No to an Aristide's presidency

As the 1987 Haitian constitution provides for, former Haitian President and firebrand Roman Catholic priest, Jean-Betrand Aristide has a right to be a presidential candidate in the Sunday presidential election, in Haiti. But talk to Haitians and foreign advocates of democracy, and they all will quickly complain that he is an obstacle to democracy, in that Caribbean country, with an estimated population of 8 million citizens.                                                                                                                                                                                         Nineteen of Haiti's 27-Senate Chamber members - many of them well known drug baron - belong to Aristide's Lavalas Family party. And, most of them were fraudulently elected on May 21st, despite a continuing demand by the international community and opposition leaders for a recount of the votes, which would certainly prove that only nine of the senators-elect did not face a run-off into elections.                                                                                                                                                                                                A wave of murders and kidnappings of opposition leaders and supporters alike, all by bandits who have publicly identified themselves as members of Aristide's party and the leftist government of Rene Preval, preceded and succeeded the May election.                                                                                                                                                                                            Sadly, those same bandits continue on a daily basis to warn legitimate opposition party members not to take their campaigns, if any, to the streets, though they all have boycotted the presidential vote by not participating, and urged citizens to do likewise. Otherwise, say the bandits, they all will be burned alive, leaving only Aristide to run against a small group of virtually unknowns.                                                                                                                                                                                          Worse, legitimate opposition members have been prevented from holding meetings at their party headquarters. On Nov. 2, for example, bandits who publicly identified themselves as members of Aristide's party opened fire on peaceful citizens who were participating in a meeting of the Papaye Peasants' Movement, Haiti's biggest rural workers' organization, in the central region of the impoverished Caribbean nation. An incalculable number of the participants were wounded, including the brother of opposition leader, Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, who was fatally shot.                                                                                                                                                                                               In a democracy, citizens including former presidents, rely on the path of the constitution to exercise their rights. Unfortunately, not so in Haiti. The fact that opposition members have not been allowed by radical leftist Aristide to freely participate in what should be a democratic exercise, that is the Sunday presidential election, suggests that Haiti is not a democracy, rather a dictatorship of the proletariat. Most importantly, Aristide himself is the constitution.                                                                                                                                                                                               So, too, in a democracy victimized citizens rely on the judicial system, which laws serve as general deterrents, in addition to special deterrents, to obtain justice. Unfortunately, not so in Haiti. Aristide and his bandits have yet to be arrested, and probably will never be, for a series of violent politically motivated crimes committed lately, too. All this suggests is that they are the court.                                                                                                                                                                                              Sure an anticipated Sunday Aristide's presidential victory and the swearing-in ceremony, due on February 7th, will both be formalities. Current leftist Haitian president, Preval, an Aristide's godson, is nothing more than the filling in an Aristide's sandwich, as the regrettable events of the past five years suggest.                                                                                                                                                                                             Still, it is because we want to avert the worse, including perpetual extreme poverty since radical leftist Aristide does not have an economic program that is even far from being mediocre, in Haiti that we say we remarkable alacrity, remarkable energy "NO" to an official Aristide's presidency, too.

We support the August 18th demonstration against dictatorship in Haiti

There has not been progress against the drug gangs, despite a great deal of help from the United States. But part of the cause is many well known drug barons - now questionable Senators-elect are members of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas Family party. See U.S. News & World Report of May 29, 2000. See The Washington Times of August 7, 2000, too.                                                                                                                                                                                             The leftist Haitian government of Rene Preval has turned a blind eye to the continuing problem of abject poverty while officials continue to pillage the public treasury.                                                                                                                                                                                           Haitians face both a surge in petty crime and state-sponsored crime, especially Aristide's paid bandits, as they have on many occasions attested to, continue to terrorize citizens and burn political opponents alive.                                                                                                                                                                                             There is also the question of a series of fraudulent elections held over the past eleven weeks favoring largely (candidates for the Aristide's party were said to win 18 of the 19 Senate seats that were for grabs in the May 21 elections) Aristide's Lavalas Family party candidates.                                                                                                                                                                                       Electricity is rationed, often two hours a day. As millions of citizens put it: Thomas Edison's revolution has not yet taken place in Haiti.                                                                                                                                                                                               For all that, including the July 27 grenade attack on the Canadian Ambassador's private residence, in Haiti, and the August 11th firebomb of a European Union official's private residence, too, in that Caribbean nation, thousands of Haitians will assemble, Friday, August 18th, in front of the United Nations, in Manhattan, to say "NO" to the leftist government of Preval, which is nothing other than a vessel for Aristide's legacy of the dictatorship of the proletariat.                                                                                                                                                                                                We urge all advocates of democracy to attend the May 18th demonstration, again which immediate aims are to say "NO" to the leftist totalitarian government of Preval. In so doing you will not only help Haiti achieve democracy, but, too, resident citizens and others of the said nation enjoy a better quality of life - the demonstrators' ultimate objectives.                                                                                                                                                                                               For additional information concerning the Friday demonstration, you may contact Haiti-Observateur at: (718) 834-0222.

