Haitians challenge Bush's death-squad 'democracy'

While U.S. television news drones on endlessly about President George W. Bush's new initiatives to spread democracy and liberty in the world, the people of Haiti have already tasted his offering and are spitting it out.

Haitians march through Bel Air to mark International Women's Day and to support Aristide.

One year ago, the U.S. overthrew the elected government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and spirited him and his family out of the country to make way for Bush's appointed "democratic" leader, Gerard Latortue.

Elevated along with Latortue were returning death squad members and former police known for brutalizing and horribly repressing the people in the days of the Duvalier dictatorship.

Today, members of the former Aristide government languish in dungeons called prisons. Demonstrators are fired on and killed by police. Life in the poorest country in the Western Hemi sphere has gotten even worse. Corpses pile up by the roadsides and mortality from all causes is staggeringly high.

But to hear Washington tell it, Haiti is now on the road to democracy.

When 2,000 unarmed supporters of Aristide tried to march through Port au Prince on Feb. 28, demanding the return of their kidnapped president, they were fired on by police. At least two were killed and 20 wounded. United Nations troops at the scene, commanded by Brazilian officers, did nothing to stop the killing, leading to immediate condemnation in many quarters.

Perhaps in reaction to this strong criticism over their role, which also was expressed by many Brazilians at last month's World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, the Brazilian troops on March 4 accompanied another pro-Aristide demo nstration, this time of 2,000 people, through the streets of the Haitian capital. The police did not attack this time. The demonstrators called for an end to the U.S.-backed "interim" government.

More than 400 people have been killed in the capital since Aristide loyalists began intensifying their demands for the president's return four months ago. (AP, March 4) The vast majority murdered are from Aristide's social base: the very poor who reject letting the country go back to being run by stooges for U.S. and French imperialism.

Rep. Maxine Waters, a strong supporter of Aristide who represents the Black community of Los Angeles in the U.S. Congress, led a fact-finding delegation to Haiti in early March. She visited former Prime Minister Yves Neptune in the prison where he is conducting a hunger strike and pronounced the conditions there "deplorable."

"I urge the interim government of Haiti to set Prime Minister Neptune free and release all political prisoners in Haitian prisons," said Waters. "The interim government's repression of dissenters like Prime Minister Neptune must end immediately. The whole world is watching."