April 15, 2011

by Robert Roth

The thousands of Haitians who had run alongside President Aristide’s car the three miles from the airport to his house poured over the walls, engulfing the courtyard. This young man’s face reflects both the joy of Aristide’s return and the terrible pain the people endured while he was gone.

Let us get away from this garbage, once and for all. Aristide arrived at the airport around 11 AM to be met by something like 100 journalists, a similar number of airport workers, and a few supporters. Dr. Narcisse was one a the few major/vocal Lavalas/Aristide supporters there. Others preferred to stay away and remain anonymous.

Apologists said that the number was so low because people expected Aristide to arrive in the afternoon.

This is not true. For 11 days before his arrival the ETA was always 11AM.

On April 4, Haiti’s electoral council announced that, according to preliminary results, Michel Martelly had been selected Haiti’s new president. A kompa singer and long-time proponent of Jean-Claude Duvalier, Martelly worked with the dreaded FRAPH death squads that killed over 5,000 people in Haiti after the first coup against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1991. Martelly supporters had announced they would “burn down the country” if he were not selected.

Martelly never had anything to do with FRAPH and there were/was no 5,000 killed by death squads of any type. This is Hitler’s favorite concept: “Tell a big lie often enough, and it becomes fact.”

FRAPH was actually a popular political party, Haitian League of Resistance, that changed its name in August, 1993. Its first chairman was the respected Gerard Bissainthe. His home was machine-gunned by Lavalas terrorists and he fled to the Dominican Republic leving the Secretary, Toto Constant in charge.

FRAPH did not exist until 1993 so how could it have overthrown Aristide in 1991??

FRAPH had over 300,000 members and would have won the 1994 mandated elections had they been held immediately after Aristide’s return. He delayed the elections and had some American associates help in demonizing FRAPH, turning it into a terrorist organization: What about the 300,000 ordinary citizens, many of them LAVALAS people who joined the group??

Burning down the country isn’t a new threat. Aristide promised to burn down anyone’s property who rented it to the CEP in 2000!

Only a small number of Haitians – around 20 percent by most estimates – voted in the elections, the smallest percentage in 60 years to participate in any presidential elections in the Americas. Fanmi Lavalas, the party of Aristide and by far the most popular in Haiti, was banned from participation. Why should people vote? It was a “selection,” not an “election,” we were told over and over again.

20% is not a bad turn out, even in the States.  Preval won in a 1995 election that saw a 5% turn out: Aristide won in 2000 with, some say, 20,000 voters who managed to find polling stations, giving him a massive 98% of the ballots cast!!

By the second round on March 20, Haitians had to choose between Martelly or Mirlande Manigat, a right-wing member of Haiti’s tiny elite. One Haitian friend told us, “This is a choice between cholera and typhoid. You cannot make such a choice.”

Actually, the November 28 election should have seen Jean Henry Ceant and Baker, in the run-off, but Preval and his CEP fixed the situation to see his choice Manigat in the run off. Forget Jude Celestin, he was supposed to lose, making the election look legitimate.

Mirlande Manigat can hardly be called right wing, she is a leftists, socialist…

Yet the bitter taste of the dismal elections could not diminish the joy of “the return.” As the plane carrying President Aristide and his family back from a seven-year forced exile in South Africa approached the Port au Prince airport on March 18, there were about 50 of us in the inner courtyard of his home. A day before, we had watched quietly as dozens of Haitians methodically painted walls, swept the same floors over and over again to make sure they were spotless, and fixed any last remnant of the destruction that took place at this house after the coup on Feb. 29, 2004.

The walls were painted Martelly Pink, by Martelly supporters – most of them ex-Lavalas people. Artistide insiders commented on the fact that “the walls were a lighter shade than that used by Martelly, and signified peace…” Aristide’s supporters couldn’t even maintain control of his residence.

We had heard that President Aristide – called Titid throughout Haiti – would arrive at the airport around noon, but we had gone to the house earlier to avoid the crush. I had come with a dear friend, Pierre Labossiere, representing the work of the Haiti Action Committee. We were both honored and overwhelmed to be there.

