A Very Canadian Coup d'Etat in Haiti

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 ten ways in which our government contributed to this major travesty of justice in Haiti.'

Read more...

Growing Protests As UN Attacks Haitian Refugee Camp

Last week, the United Nations peacekeeping mission fired tear gas and rubber bullets into a crowded refugee camp, leaving at least six hospitalized and others suffering respiratory problems. Citizen organizations plan demonstrations for today, the sixth anniversary of the U.N. armed presence in Haiti. The march is part of growing protests against the military forces which have amassed in Haiti since the January 12 earthquake and the lack of attention to displaced people’s needs.'

Read more...

The Killings at Les Cayes Prison of Unarmed Inmates

"On Jan. 19, after the prison was calmed, a United Nations officer took pictures inside the compound. Those photographs, closely guarded by the United Nations, appear to be the only documentary evidence of the killings.

They show bodies in the prison yard and bodies in cells, according to three people who have viewed them. Several bodies bear multiple gunshot wounds. The images are gruesome, said Mr. Geiger, the American contractor working in Haiti on a justice reform project.'

Read more...

Haitian Farmers Commit to Burning Monsanto Hybrid Seeds

“A new earthquake” is what peasant farmer leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) called the news that Monsanto will be donating 60,000 seed sacks (475 tons) of hybrid corn seeds and vegetable seeds, some of them treated with highly toxic pesticides. The MPP has committed to burning Monsanto’s seeds, and has called for a march to protest the corporation’s presence in Haiti on June 4, for World Environment Day.'

Read more...

A New Earthquake Hits Haiti -- Monsanto's Deadly Gift of 475 Tonnes of Genetically-Modified Seeds to Haitian Farmers

Haiti's earthquake on 12 January this year has been a lucky business break for some. The transnational firm Monsanto is offering the country's farmers a deadly gift of 475 tonnes of genetically-modified (GM) seeds, along with associated fertiliser and pesticides, which will be handed out free by the WINNER project, with the backing of the US embassy in Haiti. Do Haitians know Monsanto made the "Agent Orange" defoliant sprayed over Vietnam by US planes during the war there, poisoning both US soldiers and Vietnamese civilians?

Do Haitians know that these GM seeds have been declared dangerous by many countries? They often come in kits along with a Monsanto herbicide called "Roundup," which contains glyphosate. In my native Brittany, it has already polluted the water table. But Monsanto insists its product is biodegradable. It is being sued for this by anti-frauid officials in Lyon.'

Read more...

For $10 Billion of 'Promises' Haiti Surrenders its Sovereignty

It was fitting that the Mar. 31 "International Donors Conference Towards a New Future for Haiti" was held in the Trusteeship Council at the United Nations headquarters in New York. At the event, Haitian President René Préval in effect turned over the keys to Haiti to a consortium of foreign banks and governments, which will decide how (to use the conference's principal slogan) to "build back better" the country devastated by the Jan. 12 earthquake.

This "better" Haiti envisions some 25,000 farmers providing Coca-Cola with mangos for a new Odwalla brand drink, 100,000 workers assembling clothing and electronics for the U.S. market in sweatshops under HOPE II legislation, and thousands more finding jobs as guides, waiters, cleaners and drivers when Haiti becomes a new tourist destination.'

Read more...

U.S. Takeover of Haiti: The Centerpieces of the US, UN, and World Bank Plan for Haiti are Sweatshops and Tourisim

When this article appears on the morning of March 31, the much ballyhooed “International Donors Conference Towards a New Future for Haiti” will be getting underway at UN Headquarters in Manhattan.

While demonstrators in the street outside protest the continuing US and UN military occupation of Haiti, now over six years old, and the Haitian people’s exclusion from deliberations on the country’s reconstruction, dignitaries inside like UN Special Envoy to Haiti Bill Clinton, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and Haitian President René Préval will unveil a plan with lots of pomp and ceremony but which boils down to just one thing: Washington’s take-over of the “new” Haiti.

Hyperbole? Unfortunately, no. The lead editorial in Sunday’s New York Times, which generally articulates the thinking of the US power elite, lays it out clearly: “The plan envisions a multidonor trust fund *managed by the World Bank* that pools money for big projects and avoids wasteful redundancy. The Haitian Development Authority would *approve* the projects; outside auditors would *oversee* the spending.” (Our emphasis added.)

Translation: the World Bank, not Haiti, will run the show, a council of foreigners (with a sprinkling of token Haitians) will rubberstamp directives, and other foreign overseers will supervise the Haitians carrying out the directives.

Read more...

