Security Council votes to Authorize Haiti Mission

[mobuto]

CNN is reporting that the Security Council has voted 15-0 to authorize the deployment of a 3-month multinational stabilization force, led by the United States, followed by a transfer of power to UN Peacekeepers. The multinational force will be composed of American, Canadian and French troops. The leaders of the acting government and the rebel leader, Guy Phillipe, have pledged to stop fighting.

I'm looking for an article.

On edit:

UN Security Council Approves Sending Peacekeepers to Haiti
Feb. 29 (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations Security Council approved sending a peacekeeping force to Haiti after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned.

The Council meeting in emergency session voted 15-0 in favor of sending a ``multinational interim force'' to Haiti for at least two months.

{snip}
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=alp.rIWUMbrg&refer=top_world_news

[frank frankly]

1. what BushCo did in Haiti makes me remember a year ago

our Pravda press is so damn near worthless

i am furious out of my mind

[Wonk]

2. Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4464124

(snip)

A resolution adopted unanimously by the 15-nation council calls for all sides in the conflict in Haiti to cease all violence and authorizes the force to "contribute to a secure and stable environment" across Haiti for up to three months, after which a follow-on U.N. stabilization force would take over.

[mobuto]

3. Thanks

[I AM SPARTACUS]

4. so, TonTon Bush and his Bully Boys have 3 months...

and I suppose we'll see another send-up of "mission accomplished" and "bringing the boys home" around, ummm...end o' May...

[mobuto]

5. Its totally different

because the UN will take over in June. Unlike Iraq, there's no reason to suggset that there will be any armed resistance, and even if there is, the armed factions are significantly smaller than the forces we'd be sending and very lightly armed. Moreover, this is a real multinational force and has the support of every power.

[I AM SPARTACUS]

7. I think ya missed the point...

let me rephrase...

The Bush administration will make a very big deal about the alleged success in bringing order to Haiti and then bringing the troops home. The media will go along by providing favorable coverage.

Addendum: if Haiti through March-May works out okay with no casualties or problems (which is fairly likely, as you point out), it will help the Bush administration obscure the exact opposite in Iraq.

[mobuto]

8. Oh sure, the Bush Administration will try to use this

for political advantage. But it won't work. Americans felt threatened by Iraq. (They weren't actually, but they thought they were.)

There is no threat from Haiti, so Bush won't benefit from this. It won't hurt, either, unless something goes tragically wrong. Instead, like Kosovo and Bosnia, Americans will probably pay little attention to the few thousand troops we have there.

Will Haiti be stabalized? To be honest, that's unlikely, but at least the bloodshed will be stopped for a time and the rebels will be prevented from seizing absolute power.

[I AM SPARTACUS]

9. I think it will work with some freeople...

And are you kidding? "the bloodshed will be stopped for a time and the rebels will be prevented from seizing absolute power."...???

BushCo is alongside to make sure that absolute power is absolutely achieved...

[mobuto]

10. That's silly

The rebels were positioned to take absolute power absent a US intervention. They're obviously hoping for some role in an interim government, but they're not going to get the whole pie. All the Bush Administration seems to have wanted was the ouster of Aristide. They got that, now they're keeping the rebels from taking over.

[I AM SPARTACUS]

11. you're kidding, right?

that deadpan expression, wow, that's really good...

[mobuto]

12. I'm sorry, I don't understand

Are you saying that you don't think the rebels were about to take Port-au-Prince?

[bemildred]

13. He thinks the "rebels" were hired help.

So do I.

[I AM SPARTACUS]

14. wow, that's real good, you keep the deadpan...

...and change the subject.

I said alongside, and I meant alongside.

[mobuto]

15. I'm not trying to play the fool

I really don't know what you're talking about.

[I AM SPARTACUS]

17. well, let's see...ya go back to post #9, and read it, and if you still...

don't understand, then you can start with a dictionary and make sure you understand the definition of the words. Now, let's say you do understand the definition of the words, but you don't understand their relation to this situation. So, you read a little news from a couple of sources, or maybe just look around at the upteen Haiti-related posts current at DU.

and admit it, at leasat to yourself...you're being disingenuous when you say that you're not trying to play the fool...

[mobuto]

20. No really, I don't understand

your sarcasm. You said that Bush was trying to give the rebels full power, I disputed that assertion, and now you're getting all indignant. I don't understand why. I don't think the course of events would support your thesis and I explained why. If you disagree so strongly, why don't you at least do me the service of explaining yourself instead of accusing me of acting in bad faith. I'm really not.

[I AM SPARTACUS]

24. I'm not indignant. I'm disinclined to repeat what other DUers have posted

If you are truly interested in the issues, you will have read some of the posts and followed the copious links and documentation.

As for your bad faith - it becomes more confirmed with each post. As for me "servicing" you...at least I'm not trotting out a derisive line - as you did a couple days ago - "what do you know about Haiti". At least I give you the benefit of the doubt that you know, but are just looking for an argument.

