Paramilitarism and the assault on democracy in Haiti

Paramilitarism and the assault on democracy in Haiti

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/09/201293072613719320.html

Haiti's brutal paramilitary campaigns received scant media coverage, while "political violence" was decried at length.

The Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Haiti was instrumental in the 2004 coup d'état that deposed Aristide [EPA]

In the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti, certain media outlets painted a picture of a country overrun by looters and at the mercy of gang members and other criminals, including thousands of prisoners jolted free by the quake.

Relevant details were ignored, such as the contention by prominent Haitian human rights attorney Mario Joseph that 80 per cent of said prisoners had never been charged. The media effort perhaps aided in rendering less incongruous in the eyes of the international public the deployment of a sizeable US military force to deal with quake-affected people who did not seemingly require military attention.

A Reuters dispatch from one week after the disaster - which reported "marauding looters", "scavengers and looters swarm[ing] over damaged stores", "increasingly lawless streets" and "[h]eavily armed gang members" - offered the following plea from policeman Dorsainvil Robenson:

"Haiti needs help ... the Americans are welcome here. But where are they? We need them here on the street with us."

The whereabouts of the ever-elusive Americans are of course hinted at two paragraphs later, when we learn that "the White House said more than 11,000 US military personnel are on the ground, on ships offshore or en route". Elsewhere, French Co-operation Minister Alain Joyandet was quoted as commenting in reference to seemingly skewed US priorities: "This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti". As foreign military monopolised the Port-au-Prince airport, teams of paramedics and first responders were delayed in the critical hours immediately following the earthquake.

Subscribers to the fantasy that the US is somehow qualified to counteract violence and install order in the Caribbean nation would do well to peruse a new book entitled Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti, in which author Jeb Sprague masterfully documents - among other topics - the detrimental role of US and fellow international actors in Haitian history.

Offering new evidence obtained through interviews and a massive amount of formerly classified US government documents, the book clarifies how Haiti's post-quake reconstruction rests on a foundation of total impunity achieved by the country's most brutal paramilitaries and their financiers.

Legacy of violence

As Sprague notes, the US occupation of Haiti from 1915-1934 under "the pretext of possible German encroachment during the First World War… caused the deaths of an estimated 15,000 Haitians and saw the imposition of slave labour". It also imposed "a modern army, one that would continue the US occupation long after US troops were gone", functioning on behalf of the Haitian elite and their American counterparts. Observes Sprague: "The US occupation wedded the country’s future to North American business interests."

Later, during the reign of Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier in the 1960s, US Marines trained the dictator’s Tonton Macoutes paramilitary force, known for "leaving bodies of their victims hanging in public, a clear warning to anyone stepping out of line, most especially leftists, socialists and pro-democracy activists". Linked to the business elite and the military itself, the Macoutes were "vital for upholding a system based on severe inequality and class privilege".

Following the transfer of power to Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, a brutal counter-insurgency force known as the Leopards was trained and equipped "by former US marine instructors who were working through a company (Aerotrade, Inc and Aerotrade International, Inc) under contract with the CIA and signed off by the US Department of State".

Prior to becoming Haiti's first democratically elected president in early 1991, the young liberation theologian, Jean-Bertrand Aristide "denounced the historic role of the United States in founding, arming and training Haiti's military, which had been responsible for so much of the violence in Haitian history".

Sprague quotes Aristide: "They [the United States] set up the Haitian Army, they trained it to work against the people". Indeed, it would be difficult to argue that the army was working for the people by massacring citizens attempting to vote in 1987, or by overthrowing the newly elected Aristide in September 1991 and slaughtering his supporters.

Aristide's coup-inducing crimes included inviting street children and homeless persons to breakfast at the National Palace and endeavouring to raise the daily minimum wage from $1.76 to $2.94. As Joanne Landy wrote in the New York Times in 1994, the latter effort was "vigorously opposed by the US Agency for International Development because of the threat such an increase would pose to the 'business climate', particularly to American companies paying rock-bottom wages to workers in Haiti".



Aside from USAID, another relevant euphemism from the coup period was the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH), a paramilitary organisation intimately linked to the Haitian military that assumed the task of terrorising the non-elite masses under the military junta. "Internal US government documents reveal that FRAPH was founded in part at the behest of the US Defence Intelligence Agency," Sprague notes.

Recycling brutality

After years of brutality and corruption, the military dictatorship faced growing resistance at home and abroad. Aristide was thus reinserted in his lawful post in 1994 in exchange for, inter alia, committing to be more attentive to the needs of the US agriculture industry and drastically slashing tariffs on imported rice.

Upon reinstatement, he logically moved - with overwhelming public support - to disband the armed forces and the section chiefs (the hated rural constabulary). His government, and the elected governments that followed him, also gathered testimonials from thousands of victims of paramilitary violence and undertook judicial proceedings to prosecute military and paramilitary criminals.

However, as researcher Eirin Mobekk has critically pointed out and Sprague has underscored, "only the army as an institution was dissolved… In a country where the army had run political life for decades it was an illusion to think that its networks would disappear with the removal of uniforms and the use of its buildings for other purposes".

US contributions to the dissolution of the army included maneouvering to insert allied Haitian ex-military officials into what was supposed to be a civilian police force and eliminating officers seen as overly loyal to Aristide or less than enthusiastic about the coup. Some Haitian police officers were trained in the United States, where they were susceptible to overtures by the CIA, which also funded various FRAPH leaders and other paramilitaries.

