A Lavalas demonstration
in Cap-Haitian (Nov, 2004, Sasha Kramer)
HALIFAX (1 April 2005) -- UNBEKNOWNST to most Canadians, the Canadian government
is taking a lead role in the continuation of the 200-year history of colonial
plunder in Haiti. However, unlike the United States and France, the government
of Canada is a relatively new player to the scene. Considering that Canada's
recent military foray into Haiti was launched from this region, citizens
of Atlantic Canada have a particular responsibility to become more familiar
with our government's dealings within the poorest country in the Hemisphere.
Background
As is well known, the 19th century began with the independence of the first
black republic in world history, following a brutal 13-year revolution of
Haitian plantation slaves against their French colonial masters. This revolution
would provide much of the inspiration for the French Revolution in Europe,
as well as numerous independence movements throughout Latin America. Prior
to fighting for their own independence, many Haitians had fought alongside
American revolutionaries in their attempts to throw off British Colonial
rule. Despite this fact, the US refused to recognize Haiti as a state until
1862. By this time, Haiti had been crippled by a 150 million franc "tribute"
paid to France in order to end a crushing economic embargo. In order to make
the first payment, all public schools were closed within this newly "independent"
nation.
Supporters
of Aristide hold up their hands, symbolizing their calls for him to fulfill
his five-year elected mandate (Cite Soleil) (2005, HIP)
The Caribbean state was occupied by US marines in 1915 as a result of perceived
threats to the interests of US-owned plantations by the government of Rosalvo
Bobo. Haiti remained an annexed territory until 1934, by which time US marines
had established a compliant military authority. The Haitian military would
effectively run the country for the next 60 years, reaching its authoritarian
peak under the rule of the Duvalier family. As a result of the historic growth
of a vocal grassroots pro-democracy movement in Haiti, the rule of Jean-Claude
Duvalier ended in the late 1980s. Following this period, Haiti held the first
truly democratic elections in its history. Jean Bertrand-Aristide, one of
the leaders of the "Lavalas" (creole for "flashflood") movement, was elected
to power in a landslide, by a margin greater than any other elected leader
in Latin American history. He would be deposed a year later by a military
coup, supported and financed by the US State Department. The military regime
of Raoul Cedras, which controlled Haiti from 1991-1994, is credited with
killing as many as 4000 Haitians, and with causing a rush of as many as 100,000
refugees to the shores of Florida. Although Aristide was later reinstated
by a US-led UN force, at a meeting of US, Canadian, and French officials,
as well as representatives of the IMF and the World Bank, he was obliged
to sign the Paris Accord, which committed Haiti to a stringent regime of
privatization and free-market policies.
Despite this, Aristide's policies often favoured the majority of the impoverished
Haitian population from which he drew his support. Not unlike the government
of Bobo in 1915, Aristides's policies were perceived as a threat to US business
interests within the region. Aristide stalled on a US and EU-backed privatization
plan of state services, pursued a modest program of land reform, and raised
the minimum wage, which remains today the lowest in the hemisphere. These
reforms, as well as the example of a popular government rejecting many of
the dictates of World Bank/IMF mandated free-market development policies,
posed a threat to sweatshop manufacturers, mining companies, and agribusinesses
based in North America and Europe. Aristide simply had to go.
A US Marine
trains his gun on a pro-democracy demonstrator (Port-au-Prince, March 8th,
2005) (HIP)
The "voluntary resignation"
Following a crushing international aid embargo, on 29 February 2004, Aristide
was escorted from power by US Marines while a small band of ex-military and
paramilitary "rebels," most of whom had received training by US Special Forces
within the last ten years, took over the streets of Port-au-Prince. "Within
hours," reports a publication issued last summer by the San Francisco-based
Haiti Action Committee, "[ex-]military forces were murdering Lavalas supporters
in the capital." As Aristide was flown out of the country onboard a US jet,
Canadian Joint Task Force 2 troops were observed securing the airport, according
to a March 1st Associated Press report published in newspapers across the
country. Within one week of Aristide's ouster, Canada had pledged 450 troops
to a US-lead occupying force for Haiti, despite weeks of unanswered pleas
from members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) for the establishment of
an international peacekeeping force to prevent the ex-military elite from
destabilizing the country. By March 7th, a small advance team had left Halifax
harbour for Haiti in order to set up a base of operations for Canadian troops.
The CF contingent would depart from Gagetown, New Brunswick soon after.
What is most astounding is how open Canadian officials have been about their
willingness to support a brutal coup of a democratic leader in Haiti.
