25870: Benodin: (comments) A Short List of Aristide's Wrongdoings (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Robert Benodin <r.benodin@worldnet.att.net>

A Short List of Aristide's Wrongdoings
I found the following on the Web while doing some research for an upcoming 
post. It is a wonderful review - written in 2002 apparently - of the many 
things that went wrong during Aristide III; little did anyone know that the 
worst was yet to come. The author was quite prescient in what would ultimately 
happen if Lavalas continued in its criminal ways.

I submit this to your appreciation ... pour l'histoire.

[BEGIN QUOTE]
The idea that Aristide would be overthrown is a repulsive one - especially as 
Haiti strives to become a democracy - and Ms. Kathy Grey is absolutely correct 
in attacking anyone who would condone such an outcome to the current crisis. 
The opposition parties had their chances to rally popular support before the 
elections, and they blew it. So they will have to suck it up until the next 
elections.

However, let's review the accomplishments of the Aristide administration - in 
no particular order - since February 2001:

1) allowing Amiot Metayer to escape and operate freely in Gonaïves - illegal

2) never arresting Paul Raymond and Rene Civil when an arrest warrant had been 
issued against them - illegal

3) naming Patrick Joseph, the son of the Chairman of the Central Bank, Venel 
Joseph, as the DG of Teleco - unethical (remember that, technically, the 
Central Bank owns Teleco)

4) intervening to take away the autonomy of the State University system - 
probably illegal. Going back on the government decisions to placate the 
university students is testimony to the stupidity and futility of the initial 
attempt. By agreeing to be yet another human Kleenex used by Aristide, Myrtho 
Saurel Celestin paid the price. At least, she is now free to go enjoy "les 
lumières de Paris" with her husband, newly named ambassador of Haiti to France

5) not releasing prisoners who have been cleared by the justice system - 
illegal. Don't think that Prosper Avril is the only one in that situation

6) using Central Bank reserves to post collateral on transactions that benefit 
mainly private foreign companies - illegal

7) allowing Teleco to be gutted by private deals which do not benefit its 
owners (and ultimately the Haitian people) - illegal and unethical

8) using public funds to pay the opposition parties that were attacked on 
December 17 - illegal. The Lavalas Party, not the government, should have paid 
the damages

9) using government vehicles to transport the "chimè" who paralyzed 
Port-au-Prince on November 22 - illegal. The same thing happened on December 
17, 2001

10) asking several administrations to contribute 100,000+ gourdes on a monthly 
basis to a "special slush fund" set up at the Palace for political activities - 
illegal and unethical

11) financing OP activities from the budget of the Ministère de l'Intérieur 
(with Jocelerme privert directly participating in strategy meetings on 
organized protests, down to the number of tires needed to set up burning 
barricades in Port-au-Prince) - illegal

12) "bribing" judges by offering them automobiles and other perks - illegal and 
unethical. A clear case of the Executive trying to influence the Judiciary

13) naming a well-known criminal as Minister of Justice - definitely immoral 
and irresponsible.
13a) Calixte Delatour assassinated senator Hudicourt in cold blood under the 
Dumarsais Estimé régime and was never tried for that crime. He, Victor Nevers 
Constant and Seymour Lassègue also murdered young Viau and got away with this 
crime.
13b) He then became one of Duvalier's strategists and is the moral author of 
several political assassinations during the Duvalier era.
13c) Calixte Delatour was very vocal during the coup years in his opposition to 
Aristide's return. That Yvon Neptune would describe him as a "man of integrity" 
is simply unconscionable. That appointment is an extraordinary slap in the face 
of all Haitians who fought to get rid of Duvalier

14a) allowing a number of senators and congressmen to set up an unregistered 
cooperative (the famous Tout Pou Nou cooperative) - illegal

14b) allowing said cooperative to sell staples at below market rates thanks to 
duty exemptions and waiver of all sales taxes - unethical and illegal

14c) allowing said cooperative to further harm local rice producers through 
unfair competition - definitely unethical and immoral

