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Posted at 1:05 a.m., Wednesday, May 30, 2001
The Wall Street Journal on radical leftist Aristide's sleazy business deals Not even the most well read Haitian or foreign citizen, with an interest in Haitian affairs, can know everything about the troubled Caribbean country that is Haiti and its de facto president, radical leftist Jean-Bertrand Arisitide. It is for that reason we post below a May 29, 2001 Wall Street Journal editorial, entitled "Review & Outlook," with a subtitle "Haitian Connections," which appeared on page A22. It provides uniquely new information, though too painful to absorb, but will certainly help you comprehend why Haitians continue to endure dehumanizing poverty and chief bandit Aristide is an obstacle to economic development and democracy in Haiti.
REVIEW & OUTLOOK |
| _________________ |
Haitian Connections
One of the famous foreign policy interventions of the Clinton Presidency was the controversial decision to return Jean Bertrand Aristide to power in Haiti in 1994. This newspaper supported Mr. Clinton, arguing that with U.S. prestige committed and with the restoration of democratic government in the impoverished island as a goal, the President deserved support. So it is worth revisiting the status of Haiti today, especially to ask how it came to pass that in the wake of this intervention, President Clinton's politically associates - including a former Democratic Party finance chair, a former White House counselor and Joseph P.Kennedy II - ended up in commercial relationships with the Aristide's government monopoly-owned telephone company. Since 1994, both as president and later as the power broker behind the presidency of Rene Preval and the Lavalas Party,
| Fusion | Telecommunications International |
| Network | Communications Service Provider |
Mr. Aristide has ruled Haiti like a mob don. He has extorted the business community, trampled on the 1987 constitution and terrorized his political and economic opponents. Just this past week the Coast Guard sent a ship of 121 Haitian refugees back to the island. Nearly 700 have tried to escape by the sea this year. Haiti's November 26 Presidential election, in which less than 5% of Haitians voted, was a sham. Five international human rights organizations released a joint statement in January denouncing the election's violent political climate. Amnesty International called upon the Lavalas Party to condemn acts of intimidation and violence committed in the party's name. The European Union voted to withhold aid. In response, the Clinton Administration in January sent Anthony Lake, a former Clinton national security adviser, to Port-au-Prince. He came back with an eight-point agreement in which Mr. Aristide promised better behavior in the future. The Lake agreement was one free pass too many for Mr. Aristide's battered opponents (just this past Monday, a house was shot up where opposition leaders were meeting, wounding three). They have grown increasingly eager to tell what they know about Mr. Aristide's business activities - both now and in Washington during the 1991-94 exile that followed his overthrow by General Raul Cedras. Regarded as Haiti's legitimate president at that time, U.S. authorities granted Mr. Aristide access to the country's frozen assets, most notably the long distance telephone royalties due to Haitian Teleco. According to Christopher Caldwell, writing in the July 1994 America Spectator, Mr. Aristide "raised hackles at the Latin America division of AT&T by ordering the proceeds from Haiti's international phone traffic moved to a numbered Panamanian account." In November 1993, The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr. Aristide was paying Democratic Party operative Micheal Barnes $55,000 a month to lobby for U.S. action to reinstate him. With the help of U.S. troops, he returned to Haiti. After regaining Haiti's presidency, the telephone monopoly continued to be useful. Because Haiti is one of the top three markets in the region for long distance calls from the U.S., the monopoly is a cash cow. Mr. Aristide placed loyal Lavalas followers in charge of it, keeping it under his control. According to the Federal Communications Commission, the most recent officially negotiated settlement rate - the cost Teleco charges U.S. carriers for handling a long distance call in Haiti - is 46 cents a minute. But digital switching allows the company to charge what it