The Haiti Democracy Project Is Not So Democratic

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.

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/5/4/62411/31371

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:

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/5/4/62411/31371

From somewhere in a country called América,

Dan Feder Managing Editor The Narco News Bulletin http://www.narconews.com

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