Rumors spread via cell phone: “He’s at the airport, making a speech.” “The car is coming.”  We heard a roar. “Lavalas” means “flash flood”: the flood of the poor, who can accomplish wonders when they feel their strength. Thousands were climbing over two sets of walls, rushing past security, engulfing the courtyard. Within minutes, the roofs and trees were filled. There was no room to move.

“Lavalas” means “flash flood”: the flood of the poor, who can accomplish wonders when they feel their strength. Thousands were climbing over two sets of walls, rushing past security, engulfing the courtyard. Within minutes, the roofs and trees were filled. There was no room to move.

What utter garbage! Few people at the airport! Few people en route!  A Preval sponsored mob at Tabarre that got out of hand and swarmed over the fence – in spite of tear gas volleys –  to pillage Aristide’s home. They stole every stick of furniture, purchased the previous Friday, swept the buffet clean, including food, knives, forks, spoons, plates, and tablecloths. Some were seen carrying the folding tables away.

Personal belongings of Aristide’s family and guests were carried off, including those of Danny Glover.

Aristide’s children were traumatized and moved to the Dominican Republic.

Total and complete chaos.

Aristide did not stay the night, in his home. He was with friends above Petionville on the Kenscoff Road.

Yet in the midst of total chaos, there was discipline and restraint. “Get off the roof,” someone shouted. “It’s Titid’s roof.” “Don’t damage the trees.” Then the singing and the chanting began. “We will not vote in the election. We have no candidate. Welcome back, Titid. Welcome back, schools. Welcome back, hope. Lavalas – we bend, but we do not break.”

The author is a liar, or was not there. Even then the criminal vandalism is there to be seen on U-Tube

I was standing next to a Haitian grass roots organizer and school director. Her school had been under attack since the coup, but she had persevered and kept up the work. She has been the heart of earthquake relief in her community. She had tears in her eyes. “I’ve been working in the movement since I was 15. I am so happy. So happy.”

We saw another friend, who had been imprisoned during the last terrible years of Duvalier and now lives in one of the internal refugee camps. We asked her, “Are you going into the house?” She said, “No, I can always see the president. It’s more important to hand out water to the people. They are so thirsty.”

More garbage as an excuse why no one greeted Aristide…”They were all somewhere else doing good work..”  Good psychological approach, but with not truth.

I could only imagine the reaction of the U.S. State Department, which tried so hard to stop this moment. President Barack Obama had made a last-minute call to President Zuma of South Africa demanding that he prevent the return until after the new round of presidential elections. What did he think of this scene? Was he even watching?

Actually the State Department was surprised at how few greeted Aristide at the airport. He came back, with Preval’s assistance, to derail the electoral process….and absolutely nothing happened. Aristide’s return was a non-event. Duvalier, on the other hand drew many, many, many more people to the airport upon his return as a private citizen, not a Diplomatic Passport carrying person from South Africa. Aristide made a lot over the passport issue. In actual fact, he could have had a passport at any moment, since his 2004 departure…but, he never asked for one. His last minute insistence on a Diplomatic Passport delayed things because there are certain statutory requirements.  His attorney, Ira Kurzban, told him a Diplomatic Passport might protect him from the many potential criminal actions that might be brought against him.

Finally, it was possible for some of us to get in the house. The people outside stayed and stayed, pressed against the windows – and then left, but not until cleaning the courtyard, picking up what had been dropped.

Sure, the guys pressing their noses against the windows, from outside – were prevented from entering by the lack of space as a rude and destructive mob pillaged Aristide’s home. The photo tells it all. Absolutely no respect for Titid, or whatever they call him.  People on the roof, on the balconies, in the rooms, tearing everything up and carrying it away like a swarm of locusts….!!

Mildred Aristide greeted us at the door. “Isn’t it beautiful out there?” she asked.

Mildred Aristide –  in videos – was a study in terror as a mass of sweaty, uncontrolled bodies…violated her space.

So many, in and outside of Haiti, had worked for this moment. Not because Aristide is a savior or can solve all the problems in Haiti. Not because his return will end cholera or bring the 1.5 million people out of those terrible earthquake camps. This was a basic issue of justice and self-determination. A democratically elected president had been illegally removed from office and banished from his homeland – and the majority of Haitians never accepted his removal. They wanted him home.

