I remember reading this article when it originally appeared in the Washington Post on February 23, 2004 just a few days before the coup on February 29. I stumbled across it again while doing an internet search. It is chilling to read it now knowing what horror followed. Of particular importance is the caption associated with the picture that accompanied the article. It lends further credence to the fact that Haitians were rounded up, jailed, or killed for being "suspected" supporters of Aristide.Aristide Supporter is Detained
A Haitian man, suspected of being a supporter of President Jean Bertrand-Aristide, is detained by rebels in the streets of Cap-Haitien. (Walter Astrada - AP)
"Defense officials said then that the dispatch of the team should not be viewed as an initial step toward U.S. military intervention. Since the outbreak of violence last month, the Bush administration has rejected the idea of sending U.S. troops or police to Haiti, saying it prefers to help broker a political solution."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A64030-2004Feb23?language=printer
washingtonpost.com
Marines Arrive in Haiti to Protect U.S. Embassy
By Fred Barbash and Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, February 23, 2004; 4:23 PM
The Pentagon sent 50 combat-ready Marines to Haiti today to protect the United States Embassy and its staff amid an insurgency bent on taking the country's capital and toppling President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
At Toussaint Louverture International Airport, Marines in combat gear, rifles drawn, arrived on a U.S. Air Force transport plane this afternoon, the Associated Press reported from Port-au-Prince, the capital.
The Marines' sole mission will be securing U.S. facilities and associated buildings, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
A statement released today by the U.S. Southern Command in Miami said the Marines were deployed from the U.S. naval base in Norfolk.
The unit is called a FAST team, which stands for Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team, but defense officials were quick to point out that this deployment is not related to terrorism.
They are going "to provide an additional layer of security to what's already there," said Whitman.
Anti-government rebels took control Sunday of Haiti's second-largest city, Cap-Haitien, which is about 100 miles north of Port-au-Prince. It was the rebels' most significant victory in a nearly three-week armed uprising that has spread across much of the impoverished nation.
About 60 people, most of them poorly equipped police officers, have been killed this month in clashes between government and rebel forces.
Last week, the State Department urged U.S. citizens to leave Haiti, and the Pentagon announced it was sending a four-man military team to assess security at the embassy and prepare for a possible emergency evacuation.
Defense officials said then that the dispatch of the team should not be viewed as an initial step toward U.S. military intervention. Since the outbreak of violence last month, the Bush administration has rejected the idea of sending U.S. troops or police to Haiti, saying it prefers to help broker a political solution.
Peace Corps personnel were being withdrawn as well and authorization was given for the family members of U.S. Embassy personnel and some embassy employees to leave voluntarily.
Haiti's police force has dwindled to roughly 3,000 officers, not nearly enough to move against rebels now entrenched in Haiti's fourth-largest city, Gonaives, or in Cap-Haitien and the strategic central plateau that is a prime supply corridor to the Dominican Republic.
Aristide became Haiti's first freely elected president in 1990, four years after he helped topple the Duvalier family dictatorship as a Catholic priest from the capital's slums. But he was ousted by a military coup 10 months after he was elected.
A U.S. force of 23,000 troops restored him to the presidency in 1994. One of his first measures was to dissolve the Haitian military, which has been involved in more than 30 coups in the country's 200-year history. Aristide was reelected in November 2000, several months after his Lavalas party swept legislative elections later deemed fraudulent by international observers.
Correspondent Scott Wilson contributed to this report."