Washington Asserts Colonial-Style Control of Haiti at UN Donors’ Conference

On the dais for the event, UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon and Haitian President René Préval were flanked by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, who is the UN special envoy to Haiti. Préval announced the formation of an Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission, co-chaired by Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive and Bill Clinton, which is to oversee the distribution of the reconstruction funds.

The board for the commission will have representatives from the US, Canada, Brazil, France, Venezuela and the European Union, along with the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank and the United Nations. This structure, to remain in place for at least 18 months, is transparently designed to place the fate of Haiti in the hands of the imperialist powers, with the US playing the uncontested dominant role.

Only the flimsiest pretense is being made that the Haitian government will exercise any sovereign control. As the New York Times noted in a March 31 article: “There has been a certain amount of grumbling around the United Nations about tight control by the State Department over the donor conference, with a senior European diplomat dubbing it ‘The Bill and Hillary Show.'".'

Read more...

Haiti Post-Quake - Devastation, Depravation, Exploitation & Oppression

Two and half months post-quake, the major media mostly ignore Haiti, the calamitous conditions on the ground, and the growing desperation of millions forced to largely endure on their own - out of sight, mind, the concern of world leaders, and UN, USAID and other aid organizations diverting most of the $700 million + donated to contractors and profiteering NGOs.

A March 11 New York Times editorial titled, "Haiti, Two Months Later," tried to have it both ways, citing relief effort failures, yet praising the US, UN, foreign countries, and aid organizations for:

"dispatch(ing) tents, tarps, food, water, medicine and doctors as they should. They have done a lot of good, particularly the United States, which rushed supplies, a troop force....and a hospital ship. Many lives were saved."

Unmentioned was the thousands of US combat troops obstructing aid, getting none to the most impoverished neighborhoods, and amounts to emergency shelters have been woefully inadequate, making calamitous conditions worse.'

Read more...

Clintons Pocket Haiti Phone Monopoly Assets

Backed by the might of the United States military and their own official positions, the Clinton power couple plus brother-in-law have muscled themselves into the Haitian telephone monopoly. This cozy public-private partnership poses huge conflicts of interest, says Paul Pumphrey, of Brothers and Sisters International – and robs the Haitian people of hundreds of millions in revenues a year. But then, that's what empires are for, isn't it?'

Listen here...

Haitian President at White House: US Military Occupation to Continue

Obama told reporters, "The international community can pledge the resources that will be necessary for a coordinated and sustained effort, and, working together, we can ensure that assistance not simply delivers relief for the short term, but builds up Haiti’s capacity to deliver basic services and provide for the Haitian people over the long term."

In reality, Obama has pledged to ask Congress to allocate a paltry $1 billion in relief funds for Haiti, the equivalent of a few days’ spending on the wars in the Middle East and Central Asia. The figure does not begin to address the immense social need overwhelming the devastated country. Preliminary reports have shown that it will likely cost as much as $14 billion to rebuild the Haitian infrastructure, which was in wretched shape at time of the quake.

Of the Haitian government’s response to the tragedy, Obama told Préval in front of reporters, "Even as you and other Haitian leaders have endured your personal tragedies—losing your own homes, your loved ones—you have carried on with great courage and determination." In fact, Préval was essentially invisible in the first weeks following the earthquake. The president and his entire government proved useless and impotent in the face of disaster and the desperate needs of the Haitian population. Thousands have taken to the streets in protests against the regime’s inaction.'

Read more...

Should the United States Annex Haiti?

Sudetenland

The devastating earthquake that rocked Haiti threw the country into the international spotlight, and simultaneously highlighted its desperate need for help, even before the disaster. In the weeks and months after the quake, some have begun to question whether the event opens new opportunities for restructuring of Haiti's government and economy, literally from the ground up.

But what sort of role should the US or other international organizations play in Haiti? Among the spectrum of international responses—from indirect aid and development programs to a Puerto Rico-style annexation—the best answer is bound to lie somewhere in between.

Paul S. Adams, Assistant Professor of Political Science at University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, sees a big opportunity to reshape Haiti's political system after the earthquake. "This is the chance for Haiti to rewrite the rules of its government," he says, "it really wasn't working before the quake, and with most basic services provided by the UN... the Haitian government didn't exist in most ways".'

Read more...

Surreal Chilean Skies

A video has emerged of strange lights in the Chilean sky on the day before the massive 8.8 earthquake, causing speculation about whether the apparition was a HAARP projection or UFO warning related to the impending disaster. Others point to similar videos taken in China and Haiti prior to the recent earthquakes in those countries, and the possibility that shifts in the earth's crust have a dramatic effect on the atmosphere.

