March 1, 2014 - No. 9

10th Anniversary of Imperialist Coup in Haiti

10th Anniversary of Imperialist Coup in Haiti

No to Canada's Role in Recolonizing Haiti!
No to Fraudulent Democracy and Imperialism!

Youth at the University of Windsor in action to hold Liberal government of Jean Chrétien to account for the coup in Haiti and other crimes, during the visit of then Minister of Foreign Affairs Bill Graham to the university, March 19, 2004. Graham was caught off guard by the youth and was unable to justify Canada's participation in the coup when confronted.

Ten years ago, on February 29, 2004, Canada, the U.S. and France carried out the violent coup against the democratically-elected President of Haiti Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The plans had been hatched some time in advance and Canada played a particularly nefarious role.

Sign seen at protest against visit of George W. Bush to Ottawa, November 30, 2004.

The government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide represented an important achievement for the Haitian people. It was a government that had come to power through the mass movement of the people to exercise control over the country. As such, this government represented the aspirations of the Haitian people to put an end to corruption, impunity and violence, and the theft of Haiti's wealth by the country's ruling elite and foreign monopolies that brutally exploited the people.

In 2004, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was in his second term as president. His first term from 1991-1996 had been interrupted by a coup in 1991. He was returned to power in 1994 following massive protests of haitians at home and abroad only after promising the Clinton administration that he would implement the neo-liberal economic program of the U.S.-backed presidential candidate he had defeated in 1990. Despite this concession, Aristide and the Haitian people's aspiration for sovereign control over their affairs were still seen as a threat by the governments of the U.S., Canada and France; monopolies in those countries had long exploited the Haitian people as a source of cheap labour.

France, for its part as the former colonial power, had some particular interests it sought to protect through the coup. After the people of Saint Dominigue heroically fought for and won their independence and became the nation of Haiti in 1804, France used gunboat diplomacy to force the young nation to pay for the loss of its slave labour and property. In order to comply with this blackmail, Haiti had to take out massive loans from none other than France and the U.S., a crushing debt that has impoverished the country to the present day.

In 2003, however, Haiti became the first former colony in the world to demand reparations from a former colonial power, demanding debt restitution. As journalist Kim Ives, in a May 10, 2013 item for Haiti Liberté, explains, "Then President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government conservatively calculated the value of the restitution due at some $21.7 billion. Although the French parliament had unanimously approved a law recognizing the slave trade as a crime against humanity in 2001, just two years later France responded to Haiti's petition with fury. It angrily rejected the lawsuit and joined with Washington in brazenly fomenting a coup d'état against Aristide, who was ousted on Feb. 29, 2004."

In the aftermath of the coup in Haiti, all manner of disinformation was spread about what had taken place, to justify the coup and cover up Canada's nefarious role in its planning and execution. The present government continues the disinformation campaign to cover up Canada's ongoing role to assist the quisling government of Haiti to re-establish impunity and violence -- through so-called humanitarian aid, deployment of "peacekeepers" and training the revived and reviled Haitian National Police -- as the means to disempower the people and defend monopoly right.

On the sombre occasion of the 10th anniversary of the coup in Haiti, TML calls on Canadians to take a stand against all attempts to sanitize Canada's dirty role in Haiti and demand that the government make the necessary reparations to Haiti for these crimes. What Canada has done and is doing in Haiti in the name of humanitarianism and Canadian values is unacceptable.

An example of this whitewashing of Canada's role in Haiti by the state and monopoly media is none other than the new Mayor of Montreal, Denis Coderre, a man allegedly suitable for that office because he is free of the taint of corruption. Coderre was the Minister responsible for La Francophonie in 2003 and 2004. His role during the events leading up to the coup was to spread disinformation and disarm the Canadian people. "It is clear that we don't want Aristide's head; we believe that Aristide should stay," Coderre told the Canadian Press on February 20, 2004. Once the coup had been carried out, Coderre insisted that President Aristide had willingly left office. Such are the new mayor's credentials on opposing corruption.

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the coup, TML Weekly calls on Canadians to continue to combat the disinformation about the coup and Canada's role in it, and to stay abreast of developments in that country, especially the people's movement to exercise control over their lives and country, the role of Canadian monopolies in exploiting its human and natural resources, and the role of the Canadian government which serves monopoly right. The apology to Haiti (see below) is an important initiative and TML Weekly encourages everyone to sign and disseminate it.

The necessity for political empowerment concerns not only the Haitian people. Since the coup in Haiti, with the coming to power of the Harper government, Canada's international reputation has been further disgraced through greater servility to imperialist and monopoly interests than ever before. Canadians must take up the issue of their own political empowerment so that the just relations with other countries they aspire to can be realized, including making restitution for the coup and the related crimes against the people, and so that the intrigues and crimes committed against Haiti will never be repeated.

Haitian Human Rights Lawyer Mario Joseph
Visits Canada to Mark Anniversary of Coup

Haiti human rights lawyer Mario Joseph addresses public forum in Toronto, February 24, 2014.

"Haiti: The Coup d'État 10 Years Later" was the topic of a public forum held at the University of Toronto on February 24 with a focus on the role of foreign imperialist powers, including the Canadian government, in destroying the Haitian people's independent course of development. The event was sponsored by the Caribbean Studies Program at New College (University of Toronto) and organized by the Toronto Haiti Action Committee. It was part of broader tour set up by the Canada Haiti Action Network on the 10th anniversary of the coup in Haiti that included events in Montreal and Ottawa.

The main speaker for the evening was Mario Joseph, a Haitian human rights lawyer with the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) that represents on a pro bono basis poor people and those who have no access to justice. The BAI is currently seeking justice for people who are living in inhuman conditions since they were displaced by the earthquake in 2010, victims of political violence at the hands of the Jean-Claude Duvalier dictatorship and workers subjected to dire conditions in factories.

Ten years after the coup that overthrew President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the United Nations military force, MINUSTAH, is still occupying Haiti to impose the will of foreign powers, even though, Joseph said, there was never any legal right for the UN to send troops to occupy a member nation. Article 7 of the United Nations Charter was not a valid justification, he said, because Haiti was not in a situation of war and was not a threat to its closest neighbours. The ultimate reason given was that Aristide had allegedly become a "dictator" and was "violating human rights," which was untrue, but people, including some progressives, were co-opted to believe these rumours and some were paid by USAID, an agency of U.S. foreign policy, to falsely denounce Aristide. Still, a majority of Haitians had voted to elect Aristide as president twice and continued to support him, but this went against the interests of foreign imperialist powers such as Canada, the U.S. and France, which organized the coup to protect their interests. Joseph said everyone remembers the role of Denis Coderre, a federal Cabinet minister at the time of the 2004 coup and currently Mayor of Montreal.

In the first years after the coup especially, Joseph explained, the role of MINUSTAH was to repress any popular uprising against the coup and foreign occupation. The attacks were concentrated in poor areas such as Cité Soleil and Belair, where many defenceless people were killed and brutal human rights violations were committed by foreign soldiers.

After the earthquake in January 2010, Joseph stated, millions of dollars were donated to organizations such as the Red Cross and Oxfam but nothing was really done to meet the needs of the people. Most of the NGOs are gone, he said, but it is still a miserable situation. For many who are still living in camps, there is no access to sanitation or clean water, even in the area where the cholera outbreak began.

Cholera was introduced to Haiti in October 2010 by Nepalese soldiers serving in the MINUSTAH occupation force. So far, more than 8,000 Haitians have died and 700,000 have become sick, but the UN has refused to take responsibility. In November 2011, the BAI attempted to bring a lawsuit against the UN in a federal court in the U.S. on behalf of victims of the cholera epidemic but the case was met with a claim of immunity for foreign soldiers acting under the authority of the UN. In the lawsuit, the victims are asking for an apology from the UN, help for the Haitian government to build a water sanitation infrastructure and compensation for the victims.

Since Michel Martelly was installed as president of Haiti in May 2011, a political crisis has been created that has undermined the institutions of the Haitian government, said Joseph. For three years, there have been no elections so one-third of the senate is vacant, and this will soon become worse when the next round of nominations is due. Martelly illegally appointed three judges to the highest court in Haiti, the Cour de Cassation, despite resistance. At the same time, he has failed to appoint judges to another branch of the superior court that deals with the management of finances. Still, when Martelly was received by U.S. President Obama last week, Obama expressed the opinion that everything is going well in Haiti.

