Sprague: The Haiti Democracy Project Is Not So Democratic
May 4, 2005
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In the Narcosphere today, copublisher Jeb Sprague reveals the role of a U.S.-based "nongovernmental organization" –
actually comprised of several former ambassadors and others close to the State Department – in whitewashing the crimes
of the coup government in Haiti and shaping U.S. policy towards that nation.
The Haiti Democracy Project, reports Sprague, which enjoys high levels of access to the regime of Gérard Latortue and
influence over policymakers, has just released a report making recommendations that would exclude many poor Haitians
from upcoming elections, further arm the brutal Haitian National Police (recipients of an illegal arms shipment from the
State Department late last year), and generally further transform Haiti into a client state of the U.S.:
"...The HDP also advises that the United States 'implement a fast track... for the purchase of appropriate armaments,
helmets and protective gear for the Haitian National Police.' This statement coming just weeks after Haiti Information
Project journalist Kevin Pina exposed a massive illegal shipment of $7 million worth of armaments to the Haitian
government from the United States, a violation of the 13 year arms embargo on Haiti. These are also the same Haitian
National Police forces that on April 29th, 2005 were accused by Amnesty International of using 'lethal and
indiscriminate violence... to disperse and repress demonstrators.' The Amnesty report states that after police officers
opened fire against Lavalas demonstrators 'at least 5 people died... and 4 others are reported to have died later on as
a consequence of their wounds.'
"The HDP 'fact-finding' report, while claiming that President Aristide's Administration was 'predatory' and 'murderous,'
completely neglects to mention the hundreds or possibly thousands of deaths that have occurred over the course of the
last year at the hands of the Haitian National Police under the Latortue government, which has been well documented in
such reports as the University of Miami's Haiti Human Rights Investigation during November of 2004.
Under a subsection of the HDP 'fact-finding' report entitled, 'Haitian views on the police' the only view provided is
that of the Haitian National Police themselves. In this 'viewpoint' section the Haitian police stated to the HDP that
'the U.N. mission needed to be more aggressive.' Meanwhile, on April 29, 2004 citizens of the Port-Au-Prince slum Cité
Soliel accused the U.N. forces led by the feared Jordanian contingent of surrounding their community and lobbing at them
fragmentation and incendiary type bombs. While heavily armed and violent U.N. incursions into and around Cité Soliel
have been well documented, the HDP and the Haitian police want more."
Read the full report:
From somewhere in a country called América,
Dan Feder Managing Editor The Narco News Bulletin http://www.narconews.com