Aristide removed himself. He had the opportunity to be the greatest president in Haiti’s history, and failed miserably, TWICE. People were in love with his words (all false) and not the man.

Why? Under Lavalas administrations, more schools were built than in the entire history of Haiti. The government opened 20,000 adult literacy centers, prioritizing the education of women. Health clinics sprang up in remote rural areas. A powerful AIDS treatment and prevention program was launched. The hated military was disbanded. The minimum wage doubled.

More propaganda. Say something often enough, and it becomes true. More schools were not built under Aristide. The schools deteriorated and the literacy rate fell far below that existing under Jean Claude Duvalier. This process continued under Preval until the school system is a criminal farce. Hopefully Martelly will cure this flaw. The military was respected by the Haitian people, but was feared by Aristide as a threat to his creation of a one man, one party dictatorship.

The minimum wage was not doubled. In any event, Aristide created a lot of critically flawed economic problems by trying to force things that cannot be supported. Sure – he could triple…quadruple minimum wages, if Haiti as a closed economy. It isn’t. Haiti is part of the world and raising minimum wages simply lower the competitive advantage of Haitian labor and business…like The Gap, Disney…and others just go elsewhere and Haitians starve.

The classic example saw Aristide supporters, like Maxine Waters, have the American baseball leagues refuse to use baseballs…”created with the blood of Haitian workers..”  This resulted in the loss of 300 Haitian jobs, supporting 3,000 Haitians….as the business went to Costa Rico where the balls are made with the blood of Costa Ricans…and no one cares..

The tiny group of rich people who have run Haiti forever were actually asked to pay taxes – and, if they didn’t, their names were read over the radio. The Aristide administration demanded restitution from France for the $21.7 billion that France had extorted from Haiti as its price for Haiti’s abolition of slavery. With the first payment on this debt in 1830, Haiti had to close its public school system. Aristide raised the issue forcefully in 2003 and said that justice should be done.

Agreed, there are people at the top of the business community who are not controlled. In reality, they were the allies of Aristide, and paid him kick-backs to maintain the status quo. They, along with other crimes, were responsible for his $1.5 billion dollar fortune.

The French Reparation was a neat thought but was created by Aristide to draw attention from his government’s criminality and incompetence.

Slowly, even as the Bush administration blocked needed loans, financed an elite opposition and organized paramilitary operations against the government, Aristide was fulfilling his promise to move the nation from “misery to poverty with dignity.” It was a start, but an historic one.

At the Jan. 1, 2004, bicentennial celebrations of the Haitian Revolution, hundreds of thousands of Haitians filled Port au Prince with banners and flags celebrating the first Black republic, the only nation to successfully break the bonds of slavery, raising five fingers to demand that Aristide be able to serve his full five-year term. They were poor, they were Black and they knew that the movement they had fought so hard to build was under frontal attack.

This is not true. The anniversary celebrations were a total farce. Aristide tried to visit Gonaives, where the annual speech is given, and was prevented from doing so, by angry citizens. South Africa’s Mbeki was here and his helicopter was fired upon. Most Haitians refused to celebrate, with the traditional pumpkin soup, until Aristide was gone.

As reported in Randall Robinson’s book, “An Unbroken Agony,” his wife, Hazel Robinson, looked out at the crowd and commented on the power of the scene to the OAS ambassador sitting next to her. “Well, he does not have the support of the real people,” the OAS official responded. “He has 80 to 90 percent, but they’re not the ones that matter.”

Randall Robinson, and his wife, are paid Aristide apologists, who have received millions of dollars that would have been better used buying rice and beans for Haiti’s starving children.  For Robinson, and Aristide it was assumed the Haitian masses would sit there, forever, being pissed on by their leaders, without reaction. Well now,  they have reacted, now that there is an alternative, and voted Martelly into power.

For the U.S. government, these Haitians didn’t matter. Unable to manufacture an “uprising”  against Aristide, the United States took direct action on Feb. 29, swooping in special operations forces and kidnapping – yes, that is the word Haitians use to describe what happened – the president and his wife, Mildred, taking them on a long journey to the desolate French neo-colony of the Central African Republic. The long exile had begun.

