Haiti's new premier criticizes Aristide trip to Jamaica ...

[eablair3]

Haiti's new premier criticizes Aristide trip to Jamaica as U.S. Marines take fire at factory

IAN JAMES, Associated Press Writers
Friday, March 12, 2004

(03-12) 13:19 PST PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) --

Haiti's new premier said Friday that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's planned Caribbean trip could threaten efforts to stabilize the country still in turmoil two weeks after the leader left amid a popular rebellion.

Gerard Latortue also said he wants to hold legislative elections in six to eight months to resolve the country's political crisis.

The political developments came as U.S. Marines reported Friday that they came under fire overnight at a factory that produces garments for American companies. Gunmen also shot up a nearby car dealership.

Speaking to reporters Friday, Latortue criticized Jamaica for inviting Aristide to visit less than three weeks after fleeing the region for exile in the Central African Republic.

snip

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/03/12/international1619EST0657.DTL
______________

Is this guy, LaTorture, for real? Who the hell is he to tell Aristide or Jamaica where Aristide should be allowed to travel? This whole story is just surreal.

[eablair3]

1. Mayor in north Haiti tells what is happening outside of Port-Au-Prince

Through These Trees, I See Haiti's Murderous Army Reborn
First Person, Jean Charles Moise,
Pacific News Service, Mar 12, 2004

Editor's Note: A mayor from northern Haiti currently in hiding says that the Haitian army is back in force, shooting people and burning homes. How could this happen, he asks -- and where are they getting the all the heavy weaponry?

CAP HAITIAN, Haiti--I am the mayor of Milo, a district of about 50,000 people near Cap Haitian. When I was elected nine years ago, at the age of 28, I was the youngest to serve in that office in Haiti's modern history. I've traveled in the United States on speaking tours, telling Americans about how we were building democracy in Haiti under the Aristide government. In late February my district came under attack by anti-Aristide forces and I fled for my life. From where I am now -- hiding in the woods -- I see the old Haitian army is back.

Those they don't kill, they lock up in containers, because they burned down the jails. The kind of containers you put on ships.

The situation is different here from what I hear about in Port-au-Prince, where you have the multinational force of American, Canadian, Chilean soldiers. In Cap Haitian you have the former Haitian military. There are no police any more, so they are the ones who are law. They come into your home. They take you, they beat you up, they kill you. They burn down homes. They do anything they want, because they are the only law in town.

The journalists are in Port-au-Prince, but here in the north no one is reporting what's going on, that the former Haitian military is killing people. They are killing about 50 people a day in Cap Haitian. It's happening not just in the northern department but also in the central plateau, in the Artibone region.

snip

http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=aa16f14906179637bcdc408755cce7e5

[eablair3]

2. Reuters: LaTortue calls Aristide's trip to Jamaica "an unfriendly act"

Haiti Prime Minister Opposes Aristide Jamaica Stay
Fri Mar 12, 2004 01:58 PM ET

By Ibon Villelabeitia
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - Haiti's interim prime minister said on Friday he had told neighboring Jamaica that its plan to host ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from next week would be "an unfriendly act."

...

Prime Minister Gerard Latortue said he had expressed his concern to Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson about Aristide visiting the island.

"I let him know that to have Aristide so close would be an unfriendly act ... He has pledged that he will try to make Aristide's stay in Jamaica as short as possible," Latortue told reporters.

Latortue said Aristide would arrive in Jamaica on Tuesday.

...

But Latortue said Chile's vice minister of foreign affairs had indicated the South American nation was willing to grant Aristide a permanent home.

"They are agreeable to the idea of granting exile to Aristide in Chile," Latortue told reporters.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4558420

[eablair3]

9. new Reuters story - Haiti Leader Slams Jamaica Over Aristide Visit

Haiti Leader Slams Jamaica Over Aristide Visit
Fri Mar 12, 2004 07:27 PM ET

By Michael Christie and Ibon Villelabeitia
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - Haiti's new leader fired a diplomatic broadside at Jamaica on Friday for allowing ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to visit, while U.S. and French troops came under renewed attack by gunmen.

Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, who was sworn in on Friday, said Aristide's planned return to the Caribbean had already stoked tensions, and Jamaica's decision to allow the former slum priest to visit from next week was an "unfriendly act."

Latortue announced he might fly to Haiti's Caribbean neighbor this weekend to pursue an agreement with Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson to limit Aristide's stay.

"Since the word was known yesterday afternoon that Aristide is coming to Jamaica we have observed an increase in tensions in Port-au-Prince," Latortue told reporters.

snip

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4559901

[Just Me]

10. I hope Patterson diplomatically responds that his schedule is too tight,

,...to fit in a meeting with the newly US imposed despot, Latorture.

[eablair3]

11. I wonder if some chess is being played - force Jamaica's hand to recognize

I wonder if they are thinking of this trip by LaTorture to force Jamaica's hand to recognize LaTorture as the new leader of Haiti? Thereby, LaTorture would gain some credibility, at least in the coup plotters' minds.

I sure hope Jamaica doesn't receive him.

[Just Me]

14. I have no handle on the players' strategies,...

,...I can merely play my own game of surmise and speculation imagining being in the shoes of the players.

Like you, I hope Jamaica doesn't receive him because I, personally, do not believe he has been "annointed" for the purpose of serving the best interests of the Haitian people.

