Sympathy when it's convenient
Imperialists had no tears for Haitian refugees
By Pat
Chin
Brooklyn, N.Y.
The disparate treatment of refugees by the U.S. government
clearly reflects whose class interests are being served by the
capitalist bureaucracy in Washington, as well as racist
attitudes long institutionalized in the nation.
Take, for example, the handling of ethnic Albanians fleeing
Kosovo, many in response to the murderous U.S.-led NATO
bombardment there. The Nazi-like blitz krieg was unleashed
after the Yugoslav government refused to cede control over its
territory at the Rambouillet talks in France.
The Albanians were able to make satellite phone calls to
family abroad and were given relatively decent food and shelter
in the refugee camps. Those allowed to immigrate to the U.S.
will get federal housing, job placement and health benefits,
the right to work, and eligibility to become permanent
residents after one year.
Contrast this to Haitian refugees.
On Sept. 30, 1991, a bloody military coup toppled the
administration of the popularly-elected Haitian president
Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The violent overthrow of the
progressive government was instigated by Washington and the
CIA. Thousands were murdered, some of them hacked to death and
beheaded. Women were raped and disfigured.
To escape the bloodbath launched by the right-wing
putschists, many Haitians fled by sea in unsafe and rickety
boats and headed for the U.S.
Hundreds drowned in the desperate attempt to escape the
onslaught. Many thousands were turned back by the U.S. Coast
Guard or imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, the naval base the U.S
occupies in Cuba.
Those who reached the "land of opportunity" were locked up
and later sent back to the slaughter in Haiti. Washington's
excuse was that they were running away not from political
violence but from poverty and, as such, were not eligible for
political asylum.
There was one big exception, however, to the racist policy
of forcing the Haitians back. It fell in line with preserving
the corporate interests of U.S. imperialism and its grip on the
Haitian economy enforced through organized class terror.
Haitian death squad leader Emmanuel "Toto" Constant fled
Haiti and was granted de facto political asylum in the U.S.
Constant was head of the CIA-backed terrorist militia in Haiti
called FRAPH, which butchered many people, much like the KLA in
Kosovo. The White House excuse for refusing the new Haitian
government's request for his extradition was that it feared
Constant "would not get a fair trial."
A refugee relocation plan will eventually admit 20,000
displaced Albanians into the U.S. The original scheme to house
them under prison-like conditions at Guantanamo Bay was quickly
abandoned by the Clinton White House.
The decision to admit these refugees was reportedly made
because of Clinton's concern that the Albanians not be confined
behind barbed-wire fences--which is exactly what the Haitians
were forced to endure.
Anger in communities of color
The Albanian victims of the imperialist attempt to take over
and exploit Yugoslavia--which started with the infiltration of
KLA terrorists into Kosovo--have been treated so generously by
the U.S./ NATO cabal, comparatively speaking, that it has
sparked anger in communities of color here.
"We have nothing against the Albanians," Vondora Jordan told
Workers World. "But we remember the way the government treated
the Haitians, how they sent them back to be killed.
"Then they say they have to cut the budget. They have to get
rid of welfare, and it doesn't matter if people are left
homeless, if they have to eat out of garbage cans, or if they
can't afford to take their children to the doctor and the
hospital has been shut down.
"The horrible bombing of Yugoslavia--the many billions
they're spending on that--and Clinton's favorable response to
the refugee crisis show that the money is there. They just want
to spend it to protect the rich folks so they can keep feeding
at the trough while we suffer. We should take it from the
Pentagon and give it back to the people."
An African American activist, Jordan is co-founder of
Workfairness. The group has organized thousands of welfare
recipients forced into the slave-labor Work Experience Program
in New York City.
What about African refugees?
Africa has the largest number of refugees--some 7.3 million,
according to United Nations figures. Many are fleeing civil
wars, from Angola to the Congo, stirred up by imperialist
interests after hundreds of years of plunder and
domination.
"United Nations officials are sensitive to assertions,"
reported the May 9 New York Times, "that they treat European
refugees different from African ones.
"On its face," the article goes on to admit, "it would seem
that more money is pouring into Kosovo. The United Nations says
it has spent about $1.23 per person each day in Kosovo for
three months ... whereas the amount spent in Africa was 11
cents per person."
A report from the Los Angeles Times of May 21 said that
while some camps in Africa have only one doctor per 100,000
refugees, the camps in Macedonia have as many as one doctor per
700 refugees--higher than in some parts of Los Angeles.
"The camps in Africa hold as many as 500,000 people," said
the article. "Up to 6,000 refugees there die each day from
cholera and other public health diseases. In Macedonia, the
largest camp holds 33,000 people. So far, there have been no
deaths from public health emergencies such as an epidemic or
starvation."
Where is the outpouring of sympathy for the suffering
refugees in Africa--or, for that matter, the refugees of U.S.
capitalist restructuring in Los Angeles?
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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