The economy of Haiti has never been so horrible, said Joseph. The unemployment rate is 75 per cent and no money is circulating. The presence of MINUSTAH and the numerous NGOs makes the situation worse because they use U.S. dollars to pay for items locally and this drives up the price of necessities such as rent. Haiti possesses enough resources to provide for itself, he said, but it is poor because foreign powers have impoverished it. Haiti has asked for $11billion to re-build after the earthquake so it can re-establish its own economy but this does not suit the plans of the international community, he stated.

A victory was achieved on February 20 in a case where the BAI represents victims of political violence under the Duvalier regime (which ended in 1986 when he was forced to flee Haiti). An appeal court in Haiti declared that the victims can sue Duvalier in the Haitian courts for crimes against humanity, contrary to the defence argument that the statute of limitations has passed. The court decided that they wanted to hear evidence from witnesses to the crimes. Martelly doesn't want the case to go ahead, said Joseph, so he expects they will still have to fight to have the case heard.

Professor Melanie Newton (right) addresses the Toronto public forum on Haiti.

Following the presentation by Joseph, Professor Melanie Newton, Director of the Caribbean Studies Program at New College, provided an important update on the situation facing citizens of the Dominican Republic of Haitian descent, and the discrimination they face especially through the Dominican Republic Constitutional Court's ruling 168/13 of September 23, 2013. This ruling strips the citizenship of hundreds of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent and effectively makes them stateless persons.

In an interview with TML after the meeting, Joseph stated that the foreign media sends a message to the international community that is the opposite of the reality in Haiti. He explained that the people organized demonstrations to ask for the return of Aristide after the coup and their resistance continues to the present. He said that the resistance takes all forms, including demonstrations, conferences and sit-ins. He said that the people's forces try to undermine the propaganda against them but it is difficult because the imperialists control the international news media. Joseph declared, "My problem with the imperialists and their right-wing people is they are liars. They tell lies and, from that, they create some pretext." It is difficult, he said, but the people "find a way to push and resist."

Secret Ottawa Meeting to Overthrow
President Aristide Revealed

- Jean Saint-Vil, December 31, 2013 -

More than ten (10) years ago, a group of white men and women decided to tackle what, in their view, constituted "The real problem with Haiti."

At the January 31, February 1, 2003 Ottawa Initiative on Haiti, a secret meeting of non-Haitians held at the request of then-Canadian Francophonie Minister, Denis Paradis, it was decided to conduct a coup d'état to overthrow Haiti's President and put the country under U.N. tutelage.

On the last day of that same year, December 31, 2003, with my own ears, I heard the following prophetic declaration made at Haiti's Montana Hotel:

"The Real Problem with Haiti is that the international community is so screwed up and divided that they are letting Haitians run Haiti."

Less than 2 months after then-Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States, Luigi Einaudi, uttered these infamous words at the Montana, in my presence as well as other witnesses including journalist Kevin Pina and lawyer/activist Marguerite Laurent (Ezili Danto), the "real problem with Haiti" was supposedly solved by U.S. troops entering the residence of Haiti's democratically-elected president in the dead of night, kidnapping him and his wife and dumping them more than 20 hours later in the French neo-colony known as the Central African Republic.

For their brazen actions taken on the very year of the bicentennial celebrations of Haiti's abolitionist revolution, the American and European diplomats who participated in the coup have been dubbed: "The Diplomatic Skinheads (DS)", a reference to an underclass of racist North-American and European youths who often conduct brazen acts of violence against non-whites whom they perceive as threatening to their "culture."

Thus, since February 29, 2004, the DS who physically removed the legitimate Haitian leadership, have effectively taken military and political control of the western part of the island. They govern its every move, including fake elections whose outcomes are confirmed by the U.S. Secretary of State landing in person in Port-au-Prince to announce which candidates shall be allowed to run in round 2 of said "elections."[1]

I can only imagine what Luigi Einaudi, albeit under the influence of several shots of strong Haitian Rhum, would have to say 10 years after our December 31, 2003, Hotel Montana encounter.

Mister former Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States, "the real problem" you and your colleagues had set out to solve 10 years ago, did it have anything to do with the welfare of Haitians?

If, yes, how satisfied are you of your accomplishments?

Nasty anniversary to you, dear DS brothers and sisters!

Note

1. See: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/05/20115413435816393.html

A Very Canadian Coup in Haiti: Top 10 Ways Canada Aided the 2004 Coup and Its Reign of Terror

- Richard Sanders*, April 2010 -

Things went from bad to worse after Canada's Liberal government helped plan and carry out the 2004 regime change that illegally ousted President Aristide's democratically-elected government. Canada then helped empower and entrench an illegal coup-installed puppet regime that launched a reign of terror in which thousands of prodemocracy supporters were executed, jailed without charge, driven into hiding, or exiled. This Canadian-financed dictatorship, propped up by UN-sanctioned occupation forces, was applauded by corporations greedy to profit from "reconstruction" contracts, the privatisation of public services, and the wage-slavery of Haitian sweatshops.

Canada has a lot to answer for. Here are 10 ways in which our government contributed to this major travesty of justice in Haiti:

(1) Creating the Coup's Ideological Pretext

The world's most powerful states justify their "right" to invade, overthrow and occupy weaker nations with euphemistic platitudes. They rationalise their role in various theatres of war using dramatic soliloquies, invoking the need for "humanitarian interventions" against "failed states."

The "Responsibility-to-Protect" (R2P) doctrine--an ideological pretext that was created and developed by Canada's Liberal government--was used to legitimise the illegal coup imposed on Haiti in 2004.

Institutionalised on the world stage by a Canadian creature called the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS), the R2P doctrine was the brain-child of then-Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. When announcing its birth in 2000, then-Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy thanked the "Carnegie, MacArthur and Rockefeller Foundations" for "strong political and financial support." With Axworthy acting as chair of the board, ICISS offices were ensconced in Ottawa's Foreign Affairs department. Canada chose both ICISS co-chairs and appointed such "Big L" Liberals as Michael Ignatieff, a long-time U.S. resident and supporter of then-President George W.Bush, "missile defense," the Iraq war and torture.

The R2P script spells out acceptable excuses for violating the UN's two primary principles: state sovereignty and military non-intervention.

In May 2004, after ousting Haiti's democratically-elected government, then-Prime Minister Paul Martin summarized a fundamental R2P principle: "Failed states more often than not require military intervention in order to ensure stability." Asking himself, "Why is it up to Canada to be the catalyst?" he answered, "We inspire confidence...because we are neither a former colonial power nor a superpower."

Canada's political/economic/military allies in Washington and London needed a champion for the starring role in R2P. Already typecast as honest broker and heroic peacekeeper, Canada was perfect for the part.

(2) Initiating the Planning Process

Canada's Liberal government was instrumental in gathering together an exclusive coterie of international players to lay the foundation for Haiti's coup.

Their first meeting, the so-called "The Ottawa Initiative on Haiti" (January 31 - February 1, 2003) was held at the federal government's conference centre on Meech Lake near Canada's capital.

We now know, thanks to Access to Information, that this confab on "the current political situation in Haiti" was "envisaged to be of a restricted and intimate nature....in order to facilitate a free exchange of views and brainstorming among the invited participants."

Those invited to this so-called "free exchange" did not include a single Haitian, not even from the wealthy corporate elite that was so instrumental in facilitating the coup. Besides El Salvador's Foreign Minister, participants were exclusively from North America and Europe. They were also homogenous in their opposition to Haiti's President Aristide and in support of replacing him with an imposed, occupation government.

The meeting's host was Denis Paradis, a Quebec Liberal MP who was Chrétien's Secretary of State for Latin America, Africa and the Francophonie. Canada's future Foreign Affairs Minister, Pierre Pettigrew, was also there, as were two U.S. State Department officials, Mary Ellen Gilroy and Otto Reich -- a long-time coup plotter, propagandist, and veteran of the Contragate scandal. Also on hand were the US representative to the Organization of American States, France's Minister for Security and Conflict Prevention and the Francophonie's Administrator General.

"The Ottawa Initiative" was presumably supposed to remain secret, but in March 2003, Paradis leaked some details to journalist Michel Vastel, who wrote about it in L'Actualité (March 15, 2003).