Given the high level of impunity enjoyed by military and paramilitary members who had committed atrocities - not to mention US insistence on a full amnesty for the coup perpetrators - it is somewhat less than astonishing that Aristide's re-election in 2000 also culminated in a coup d'état. Instrumental in the overthrow was the Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Haiti (FLRN), which as Sprague explains was "led by renegade police officials who were from among the same ex-FAd'H [Haitian Armed Forces] pushed into the country’s new security force by the United States in the late 1990s".

Backed by some wealthy Haitians, neo-Duvalierists, sweatshop owners, and government and army officials from the neighbouring Dominican Republic (who didn't want Aristide's anti-military, pro-human rights rhetoric rubbing off on their own citizenry), the FLRN staged incursions into Haiti from Dominican territory with the ultimate goal of forcing the re-establishment of the Haitian army.

Of course, the sign of any good army is its ability to safeguard the domestic population, and these incursions provided the FLRN with an opportunity to showcase its skills - which it did by massacring and assaulting supporters of Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas party, often with sickening tactics. Citing formerly classified US embassy cables, Sprague uncovers how a small but powerful fifth column within the government was also working to undermine Aristide.

According to Sprague, it is likely that French and US intelligence facilitated the paramilitary insurgency in some way, while "the International Republican Institute (an organisation funded by the US government that promotes 'democratisation programmes' around the world) provided a forum through which the [Haitian] political opposition strengthened its ties with the paramilitaries".

As journalist Max Blumenthal has documented, the IRI benefitted in its underhanded dealings from the diplomacy of Roger Noriega, an Iran-Contra-era figure recycled into the Bush II administration along with his Cold War Manichean fantasies according to which Aristide and anyone else with less than extreme right-wing political convictions is a communist demon.

Sprague aptly comments that US' "knowledge that [sectors of] Haiti's 'business community' [were] strongly backing paramilitary terror underscores the cynicism of Washington’s constant demands that Aristide seek 'compromise' with his 'peaceful opponents'". In the end, the compromise consisted of Aristide's removal on a US military plane to the Central African Republic in 2004 and the installation of Gerard Latortue as head of state. The ensuing peace is recalled by historian Greg Grandin:

"During Latortue's brief stint in office, 2004 - 2006, Haiti experienced some 4,000 political murders, according to The Lancet - while hundreds of Fanmi Lavalas members, Aristide supporters, and social movement leaders were locked up - usually on bogus charges. Latortue's friends in Washington looked the other way."

Sprague, meanwhile, observes that "Bill Clinton's [former] policy of inserting a handful of ex-FAd’H criminals into Haiti's police force… was now put on steroids" and that "in 2004 -5 the United States and the UN oversaw the recycling of 400 ex-army paramilitaries into a revamped police force" - paving the way for yet more repetitions of history.

Media coups

Why is it that Haiti's brutal paramilitary campaigns received scant international press attention while quantitatively and qualitatively inferior political violence by a small number of Fanmi Lavalas supporters (which occurred in the context of clashes with the opposition) was decried at length?

Obviously, media coverage is shaped by geopolitical and financial interests, with the terms of events defined by the powerful. This is how, for example, terrorism conducted by the US and Israel becomes "counter-terrorism", "self-defence" and "democracy promotion" in the Western mainstream media.

Sprague documents how, in the case of Haiti, the press in the US, France, Canada and other locales undertook to demonise Aristide and rebrand the violent and unpopular uprising against him as non-violent and popular. As US-trained FLRN commander Guy Philippe remarked to journalist Isabel McDonald following the coup: "[The] international media, the media leaders helped us a lot. And thanks to them we were able to overthrow the dictator. And without them I don't think that we could have". "

Obviously, media coverage is shaped by geopolitical and financial interests, with the terms of events defined by the powerful."

In an essay for the London Review of Books, Paul Farmer describes how Aristide was made the scapegoat for crimes committed by the very people who overthrew him. Summarising Philippe's pre-coup history, which involved reincarnation as a police chief following the demobilisation of the military, Farmer writes:

"During his tenure, the UN International Civilian Mission learned, dozens of suspected gang members were summarily executed, most of them by police under the command of Philippe's deputy. The US embassy has also implicated Philippe in drug smuggling during his police career. Crimes committed in large part by ex-military policemen are often pinned on Aristide, even though he sought to prevent coup-happy human rights abusers from ending up in these posts." Farmer also noted that "Philippe has been quoted as saying that the man he most admires is Pinochet". The bloody legacy of the Chilean dictator offers a reminder of how helpful US-backed coups and violence can be when it comes to introducing neoliberal reforms.

After the second overthrow of Aristide, Sprague writes, the temporary regime set about "securing [Haiti] as a platform through which global capital could flow freely", in accordance with instructions from the IMF and other interested parties:

"The interim government laid off between eight and ten thousand civil sector workers, many from the poorest slums of Port-au-Prince. Other programmes under the Aristide government, such as subsidised rice for the poor, literacy centres and water supply projects, came to a halt following the coup d'état."

The long-fantasised-about mass privatisation of Haitian state assets, however, appeared more difficult to pull off - until, that is, the country was shattered by the 2010 earthquake and control over Haiti's energy, water and other sectors was divvied up between international players like the World Bank and USAID. The 2011 debut of singer-turned-head of state Michel Martelly, elected with the support of a mere 16.7 per cent of the electorate and described by former Financial Times journalist Matt Kennard as a "shock president" prepared to enforce economic shock therapy, seems to have set the stage for the conversion of Haiti into a neoliberal fairytale kingdom.

