The National Conference
of Black Lawyers (NCBL)
expresses its maximum outrage and disgust with the imperialist,
lawless and brutal campaign of terrorism that has been inflicted
on the people of Haiti by the Bush Administration. According
to reports, the United States has resorted to the methods of
petty gangsters by kidnapping Haitian President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide at gunpoint, orchestrating a coup and forcing the country's
democratically-elected leader into exile. Furthermore, NCBL condemns
in the strongest terms the Bush Administration's callous, hypocritical
and racist policy on Haitian refugees. NCBL demands immediate
answers to questions about U.S. involvement with armed terrorists
who have destabilized the island nation, and calls for the formation
of a global Pan-African alliance of organizations that will be
prepared to counter future imperialist intervention through coordinated
economic warfare.
The forced departure of President Aristide from Haiti came
amidst an ongoing, full-scale armed attack on the country by
bands of
thugs who are former members
of the disbanded Haitian army and secret police force that operated under
the leadership of former dictators Raoul Cedras and Jean-Claude ("Baby
Doc") Duvalier. These former military/police goons were noted for
their barbarity and tortures inflicted on countless members of the civilian
population.
They were responsible for a coup in 1991 that forced Aristide from office.
Observers like the Haiti
Action Committee have reported that, after Aristide's return to power
in 1994, many of the thugs fled to the neighboring Dominican Republic,
where they commenced training in terrorist tactics that were recently unleashed
in a merciless campaign to destabilize the island.
Armed thugs causing chaos in an underdeveloped country for
the purpose of setting the stage for a "regime change" is an all-too-familiar
scenario that has historically been masterminded by the U.S. Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA). It occurred in 1976 in Jamaica when the CIA provided
high-powered weapons to opponents of then-Prime Minister Michael Manley who
was regarded by Washington as having too cozy a relationship with Fidel Castro.
It occurred in Nicaragua during the 1980s when the CIA organized and financed
terrorist opponents of the Sandinista government. It has likewise occurred
in various countries in Africa, like Ghana and Congo. It occurred
in Grenada in 1983, when the U.S. invaded the tiny island. More recently,
we
have witnessed a similar failed coup attempt in Venezuela, and threats
directed at Zimbabwe because that country dares to return land to its
indigenous citizens.
For several reasons, President Aristide is not viewed with favor
by the West. After Aristide's re-election in 2000, he refused the
U.S.
demand
to privatize
Haitian state monopolies. Washington answered by freezing $600 million
in assistance to Haiti. Aristide also led a campaign to have France
pay Haiti
$22 billion in reparations for blackmailing newly-independent Haiti with
a threat of an international embargo in 1804. "Coincidentally," France
was first to demand that Aristide step down. Given the fact that, historically,
the U.S. government, via the CIA, has repeatedly interfered with Haiti's
internal affairs to prop up the dictatorship of the Duvalier family and
the Haitian business elite, NCBL is compelled to ask whether yet-again,
the U.S.
has engaged in illegal covert activities to further the Bush Administration's
policy of pre-emptive regime change. Such actions, as well as the kidnapping
of a head of state are flagrant violations of domestic criminal law,
and basic principles of international law, including various provisions
of
the United Nations Charter that are intended to protect sovereign countries
from
both violent and peaceful foreign intervention in matters that are within
the country's domestic jurisdiction.
NCBL must note as well that the U.S. has traditionally presented itself
as a place of refuge for people from around the world who fear persecution
in their respective homelands. However, it is clear
that U.S. refugee policy, in practice, is determined by race. In 2002, there
were approximately 10.4 million refugees worldwide – the majority of whom
were people of color. Nevertheless, the US continues to offer shelter disproportionately
to white refugees. This fact is once again made blatantly clear by
Bush's recent statement that no Haitian refugees will be allowed to enter
the U.S. despite the great civil unrest occurring in their country. Such
a statement is in direct conflict with a refugee policy that claims
to consider each case individually, and it reeks of racism. NCBL
opposes
this racist
treatment of refugees of African descent.
NCBL stands firmly in support of President Aristide, and we
offer our full support to those courageous members of the Congressional
Black Caucus and
others who have dared to defy the U.S. political establishment
and
expose the lies of the Bush Administration and its lackeys
in the corporate mass
media. Finally, NCBL calls upon all organizations of people of
African ancestry, and others of goodwill, to establish an Independent
Action
Alliance for the
purpose of preventing future Haiti-like occurrences by coordinating
global mass actions to impact the health of selected multi-national
corporations,
and the economies of western governments that choose to use criminal
methods to undermine legitimate, democratically-selected leadership,
and to otherwise
frustrate efforts at African peoples' self-determination.