[mobuto]

28. I'm again not sure what you're referring to

I have read other Haiti threads. I haven't seen anything of note since the multilateral force was adopted. I think this is sufficient evidence that the US doesn't want them in power.

As for your bad faith - it becomes more confirmed with each post.

Uh, ok.

[I AM SPARTACUS]

31. a multilateral force proves that BushCo doesn't want them in power...?

How?

Are you familiar with the differences between a multilateral force, a government, and who is in power?

[Zhade]

16. Perfect circle, isn't it?

b*shCo aids in the coup, then turns right around and plays the hero.

Sickening.

[I AM SPARTACUS]

18. Circles of Hell...

your tax dollars at work...

[alittlelark]

19. But those of us who followed the story on Pacifica

know the REAL story. I have networked to all the friendly contacts I have. I hope everyone has done the same.

[daleo]

6. Will there be new elections?

Will they put Aristide back in power, to serve out his legal term? Or will they just rubber stamp a new U.S. puppet government? Is there a limit to cynicism?

And what or who is the acting government?

[alittlelark]

21. I just hope Aristide is not diagnosed

with 'incurable cancer' in the near future. I have a tin foil hat I take out of the closet occasionally.
I put nothing past this junta.:cry: :shrug:

[windansea]

22. errr....even the Carter Institute said elections were rigged

sorry but I wouldn't call the guy "democratically elected" based on these reports

re: 1995 election

The Carter Center report on the ensuing election -- written by Carter confidant and former National Security Council advisor Robert Pastor -- documents the disgraceful conduct of the Aristide government and his Lavalas party. "Of the 13 elections I have observed, the June 25 Haitian elections were the most disastrous technically, with the most insecure count," Pastor said in the report. "I personally witnessed the compromise of one-third of the ballot boxes in Port-au-Prince."

According to the report, the election was riddled with graft, fraud and chaos, with widespread irregularities, ballots burned, hundreds of voting stations never opened and tens of thousands of people never able to vote.

The report, issued by the Atlanta-based Carter Center, exposes Aristide's one-party "Lavalas" rule, with its widespread corruption, mismanagement and ballot manipulating, particularly in the June 25 election. Aristide's allies swept local and parliamentary seats in that balloting.

President Carter's critique of Aristide is especially startling, considering the long political association between the two. When Aristide won Haiti's 1990 presidential election, the Carter Center was at the forefront of groups supporting the results

A critical part of Aristide's plan for seizing total power in Haiti has been his illegal and authoritarian command of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) that conducted the fraudulent June election. Sensing trouble in March, Carter visited Haiti and was formally rebuffed by Aristide. Unofficially, he was greeted by hostile crowds and vicious graffiti, all engineered by Lavalas street gangs intent on embarrassing the former U.S. chief executive

http://www.cartercenter.org/documents/1248.pdf

and these reports on 2000 election from politics and elections.com


Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide won election as president of Haiti again, winning 92% of the vote according to the country's electoral council. All major opposition parties boycotted the election.

Aristide's Lavalas Family Party won all nine Senate seats that were contested, giving it all but one seat in the upper house. Lavalas Family also won 80% of the House of Assembly seats in may, June and July legislative elections. Opponents charge that those elections were rigged to enable Aristide to govern with, effectively, one-party rule.

Aristide was first elected in 1990, ending nearly 200 years of dictatorship. A bloody army coup kicked him out seven months later, followed by a terroristic military government, and than an invasion by U.S. troops to restore Aristide to power.

Opposition activist Evans Paul said ballot boxes were stuffed and tally sheets altered to make it look like a higher turnout. Some polls closed hours early for lack of voters.

more...

http://www.politicsandelections.com/international/hai.htm

[mobuto]

23. The last legitimate elections were in 1990

and were won by Aristide. There have been succesive elections since then in which totals were manipulated, opponents were attacked by armed thugs, etc. Aristide's real problem was that he fails to understand what a democracy is. He has an almost Messianic vision of the people rallying around the Man on a Horse - a savior, rather than a politician. He didn't understand that true democracy is a process not a person.

He did nothing to create a broad political system - for him it was Aristide or nothing. Since he couldn't get 100% support, he couldn't get what he wanted. I don't think he's necessarily a bad man, but he was dangerously weak (and therefore forced to rely on the support of dangerous street gangs) and his conceptual failure kept Haiti from really stabilizing.

[windansea]

25. I'm sure he knows what a fair election is

but like they say...absolute power corrupts...he was probably a good guy when Clinton installed him..but he turned into a thug...hopefully the UN will come in and give the people there some fair elections

[0007]

26. Where did you receive information that Aristide relied on

"dangerous street gangs?" Are you just supposing or do you have a link?

Do you live in Haiti?

[mobuto]

27. Do I live in Haiti?

No I don't live in Haiti. But knowledge of the Chimeres is pretty widespread.

Do a google or nexis search on them if you're curious. They're armed street gangs with a history of brutal violence that backed (and in return received the backing) of Aristide. Without an army, or a meaningful police force, they became the only armed faction in the country and the source of Aristide's power.

