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Chaos and Bloodshed Grip Haiti One Year After the Coup
The Haiti Coup One Year Later: A Look Back at the U.S. Role
in the Overthrow of Aristide
Intelligence Inc: The Privatization of U.S. Interrogations
at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and Afghanistan
Chaos and Bloodshed Grip Haiti One Year After the
Coup
One year ago today, the democratically-elected government
of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown
in what he called a modern-day kidnapping in the service of
a coup d'etat backed by the United States. We go back and
take a look at the events surrounding the coup and we look
at the chaos and bloodshed that have gripped the country over
the past year.
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the coup in Haiti
that overthrew the democratically-elected government of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide. On February 29, Arisitide was flown
to the Central African Republic on a US government plane in
what he called a "modern-day kidnapping."
Two weeks later, he defied Washington and returned to the
Caribbean accompanied by a delegation of U.S. and Jamaican
lawmakers. Aristide was eventually granted asylum in South
Africa, where he now lives.
Aristide was ousted by many of the same forces involved in
the coup against him over a decade earlier. In 1991, less
than a year after becoming the first democratically-elected
leader in Haiti's history, Aristide was overthrown by paramilitary
death squads working closely with U.S. intelligence agencies.
After a few years in exile, Aristide returned to Haiti in
1994 in a US military plane to serve the remaining few months
left in his term.
In 2000, Aristide won the presidential election a second
time. Once again, a few years after being elected, Aristide
was overthrown a second time. Much of the funding and support
for the opposition once again came from the United States,
through an organization called the International Republican
Institute.
One year later, Haiti has descended into chaos. As many as
400 people have been killed since September alone. Armed gangs
roam the cities and political oppression is rampant. Just
last week, an armed gang broke into the city's main prison
and released more than 500 prisoners - 95 percent of whom
have been neither tried nor sentenced. In the country's poorest
areas, rape has increasingly common as a tactic of political
violence.
A recent human rights investigation by the Miami University's
school of law writes: "Haiti's people churn inside a
hurricane of violence. Gunfire crackles, once bustling streets
are abandoned to cadavers, and whole neighborhoods are cut
off from the outside world. Nightmarish fear now accompanies
Haiti's poorest in their struggle to survive in destitution.
Gangs, police, irregular soldiers, and even UN peacekeepers
bring fear. There has been no investment in dialogue to end
the violence."
- Brian Concannon, director of the Institute
for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. He formerly worked
at the International Lawyers Office in Haiti, where he has
spent the last several years prosecuting crimes committed
during the 1991-1994 coup.
The Haiti Coup One Year Later: A Look Back at the
U.S. Role in the Overthrow of Aristide
On the first anniversary of the coup in Haiti, we look back
at Democracy Now!'s exclusive broadcast when President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide went on camera for the first time to charge the U.S.
kidnapped him and overthrew his government. We also broadcast
the interview of his bodyguard Franz Gabriel who describes
the events surrounding Aristide's ouster. [includes rush
transcript]
Before we hear from Aristide, we wanted to go back to those
days and listen to how the Bush administration was spinning
the ouster.
On March 1, Democracy Now! broke the story that Aristide
was directly accusing the US of overthrowing him in a coup,
kidnapping him and taking him by force to the Central African
Republic. That day US official after US official was asked
about Aristide's charge. Let's listen to Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and White
House Secretary Scott McClellan.
- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
- Secretary of State Colin Powell
- White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan
In my talks with President Aristide on board the plane Monday,
I asked him if he had resigned-- as the Bush administration
continues to allege.
PRESIDENT ARISTIDE: No, I didn't resign. What some people
call "resignation" is a "new coup d'etat,"
or "modern kidnapping."
Because the circumstances under which Aristide was removed
from Haiti continue to be a source of great international
controversy, we felt we needed to get as comprehensive a version
of events as possible from President Aristide. I asked him
why he calls his removal from Haiti a coup and a kidnapping.
Intelligence Inc: The Privatization of U.S. Interrogations
at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and Afghanistan
We look at how private contractors are now working at almost
every level of the so-called war on terror, specifically in
military interrogations at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and Afghanistan.
We speak with investigative journalist Pratap Chatterjee,
his latest article is called "Intelligence Inc.: Military
Interrogation Training Gets Privatized."
Since the Bush administration launched its so-called war
on terror four years ago, places like Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo
have become household names. And the conduct of the US military
and intelligence agencies have come under increasing scrutiny
for their conduct while detaining and interrogating prisoners.
Over the past several months on this program, we have reported
extensively on the US government's extraordinary rendition
policy, where prisoners are sent to countries that have poor
human rights records where they are tortured. But it is not
just foreign governments that the US is using. Private contractors
are now working at almost every level of the so-called war
on terror.
- Pratap Chatterjee, managing director of CorpWatch.org.
His latest piece, which comes out this week is called "Intelligence,
Inc." He is the author of "Iraq, Inc."
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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