Haiti gets good cop bad cop treatment from U.S.

no time to compose notes to think about when the evening news tonight tells us about
U.S. 'military assessment mission' to Port Au Prince. also repost of Bill Fletcher on Haiti from Portside

The current 'rebellion' in Haiti is being fueled by right-wing paramilitary leaders who were exiled from Haiti in mid-90's. according to at least one press report, some of them commandoed their way in across the D.R. border earlier this week and are now moving through many towns killing police and blocking travel and trade. President Aristide has asked for assistance from the OAS/ international community in providing security for his country -- U.S. and E.U.'s position has been that they would consider peace-keeping force after a political solution is found. WHAT?

After ambiguous State Department comments last week about it being ok for Aristide to be ousted, Colin Powell a few days ago said that as a democratically elected leader the U.S. would NOT support another coup d''état in Haiti. Yet an AP report within the last hour states that an unnamed U.S. official told reporters that Aristide "rebuffed a U.S. proposal that he defuse the situation by calling early elections and allowing a temporary board to govern Haiti until a president is chosen."

Now the latest headline is that U.S. military mission is going to Haiti. To check on embassy security. Right.

Hard to know what's really going on, except that it's most definitely NOT going to be what we will see on the evening news..... Mary

Bill Fletcher's comments from Portside:

PM Wednesday, February 18, 2004

BILL FLETCHER, bfletcher@t...,
http://www.transafricaforum.org Executive director of
TransAfrica, Fletcher said today: "In recent weeks, the
Haitian crisis has been deepening. In addition to mass
protests against President Aristide, demanding his
resignation, there have been military assaults in
several cities and what appears to be a move toward
insurrection. The alleged rebels have been described in
different ways, but they appear to be the armed wing of
at least a section of the opposition.... President
Aristide was duly elected by the Haitian people. In
fact, he was elected twice.... We believe that there
are legitimate criticisms of President Aristide....
Given the association of the so-called rebels with the
old regime, are we not on a slippery slope toward a
Duvalier-ist future if President Aristide is driven
from office? In fact, given the strong support that
President Aristide continues to enjoy in much of Haiti,
is not the scenario of civil war more likely than civil
peace if President Aristide is compelled to step down
due to extra-legal (if not illegal) pressure? ... Since
1804 the USA has done what it could to undermine
efforts at genuine independence, including through
military interventions, threats, and the support of
corrupt puppet regimes. When Haiti has attempted to
stand, its legs have been cut from under it by its
arrogant northern neighbor.... The multi-year
restriction on the release of badly needed loans
worsened the internal situation in the Western
Hemisphere's poorest country. Now the Bush
administration is implying that it is time for
President Aristide to leave, while at the same time
having Secretary of State Powell state that a coup
would not be acceptable. One gets the feeling of a
'good cop/bad cop' scenario. None of this should come
as a surprise to us in light of world events as well as
the policy and practice of hostility by this
administration toward President Aristide since the
beginning."