[Marxism] Haiti: French, US Colonialists Return...

["David Quarter" <davidquarter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[Forward from: Rick Rozoff]
******************************************************************************
ttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30669-2004Mar4.html

[For French colonization see 2 below; for US conquest
and occupation, see 1]

Washington Post
March 4, 2004


Marines Spread Out In Haitian Capital
Violence Abates as Force Extends Reach
By Scott Wilson


-The Marines cleared away barricades used by groups of
armed Aristide supporters to protect themselves and
were insulted by mobs chanting for the deposed
president's return. Some of the military patrols
consisted of U.S. and French troops....
-There were reports of killings Thursday in the
southern city of Petit-Goave and in the capital's
western suburbs. Although no official count has been
made, police and hospital officials estimate the death
toll from the weeks-long strife at more than 120
people.
- Louis Jodel Chamblain, a rebel commander who has
been convicted for his role as a paramilitary leader
in political killings, said he would not disarm his
men.
Chamblain was a leader of the Revolutionary Front for
Haitian Advancement and Progress, a paramilitary force
created by the military junta that ousted Aristide
from power in 1991, seven months after he became the
first democratically elected leader in Haiti's
history.
-Foreign troops continued to arrive Thursday -- 800
from France and several hundred from Chile -- as the
multinational force builds toward a planned strength
of 5,000.


PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 4 -- U.S. Marines
patrolled the streets here Thursday in armored convoys
and on foot in a show of force that brought order to
much of the capital after days of looting and
violence.

The patrols ventured for the first time into several
neighborhoods loyal to Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who
resigned Sunday as Haiti's president in the face of a
rising armed rebellion and international pressure. The
Marines cleared away barricades used by groups of
armed Aristide supporters to protect themselves and
were insulted by mobs chanting for the deposed
president's return. Some of the military patrols
consisted of U.S. and French troops, working alongside
Haitian police.

"That's a big step forward in where I think we have to
go," Col. Mark Gurganus, who commands the
international force that includes about 1,000 U.S.
Marines, said of the patrols at an afternoon news
conference. "We will continue those, we will expand
those, and that will become common sight."

While the looting and violence that followed
Aristide's resignation lessened, the capital and much
of the country remains a patchwork of towns and
neighborhoods that are loyal or bitterly opposed to
the former president. Militants on both sides are
armed, and the multinational military force has yet to
extend its reach much beyond the capital of 1.3
million people.

There were reports of killings Thursday in the
southern city of Petit-Goave and in the capital's
western suburbs. Although no official count has been
made, police and hospital officials estimate the death
toll from the weeks-long strife at more than 120
people.

Leslie Voltaire, a former Aristide minister now
serving on the three-member commission to select an
interim government, warned that pledges by rebel
leaders to lay down their arms were being ignored by
the most dangerous faction. He said Louis Jodel
Chamblain, a rebel commander who has been convicted
for his role as a paramilitary leader in political
killings, said he would not disarm his men.

Chamblain was a leader of the Revolutionary Front for
Haitian Advancement and Progress, a paramilitary force
created by the military junta that ousted Aristide
from power in 1991, seven months after he became the
first democratically elected leader in Haiti's
history. U.S. troops returned Aristide to office in
1994, and he was re-elected in 2000 to a five-year
term. Officials in the Central African Republic, where
Aristide arrived after his pre-dawn flight from Haiti,
said Thursday he could remain there to live.

A number of paramilitary leaders, as well as former
military officers, led the rebel army that controlled
more than half the country by the time Aristide
resigned. At a meeting Wednesday, U.S. military
officers ordered the rebels to lay down their arms
after several near-clashes with U.S. forces.

"As I work on this commission, I will demand far
better security," Voltaire said in a telephone
interview. "We cannot have any security as long as
these people are running around."

But members of the civilian movement that opposed
Aristide said armed gangs loyal to the former
president continue to kill opposition members,
including an activist in the pro-Aristide neighborhood
of Belair. Marines confronted an angry crowd in the
neighborhood hours later, clearing out barricades that
had prevented police from entering it in recent days.

"There is a lot of confusion right now, but with the
U.S. and U.N. help we will have a new government,"
said Bruneau Edgarz, an adviser to opposition leader
Evans Paul. "This is still a security problem. The
Aristide militants are still in the streets and they
are still killing people. The troops must act fast to
prevent this from getting worse."

Foreign troops continued to arrive Thursday -- 800
from France and several hundred from Chile -- as the
multinational force builds toward a planned strength
of 5,000. The soldiers are scheduled to be in Haiti
for three months.

Gurganus said that the multinational force would not
intercede to stop looting, only to protect lives. He
said the Haitian National Police, numbering about
3,000 officers in a country of 8 million people, would
be responsible for maintaining order. The new police
chief, Leon Charles, pleaded for more foreign
assistance to help train and equip his officers.

"They've been devastated and they've been
demoralized," Gurganus said. "But I'll tell you what.
There's no braver faces in Haiti than those of the new
police chief and all of the officers I have spoken
with."
------------------------------------------------------
1
For background information on the US nineteen year
military conquest and occupation of Haiti, see:
http://www.ibblio.org/uncpress/chapters/renda_taking.html
------------------------------------------------------2
Haitian War of Independence 1802-1804 From France
http://www.onwar.com/aced/nation/hat/haiti/fhaiti1802.htm






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