wishes and to terminate calls in favor of any long distance carrier that it chooses. Moreover, if long distance carriers use Internet protocols to "bypass" official lines, the FCC cannot count the traffic. Two different long distance suppliers shopping the Haitian market have reported to us that Teleco officials offered them access to the local network at rates well below the official settlement rate in exchange for payment made to designated accounts. Based on telecom settlement processes, a company with privileged access to the network would also receive a high proportion of return traffic from Haiti, also a big money maker. Says one U.S. telecom expert with knowledge of Haiti's system: "The real sweetheart deals are the ones that have a connection inside Teleco. Those are the deals that make people filthy rich." A U.S. official specializing in international telecom says, "This is exactly what we've been seeing in Haiti for years. The money doesn't go anywhere that leads to a network build-out. Calls get through and someone get very rich." Despite high rates justified for the purposes of expanding service, the number of phone lines servicing the country remains paltry; most Haitians are relegated to the use of "call centers" to make phone calls. Those centers are in the hands of Lavalas. The wide recognition in Haiti that such deals are available has made the presence of independent U.S. long distance provider Fusion Telecommunications International a topic of much discussion among the Haitian business community. Fusion's board of directors reads like a who's who of Democratic Party heavyweights. Fusion's CEO is Marvin Rosen, who was finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee during the 1996 Clinton fund-raising scandals. Fusion's board of directors includes Joseph P. Kennedy II, former Mississippi Governor Raymond Mabus and Bill Clinton's White House chief of staff and Arkansas confidant Thomas "Mack" McLarty, now with Kissinger McLarty Associates. Mr. McLarty traveled the region as the White House's Special Envoy to the Americas. The Fusion board also includes Joseph R. Wright, a former director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Regean. Listed as chairman of the Fusion Advisory Board is former President Bush's White House Chief of Staff John Sunnunu. The full listing is available at www.fusiontel.com/about.html. Last fall, when we began to inquire about Fusion's long distance service to Haiti, the company's in-house counsel refused to either confirm or deny that it even offered service in that market. Numerous follow-up calls since to her and other members of management were never returned. Mr. McLarty denied any knowledge altogether about Fusion's involvement in Haiti. Mr. Kennedy did not return our query. It was only after our Mary O'Grady independently confirmed Fusion's activity in Haiti and wrote about it for the American Column (Clinton's Haiti Policy Deserves Prompt Scrutiny," January 26, 2001), that Mr. Kennedy's office gave us a statement: Joe has no joint venture, partnership or business arrangement with the president of Haiti." The statement also says that Mr. Kennedy is not involved in running Fusion. Mr. Kennedy's denial is interesting given his February 7 op-ed in the Boston Globe where he wrote on the occasion of Mr. Aristide's inauguration: "I was proud to help bring more than $1 million in private investment from Fusion into Haiti." We are not suggesting that Fusion's business in Haiti is illegal. And we are not so naive as to be shocked at the spectacle of prominent political figures exploiting their former lives as public officials. We are saying that Fusion's Haiti deal is sleazy. For people connected with the Clinton Presidency-cum-political machine to attach themselves like pilot fish to the bleeding ruin of Haiti under Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in the wake of an enormous commitment of American prestige and money on behalf of Haiti's people, doesn't survive any conceivable smell test. It is also smells that it is so hard for Fusion's Clintonites to acknowledge secret business deals with Aristide, the sole owner and operator of the Haitian economy, who is in power thanks to a U.S. intervention. And yes, we do wonder if this is the tip of yet another Clinton iceberg. The Bush Administration, particularly Colin Powell at State, should be alert to this phenomenon as it revisits the venues of the Clinton foreign policy legacy.
