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Non-Profit Partners
University of Houston
KPFT 90.1-FM
HMS Cable-Access Ch. 17
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Interviews
Transcription By Mario Gudmundsson.
Intro
Dr. Fred Schiff:
We’re talking with Charles Arthur, a writer on Haitian affairs and head of the Haitian Support Group based in London. He went to Haiti in 1993 with the UN as a human rights observer and returned in the year 2000 to observe the elections for the organization of Americans
FS:
The Bush Administration has sort of said that he needed to be removed for a number of reasons, and the ones that I have seen are, one, that there’s a question about the election, and two, corruption in his regime and three, human rights. Could you speak to those things?
Charles Arthur:
The estimate of the turnout, I think was in the region of 80 percent of registered voters, and the actual result was 67 percent to Aristide and his closest rival was Marc Bacin who scored 13 percent.
FS:
When you say that Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected by an overwhelming majority, what was the percentage of turnout, and/or the percentage that he won by?
CA:
The overwhelming sense of all objective and impartial observers was that the landslide victory for the Lavalas family was an accurate representation of the will of the majority of voters.
FS:
Could you put it in context of the human rights violations that more or less substantiated during his period of presidency from, I guess, late 2000 to 2004?
CA:
The comparison is, in my view and in the view of most impartial observers, that while there were very many human rights abuses and some quite awful things happening under the Aristide administration of 2000 to 2004, they in no way were in any way as bad as what was happening in those earlier periods under the military and under the dictatorship.
Not as bad at all, comparing it to what is happening now. Well,(it is a) very sad thing to say, if the human rights situation was disappointing under Aristide, it is equally disappointing if not worse under the government that has replaced him -- this interim government.
FS:
What was the role of the United States as opposed to, or in conjunction or however, with these armed irregulars?
CA:
It’s pretty clear to me that the United States did whatever it could to force Aristide out of office prematurely. The United States did nothing to save the Aristide Presidency and everything they could to undermine it.
© Copyright World Internet News 2006-07
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Jean-Bertrand Aristide
1990 Presidential elections
Turnout:
80 % of registered voters
Vote:
67 % for Jean-Bertrand Aristide
13 % vote for Marc Bacin
Feb. 1991 Aristide installed and serves 7 months
Dec. 1991 Military coup removes Aristide
1991 - 1994 Military dictators Gen. Raoul Cedras and Col. Michel Francois
1994 - 1995 U.N.-sponsored intervention with 20,000 U.S. troops
Aristide restored to finish term
2000 - 2004 Aristide re-elected with 90 % of vote
Aristide removed by U.S. troops
Re-elected 2000-2004
Liberation theology priest from shantytowns
U.S.-backed former World Bank official
HAITI: CHRONOLOGY
1800 Independence from France as the first slave colony to become a democracy
1915 - 1934
U.S. military invasion and occupation supports mulatto elite
1957 - 1986 Dictator Francois Duvalier supported by black middle class
"Papa Doc"and his son "Baby Doc" rule with U.S. support
1986 Lavalas (the "flood") overthrows dictator
1990 Parliamentary and presidential elections: Aristide wins
1991 - 1994 Military coup overthrows Aristide
1995 Parliamentary and presidential elections
2000 Parliamentary and presidential elections: Aristide wins
DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS vs. MILITARY COUPS in HAITI
1990 Presidential elections
Turnout:
80 % of registered voters
Vote:
67 % for Jean-Bertrand Aristide
13 % vote for Marc Bazin
Feb. 1991 Aristide installed and serves 7 months
Dec. 1991 Military coup removes Aristide
1991 1994 Military dictators Gen. Raoul Cedras and Col. Michel Francois
1994 1995 U.N.-sponsored intervention with 20,000 U.S. troops
Aristide restored to finish term
2000 Opposition parties dispute parliamentary election
O.A.S. observers say presidential election "free and fair"
2000 - 2004 Aristide re-elected with 90 % of vote
Aristide removed by U.S. troops
Liberation theology priest from shantytowns
U.S.-backed former World Bank official
SOCIAL CLASSES in HAITI
(Source: Charles Arthur)
4-5% Rich mulatto class
owns the natural resources and national assets
large landholders
control the import and export trade
since 1998, 10 % of cocaine traffic to U.S. through Haiti
10-12% Middle class
with modest standard of living
85% Peasant farmers and working poor
live in countryside and shantytowns
U.S. Supports and Later Overthrows Democracy
1991
Jean-Bertrand Aristide elected (with 67 % of vote)
1991
Military coup against Aristide
1994
U.N.-sponsored intervention with 20,000 U.S. troops
Aristide restored to finish term
1995
New elections for Parliament and President Rene Reval
"Lavalas Popular Organization" (OPL) Majority in Parliament breaks away and supports World Bank structural
adjustment
1996
Aristide forms "Lavalas Family" Party
2000
Aristide re-elected (with 90% of the vote)
2004
International Republican Institute arms rebels in Dominican Republic
U.S. denies Aristide's request for protection and orders private mercenary security firm Steele Corp. to quit protecting
Aristide
U.S. troops remove Aristide from office
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