The purpose of Canada's initial meeting appears to have been to build a working consensus among influential players from the key states striving for regime change in Haiti, primarily, the US, Canada and France. They agreed--in general terms--on the goal of ridding themselves of Aristide before his five-year mandate expired, and on using their troops to supplant Haiti's elected government with a new regime.

Vastel's account had few details on the military invasion/occupation, noting only that "No decision has yet been taken, but in French diplomatic circles, they say that there has been talk of a sort of guardianship as in Kosovo.... Even if the UN doesn't want this kind of intervention leading to military occupation, this might be inevitable until elections are organized."

Participants wanted their new regime in place before the powerfully-symbolic bicentennial of Haiti's revolution, when a slave revolt defeated France's Napoleonic might. This objective was soon echoed by Chrétien who, in April 2003, "declared that the ‘international community' should not have to wake up with Aristide in power on January 1, 2004, Haiti's bicentennial." With "The Ottawa Initiative" groundwork firmly in place, Aristide was ousted by the end of February 2004.

(3) Providing Military Troops and Equipment

Canada's military played a significant role in deposing Haiti's democracy and protecting the ensuing dictatorship. In the early hours of February 29, 2004, U.S. officials entered President Aristide's home threatening a "bloodbath" if he did not leave the country. Forced to sign a "letter of resignation," heavily-armed Marines took him to the airport, which Canadian commandos had just "secured."

Aristide later said: "The coup and kidnapping was led by the U.S., France and Canada. [They] were on the front lines by sending their soldiers to Haiti before February 29, by having their soldiers either at the airport or at my residence, or around the palace, or in the capital to make sure that they succeeded in kidnapping me, leading [to] the coup."

Canada sent "a team of JTF2 [Joint Task Force 2] commandos to Haiti four days before the coup" (American Forces Press Service, March 14, 2004). They "took control of the Port-au-Prince airport on...February 29, 2004.... About 30 Canadian special forces soldiers secured the airport and two sharpshooters [were] positioned on top of the control tower." (AFP, March 2, 2004)

Canadian Forces (CF) also "secured key locations" in the capital. (Anthony Fenton, The Dominion, April 22, 2006). According to a government video, CF "provided extensive support" during the preceding week: "More than 100 CF personnel and four CC-130 Hercules aircraft...assist[ed] with emergency contingency plans and security measures." ("Operation PRINCIPAL," February 28, 2004.)

Immediately after the coup, 500 Canadian troops joined U.S. and French forces in protecting Haiti's newly-empowered, illegal regime and suppressing Aristide supporters.

However, the Canadian Air Force website said Canadian troops "helped restore peace and democracy in Haiti following that country's democratic elections." In reality, the "democratic elections" -- which swept Aristide to power -- occurred in 2000, and Canada's troops helped overthrow democracy, not restore it. The claim that Canadian troops "helped restore peace" is equally ludicrous. During the coup's two-year reign of terror, thousands were murdered with impunity by Haitian police, its disbanded military and death squads, as foreign troops stood by providing cover.

Canada is also a major supporter of UN forces which took over the occupation in 2004 and have killed many civilians during numerous, heavily-armed raids into Haiti's poorest neighbourhoods. Unperturbed, Canada has pushed for the use of even more excessive force by UN troops.

(4) Funding, Training and Commanding the Police

In 1995, Aristide disbanded Haiti's military for its role in coups, dictatorships, mass murder and torture. With Aristide's 2004 ouster, Haiti's US-trained ex-military were placed in all Haitian National Police (HNP) leadership positions, including police-abuse investigations. Through Haiti's UN Police Mission (UNPOL), the RCMP has funded and led the HNP's training, supervision and oversight.

An RCMP officer training Haitian National Police (HNP) recruits in 2005. The HNP, notorious for its oppression of the people,  had been disbanded by the Aristide government.

The RCMP's David Beer--transferred from teaching counter-insurgency tactics in Iraq--became UNPOL's first chief. Another RCMP, Graham Muir, was next to command UNPOL's 1,600 officers (including 125 RCMP and Quebec police). Although admitting HNP's responsibility for murder, Muir blamed it on "rogue elements."

Lawyer Brian Concannon, with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, said RCMP-led UNPOL shared responsibility for HNP rampages: "[M]any of these rogue [HNP] elements were intentionally integrated into the force, without public objection from MINUSTAH or UNPOL.... [I]n 2004, Gen. Abraham [Haiti's retired military leader] started integrating former soldiers into the force, bypassing regulations for police recruitment and promotion.... Several times, MINUSTAH, including UNPOL officers, watched as the HNP shot into peaceful demonstrations."

In its 2005 Human Rights Investigation, the University of Miami Law School published interviews with brave HNP officers, fearing for their lives, who described raids into poor proAristide neighbourhoods, when HNP commanders ordered the murder of suspects and witnesses. Also, coup-appointed Police Chief Leon Charles ordered the violent suppression of peaceful, prodemocracy demonstrations.

Amnesty International exposed HNP's summary executions, arbitrary arrests, torture and rape. Similarly, the International Catholic Institute said "many" HNP officers engaged in "drug rackets, kidnappings [and] extra-judicial killings."

When the HNP killed nine Aristide supporters, the HNP said they "were not shot during a demonstration since...authorities had received no notice of a demonstration." The UN Civilian Police spokesperson, the RCMP's Dan Moskaluk, calling it an "illegal demonstration," didn't comment on HNP's authority to execute protesters.

When HNP received a million rounds of ammunition, 10,000 US military-style handguns and weapons, Moskaluk defended the transfer. Human rights groups denounced it, saying HNP would distribute weapons to death squads for joint operations conducted under UN supervision.

In 2006, an "International Tribunal" led by former-U.S. Attorney-General Ramsey Clark, found the RCMP's Beer and Muir guilty of crimes against humanity, but to no avail. HNP and their RCMP handlers have operated with complete impunity.

(5) Every Trick in the Diplomatic Book

Canada used every conceivable diplomatic trick to bring down Aristide's elected government and then legitimise the coup-installed regime.

On February 5, 2004--while a murderous band of ex-military and death-squad leaders launched a campaign attacking Haitian government facilities, police stations and health clinics--Liberal cabinet minister Pierre Pettigrew met with Paul Arcelin. Described as the terrorist's "political mastermind" and "spokesman," Arcelin also served as diplomatic representative in Cana

At the UN Security Council on February 26, Canadian, U.S. and French diplomats dismissed Caribbean Community (CARICOM) calls for a multinational force to protect Aristide's elected government from a coup. While Jamaica's Foreign Minister warned, "Immediate action is needed to safeguard democracy [and] to avert bloodshed," U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham told Aristide to resign.

Canada, the U.S. and France immediately recognised the illegal coup regime, but CARICOM's 15 member states, Venezuela and the African Union's 53 governments all refused diplomatic recognition and demanded an investigation into Aristide's exile.

Two Canadian ambassadors to Haiti launched diplomatic offensives. Kenneth Cook said "there is no evidence of a kidnapping" and Claude Boucher said "We hope...Aristide is going to disappear...[and] never come back."

In March 2004, coup Prime Minister Gérard Latortue and David Lee, Canada's ambassador to the Organization of American States, flew by American military helicopter to a celebration of Aristide's ouster. When Latortue praised Haiti's terror squads calling them "freedom fighters," Lee nodded in approval.

In June 2005, Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson acknowledged Robert Tippenhauer as Haiti's ambassador to Canada, although no constitutional basis existed for his credentials. A strong representative of Haiti's wealthy business elite, Tippenhauer had also referred to Haiti's terrorists as "freedom fighters."

In 2006, Canada appointed Haitian-born Michäelle Jean as governor general and she was soon gracing photo ops with smiling coup-President Boniface Alexandre.

Prime Minister Martin and Foreign Affairs Minister Pettigrew led official junkets to Haiti unashamedly exalting the coup regime. During reciprocal visits, the illegally-appointed "leaders" were welcomed with open Canadian arms.

Dozens were killed, including many women and children, when hundreds of heavily-armed UN troops and police--in armoured vehicles and helicopters--made night-time raids into Port-au-Prince's poorest neighbourhoods. Unperturbed by these war crimes, Canada's ambassador Claude Boucher, urged UN troops to "increase their operations" in Haiti.

