Haiti News

A mixed bag of news, to be frank. First, some mildly good news. Louis-Jodel Chamblain, the co-founder of the terrorist group FRAPH and a convicted murderer has turned himself in to authorities, but it doesn't exactly look like a typical perp walk, does it?

Curiously, the Justice Minister regards this as a "noble decision." Color me unimpressed. I also tend to agree with these sentiments:

But supporters of Mr. Aristide and members of his Lavalas party criticized the interim government for waiting more than a month to arrest Mr. Chamblain and for treating him delicately even as former Aristide ministers were thrown in jail.

Several officials of Mr. Aristide's government have been told they may not leave the county and Jocelerme Privert, the former interior minister, was jailed and accused of corruption and political violence. Yvon Neptune, prime minister under Mr. Aristide, said the interim government should have been just as zealous in pursuing convicted killers like Mr. Chamblain as it was in investigating Lavalas leaders.

I would ask those who supported the ouster of Mr. Aristide if haiti is better off with an obvious double standard of justice? I certainly don't think so.

The Caricom nations have expressed an interest in pursuing a probe of Aristide's ouster through the OAS, in large part due to their lack of representation on the UN Security Council and united US-France position against such an investigation [no doubt creating unsustainable levels of cognitive dissonance among the reaactionary right]. In any event, they remain firm in their refusal to send troops or police officers to Haiti except under a UN aegis.

Meanwhile, as this article attests, progress in improving the lives of Haitians is virtually nonexistent and one wonders how patient people will be.

Finally, the new documentary by Jonathan Demme, The Agronomist opened yesterday. I wrote about it last year and hope to finally see it this next week or so. I'll be certain to comment on it.