It is fitting that Martelly, whose presidential objectives include a resurrection of the Haitian armed forces rather than the pursuit of projects benefitting the majority of the nation's citizens, is himself a longtime close associate of Duvalier's paramilitary Tonton Macoutes.

Belen Fernandez is the author of The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work, released by Verso in 2011. She is a member of the Jacobian Magazine editorial board, and her articles have appeared in the London Review of Books blog, AlterNet and many other publications.

I am currently reading Jeb Sprague's excellent book. A must read for all those who are truly interested in understanding what went down in Haiti in the first decade of the 21st century and what is happening today in that land. Lots of revelations! The author interviewed the death squad leaders and obtained important information and insight from them.

If you've also read or are reading the book, let's share our impressions of it here on this thread...

JAF;

Mwen kòmande l lan AMAZON.COM
Liv sa a gen lè ap vann byen ;paske yo deja ap ofri dezyèm men.
Antouka moun ann AYITI yo se tankou y ap viv lan sa yo rele yon ""parallel universe''.Tout ""SEKRÈ"" deyò e ou tande lan radyo toujou y ap mande mesye LAVALAS yo pou yo fè eskiz;ou byen pou yo di yo te fè ERÈ.

Adye JAF ;Sanble menm mesye LAVALAS yo pa konnen sa ki ap di lan SEKTÈ PWOGRESIS AMERIKEN ak KANADYEN yo a pwopo de koudeta 2004 lan.
Sanble se sa ki ap di lan PRÈS FRANSE an ;yo kontinye ap li.
Si yo ta konnen ;le jou yon moun ta di yo fè èrè ankò ;se anraje pou yo ta mande anraje!

Paramilitarism in the Age of Democracy
http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/718.php
Michael Barker

In August 20, 2012, retired Colombian military general Mauricio Santoyo, former security chief for ex-president Alvaro Uribe, pled guilty to working with the right-wing paramilitary organization, the United Self Defence Forces of Colombia. In his plea agreement, Santoyo acknowledged accepting at least $5-million in bribes from the murderous, drug-running United Self Defence Forces between 2001 to 2008, that is, during the time he served as Uribe's anti-terror security tzar.

Such murderous double-dealing of course has real and murderous consequences, most of all, for Colombia's poor. A sordid tale of institutional violence that is examined in two recent book-length studies, Julie Mazzei's Death Squads or Self-Defense Forces? and Jasmin Hristov's Blood and Capital: The Paramilitarization of Colombia. Coinciding with these studies, another critical addition to this chilling literature is Jeb Sprague's Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti, released by Monthly Review Press in August of 2012.

Drawing upon first-hand interviews with both paramilitaries, elites and their victims, and with corroboration provided by thousands of U.S. State Department documents (obtained through Freedom of Information Act document requests), Sprague's incisive contribution to the historical record makes it all too clear how the U.S. government and a collection of local elites have consistently undermined democracy in Haiti – from the nineteenth century right through to the present day.

The Example of Aristide

For example, on the fateful day in February 1991 that Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a priest of the ti legiz (the small church in Haiti), became the first democratically elected president of Haiti, a coup sponsored in part by U.S. intelligence agencies was not far off on the horizon; in September 1991 no less. Proud supporters of Haiti's first democratically elected government however did all that was humanly possible to resist this attack on their sovereignty, and for their outstanding democratic commitment they were soon cut down in their thousands by well-financed Haitian death squads.

Mass resistance to elite rule evidently had to be violently extinguished, and with the close coordination of the CIA station chief in Port-au-Prince, a new paramilitary organization, the Front pour l’Avancement et le Progrès Haitien (FRAPH) was soon formed. This would become Haiti's leading death squad, reminding observers of the previous generations of paramilitaries (the Tonton Macoutes and the Attachés).

Sprague explains in the first chapter of his book how during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s a paramilitary apparatus had been deployed under the cold war Duvalier regime; the paramilitary force became a pervasive strata across the country – leaching off the poor and state resources. In many ways the most important achievement of Haiti's modern pro-democracy movement was in its campaign to undo this paramilitary apparatus and disband the country's military (which had over decades developed a symbiotic relationship with paramilitary forces in the country).

With well-armed enemies likes these, murders and massacres would remain a common occurrence for the Haitian populous, who in the face of such massive adversity persisted in their relentless bid for democracy. However, under such dire circumstances, Aristide's later return to politics and the at times problematic but still continual step forward achieved by the renewed Lavalas movement was sadly met with another U.S.-aided coup in February 2004. Even with all of the internal problems and contradictions it faced, the Fanmi Lavalas movement and government were important steps forward for the country – slow steps forward that were wiped out by the 2004 coup and destabilization campaign that occurred during the few years prior.

The ensuing anti-coup backlash led by Haiti's poor was then met by “a reinvigorated paramilitary campaign” to put down the “huge demonstrations and rallies” that were organized to demand the return of Aristide. A time rife with paramilitarism that is examined in blood-curdling detail by Sprague.

That Aristide was the people's choice was never in question. Even Fabiola Cordova, a program officer at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a U.S.-based group which at the time was funding numerous opposition-affiliated groups, acknowledged in 2005 that:

“Aristide really had 70% of the popular support and then the 120 other parties had the thirty per cent split in one hundred and twenty different ways, which is basically impossible to compete [with].”