(6) Supporting Destructive Neoliberal Economic Policies

Canada helped devise, finance, implement and legitimize a destructive, neoliberal economic restructuring program called the Interim Cooperation Framework (ICF). Within weeks of the coup, the ICF was drafted by "lead donors," including Canada, at the World Bank's Washington headquarters.

Sponsored by the U.S., Canada and France, the ICF focused on privatization and exporting inexpensive factory goods. While benefited Haitian elites, foreign corporations and international financial institutions, the ICF hurt Haiti's poor majority.

In June 2004, 31 Haitian civil-society organizations listed major ICF problems, including:

- "The whole exercise is taking place [under] an increasing loss of sovereignty...[and] long-term military occupation....
- is controlled by external actors...[and] excludes all real participation of the majority and vulnerable sectors of our country....
- ignores the priority social needs of our country's poor...;
- [proposes] superficial solutions to...abject poverty...;
- privatis[ing] the Electricity Co., the Port-au-Prince Water Board, the Telephone Co., the Airport and Port Authorities, [will] probably [have] disastrous effects...;
- is taking place in a pseudo-colonial framework...without any concern for transparency.
- next to nothing has been allocated for a credible consultation process....
- The ICF...reinforces existing power structure. It risks aggravating the suffering of the most excluded and exploited sectors, and accelerating the process of destroying our nation."

Some of the ICF's most harmful elements, were noted by Canadian journalist/activist, Nik Barry-Shaw:

- Slashing subsidies for Haiti's impoverished farmers,
- Reducing the minimum wage,
- Dismantling an extremely-successful adult-literacy program,
- Giving a three-year tax holiday to large businesses,
- Paying $30 million in "back wages" to ex-soldiers from the army Aristide disbanded.

During the window of opportunity offered by Haiti's unelected coup government, Canada secured Haiti's membership in the private, Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) while Foreign Affairs Minister Pettigrew was Vice-President of its Board of Governors. Denis Marcheterre, a senior financial specialist with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), said Canada needed to get Haiti into the CDB during the unelected regime because an elected government might not have complied. Canada participates in the CDB, said Marcheterre, so Canadian corporations can win contracts from borrowing countries, like Haiti. By paying Haiti's CDB membership, Canada helped lock Haiti into long-term debt that would be paid to Canadian contractors.

(7) Using Aid as a Weapon

Canada, the U.S. and France put a stranglehold on development assistance to Haiti's government. External aid to Aristide's government has reduced from $611 million in 1994-95, to $266 million in 1999-2000. After Aristide's second landslide electoral victory in 2000, bilateral aid to his Lavalas-Party government was cut to $136 million. By starving Haiti's popular government of resources, Canada deliberately fostered the "failed-state" conditions whose pretext justified the 2004 coup.

Most of the "aid" that Canada and the U.S. sent after 2000, was not aimed at addressing basic human needs among Haiti's poor majority. It was instead funnelled into relatively wealthy, so-called "democracy promotion" groups linked to Haiti's elite corporate class. Most glaringly, CIDA poured $24 million into twelve projects administered--entirely or in part--by members of the Group of 184, including more than $500,000 went straight into the coffers of this right-wing coalition. The G-184 was led by some of Haiti's most hated multimillionaires and sweat-shop owners who provided weapons and funding to paramilitary terrorists whose anti-government violence provoked the 2004 invasion.

Such CIDA-funded Haitian groups as CARLI, CONAP, ENFOFANM, FNH, ISC and PAPDA, stirred up domestic and international opposition to Aristide, helped destabilize his popularly-elected government and called for its immediate demise. CIDA's agents of regime change then ignored or covered up the coup government's worst excesses.

CIDA also funded the National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR) whose disinformation was widely used by governments, international media and foreign NGOs. The NCHR worked as an arm of the illegal, Canadian-backed coup regime to eliminate political opponents. Within days of the 2004 coup, CIDA gave NCHR $100,000 to help nonexistent victims of a faked "genocide." NCHR's "special project" fabricated evidence to frame Lavalas activists and leaders. Chief among NCHR's targets was Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, who suffered two years behind bars before being released for lack of any actual evidence.

CIDA contracted several Quebec-based organisations to aid and abet its Haitian regime-change policies. These groups--including Alternatives, FOCAL, Development and Peace, Réseau Liberté, Rights and Democracy, and Concertation pour Haiti--either distributed CIDA grants to their Haitian "partners" for virulently anti-Aristide campaigns, or became cheerleaders in the government's propaganda war to cover up atrocities of the coup-imposed dictatorship and rationalise Canada's role in overthrowing Haiti's democracy.

(8) Imposing an Illegal "Justice" System

After helping oust Aristide's elected government, Canada dramatically increased "aid" to Haiti. Most Canadian financing went into police, prisons and courts. These institutions tightened the illegal dictatorship's grasp on power by persecuting its opponents. CIDA funded and helped administer Haiti's "Ministry of Justice" which coordinated the arbitrary arrest and imprisonment without charge, of hundreds of supporters, activists and leaders from Aristide's Lavalas Party.

The American government chose USAID official, Bernard Gousse, to be Haiti's Justice Minister. CIDA--the Canadian equivalent of USAID--appointed one of its bureaucrats, Philippe Vixamar, as Deputy Justice Minister. Soon after Gousse's shamed resignation in 2005, Canada replaced Vixamar and another CIDA bureaucrat, Dilia Lemaire, became Deputy Minister.

During the coup-regime period, Vixamar was interviewed by human rights investigators from the University of Miami's Law School. Vixamar "revealed that the U.S. and Canadian governments play key roles in the justice system...including paying high-level government officials. He denied there are human rights and constitutional abuses within the criminal justice system."

Deputy-Minister Vixamar said "CIDA assigned him to this position and is his direct employer. Now in his fourth consecutive year of employment for CIDA, Vixamar had previously worked for USAID for 10 years and was with the U.S. Department of Justice for three."

When asked about "warrantless arrests and reports that hundreds of prisoners have not appeared before a judge...Vixamar denied there were any political prisoners in Haiti."

This lie was echoed by Prime Minister Paul Martin who, when visiting Haiti in November 2004, said "There are no political prisoners in Haiti." That month, the Catholic Church's Commission for Justice and Peace said there were over 700 Haitian political prisoners, including elected cabinet ministers such as Haiti's legitimate Prime Minister Neptune.

Vixamar said his Ministry was "fully confident" in its "exclusive reliance on the National Coalition for Haitian Rights to alert it when the police or courts commit human rights abuses." He also disclosed their sole reliance on this extremely antiAristide, CIDA-funded group for vetting "integration of former soldiers into the [Haitian National Police] HNP."

When nonviolent activist, Father Jean-Juste, was arrested without warrant, Amnesty named him a "prisoner of conscience." Vixamar quipped that Jean-Juste was harbouring "chimères," the Haitian elite's hateful epithet for criminals, thugs and Aristide supporters. After two years, Jean-Juste was released without charge.

(9) Funding and Whitewashing Unfair Elections

In 2005, CIDA, Foreign Affairs, and Elections Canada created the International Mission for Monitoring Haitian Elections (IMMHE). Chaired by Jean-Pierre Kingsley, Canada's Chief Electoral Officer, IMMHE ignored scandals surrounding the Canadian-funded and -supervised 2007 elections.

When election-day reports revealed tens of thousands of cast ballots were found dumped, and mass protests began, the IMMHE said only hundreds were found. Its source was UN troops responsible for ballot security. The officer in charge was Canadian colonel, Barry MacLeod.

While IMMHE said the "overall picture was positive," it admitted "organization problems":

- delayed voting-station openings, insufficient space and signage
- incomplete voters' lists
- no assistance for illiterate or disabled voters
- inconsistent voting-centre instructions
- voting without privacy
- undelivered ballot-box seals to prevent tampering
- inadequate lighting for ballot-counting
- unmonitored Vote-Tabulation-Centre entry/exit

IMMHE however ignored these major problems:

- Haiti's Constitution gives provisional governments 90 days to organize elections. The coup regime missed its deadline by 21 months.
- The illegally-appointed, electoral authority was funded by occupation powers, including Canada.
- Thousands of Aristide's Lavalas-Party supporters, organizers and politicians were killed, imprisoned or exiled, thus excluding participation.
- Lavalas' presidential candidate, Father Jean-Juste, being jailed without charge, was excluded.
- Lavalas meetings were not permitted and rallies were terrorised by police.
- Leaders of paramilitary rebels were allowed to campaign.
- U.S. and Canadian governments spent tens of millions on pre-election training for Lavalas opponents, and supported antiAristide journalists.