Posted at 2:53 a.m., Tuesday, May 29, 2001
Radical leftist Aristide, Haiti's champion murderer, Haiti's primitive tyrant The Organization of American States Secretary-General, Cesar Gaviria, a former president of Colombia, and former Dominican Prime Minister, Dame Eugenia Charles, will journey in Port-au-Prince, the capital city of Haiti, from May 29 to 31, 2001. If there is a purpose for such a high level delegation ever, it is to (hopefully) find a solution to the long Haitian political crisis, which began after radical leftist Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his political godson Rene Preval held a series of largely fraudulent elections last May. After fictive results were published for those elections, Lavalas Family, the party of radical leftist Aristide, was said to have won all of the seats in the 27-Senate member. As for the House of Deputies, his party candidates were declared winners of more than 80% of the seats. Still, radical leftist Aristide doubted that he will have absolute power, at least, over the next five years. His grand fraud became more pronounced when his party mayoral candidates were said to win more than 85% of Haiti's City Halls. But on Nov. 26th there was no longer doubt that radical leftist Aristide meant to sit atop a de facto government, a tyrannical government that resembled that of Stalin's, including Castro's. His remarkable victory (nearly 92% of the votes cast) in the presidential election that was boycotted by all political parties, causing less than 5% of the electorate to participate under duress, still was due to blatant fraud. It was certainly a way of confirming the consolidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat, which he instituted in 1991. Results published for the presidential elections thereafter have since been been regarded by the Haitian democratic opposition, better known as the Convergence Democratique, as nothing more than fictive, suggesting that it does not recognize radical leftist Aristide as a duly elected president. The same can be said for the the fraudulent victors of the earlier votes. The opposition has on many occasions attempted to initiate civilities, to turn Haiti, at least into a quasi-democratic state, by inviting radical leftist Aristide for talks, in the hope that he would eventually be persuaded to accept a deal. The radical leftist tyrant reciprocates by refusing to honestly negotiate. The international community while not recognizing the victors of those elections, including radical leftist Aristide's, has made several attempts to find a solution to the long political crisis. For example, Luigi Einaudi, an American who ranks No. 2 in the 34-nation OAS, has been to Haiti eight times since the month of August. His visits there have not been proven beneficial at all. As the OAS's top official, Cesar Gaviria, plans to visit the dirt poor Caribbean country today in a final effort to find a solution to the long political crisis, the situation has gone from bad to worse. Gabriel Fortune, a former Senator who recently became a member of the Democratic opposition, was attacked last Monday by radical leftist Aristide's bandits in the provincial city of Les Cayes, 90 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince. He was later kidnapped by Lavalas police or radical leftist Aristide's assassins, and has yet regain his liberty. In the the aftermath of the former senator's kidnapping, his sister who was also protesting the pillage of his store was hit so hard by bandits that she vomited blood. But as is always the case in a dictatorship, especially that of the proletariat, a tragic end seemed to be awaiting Fortune's attorney and his brother. Yves Jean, 50, Fortune's attorney, was killed in a mysterious car accident Saturday in Leogane, about 25 miles west of Port-au-Prince. Jean-Moise Fortune, 32, a law student and the incarcerated former senator's brother who was in the car with Jean, was seriously wounded. He was minutes later transported to a nearby hospital. Fortune, who was in a coma for more than a day, told reporters after he regained consciousness Sunday "I had driven about 55 miles when I realized a white sport utility vehicle was following me. I turned off into a town for about 15 minutes and when I returned to the road the vehicle appeared behind me again. I continued to drive but lost control of the car after I hear what sounded like a gunshot." Both victims, Yves Jean and Jean-Moise Fortune were on their way from the provincial city of Les Cayes to Port-au-Prince to file an appeal for jailed politician Gabriel Fortune. And the kidnapping of even assumed political opponents took another turn Saturday, when Prosper Avril, a former Haitian military dictator, for example, was kidnapped at gunpoint by six hooded Lavalas police or radical leftist Aristide's bandits. A press release received by Avril's political party, Coalition to Help Haiti Achieves Economic Development, Democracy and Respect for the Law and Order or CREDO, reads as follows: "Once again, democracy and individual freedom have been trampled on by government forces in Haiti. On Saturday, May 26, 2001, at 11:30 am, General Prosper Avril, a former Head of State, former Commander-in-Chief of the Army, and our Party's leader, was abducted by a commando of heavily armed men, while he was signing off the release of his new book." The press