Likewise, Sprague adds, that in the aftermath of the coup, even U.S. Embassy official Luis Moreno admitted that Aristide could easily have been re-elected if given a chance.

But democracy was not what Haitian elites, or their U.S. allies (like the NED) really had in mind for Haiti. Instead working closely together they have sought to create a political scenario that first and foremost served the interest of global capital. Thereby engineering a form of low-intensity democracy – with the help of paramilitary forces when needed – that firmly places economic before human needs. Sprague argues essentially that with the winding down of the cold war and the emergence of capitalist globalization, that paramilitaries could no longer be used in such a permanent way, but rather have increasingly been used off and on – at certain time periods going into hibernation and then being redeployed when required.

The Return of Duvalier

Vital for this continuing historical process of paramilitary violence has been the high level of impunity for paramilitary criminals and their backers, with even the most violent paramilitary bosses no longer facing justice after the 2004 coup (such as Louis Jodel Chamblain, who Sprague interviewed). This is further illustrated by the return of Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier to the country in 2010 and the failure of Haiti's judiciary to arrest him and put him on trial for his crimes against humanity.

As far as many from dominant groups were concerned, if the Haitian populous were adamant to resist the imposition of bourgeois leaders upon their polity, then they could just expect more death squads; that is, until they lowered their democratic aspirations suitably. Or as U.S. Ambassador to Haiti, James Foley, put it more diplomatically in one cable that Sprague obtained (dated July 12, 2004):

“It is equally plausible that Aristide succeeded in permanently raising the political and social consciousness (not to mention the expectations) of Haiti's disadvantaged masses, and thus created a force which the next generation of political leaders will either have to placate or manipulate.”

Political manipulation, occurring through groups like the NED and their subsidiaries (like the International Republican Institute - IRI) is regarded as a strategic priority by the U.S. foreign policy making establishment. In one rare excellent piece published by the New York Times has shown how the IRI, during the months and years leading up to the 2004 coup, facilitated conferences in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic where Haitian elites from the political opposition to Lavalas met with the leadership of the paramilitaries.

While 'democratic' carrots have always come before the application of the paramilitary stick, paramilitary violence has played an important role in attempting to retard the majority's democratic temper. Haiti's disadvantaged masses evidently conscious of their own political interests, have seen through the lies of elite driven political parties – a major reason for the continual use of paramilitary violence against them.

Documenting the Violence

Sprague's exhaustive study thus fulfils a vital role by providing the necessary documentation to demonstrate exactly how such violence has been deployed time and again by ruling elites (both Haitian and foreign) in their ongoing efforts to crush popular or left-leaning democracy.

Sprague's book is also important because of the detail it provides on the local social conflict within Haiti, and it is really the first major study to delve deeply into the covert role of some state elites in the Dominican government in backing Haitian paramilitaries. The Dominican Republic is the only country bordering Haiti, with both country's on the island of Hispaniola. With xenophobia against Haitian migrants a long-standing trope of the Dominican Republic's class system, most Dominicans likely know little of the role that their government has played in backing violent paramilitary groups.

Similarly, despite the central-role played by the U.S. government in Haiti (or perhaps because of it's role), for many North American readers, most of Sprague's story of grotesque state violence will come as a shocking revelation. Here many from the mass media are as much to blame as some corporatized human rights organizations (like Human Rights Watch) of whom Sprague takes to task for ignoring major human rights abuses targeting Haiti's excluded poor majority.

For instance, in the United States mainstream reporting on Haiti, during the time period Sprague studied, often inverted the true narrative. And on those rare occasions when accurate articles were published which threatened elite-driven fairy tales – which take glee in recounting Aristide's supposed legacy of violence – powerful gatekeepers often quickly stepped in to stop their uptake. Here it is valuable to think of Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman's propaganda model showing how business media continually propel dominant elite narratives.

Here Sprague writes that New York Times journalist Walt Bogdanich explained to him that in all his decades working as a reporter he had never received such a strong and negative response from powerful figures as he did for the article he published on the role of the International Republican Institute in destabilizing Haiti's democracy.

Sprague also points out that between October 17, 2000, and February 5, 2004, the Associated Press carried 680 articles that were mainly about Haiti: “Only ten articles covered the role of paramilitaries...” Moreover, he continues, while the Associated Press categorically “failed to report on the extent to which Haitian elites were backing the paramilitaries or that Dominican government officials were hosting them, other corporate media rehashed the obfuscations and excuses provided by elites and foreign government officials.”

Lessons must always be learned from history. Which is precisely why Sprague's book is a must-read for all those who wish to learn how local and transnational elites, and powerful sectors from state apparatuses such as the U.S. government connive to crush democratic movements for social change. •

Michael Barker has been writing for alternative media outlets since 2006, and at present is a regular contributor to Swans Commentary. His work has been published by many media organizations, including Corporate Watch (UK), Countercurrents, CounterPunch, Green Left Weekly, and Znet. He is a contributor to Corporate Watch's forthcoming book Managing Democracy, Managing Dissent: Capitalism, Democracy and the Organisation of Consent. He maintains a blog at michaeljamesbarker.wordpress.com.

Sunday November 11, 2012 at 7 pm tune in to www.ckcufm.com. Author Jeb Sprague will offer us a live interview on Rendez-Haitien.

