Abandon this Neocolonial Adventure!

[Canada's role in ousting Aristide & Haitian democracy]

by Jean St. Vil

www.zmag.org/, December 24, 2005

"We cannot abandon Haiti again" wrote former Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Barbara McDougall in a December 15th Globe & Mail article. However, far from abandonment, Canadian policy towards Haiti speaks of betrayal.

McDougall is with the Haiti International Assessment Committee established by the International Republican Institute (IRI), a Washington-based organization that is deeply implicated in the Haitian crisis.

In February 2001, as many as 5 days before Jean-Bertrand Aristide took the presidential oath in Haiti, the Washington Post revealed that IRI's "Convergence Democratique" is lobbying for a CIA-backed coup against the elected president .

Convergence was formed as a broad group with help from IRI...it also includes former backers of the hated Duvalier family dictatorship and of the military officers who overthrew Aristide in 1991 ...The most determined of these men...express their desire to see the U.S. military intervene once again.... to get rid of Aristide and rebuild the disbanded Haitian army... the CIA should train and equip Haitian officers exiled in the neighboring Dominican Republic so they could stage a comeback themselves» (Washington Post, February 2, 2001).

Incredibly, this is exactly what happened 3 years later, in February 2004 ! A group of thugs trained and equipped by the CIA, led by Guy Philippe and Louis-Jodel Chamblain, crossed the Haiti - Dominican Republic border and prepared the way for U.S. Marines to enter the Haitian President's residence and complete the regime change, discussed and planned years in advance. http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2004/marzo/mier31/14haiti.html

All the while the Canadian Armed Forces secured the Toussaint Louverture Airport to facilitate the U.S. Marines' dirty work.

The participation of IRI in the bloody February 2004 coup was so deep that the matter was debated in the U.S. Congress and, eventually, it did cost a U.S. Ambassador his job.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/history/2004/0716otherchange.htm

In her December 15th Globe & Mail article, Mrs. McDougall suggests that "the Haitian people deserve the continuing support of outsiders such as Canada". However, it was precisely in Canada that, one year prior to the coup, "outsiders" invited by Denis Paradis (Canadian Minister for la Francophonie) further elaborated on January 31 and February 1, 2003 how Haiti's President was to be overthrown, the country put under U.N. Tutelage, and the military resurrected (Vastel, L'Actualité, March 2003).

It would seem that "outsiders" have already contributed more than enough to Haiti's fortune !

Now, elections which were supposed to have taken place within 90 days of the change in government are facing major difficulties.

Last April, Ron Gould, a consultant with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), wrote "the voter registration process is technology driven as a result of a decision of the Organization of American States." Gould, who openly worried about the "the high cost, high risk nature" of this decision given Haiti's lack of infrastructure, concluded still "there is no turning back.". Yet, as we had predicted, now that it is painfully obvious that the election registration process is a dismall failure, the benevolent "outsiders" are pointing the fingers of blame towards any and all Haitians, including the puppet regime they have imposed on the Haitian people. Tarzan can do no wrong in the jungle! (see Fair Elections in Haiti: Imagine the Possibilities, August 2005 http://www.embassymag.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=/2005...)

Mrs. McDougall wrote: "the candidates list is being purged of drug dealers and other criminals... but it is hard to tell whether all the criminal elements have been eliminated". Definitely, Mrs. McDougall needs to be better informed about her organization and its relationship with known drug trafficker turned presidential candidate, Guy Philippe. During the lead up to the coup, in a May 2003 article of Haiti-Progrès, one can read that "Stanley Lucas, an International Republican Institute operative based in the Dominican Republic, met with Philippe and his gang on Dominican soil". Then, earlier this morning, the Miami Herald published an article by Joe Mozingo where he states: "Two of Haiti's best-financed presidential candidates - Guy Philippe and Dany Toussaint - have long been linked to cocaine trafficking by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officials. And a Senate candidate who's a nephew of interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has close links to a gang that controls drug smuggling in the port of Gonaives, according to the Haitian and U.S. officials". http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13469273.htm

Really !? Who is fooling who here?

It is so hypocritical for Haiti's self-appointed foreign saviors to pretend that they are only now becoming aware of the credentials of their long time partners in crime, including the notorious Guy Philippe.

(please find out more about IRI's Stanley Lucas, Guy Philippe and the 2004 Coup: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Stanley_Lucas)

Some who are still puzzled by this ugly mess are, no doubt, asking themselves why in the world then, the United Nations would partake in what is evidently a shameful cover-up for a multinational and racist coup d'état?

The wise elder Nelson (Madiba) Mandela warned us in his farewell speech of May 10, 2004: "We see how the powerful countries, all of them so-called democracies, manipulate multilateral bodies to the great disadvantage and suffering of the poorer developing nations."

In less diplomatic terms, it is sad but safe to say, the U.N. has become nothing but a tool in the hands of crazy little men from rich countries who fantasize about establishing their own little colonies East, West, North and South.

"Tonton Nwèl se Malatchong tande timoun !" (kids you must know this: Santa Clauss is nothing but a sham !) said my wide-eyed 5 year old son. Good for him!

I would like one day to teach Kebindayiti how to sing happily "what a wonderful world!", but it would also have to be sincerely so.

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