12133: Haiti-Demonstration May 23, 2002 in Washington DC; End the Sanctions

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Eugenia Charles <gencharles@hotmail.com>


Please circulate widely.

LET HAITI LIVE!

End U.S. Sanctions Against Haiti

COALITION OF HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS HOLD DEMONSTRATIONS TO
VOICE SUPPORT OF HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 382

More than 500 supporters of Let Haiti Live!, a campaign to end the current
U.S. embargo against Haiti, will converge in Washington for a day-long
demonstrations. Simultaneous demonstrations to protest the unjust
development assistance embargo against Haiti in Washington, D.C.,
Port-au-Prince, Haiti and Oakland, CA.

These demonstrations are part of similar actions, May 22-24, to kick-off a
call-in and
write-in campaign urging Congressional representatives to support House
Concurrent Resolution 382 (H.C.R. 382), introduced by Congresswoman
Barbara Lee and the Congressional Black Caucus. The resolution entitled
“New Partnership for Haiti” calls for an end to the aid moratorium and
the initiation of a program to bolster the economic base of Haiti.


Where:  UPPER SENATE PARK, US CAPITOL, WASHINGTON, DC

When:   8:00 AM to 4:00 PM, THURSDAY, MAY 23, 2002


Phone:  (202) 224-3121 (Congress switchboard)
- Urge your Representative and Senator to support an
end to the aid moratorium against Haiti and H.C.R. 382

Write:  Send a letter or postcard to your
Representative and Senator (sample below)

Why:            For the past two years, the United States has
led an international financial aid moratorium against
the Government of Haiti, blocking over $500 million in
grants and loans that were intended for health care,
education and public works  -such as providing potable
drinking water. Because of the moratorium and the
terms of these loans, the Haitian government and its
people are paying interest on loans they are blocked
from receiving. Secretary of State Colin Powell stated
that this policy was in place in order to “leverage a
political outcome in Haiti.”

The aid moratorium is unconscionable in any country,
but particularly in a country as poor as Haiti where
there is only 1 physician for every 10,000 people,
where only 40 percent of all Haitians have access to
potable water, a rising infant mortality rate, an
HIV/AIDS rate of epidemic proportions and crisis
levels of poverty and environmental destruction. This
moratorium is but a recent example in a long history
of US, World Bank and IMF policies designed to
severely curtail economic development for the
impoverished masses of Haiti.

Sponsored by:  Haiti Action Committee, East Bay
Sanctuary Covenant, Global Exchange, Marin Interfaith
Task Force, Quixote Center

Supporters of the "Let Haiti Live" campaign:  San
Francisco Labor Council, A. Philip Randolph Institute,
Bay Area Debt Coalition, Bay Area US/Cuba
Friendshipment, Castagnola Family Inc., Coalition for
African Immigrants & Refugees, Davis Religious
Community for Sanctuary, East Timor Religious
Outreach, Ecumenical Peace Institute, Friends of
Peoples’ Weekly World, Haiti Sister Parish Committee
of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, John George
Democratic Club, Labor Council for Latin American
Advancement, Letter Carriers Union #214, Parish
Twinning Program of the Americas, Partners in Health,
Pax Christi USA, Quixote Center, Richmond Diocese
Haiti Outreach, Witness for Peace (partial list)

Contact information:  Haiti Reborn/Quixote Center
(301) 699-0042;   eugeniac@quixote.org

Sample Letter/Postcard

Rep./Sen. ____________
Washington, DC

Dear ____________:


I oppose the unjust development assistance embargo
that is crippling Haiti's economy and compounding the
misery of millions of poor Haitians.  The sanctions
are ineffective as a policy tool, counterproductive as
a development strategy, and immoral as a way of
treating human beings.

I ask you to support H. Con. Res. 382, which calls for
an end to the sanctions.  Similar resolutions have
been passed by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the
organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific states
(ACP), and dozens of human rights, religious, labor,
and healthcare organizations in the U.S.

Haiti's people are the poorest in our hemisphere and
the third hungriest in the world.  Yet the sanctions
prevent essential progress in healthcare, sanitation
and education.  We need to support the Haitian
government's ability to provide these minimal
services, not starve it.

Please Let Haiti Live!

Sincerely,













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