15211: Arthur forwards Position of the Democractic Convergence (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Charles Arthur <charlesarthur@hotmail.com>



Position of the Democratic Convergence
at the Conference "Haiti: Ideas for Political and Economic Development"
convened by the Inter-American Dialogue, March 13, 2003, Washington, D.C.

1. The socio-economic situation is catastrophic, as measured by all
indicators:
Per-capita income
Hunger
Inflation
Cost of living
Potable water
Health: Sexually-transmitted diseases/HIV -AIDS
Poor nutrition
Poor education
Housing
Difficulty of transport
Energy crisis

2. The situation of human rights and liberties is grave.
Media are under assault. More than sixty journalists have fled the country.
The U.N. human-rights rapporteur Louis Joinet has decried the situation of
the press in Haiti. The independent reporters, he said, have the choice of
self- censhorship or fleeing the country.

Political parties are under siege. Their offices have been burned and
ransacked. Their adherents have been arrested, beaten, and disappeared. Many
have been forced to flee for their lives.

Civil society :
Leaders of women's groups are arrested and their demonstrations are
forbidden.
University students' groups are arrested; some students have been killed or
injured, and many are in hiding.
Doctors and nurses in the state hospital have been threatened by gang
members sent by the government and some of them have left the country for
U.s. exile.
Members of human-rights organizations are persecuted by gangs sent by the
regime.
Business leaders are retaliated against by manipulation of the tax laws,
forcing businesses to close and jobs to be lost. Their passports have been
confiscated.
Church leaders have been intimidated.
Citizens are killed when they protest on the streets against the high cost
of
living.
Meetings of grassroots organizations and other civic associations are
interfered with or prohibited.

3. The state institutions are in an advanced state of disintegration.
They have been politicized by the presidency.
Some are in an advanced stage of disorganization.
The formal government exists in name only.
The prime minister and cabinet have little of their constitutional powers.
The parliament acts as a rubber stamp for the presidency.
The local government is engaged in racketeering rather than local
administration. The courts have lost their constitutional autonomy and have
come under the control of the executive.
The police are completely politicized and are used by President Aristide for
his political ends.
The judiciary's ability to oversee the administration has been emasculated.
Government services have atrophied.
Public resources and international assistance should not be used to bolster
a government engaged in political repression and
personal embezzlement.

4. In order to make a contribution, the conference must understand and take
fully
into account these dire realities in Haiti. No double standard should be
tolerated for Haiti. If breaches of democracy were sanctioned in Peru, they
must be in Haiti as well.

5. The conference should propose short-term, emergency humanitarian aid to
address the most urgent needs and well-being of the Haitian people.
Ensure that international aid does not reinforce political repression and
personal embezzlement.
Delivery of aid from international donors should structured so that aid
reaches the people.
Emergency humanitarian aid should look forward to long-term development aid.

6. The conference must go beyond the short term to address the roots of the
problem. This is the only way to achieve a longlasting solution.
We agree that Resolutions 806 and 822 provide an agreed-upon framework for a
solution. But unfortunately, the record of the Haitian government offers
little encouragement that these plans can actually be implemented.
If one starting point of the crisis was May 21, 2000, we are now almost
three years on with no solution of the problems created by that election.
Ambassador Einaudi has gone to Haiti twenty-three times; Resolutions 806 and
822 have been passed by
the OAS. Resolution 822 passed in September 2002 with a deadline of
November, but this deadline, like all the others, came and went without
implementation by the government. The quickening of human-rights violations
over the past weeks suggests exactly the opposite.

Civil society and other actors cannot play their appropriate role because
the government did not fulfill its commitments.

Today there is nothing, truly nothing to indicate good faith by the
government. After the manipulation and intimidation of the electoral
commission by the government and ruling party in 1997 and 2000, future
members of the commission know that their
houses can be burned down and they can be forced into exile for refusing to
endorse electoral fraud. With yet another OAS deadline having passed without
action, isn't it time to take a hard look at responsibility for the
nonimplementation of Resolution 822? How many more people must be killed?
How many more must be forced into exile, like Leon Manus, former president
of the electoral council? How many more must suffer? How many must take to
the boats before the GAS acknowledges that the regime has failed to
implement Resolution 822? Our people are dying. It is, indeed, wholly
unrealistic to call on the civil society and opposition to go to elections
in a situation of repression and rampant impunity such as we face now. It
would be like sending lambs to slaughter. The result would in no way
resemble a free and fair election, but merely a repeat of the increasingly
fraudulent elections we have been subjected to in the past decade. Finally,
in addition to the cost in democratic credibility, there is the monetary
cost: Haitian and United States taxpayers cannot pay for another bogus
election.

Signed by:

Evans Paul,
Paul Denis,
Micha Gaillard.

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