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10/02/2004:

"Balanced Reporting of Political Violence in Haiti is Not Fair"

By Zoe Moskovitz and Sasha Kramer

On September 5, 2004 the Florida Sun Sentinel published an article by Alva
James-Johnson entitled Haiti's Fragile Peace. Having recently returned from a trip to Haiti with a group of human rights monitors, we read the article with great interest. Haiti's Fragile Peace is another in a long line of articles published in the mainstream media that portray the conflict in Haiti as a chaotic power struggle between equally violent rival factions over which the interim government is attempting to gain control. After interviewing community organizers, elected officials, and labor leaders we came away with a very different impression.

Whether or not the government of Haiti currently acknowledges having ties to the former military, despite the fact that Latortue hailed them as "freedom fighters" in early March, it was our impression that the majority of Haitians see the interim government and the former military as two hands on the same body. One hand presents the façade of legitimacy, while the other violently represses legitimate political dissent.

Full Article : counterpunch.org