12139: Re: 12131: Miami Times Front Page - 22 mei 2002 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

FROM: Kevin Pina         <kpinbox@hotmail.com>


"Collective Cuban endorsement of the president’s renewed anti-Castro
policies was matched by a collective Haitian indictment of the president’s
continued tacit approval of anti-Haitian actions. “We are tired of being
ignored,” said Dina Paul Parks, executive director of the New York-based
National Coalition of Haitian Rights at a protest held just blocks away from
a $25,000-a-plate fund-raising dinner attended by the president. “We are
tired of being told that our claims are not valid."........

"For example, in one segment of his speech, Bush said that Cuba was alone in
the Americas because “every nation in our hemisphere has chosen the path of
democracy.”

That comment raised eye-brows among individuals monitoring the ongoing
Bush administration embargo against Haiti. The embargo has been enacted by
the Bush administration because of the current political crisis in Haiti
surrounding the disputed election results of two years ago".

........................................................................


This is a perfect example of how the issue, related to the claims of Haitian
refugees on the basis of "political persecution", is being used as fodder to
further discredit the constitutional government and keep economic sanctions
in place. Whether by design or not, the ultimate impact is to create a wedge
issue that places proponents of lifting sanctions against Haiti into a
position of supporting refugees claiming "political persecution" in Haiti.
Once their claims of "political persecution" are accepted as valid en masse,
it supports claims of persecution by the Democratic Convergence in Haiti,
forestalls further negotiations and ends any discussion of lifting
sanctions. It is made all the more attractive in that it is gilded by
language of "equal application of the laws" for Haitians which siphons
support away from the growing movement in the Haitian community to end
sanctions against Haiti.

I do indeed find that "tricky".

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