This is the Justice, Not Charity! Haiti book diary. Allie123 and I are writing these book diaries because we became shocked by the truth of Haiti’s history and what really is needed to help the Haitians after the earthquake.
"It's as if Aristide was put in charge of a house that was falling apart and was expected to fix it. But then his enemies start setting fire to the back door, they send people with guns to attack the front door, and when these people finally manage to break in they said 'Look! He didn't wash the dishes in the sink! He never repaired the leak in the roof!' They made him spend all his time trying to put out the fire and to protect the door, and then once they got rid of him they said he was pushed out because he'd failed to repair the house." (Damming The Flood, P131)
Chapter 7 of "Damming the Flood" by Peter Hallward is titled 2001-2004: The Winner Loses? It has four main sections: Subversion from within, Scandal and Corruption, The politics of human rights, and Lavalas violence: a new reign of terror? Because of the length and complexity of this chapter, I'm covering it in two diaries. Tonight I want to take up the last two sections. These deal with the disappointing performance of human rights organizations, and the disappointing lack of violence in Aristide's reign of terror.
The Politics of Human rights
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reports on Aristide's second term and the aftermath of the 2004 are disappointing because of their extreme concern about political violence before the coup and their near-silence after. An Octover 2003 Amnesty International report said
since Aristide's return to power "human rights abuses [were] on the rise".
The summaries at the beginning of Human Rights Watch annual reports also carried on this theme.
After the coup, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch put their description of the post-coup political violence in terms of the continuation of
the "cycle of violence and impunity that has plagued the Caribbean republic for so many years."
Let's look at that continuity. Duvalier regimes, (1957-86, 29 years), about 50,000 dead. Namphy/Avril (1986-90, about 4 years), 700 to 1,000 dead. Cedras after the first coup, (1991-94, about 3 years), 4,000 dead. Latortue after the second coup, (2004-06, about two years), 3,000 dead.
So how does Aristide stack up? In his first term, some Macoutists were lynched by mobs, but not even Jesse Helms could dig up a single political killing. From 2001 to 2004, Amnesty International reports suggest up to 30 political killings (partly by the police, who were not uniformly pro-Aristide (see the previous diary)), other sources make it closer to 10.
That looks like a discontinuity to me.
Then there was the pro-Lavalas journalist killed in 2000 after making some bad enemies on the right; those same enemies kept calling for "Justice for Jean" as the Lavalas government investigation inched along. And after the coup? The investigation stopped dead. Then there was the genocide that wasn't, and the deep silence in the western media about post coup violence. No, doesn't sound like a double standard to me! </snark>
Lavalas Violence - a new Reign of Terror?
I was going to go into the six points that Hallward raises in this chapter, but I am running short of time to use my sister's computer.
Instead, I will mention the key point of this section. A foreign witness, Eleanore Senlis, estimated that the Cite Soleil groups had about 250 guns in February 2004, an increase in what they had in the way of firepower. By contrast, the ruling families and businesses had most of the more than 200,000 firearms in the country.
All the poor people really had was votes.
And if Fanmi Lavalas were to be allowed to run candidates in the upcoming election, they would still get most of the votes.
I would add some of allie123's new and improved Justice not Charity diary, but I am now very short of time; maybe she can add the most relevant sections in comments.