Whatever the case, there is at least one eyewitness account of strange lights being present in the sky at the time that the ground opened up in Chile. Cecelia Lagos, a Chilean reporter, was interviewed by CNN and described seeing the sky change colors outside her window as her house shook. Although the CNN clip wasn't available, here's an MSNBC video of her telling a similar story and the transcript from the actual CNN interview, in which she compares what she saw to a seen out of the big blockbuster disaster film, 2012.'

Read more...

Haiti: From Shackles to a Wrecked Land

The country of Haiti was hit with an earthquake on a scale of seven on January 12, 2010.

However, being left in ruins is not only a by-product of a natural disaster, it lies within a history of imperialistic savagery and exploitation by the powerful – namely France and the US.

One can trace the beginnings to the independence of the country in 1802-1804, which came after a costly and brutal war.

The slave revolt led to the creation of a new state, a state which was only illusory in terms of actual sovereignty.

France did not leave without making sure the Haitians paid for their disobedience. “Nor could the infant US, a land of slave owners, cope with the idea of such a nation at its gates. There was only one solution: to forbid it to exist. The plan succeeded thanks to the cooperation of Haiti’s elite. They agreed in 1825 to pay France a gigantic sum to concede independence and indemnify themselves”.'

Read more...

Obama Administration Embroiled in Illegal Removal of Haitian Children

Senior members of the Obama administration approved the illegal removal of 12 Haitian children from a Port-au-Prince orphanage to Pennsylvania last month even though the children were not up for adoption in the US and some were not orphans.

The move contravened US law on international adoptions as well as the terms of a "humanitarian parole" that was issued by the US government on Jan 18, the day the children were evacuated, in order to fast-track existing adoption cases.

Those terms stated that only children that had been matched with parents in the US should be allowed to leave Haiti, amid fears that traffickers could exploit the confusion and turmoil of a disaster zone after similar incidents in countries affected by the 2004 tsunami in Asia.'

Read more...

U.S. Attempts to Erase Haitian Nationhood

Proud Haiti has been reduced to a de facto "protectorate" of the United States – a grotesque form of non-sovereignty in which the subjugated nation is "protected" by its worst enemy. Namibia under white-ruled South African administration comes to mind, although in Haiti’s case the United Nations does not even pretend to be on the side of the oppressed, acting instead as agent and enforcer for the superpower.

As Haiti writhes under the agony of hundreds of thousands dead, Bill Clinton picks through the bones in search of prime tourist spots and mango plantation sites. America’s most successful snake oil salesman is pleased to do the Haitian people’s thinking, planning and dreaming for them – and quite willing to speak for the afflicted country, as well.

"This is an opportunity to reimagine the future for the Haitian people, to build what they want to become, not rebuild what they used to be,'' Clinton told the global oligarchs at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

In one sweeping sentence, Clinton claimed a kind of sovereignty over the Haitian people’s very imaginations, assigning himself the right to filter what was good or bad about Haiti’s past, and what is permissible in the future. Haitians are no longer allowed to possess their own dreams and remembrances, which have apparently been placed in United Nations trusteeship, under control of UN special envoy to Haiti, Bill Clinton.

"MINUSTAH and the U.S. expeditionary force have conspired to starve out what’s left of Cite Soleil."

As one of the world’s most shameless personalities, the former president is eminently qualified to represent both the UN and the U.S. armed missions in Haiti. The 9,000 troops and police of the UN Stabilization Force in Haiti (MINUSTAH) have for years waged war on the seaside shanty neighborhood of Cite Soleil, a political stronghold of exiled president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Before the February, 2004, U.S.-backed coup, Cite Soleil was home to at least 300,000 desperately poor but politically organized people. Relentless MINUSTAH raids have drastically shrunk the slum’s population. By 2006, only 30 percent of residents still remained in some sections of Cite Soleil, according to human rights workers.

Since the earthquake, MINUSTAH and the U.S. expeditionary force have conspired to starve out what’s left of Cite Soleil. Three weeks after the catastrophe, the United Nations World Food Program described Cite Soleil as "no-go, for security reasons."

Have the people of Cite Soleil been condemned to death and dispersal because of their pro-Aristide politics – a trait they shared with at least 60 percent of the population the last time a count was permitted – or are they doomed by their choice seaside location? Either reason will do, or both. Haiti’s poor are condemned in advance, for existing where inconvenient.

"Small rice farmers were forced off the land and into the shanty-opolis."
The Haitian peasantry, which not so long ago kept the country self-sufficient in basic foodstuffs, became inconvenient after Washington forced Haiti to accept U.S. government-subsidized rice. Port-au-Prince, a town of about a quarter million in 1960, swelled to at least 2.5 million as small rice farmers were forced off the land and into the shanty-opolis, where they built what they could with the resources at hand. U.S.-imposed "structural adjustment" made Port-au-Prince a high-density death trap.