On 26 February, Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham called for Aristide
to step down, effectively parroting statements made that same day by US Secretary
of State Colin Powell. Days later, in an interview with the Toronto Star,
Graham essentially admitted that the US, French, and Canadian intervention
was meant to legitimise the coup:
Once the United States and France said they would not go in as long as Aristide
was there, we had to decide would we go in on the invitation of Aristide
to prop up the Aristide regime...our judgement was we couldn't do that ("Haiti
Stability Essential, Martin Says." Toronto Star, March 4, 2005.)
Life in "stabilized" Haiti
The violence of the opposition-backed regime of Gerard Latortue has only
increased since the coup. A report by the US-based National Lawyer's Guild
found that in March of 2004, 1000 unidentified bodies were dumped and buried
by state morgues. The repression intensified following the 30th of September,
during which members of the Haitian National Police fired live ammunition
into a peaceful Lavalas demonstration calling for the return of Aristide.
Two deaths resulted, according to human rights observers. From that point
on, the Haitian National Police stepped up a campaign of arrest, beatings,
and extrajudicial assassination of anyone deemed to be associated with Aristide's
Lavalas party. UN forces often provided back-up and support to the HNP during
these raids. According to a 17 October radio interview with American journalist
Kevin Pina, the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince had requested the Ministry
of Health provide emergency vehicles to remove the more than 600 corpses
which had piled up in the morgue in the space of only two weeks. Numerous
well-documented massacres were carried that month by the Haitian National
Police. One particularly well known massacre of 12 young men occurred in
broad daylight in the Fort National neighbourhood on 25 October, according
to a report issued by Amnesty International. Their bodies were left in the
streets for several days.
The situation has not improved markedly within the past several months. Numerous
journalists have been murdered by the HNP, including Abdias Jean, a Reuters
correspondent, who was killed after witnessing a Haitian policeman executing
three male youths in the Village de Dieu neighborhood. Although large demonstrations
calling for Aristide's return have continued throughout the country, these
largely peaceful demonstrations have been met with severe violence. On 28
February 2005, at a peaceful, permitted demonstration of 10,000 Haitians
in Port-au-Prince marking the one year anniversary of the ouster of Aristide,
police fired live ammunition into the crowd without warning, killing five.
UN forces were present when this shooting occurred, but made no attempt to
intervene. According to an interview carried out with grassroots leader and
priest Father Gerard Jean-Juste, during a demonstration calling for the return
of the Haitian Constitution in Port-au-Prince on 29 March, UN forces distributed
pamphlets warning Haitians not to protest. UN forces then reportedly surrounded
the peaceful, permitted demonstration as it headed toward the National Palace,
and began indiscriminately tear-gassing and firing rubber bullets at demonstrators.
Canada's unflinching complicity
Canada is complicit in each and every one of these acts of violence. The
Haitian National Police are currently being trained by a 1600-member UN Civil
Police Force, which has largely been under Canadian command since last summer.
The UN Mission in Haiti, as well as the Canadian government, have thus far
failed to acknowledge the well-documented killings and detentions of human
rights activists, journalists, grassroots activists, and ordinary Haitians
which have been carried out by the HNP.
In a report issued by the Miami-based Centre for the Study of Human Rights
last January, members of the UN Civil Police Operations, as well as UN peacekeepers
stated that their mission consisted of offering "back up" to HNP raids within
poor neighbourhoods. A commander of the Civil Police from Quebec City was
interviewed and stated that all he had done in Haiti was to "engage in daily
guerrilla warfare." The Brazilian head of the UN forces was quoted in a Reuters
article in November as stating "we are under extreme pressure from the international
community to use violence." He cited France, the United States, and Canada
among the countries pressing for the use of force.
Haitian government officials are currently on the payroll of the Canadian
government as well. Philippe Vixamar, a minister within the Justice Department,
has stated publicly that he was assigned to his position by the Canadian
International Development Agency, and is currently on the CIDA payroll. CIDA
is also employing Fernand Yvon, a senior advisor to President Gerard Latortue.
Vixamar also denied that there were any political prisoners in Haiti in early
November. Paul Martin, on a state visit to Haiti several days later, would
make the same claim. In reality, the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission
has estimated that there are over 700 political prisoners throughout Haiti,
including former Haitian Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and other ex-cabinet
ministers within Aristide's government.
Haitian coup: Made in Canada?
However, in noting the Canadian role in legitimizing the current government,
one cannot leave out the role Canadian politicians have played in de-legitimizing
the government of Aristide in the lead-up to last year's coup.