release went on to say "please find attached the official statement released by the Party regarding this shameful act perpetrated by the Lavalas government. Thank you for your attention." Radical leftist Aristide's trumpeted-up charge, "plotting against the state," against Avril, who was at a restaurant in the Port-au-Prince upper-class suburb of Petion-Ville reading his new book, "The Black Book of Insecurity," to a small audience at the time of his kidnapping, long ago entered his tyrannical type lexicon. It is under the very same bogus charge that the persons of thousands of other honest and innocent Haitians have been seized at gunpoint by radical leftist Aristide. Most of them have been gruesomely murdered, and most of the time seconds after they are abducted. A brutal dictatorship of the proletariat. Rampant executions of citizens at shooting range. Fictive results published thereafter for fraudulent elections are also things that the OAS no longer wants to tolerate in the Americas, especially in this post cold war era. According to a source we can thrust, OAS Secretary Gaviria plans to warn radical leftist Aristide during his visit in Port-au-Prince today the already desperately poor nation that is Haiti faces abandonment by the hemispheric community unless he moves quickly to effectively address the country's long political problem, which reflects the so clumsy fraudulent elections held last year. "Nobody is in favor of sanctions but nobody is in favor of continuing to try," Einaudi said Monday. There have growing support among Haitians for the OAS to tell radical leftist Aristide that it is time to behave and his refusal to do so will come at great costs - including the lost of fraudulent powers. "A vote by the OAS during its June 3-5 General Assembly in Costa Rica in favor of opting for the 1080 Resolution, which means imposing a blanket of economic sanctions on the radical leftist and de facto government of Aristide to make it behave seems to be the only solution to the political problem we Haitians unfortunately have long ago found ourselves in," said many Haitians. The International Court of Justice may, too, be instrumental in helping Haiti achieves even partial democracy. We may not forget the Spanish judge, Baltazar Garcon, who had the Chilean dictator Agusto Pinochet arrested for crimes committed against humanity by British authorities. "We are preparing to try you, even in the distant future, for crimes committed against humanity" is all both need to tell radical leftist Aristide so he may indeed stop kidnapping and killing his fellow Haitian compatriots and become history.
Posted at 3:16 a.m., Sunday, May 27, 2001 Former Haitian military dictator Avril arrested by Lavalas police Lavalas police or radical leftist Jean-Bertrand Aristide's police Saturday seized at gunpoint Prosper Avril, a former Haitian military dictator, from 1988 to 1990, at a restaurant in the Port-au-Prince upper-class suburb of Petion-Ville, where he was reading his latest book, "The Black Book of Insecurity," to small audience. Besides the book is rich in information about politically motivated killings in Haiti, which radical leftist Aristide is responsible for, the author, Avril, has managed to include in it about 500 photographs of victims so readers may visualize them after reading their names. "Immediately after he started signing copies of his book," said his daughter Carine Avril-Cinea, "about six hooded people, all dressed in black, came in with a paper and then handcuffed him." Avril's daughter later learned that he was taken out of the circulation on the usual trumpeted-up charges of "plotting against the state." "The seizure of Avril's person was certainly an attempt by radical leftist Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a disciple of Mao Ze-dong, to destroy his.book, which he believes may one day serve as a source of reference when he finally faces the bar of justice for an innumerable of number of crimes committed," many Haitians said Saturday. Mao, who came to power in China after the 1946-49 civil war or the cultural revolution there, banned the teachings of Confucius, he ordered all of his books destroyed, because he perceived them to be threats to his brutal dictatorial rule of the far left or modified Marxist-Leninist rule. More than 35 million Chinese citizens were assassinated or starved to death during his reign of terror. Another kidnapping, among many others, however, took place Monday. Gabriel Fortune, a former legislator, was kidnapped at gunpoint Monday by Lavalas police in the provincial city of Les Cayes, 90 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince. Fortune, who was later charged on trumpeted-up charges, "Attempted murder," has yet to regain his liberty. "You have not committed a crime, but I must return you to your cell because I have been ordered to do so by President Aristide," a judge told him after he was brought to Haiti's kangaroo court by Lavalas police. The former Senator's sister was hit so hard while protesting also the pillage of his store by radical leftist Jean-Bertrand Aristide's bandits that she vomited blood. In another development, Haiti's democratic opposition, better known as the Convergence Democratique, said Saturday it would refuse to join radical leftist Aristide at the negotiation table unless two of its members regain their freedom.
