12470: Arthur on the USAID, CNO and Jean Dominique (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Well, sadly Jean Do is not around anymore, so I suppose no one has taken much
notice of the following news:

July 2, 2002 - The US Embassy has announced that USAID will support the
Conseil National d'Observation (CNO) in the development of an elite corps of
well-trained and experienced election observers who will be charged with
observing the complete electoral process. The director of USAID, David Adams,
called on the population to accompany the CNO so that it can carry out its
mission successfully. The CNO will work to consolidate the democratic process
by contributing to orderly elections through non-partisan national electoral
observation. (my translation from French from the Intervision 2000 web site)


Does anyone remember this, from Haiti Progres, April 5 2000?:

"In recent weeks, Dominique had been sharply critical of the U.S.
government's heavy-handed meddling in Haitian elections and bullying of
Haitian President René Préval, to whom Dominique was a close friend and
advisor....

...the "Haitian" National Council of Electoral Observation (CNO) (is) headed
by Léopold Berlanger, who is director of the USAID-funded Radio Vision 2000,
a frequent recipient of National Endowment for Democracy grants, and a
long-time agent of Washington (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 17, No. 43, Jan. 12,
2000). Last week, Jean Dominique revealed over the airwaves of Radio Haiti
Inter that Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) president Léon Manus signed an
accord with Berlanger on Feb. 25, without the knowledge of any other CEP
members. The deal would allow Berlanger's CNO to pick not only the CEP's
accredited election observers but also the members of the registration
stations, voting stations, and the supervisors.

Jean Dominique's last editorial was precisely to denounce Berlanger and the
secret accord which made the entirely self-appointed CNO a final arbiter of
any upcoming elections."