16792: Radtimes: Special Report: Haitians Invisible Terror War Victims (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

From: billw@riseup.net

Subject: [World War 3 Report] Special Report: Haitians Invisible Terror War
Victims

WAR ON TERROR USED TO JUSTIFY LONG-TIME RACIST POLICY AGAINST HAITIANS

Haitian refugees a 'security threat', held in detention for over 10 months.

by Nirit Ben-Ari, Special to WORLD WAR 3 REPORT

For years, Haitian refugees detained by the Immigration and Naturalization
Service (INS) have been reptriated upon landing at US shores--unlike Cuban
refugees, who are granted political asylum automatically upon arrival.
Cubans are allowed to apply for residency after one year and one day under
the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act. (Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Media
Alert, March 21)

(http://www.lchr.org/media/2003_alerts/0321.htm)

Following the arrival by boat of 219 Haitian refugees in October 2002, a
request came in March 2003 by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to
Attorney General John Ashcroft to block their asylum for national security
reasons.  The request, directed only at asylum-seekers from Haiti, keeps
the refugees in detention for an indefinite period, while their claims are
processed--which can take months.

Attorney General Ashcroft, in his administrative decision, said "the State
Department asserts that it has noticed an increase in third country
nations (Pakistanis, Palestinians, etc.) using Haiti as a staging point
for attempted migration to the United States."

According to a State Department spokesperson, the information was based on
US embassy reports in Haiti and interdiction trends at sea, but officials
would not release the documents or provide details about what led
officials to their conclusion. (Miami Herald, April 25)

(http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/haiti/5711187.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp)

Ninety-three of those Haitians intercepted in October were deported in the
months following the Attorney's General decision, while 32 of them remain
in detention. Fifty-four have been granted political asylum; however two
men are still held behind bars despite having been granted asylum by a
federal judge. Immigration offials have ruled that the men should remain
in detention while the government appeals the asylum ruling. Marleine
Bastien, executive director of Haitian Women of Miami, Inc., told WW3
REPORT it was "unprecedented" that refugees who are granted political
asylum in this country remain in detention.

"America's supposed to welcome someone who is a refugee," said Gabriel
Joseph, one of the two men, from the Krome detention center in Florida.
"it's four months ago that they gave me asylum and they still keep me in
prison."  Rochenel Charles, the second person, said, "I got saved. I got
to America. I got asylum. Why am I still in prison?" (New York Times, July
25)

(http://www.wehaitians.com/haitians%20are%20held%20in%20us%20despite%20grant%20of%20asylum.html)

On August 25, seventeen more Haitians were caught in boat off Palm Beach
County.  Four men and three unaccompanied minors are being held in Krome
detention center, one woman is in the hospital recovering from
dehydration, one woman is being held in the Work Release Center in Broward
County, FLA, and two familes, of four people each, are at Krome Detention
Center as well.  Bastien told WW3 REPORT that her organization opposes
their planned transfer to Pennsylvania because the detainees will be far
away from their support system and extended familes.  All of those kept in
detention are subject to the Attorney General's March administrative
decision.

Bastien told WW3 REPORT that it is the first time that national security
has been used to justify restrictive actions against Haitian
nationalities.  Before, she said, the INS used to justify its racist
policies against Haitians by citing fears of mass exodus from Haiti to the
United States.  9-11 provided a new excuse--namely terrorist threats to
national security. "It is laughable to believe that terrorists are using
shiftmade boats from Haiti packed with black refugees as a cover to sneak
into the United States," Bastien said.


Humanitarian situation detoriates in Haiti

For over three years the United States and other international donors have
blocked finanical aid desparately needed in Haiti, the poorest country in
the Western hemisphere. In June, $146 million was released in loans that
will be used for water, health, road and education projects. And in July,
the Haitian government was granted loans of almost $220 million by the
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The money was held up after Haiti's
disputed legislative elections in May 2000. (Miami Herald, July 25)

(http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/haiti/6379436.htm)

Other aid is still tied up. The World Bank has pulled out of Haiti and
will not resume its loan program, and the European Union terminated its 14
million-euro budget support grant in 2001, until Haiti complies with an
IMF plan and reaches a political settlement. (Miami Herald, July 10)

(http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/haiti/6268445.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp)

The opposition parties and the Organization of American States (OAS)
disputed the way Haiti counted the votes for seven seats in the Senate.
However, on Aug. 9 the US issued a statement that if Haiti carries out its
intention to hold elections this fall, the vote wouldn't get the
recognition of the United States.  A day before the statement, the head of
Haiti's electoral council, Alix Lamarque, announced the country was
preparing for a first round of legislative elections in November. The US
disapproves of holding elections that don't comply with an OAS-brokered
agreement. (Voice of America, June 9)

(http://www.haiti-info.com/article.php3?id_article=259)

Meanwhile, poverty in Haiti has deepened as its currency has lost value
and the economy has floundered. (AP, July 5)  Haiti pays nearly $2 million
monthly to service debts rung up by past dictators. (Z Magazine, March 27)
  According to the Human Development Report 2002, avergae income per capita
in Haiti is $450.

(http://haitisupport.gn.apc.org/fea_news_main.html)

(http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=2&ItemID=3337)

(http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2002/en/)


Opposition kills government sympathizers

In June, opposition militants killed four sympathisers of populist
President Bertrand Aristide's Lavlas Family party.  More than a dozen men
threw grenades into their homes in Lascahobas, a small town about 30 miles
northeast of Port-au-Prince, the capital.  The men tied up their victims
and tortured them before killing them, Haitian Interior Minister Jocelerme
Privet said. (AP, June 25)

(http://haitisupport.gn.apc.org/fea_news_main.html)