14903: Higbie re Du Tuyau # 14886+7 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Janet Higbie <jhigbie@nytimes.com>

Seriously, Du Tuyau, aren't you being a bit callous, from the relative
(albeit cold) comfort of Flatbush Ave., about journalists and activists who
are real danger in Haiti?   What of it, if OAS visits have coincided with
journalists going into hiding?   Does that make the threats any less
significant?   Isn't it a possibility that the OAS, upon being alerted of a
threat or an attack, would make a well-publicized visit soon afterward to
signal that it is watching the situation?  (I leave it to others to
evaluate how effective this has been.)

As for "intra-Lavalas violence,"  isn't it logical that any rights group,
given limited resources,  would put its highest priority on investigating
reports of violence by those in a position of power against the powerless,
rather than between those in power?   After all, where there is not a
functioning judicial system or independent media, the mighty still have
access to many means of redress while the unconnected have access to
few.  During the Duvalier years, did it make sense to launch an
investigation every time one macoute beat up another macoute, or to focus
instead on government intimidation and repression of the opposition?