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Haitian conflict can’t be understood without background
The Independent Florida Alligator ^ | 2/27/4 | Claudia Adrien

Posted on 02/29/2004 11:52:29 AM PST by Defendingliberty

Haitian conflict can’t be understood without background

My mother, an American, lived in Haiti under Jean-Claude Duvalier, one of Latin America’s cruelest dictators. She always says, “Just when you think Haiti couldn’t get worse, it usually does.”

Earlier this week, Bush sent U.S. troops to Haiti to guard the American Embassy and called for international aid to negotiate a peaceful settlement between Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the country’s rebel factions - many former Aristide supporters.

Understanding the mess means comprehending Haiti’s decades-long decline.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a former priest, legitimately won the presidency in 1991, and most thought he was the country’s savior. But he wasn’t exempt from dirty politics. He used “necklacing”- placing a tire around someone’s neck, dousing it with kerosene and lighting it on fire - as a political tool.

But in true Haitian form, Aristide was ousted seven months into his presidency.

By 1994, Clinton sent troops to Haiti to reinstall Aristide. The mission wasn’t a success.

In 2000, when Aristide was again “elected,” Clinton wasn’t celebrating. Aristide was chastised for rigging the election and killing some of his opponents.

Now two individuals, a former police chief under Aristide and the leader of a paramilitary death squad, have teamed up with rebels. Aristide is paying armed gangs to terrorize military opponents and civilians who disapprove of the government.

The population is so fed up that many are willing to fight under men known for human- rights abuses. Others just live in fear.

Haiti is known as a cocaine shipment point. More than $1 billion in drugs is funneled to our country via Haiti.

And who’s the biggest, baddest drug dealer of all? You guessed it - Aristide.

Bush doesn’t want to send more troops to Haiti. It would be political suicide for a president whose foreign policy already is weak.

So, bring in the CIA and pay off Aristide, his rebels and anyone who can prevent immigrants from coming here. It’s been done.

Or don’t. Haitian history, U.S. involvement and all, is a sad cycle. And it can get worse. But it’s got to get better.

Claudia Adrien, a Latin American studies and history senior, is a member of the Alligator editorial board.


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: fast; gonaives; guyphilippe; haiti; haitian; kerry; louisjodelchamblain; marines; metayer; nrlf; rebels
"In 2000, when Aristide was again “elected,” Clinton wasn’t celebrating. Aristide was chastised for rigging the election and killing some of his opponents."

This is a fact I find the press, and Democrats have forgotten.

1 posted on 02/29/2004 11:52:29 AM PST by Defendingliberty
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To: Defendingliberty
Don't forget that Jimmy Carter went to Haiti to supervise the elections so they wouldn't be corrupted. That country is a very sad story. I have a family and home next door in the Dominican Republic. Although I don't always agree with what goes on in the DR, it is truly a lot more civilized. I've been all over the country and, as probably the whitest guy on the planet, I've never had any problems. Haiti is a very sad situation and my heart goes out to its people. I've met some Haitians here in the U.S. and I find them to be very fine people.
2 posted on 02/29/2004 12:00:13 PM PST by NYDave
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To: Defendingliberty
I was prepared to read a spiel defending Clinton's imposition of Aristide and was pleasantly surprised to read this. The Alligator (a publication directed at UF students here in Gainesville) is never quite predictable.
3 posted on 02/29/2004 12:07:11 PM PST by livius
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To: Defendingliberty
As I vaguely remember, in the early Clinton administration a white man was president of Haiti. The Black Congressional Caucus, Jesse Jackson, et.al. were looking for ways to demonstrate their power within the new administration and made some easy bucks.

They wanted the white president replaced with a black man whith whom they could work some deals on real estate,government contracts, imports, etc..

Does anyone else remember it this way or am I thinking of some other country?

4 posted on 02/29/2004 12:09:55 PM PST by bayourod ( Kerry's 1st wife: $250M; 2nd wife: $700M; Mistress: priceless.)
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Comment #5 Removed by Moderator

To: PAC67
The Case for Gun ownership.....I would rather be shot then hacked by a machete, I would rather be Hacked then have a burning tire on my head....
6 posted on 02/29/2004 12:22:35 PM PST by Defendingliberty (www.defendingliberty.com)
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To: NYDave
I live in Port St. Lucie here in Florida. The next city north is Fort Pierce a small city that has the largest population of Haitians in the U.S.
Like most all of the islanders they have the don't worry be happy no hurry attitude that tends to irritate a go getter but they are good and honest and are generally just happy to be here. Many work the fruit or sugar cane harvest and generally jobs that I just wouldn't do.

