Rep. E. Cummings? Strange Credits to Bush
By Ndzana Seme
03/04/2004 - Aristide said he was forced out of Haiti in a "real coup d'etat" led by the United States, in
what he called a "modern way to have a modern kidnapping."
In an interview Tuesday with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said that accusation
was "simply not true." But he added, "I'm happy he's gone."
In another interview Wednesday with Blitzer, U.S. Ambassador in Haiti James Foley, despite his defense
that the Haitian President ? he declared he didn?t see him that night because he was ?on the phone in
another room? ? allegedly agreed to be ousted, recognized that Aristide was ?worried about the
circumstances of his departure?.
Yet in an interview Tuesday with MSNBC?s Chris Matthews, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D), Maryland,
Congressional Black Caucus chair, declared: ?A number of people felt, even in the Congress, that he [G.
W. Bush] acted a little slowly on the issue. But the fact is that he did get Aristide out of there safely. A lot
of us question? how that was done. But the fact is that he did it by presenting?and it looks like?I just saw
Colin Powell today. And it looks like we?re moving in the direction of stabilizing that country, ending the
violence, bringing the rule of law back and reestablishing a democracy. So you know, you?ve got to give
him some credit for that.?
Yet in a CBC press release on February 27, Rep. Cummings wrote: ?The Congressional Black Caucus
welcomes news reports that the Bush Administration is considering sending three military ships containing
2,000 U.S. Marines off the coast of Haiti? We must act now. We cannot allow Haiti to be consumed by
violence and chaos? the United States must send a clear message to the Haitian rebels and the entire
country of Haiti that the United States stands for the rule of law and will defend democracy."
Therefore, three days are enough to change Cummings? and probably the CBC?s mind, from Bush should
act now for the rule of law and democracy and send a clear message to the Haitian rebels, to getting
Aristide out of there safely and stabilizing that country. According to Cummings, the rebels are not anymore
a concern; he accepts with Bush that Aristide was the stone in the shoe.
When the coup d?etat was unfolding, with two Haitian towns taken by the Washington-sponsored gangs, a
CBC delegation traveled to Haiti and sided with Aristide in what was clear that Bush wanted the Haitian
president out, in contempt for the Haitian democracy. Now the CBC chair gives Bush credit for having
mocked the Haitian democracy by kidnapping its elected president and sending him into exile.
We thought the CBC?s lobbying request was that the U.S. would send troops to stop the gangs? advance
that was threatening the Republic and its elected officials. Since Aristide had failed to disarm the gangs in
the country, we thought the CBC would request the U.S. troops to help the weak government do so, and
the CBC would send its own election supervisors to insure fairness during the coming poll at stake.
Cummings shows that the CBC would support that the President of the United States, or a State Governor
in the U.S., be kidnapped and forced into exile because an armed gang, after having occupied a couple of
U.S. towns, threatens to take the White House or the State institutions. What we know instead is that, in
such a case, Cummings would become the ardent defender of the beloved Founding Fathers? sacred,
democratic institutions.
Therefore, it is understandable why Black people are disdainfully treated in the U.S.; because even the
CBC finds that Black countries do not deserve respectful systems of democracy. The CBC chair would
always read Black countries? issues through the White House?s distorting lenses.
The question we should ask ourselves is Would a Jewish American caucus ever give the U.S. President
credit for kidnapping and forcing the Israel?s prime Minister into exile? Would such a Jewish organization
even bother thinking before condemning this unacceptable blow to the Jewish people?s dignity?
An analysis of U.S. ambassador James Foley?s press releases these last five months shows that he sided
with the armed gangs demanding Aristide?s departure.
The only time Foley condemned the anti-government gangs? violence since he took office on september
was on February 5 when they took Gonaïves, in terms of « We deeply deplore this attack against the public
institutions, which killed and injured many people and destroyed several buildings»
But Foley was quick to conclude the release by requiring the «Haitian gouvernment to respect the
democratic rules and liberties and to further an agreement about security and governance reforms necessary
to restablish the rule of law in Haiti. »
Following is Foley?s last press release - a report Bush needed the most and used as a pretext to oust
Aristide. « The United States Government is dismayed to report that the pro-government Popular
Organizations in Port-au-Prince have begun to burn, pillage and kill. Even a hospital is apparently under
attack at this moment. The armed gangs that are spreading terror and attacking civilians and the general
population are acting in the name of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.?
Foley never told the number of killed. But since then, Aristide has become a ?dictator? in the Washington
language, after having been the ?Castro without a beard? in the White House secret walls.
But yet, for a country 80% dependent of foreign aid, Bush?s first decision since he took office was to block
international assistance to Haiti, all other rare aid being channeled through NGOs. In the same time the IMF
and the World Bank imposed a 50% reduction of the understaffed administration?s workforce, including
the police, in a country without an army. In addition the police was required to be ?independent?, ?free of
any interference?.
We should try to figure out how secure the U.S. would be if the police was independent and free of any
interference from the city mayor in a country without army, without national guard. And when there is a
public demonstration that degenerates into battles with the police, like in Seattle in 1999, a foreign
ambassador like Foley would express his support to any American « willing to exercise his right to
demonstration », condemn ?the arbitrary arrest of students?, denounce a "democratic gap" in the country,
call for the authorities to fill their responsibilities about the protection of diplomats (who were involved in the
street demonstrations), because « All day, the same government-sponsored gangs have sacked the streets
in the capital, stealing cars, attacking radio stations, looting enterprises et harassing people. »
Obviously the foreign ambassador implies that President?s or Governor?s or Mayor?s supporters are
government-sponsored.
When Black American representatives allow Washington to pursue a discriminatory treatment of Black
countries of Haiti and Africa, and the media to show no respect of sheer human decency in their coverage
of events in Black communities, we hope they know that the American Whites absorb these lessons and will
also, even unconsciously, always treat African Americans the same way.
We hope the CBC will require the U.S. Marines to disarm all gangs in Haiti ; since Aristide is guilty of
having been able to do so.
Of those who advanced to kill Aristide, are criminals and former military headsmen, such as Louis Jodel
Chamblain, a former paramilitary responsible for countless atrocities under the military government that
ruled Haiti from 1991 to 1994, Jean-Pierre Baptiste, a less prominent paramilitary from the same period,
and a large number of current insurgents, all former officers and soldiers of the Haitian army. Chamblain is
founder of the Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress (FRAPH), responsible of at
least 3,000 people killed during military rule, and many thousands more who suffered torture, rape,
beatings, extortion, arbitrary detention and other abuses, and more than 100,000 having fled their country.
The sad fact is that in 1994, when U.S. forces entered Haiti the U.S. government pushed hard for the
passage of a broad amnesty, which allowed FRAPH members, notorious military officers, and other
perpetrators of human rights crimes to escape into exile with impunity. Most of them reside in the U.S.;
some work with the C.I.A. and have probably counseled the White House in its attitude towards Aristide.
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