15) paying millions of dollars a year to an American security firm - the Steele 
Foundation - with deep ties to the Pentagon and the CIA for the security of the 
President and his family - deeply immoral and incredibly ironic. Where is the 
Aristide who used to greet the Haitian people "charlemagneperaltement"? He is 
now hiding behind a group of battle-hardened "blans" who have been involved in 
a bunch of undercover, off-the-books operations for American intelligence 
agencies around the world. (You can hear some of their stories if you hang out 
long enough at
Le Petit Saint-Pierre restaurant in Pétion-Ville.) In the meantime, 1) 
Aristide's Haitian security officers are frustrated about the incredibly unfair 
double-standard (especially since their daily allocations have been cut in a 
new wave of austerity, and they are no longer given the same amount of 
ammunitions), 2) thousands of government employees have not been paid for 
several months; 3) the average Haitian is eating less than before, and cases of 
malnutrition are on the rise. George Orwell was right: some animals are more 
equal than others.

16a) allowing and encouraging the unchecked growth of flimsy, fly-by-night 
finance cooperatives which were not regulated - irresponsible

16b) allowing said cooperatives to collapse in the manner they did, taking with 
them in their collapse millions of gourdes belonging to primarily blue-collar 
and poor Haitian families and making the managers of these cooperatives 
millionaires in the process - immoral and irresponsible

16c) promising to reimburse those who lost money in the cooperatives collapse - 
irresponsible and foolish

16d) failing to abide by the promise to reimburse the sociétaires - 
irresponsible and dishonest

16e) jailing Rosemond Jean for fighting for the rights of the sociétaires - 
immoral and criminal. The official reason for Rosemond Jean's arrest is too 
laughable to be taken seriously. Rosemong became a serious threat the day he 
adopted the cause of university students

17) granting a Dominican company a concession for a free-trade zone BEFORE the 
law regulating such zones was even passed and WITHOUT the approval of the 
Senate - illegal. When one reviews the actual agreement that was signed by 
Capellan & Company, on the one hand, and the Haitian government in the person 
of Faubert Gustave, on the other hand, it is EXTRAORDINARILY illegal. A number 
of simple legal precepts were brazenly ignored, and many of the "entorses à la 
loi" are now coming back to haunt the Dominican company. Has anyone heard much 
about this project lately? I wonder why

18a) Using public funds to buy weapons for the OP's - immoral and illegal

18b) Using the Police Nationale d'Haiti, in the person of DDO Chief Hermione 
Leonard, 1) to distribute the weapons to a bunch of OPs and criminal 
organizations in Site Soley , 2) to ply these OPs with fresh ammunitions on a 
regular basis, and 3) to provide them with money and occasional logistical 
support before "big operations" - downright criminal

19) allowing the Board of Directors of the Central Bank to grant themselves a 
15% salary increase last week - immoral. At a time when the government has no 
funds and things are extremely tight, austerity should be "de rigueur". But 
then again, this is the same Central Bank that paid for one of its board 
members (Gladys Péan), to go on a two-week crash course to learn English, all 
expenses paid plus a $1,000 a day per diem, a couple of months ago. (Actually, 
I shouldn't be too harsh on these clowns. The last Board actually rented cars 
at BRH's expense so that directors' wives could go shopping without putting 
kilometers on their cars. One member even charged sexy lingerie for his 
mistress on a BRH-issued credit card.)

20) making so many political mistakes - and violating the basic rights of so 
many - that a feeble, repugnant and corrupt opposition, which would not exist 
without foreign support, is now viewed as "decent" by an increasing number of 
Haitians - unbelievably stupid

The list goes on, but I will stop here. This partial list speaks for itself, 
even though the spin doctors from the Palace will no doubt provide us with a 
more positive list very soon to counter-balance the one above.

Clearly the Haitian people are screwed once again. It is caught in a nasty 
Catch-22: It would be
unconstitutional to overthrow Aristide, yet his administration is doing 
everything it can to prevent democracy, accountability, legitimacy and 
transparency from taking hold, ideals that Haitians fought so hard to obtain.

Ms Grey: you are 100% correct in that we ought to follow the 1987 Constitution. 
However, it would behoove Lavalas to show the way by respecting basic legal 
Haitian principles, something they apparently are not able or willing to do. 
Can others be blamed for trying to emulate Lavalas? This is a negative spiral 
that can only lead to disaster.

"What is logical to the oppressor is not logical to the oppressed."

-Malcolm X

[END QUOTE]
Posted by Jean-Claude Jasmin at 7/29/2005 09:32:00 PM