Jaf

JAF;

Mwen kòmanse li liv lan;depi lan ENTRODIKSYON an lè misye ap bay kont randi ENTÈVYOU li te fè ak JODEL CHAMBLAIN an ;entèvyou ke li te fè lan OTÈL IBO LELE e ki te dire 2 zè de tan .Se bagay ki pou ba w chè de poul.

An menm tan tou ,yo pale de yon liv ke MILDRED TROUILLOT ARISTIDE ekri.Non liv sa a se""L'ENFANT EN DOMESTICITÉ EN HAITI,PRODUIT D'UN FOSSÉ HISTORIQUE""
Ou konn ki kote moun ka jwenn liv sa a?
Mwen tcheke AMAZON;mwen pa wè li!

Mwen lan paj 13 liv lan ;kote yon sosyolijis ki rele WILLIAM I. ROBINSON vini ak yon nouvo mo ke misye rele ""POLYARCHY""
""POLYARCHY is a tactic in which democracy is formally promoted by dominant social groups but limited by them to narrow institutional boundaries to a system in which a small sliver of society rules.
When the tactic of POLYARCHY fails,PARAMILITARISM AND OTHER FORMS OF COERCION SERVE AS A BACKUP OPTION FOR DOMINANT GROUPS ""


Mwen di,WIFOUT,KOUMANMAN!

Mwen wè liv MILDRED ARISTIDE lan sou AMAZON.COM;men tou menm liv ki ize yo se 95$;siman paske se ""LIMITED EDITION"".

Mwen t ap li tou yon kontrandi lan sa yo rele ""CLINTON TAPES"" yo sou negosyasyon ARISTIDE t ap fè ak gouvènman AMERIKEN an.
Se MILDRED ARISTIDE ki t ap kondwi negosyasyon yo .Madanm sa a gen ""brenn"" wi ;pa gen dout ke li t ap prezidan si li pa t sitwayen ameriken!
Antouka ,li ka jwe wòl pou FANMI LAVALAS ;menm jan ke madan GHANDI ap jwe pou pati ki sou pouvwa ann END lan.SONIA GHANDI ,se te yon sitwayen ITALYEN ;li te fèt ann ITALI ;ou byen madan CHEDDI YAGAN lan GIYÀN,
Peyi sa yo pa entèdi sitwayen lòt peyi vin PREMYE MINIS;
Kanta SONIA GHANDI menm ,yo te ofri l pòs premye minis lan ;se limenm ki refize!

Apa nèg sa yo sòti pou bay moun kk poul pou ze? Pou ti nèg vle fè moun konprann ke Lavalas se "viktim"? Mezanmi, mwen pa di ke Ayiti pa genyen moun ki kont demokrasi menm jan ak tout lòt peyi sou latè, men retire bizango lavalas yo nan gwoup fòs fè nwa sa yo se yon ensilt pou peyi an.

Nan definisyon "Polyarchy" an, otè an itilize "dominant social groups", mwen panse ke otè an fè move chwa mo nan sans saa. Li te dwe mete plito: "Dominant POLITICAL Groups".

Se pa sa ke nou rele "boujwa" yo an Ayiti ki vle ke se sèlman yo menm ki pou kontwole "demokrasi". Duvalier ak Aristide pa t sòti nan klas sosyal dominan yo, epoutan, definisyon sa "Polyachy" an sanble ak taktik yo tankou 2 gout dlo. Duvalier te genyen MAKOUT, Aristide te genyen CHIMè.

THUNDER;
Sa w ize kòm ""DEFAULT RESPONSE"" ou an ,pa de miz ankò.
JEFF SPRAGUE lan liv li an eksplike ak anpil detay kouman POLYARCHY an fonksyone ann AYITI.Se pa boujwazi tradisyonèl lan sèlman.
Se yon maryaj gwoup dominan.
Pa egzanp eske w tande lan radyo yo ann AYITI kritik kont gwoup paramilitè yo?
Tankou JEFF SPRAGUE eksplike ,mesye sa yo an rezèv;gen de fwa se gouvènman ameriken an ki konn debarase peyi yo de yo;tankou CIA te fè sa an DOMINIKANI,lè EISHENOWER te vle debarase l de gwoup TOUYADÒ TRUJILLO yo.
Sa yo te fè ,yo te sasinen TRUJILLO pou kòmanse men tou apre sa yo te ralanti yo te bay mesye yo kat blanch yo te kite BALAGUER fin fè travay lan.
SPRAGUE dekri yon epizòd kote NIXON te rankontre ak BALAGUER .NIXON di misye pou l ralanti lan represyon an ,men BALAGUER ki konnen yo pa t ap rale zòrèy li di NIXON ke li pa di NIXON kòman pou l dirije peyi l ;pa vin di l kouman pou l dirije peyi pa l.

THUNDER;
Mwen ta renmen w li liv sa a ;w ap wè ke gen yon POLYARCHY ann AYITI.Men tou yon POLYARCHY mande tèlman yon maryaj konvenyans ,ke li frajil .

