It might sound implausible, but surely it is no less plausible than Kerry being to blame for the Haitian resistance? It’s true folks, the coup-installed Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has decided that South Africa’s president Thabo Mbeki is using South African territory to help “organize violence” in Haiti. Mbeki, according to Latortue, is “not respecting international law.” This raises some questions.
It might sound implausible, but surely it is no less plausible than Kerry being to blame for the Haitian resistance? It’s true folks, the coup-installed Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has decided that South Africa’s president Thabo Mbeki is using South African territory to help “organize violence” in Haiti. Mbeki, according to Latortue, is “not respecting international law.” This raises some questions.
Does Latortue mean the international law that says you can’t use paramilitary criminals and foreign arms and Marines from a country like the US to overthrow a democratically elected government?
Does he mean the international law that says you can’t massacre civilian populations?
None of those laws seem to worry Mr. Latortue. Aristide, however, does upset him. He said this about Aristide: “His capacity is only to destroy. He knows how to kill, how to put fire, how to put violence, how to arm 12-, 13-, 14-year-old young people.” I guess this last explains why they are reporting that the Haitian police and military are arresting and killing children in the poor neighbourhoods.
And if Latortue wants to talk about the use of foreign territory to organize violence, he can look a little closer than South Africa — the Dominican Republic and the United States would do just fine.
One thing can be said about this stuff. From Iraq (Wolfowitz’s statement that there were “too many foreigners” making war there) to Israel/Palestine (any given statement about “terrorism”) to the war on terror in general (statements about depravity, irrationality, hatred of freedom, ruthlessness, torture, etc.), accusations leveled at the other side are becoming a very good guide to what our side is doing. If you want to know what Latortue’s government is doing to Haitians, just check out what he’s saying about Aristide — that’ll be a good place to start.
