Haiti: Different Coup, Same Paramilitary Leaders

Amy Goodman interviews Allan Nairn,
Thursday, February 26th, 2004

from the book

Getting Haiti Right This Time

The U.S. and the Coup

Noam Chomsky, Paul Farmer, Amy Goodman

Common Courage Press, 2004, paper

 

For a closer look at what is happening right now on the ground in Haiti, we look back at the involvement of the US in the 1991-1994 coup period with veteran investigative journalist Allan Nairn who broke a number of stories that proved the direct links between US intelligence agencies and Haitian paramilitary death squads in the early 1990s.

Many of the men leading the armed insurrection in Haiti right now are well known to veteran Haiti observers and, for that matter, the US intelligence agencies that worked closely with the paramilitary death squads which terrorized Haiti in the early 1990s. People like Louis Jodel Chamblain, the former number two man in FRAPH, Guy Philippe, a former police chief who was trained by US Special Forces in Ecuador and Jean Tatoune, another leader of FRAPH.

In an hour-long interview with the Washington Post, published today Guy Philippe vowed a bloody assault on Port-auPrince "very soon" if Aristide refuses to leave office. Philippe and Chamblain told the paper that Aristide's departure and his replacement by an interim leader who would call new elections was the only possible peaceful solution to their three-week-old insurgency. Chamblain said "Aristide has two choices: prison or execution by firing squad."

Preparations against a possible assault by the paramilitaries were evident in Port-au-Prince. Pro-Aristide militia groups stepped up their vigilance in the increasingly tense capital, setting up roadblocks and burning tires after dark at intersections throughout the city. Vehicles throughout the city are being stopped and searched.

Philippe said some of his forces are already in Port-auPrince, some, he said, undercover in the National Palace. He predicted that they would use intelligence to identify and locate leaders of pro-Aristide groups, "neutralize them" and take the city in "one or two hours." He said his forces would kill Aristide if he resisted an attack, but that a trial would be preferable, either in Haiti or at an international court. Philippe said he would welcome an international peacekeeping force, provided Aristide was gone.

For a closer look at what is happening right now on the ground in Haiti, we are going to look back at the involvement of the US in the 1991-1994 coup period.

* Allan Nairn, a veteran investigative journalist, he was in Haiti during the 1991-94 coup and broke a number of stories that proved the direct links between US intelligence agencies and Haitian paramilitary death squads. Among the stories he broke was that the head of FRAPH, Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, was on the payroll of the Defense Intelligence Agency. AMY GOODMAN: We're joined now by Allan Nairn, an investigative journalist and activist in Haiti during the 1991 94 coup period. He won the George Polk award for stories that proved the direct links between US intelligence agencies and Haitian paramilitary death squads. Among the stories he broke was that the man who launched FRAPH, Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, was on the payroll of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Allan Nairn, welcome to Democracy Now!. Let me start by asking, is it proper to say that Constant launched FRAPH, or did US intelligence agencies?

ALLAN NAIRN: Well, Constant did with the support of the DIA and also the CIA.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about that period? Can you talk about the relationship when President Clinton went on the national airwaves and announced that the US military was going to move in, to go after the murderers, and the thugs, and the rapists, those who were doing this on the ground in Haiti. What was their relationship with the US government?

ALLAN NAIRN: Well, many of them were on the payroll of the US government. Historically, the US had backed oppressive forces in Haiti for centuries. France plundered the wealth of Haiti. After that, when there wasn't much left, even though there wasn't much left to plunder, the US backed a series of repressive regimes. Under the Duvaliers, through Israel, the US funded massive military and intelligence aid. And after Baby Doc Duvalier was brought down by a popular uprising, the US continued to back the paramilitary forces. Starting around 1989, the US Defense Intelligence Agency encouraged the formation of FRAPH, essentially a terrorist group. Colonel Patrick Collins, the defense attaché began working with Constant. And Constant was later placed on the CIA payroll. He received cash payments from John Kambourian, the CIA Station Chief. Also one of the key leaders of the coup that ousted Aristide from his democratically elected presidency, the first time around, Michelle Francois, was also on the payroll according to a CIA, the CIA payroll according to a US State Department official I interviewed. So, many of the officials whom Clinton was claiming to be fighting, were actually his employees, and if at that time, Clinton had simply cut them off, completely ended their support, the Haitian public itself most likely could have brought down the coup regime without a US occupation.

The price of that US occupation was that before Aristide was brought back, he was essentially forced to agree to abandon the economic program of the popular movement, a program of redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor. Aristide was pressured by Clinton and his National Security Adviser, Anthony Lake, to sign on to a World Bank-IMF program, which in the words of one of the main authors of that program, would redistribute some wealth from the poor to the rich. Aristide agreed to that, in part because he saw that while he was in exile in the United States, his people were being killed on the ground by FRAPH and by the people of Francois and the coup regime. And when Aristide came back under those conditions, in a US helicopter, moving around surrounded by US Special Forces people, cut off, to a great extent, from the popular movement, it was really the beginning of the end of the poplar movement in Haiti, and also, I think, the beginning of Aristide's own corruption, which helped lead to this current crisis

*

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, as we wrap up, Allan Nairn, as you reflect back on the period of the coup of 1991-1994 and look at what's happening today, your thoughts?

ALLAN NAIRN: Well, it's-what's happening now in a is a tragedy that grew from crime. It's an unspeakable crime what's been done to Haiti. Long ago it was a rich country. It was stripped of its wealth by France, The US has backed terror there over the years. Haitian people were living on the brink of survival. When you're that poor, your only chance for getting out of it is to be great. You can't behave like a mere mortal, or you'll fall. You will die. And for a period in the early, late 80s, early 90s, Haitians really achieved political greatness. They put together a popular movement that brought down Baby Doc Duvalier. They thwarted designs in what they thought was a fixed election. An election, instead, that brought Aristide to power with two-thirds of the vote. They tried to push a popular platform that would raise the minimum wage and redistribute the wealth to the poor.

But, they were facing horrible pressures. Bush-1 and then Clinton, backing his criminal paramilitaries. Later, the US cutting off promised aid to Haiti. And they also faced the temptations of power. I mean, I think part of the fault for what's happening now does lie with Aristide. He accepted the World Bank-IMF plan under US pressure. He started to implement it. I think there is evidence that he has grown corrupt over the years. He did back gangs to fight his opponents, often former Lavalas allies. And that's a tragedy. He started behaving like many politicians do, like a normal political boss. And the popular movement has come to a low state. It's astonishing that these paramilitaries could come in to Heche and Gonaives and other places, and with a few hundred armed men take the cities. In the old days that could never have happened. The people would have risen up. They would have stopped it with their bare hands, with machetes and torn the paramilitaries apart. But, Aristide evidently has lost a great deal of popular support.

The larger crime, though, that helped to create this was the way that a few miles from Miami Beach, you have one of the poorest countries in the world, a place that has been stripped of its wealth where people live on less than $500 a year. That shouldn't be tolerated. There should be a massive transfer of wealth to Haiti from the rich countries that benefited from the old wealth of Haiti. And the law should be enforced. Criminals like Jodel Chamblain should be prosecuted and jailed. So should the first Bush, so should President Clinton for backing them over the years. And then maybe you can create a situation where Haitians don't have to be great to have a chance at survival, and they can make mistakes like everybody else and still lead a decent life.


Getting Haiti Right This Time

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