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a157: COMMITTEE TO DEFEND DEMOCRACY IN HAITI (fwd)
From: Stanley Lucas <slucas@iri.org>
COMMITTEE TO DEFEND DEMOCRACY IN HAITI P. O. Box 1429 New York, New York
10276 Phone: (718) 834-1296 / Fax: (718) 834-8853
Memorandum To:
The
Organization of American States From: The Committee to Defend Democracy
in Haiti The Organization of American States was party to the
international embargo declared on Haiti, deemed the poorest country in
the Western Hemisphere, to force out the military putschists who, on
September 30, 1991 overthrew the then popularly elected President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide. When the embargo failed to dislodge the Haitian
military, the OAS passed on the dossier to the Security Council of the
United Nations which eventually blessed a United States invasion of Haiti
to "restore" and "uphold democracy" in Haiti. The Secretary General of
the OAS was among the dignitaries who debarked in Haiti on October 15,
1994 with President Aristide in a show of solidarity. Since the
"restoration" of that "democracy," violations to democratic ideals and
practices have been the norm. Infringements on the rights of the citizens
and electoral fraud have been such that the legislative, municipal and
local elections of May 21, 2000 haven't been recognized by the majority
of the political parties and civil society. Even the president of the
Electoral Council who oversaw these elections declared them null and void
and had to flee Haiti in extremis to save his life, threatened as he was
by the highest authorities of the country and official thugs unleashed
after him. The OAS observer mission of those elections declared some of
them fraudulent and called, without success, for rerunning them. In the
last analysis, the OAS, as well as other international observer missions,
refused to participate in the equally flawed election of November 26,
2001 that crowned Aristide President ofHaiti, with a voter participation
estimated at from 5% to 15% of registered voters. The lack of legitimacy
of the Lavalas regime has caused a freezing of foreign aid to the country
with devastating results for the population, especially for
are the vast majority. Memo to OAS, p. 2 Faced with what he calls the
"economic terrorism" of the international community that has withheld its
aid to his government, Aristide resorted on December 17, 2001 to a bogus
"military attack" on the National palace to give himself the pretext to
physically destroy the opposition, officially represented by the
Democratic Convergence. Various press and diplomatic reports have
detailed the destruction of headquarters and residences of leading
opposition figures. Even some foreign properties, such as the annex of
the French Institute, have been ransacked. Some businesses belonging to
opponents of the regime have been broken into in broad daylight and
pillaged by the police and the official thugs called 'chimères"*from
chimeric. Scores of people have been killed. In view of the foregoing,
and considering that the OAS has undertaken 17 fruitless missions to
Haiti in the past year in attempts to solve the crisis through
negotiations, the time has come to take a firm stand against the
State-sponsored hooliganism in order to keep a stranglehold on power.
We'll note that the OAS Commission on Human Rights issued a strong
statement on the situation late last week. But that is not enough. The
OAS Permanent Council should have the courage to denounce the Haitian de
facto regime that has decided to resort to past practices of the hated
Duvalier dictatorship to maintain power over a prostrate nation. In that
light no negotiation is possible with Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who has
never kept his word and has always betrayed the trust placed in him.
Consequently, the only solution to the lingering Haitian crisis is the
departure of Aristide from the presidency and the establishment of a
balanced provisional governent to prepare for honest, free and democratic
elections in a reasonable period of time.
For the Committee:
Raymond A. Joseph