14584: Karshan: Fwd: U.S. Congressional Delegation & Mrs. Robert F. Kennedy on fact-finding.. (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: MKarshan@aol.com

Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, Washington, D.C.


Partners in Health, Harvard University

PRESS ADVISORY

January 23, 2003



Michael Riggs
Montana Hotel

509-229-4000

509-229-4299



U.S. CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION AND MRS. ROBERT F. KENNEDY ON FACT-FINDING
MISSION TO HAITI;  MISSION LED BY THE ROBERT F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR HUMAN
RIGHTS AND HARVARD-BASED, PARTNERS IN HEALTH


Port au Prince, Haiti- The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial’s Center for Human
Rights and Harvard University-based Partners in Health program will lead a
fact-finding mission to Haiti on January 23rd to 24th to assess first-hand
the effects of withheld bilateral and multilateral development assistance on
the Haitian people, the most impoverished in the Western Hemisphere.  The
objective of the delegation is to examine whether the human rights situation
in Haiti would improve if the international community reengaged with the
Haitian government.

The delegation, which includes Ethel Kennedy, U.S. Representatives Donna
Christensen (D-VI), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Diane Watson (D-CA), Ms. Abigail
Disney, Todd Howland, Director of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Center
and Dr. Jim Kim, Executive Director of Partners in Health will be hosted by
Loune Viaud.  Ms. Viaud, the 2002 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award
Laureate, is the Strategic Director of Zanmi Lasante, a health complex
located in Cange, in Haiti's Central Plateau, and run by the Partners in
Health program.

During her acceptance speech for the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award,
Ms. Viaud said, "The International Development Bank (IDB) has withheld loans
to Haiti totaling $146 million for health care, clean water, basic education
and rural road rehabilitation.  By continuing its policy to not release these
funds the IDB is violating, not only its own Charter, but also the human
rights of the Haitian people."

In an April 2001 letter to the IDB, Todd Howland, Director of the Robert F.
Kennedy Center for Human Rights said "We are asking the Inter-American
Development Bank (IDB) to devise a means to resolve this impasse…The
Inter-American Development Bank is participating in a de-facto sanctions
regime that violates human rights law."

Congresswoman Donna Christensen, in remarks made at a July 2002 press
conference on Haiti and the role of the OAS, said, "I am here with my
colleagues to call on our President, who has refused to meet with us for
months, to end the embargo, and release the people of Haiti from the bondage
of sickness, poverty, and despair."

The delegation's itinerary includes meetings with Haiti's Ministers of Health
and Finance, members of the political opposition, Dr. Paul Farmer at Zanmi
Lasante health center in Cange, U.S. Ambassador to Haiti, Brian Dean Curran,
the Inter-American Development Bank representative to Haiti, the head of the
OAS Mission to Haiti, and President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his wife,
Mildred Aristide.

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