The National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL) expresses

its maximum outrage and disgust with the imperialist,

lawless and brutal campaign of terrorism that has been

inflicted on the people of Haiti by the Bush

Administration. According to reports, the United States has

resorted to the methods of petty gangsters by kidnaping

Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide at gunpoint,

orchestrating a coup and forcing the country's

democratically-elected leader into exile. Furthermore, NCBL

condemns in the strongest terms the Bush Administration's

callous, hypocritical and racist policy on Haitian

refugees. NCBL demands immediate answers to questions about

U.S. involvement with armed terrorists who have

destabilized the island nation, and calls for the formation

of a global Pan-African alliance of organizations that will

be prepared to counter future imperialist intervention

through coordinated economic warfare.

The forced departure of President Aristide from Haiti came

amidst an ongoing, full-scale armed attack on the country

by bands of thugs who are former members of the disbanded

Haitian army and secret police force that operated under

the leadership of former dictators Raoul Cedras and

Jean-Claude ("Baby Doc") Duvalier. These former

military/police goons were noted for their barbarity and

tortures inflicted on countless members of the civilian

population. They were responsible for a coup in 1991 that

forced Aristide from office. Observers like the Haiti

Action Committee have reported that, after Aristide's

return to power in 1994, many of the thugs fled to the

neighboring Dominican Republic, where they commenced

training in terrorist tactics that were recently unleashed

in a merciless campaign to destabilize the island.

Armed thugs causing chaos in an underdeveloped country for

the purpose of setting the stage for a "regime change" is

an all-too-familiar scenario that has historically been

masterminded by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

It occurred in 1976 in Jamaica when the CIA provided

high-powered weapons to opponents of then-Prime Minister

Michael Manley who was regarded by Washington as having too

cozy a relationship with Fidel Castro. It occurred in

Nicaragua during the 1980s when the CIA organized and

financed terrorist opponents of the Sandinista government.

It has likewise occurred in various countries in Africa,

like Ghana and Congo. It occurred in Grenada in 1983, when

the U.S. invaded the tiny island. More recently, we have

witnessed a similar failed coup attempt in Venezuela, and

threats directed at Zimbabwe because that country dares to

return land to its indigenous citizens.

For several reasons, President Aristide is not viewed with

favor by the West. After Aristide's re-election in 2000, he

refused the U.S. demand to privatize Haitian state

monopolies. Washington answered by freezing $600 million in

assistance to Haiti. Aristide also led a campaign to have

France pay Haiti $22 billion in reparations for

blackmailing newly-independent Haiti with a threat of an

international embargo in 1804. "Coincidentally," France was

first to demand that Aristide step down. Given the fact

that, historically, the U.S. government, via the CIA, has

repeatedly interfered with Haiti's internal affairs to prop

up the dictatorship of the Duvalier family and the Haitian

business elite, NCBL is compelled to ask whether yet-again,

the U.S. has engaged in illegal covert activities to

further the Bush Administration's policy of pre-emptive

regime change. Such actions, as well as the kidnaping of a

head of state are flagrant violations of domestic criminal

law, and basic principles of international law, including

various provisions of the United Nations Charter that are

intended to protect sovereign countries from both violent

and peaceful foreign intervention in matters that are

within the country's domestic jurisdiction.

NCBL must note as well that the U.S. has traditionally

presented itself as a place of refuge for people from

around the world who fear persecution in their respective

homelands. However, it is clear that U.S. refugee policy,

in practice, is determined by race. In 2002, there were

approximately 10.4 million refugees worldwide - the

majority of whom were people of color. Nevertheless, the US

continues to offer shelter disproportionately to white

refugees. This fact is once again made blatantly clear by

Bush's recent statement that no Haitian refugees will be

allowed to enter the U.S. despite the great civil unrest

occurring in their country. Such a statement is in direct

conflict with a refugee policy that claims to consider each

case individually, and it reeks of racism. NCBL opposes

this racist treatment of refugees of African descent.

NCBL stands firmly in support of President Aristide, and we

offer our full support to those courageous members of the

Congressional Black Caucus and others who have dared to

defy the U.S. political establishment and expose the lies

of the Bush Administration and its lackeys in the corporate

mass media. Finally, NCBL calls upon all organizations of

people of African ancestry, and others of goodwill, to

establish an Independent Action Alliance for the purpose of

preventing future Haiti-like occurrences by coordinating

global mass actions to impact the health of selected

multi-national corporations, and the economies of western

governments that choose to use criminal methods to

undermine legitimate, democratically-selected leadership,

and to otherwise frustrate efforts at African peoples'

self-determination.