Aristide is a master at phraseology: He created the term…”Geopolitical Kidnap”… to cover his failure in office. There was no kidnap. He could have stayed, but asked for an aircraft. The armed people with him, on the flight, were his white mercenary security detail, hired for $9,000,000 –  which would have bought a lot of rice and beans for starving kids. So unpopular was Aristide that he could not trsut Haitians to guard him. So he hired the Sterling Group from San Francisco. These were the men on the aircraft with him to South Africa.

Since Aristide returned, in 2011, he has been heavily guarded.

Duvalier, since his return, has one policeman, sitting on a chair in front of Duvalier’s residence.

Perhaps there is a message here for those who wish to think for themselves.

So many, in and outside of Haiti, had worked for this moment. Not because Aristide is a savior or can solve all the problems in Haiti. Not because his return will end cholera or bring the 1.5 million people out of those terrible earthquake camps. This was a basic issue of justice and self-determination. A democratically elected president had been illegally removed from office and banished from his homeland – and the majority of Haitians never accepted his removal. They wanted him home.

Actually the situation was brought about by South Africa’s desire to rid itself of Aristide. With Mbeki gone, the Zuma government wanted Aristide’s departure. America’s Treasury Department had been paying the bills, not the SA government.

Haiti solidarity activists denounced the coup. We demonstrated, educated and organized, attempting to counter the drumbeat of lies about Aristide, the myth of his “resignation,” the notion that “popular upheaval”  had overthrown him. We raised funds to support organizers who were now in grave danger. And we sent delegations to Haiti to learn from Haitians whose powerful voices had been silenced and dismissed on the international level.

What’s this great danger business? The only danger to Lavalas activists comes from their old associate Preval. No one else cares.

Visiting Haiti in late June of 2004, we watched as the United Nations force, MINUSTAH, headed by the government of Brazil, took over the military occupation of the country from the troops of the U.S., France and Canada. Now it was a multilateral operation, like Iraq, like Afghanistan – with the imprimatur of the United Nations. A “peacekeeping force,” we were told.

Yet the people we met said the U.N. soldiers were disrespectful and, at times, brutal –  blue helmeted soldiers pointing guns. We saw hundreds of political prisoners locked up in overcrowded cells with no water. We talked to people whose houses had been burned in the Central Plateau. We saw schools that had been destroyed, clinics ransacked, the Medical School at the Aristide Foundation taken over by U.N. troops and 247 medical students forced to flee their campus. And we saw demonstrations – small ones in such a dangerous time – demanding the release of political prisoners.

The MINUSTAH people are disrespectful and have killed Haitians. Having said that, MINUSTAH remains in Haiti only with the blessing of Aristide’s friend Rene Preval. There are no more political prisoners in jail now, than under Aristide. It should also be noted that the National Penitentiary held 456 prisoners, of all types, during a Red Cross investigation under Cedras. There must be another message here since the same building holds 4,000..many have never seen a magistrate and they have been locked up for 3 years.

Father Gerard Jean-Juste, a legendary fighter for human rights in Haiti, was still there, feeding children at his church in St. Claire. He told us, “I receive many death threats. But I will not leave Haiti. I left under Duvalier, but they will not force me out again.” He would later be arrested and beaten in a church, and then imprisoned – released only after developing the leukemia that would lead to his death in 2009.

At one stage, Gerard Jean Juste could not return to Florida, because of a warrant involving Statutory Rape. He was complicit in the kidnap and murder of journalist Jacques Roche and then had the nerve to force himself upon Roche’s funeral even after the dead man’s mother had asked him not to attend. Jean-Juste claimed to be a member of the family: He wasn’t.

Intelligence agencies have phone intercepts of calls from Miami in which he gave orders to kill Roche. So much for this man of God!!

From 2004-2006, MINUSTAH, in coordination with Haiti’s coup government, launched search and destroy to root out Lavalas bases in Port au Prince and the surrounding areas. According to a study published in The Lancet, over 8,000 deaths and 35,000 rapes – many thousands committed by security forces – occurred during this period.

Mob invades and pillage Aristide’s residence at Tabarre, stealing all of th new furniture, food from the buffet and personal beloingings of Aristide’s guests. Aristides two children were frightened by the out of control Lavalas of dangerous people.

