Gya: Caricom women on a head trip

Women of the Caribbean Community, a number of them involved in national organisations across the region, have strongly denounced the coup against President Jean Bertrand Aristide.

And they want the leaders of CARICOM, who were winding up their meeting in Kingston, Jamaica yesterday, to refuse to commit Caribbean troops in Haiti, in view of the circumstances of the removal of President Aristide from power.

They also want CARICOM leaders to conduct their own independent investigation into the circumstances of Aristide's illegal removal as the "constitutionally elected President" of his Caribbean nation.

In a statement being circulated yesterday for additional signatures and released to the regional media, the women, including from Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Cuba, Anguilla and of the American Diaspora, have made five demands:

Among the women signatories are three nationals of Guyana - Andaiye, Patricia Rodney and Karen de Souza.

The women want the governments of the Caribbean and Latin America to join with voices in the region as well as within the USA to:

1. Demand that President and First Lady Aristide be free to travel where they want to and to speak so that the world can hear directly from them.

2. Condemn acts of violence against the people of Haiti, where as in any armed conflict, women and children bear the highest price, including in sexual violence;

3. Support the bringing to justice of those who are committing violence and other atrocities against the Haitian people, including by coup leaders, and call for the convicted criminal among the coup leaders to serve their terms;

4. Oppose the return by the US Government of Haitian refugees who are fleeing violence, including the violence of poverty imposed on them by the US and who are bound to face even greater violence upon their return to Haiti; and to

5. Insist on the sovereignty of the people of Haiti and Venezuela, who must be in charge of their own affairs without outside interference".

The women got what they wanted -- no Caricom troops in Haiti. Where will Caricom get the money to do an "independent investigation"? An Arab loan, perhaps, since the Mid-East is equally fond of conspiracy theories?

On the five points: 1. The one place to which Aristide will not travel freely is Haiti -- not without U.S. troops as a buffer to take bullets meant for him. If Aristide lacks the money to travel (wasn't he paid for allegedly allowing Haiti to become a narco state?), who is going to sponsor his globe trotting? Maybe the CBC or Randall Robinson or Caricom will?

2. Why did these women not speak out whilst the violence was raging in Haiti since last year and further back? Ah, it's only violence when "Western powers" are involved. When Haitians kill Haitians, that's okay.

3. By this, Aristide would not be free to globe-trot and spew his lies; he'd be sitting in a jail in Haiti -- provided he lived long enough after he stepped foot on the island. Oops, this is only against Guy Philippe and the rebels. But, I thought the "Western nations" had pulled the coup? Could Guy Philippe and the rest have been said to pull a coup if they halted action outside of Port au Prince?

4. If there is no more, or rather far less, violence on the ground in Haiti, why would those who fled it not be repatriated? The circumstances from which they fled are no longer there or are under control, no? Oh, poverty is violence, too. Then the U.S. should open its gates to all of Haiti. If the U.S. had not withheld disbursement of three quarters of the $500 million in loans to Aristide government, would that money have been spent any more wisely than the more than a quarter of the Haitian national budget ($125 million) that was spent on independence celebrations, on building museums and such? Can poor people eat musems and drink them for clean water?

5. Okay, the international community should have allowed the rebels to kill Aristide. Does this mean that no international loans should be given to Haiti? Does this mean that Chavez must be allowed to continue with Stalinist and Castroist actions against democracy and the constitutional process in Venezuela?

Leftism is the same everywhere.