Liv lan ekstrèman byendokimante.Gen yon OFISYÈL lan gouvènman ARISTIDE lan ki te an kontak ak CIA ki te konn bali entelijans sou trafik dwòg lan.
Pandan koudeta a ,lan mwa DESANM konsa ,ofisyèl lan te rankontre ak seksyon chèf CIA a ki te DONALD PERRY.
Misye te plede ap di ke FADH yo pa gen firepower ,ke zam yo pa t mache ,de bagay konsa.
Sa l t ap fè ,se te ankouraje mesye ARISTIDE yo lan REZISTANS AME pou yo kraze yo pi byen.
Yo t ap tou di ke se pa t yon KOUDETA e lè y ap touye moun ,se LAME an ki t ap kraze yon REZISTANS AME an menm tan tou yo t ap lib pou yo bay LAME an gwo ,gwo zam ;pi gwo zam.
Se konsa ELLIOT ABRAMS opere .Se konsa li te kraze mouvman popilè an ,lan SALVADOR.Anvan te vin gen la pè ,te gen anviwon 75 mil moun ki te mouri ,lan yon ti peyi ki gen mwatye popilasyon AYITI an.

MEZANMI ,SWIV KONSÈY JAF LAN ,ACHTE LIV LAN ;N AP APRANN,ANPIL ,ANPIL BAGAY
Liv lan gen 400 PAJ ak ANPIL ANPIL DOKIMANTASYON sou èvènman ki sot pase lan 20 dènye lanne ann AYITI yo!

Joel,

An antann nou, tout moun konnen ki kote ke Sprague kanpe. Wou pa swiv ke misye se yon sèl bò "story" ke li toujou bay. Ann pran ekzanp Ayiti an, li toujou choute sou sa ke li rele "paramilitaries" yo, men mwen pa wè yon kote ke li pale de LAME KANIBAL, LAME RWOUJ, KOMIKS, BALE WOUZE, DOMI NAN BWA etc... Li pale de represyon anvan e apre rejim Lavalas yo kòmkwa sou Lavalas se te "milk and honey".

Misye wè bagay ak yon grenn zye. Mwen pa janm ka pran moun konsa kòm gid. Yon bon repòtaj se sa ki sonnen tout klòch ki nan chapèl lan. Se pa sèl makout ak FRAPH ki koule san nan peyi an, chimè lavalas pa t chich pou sa nonpli.

For those who are still confused about the reasons why the Haiti-based ultranational economic mafia, the Tonton Macoutes and their international allies: the white supremacist and imperialist forces standing against Haiti's struggle for self-determination and true democracy are all uncomfortable with educated, well-centered, nationalist leadership in Haiti, I propose this spontaneous interview by one of Haiti's most beautiful daughters. This black woman, whose courage and intelligence is so evident, must indeed scare the hell out of all anti-Haitian racists and other types of idiots:


“We’re about to step on ground made hallow by the Haitian revolution and all the progressive movements by the Haitian people,” says former Haitian First Lady Mildred Aristide, minutes from landing in Haiti after seven years in exile in South Africa. In a Democracy Now! exclusive interview, she says, “As a priest, as an educator, when he was president, and now as he will return to education, [Aristide will] continue to be a person that always, always, always withstands.”

Read and see more on Democray Now

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/22/former_first_lady_mildred_aristide_on )
[includes rush transcript]

JAF;
Se kounye an m ap aprann de kokennchenn fanm sa a.Ann AYITI a kòz de sikonstans ,li gade yon ""low profile"".
Mwen te li yon entèvyou ak madan C.L.R JAMES ;gran entelektyèl TRINIDADYEN (defen) ki te ekri liv ""seminal"" sou revolisyon AYISYEN an ""THE BLACK JACOBINS"" se bagay pozitif sèlman li t ap di sou manmzèl.
Li te gen relasyon ak tout gwo entelektyèl lan DYASPORA a ,ak lan kontinan an ;lè li t ap edite REVI ""AFRICAN RENAISSANCE "";think tank THABO MBEKI an.
Anpil lan mesyedam sa yo ,depi y ap ekri yon liv sou AYITI ;yo mande l pou l ekri 2 MO pou yo.
Sanble se yon FANM EKSTRAWÒDINÈ wi ;se domaj KONSTITISYON pa p pèmèt li jwe yon gran WÒL ,jan l ta dwe jwe l lan ,lan peyi DAYITI an!

Tout moun konnen kote SPRAGUE kanpe ?Agiman kote KRIM KOUDETAYIS yo se an reyaksyon ak sa rejim yo jete yo te fè ,fèt patou lan AMERIK LATIN lan ;men tou yo voye yo jete tou patou tou ;eksepte ann AYITI ke NÈG kontinye ap fè yo.
Ann AYITI gen 2 rezon ke yo kontinye ak AGIMAN sa yo.Eleman lan ""POLYARCHY"" an kontwole PRÈS lan e POLYARCHY an toujou ka itilize ZAM ""PARAMILITARIES"" yo si gen moun ta vle devye.

Lè gen moun ki ap AZADE yo fè konparezon ant mesye ARISTIDE yo ak KOUDETAYIS yo ;li sa SPRAGUE di lan PAJ 63 ,lan liv li an:

Large anti-coup protests began immediately.According to a fact-finding report by former U.S Attorney-General RAMSEY CLARK ""Haiti Commission of Inquiry in the September 30 Coup d'Etat"",the dreaded MICHEL FRANÇOIS drove a red Jeep leading several buses full of soldiers into large crowds demonstrating against the coup on the Champ de Mars in front of the National Palace on the night of September 30,1991
The crowds applauded the soldiers thinking they had come to put down the coup.Instead on François's signal the bus windows opened and then police and soldiers mowed down HUNDREDS OF DEMONSTRATORS WITH MACHINE GUNS.

AN OFFICIAL FROM THE U.S CONSULATE told the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights ""that each time he went to the Central MORGUE it was full to its capacity of 200 ,and MOST OF THE BODIES HAD BULLET WOUNDS

ADYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Krèk ti bèt!