A delegation from the San Francisco Bay Area was in Haiti right after one of those raids: 350 heavily armed U.N. Forces had attacked the pro-Lavalas shantytown of Cite Soleil. Sixty people were killed, houses were destroyed and bullet holes were everywhere. The delegation took pictures, interviewed residents and came home. They went directly to the offices of the The New York Times with all their documentation. But The Times would not take the story. The U.N. had told them it wasn’t true.

MINUSTAH attacked Cite Soleir and fired over 20,000 rounds of heavy ammunition, over a 7 hour period, in what they claimed to be an attempt to overcome a gang. Their fire was indiscriminate and didn’t affect the gang. It shredded the community and killed women and children. Aristide’s friend, Rene Preval, said nothing. He did, from time-to-time, entertain gang leaders at palace dinners. Rene Preval controls the Haitian gangs, as did Aristide.

The presidential election of 2006 was held under foreign military occupation. When Rene Preval, who had been a Lavalas president after Aristide, entered the campaign, the base of Lavalas swept him into office. They believed that Preval would bring back Aristide, would free the political prisoners, and develop new economic and social initiatives for the poor.

Lavalas did not sweep Preval into office. He had 23% of the vote and Brazil, with Chilean representatives of MINUSTAH declared him winner with 51% of the vote, to avoid a run-off. They were mspurred on with threats by Rene Momplaisir, an Aristide gang-leader, to the effect that, if Preval was not declared president he would burn Port-au-Prince. To show he meant this, Momplaisir put 1,000 mob people into the Montana Hotel where they ran through the corridors and flounced in the swimming pool.

MINUSTAH capitulated and another election was stolen.

Not much changed. Preval had developed strong ties to the United States and the U.N. He had no interest in bringing back Aristide and moved to deepen the structural adjustment programs – privatization of the telephone company, new contracts for elite import-export barons, reduced social investment – demanded by the international authorities and the Haitian elite. The price of rice and gas soared. There were more raids into Cite Soleil. The U.S. State Department proclaimed that Haiti was “more stable.”

When we returned to Haiti in 2007, many Lavalas organizers were through with Preval. They said it plainly: “He’s in the arms of the Americans, he does their bidding.” He had broken all communication with the base that elected him. Aristide had always talked to the people – and had always listened.

This is true. Preval listens  to no one and does nothing.

On the other hand, Aristide listened, and then did nothing.

I suppose there is some sort of psychological difference here.

During our visit, we spent days with Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, a psychologist, Lavalas leader and human rights activist. At a demonstration in front of U.N. headquarters, he spoke on a small bullhorn while French and U.S. military personnel took pictures of him and the other protestors. He called for a halt to privatization, an end to the U.N. occupation and the return of President Aristide. Two weeks later, Lovinsky was kidnapped and disappeared. Preval said nothing. The U.N. was silent. There was no investigation.

The Lovinsky Pierre situation, if people will think back, was a fight for control of Lavalas. We had Anne Auguste, Dr. Narcisse, and Lovinsky Pierre. Narcisse, if you recall, was kidnapped, then released after a few days. Lovinsky Pierre was killed and his body dumped near Fort Jacques where it was discovered by the Brazilians in February, the following year. His disappearance, and death was an internal Lavalas affair.

By 2009, the Preval government had lost any legitimacy among the poor in Haiti. As the cost of food spiraled upward, thousands of Haitians marched on the Presidential Palace. “Food riots,” the press called them.

Then the earthquake hit. We saw the terrifying images of destruction, the 300,000 dead, the unbearable conditions in the camps, the courage and dignity with which Haitians faced the impossible. Haiti touched hearts around the world. But a devastating Haitian tragedy presented opportunity for others. NGOs descended. Bill Clinton and George Bush announced a joint fund and visited the country. The U.S. took charge of the “reconstruction.”

Five months later, Haiti looked as if the quake had hit the day before. We met with people in two different camps. They spoke with urgency: “We have received no aid from the United Nations or the Red Cross since March.” “We need food.”  “We need work.” “The NGOs pay themselves and give us nothing.”  “Preval does not care for us.” “Bill Clinton is not our president.”  “Titid must come home.” The Aristide Foundationj, created in 1996 as a center for grass roots social, educational and economic development, was buzzing with activity. With no government or NGO assistance, the foundation was doing what it could: setting up mobile health clinics and schools in the refugee camps, training mental health workers to provide “relief for the spirit.”

