IRSP: Oppose the Return of the Tonton Macoutes

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

28 February 2004
Irish Republican Socialist Party
International Department

Oppose the Return of the Tonton Macoutes

The capitalist media refers to it as a 'popular uprising', but what
we are seeing in Haiti today is an attempted coup d'etat underway,
most likely engineered by the US imperialists years ago. Who are the
members of the 'opposition' engaged in the present 'uprising'?  The
answer is, the Haitian 'opposition' includes torturers and death
squad members of the FRAPH, who wreaked havoc in Haiti when they were
previously able to force Aristide from power. The FRAPH were in fact
backed by the CIA in those years and largely their creation.

The list of the present opposition's leaders is filled with
the 'usual suspects'. These include Louis Jodel Chamblain, who was a
leader of the murderous, CIA-backed FRAPH, who was convicted of
killing Antoine Izmery, a pro-democracy activist in 1993 and then
convicted in 1994 for killings associated with the infamous 'Raboteau
Massacre'. Another is Jean Pierre, who was also a FRAPH leader, at
the local level, and was also convicted of murder in association with
the Raboteau Massacre; he was serving a life sentence until escaping
from jail in 2002. Then there is Guy Philippe, who was a US-trained
soldier in the Haitian Army, who has attempted three coups in the
last four years.

The simple fact is, President Aristide was legally elected by the
people of Haiti and then more recently re-elected. In that most
recent election, President Astride received 92% of all votes cast
(and while the capitalist media has suggested that election
was 'tainted', the claims of electoral irregularities arose in
relation to the election of candidates to the Haitian Senate--the
Presidential vote has not in question).

When the so-called 'opposition' seized control of the city of
Gonaives, they killed over fifty people in the first week alone. Of
those killed, 14 were members of the police. Some of the police
killed  had their bodies mutilated and then dragged through the
streets of Gonaives. Moreover, the 'opposition' declared that they
would attack anyone who opposed the overthrow of the Haitian
president - a threat which they amplified by carrying out a number of
beatings, killings, and destruction of homes of Aristide supporters.

Reluctantly, France and the US have given halting support to the
concept of some form of international police force being sent into
Haiti under UN command to maintain peace and order, though both are
attempting to link this to some form of agreement which will
immediately or in the near future force Astride from office. In other
words, they are seeking to use the UN to achieve the coup d'etat
that is underway.

Haiti remains the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere and
Aristide's attempts to address this through improved wages and
factory conditions for Haitian workers, expanded social services, and
campaigns to eradicate hunger and provide education to the poor is
the reason why there is so much animosity against his presidency from
the imperialist nations.

The IRSP condemns those engaged in the present efforts to destroy
Haiti's fledgling democracy and re-enslave the impoverished working
people of that nation. Moreover, the IRSP condemns the mainstream
media for their slavish parroting of the lies of the imperialists and
the white-washing of the murderers and torturers posturing as the
Haitian 'opposition'. Haiti has suffered through a series of vicious
and bloody neo-colonial regimes for far too long; the democratic
government of Haiti must be defended.

###

Republican Socialist Publicity Bureau
392 Falls Road, Belfast, BT12 6DH, Ireland
Tel/Fax: 028 90 330786
http://www.irsm.org/irsm.html 




"[C]apital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and 
dirt."
--Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, Chapter 31

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