|
Comment on this article |
Email this Article
|
|
News :: International Relations |
|
US still opposes Haitian independence after 202 years |
Current rating: 0 |
by Ricky Baldwin
Email: baldwinricky (nospam) yahoo.com (verified)
Phone: 217-328-3037 |
17 Jan 2006
|
|
I sent this to the News-Gazette as a letter to the editor last week, but I haven't heard from them so I assume they aren't using it. The local Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort (AWARE) has been discussing thee issues, and a local Haiti solidarity group is forming. For more info: 328-3037. (Photo from Laborstart.org, Haitian 'Batay Ouvriye' union protests imprisonment of members.) |
|
This week (1/8/06) the US-backed government in Haiti postponed elections for the fourth time, beginning its third year of illegal rule. You’d never know it by reading American newspapers, but the US-backed government in Haiti is doing almost as well as our puppets in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Ever since US-trained military and paramilitary “thugs” (to use Colin Powell’s word) overthrew the democratically elected government, violence and repression have gripped the country. In the last year alone over 1000 people have been killed in the streets, mostly by the US-backed government and their allies.
This fall at a USAID-sponsored “Play for Peace” soccer match, hooded policemen fired on the crowd while henchmen attacked with machetes, killing more than 20 and wounding many more. So why is our government supporting these “thugs”?
The US Administration is quick to point to Saddam Hussein’s crimes in Iraq (mostly committed when he was a US ally), but what were Haitian President Aristide’s crimes? Raising the minimum wage, arresting some of the mass murderers from the previous US-supported regime, dismantling the US-trained army that had overthrown his government in 1991.
Oh, yes, and being black. The notion of a reform-minded black government that cares a bit about its people and won’t go along with every whim of Washington has disturbed US policy makers concerning Haiti ever since their independence from France in 1804, which the US opposed. It seems we still oppose their independence, this time from us. |
See also:
http://anti-war.net
http://www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org
|
This work is in the public domain |