Tou dabò, te genyen moun ki te mouri devan palè vre, men zafè "HUNDREDS" lan se aplikasyon "taux d'échanje" Lavalas ki toujou mete yon chif anplis lè se pou mete pou lènmi yo kòm dabitid. Anplis, wou fenk konsolide sa ke mwen ta p di de Sprague lan. Li pale de masak an 1991, men li pa di anyen pou masak nan Gonaives an 2003, nan Pòtoprens nan dat 1er Janvye 2004, Nan Lasiri an Fevriye 2004, sou Chanmas an Mars 2004 ...elatriye.

Si li konnen sa k ap pase an Ayiti konsa, li pa fouti di ke li pa tande masak Lavalas yo tou. Alò se lè se makout ak militè k ap koupe rache ke se MOUN y ap manje? Lè se bizango lavalas k ap detripe se DWA yo ke y ap defann?

Pou m fini se ke m ap di w ke Lavalas fè pati de "POLYARCHY" an e Chimè Lavalas fè pati de "PARAMILITARIES" yo. Kisa ke FRAPH te konn fè ke san manman lavalas yo pa konn fè?

Joel,

Gen yon limit mwen refize rive nan akomodman rezonab pou kominike ak Makout. Imajine ou, nan liv Jeb Sprague la, ou ka remake kijan misye metodik e li verifye enfomasyon yo anvan li pibliye yo. Misye klè, se pa yon tradisyonalis li ye. Li pa fè enstitisyon tankou DE, FBI konfyans otomatikman, jan anpil zonbi nan mitan nou fè sa. Li konnen machin enperyalis la gen zouti pisan pou li monte manti. Se poutèt sa gen yon pil pwopagann ki t ap sikile nan finisman ane 2003 ou pap jwenn misye pran yo oserye.

Mwenmenm mwen te Ayiti e mwen te kwaze a manifestasyon GNBis sou Dèlma ak Andre Apaid ki te gen yon ti gwoup enbesil ki t ap mache dèyè li. Manifestasyon sa yo te vin pran fos, paske gen anpil lajan ki te depanse e, tankou detay yo komanse ap parèt gen plizyè bacha anwo tèt mon nan ki te envesti lajan pou bati gang nan Site Solèy. Yo vin akselere pwogram distribisyon zàm epi itilizasyon gang yo pi rèd apre Coup-Kidnapping lan.

Pou yon nèg ap oze pale osijè 1 janvye 2004 kote GNBis kraze brize. Mwenmenm ak pwop je m mwen wè otobis piblik yo boule nan kafou Nazon. Sou wout pou nou ale Gonayiv, sa mwen wè. Yo tire sou otobis ofisyèl...epi zot ap pran poz otorite lejitim yo se yomenm ki te gen tO. Gen yon nivo odas, menm Osner Févry pa genyen li. Si ou t ap tande ranmase maten an sou Caraibes, ou va remake menm Makout sa a admèt yo te ekzajere 1 janvye 2004 e li menm mande pèp Ayisyen padon.

Ki fè ou remake ak ki nivo makout ou annafèsou fowom nan laa! Févry pa ka wè la!

WI JAF;
Se preske enposib pou 3 BIS chaje ak SOLDA louvri ZAM otomatik sou yon FOUL pou pa gen de SANTÈN ki mouri.Ta ka gen de MILYE.
Si w konn gade ""NEWSREEL"" sou 2zyèm gè mondyal sou kanpay AMERIKEN yo lan PASIFIK lan .Yo te konn rele yo ""BANZAI CHARGE""
Solda JAPONÈ yo lan yon gwoup 2 ou 3 MIL konn chaje pozisyon AMERIKEN yo ;lan yon espas 3,4 minit konsa pa gen youn ki kanpe.
Kameramann AMERIKEN an konn rekòde EPIZÒD sa yo ,dokimante yo.Yo te konn fè sa depi premye gè mondyal lan ,Angle yo te konn fè sa.
Menm si te gen 8 a 10 SOLDA ki ta ouvri ak zam otomatik sou yon foul san zam E SITOU KI PA T ESPERE SA ;t ap gen de santèn de MÒ.
3 BIS SOLDA AK ZAM OTOMATIK KI LOUVRI SOU YON FOUL SAN ZAM?

ADYE!
ADYE!
ADYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Epitou ;
Mwen pa janm wè yon liv gen REFERANS konsa .Depi lan PAJ 304 rive jis lan PAJ 388 se referans ,kwòs-referans.Se tankou yon TÈZ DOKTORA ,lè ,se pou w pwouve sa w vle di an.
Depi jan KÒ MAKOUT lan te fòme ;lè misye te entèwoje pitit Nèg DEPATMAN DETA a ki te ede OGANIZE kò sa a.Yon Nèg yo rele ASTON.
Gen anpil GNBis ki ap ""jape"" sou SÈN lan jounen jodi an ;SPRAGUE mete pou yo tou ;de ansyen wo GRADE ki gen pati POLITIK e ki jounen jodi an ,te gen tan se DEMOKRAT ;men se DEMON-KRAT yo ye!

Se lontan ke Makout se te jouman, anvan ke bizango lavalas yo te pase sou pouvwa a e fè an 10 lane sa ke makout pa t arive fè nan 30 lane. Men, fanatik yo vle fè moun konprann ke se makout ki fè peyi saa mal sèlman. Si genyen gwayil ki konprann ke si moun mande pou Sprague sonnen tout klòch pou li ka balanse se tradisyonalis ke moun sa yo ye, ebyen, pa genyen anyen moun ka fè pou lavalas tèt nan fouk sa yo.

