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Haiti's Lawyer: U.S. Is Arming Anti-Aristide Paramilitaries
Haitian Journalist Michele Montas Discusses Haiti and the
Unsolved Murder Of Her Husband
Aristide Warns of Possible Refugee Crisis in Haiti
Bush Backs Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage
Haiti's Lawyer: U.S. Is Arming Anti-Aristide Paramilitaries
INTRO: As opponents of Haitian President Aristide reject
a U.S.-brokered peace plan, we speak with Ira Kurzban who
has served as General Counsel for the government of Haiti
since 1991.
The situation in the small island nation of Haiti appears
to be heading toward a breaking point. The groups opposed
to the government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide have rejected
a US-brokered plan that many viewed as favorable to Aristide's
opponents. The groups say they will settle for only one outcome--the
complete removal of Aristide from power. Yesterday, the man
who was believed to be the compromise appointment as Haiti's
Prime Minister threw his support behind the opposition groups
in calling for Aristide to step down.
Aristide on Tuesday called for help from the international
community and warned of a rising death toll and a new exodus
of "boat people" from the country.
What is perhaps more significant than the opposition groups
rejection of the plan are the armed commandos and gangs that
are now in control of half the country and are threatening
to move on the capital Port-au-Prince very soon. There are
very real fears that the democratically-elected Aristide could
be overthrown in a violent coup d'etat. As we have reported
regularly on the program, many of the leaders of these paramilitary
gangs have had direct ties to the CIA, the Defense Intelligence
Agency and other US government agencies. They were men at
the forefront of the murders, rapes and tortures that marked
the 1991-94 coup against Aristide.
- Ira Kurzban, a Miami based lawyer. Since 1991, he has
served as General Counsel for the government of Haiti.
Haitian Journalist Michele Montas Discusses Haiti
and the Unsolved Murder Of Her Husband
INTRO: Award-winning Haitian journalist Michele Montas fled
Haiti last year after her bodyguard was killed and continued
threats against her forced her close her radio station and
leave the country four years after her husband, Jean Dominique,
was assassinated.
Michele Montas is award-winning Haitian journalist. She began
reporting for Radio Haiti-Inter in the early 1970s with her
husband, Jean Dominique where the two exposed human rights
abuses, political corruption and state-sponsored violence
in Haiti. The radio station came under attack six different
times between 1980 and 1994. Montas and her husband were twice
forced to flee into exile. On April 3, 2000 Jean Dominique
was assassinated. He was shot several times as he walked through
the doors of Radio Haiti Inter.
Michele continued to work at Radio Haiti Inter. On Christmas
Day 2002, her bodyguard was fatally shot by assassins minutes
after he dropped her off at her home. Last February, threats
against her and her staff forced her to close the station,
fleeing once again to New York.
- Michele Montas, joins us in our firehouse studios.
- Jean Dominique, interviewed by Pacifica Radio's Dan Coughlin
at his radio station in Port-au-Prince in early 2000 in
one of the last interviews - if not the last - that Jean
Dominique gave to a US broadcast network before his assassination
on April 3, 2000.
Aristide Warns of Possible Refugee Crisis in Haiti
INTRO: In the past week, more than 400 Haitian refugees
have reportedly landed on beaches in Jamaica and the Turks
and Caicos Islands. We speak with the Center for Constitutional
Rights' Michael Ratner who has dealt extensively with the
issue of Haitian refugees for many years.
President Aristide on Tuesday warned of a rising death toll
and a new exodus of "boat people" from Haiti. In
the past week, more than 400 Haitian refugees reportedly have
landed on beaches in Jamaica and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Most boat people want to go to the United States and many
are picked by the U.S. Coast Guard and returned home.
- Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional
Rights. For many years he has dealt extensively on the issue
of Haitian refugees.
Bush Backs Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage
INTRO: We speak with Craig Dean, who initiated the Marriage
Rights Movement when he filed the first modern-day lawsuit
for same sex marriage in 1989 as well as the political director
of the Log Cabin Republicans, the nation's largest gay Republican
organization.
President Bush announced Tuesday his support to amend the
Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
Bush's comments came under intense attack from gay rights
activists as well as many constitutional scholars. The announcement
came on the heels of San Francisco's decision to grant marriage
licenses to more than 3,000 gay couples a Massachusetts court
ruling that ordered the state to begin issuing same-sex marriage
licenses by mid-May.
A front-page article in the Washington Post says Bush had
intended to sidestep the battle over constitutional marriage
but couldn't afford to do so after his conservative base had
"grown restless over the budget deficit, government spending
and his plan to liberalize immigration."
One unnamed Republican senator told the Post that this is
"the last place Bush wanted to be. He should be coasting
on being the war president and deliverer of tax cuts; instead,
he has to take a divisive role on a contentious social issue
that could undercut him as a compassionate conservative."
Democratic presidential frontrunners Senators John Kerry
and John Edwards have both said that they're for civil unions
but against the Constitutional amendment as well as gay marriage.
Dennis Kucinich has publicly supported gay marriage.
According to constitutional scholars, Prohibition marks the
only other time the constitution was amended to curtail public
freedoms.
Despite Bush's highly publicized endorsement, passing an
amendment to the Constitution is not easy. The amendment must
win two-thirds support in both the Senate and the House and
must be ratified by 38 states.
- President Bush announcing his support for a Constitutional
amendment to ban gay marriage at the White House February
25, 2004.
- Craig Dean, filed first modern-day lawsuit for same sex
marriage in 1989 initiating the Marriage Rights Movement.
He is speaking to us from his home in Myrtle Beach, South
Carolina.
- Mark Mead, political director of the Log Cabin Republicans,
the nation's largest gay Republican organization.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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