Posted at 12:01 a.m., Saturday, May 26, 2001
OAS/CAICOM to visit Haiti Among the many sad things on a piece of land in the Caribbean today is the fact that Haiti, a nation that should be preparing to proudly celebrate its 200 years of independence on January 1, 2004, continues to be a kleptocracy and dictatorship of the proletariat, with radical leftist Jean-Bertrand Aristide as tyrant-in-chief. What else? The poorest country of the Americas and the third hungriest country, after Afghanistan and Somalia, in the world, said a recent United Nations Report. Now that the Organization of the American States (OAS) has indicated an OAS/CARICOM mission will visit the sunny and mountainous Republic, from May 29 to 31, 2001, in an effort to help find a solution to the political crisis which has confronted it since both, leftist Rene Preval and radical leftist Aristide, held a series of largely fraudulent elections last year, the latter faces a fundamental political question: Should I try to help find a solution to the long Haitian political crisis, which I am really the cause? If the OAS/CARICOM May 29-31 visit bear no fruit the hemispheric organization will probably be forced to vote the Santiago 1080 Resolution during its General Assembly in Costa Rica, June 3-5, 2001, imposing partial or a blanket of economic sanctions on radical leftist Aristide's dictatorship of the proletariat, as it did after the 1991 military coup d'etat, which sent the former priest of the shanty towns into exile, first in Venezuela, then in the U.S. He was returned to Haiti by the U.S. three years later after promising former President William Jefferson Clinton that he will no longer burn alive his political opponents, just to cite only this one. But what Haiti was experiencing within weeks of radical leftist Aristide's return - a man who used to wear tattered polyester paints - was a series of politically motivated murders. Mireille Durocher Bertin, a prominent Atty., along with a client, for example, was assassinated in broad daylight on March 28, 1995. There since have been an innumerable number of politically motivated killings, suggesting that he will one day have to face the bar of justice. See OAS press release in its entirety and format below.
May Press Release
| (E-112/01 |
| May 24, 2001 |
| OAS/CARICOM MISSION WILL VISIT HAITI |
The Joint OAS/CARICOM Mission to Haiti, led by Secretary General Cesar Gavaria and former Dominican Prime Minister, Dame Eugenia Charles, will visit Port-au-Prince from May 29 to 31, 2001. The Joint Mission, established on May 9 following an agreement by Prime Minister Owen Arthur of Barbados, Chairman of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM, and Secretary General Gavaria, will further attempts at a resolution of the political problems which have confronted Haiti since the elections of May 21, 2000. The Mission will meet with President Aristide, with representatives of political parties and civil society, with other local leaders and with representatives of the international community in Haiti. As noted in an earlier press release, the formation of this joint Mission responds to the request articulated by Prime Minister Jean Chretien of Canada during his closing statement at the III Summit of the Americas in Quebec City and an earlier mandate from CARICOM leaders in mid February 2001. The Joint Mission will report to the OAS General Assembly in Costa Rica, June 3-5, 2001.
Posted at 1:30 p.m., Thursday, May 24, 2001
Radical leftist Aristide charges democratic opposition politician kidnapped Monday at gunpoint The kidnapping Monday at gunpoint of Gabriel Fortune, a former legislator, but now a member of Haiti's democratic opposition, better known as the Democratique Convergence, by Lavalas police, in the provincial city of Les Cayes, 90 miles southwest of the capital city of Port-au-Prince, said many Haitians Wednesday, was another attempt by radical leftist Jean-Bertrand Aristide to silence the opposition, which he continues to blame for trying to undo his dictatorship of the proletariat that was further consolidated after a series of largely elections were held last year in an effort to turn Haiti into a democratic state. Fortune, who was severely attacked Monday by radical leftist Aristide's armed bandits while meeting with some opposition members, was charged Wednesday attempted murder. Bandits wounded at least four people. Fortune, whose store was completely pillaged and his sister hit so hard by bandits that she vomited blood, remained in jail on Thursday on the trumpeted-up charges.