Impoverished Lavalas supporters were disenfranchised by:

- electronic voter registration
- TV/radio instructions
- a 94% reduction in registration/voting centres, from 22,000 during Aristide's 2000 election to fewer than 1,300 in 2007
- disproportionate location of registration/voting centres. Cité Soleil, where hundreds of thousands of proAristide voters lived, had no voting centre
- last-minute moves of voting centres
- forcing 32,000 largely-Lavalas voters into a single centre
- undersupplied polling materials
- destroying voter-tally sheets and voters' lists
- having to walk or line up for many hours
- discarding 147,765 votes as "null" or "unclear"
- finding 85,290 "blank" votes, making it harder for the winner to reach 50%
- tampering with tally sheets and ballot boxes.

Lavalas has since been banned from two elections. The now-cancelled 2010 elections were set to exclude Lavalas.

(10) Helping Corporations Profit from Haitian Poverty

After the coup, Canada worked hand-in-glove with Haiti's unelected regime helping companies turn handsome profits. The Canadian government bolstered Haiti's elitist regime on business-friendly policies including "reconstruction" contracts, privatisation and promoting sweat-shops.

Haiti's post-coup military occupation boosted sales of helicopters, assault vehicles, weapons, ammunition and lucrative contracts for servicing thousands of foreign troops in Haiti. "Reconstruction" industries from the occupying powers began raking in billions.

Ambassador Claude Boucher wanted Canadian firms to exploit Haiti's post-coup environment. He, and acting-"Prime Minister" Latortue, spawned the Haitian-Canadian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCCI). In an interview with Anthony Fenton, HCCCI's first president, Quèbec high-school graduate Robert Tippenhauer, said Canada's role in ousting Aristide and empowering the "transitional" government, entitled Canadian businesses to lucrative, "post-conflict" contracts.

Latortue, Tippenhauer and Boucher helped profit-hungry Canadian delegations scouring Haiti for contracts in road construction, telecommunications, energy, urban planning, waste disposal, agroindustry and manufacturing.

In 2005, Haitian multimillionaire Réginald Boulos said Haiti "offers a lot of opportunities for foreign investors to be involved in privatization." And, he said, electricity, water and transportation were all "being audited for privatization."

Haiti's Boulos-family empire includes a nefarious pharmaceutical company, supermarkets and right-wing media. In 2005, Canada flew Boulos, and other Haitian elite, to meet bankers and bureaucrats at the government's Meech-Lake resort near Ottawa. On the table were "privatization" and "private sector provision of public services." Knowing Haiti's masses opposed these policies, participants wanted them "properly pushed" immediately.

Another Haitian millionaire, Andy Apaid, helped Boulos lead the virulently antiAristide, CIDA-funded Group of 184. Aristide's government said Apaid wasn't paying enough taxes. Apaid also disliked paying his sweatshop employees and opposed Aristide's doubling of the minimum wage. Receiving less than a dollar a day, Apaid's wage-slaves made millions for Canadian clothing importers, like Gildan.

In 2000, Minister Pettigrew announced Gildan was a finalist for the government's "Export Award" for "strengthen[ing] local economies with new jobs." Ironically, Gildan shifted 200+ Montreal jobs to Caribbean sweatshops.

In 2003, International Cooperation Minister, Susan Whelan, gave Gildan the CIDA-funded "Award for Excellence in Corporate Social and Ethical Responsibility."

In 2006, Gildan received another Social-Responsibility prize at a gala attended by Quebec's Conservative-cum-Liberal premier, Jean Charest, and 1000 other business celebrities.

Gildan's shares nearly quadrupled in value during the coup-regime period.

The Moral of the Story

Don't believe the lies your government tells you when it goes to war, or helps overthrow another government. Most Canadians have no idea that Canada was instrumental in overthrowing Haiti's democratically-elected government in 2004.

Some Canadian peace, human rights and development groups continue to spread government propaganda that presents Canada's odious role in Haiti's regime change as if it was a "humanitarian intervention" that promoted justice and democracy.

Such official Canadian myths hide the brutal atrocities of Haiti's post-coup occupation behind the narrative facade of "peacekeeping," "failed states" and the "right to protect."

Because Canadian progressives have not successfully countered these myths about Haiti, the proud revolutionary people of that country have been forced to endure further humiliation, violence, injustice and exploitation.

It's time we set the record straight.

* Richard Sanders is coordinator of the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT), and editor of COAT's magazine, Press for Conversion! This article was written for publication by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in their magazine, The CCPA Monitor (April 2010). The article summarises some of the material in four 50-page issues of COAT's magazine. Back issues and subscriptions are available at COAT's website or by contacting --- overcoat@rogers.com

Petition

Canadians Apologize to Haiti, 10 Years After the Coup

- www.apologytohaiti.ca -

Canadian troops deployed in Port-au-Prince on the day of the coup. At left, a soldier at Toussaint Louverture Airport;
at right: a Canadian military helicopter flies over the Presidential Palace as the coup unfolds.

We sign this statement to tell the world, and especially the Haitian people, that we are ashamed and outraged by the Canadian Government's active participation in the February 29, 2004 Coup d'Etat that toppled the duly-elected Government of Haiti led by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. On behalf of all Canadians, the great majority of whom are kept ignorant of this Coup and its aftermath, we sincerely apologize for the terrible, lasting damage it has caused.

Ten (10) years after the Coup, we sign this statement because there is disturbing and compelling evidence that:

1) Canada was centrally involved in planning the Coup. A year in advance, on January 31 and February 1, 2003, Canada hosted the Ottawa Initiative on Haiti. This controversial meeting was held at the Meech Lake Government Resort, near Gatineau, Québec, to plan and consolidate the Coup.

2) Canada took an active part in the actual forced removal from Haiti and exile to Africa of President Aristide. Canadian soldiers, notably those serving in Joint Task Force 2, were assigned by Canadian government leaders to join local paramilitary mercenaries and U.S. troops illegally deployed to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to conduct the Coup d'État.

Records of the Canadian Parliament show that on March 10, 2004, ten days after the coup, Stockwell Day, then-foreign affairs critic for the Conservative opposition, declared in Parliament: "....we have an elected leader Aristide. We may not have wanted to vote for him. But the (Canadian) government makes a decision that there should be a regime change. It is a serious question that we need to address. That decision was based on what criteria? We must have this discussion.This was clearly a regime change. Whether we like to admit it or not, we took part."

3) The Coup was followed by several documented massacres and arbitrary arrests of pro-democracy activists. It dismantled Haiti's entire elected government structure, and U.S.-appointed post-coup regimes -- backed financially, militarily and diplomatically by Canada -- are marred by serious human rights abuses.

4) One of the most disastrous consequences of the Coup and subsequent UN tutelage is that Haiti, a country with no known cases of cholera for the past 100 years, now has one of the worst cholera epidemics in the world. The cholera death toll has already reached 8500 and as of January 2014, more than 700,000 have gotten sick from the deadly bacterium.

Several independent scientific studies unequivocally implicate the UN for introducing cholera to Haiti. According to these studies, UN soldiers stationed near Haiti's La Mielle and Artibonite Rivers contaminated these major water sources in October 2010 with improperly disposed feces.

To date, the UN refuses to assume responsibility for this grave act of criminal negligence. We support the worthy efforts of human rights groups Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) to seek redress from the UN for the thousands of victims of cholera in Haiti.

5) The grassroots pro-democracy movement in Haiti, which bravely overthrew the brutal dictatorship of Jean Claude Duvalier in 1986, has suffered major setbacks since the Coup took place. The people of Haiti are currently ruled by a U.S.-imposed neo-Duvalierist regime, under which the former dictator benefits from open support from powerful national and international allies. Duvalier has brazenly mocked his victims since his January 2011 return to UN-occupied Haiti.