7 posted on 02/29/2004 1:33:35 PM PST by Joe Boucher (G.W. Bush in 2004)
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To: Defendingliberty
Bush doesn’t want to send more troops to Haiti. It would be political suicide for a president whose foreign policy already is weak.

American lives are too precious for your crappy country anyway, you stupid twit.

8 posted on 02/29/2004 1:38:37 PM PST by ServesURight (FReecerely Yours,)
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To: bayourod
General Raoul Cedras was dictator of Haiti before Aristide. Some of the power struggles in Haiti concern friction between light-colored "mulattoes" (the word press reports then used to describe them) and black Haitians like Aristide. Cedras looked somewhat like a Latin American.

Here's a press story on the subject from 1994:

U.S. Gave Cedras $1 Million in Exchange for Resignation

By Kenneth Freed
Los Angeles Times
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti

The United States gave former Haitian military strongman Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras a million dollar-plus "golden parachute" to resign and go into exile, including the rental of three of his houses, according to U.S. and Haitian sources.

Cedras, who fled to Panama early Thursday and whom President Clinton and other U.S. officials have described variously as a "thug," "stooge" and "killer," was forced to resign as commander in chief of the Haitian army or face a hostile American invasion.

As part of a deal to avoid arrest, Cedras had promised early this week to leave the country and permit the return Saturday of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was driven into exile by a military coup on Sept. 30, 1991.

But Cedras delayed his departure while he wrested final financial concessions from the United States - a promise that the Americans would rent his own home in the suburb of Peguyville, his mother-in-law's Port-au-Prince home and a beachfront house about 40 miles to the north.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Stanley Schrager denied reports that senior American military officials would live in any of the three homes but confirmed that the United States would rent the properties.

He declined to give the price beyond saying they would be leased "at fair market value," possibly to U.S. personnel.

Sources close to the Haitian military, however, said the Peguyville home, which has been stripped bare, would be rented for $4,000 a month for a year, to be paid in advance.

The leases for the beach house and the mother-in-law's home, also for a year, are for "several thousand dollars" a month each, the sources said.

The payments to Cedras, which include the cost of exile for his chief of staff, Brig. Gen. Philippe Biamby, are not the first to be made to Haitians held responsible for ousting Aristide since the U.S. troops began arriving Sept. 19.

American military officers and civilian officials have provided lucrative contracts to several wealthy Haitian families implicated in the coup or known to back the three-year military regime.

Arguing that these families were the only sources of needed services and properties, the United States has leased large tracts of land for housing and storage facilities, even building a gasoline pipeline and storage tanks.

As with any improvements to the Cedras properties, all enhancements to these tracts will be given to the owners, free of charge.

"Our intent (in financing Cedras' exit) was to smooth the transition to President Aristide," Schrager said, "to make that come about as smoothly as possible." He also said there "were no cash inducements" involved.


Copyright 1994,95, The Tech. All rights reserved.
This story was published on October 14, 1994.
Volume 114, Number 48.
This story appeared on page 3.

This article may be freely distributed electronically, provided it is distributed in its entirety and includes this notice, but may not be reprinted without the express written permission of The Tech. Write to archive@the-tech.mit.edu for additional details.

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  • 9 posted on 02/29/2004 3:13:29 PM PST by TheMole
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    To: Defendingliberty
    So, how come te refugees don't head for the socialist paradise of the Carribean, Cuba? I just can't figure that out. With CBS, NBC, ABC, PBR, CNN, MSNBC, Baba Walters, the NCC, the WCC, constantly lying for castro, promoting, the paradise he has created, surely it will be their 1st choice for a new home? Right JFK,,Rosie? Huh? Stick what, where?
    10 posted on 02/29/2004 8:21:45 PM PST by Waco
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    To: Defendingliberty
    He used “necklacing”- placing a tire around someone’s neck, dousing it with kerosene and lighting it on fire - as a political tool.

    No wonder they called him the Haitian Mandela.

    11 posted on 02/29/2004 8:22:50 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
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