Secretary of State Powell, visiting Haiti yesterday pledged support, both moral and financial for the nation's restoration. He also confirmed that US authorities were investigating Aristide "to see if there's any wrongdoing on his part."
I certainly don't have a problem with that, provided that there is evidence ot call for an invesitigation and provided that they are not fishing, but there are other investigations and prosecutions that should take place first:
Vowing to end impunity, Haitian justice officials have promised to prosecute abusive former members of the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, but have showed little interest in pursuing abusive leaders of the rebel forces. Last week, Justice Minister Bernard Gousse raised the possibility of pardoning Jean Tatoune (whose real name is Jean Pierre Baptiste), a rebel leader who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2000 for his role in a 1994 massacre of Aristide supporters. "The contrast between the Haitian government's eagerness to prosecute former Aristide officials and its indifference to the abusive record of certain rebel leaders could not be more stark," said Joanne Mariner, deputy director of Americas Division for Human Rights Watch. "Secretary Powell should remind Haitian officials that, if justice is not evenhanded, it's little more than politics." Secretary Powell has explicitly condemned the violent record of some rebel commanders. In mid-February, in comments to reporters, Secretary Powell described these men as "murderers and thugs." His statements underscored the fact that rebel leaders such as Jean Tatoune and Louis Jodel Chamblain have been convicted of serious human rights crimes. Yet Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has, in contrast, publicly lauded the rebel forces. On March 20, during a visit to the rebel stronghold of Gonaives, Latortue referred implicitly to Secretary Powell's comments, stating that in the United States "they thought the people in Gonaives were thugs and bandits." Latortue repudiated this view, saying that in his opinion "they are freedom fighters."
By stating that "the United States will be providing him [Latortue] with full support," the Bush administration is yet again supporting a moral relativist.
And, for God's sake (the Clinton administration shares blame in this department) when are we going to throw this execrable waste of protoplasm out of the US:
He's Toto Constant, one of the founders of FRAPH and a man with plenty of blood on his hands. Here's a description of some of the FRAPH's handiwork:
"The scenario is always substantially the same," the OAS/UN International Civilian Mission reported in 1994, after an extensive investigation. "Armed men, often military or FRAPH members, burst into the house of a political activist they [sought] to capture." If he wasn't there, the report said, the intruders attacked his wife or sister or daughter. "One guy took me by the hands and led me to the front porch," a woman told Human Rights Watch. "He said lie down. He said, 'If you don't I'll split your head open' ... He pulled his pants down to his knees, lifted up my nightgown, pulled down my underpants, and raped me."Faceless bodies began to appear in the streets. The assailants had developed a kind of art known as "facial scalping," a bloody ritual in which a person's face was peeled from ear to ear with a machete. It was a way to torture people even in the afterlife, because, many believed, such mutilation would prevent a proper burial—trapping the spirit eternally in purgatory.
As the bodies piled up, Constant held forth. He would often sit in a rattan chair in the courtyard of the house that had been his father's, a sprawling Art Deco mansion with a swimming pool and fountains, and speak to the press. Unlike other paramilitary leaders, who purposely remained in the shadows, Constant craved coverage. He let reporters sleep in his garden. He cut back the hedges to make more space for them and handed out T-shirts emblazoned with FRAPH's name. "I had one-on-ones with the greatest reporters in the world," he recalls today. "All of them. I've met all of them. At one point I was the most interviewed person in the world. I was one of the most important. I had Japanese journalists at my place. It was incredible." Constant enjoyed playing the role of statesman. He warned the United States not to intervene and threatened to shut down the country in protest of the world embargo put into place after the coup. He called for the dissolution of Haiti's parliament, echoing Jojo, who had earlier warned that if it didn't disband, FRAPH would call on the people to "tie up the deputies." "What I say comes from my heart," Constant would say. Or "A leader has to know how to play with the army, the power, and the people."
As he cultivated the press, Constant also courted Haiti's houngans, or voodoo priests, a potent psychological force. He portrayed himself as an embodiment of the most ferocious spirits. He held public ceremonies in front of the markets or at temples, where his men laid out small skulls. At a typical ceremony he would lie on the ground, surrounded by skulls and fire. Then, as he rose from the flames, the crowd would chant in Creole, "Toto for President! Without Toto, Haiti can't have a life." Though he still carried a .357 Magnum, he insisted that he no longer needed it. "I have the power of voodoo with me," he said.
So although Latortue has not specifically mentioned Toto Constant to my knowledge, he has referred to FRAPH's number 2 man, Louis Jodel Chamblain as a "freedom fighter." So, I hope you'll excuse me if I find it frightening for the future of Haiti if we as a nation are throwing our "full support" behind someone who regards FRAPHists as "freedom fighters."
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