In January of 2003, according to an article which appeared in L'Actualite
magazine in March of the same year, Canadian MP Denis Paradis hosted a "high-level
roundtable meeting on Haiti," at the Meech Lake Resort. The round-table's
invitees included Canadian officials, high-level US officials, diplomats
with the Organization of American States (OAS), and officials from throughout
Latin America. No Haitian representatives were present.
L'Actualite reporter Michel Vastel noted that Paradis had told him the themes
of the meeting would include Aristide's possible removal, the possibility
of placing Haiti under international "trusteeship," and the potential return
of the Haitian military, which was disbanded in 1995 by Aristide as a result
of its history of human rights abuses and corruption. This revelation raises
troubling questions of the role of Canadian officials in the planning of
the coup of Aristide.
In addition, CIDA funding to Haiti during the period from 2000-2004 -- like
that of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) -- was funnelled
solely to "grassroots" NGO's and business organizations who were aligned
with the opposition Democratic Convergence party. The Democratic Convergence
never managed to gain more than eight per cent voter support in Haitian elections.
Supported by neo-Duvalierist ex-military members as well as members of the
Haitian business elite, it was the Democratic Convergence which first claimed
that the May 2000 parliamentary elections in Haiti were fraudulent, contrary
to the conclusions reached by election observers from CARICOM and the Organization
of American States. Only eight out of 7000 total positions decided in this
election were contested. Yet the Canadian media, as well as Canadian officials,
parroted the accusations of fraudulence made by the Democratic Convergence
even after Aristide ordered the eight government officials to resign.
Conclusion
In a global political landscape increasingly disenchanted with US intervention
in Iraq and throughout the Middle East, the Canadian support of the Latortue
government in Haiti has given invaluable legitimacy to another "regime change"
of a leader unpopular with US State Department officials. Yet Canadian officials
routinely laud their own successes in achieving the "stabilization" of Haiti
following the coup. Meanwhile, Haiti remains a robbed country, where men
and women are struggling to restore the democracy which they fought for and
gained more than 14 years ago in the face of brutal, US-backed military rulers.
Thankfully, many Canadians and Americans are beginning to question the role
of our governments in the suppression of democracy in Haiti. On 28 February,
more than 30 cities throughout North America held solidarity marches and
events to mark the anniversary of Aristide's ouster. Five hundred demonstrators
called for the return of Aristide in the streets of Montreal, while a Haitian
solidarity march in San Francisco denounced the black-out in media coverage
of Haiti outside of the offices of the San Francisco Chronicle. Here in Halifax,
approximately fifty people gathered for a showing of clips and interviews
about the departure of Aristide, and journalist Kevin Pina's documentary
films "Haiti: Harvest of Hope," and "Haiti: The Betrayal of Democracy (excerpt)"
were shown at Saint Mary's University in early March.
These are encouraging signs. But it appears that Haiti will have to reach
a prominence of the same magnitude as the Iraq war among Canadians if Canada's
imperialist policies in the region are to change. If this does not happen,
Canadian politicians will continue to feign ignorance while Haitian men and
women are shot down in the street for demanding what they have been struggling
for over the past 200 years.
*Stuart Neatby is a student and resident of Halifax, NS. He is currently
organizing a speaking tour of the Maritimes of Haitian-Canadian activist
Jean St-Vil. He will be speaking Sunday April 24, Saint Mary's University,
Sobey Theatre Auditorium (903 Robie St) at 7PM. His presentation is ewntitled,
"'Haiti: Fighting Terrorism
Before Napoleon I, Beyond Bush II,' A historical overview of the current
crisis in Haiti".
For more information, contact stu.neatby@gmail.com
or (902) 446-8875.
A Few Sources
Dupuy, Alex. Haiti in the World Economy: Class, Race, and Underdevelopment
Since 1700. (Westview: Boulder, 1989), p 131-182.
Center for the Study of Human Rights. "Haiti: Human Rights Investigation,
November 11-21, 2004." University of Miami School of Law, January 2005.
Fenton, Anthony. "Canada's Growing Role in Haitian Affairs." Haiti Progres.
March 16, 2005.
"Graham Wants Aristide to Consider Resigning," Toronto Star. Feb. 27, 2004
"Haiti Stability Essential, Martin Says." Toronto Star. March 4, 2004.
Hidden From the Headlines, Haiti Action Committee, August 2003, 2004.
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/Hidden.html
Websites of Interest
http://www.haitiaction.net
http://www.zmag.org/weluser.htm
http://www.dominionpaper.ca
http://www.haitiprogres.com
http://auto_sol.tao.ca/node/view/881
http://www.flashpoints.net
http://www.ijdh.org
http://www.indybay.org/international/haiti/"
