especially informative articles.
Voices in the Wilderness is focused on bringing news of the occupation of Iraq, but it will also give space to the occasional story about Haiti, like this one that describes what little can be learned about Fr. Jean-Juste’s circumstances in prison.
Znet’s HaitiWatch doesn’t update daily but has good stories and transcripts from radio shows you probably missed, like this one about massacres happening in Haiti while the UN peacekeepers watch.
Haiti Progres (warning: graphic image) updates slowly but has stories I haven’t seen elsewhere. This one wonders who’s responsible for the destabilizing wave of kidnappings that Haiti is currently enduring.
Windows on Haiti is a clearing house of news and information on Haiti and it has the best motto: Open the windows that the lies may fly out.
On the blogging front, Ben Terrell is in-country blogging at Haiti Report. Today he’s got the news that Amnesty has declared Fr. Jean-Juste a prisoner of conscience and is calling for action. Get the addresses at the link.
Ben’s also got an eye witness account of Fr. Jean-Juste’s arrest and interrogation: (emph mine)
I was in the room at Petion-Ville prison yesterday where an officer with the DCPJ (Haiti’s equivalent of the FBI) asked Jean-Juste if he’d murdered Jaques Roche, when everyone in the room knew that Jean-Juste was in Florida at the time the murder took place. The DCPJ officer insisted to Jean-Juste’s lawyer Mario that since J-J was accused by the people who attacked him of being responsible for Roche’s murder, it was his duty to detain and question Jean-Juste.
Jean-Juste’s U.S.lawyer Bill Quigley, who was also present, remarked that this was a classic example of blaming the victim. Mario later pointed out that if Jean-Juste announced that he was definitely not going to run for office perhaps the authorities would stop harassing the priest.
As Jean-Juste said to me, “every day they’re looking for a reason to arrest me.”
Other blogs covering Haiti on a regular basis are Freiheit und Wissen, The Heretik, the brand new and destined for greatness UnCapitalist Journal, which has
If you blog, blog about Haiti.
Call your representatives in Congress (Senate, House, Congress.org) and let them know that you care about Haiti and you are informed on the issues.
Write a letter to the editors of your local papers and tell them them that you would like to read more about Haiti, not less, and that you want to read the truth, not the official US Government spin. Tips for writing letters to editors here.