Canada's role in planning and carrying out the February 29, 2004 Coup d'État, and in the equally disastrous and illegal UN tutelage our government imposed on Haiti to consolidate the coup, is an ongoing source of misery and injustice for the Haitian people. We urge all Canadians, their organizations and representatives to take effective action to compel the foreign occupation forces to acknowledge and to make adequate amends for the harm they have caused the People of Haiti.

To sign the statement, click here.

Haiti: We Must Kill the Bandits

- Film by Kevin Pina -

TML is posting below the film "Haiti: We Must Kill the Bandits," by U.S. journalist Kevin Pina. It gives a good overview of the events in Haiti since the early 1990s to the present day.

Recent Developments

Former Organization of American States Representative Recounts Proposed 2010 Coup

Former Organization of American States (OAS) Special Representative to Haiti Ricardo Seitenfus of Brazil recently recounted the machinations in 2010 in which a "core group" of foreign dignitaries (representing Brazil, Canada, Spain, the United States, France, the UN, the OAS and the European Union) sought to force President of Haiti René Préval out of office in a coup. They also engineered an intervention in Haiti's presidential elections that year that ensured that the governing party's candidate would not proceed to a runoff. These are the revelations being made by the Organization of American States' (OAS) Special Representative to Haiti at the time.

In a written interview with Dan Beeton of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) and journalist Georgianne Nienaber published on February 24, Seitenfus provides new details regarding threats against then-president of Haiti René Préval. Seitenfus also corroborates the conclusions of CEPR's earlier analysis of an OAS "Expert" Mission sent to verify the election: that the OAS overturned the results of the first round in a political intervention. The OAS took this unprecedented step without so much as a recount or calling for a new election, something that had never been done before by an international body. This was a "white coup and a blatant electoral intervention," Seitenfus says.

"[W]hen it comes to Haiti, the international community does not have limits for the actions it takes," Seitenfus states in the interview.

The OAS "Expert" Mission, most of its members coming from the U.S., Canada and France, recommended changing the result of the first round of the election after findings that CEPR's analysis determined to be "methodologically and statistically flawed, and arbitrary." The international community -- especially the U.S. government -- then exerted strong pressure for the Haitian government to accept the mission's recommendations, which would remove governing party candidate Jude Célestin from the runoff, to be replaced by Michel Martelly. Martelly went on to win the second round of an election versus another conservative opponent, Mirlande Manigat, with less than 17 per cent of the vote from the eligible electorate.

Seitenfus names those responsible in a blow-by-blow account of a secret discussion on whether Préval should be removed from office, which he says would have been "a moral disgrace and a gross political error." In his account, Seitenfus says that then-head of the U.N. Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) Edmond Mulet told Préval he would have to "leave the presidency and abandon Haiti." Seitenfus also suggests that the U.S. Ambassador to Haiti at the time, Kenneth Merten, supported forcing Préval out of office. Ultimately, the Ambassadors to Haiti of Brazil and Argentina -- and Seitenfus himself -- opposed the plan, he says, and it was dropped.

Seitenfus also sharply criticizes the UN, the OAS, the U.S. government and other key actors in Haiti, and also decries the lack of coordination among large NGOs and international organizations. He points out the sharp contrast of the activities of these countries in comparison to aid from Cuba and Venezuela, which he describes as "a counter model to traditional development aid from the developed countries and international organizations" that has "take[n] away from the Haitian state the little financial autonomy that it possesses."

To read the full interview on the CEPR site, click here.

(CEPR)

Charges of Human Rights Crimes Against
Jean-Claude Duvalier Reinstated

- Press Release, Bureau des Avocats Internationaux, Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, February 21, 2014 -

Two human rights groups -- the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) in Haiti and the U.S.-based Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) -- applaud an Appellate Court ruling yesterday to reinstate criminal charges against former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier for political violence committed under his reign. Haitian attorney Mario Joseph of the BAI, which represents victims in this case, called the hearing a "total victory."

Criminal charges for political violence, embezzlement and corruption were filed against Duvalier in January 2011, a few days after he returned to Haiti from 25 years of exile. In January 2012, a magistrate judge upheld the financial crimes, but dismissed the political violence crimes upon the recommendation of the government prosecutor on the basis that they were past Haiti's ten-year statute of limitations. Both sides appealed the decision.

The Court reinstated the political violence crimes and held that under international law, to which Haiti is bound, a statute of limitations does not apply to crimes against humanity. The Court designated Judge Durin Duret Junior, one of the three appellate judges that issued this ruling, to conduct a thorough investigation of all relevant witnesses and those accused of these crimes. Judge Durin's final report will be considered by the Court, who will then decide whether Duvalier should stand trial.

According to Mario Joseph, "The Court's ruling today applying crimes against humanity against Duvalier is a significant step towards combating impunity in Haiti's justice system. The Haitian Constitution of 1987, section 276.2, gives the court the power to use international law to protect victims of human rights violations. But this is the first time that a court has invoked international law to protect the poor. I hope that judges and lawyers consult this decision to end two centuries of impunity brought by our 1835 penal and criminal procedure codes." Joseph added, "Given that several lawyers and judges who challenged government corruption and impunity through the court system have recently received death threats, police surveillance and false criminal charges, the Court's decision is courageous."

Nicole Phillips, IJDH staff attorney, said, "We congratulate the survivors of Duvalier's brutal regime for their hard work and patience in bringing Duvalier to justice. This victory is possible because of the support and skillful work of accountability organizations around the world like the Haitian Collective Against Impunity, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, UN High Commission for Human Rights, Amnesty International, Center for Justice and Accountability, and Human Rights Watch."

For more information about BAI and IJDH's work, please visit: ijdh.org

The Dessalines Coordination
Launches Itself as a New Party

- Kim Ives, Haiti Liberté, February 12, 2014

In early 2013, several veteran and influential leaders from Haiti's progressive and popular organizations began meeting as the Dessalines Coordination, or KOD. Alarmed with the void in progressive leadership to counter the right-wing march of President Michel Martelly's government, they began mapping out a game plan for Haiti's anti-imperialist popular movement, which historically has been the base of the Lavalas Family party (FL), founded in 1996 by former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Additional alarms went off when a new FL leadership containing politicians who supported the 1991 and 2004 coups against Aristide expelled outspoken Senator Moïse Jean-Charles. He has become the champion of the Haitian masses in denouncing the illegal acts, corruption, repression, and lies of the Martelly regime over the past almost three years.

On Sept. 29, 2013, KOD organized a "popular forum" in Port-au-Prince of about 150 delegates from scores of popular organizations from across Haiti to outline how a provisional government could be formed.

On January 24, the Martelly government, in concert with the U.S. Embassy and Catholic Church, launched a self-declared "national dialogue" to negotiate how elections -- over two years overdue -- can be held. All of the political parties attending the "dialogue" were Martelly allies. Realizing that they needed a party which would at least appear to represent Haiti's other political pole, the "dialogue" organizers made a special appeal to the Lavalas Family. Three days after the start of the talks, the FL sent a leadership delegation to take part, albeit as "observers."

KOD, on the other hand, denounced the "national dialogue" as a "charade," aimed at "giving a second lease on life to a criminal regime which had been completely discredited".

On Feb. 3, 2014, Oxygène David, a member of the KOD's steering committee, held a press conference at the International Lawyers Office (BAI) in Port-au-Prince to announce that KOD was launching itself as a political party "not only to take part in elections, but to fight for the interests of the Haitian people with discipline and principles." He was flanked by other popular organization leaders who are now a part of KOD -- Samuel Saint-Jean, Belly J. Ronald and Jean Dieufaite Thomas.

But before any elections can be held, KOD sees two necessary conditions: that the Martelly government step down and that the UN military occupation force, MINUSTAH, be completely withdrawn from Haiti.

Here is the translated text of the Feb. 3, 2014 KOD declaration delivered by Oxygène David:

***

Brothers and Sisters,

The Dessalines Coordination (KOD) finds itself forced to take an historic step today because Haiti finds itself in an extremely dangerous predicament.

Since 1806, Haiti has had problems. The imperialist countries with their local allies have never let up in their persecution of the Haitian people. For almost three years, Haiti has been ruled by a criminal clique which took power through an electoral coup d'état orchestrated by Washington. These criminals have trampled state institutions to establish a neo-Duvalierist regime founded on corruption, repression, arbitrary power, and subservience to imperialism.