Posted at 12:23 a.m., Wednesday, May 23, 2001
Radical leftist Aristide's bandits pillage business owned by opposition politician kidnapped Monday; bandits hit kidnapped opposition politician's sister After more than a year of refusing to negotiate over a series of largely fraudulent elections, including the Nov. 26th presidential vote, held last year with Haiti's democratic opposition, better known as the Convergence Democratique, on the ground that results published thereafter for the elections were not fictive, as claimed by opposition leaders, in addition to the international community, former Senator and opposition politician Gabriel Fortune and many of his colleagues were severely attacked Monday by radical leftist Aristide's bandits in the the provincial city of Les Cayes, 90 miles southwest of the trash-filled capital city of Port-au-Prince. At least four people were wounded after radical leftist Aristide's bandits opened fire. Fortune's business was completely pillaged by radical leftist Aristide's bandits minutes after he was kidnapped by the latter thugs or police. As usual, police watched but did nothing to stop or prevent so. As if pillaging Fortune's commercial enterprise was not enough, bandits nearly set the building that housed it ablaze. His sister who happened to be protesting his kidnapping as well as the pillage of his business venture was severely hit by the thugs of the same that she vomited blood. As tensions grew, political demagoguery, however, was once again what Yvon Neptune, a de facto senator and spokesperson for radical leftist Aristide's Family Lavalas political party, which many Haitians now call the party of death rather, is known to be famous for. Had Graham Greene not expired and decided to write a novel on Haiti's politics, in addition to "The Comedians," he would certainly be a character. "The power that Family Lavalas now holds is not a cake," suggesting that his terrorist type party has no intention at all to share power with the opposition. "The people voted Family Lavalas. If the opposition has questions about the legitimacy of our elected officials all it has to do is go to the people," said Neptune, a Haitian-American citizen, Tuesday who just a few years ago was fired from his school teaching job in Providence, Rhode Island for gross incompetence. Neptune's words, which came only a few days after chief bandit Aristide said he was ending all negotiations with the opposition, provoked an immediate reaction from the latter. Sure did the opposition have tough words for radical leftist Aristide, who has burned alive an innumerable number of citizens. "Mr. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, you choose the wrong way, a dead end, and this way will suddenly lead the country to a catastrophe," former Senator Paul Denis, a spokesperson for Convergence Democratique and, who himself was kidnapped last year by tyrant Aristide, said at a news conference. The opposition also criticized the kidnapping of former Senator Fortune Monday by radical leftist Aristide's thugs and demanded that he be set free. And since radical leftist Aristide's aims are to eliminate opposition leaders by any means necessary Evans Paul has been summoned to appear in his kangaroo court for questioning about the April 3rd, 2000 brutal murder of prominent radio journalist Jean Leopold Dominique. And Sauveur Pierre Etienne for alleged threats against king Aristide.
Updated at 12:45 p.m., Tuesday, May 22, 2001
121 Haitian boat people repatriated to Haiti by U.S. Coast Guard Slightly more than three months after Haiti's radical leftist Jean-Bertrand Aristide promised Haitians 500,000 jobs, suggesting that their quality of life would soon be comparable to that of U.S. citizens', then said many of his de facto government top officials, 121 Haitians fleeing dehumanizing poverty and political persecution in Haiti were repatriated to the Caribbean country Monday after their 40-foot (12 metre) sailboat, which was en route to Florida, was caught at sea Thursday night, off the Bahamas, by U.S. Coast Guard. The boat people, who boarded the flimsy vessel in Gonaives, 95 miles north of the capital city of Port-au-Prince, on May 12th, told U.S. Coast Guard they were fleeing abject poverty in their home country. "I will leave again if economic situation in Haiti doesn't improve and if the government doesn't help me," said Osnel Duval, a 43-old mechanic from Southwest Haiti and whose marketable skills suggest he and his wife wouldn't be fleeing abject poverty if Haiti had a duly elected and competent government, capable of designing and implementing an economic program, which multiplying effect would include the creation of thousands of jobs for citizens.
Haitian-American boy who disappeared in the ocean found dead more than twenty hours later The body of Jeffrey Guillaume, a 13-year-old Haitian-American boy who disappeared in the ocean at South Beach, in Miami, Sunday afternoon, was found Monday in the surf and seaweed by a strolling couple, more than 24 hours after his three friends spent three hours looking for him. "They didn't tell a lifeguard, didn't tell an adult, didn't tell anyone," Miami police spokesperson Jorge Pino said. "They rode their bicycles home, had supper and went to sleep without telling anyone. They got up in the morning and went to school without telling anyone." &nb