Imperialists had no Tears for Haitian Refugees Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit --------------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the June 3, 1999 issue of Workers World newspaper --------------------------------- SYMPATHY, WHEN IT'S CONVENIENT: IMPERIALISTS HAD NO TEARS FOR HAITIAN REFUGEES By Pat Chin Brooklyn, N.Y. The disparate treatment of refugees by the U.S. government clearly reflects whose class interests are being served by the capitalist bureaucracy in Washington, as well as racist attitudes long institutionalized in the nation. Take, for example, the handling of ethnic Albanians fleeing Kosovo, many in response to the murderous U.S.-led NATO bombardment there. The Nazi-like blitz krieg was unleashed after the Yugoslav government refused to cede control over its territory at the Rambouillet talks in France. The Albanians were able to make satellite phone calls to family abroad and were given relatively decent food and shelter in the refugee camps. Those allowed to immigrate to the U.S. will get federal housing, job placement and health benefits, the right to work, and eligibility to become permanent residents after one year. Contrast this to Haitian refugees. On Sept. 30, 1991, a bloody military coup toppled the administration of the popularly-elected Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The violent overthrow of the progressive government was instigated by Washington and the CIA. Thousands were murdered, some of them hacked to death and beheaded. Women were raped and disfigured. To escape the bloodbath launched by the right-wing putschists, many Haitians fled by sea in unsafe and rickety boats and headed for the U.S. Hundreds drowned in the desperate attempt to escape the onslaught. Many thousands were turned back by the U.S. Coast Guard or imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, the naval base the U.S occupies in Cuba. Those who reached the "land of opportunity" were locked up and later sent back to the slaughter in Haiti. Washington's excuse was that they were running away not from political violence but from poverty and, as such, were not eligible for political asylum. There was one big exception, however, to the racist policy of forcing the Haitians back. It fell in line with preserving the corporate interests of U.S. imperialism and its grip on the Haitian economy enforced through organized class terror. Haitian death squad leader Emmanuel "Toto" Constant fled Haiti and was granted de facto political asylum in the U.S. Constant was head of the CIA-backed terrorist militia in Haiti called FRAPH, which butchered many people, much like the KLA in Kosovo. The White House excuse for refusing the new Haitian government's request for his extradition was that it feared Constant "would not get a fair trial." A refugee relocation plan will eventually admit 20,000 displaced Albanians into the U.S. The original scheme to house them under prison-like conditions at Guantanamo Bay was quickly abandoned by the Clinton White House. The decision to admit these refugees was reportedly made because of Clinton's concern that the Albanians not be confined behind barbed-wire fences--which is exactly what the Haitians were forced to endure. ANGER IN COMMUNITIES OF COLOR The Albanian victims of the imperialist attempt to take over and exploit Yugoslavia--which started with the infiltration of KLA terrorists into Kosovo--have been treated so generously by the U.S./ NATO cabal, comparatively speaking, that it has sparked anger in communities of color here. "We have nothing against the Albanians," Vondora Jordan told Workers World. "But we remember the way the government treated the Haitians, how they sent them back to be killed. "Then they say they have to cut the budget. They have to get rid of welfare, and it doesn't matter if people are left homeless, if they have to eat out of garbage cans, or if they can't afford to take their children to the doctor and the hospital has been shut down. "The horrible bombing of Yugoslavia--the many billions they're spending on that--and Clinton's favorable response to the refugee crisis show that the money is there. They just want to spend it to protect the rich folks so they can keep feeding at the trough while we suffer. We should take it from the Pentagon and give it back to the people." An African American activist, Jordan is co-founder of Workfairness. The group has organized thousands of welfare recipients forced into the slave-labor Work Experience Program in New York City. WHAT ABOUT AFRICAN REFUGEES? Africa has the largest number of refugees--some 7.3 million, according to United Nations figures. Many are fleeing civil wars, from Angola to the Congo, stirred up by imperialist interests after hundreds of years of plunder and domination. "United Nations officials are sensitive to assertions," reported the May 9 New York Times, "that they treat European refugees different from African ones. "On its face," the article goes on to admit, "it would seem that more money is pouring into Kosovo. The United Nations says it has spent about $1.23 per person each day in Kosovo for three months _ whereas the amount spent in Africa was 11 cents per person." A report from the Los Angeles Times of May 21 said that while some camps in Africa have only one doctor per 100,000 refugees, the camps in Macedonia have as many as one doctor per 700 refugees--higher than in some parts of Los Angeles. "The camps in Africa hold as many as 500,000 people," said the article. "Up to 6,000 refugees there die each day from cholera and other public health diseases. In Macedonia, the largest camp holds 33,000 people. So far, there have been no deaths from public health emergencies such as an epidemic or starvation." Where is the outpouring of sympathy for the suffering refugees in Africa--or, for that matter, the refugees of U.S. capitalist restructuring in Los Angeles? - END - (Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@workers.org. For subscription info info send message to: info@workers.org. 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