Demande de la levee de l'embargo sur les armes

Haiti wants 15-year-old US arms embargo lifted

Sat Sep 16, 2006 10:39 AM GMT

By Joseph Guyler Delva

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - Haiti's prime minister on Friday asked Washington to lift the 15-year-old arms embargo that bars the troubled Caribbean country from buying U.S. weapons for its ill-equipped police force.

Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis said the ban was hurting Haiti's ability to ensure the safety of its 8 million people.

"How can the police be effective if they cannot get the weapons and armament they need to carry out their difficult mission?" Alexis told Reuters. "That's why we have asked the U.S. to lift the embargo."

The embargo was imposed in 1991 after the Haitian military overthrew the government of then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It was aimed at preventing the Haitian army and thugs accused of gross human rights abuses from obtaining weapons from the U.S. market.

U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Janet Sanderson said the embargo is still in place, although in 2005 the United States authorized the Haitian government to conditionally buy a limited quantity of weapons.

But U.S. officials in Haiti have prevented the Haitian government from taking possession of those two shipments of weapons, which are piled up in a warehouse at the police academy in the Petion-Ville suburb of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

The U.S. government wants Haitian authorities to first comply with conditions set by the U.S. Congress when the decision was made to allow the shipments to the violence-torn and impoverished country.

The weapons were required to remain under the embassy's care," Sanderson told Reuters. "And those who would be allowed use those weapons should be vetted."

Many members of the Haitian police force, including some who served in the Haitian military, have been accused of human rights violations.

One warehoused shipment was donated by the United States to the interim government that preceded the current administration. The second was purchased by Aristide during his second term as president, but shipping was delayed to 2005 because of the unrest that forced out Aristide in 2004.

Haitian and U.S. authorities also disagreed over the U.S. policy of deporting Haitians who have served prison time in the United States, which Haiti considers a threat to its national security because it lacks the means to control them.

Although I understand the meaning of the embargo after the coup that ousted former President Jean bertrand Atistide in 1991,it is difficult for me to swallow this interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign country.

The government of the United States should not prevent the elected government of haiti to procure the arms necessary for its police force.One of the reasons of this second coup d'etat against Aristide is the smuggling of Columbian's cocaine through haiti to the United States.How could the police prevent these shipments of cocaine to reach the shores of the US if it is not equipped properly to fight the drug dealers and to protect the borders of Haiti?We are not talking of arms of mass destruction here.If the haitian government bought these weapons and paid for them ;I think they should have the right to use them.

As for the haitian criminals deported form the United States to Haiti.I think it is the responsibility of the haitian government to ensure that these morons do not perturb the tranquility and peace of the country.The United States government ,as a courtesy to the government of Haiti should inform the haitian police of the deportation of these criminals in order to take all the steps necessary to prevent these delinquants of commiting their evils deeds in haiti.

[......But U.S. officials in Haiti have prevented the Haitian government from taking possession of those two shipments of weapons, which are piled up in a warehouse at the police academy in the Petion-Ville suburb of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

The U.S. government wants Haitian authorities to first comply with conditions set by the U.S. Congress when the decision was made to allow the shipments to the violence-torn and impoverished country....]


i do not get this, we are a bunch of cowards!!!
did not we pay for these shipments?
how cowardly are we to let our bought equipments stored in our own military depots on the orders of a foreign guest.
fuck this current government!!!
they need permission to get their own bought weapons from a foreign dignitary!!
i am disgusted. i can understand if they are stored on a U.S NAVY SHIP, but in our own police station, but we have no access.

i am very upset to read this bullshit!!!!!
this is humiliating!!!!!!!!
and it disgusts me .
; and i am sorry for using profanities, i just could not control myself upon reading the cowardice of our government officials.

the only space integrity that the haitian authorities cannot violate is one officially occupied by the diplomats such as the ambassies, but the space at the police academy is not one of them.
it is both legitimately and symbolically the property of the haitian state, and on that basis alone, we do not have to ask permission to open up our cargos in our own police academy.
this situation reminds me of colonel paul, he would have taken his men and opened up this fucking cargo.
he may have been a drugdealer, but he has had more balls than all these fucking cowards combined.
I no longer respect this government!!!!!!

Nobody can't blame you .It is really disturbing to read this.I could understanf if the weapons were given to the haitian government.If they did not want the police to use them why did they send them in the first place?

You were rignt when you said that if you go to eat in someone's house everyday ,you should not be offended if he sends you to the supermarket as a domestic.Nobody will respect our sovereignty as long as we keep begging for charity every year.Even beggars have dignity,but it seems that the haitian politicians erased this word from their vocabulary.This is really indignant.

i have never been so upset in my life with regard to haitian politics.
i do not intend to sound sexist, but a woman from a different country( the american ambassador) is ordering haitian men, supposed descendants of dessalines and petion that they will not have access to cargos bought with haitian money, and stored in the backyard of a haitian police academy, legal property of the haitian state.
i have no respect for the prime-minsiter, he would have been a man of courage have he ordered his men to cut that lock off the storage in their own police academy and take possession of what is legally and morally theirs.
while police officers are outgunned by scumbags of all hues and political ideologies, our government does not have the courage to cut off that lock and take hold of the weapons.
there are no men with balls to go in the back of this police academy and claim what is rightfully ours??????

notre gouvernement est rempli de petits voyoux avec aucun sens de dignite humaine.
je suis fache contre ce gouvernment pour n'avoir pas agi courageusement dans cette situation.
je ne vais plus supporter ce gouvernement de laches.
je m'en fous si vous me censurez!!!!!!!!

Keen, you might be right on this issue, but you have to go beyond the cowardliness of the government to understand what we can get out from it. There is nothing to be proud of with this action, but it comes also from what the previous governments did. We are still under occupation even though we are allowed to control what seems to be of lesser importance in the country. Are we strong enough to force them to let us use the equipments? Shouldn't we compromise and use other means to hope having access to what we symbolically own? Who guard these equipments?