Somehow, this U.S.-mandated migration – which also contributed to the exodus abroad of many hundreds of thousands – is now numbered among the many "failures" of the Haitian people. They must now move again, to places outside Port-au-Prince where they can "reimagine the future," in Bill Clinton’s words. But whatever the Haitians might imagine, the United States is determined to deny them the right to pursue those dreams. Americans hector Haitians to summon the will to rebuild, but strangle Haitian civil society by effectively outlawing the nation’s most popular political party, Aristide’s Fanmi Lavalas. Self-determination is among those things Haitians must not be permitted to rebuild or reclaim.
"The U.S. strangles Haitian civil society by effectively outlawing the nation’s most popular political party."

The Americans seem to prefer that Haitians have no government, at all, even one as compliant as that of President Rene Preval, who collaborated in banning Fanmi Lavalas from taking part in elections. Only one cent of every dollar in U.S. "relief" money goes to or through the Haitian government, which is thus reduced to a crippled and largely irrelevant spectator. The Americans will at some point "reimagine" precisely how the Haitian "protectorate" will be managed in these extraordinary times.
The Haitian people "need democracy and self determination," said a statement by the U.S.-based Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations, "not more military interventions by the U.S., which has sent more than 10,000 troops to subdue our people."

On February 20, the Black is Back Coalition will hold a National March and Rally to Defend Haiti, in Miami, Florida. "Our people in Haiti must have reparations, not self serving charity from France and the U.S."

uruknet

Mass Protests Greet Sarkozy Visit to Haiti

French President Nicolas Sarkozy traveled for a one-day visit to Haiti on February 17, amid rising popular opposition to the Western-backed Préval government and international tensions over how to rebuild the country. The US military occupied Haiti after the devastating January 12 earthquake that killed over 200,000 people, wounded over 250,000, and destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure.

Sarkozy, the first French head of state ever to visit Haiti, was greeted with street protests by thousands of Haitians demanding the return of elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Ousted by a US- and French-backed coup in 2004, Aristide was flownto the Central African Republic, a former French colony. Aristide now lives in exile in South Africa. President René Préval, a former prime minister under Aristide in the 1990s, came to power in 2006 in elections supervised by the provisional government of Boniface Alexandre that was installed by the coup.

Préval tried to address the crowd outside the presidential palace. However, crowds shouted him down, and Préval left in a luxury Jeep, surrounded by bodyguards.'

Read more...

Haiti’s Elite Eyes Profits as Millions Face Disease and Hunger

"A crisis is a terrible thing to waste," Georges Sassine, president of Haiti’s manufacturers association, told the Washington Post.

"This is what the earthquake is today—an opportunity, a huge opportunity," added Reginald Boulos, described by the Post Monday as the owner of a "small empire" of supermarkets, a hotel and a car dealership. "I think we need to give the message that we are open for business. This is really a land of opportunities."

Meanwhile, "US firms have begun jockeying for a bonanza of cleanup work," the Miami Herald reported last week, adding that "At least two politically connected US firms have enlisted powerful local allies in Haiti to help compete for the high-stakes business".'

Read more...

Clinton Co-ordinating Haiti Relief

Ban Ki-Moon obviously has a very twisted sense of humour. As if the Katrina fiasco wasn’t sufficient evidence of the singular unsuitability of the U.S. to lead any sort of disaster effort, appointing a power-abusing sex-offending lying ex-President as Special Envoy beggared belief.

Even the most generous interpretation would have to conclude that the U.S. had already surpassed its Katrina incompetence - they took eight days, yes EIGHT days, to decide to air-drop food and water into Haiti, resulting in who knows how many thousand unnecessary deaths. [i] Defense Secretary Robert Gates said earlier airdrops were ruled out "because they might have done more harm than good."’ [ii] (ie there would be more survivors who might challenge the blatant US military occupation, carried out under the guise of 'security’ to protect the populace from the pseudo-rioting and looting invented by U.S. media hacks to justify it.'

Read more...

Tonge Sacked for Israeli Organ Theft in Haiti Comments

Baroness Jenny Tonge has been sacked as the Liberal Democrat spokeswoman for health in Britain's House of Lords for urging an inquiry into charges that Israeli forces in Haiti harvested organs.

In response, Liberal Democrat Party Leader Nick Clegg sacked Tonge and dismissed her comments as unacceptable, provocative, and distasteful.'

Read more...