Haitians live in mortal fear of their lawless police force

[dArKeR]

People scatter as black-clad police officers speed through crowded slums, a knee-jerk reaction these days as fearful residents accuse the force of summary killings and strong-arm tactics as the country prepares for elections this year.

The US and UN have tried and failed to build a protective Haitian police force over the years and, despite repeated defeats, offered help again last year after rebels ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide during a three-week revolt.

Mistrusted by residents who have seen political regimes use the police as brutal enforcers, Haiti's police are once again being blamed for operating above the law, allegedly targeting opponents and using trigger-happy tactics.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/03/03/2003225305

[MisterP]

1. vive l'Shrubba Doc! vive l'NED! vive l'fascisme nouveaux!

[sasquatch]

2. Wow that sucks, reminds me of our WTO protest.

[natrat]

3. ahhh ....new york in 5 or 10 years

[IndianaGreen]

4. The overthrow of Haiti’s Aristide: a coup made in the USA

US soldiers forced Aristide into a plane at gun point in one of the most shameful chapters in our shameful history!

Read it and weep:

The overthrow of Haiti’s Aristide: a coup made in the USA

Statement of the World Socialist Web Site Editorial Board
1 March 2004

The violent overthrow and forced exile of Haiti’s President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has ripped aside the democratic pretensions of Washington and the other major powers to expose the brutal and predatory character of resurgent imperialism. The actions taken by the US government in Haiti demonstrate the farcical character of its claims that the aim of the US invasion of Iraq was to inaugurate an era of democratization and freedom in the Middle East and around the world.

Aristide’s overthrow is the outcome of a bloody coup orchestrated by the Bush administration and aided by the Chirac government in Paris. It was executed by a band of killers drawn from the disbanded and discredited Haitian army and the CIA-backed death squads that terrorized the population under the former military dictatorship that ruled the country in the early 1990s.

Among those leading the armed bands that overran the country are Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a former Haitian army officer sentenced to life at hard labor in connection with the 1993 assassination of political activist Antoine Izméry, and Jean-Pierre Baptiste, likewise sentenced to life for his role in a 1994 massacre. Both were leaders of the FRAPH, or Haitian Front for Advancement and Progress, a CIA-backed organization that carried out state terror against opponents of the military regime that ruled the country from 1991 to 1994.

Another leader of the armed bands is Guy Philippe, a former member of the Haitian military who received training from US Special Forces in Ecuador in the 1990s and was then sent back to Haiti, where he became a brutal police chief and sought to organize a coup in 2000. He is suspected of involvement in cocaine trafficking.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/mar2004/hait-m01.shtml

[magellan]

5. Criminal...again

I don't wonder why the Corporate Media isn't reporting on Haiti. I DO wonder how the majority of Americans would react to learning Bush** had the democratically elected Haitian President kidnapped and ousted by our own military last year. Would they care? Would they see how criminal this action was? Sadly, I'm not sure they would.

[LynnTheDem]

6. More BUSH PROGRESS!!! More bush SPREADING DEMOCRACY!!!

More American overthrowing of democratically elected governments!

Way to go, bush! Making us all LESS SAFE every minute!