[MidwestMomma]

16. On the issue of journalistic bias and slanted 'news' reporting

Notice these phrases:

"Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, who was sworn in on Friday, said Aristide's planned return to the Caribbean had already stoked tensions, and Jamaica's decision to allow the former slum priest to visit from next week was an "unfriendly act."

The former slum priest? WTF...I believe it would be more appropriate to refer to him as the former PRESIDENT, don't you think?

And how about:

I will do everything in my power to merit the confidence of the people. The failure of this government will be the failure of the nation," Latortue said in the gleaming white National Palace from which Aristide ruled."

Where Aristide RULED? I believe he 'governed'.

It the little things like this in news stories that drive me crazy.

[Darranar]

3. What?

It was a "popular rebellion"?

[eablair3]

4. yeah, it sounds like the "popular rebellion" is only starting after ...

they removed Aristide from Haiti in their overnight/early morning modern day coup.

[I AM SPARTACUS]

5. Haiti doesn't HAVE a new premier...it has a puppet

[eablair3]

6. The puppet "Prime Minsiter" is now elevated to a "premier"

Not bad, he is elevated in only a day or two of being in Haiti from "Prime Minister" to "premier," even without an election.

Does anyone know about this terminology? Under the Haiti Consititution, the elected President appoints the Prime Minister. My understanding is that the Prime Minister serves at the pleasure of the President.

LaTortue was supposedly installed by the rogue regime as the "Prime Minister".

Now, a couple days later, he is the "premier"? According to the dictionary, the most relevant definition of "premier" in this context is "First or paramount; premier." So, now LaTortue is elevated above the "Prime Minister" status and is now the "Premier" or the first or paramount authority in Haiti?

Sounds like pupper dictator.

[daleo]

17. It may not mean much

In Canada, the federal government is led by the Prime Minister (literally the first minister), while leaders of the provincial governments are usually referred to as Premiers. However, when they get together for a conference, the conference is referred to as a "First Ministers' Conference".

Similarly, most provinces call their legislative house, The Legislature, while the federal house is The Parliament. Although, in Ontario, the legislature is the Provincial Parliament. There are other peculiarities of language that pop up.

I don't know if other countries make actual constitutional distinctions in this nomenclature though, just talking about the Canadian experience (which is probably common to any country whose political system evolved from the British model, which of course would not apply to Haiti).

[eablair3]

7. CARICOM seeking opinion on expelling a member nation

Aristide Returning to a Caribbean Undecided on Haiti

Peter Richards


PORT OF SPAIN, Mar 12 (IPS) - When Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders meet in St. Kitts on Mar. 25 for their inter-sessional summit, there will be no need for a trans-Atlantic telephone call to get the views of ousted Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

On Thursday, CARICOM chairman and Jamaican Prime Minister PJ Patterson said Aristide, who has accused the United States of kidnapping him Feb. 29 and putting him on a plane bound for the Central African Republic, is due to arrive in Jamaica next week.

His return comes as Caribbean leaders are reportedly seeking a legal opinion on recognising a new government in Haiti and on their power to expel a member from the CARICOM group of 15 nations.

snip

The visit will coincide with Caribbean leaders meeting in Basseterre, and the Haitian crisis will undoubtedly dominate the two-day event.

At an emergency meeting in Kingstown earlier this month the leaders called for an independent investigation of the circumstances that led to Aristide's departure as the first-ever democratically elected president of the impoverished former French colony.

U.S. officials responded that such a probe is unnecessary because Aristide volunteered to board the plane out of Haiti, while the United Nations says it is waiting for an official request for the probe from CARICOM.

Noted political scientist Neville Duncan says Aristide's return to the region would severely test the position of Washington and others in the international community that the ousted leader had voluntarily resigned his office and agreed to leave the country.

”First of all it tells you that clearly, if he had chosen to leave Haiti freely, he would have asked one of his Caribbean colleagues who have been so close to him whether he could have temporary or permanent residence in these countries.”

(snip - good comments by Duncan and worth the read)

http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=22830

________

I think that would be good if they could expel the current regime that has overtook Haiti from CARICOM.

[Moderator]

12. eablair3

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
news source.

Thank you.


DU Moderator

[eablair3]

15. ok, .. .sorry - feel free to edit it (nt)

[Just Me]

8. Yet another misnomer, "popular rebellion",...

This whole situation has me sooooo,...geez, I cannot even find a word to describe how I feel about all the dispicable sh*t our leadership has done in Haiti and Venezuala and Africa and Iraq and Afghanistan. It makes even me wish for a second coming of some savior from all this horror.

[Chicago Democrat]

13. La Torture is a puppet pretender! Vive Aristide!!

Vive Haiti! Vive Aristide!

DOWN with LaTorture! Even NOW patriotic Haitians heroes are being IMMOLATED by war criminal thugs! (that's burnt alive folks...goddess help them!)

Down with BUSH and his evil cabal! I hope the most powerful Haitian Voodoo Priestess curse him forever. He is already destined to loose. May the perpetrators of this crime be held to account.

ahem.

god bless the Americas and the world equally.

May there be abundance and happiness throughout the world!

May all sentient beings live in joy and harmony!

May all people of Haiti renounce violence and killing and through the power of truth and what is right.

May the beautiful island of Haiti return to democracy through non-violent means after John Kerry is sworn in as our president in January, 2005.

goddess bless the Americas

[struggle4progress]

18. dupe??

earlier thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x418418

<on edit>: unsure re: dupe rule

[Just Me]

19. You are not forgotten, Haiti,...

,...notwithstanding the "insanity of the day",...you are still in my heart.