The people are fed up with this clique and began to rise up across Haiti in September, October, and November of last year. The people poured out in multiple massive demonstrations which shook the foundations of the Macouto-bourgeois state.[1]

[President Michel] Martelly panicked. The imperialists panicked. They asked the Catholic Church to come to their aid by sponsoring a bogus "national dialogue" to appease the people and buttress the corrupt regime.

A number of unprincipled political parties and politicians took part in this charade, thereby giving a second lease on life to a criminal regime which had been completely discredited. All the parties which are taking part in this fake "national dialogue" are, objectively, allies of the Macouto-bourgeoisie because as the saying goes: "Those who are similar come together."

For some time, militants from several popular organizations have been meeting to analyze the political situation. They foresaw this terrible development that has led us into this dangerous crossroads. For months now, we have been observing this convergence of traitors taking shape. We have to prepare ourselves for struggle. We have to establish a true fighting organization through which we can struggle, a true popular party, not only to take part in elections, but to fight for the interests of the Haitian people with discipline and principles.

The Dessalines Coordination (KOD) is a progressive Dessalinien organization for the national liberation of the Haitian people. KOD declares that the Macouto-bourgeois dialogue being held at the El Rancho Hotel will not do anything for the nation. It is simply a new maneuver by the government of President Martelly and Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe, along with several opportunist mercenary political parties beholden to the imperialists in complicity with the Catholic Church, to throw sand in the people's eyes and sink the masses even deeper into exploitation and poverty.

KOD has come to speak to you, Haitian people -- above all, our brothers and sisters who are life-long unemployed; workers who are fighting for a minimum wage of 500 gourdes [$11.35 per day]; peasants who get no fertilizer nor financial assistance from the government, but instead are robbed by officials; our students who are suffering around the country and who can't find any support; and teachers' unions which are on strike today. KOD salutes all of you, KOD understands your battles, KOD supports your demands. We have to all stand up together to solve the nation's problems.

In the bogus national dialogue, we hear the participants say that they are defending Haiti's interests, the interests of all Haitians. These are lies and demagoguery.

KOD speaks the truth to you, Haitian people! There are different classes in Haiti with different interests. The interests of the bourgeoisie are not the same as those of the workers. The interests of the big landowners (grandon) are not the same as those of the landless peasants.

KOD is not bluffing. We are defending a single class, the majority class, the working class, that is peasants and workers, the class of people whom, since 1806, have been politically excluded in our society, who have never received anything from all the wealth of our country.

That does not mean that KOD is only made up of people who come from that class. KOD welcomes anyone who stands with the people, whether they come from the bourgeoisie, petit bourgeoisie, or the big landowning class. Where you are born is not important. What is important is where you stand politically, whose interests you defend.

The parties meeting with Martelly and Lamothe won't do anything to improve your life. On the contrary, they don't want Martelly and Lamothe to leave, so they can continue to feed on the scraps dropped from the table of the U.S., French, and Canadian embassies and the United Nations, so they can continue to find strength to fight against the people.

These are a bunch of parties looking for a piece of the pie, who have made a Macouto-bourgeois deal at the expense of the people in order to block the people in their struggle for change in the country. These groups are defiling Haiti by acting on behalf of the three imperialist thieves -- the U.S., France and Canada -- who never want the country to advance.

The KOD has two key demands:

1) Martelly and Lamothe must go so that the people can establish a suitable provisional government. In the popular forum we organized on Sep. 29, 2013, the proposition was made for a council of state with 13 members to be drawn from all social strata of the country.

2) MINUSTAH [the UN Mission to Stabilize Haiti] must go. We cannot have free, honest, sovereign elections, as in 1990, if Washington is there putting in and taking out candidates, as they wish, doing as they like. The colonists should not be deciding the political future of the country.

There are some groups which criticize Martelly, but they don't condemn MINUSTAH, they don't fight against the military occupation. There are others who condemn MINUSTAH but they are not against Martelly; sometimes they even defend the regime and call for it to complete its term.

KOD is not inconsistent like that! KOD stands firm in its demands. That is what makes us different from other so-called opponents of Martelly and Lamothe. We don't mix with the Macoutes, bourgeois, or imperialists. In this sense, we present to you the people's political party: the Dessalines Coordination. KOD is the political party of the Haitian people!

KOD is a political tool which is based on the ideals of Father Dessalines [Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Haiti's post-independence leader and first president, assassinated in 1806], who wanted the nation's poor to eat, drink, and sleep well, for the nation's wealth to be shared by all, for there to be agrarian reform, for the speculators to stop stealing from the peasants, and above all for foreigners not to control what happens in the country.

A small group of traitors assassinated Father Dessalines in order to stop his political, economic, and social program which aimed at improving the lot of all Haitians. And they continue each day to kill Emperor Dessalines when they keep a military and civilian occupation in the country to weaken the Haitian people either with repression or with disease. We, Dessalines' children, who have Dessalines' blood in our veins, we cannot forget the battle Dessalines waged against the French occupation to get us out of slavery.

Look at how today, since 2004, when we celebrated our bicentennial, the colonists have returned to recolonize us in complicity with some political parties and the bourgeoisie.

The political parties dialoguing at El Rancho are a bunch of traitors plotting at the expense of the people. They want to get rid of us the same way they assassinated Dessalines and Charlemagne Péralte.[2] That is why they never demand reparations for the victims of cholera.

Dessalines said: "Cut heads, burn houses." We say: "Use KOD to tie them up."[3] The only solution: "Use KOD to tie them up."

Use KOD to tie up the thieves in the state apparatus. Use KOD to tie up Martelly and Lamothe. Use KOD to tie up the drug dealers who are in power. Use KOD to defend ourselves, to tie up the Duvalierist Macoutes who have raised their ugly head again in the country.

Walk everywhere with your KOD to tie up the assassins, the sellers of the nation, the thieves who have taken over the country.

The Dessalines Coordination is a Dessalinien political party for Haiti's liberation which counts on you to carry forward the struggle. Our problems have not yet been solved because we are not acting in concert. All principled popular organizations which are anti-Macoute, anti-Martelly, anti-imperialist, don't walk without your KOD. Let's put our heads and hands together so that we walk together to rebuild our country!

The Dessalines Coordination is counting on you! Our watchwords:

Use KOD to tie up Martelly and Lamothe!
Use KOD to tie up the Macoutes!
Use KOD to tie up MINUSTAH!
Use KOD to tie up the imperialists!
Never march without your KOD
For a truly new Haiti!

Notes

1. Macouto-bourgeois is a reference to a merger between Haiti's traditional bourgeoisie with the ultra-reactionary big landowning class (grandons) whose armed expression was the Tonton Macoutes, the paramilitary force created by dictator François "Papa Doc" Duvalier (1957-1971). While Duvalier's Macoutes repressed sectors of the Haitian bourgeoisie in the 1960s, during the regime of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier (1971-1986), the big landowning sector economically and politically merged with the bourgeoisie, creating what progressive analysts often refer to as the "Macouto-bourgeoisie."

2. Charlemagne Péralte was the leader of the Cacos, the Haitian guerilla force which fought against the U.S. Marine occupation of Haiti (1915-1934). Péralte, 33, was assassinated on Nov. 1, 1919 by a U.S. Marine who infiltrated behind Caco lines.

3. The Kreyòl word kòd means rope. Using KOD as kòd (rope) is a play on words.

UN Obstructs Lawsuit for Cholera Outbreak

On October 9, 2013, the Boston-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), along with immigration attorney Ira Kurzban's firm and the human rights group Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), filed a lawsuit against the UN regarding the 2010 outbreak of cholera in Haiti. The UN continues to deny responsibility and is obstructing IJDH's process servers from entering its premises in New York, news agencies report. IJDH also informs that the UN has not acknowledged whether it has received the legal documents by mail or fax. In general, the UN denies its responsibility for the outbreak, despite all evidence to the contrary.

On February 21, the Haitian Lawyers Association and Haitian Women of Miami filed a friend-of-the-court brief in Manhattan federal court in support of a motion seeking affirmation that the UN had been properly served with the lawsuit filed in October. The groups say the UN's lack of response exacerbates the suffering in Haiti. The two Florida-based groups represent Haitian immigrants and Haitian-Americans, including some whose relatives were affected by the outbreak.

