6626: Pina on threats against press (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: KEVIN PINA <kevinpina@usa.net>

The threats against the press, made by one of the popular organizations at St.
Jean-Bosco last week, have been disavowed by most of their sister
organizations, prominent members of Lavalas and current government officials.
Those responsible represent only one out of over 350 organizations and
neighborhood committees that are struggling for structural solutions to a vast
array of overwhelming problems on the community level. It can be said that
they succumbed to the taunts and provocations of the Convergence which are
given daily credence by many prominent radio stations throughout the country.
The two weeks of violence prior to the elections, open talk of forestalling
Aristide's presidency through civil war, and a heightened sense of fear among
the population, all contributed to this moment.

While Amenesty International and Congressmen Gilman and Goss are quick to make
political hay out of this while reclaiming their respective turfs, one has to
ask where were their condemnations of political violence after the killing of
four people and wounding of several others on November 3, 2000 at Carrefour
Aviation? Where were their condemnations of political violence, two weeks
prior to the elections, as gunmen were firing randomly at the population in
daily drive-by shooting sprees? Where were their condemnations of political
violence one week before the elections when innocent school children were
being killed in a bombing campaign and the population of Port au Prince was
subjected to systematic terror? Where was their great interest and concern for
condemning real acts of political violence being perpetrated upon an unarmed
population?  Instead they selectively choose to focus and call attention to
"threats" of political violence by a small minority while the difficult work
of investigating major acts of political violence and terror against the
population is left untouched. Where is the non-partisan search for truth and
justice in that? 

I am not surprised by the political opportunism and blinders of Gilman and
Goss but I must say to our dear friends at Amnesty International that your
slip is showing from under your dress of equal treatment in investigating
human rights abuses. The most confusing part is that the colors clash.  

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