12798: Haiti Support Group press release - 20 August 2002 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Haiti Support Group press release - 20 August 2002


The Greater London Association of Trade Union Councils is the latest union organisation to write to Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to ask for the release of the nine people detained without trial since the attack on the union rally at Guacimal, near St.Raphael, in northern Haiti, on 27 May.

In a letter dated 19 August, the Association's Secretary, Bob Tennant, wrote on behalf of 250,000 union members in the British capital to express concern about the continued detention of six Batay Ouvriye members and three local transport drivers. (see letter below)

The Greater London Association of Trade Union Councils' letter follows similar appeals for President Aristide to intervene from:
the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions;
the International Labour Organisation;
the Spanish union federation - Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras;
the Austrian union federation - Osterreichischen Gewerkschaftsbund;
the Polish Solidarnosc union;
the Miami Area Local, American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO;
the British GMB general union, northern section;
the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU).

Amnesty International has also written to Haiti's Justice Minister asking for clarification about the legal position of the detainees.

Non-governmental organisations, including Réseau-Solidarité (France), War on Want, and the Haiti Support Group (both UK), have been joined by the Montreal-based Rights & Democracy, International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, in asking the Haitian authorities to respect international and local laws guaranteeing workers' rights.


For more details see the Haiti Support Group web site:  www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org


LETTER


GREATER LONDON ASSOCIATION OF TRADE UNION COUNCILS

President: Peter Spalding
Secretary: Bob Tennant
25 Vicarage Road
Leyton E10 5EF
020-8558 6612

website: www.glatuc.org.uk

19 August 2002

S.E. Monsieur Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Président de la République d'Haïti
Présidence de la République d'Haïti
Palais National, Champ de Mars
Port-au-Prince, HAÏTI


Your Excellency,


This Association, which represents about 250,000 trade unionists in London, wishes to express its deep concern about the continued detention of nine people who participated in the union rally at the Guacimal plantation near St. Raphael on 27 May 2002. You will recall that the rally was called by the St. Raphael Guacimal Workers' Union (Syndicat des Ouvriers de Guacimal Saint-Raphaël - SOGS) and was supported by trade unionists from Saint-Michel de l'Attalaye and Cap-Haïtien.

The nine people who were subject to arbitrary arrest and who are still imprisoned without charge, include six trade unionists, members of a workers' organisation affiliated to the legally-registered, 'First of May-Batay Ouvriye' union federation. The others detained are two drivers, and one drivers' assistant, who were in vehicles bringing demonstrators to the rally.

As a large number of grassroots organisations in Haiti pointed out in a press release dated 11 June, the nine have been imprisoned because they tried to exercise their legal rights to assembly and association as guaranteed in the 1987 Constitution, and because they demanded the minimum working conditions and benefits as laid down in the country's Labour Code, and as agreed by the Guacimal SA management and the peasant/workers when the land was leased in 1958.

Given the serious concerns expressed by the labour organizations in Haiti, and the rising level of international interest, this Association asks for your urgent consideration of the following:

* An immediate end to all acts of intimidation that are contrary to letter and the spirit of the rights to freedom of expression and assembly as guaranteed by the 1987 Constitution and by international human rights and labour law;
* The intervention of the Minister of Justice to secure the immediate release without conditions of these nine illegally detained people;
* The arrest of those implicated in the murder of the two peasant/workers on 27 May at Guacimal, St. Raphael;
* Justice and compensation for the victims of the tragic events at Guacimal on 27 May;
* The creation of an independent commission of inquiry to investigate the peasant/workers' situation and, in particular, the bloody events of 27 May;
* The creation of the conditions of security to permit the peasant/workers to return to their place of work.

For your convenience I append a list of those detained.

Yours sincerely,

Bob Tennant
Secretary



The names of the nine detained people are:

1. Yvon LOUIS JEUNE, a driver from Cap-Haïtien
2. Alix ROLAND, a drivers' assistant
3. Destiné DÉCIUS, a driver from St Michel de l'Attalaye
4. Tusson ALEXANDRE, a union member from St Michel de L'Attalaye
5. Veruséus SÉNAT, a union member from St Michel de L'Attalaye
6. Dorvil JÉRÉMIE, a union member from St Michel de L'Attalaye
7. Urbain GARÇON, a union member from St Michel de L'Attalaye
8. Mme Danbreville ÉDOUARD, a union member from St Michel de L'Attalaye
9. Mme Lucienne JEAN, a union member from St Michel de L'Attalaye