Haiti: Different Coup, Same Paramilitary
Leaders
Amy Goodman interviews Allan Nairn,
Thursday, February 26th, 2004
from the book
Getting Haiti Right This Time
The U.S. and the Coup
Noam Chomsky, Paul Farmer, Amy
Goodman
Common Courage Press, 2004, paper
For a closer look at what is happening
right now on the ground in Haiti, we look back at the involvement
of the US in the 1991-1994 coup period with veteran investigative
journalist Allan Nairn who broke a number of stories that proved
the direct links between US intelligence agencies and Haitian
paramilitary death squads in the early 1990s.
Many of the men leading the armed insurrection
in Haiti right now are well known to veteran Haiti observers and,
for that matter, the US intelligence agencies that worked closely
with the paramilitary death squads which terrorized Haiti in the
early 1990s. People like Louis Jodel Chamblain, the former number
two man in FRAPH, Guy Philippe, a former police chief who was
trained by US Special Forces in Ecuador and Jean Tatoune, another
leader of FRAPH.
In an hour-long interview with the Washington
Post, published today Guy Philippe vowed a bloody assault on Port-auPrince
"very soon" if Aristide refuses to leave office. Philippe
and Chamblain told the paper that Aristide's departure and his
replacement by an interim leader who would call new elections
was the only possible peaceful solution to their three-week-old
insurgency. Chamblain said "Aristide has two choices: prison
or execution by firing squad."
Preparations against a possible assault
by the paramilitaries were evident in Port-au-Prince. Pro-Aristide
militia groups stepped up their vigilance in the increasingly
tense capital, setting up roadblocks and burning tires after dark
at intersections throughout the city. Vehicles throughout the
city are being stopped and searched.
Philippe said some of his forces are already
in Port-auPrince, some, he said, undercover in the National Palace.
He predicted that they would use intelligence to identify and
locate leaders of pro-Aristide groups, "neutralize them"
and take the city in "one or two hours." He said his
forces would kill Aristide if he resisted an attack, but that
a trial would be preferable, either in Haiti or at an international
court. Philippe said he would welcome an international peacekeeping
force, provided Aristide was gone.
For a closer look at what is happening
right now on the ground in Haiti, we are going to look back at
the involvement of the US in the 1991-1994 coup period.
* Allan Nairn, a veteran investigative
journalist, he was in Haiti during the 1991-94 coup and broke
a number of stories that proved the direct links between US intelligence
agencies and Haitian paramilitary death squads. Among the stories
he broke was that the head of FRAPH, Emmanuel "Toto"
Constant, was on the payroll of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
AMY GOODMAN: We're joined now by Allan Nairn, an investigative
journalist and activist in Haiti during the 1991 94 coup period.
He won the George Polk award for stories that proved the direct
links between US intelligence agencies and Haitian paramilitary
death squads. Among the stories he broke was that the man who
launched FRAPH, Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, was on the
payroll of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Allan Nairn, welcome
to Democracy Now!. Let me start by asking, is it proper to say
that Constant launched FRAPH, or did US intelligence agencies?
ALLAN NAIRN: Well, Constant did with the
support of the DIA and also the CIA.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about that period?
Can you talk about the relationship when President Clinton went
on the national airwaves and announced that the US military was
going to move in, to go after the murderers, and the thugs, and
the rapists, those who were doing this on the ground in Haiti.
What was their relationship with the US government?