Young educators and activists told us that their generation was “motivated,” that they would do anything for Haiti. Fifteen hundred people – three quarters of them women – packed into the foundation’s main auditorium for a “Democratic Debate.” Women in and out of the foundation had passed around a petition to Barack and Michelle Obama calling for Aristide’s return and, within days, 20,000 women had signed it. Ten thousand Haitians took to the streets in Port au Prince on July 15, Aristide’s birthday. The time had come.

Wow! We need rubber boots to avoid the manure here.  The media reported hundred. Let’s say there was a thousand.

Now Aristide has returned, in defiance of the United States – brought home by his people and a determined international campaign.

Aristide was brought home by a few. The majority, vast majority had already abandoned him for Martelly, in the weeks before the vote. We asked many people about Aristide and, with out exception, they had no further interest in the man.  Aristide returned, they believed, to ruin their chances at an election to relieve their misery.

The task is daunting. Barred from elections, Lavalas has no representatives in the legislature and will have no official power within the state. Partnering with the Haitian elite, the U.S. is setting up sweatshops in the Port au Prince area and preparing to dig up the country’s mineral wealth. Bill Clinton co-chairs an ongoing Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, sitting on over $10 billion. U.S. AID pours money into U.S.-based NGOs that pay more for staff than for projects.

Previous Lavalas supporters were supotive of Martelly. They now have a president who represents them, even though many didn’t have voter cards.  Bill Clinton should be removed from any Haitian involvement.

Let’s get away from the usual garbage about untold mineral wealth. We have some gold, a little copper and bauxite, in amounts that are not worth mining. The highlands have low grade coal deposits that could be compressed into charcoal as an energy replacement. There are some natural gas deposits that could be transformed into fertilizer.

There is nothing here that would make a large country lose face.

Thirteen thousand U.N. soldiers and police maintain a seemingly permanent foreign occupation. Cholera – introduced to Haiti by U.N. forces from Nepal – has spread. A Harvard-UCSF study now predicts 800,000 cases. Martelly plans to reestablish the military and sharpen the attack on Lavalas. And his compatriot, Duvalier, is there – a spectre haunting the country anew.

A legal action, in the World Court, should be launched against the UN for creating the cholera epidemic that will infect 1,000,000 by the end of 2011

Still, the return means so much. The fundamental goal of coups and counter-insurgency is to sever the connection between a popular movement and the people, to destroy even the belief that transformative social change is possible.

At Aristide’s house, in the streets of Port au Prince, it was clear that the coup and occupation have not been able to do this. Fueled by a hard-won victory, grass roots organizers – who have never stopped their work – have already taken heart. There will be powerful initiatives in education and health care and the steady incorporation of a new generation into a movement that has bent but not broken. And a trusted voice of the poor is now back, whatever may come.

In his speech at the airport, as he and his family re-touched Haitian soil, Aristide commented on the undemocratic and exclusionary elections. He focused on the need to include everyone in the life of the country: “Every Haitian without exception, because every person is a human being, so the vote of every person counts.”

Aristide’s comments about undemocratic and exclusionary elections were meant to derail the process until December when a constitutional amendment would give him another shot at the presidency. Instead, his arrival did absolutely nothing…ZIP!!

Aristide’s arrival was a non-event.

Other than the media presence, my arrival on American Airlines draws the same number of people to welcome: A handful.

Visiting friends and family in New York a short time after returning from Haiti, I had a chance to meet with Haitian community organizers in Brooklyn. I asked one woman, now an assistant teacher in a second grade class, why she had joined Lavalas. What struck her, she said, was Aristide’s slogan, “Tout moun se moun.” She translated it as, “Every one, each person counts.” And she said, “I am filled with joy that he is back home.”

Like I said, they fell in love with his words and he knew how to say the right thing. Unfortunately, on both occasions, he did not mirror his great phrases with great actions

Robert Roth is an educator and co-founder of the Haiti Action Committee. He is also on the board of the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund.