Bolton vs Haiti — His Waterloo?

Limelite

20 years ago

Talk about sending the fox to guard the chickens! According to BushCo. there’s trouble in the UN that needs ‘Murkens to go in, take no prisoners, and clean up. [Perhaps bring Kofi Annan’s head to DC on dry ice?] And who do they think’s the man for the job? Everybody’s favorite bureaucratic abuser, John Bolton no less.

Tell that to the Haitians. According to an opinion piece by Ira Kurzban appearing in Tuesday’s Miami Herald (registration required), Bolton

has been one of the hard-liners in the State Department who sought the overthrow of Aristide and who bullied intelligence analysts on Haiti who were trying to provide a more-balanced picture.

Why does this matter? I’ll tell everyone at Booman Tribune if you didn’t see this posted on DailyKos yesterday. . .

UN troops are supposedly the friendly forces in Haiti supporting interim president, Boniface Alexandre, in spite of Aristide having been duly elected. But the Bush administration continues to thwart all attempts by Jean-Bertrand Aristide to move Haiti towards a more stable democracy, a stronger economy and a more equitable society.

Where does our man fit in to the sorrows of Port-au-Prince? The Herald tells us:

In November 2004, however, John Bolton, as under secretary for arms control in the Department of State, signed off on providing the current police, under a nondemocratic government, more than 3,635 M14 rifles, 1,100 Mini Galils, several thousand assorted 0.38-caliber pistols, 3,700 MP5s and approximately one million rounds of ammunition, according to the Small Arms Survey, an authoritative resource published by the Graduate Institute of International Studies, located in Geneva.

Inquiring minds want to know what do UN troops do with all that fire power? Could it be they’re attempting to preserve vestiges of democracy and work toward reinstating the lawfully elected Aristide? “Not!” you say, knowing how this administration deals with legitimately elected presidents.

The ugly truth is:

Just last week, five Haitians were killed by the Haitian National Police while U.N. troops stood by watching. The Haitians’ crime was that they were peacefully demonstrating for the release of political prisoners in Haiti. On Feb. 28, 2005, demonstrators met the same fate and were executed by the Haitian National Police while peacefully protesting. Amnesty International has also reported ”incidents in which individuals dressed in black . . . and traveling in cars with Haitian National Police markings have cost the lives of at least 11 people.”.” Just this week, Amnesty condemned the Haitian police for their ”use of lethal and indiscriminate violence” to “disperse and repress demonstrators.”

These are demonstrators for the reinstatement of Aristide to the presidency of Haiti; for the restoration of democracy; for the very values of freedom our soldiers are fighting and dying to instate in Iraq. Talk about schizophrenia!

So, Mr. Bolton, your qualifications to clean up the UN’s act are what, exactly?

Just this — he’s been one of the hard-liners in the State Department who sought the overthrow of Aristide and who bullied intelligence analysts on Haiti who were trying to provide a more-balanced picture. According to his cohort in overthrowing Aristide, Otto Reich (yes, that Otto of Iran-Contra fame), they both rightfully went after an intelligence analyst who gave the ”benefit of the doubt” to Aristide as the democratically elected president.

As Kurzban so eloquently sums up this travesty, call it paen to hypocrisy,

Perhaps Bolton can explain to members of the Senate when they reconvene why he would place more weapons in the hands of thugs and murderers whose police work is composed largely of executing peaceful demonstrators who are demanding the return of democracy to Haiti.

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