ALLAN NAIRN: Well, many of them were on
the payroll of the US government. Historically, the US had backed
oppressive forces in Haiti for centuries. France plundered the
wealth of Haiti. After that, when there wasn't much left, even
though there wasn't much left to plunder, the US backed a series
of repressive regimes. Under the Duvaliers, through Israel, the
US funded massive military and intelligence aid. And after Baby
Doc Duvalier was brought down by a popular uprising, the US continued
to back the paramilitary forces. Starting around 1989, the US
Defense Intelligence Agency encouraged the formation of FRAPH,
essentially a terrorist group. Colonel Patrick Collins, the defense
attaché began working with Constant. And Constant was later
placed on the CIA payroll. He received cash payments from John
Kambourian, the CIA Station Chief. Also one of the key leaders
of the coup that ousted Aristide from his democratically elected
presidency, the first time around, Michelle Francois, was also
on the payroll according to a CIA, the CIA payroll according to
a US State Department official I interviewed. So, many of the
officials whom Clinton was claiming to be fighting, were actually
his employees, and if at that time, Clinton had simply cut them
off, completely ended their support, the Haitian public itself
most likely could have brought down the coup regime without a
US occupation.
The price of that US occupation was that
before Aristide was brought back, he was essentially forced to
agree to abandon the economic program of the popular movement,
a program of redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor.
Aristide was pressured by Clinton and his National Security Adviser,
Anthony Lake, to sign on to a World Bank-IMF program, which in
the words of one of the main authors of that program, would redistribute
some wealth from the poor to the rich. Aristide agreed to that,
in part because he saw that while he was in exile in the United
States, his people were being killed on the ground by FRAPH and
by the people of Francois and the coup regime. And when Aristide
came back under those conditions, in a US helicopter, moving around
surrounded by US Special Forces people, cut off, to a great extent,
from the popular movement, it was really the beginning of the
end of the poplar movement in Haiti, and also, I think, the beginning
of Aristide's own corruption, which helped lead to this current
crisis
*
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, as we wrap up, Allan
Nairn, as you reflect back on the period of the coup of 1991-1994
and look at what's happening today, your thoughts?
ALLAN NAIRN: Well, it's-what's happening
now in a is a tragedy that grew from crime. It's an unspeakable
crime what's been done to Haiti. Long ago it was a rich country.
It was stripped of its wealth by France, The US has backed terror
there over the years. Haitian people were living on the brink
of survival. When you're that poor, your only chance for getting
out of it is to be great. You can't behave like a mere mortal,
or you'll fall. You will die. And for a period in the early, late
80s, early 90s, Haitians really achieved political greatness.
They put together a popular movement that brought down Baby Doc
Duvalier. They thwarted designs in what they thought was a fixed
election. An election, instead, that brought Aristide to power
with two-thirds of the vote. They tried to push a popular platform
that would raise the minimum wage and redistribute the wealth
to the poor.
But, they were facing horrible pressures.
Bush-1 and then Clinton, backing his criminal paramilitaries.
Later, the US cutting off promised aid to Haiti. And they also
faced the temptations of power. I mean, I think part of the fault
for what's happening now does lie with Aristide. He accepted the
World Bank-IMF plan under US pressure. He started to implement
it. I think there is evidence that he has grown corrupt over the
years. He did back gangs to fight his opponents, often former
Lavalas allies. And that's a tragedy. He started behaving like
many politicians do, like a normal political boss. And the popular
movement has come to a low state. It's astonishing that these
paramilitaries could come in to Heche and Gonaives and other places,
and with a few hundred armed men take the cities. In the old days
that could never have happened. The people would have risen up.
They would have stopped it with their bare hands, with machetes
and torn the paramilitaries apart. But, Aristide evidently has
lost a great deal of popular support.
The larger crime, though, that helped
to create this was the way that a few miles from Miami Beach,
you have one of the poorest countries in the world, a place that
has been stripped of its wealth where people live on less than
$500 a year. That shouldn't be tolerated. There should be a massive
transfer of wealth to Haiti from the rich countries that benefited
from the old wealth of Haiti. And the law should be enforced.
Criminals like Jodel Chamblain should be prosecuted and jailed.
So should the first Bush, so should President Clinton for backing
them over the years. And then maybe you can create a situation
where Haitians don't have to be great to have a chance at survival,
and they can make mistakes like everybody else and still lead
a decent life.
Getting
Haiti Right This Time
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