Voltaire claimed that "history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes." Had he lived to write about Jean-Bertrand Aristide who was followed by an even handed tyrant named Rene Preval, too, of the former French colony of Saint-Domingue, but now Haiti, he would have written that prior to the May 21 elections for parliament and hundreds of local positions more than 15 opposition candidates were assassinated in broad daylight in that country.                                                                                                                                                                                            What else would be of concern to Voltaire? The first step in the development of a democracy - free and fair elections - was not accomplished on May 21. The vote was manipulated to favor only former Haitian President Aristide's Lavalas Family party candidates. And, more than 65 of the hundreds of opposition candidates who claimed that the vote was largely fraudulent and declared it "invalid" were kidnapped by the leftist Haitian government of Preval. The kidnapping of opposition candidates, all in a matter of a few days after the elections, helped showed a clear pattern of the government violations of citizens human rights.                                                                                                                                                                                            Voltaire's writings would further transport his readers to Leon Manus, a Haitian top election official who refused to publish "bogus" results for the May 21 vote. He fled the country Friday, June 16 after receiving death threats.                                                                                                                                                                                       Defying foreign pressure, including the United States, and a boycott by opposition parties, leftist Preval went ahead with a second round of legislative and local elections Sunday, July 9.                                                                                                                                                                                              That many of Aristide's party so-called "victor candidates" for local positions were sworn in last week now what, exactly, must the international community, including the United States, do to make both leftist tyrants, Aristide and Preval, behave? One answer is: impose a blanket of economic and political sanctions on Haiti.                                                                                                                                                                                              Such action, long awaited by all advocates of democracy, will sure give birth to a democratic type of government in the Caribbean nation. Hopefully, the country will cease to project images of wall-to-wall incompetence, fraudulent elections, politically motivated killings, drug trafficking, despair, danger, to name only these ones.

New York City Police adds Dorismond to its murder list

Just when advocates of civil and human rights thought that Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant, was going to be the last person to be sodomized and tortured by a few New York City police officers, in August 1997. Just when advocates of civil and human rights thought Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African, was going to be the last human being to be shot 19 times, out of a total of 41 shots fired, to death by a team of plainclothes New York City police officers, last year. The murder of Haitian-American Patrick Dorismond, 26, this past Thursday by Anthony Vasquez, a New York City under cover detective, however, once again proves when it comes to, especially poor minorities and immigrants, the policy of the relevant city police force, perhaps written in fine prints, is not to serve and protect but murder whenever so desires.

Yet Mayor Rudolph Giulani's one-dimensional denigration of the reputation of Mr. Dorismond who was arrested a few times but had never actually been convicted of a crime suggests the amended 1964 Civil Rights Act, which reversed a historical mandated pattern of racial discrimination in the United States, does not apply to New City.

As the families and friends of Louima, Diallo, and Dorismond, so to include those of Baez, Ferguson, and others who were also murdered by New York City police officers, continue to mourn their premature but tragic deaths, however, those who know that the Giuliani's municipal government policy, especially for poor people of color, is synonymous with death should unite in their resolve to see an end to the killings and devastation of the relevant group of citizens.

The United States, France, Canada, etc. we are calling on you all to stop sending your taxpayers' money to the leftist Haitian dictator

Haitian President Rene Preval looks like a scene out of a Graham Greene novel, "The Comedians." "We have a parliamentary crisis. As a result we are going to hold elections next month, the arid and mountainous quasi-semi-Caribbean Island nation president told his fellow citizens in a radio broadcast on January11th. And, a few weeks later, Preval said "We were going to hold elections last month but could not proceed with them as scheduled because we were not ready. Anyway, we will hold them on March 19. As anticipated, the same Preval who on many occasions called for legislative and municipal elections after dissolving Parliament in January 1999 once again postponed the elections scheduled for March 19 on January 3. It is sure an indication that he intends to hold on the unlimited power he gave himself to govern by decree when he dissolved Parliament on January 12, 1999. Since it is so, his government or "dictatorship of the proletariat" deserves no more foreign assistance.

Correspond with Yves A. Isidor via electronic mail:wehaitians@gis.net