Anplis, mwen remake ke menm lavalas sa yo di ke se lajan ak pwopagann ki te mete pèp lan nan lari nan fen 2003 ak kòmansman 2004 menm anba bal asasen ke PARAMILITARIES LAVALAS t ap tire sou yo. Men, lè menm pèp saa t ap rele "Viv Aristide", se te dwa yo ke yo t ap defann. Jiska prezan, mwen pa ka konnen ki posyon ke Aristide bay jan de nèg sa yo bwè. Pou yon moun pa wont fè figi l plat nan yon eta parèy pou l ekri ke se manifestasyon GNB ki t ap fè dezòd 1er Janvye 2004? Pandan ke se yo ki te tonbe anba bal ke makak Aristide yo t ap tire. Pa w lan se pa odas ke li ye ankò, saa pa ko genyen mo ki pou dekrive jan de eta dam saa.

Joel,

Se pa nonb de referans ki konte nan yon liv ki fè ke liv saa balanse. Se type de sous ki itilize yo pou w evalye. Si yon liv sou ekzistan Bondye site enfòmasyon ke l pran nan men moun ki relijye sèlman, san pran ankonsiderasyon pwen atheists yo, e flanke 1000 paj de referans, eske wou menm Joel ap di ke liv sa "BYEN DOKIMANTE"?

Si se yon zèv pou pwopagann ak pou Conspiracy Theorists regale yo lè yo bezwen bafwe moun, wou ka di ke li "byen dokimante" liberalman e lavalaseman. Men, si se yon ANALIZ sou problèm politik ak sosyo-ekonomik ke Ayiti ap konfwonte ke liv saa ye, Sprague foure dwèt nan pwòp zye pa l rive jis nan omoplat li.

I filmed these women in downtown Port-au-Prince on January 20, 2004.

Their organization FAVILEK, walked the streets to demand that the U.S., Canada, and Europe -backed opposition forces stop the practice of forcing public school closings as a tactic to overthrow the popular Government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.


"they force schools attended by poor people's children to close, while their own children continue to benefit education in fancy universities abroad".


Indeed, inside Port-au-Prince itself, I witnessed how most shools were closed while, for instance, a private school (near Delmas 75) was attended on that day by white looking children. Perhaps, they include those of the foreign diplomats and rich Haitians who openly demonstrated (the diplomats included!) for the overthrow of the Aristide government?


This demo, as many others I had the privilege to film in Haiti counter the racist and classist myth propagated in maintream media that President Aristide's support base consist of a bunch of violent thugs. The term "bandit" used prominently to dehumanize Haitian resistance during the 1915 U.S. invasion resurfaced, alongside "chimère", during the 2004 coup period.

This is a video from what really happened in Haiti to kicked out Jean Bertrand Aristide.


NOU PAKA BAFWE TOUT MOUN NAN PEYI AN POU TOUT TAN

Tout sa w ap di yo se rans.
Pa ta ka gen kèk grenn moun sèlman ki mouri sou CHANNMAS lè 3 BIS chaje ak MILITÈ ta louvri ZAM OTOMATIK sou yon FOUL.
Pa gen anyen ki 100%100.Tout bagay se PWOBABILITE .
Pwobabilite ke ta gen omwens 100 moun ki te mouri lè sa ;omwens a 99%
E mòd nou sa se chache ekivalans ;nou te plede ap blayi moun ;preske tout moun eksepte noumenm te dakò ke se te yon verite pandan ke noumenm n ap mande EKIVALANS.
M ap di nou preske tout peyi ki te gen rejim menm jan ak pa nou yo pa pran lan trap sa a ;lè tout kakachat ka met deyò ;yo mete NÈG anba kòd.
Priye pou nou toujou gen kontwòl PRÈS lan toujou e ""PARAMILITARIES"" yo toujou la ap veye.Pou konbyen tan ankò mwen pa konnen ,men pwobabilite an se sa k pase lan rès AMERIK LATIN lan se sa k ap rive ann AYITI tou!

M ap mande w menm bagay lan:

Se pa nonb de referans ki konte nan yon liv ki fè ke liv saa balanse. Se type de sous ki itilize yo pou w evalye. Si yon liv sou ekzistan Bondye site enfòmasyon ke l pran nan men moun ki relijye sèlman, san pran ankonsiderasyon pwen atheists yo, e flanke 1000 paj de referans, eske wou menm Joel ap di ke liv sa "BYEN DOKIMANTE"?

Si se yon zèv pou pwopagann ak pou Conspiracy Theorists regale yo lè yo bezwen bafwe moun, wou ka di ke li "byen dokimante" liberalman e lavalaseman. Men, si se yon ANALIZ sou problèm politik ak sosyo-ekonomik ke Ayiti ap konfwonte ke liv saa ye, Sprague foure dwèt nan pwòp zye pa l rive jis nan omoplat li.

Anvan ke w di se rans, wou ta dwe genyen desans pou w reponn ak tout franchiz.

Tonight 7 pm Jafrikayiti interviews author Jeb Sprague on www.ckcufm.com

To ask Jeb Sprague your question dial:

Montreal: (438) 807-2397
Ottawa: (613) 454-8206
Etazini: (305) 677-1992