"We've tried for four months to serve the papers on the UN, sending process servers to the United Nations headquarters. When they get there, they're denied access," said Beatrice Lindstrom, an attorney for IJDH on February 24.

The UN told the plaintiffs to mail or fax the legal documents, but has not acknowledged receiving the paperwork, Lindstrom said. "The UN actually hasn't said anything," she added.

According to data from the Pan-American Health Organization and World Health Organization cited in the brief, cholera has sickened nearly 700,000 Haitians and killed more than 8,400 as of December 23, 2013.

The UN's failure to acknowledge the lawsuit "is yet another manifestation of its shirking of responsibility for the cholera outbreak, one which this court should declare an abuse of its rules relating to service of process," the groups wrote in their brief. They have asked the court to grant the plaintiffs' motion and demonstrate the urgency of the case.

"We feel like the UN has been really slow to respond to the epidemic and their lack of response continues to make the people of Haiti suffer," said Byrnes Guillaume, President of the Haitian Lawyers Association.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for personal injury, wrongful death, emotional distress, loss of use of property and natural resources and breach of contract. It also seeks money to bring clean water and improved sanitation to Haiti.

The outbreak of cholera caused by the UN troops in Haiti is a further indictment of the extremely negative role played by the UN in Haiti since the time of the 2004 coup where UN troops, including ones from Canada, carried out deadly repression against the broad masses who reject foreign interference in Haiti and sought the return of President Aristide.

Posted below are excerpts from IDJH's synopsis of the case.

***

In October 2010, the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) introduced a cholera epidemic that has infected hundreds of thousands (approximately 1 in every 20 Haitians) and killed over 7,000 Haitians in 18 months.

In November 2011, the Bureaux des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) and IJDH filed groundbreaking claims against the United Nations (UN) on behalf of 5,000 Haitian cholera victims demanding accountability for the cholera epidemic in Haiti. The case demands that the UN:

- Install a national water and sanitation system that will control the epidemic;

- Compensate for individual victims of cholera for their losses; and

- Issue a public apology from the United Nations for its wrongful acts.

[A Petition for Relief was filed with the UN on November 3, 2011]

In October 2013, BAI, IJDH, and Ira Kurzban's law firm (KKWT) filed a lawsuit against the UN in the Southern District of NY federal court. The plaintiffs in the suit are five Haitians and Haitian-Americans whose family members died of the disease or who were infected but managed to survive life-threatening cholera. The plaintiffs are asking the court to certify the case as a class action, which will allow the plaintiffs to represent and obtain relief for the hundreds of thousands Haitians and Haitian-Americans who suffered injuries or died from cholera. The 67-page complaint details extensive evidence demonstrating that the UN knew or should have known that its reckless sanitation and waste disposal practices posed a high risk of harm to the population, and that it consciously disregarded that risk, triggering an explosive epidemic. The plaintiffs seek damages for personal injury, wrongful death, emotional distress, loss of use of property and natural resources, and breach of contract.

The UN continues to deny responsibility despite overwhelming evidence of its wrongdoing and mounting public pressure for accountability and action.

The cholera litigation is one of the largest cases to seek justice for UN wrongdoing in the organization's history. This case has universal implications beyond Haiti because it challenges the UN to establish mechanisms to uphold its commitment to be a global leader in accountability and promotion of human rights for all.

[...]

The UN's Role in Haiti's Cholera Epidemic

Cholera exploded in Haiti in October 2010, shortly after the arrival of a new battalion of peacekeepers from Nepal, a country where cholera is endemic. Prior to their arrival, the CDC reports that Haiti had not experienced a cholera outbreak in over two centuries. The peacekeepers were neither tested nor treated for cholera prior to deployment to Haiti, despite the UN's knowledge that Nepal was experiencing a surge in infection at the time, and that Haiti was extremely vulnerable to cholera. The peacekeepers were stationed on a base in rural Mirebalais that maintained dangerous sanitation conditions, allowing human waste to contaminate a tributary that runs just meters from the base into the Artibonite River, Haiti's primary water source. Neighbors in the area reported foul stenches stemming from the camp, and a later UN investigation revealed that the sewage piping at the base was "haphazard" and "inadequate," and that all base wastes were dumped into an open-air unfenced pit.

Legal Basis for UN Liability

The UN is legally responsible because its recklessness directly caused foreseeable harm to victims. As microbial geneticist Paul Keim put it, "it was like throwing a lighted match into a gasoline-filled room." The following UN failures form the basis for our legal case:

- Failing to screen troops for cholera infection prior to deployment from Nepal, a country where cholera is endemic and which had just reported a surge in infections;

- Failing to maintain its sanitation facilities and waste disposal at the Mirebalais camp in Haiti, allowing contaminated human waste to run into the Meille, a tributary of the Artibonite River. The Artibonite is Haiti's longest and most important river; it is a critical source of water for tens of thousands of Haitians who rely on it for drinking, bathing, washing clothes, and irrigation; and

- Failing to take immediate corrective action to properly address the outbreak of disease, willfully delaying investigation and obscuring discovery of the outbreak's source at the cost of Haitians' lives.

In legal terms, these failures constitute negligence, gross negligence, recklessness, and deliberate indifference for the lives of Haitian people.

The Evidence

The evidence that UN malfeasance caused the cholera outbreak in Haiti is overwhelming and well documented. Numerous independent scientific studies, including studies by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, by one of the world's leading cholera epidemiologists Dr. Renaud Piarroux, and by a panel of independent experts appointed by the UN, all point to MINUSTAH as the source of the cholera epidemic. DNA testing shows that the cholera strain that is responsible for the epidemic is a perfect match to a strain active in South Asia. Furthermore, many witnesses have reported on the poor sanitation conditions on the base, including members of the neighboring community, international journalist, official investigators, and the UN-appointed panel of independent experts.

The Petitioners

The Petitioners are over 5,000 Haitian victims of cholera. They are individuals who are filing a claim (a) for their own injuries from cholera; (b) as parents on behalf of their minor children who contracted cholera; or (c) as next-of-kin on behalf of family members who died from cholera. Most Petitioners are from the Mirebalais, St. Marc, Hinche, and Port-au-Prince regions of Haiti. Their injuries and deaths occurred beginning October 21, 2010, and since that time, cholera has infected about one in twenty Haitians. It has disproportionately impacted people who are poor and vulnerable, especially female heads of households and pregnant women. The Petitioners are only a small segment of those affected by cholera, but our clients include farmers, teachers, and caretakers whose injuries or death have left families without means to meet their basic needs. They include people like Claudine*, who lost her father and the family's main breadwinner to cholera and spent her life savings to retrieve his body from a mass grave and provide him a proper burial. *Name changed to protect client's identity

Where Will the Cholera Case Be Heard?

The BAI and IJDH filed the claims with MINUSTAH's claims unit in Haiti, and with the Secretary-General in New York. MINUSTAH's operations in Haiti are governed by a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which affords MINUSTAH broad protections from actions in Haitian courts. To balance this immunity, the SOFA requires the establishment of an independent Standing Claims Commission to hear claims and compensate victims who have been injured by UN activities. Despite this requirement, no commission has been established during MINUSTAH's eight years in Haiti. In fact, no Standing Claims Commission has been established in over 60 years of UN peacekeeping anywhere, even though most SOFAs require one. The Petitioners request a fair, transparent and independent hearing of their claims. The case is currently undergoing review by the UN's Office of Legal Affairs at UN headquarters in New York. International human rights law guarantees a victim's right to an effective remedy, which includes fair and transparent adjudication of claims by an impartial body and reparations. The UN thus has a duty to respond to the claims by either providing reparations or allowing the claims to be heard by a fair and independent forum. A failure to fulfill this duty threatens to deprive Haitians of the legal protections that the Haitian Constitution, Haitian law, international law as reflected in the Draft Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations and UN treaty obligations. If the UN does not respond to the petitioners' case within a reasonable time, the BAI and IJDH plan to file a civil case in a judicial court. We are working in close collaboration with a team of top litigators in the United States and Haiti, including Kurzban Kurzban Weinger Tetzelli & Pratt, P.A., who is co-counsel on the case, and Wilmer Hale, LLP, who are providing pro bono legal advice to prepare the case for litigation in a domestic court.

[...]

(With files from IJDH, AP, Miami Herald)

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