News
and opinions on situation in Haiti |
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| 17/4/05 |
Bush Administration broke own embargo sell arms to Haiti police |
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THE ISSUE WITH DISARMAMENT: UN/US lack of credibity UN Security Council Goes to Haiti to stop Calls for Resignation of the Latortue Regime and support U.N. troop accused of a failed mission and of conducting summary executions – www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/securitycouncilgoeshaiti.html Failures of MINUSTHA: The Harvard Law School Report Bush Administration ‘Broke its own embargo to sell arms to Haiti police’- news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=630156 Small Arms Survey report: Bush Administration ‘Broke its own embargo to sell arms to Haiti police’ Published at: news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=630156 by Andrew Buncombe in Washington, April 17, 2005 The Bush administration has been accused of ignoring its own arms embargo and overseeing the sale of $7m-worth (£3.7m) of weapons to the Haitian government to equip its police force. Human rights groups say the police carry out routine executions of dissidents and weapons are often illegally funnelled to armed militia. Robert Muggah of the Swiss-based Small Arms Survey, a non-profit group, said that last year the US effected the sale of thousands of weapons to the interim government headed by Gerard Latortue, despite a 13-year arms embargo. “They are meant to brace up a shaky security force, but the reality is they could actually undermine security by jeopardising an innovative disarmament effort just getting under way,” said Mr Muggah, who has spent several months in Haiti interviewing diplomats and UN officials for a report. The embargo was established after a coup that ousted the elected president Jean-Betrand Aristide, who was forced into exile for a second time last year. Washington, which had long under-mined his presidency, refused to help him. The weapons embargo remains in place. Mr Latortue, installed following negotiations involving the US, France and Canada, complained the ban prevented him equipping the police. But according to Mr Muggah, despite Mr Latortue’s public protestations, a number of arms sales have gone ahead. His report says 5,435 “military-style weapons”, including M-14 and other semi-automatic guns and 4,433 handguns worth $6.95m, were provided from the US. Haiti is already awash with guns and violence. Human rights groups say supporters of Mr Aristide’s political party, Lavalas, have been subjected to violence and oppression. The Haitian National Police (HNP) is also accused of carrying out a campaign of violence in the slums of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Brian Concannon, a lawyer with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), which has links to the former government, said: “It is well-documented that the Haitian police routinely execute political dissidents and suspected criminals, so with them the guns are already in the wrong hands. “But many officers – especially those illegally integrated from the rebel army – funnel arms to paramilitary groups that are even more brutal.” A recent report by the human rights programme at Harvard Law School said HNP members were “perceived variously as crooked, politicised, ineffective and violators of human rights”. It added that the UN stabilisation mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) was not only complicit in HNP abuses, but that there were “credible allegations of human rights abuses perpetrated by MINUSTAH itself”. Media reports have identified several Haitian Americans allegedly involved in an arms sale, raising suggestions that the deal was privately organised and sanctioned by the US, rather than an official sale of weapons by Washington. One of these, Joel Deeb, a self-styled “freedom fighter”, told The Independent on Sunday he had been approached by Mr Latortue’s nephew, Youri, and given $500,000 to buy arms. “I was given half a million dollars in the form of a letter of credit,” he said. “But there is an embargo. There has not been any deal yet. The money is frozen. Everybody is saying I have done something with the money, but it is still there.” A State Department spokesman said restrictions on arms sales remained. He said the US would not sell arms to Haiti but would consider lifting the embargo on a case-by-case basis to allow third parties to make the sales “to be helpful” to the interim government. 16 April 2005 23:38 ******* “Men anpil chay pa lou” is Kreyol for – “Many hands make light a heavy load.” See, The Haitian Leadership Networks’ 7 “Men Anpil Chay Pa Lou” campaigns to help restore Haiti’s independence, the will of the mass electorate and the rule of law. Please circulate our mailings and posts to your mailing list and e-mail contacts. Subscribe by writing to: Erzilidanto@yahoo.com Read, adopt and circulate the Haiti Resolution (see below) from the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network and/or the Porto Alegre Declarations on Haiti adopted at the World Social Forum in 2005: www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/declaration.html Circulate the human rights reports, especially the latest Miami Law Center report: Do Press Work: Join our letter writing campaigns to help free the political prisoners in Haiti, stop the persecution of Haiti’s most popular political party and restore Constitutional rule. Write a letter, call the media, fax, – See our Press Work page for sample letters and contact information: HLLN Networkers are urged, in addition to the general writing campaigns and e-mail circulations, to also consider volunteering as primary coordinators/contributors to one of our seven campaigns: www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaigns.html Support our lawyers in Haiti and HLLN projects, such as, our partnership with AUMOHD, the young human rights lawyers in Haiti who are defending the defenseless poor whose only crime is that they voted for Lavalas, supported Constitutional rule or are resisting a return of the bloody U.S.-trained Haitian army and US-sponsored dictatorship. For information on AUMOHD, go to: www.april6vt.org/ Support the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Haiti Resolution: 1. Demand the return of constitutional rule to Haiti by restoring all elected officials of all parties to their offices throughout the country until the end of their mandates and another election is held, as mandated by Haiti’s Constitution; 2. Condemn the killings, illegal imprisonment and confiscation of the property of supporters of Haiti’s constitutional government and insist that Haiti’s illegitimate “interim government” immediately cease its persecution and put a stop to persecution by the thugs and murderers from sectors in their police force, from the paramilitaries, gangs and former soldiers; 3. Insist on the immediate release of all political prisoners in Haitian jails, including Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, Interior Minister Privert and other constitutional government officials and folksinger-activist SÚ Ann; 4. Insist on the disarmament of the thugs, death squad leaders and convicted human rights violators and their prosecution for all crimes committed during the attack on Haiti’s elected government and support the rebuilding of Haiti’s police force, ensuring that it excludes anyone who helped to overthrow the democratically elected government or who participated in other human rights violations; 5. Stop the indefinite detention and automatic repatriation of Haitian refugees and immediately grant Temporary Protected Status to all Haitian refugees presently in the United States until democracy is restored to Haiti; and 6. Support the calls by the OAS, CARICOM and the African Union for an investigation into the circumstances of President Aristide’s removal. Support the enactment of Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s T.R.U.T.H Act which calls for U.S. Congressional investigation of the forcible removal of the democratically elected President and government of Haiti. |
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