[windansea]

29. link and quote

direct Aristade quote

""Yes, we have less (support) than we had in
1990 ... but I think the 30,000 gangsters want
to keep me in power against the majority of
the Haitian people," Aristide said. "And if you
compare the millions Dollars I have and what
the one who comes behind me can get —
there you will see a huge margin of
difference."

http://www.oplpeople.com/message/1034.html

[Wonk]

33. That's a reliable source, in your opinion? nt

[I AM SPARTACUS]

34. a post in the chat-room of a Haitian political group that claims...

...to have splintered-off from Lavalas...???

That's kinda like using opinions on Free Republic as documentation, isn't it?

[windansea]

36. dunno..heard of Reporters without Borders?

Nearly 30 Haitian journalists have fled abroad in the past three years after being threatened by Aristide supporters and two journalists have been murdered. As a result, Aristide has been put on the Reporters Without Borders worldwide list of 42 predators of press freedom

Haiti - 2003 Annual Report

Impunity continued to hold sway in Haiti. It gave government supporters a free hand to harass and attack the press and opposition. Facing growing opposition, President Aristide's government tried to use fear to hold on to power. More journalists were forced into exile. The investigations into the deaths of Jean Dominique and Brignol Lindor did not progress. On the contrary, their killers continued to threaten the families of both journalists.

At least 40 journalists were physically attacked or threatened in 2002. The Association of Haitian Journalists (AJH) put the figure at more than 60. Some had reported on the collapse of the cooperative savings schemes in 2002, which ruined tens of thousands of small savers and in which the government was allegedly implicated at the highest level. It was amid such scandals that Israël Jacky Cantave of Caraïbes FM was kidnapped in July in what Cantave viewed as a government warning to the press. After Cantave was threatened and forced into exile, a warrant was issued for his arrest for not cooperating with investigators.
The year ended with demonstrations demanding President Aristide's resignation and growing tension, in which journalists paid the price. Seven journalists had to go into hiding in Gonaïves after covering one of the first big anti-government demonstrations. They were threatened by the Cannibal Army, a "popular organisation" led by Amiot Métayer which terrorized this northern town ever since Métayer broke out of prison in August 2002. After initially promising to rearrest him, the government apparently preferred to use him as a blunt instrument against its opponents.
Métayer had been arrested because of his violent attacks on the opposition during a supposedly spontaneous reaction to what was portrayed as an attempted coup d'etat on 17 December 2001. An Organisation of American States (OAS) enquiry published in July concluded not only that it was not a coup d'etat but also that police officers were accomplices to the attack staged on the presidential palace. The enquiry also stressed that the ensuing violence against the opposition had been carried with logistic support from the authorities. Those targeted on 17 December 2001 included some 10 journalists who afterwards went into exile. The increasingly discredited government could try to repeat this kind of operation, in which it poses as the victim in order to have a pretext for cracking down on the opposition and press.

http://www.rsf.fr/article.php3?id_article=6197

thats just one RWB article...many more here

http://www.rsf.fr/sinequa_en.php3?iFullTextQuery=haiti&iLanguage=engli ...

[I AM SPARTACUS]

38. ever heard of my former employers - the orignal "Without Borders"?

no need to get snippy just because I read the French and followed your documentation back to its source...

[muriel_volestrangler]

40. You used to work for Jeux sans Frontieres?

Did you know Eddie Waring?

[windansea]

43. not being snippy

and glad you read the french and cleared up that source

so are you saying reporters without borders is what??

are their comments wrong...biased....???

do you think Aristide ran clean elections and supported a free press??

[windansea]

37. probably as reliable as most of the opinions

in this thread

[I AM SPARTACUS]

39. most of the opinions on this thread cite quotes that can't be tracked?

c'mon...

[windansea]

42. ok here u go

like the Carter Institute, politicsandelections.com, reporters without Borders, The Guardian, etc to back up my opinion that Aristade was a thug posing as a populist who in 95 and 2000 rigged the elections and used armed gangs to threaten the opposition and intimidate reporters and the press

Carter Institute report on 1995 election

http://www.cartercenter.org/documents/1248.pdf

and these reports on 2000 election from politics and elections.com

http://www.politicsandelections.com/international/hai.htm

reporters without borders

http://www.rsf.fr/article.php3?id_article=6197

thats just one RWB article...many more here

http://www.rsf.fr/sinequa_en.php3?iFullTextQuery=haiti&iLanguage=engli ...

Guardian article

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1159230,00.html

[0007]

41. You gotta be kidding right?

[Oilwellian]

30. Wow, I'm shocked. This is the third time I've seen this post

:eyes:

[tedzbear]

32. YOU should talk!

You have some nerve questioning the validity of Haiti's last election after the farce WE were subjected to in November 2000. Sort of like the pot calling the kettle black.


(edit for sp.)

[windansea]

35. actually that was president Carter's Institute talking

he's got a lot of nerve God bless him!! seems like he has a lot of trust all over the world cuz people keep inviting him to validate elections...what the heck fo I have to do with it??