U.S. Guns in Haiti Despite Embargo

[struggle4progress]

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN
Associated Press Writer

The United States has quietly given thousands of guns to the Haitian National Police and is moving to approve the sale of thousands more despite a 14-year arms embargo and allegations the force is corrupt, brutal and responsible for unjustified killings, U.S., U.N. and Haitian officials said this week. <snip>

The United States gave 2,600 used firearms to the Haitian National Police last year to help re-equip and professionalize the force, according to State Department and U.N. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The State Department is preparing to notify Congress that it wants to permit U.S. companies to sell the Haitian police $1.9 million worth of equipment, including 3,000 .38-caliber pistols, several hundred rifles and shotguns, and non-lethal equipment for crowd control, the spokesman said. <snip>

Human rights groups and opponents of the interim government have accused the police of fatally shooting dozens of unarmed civilians in nighttime raids on pro-Aristide slums, and of killing at least three unarmed protesters in recent months. <snip>

http://www.the-dispatch.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050421/API/504211173&cachetime=5

[splat@14]

1. No doubt we'll be back there in 10 years fighting those weapons.

We invest in future wars by the spread of weapons now and in the past. Panama, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Bosnia, Grenada, Iran, Iraq......