18950: donnasteiner: Re: Re-opening the Border (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: donnasteiner@comcast.net

I am new to this web site and not sure how to get information out to
everyone at once, and to ask support from everyone at once, so I am starting
with this and would appreciate guidance.

I work with an organization that does volunteer work in Ouanaminthe every
summer, and in 2002 I lived in Haiti for a while to locate land to buy where
we will be building a clinic and a "dorm" for our own volunteers and
doctors, nurses, dentists and other medical personnel.

Ouanaminthe is one of the major controlled border points with the Dominican
Republic, the town on the DR side is Dajabon.  You have all by now read that
this border has been closed.

What this means is that the few people of Ouanaminthe who had some means of
support by purchasing and/or selling goods in Dajabon cannot do either.
Food and medicine purchased in Dajabon supplied the market in Ouanaminthe.
Now there is no food or medicine to buy.

This morning I spoke with a Haitian man who has supported our group's
efforts.  Rioters are moving up and down the streets of Ouanaminthe looting
and burning.  Thieves took the only money in the house (a pittance) from his
wife -- this was the family's food money.  Luckily she was not beaten.  The
home of anyone known to have money (on whichever side of the political
fence) is targetted and being ransacked and in many cases burned.  Stolen
goods will soon be the only barter for food, such little as there is.  The
best pharmacy in town has been destroyed and burned.  The car of the Pastor
with whom we worked this summer, who has built a school and who feeds 130
orphans or impoverished children every day, was burned, and his home
ransacked.  In fact any orphanage or help group no longer has access to food
for their children.

The alternate supply point for food for Ouanaminthe was Cap Haitien, which
itself cannot get food from the Artibonite.  The only food in Ouanaminthe is
that in the tiny stores, or "boutiques" (think tiny, tiny deli), which as of
this writing is probably gone from theft anyway.  Even if there were food to
be had, and we could transfer money down there so that people could buy it,
the banks have now closed.

If I have this right, the Domican government justifies the closing of this
border so that Haitian exiles cannot return to Haiti to join the rebel
forces, and so that Haitians refugees not pour into the DR.

Let me say that anyone who wants to get into the DR has only to travel a few
kilometers in either direction of Dajabon and cross over -- the Massacre
River, which in part defines the border, is mostly just knee deep.  The
border is not defined, not fenced, and not heavily guarded (or at least did
not used to be).  On one of our trips to Capotille a number of us took a
walk on a path into the hills and in talking with a man we met found that we
had crossed into the DR.  So much for keeping fleeing Haitians out.  People
are going to seek out food and safety and there is a way to do it without
crossing the bridge from Ouanaminthe to Dajabon.

It is imperative that the border between Oanaminthe and Dajabon be
re-opened.  Food and medical supplies need to be delivered to these people.
Humanitarian organizations need access, and a peace keeping force needs to
be installed.

So my question is, to whom do I (we) appeal to achieve this?  Where do we
apply pressure, raise our voices, so that the government of the United
States, the UN, and all humanitarian nations and organizations of the region
and the world stop this folly?  I have never been involved in a "lobbying"
effort of my own before and I don't know where to start.  My only thought so
far has been to write to those people (Representatives, Senators, etc.) who
have been named in various articles to support their efforts.  And of course
I am witing this email.

If anyone has any practical advice on whom to approach, how to make noise,
how to apply pressure, and how to get aid to the people who need it please,
please let me know.

Thank you,

Donna Steiner

----- Original Message -----
From: Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>
To: Haiti mailing list <haiti@lists.webster.edu>
Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 9:39 PM
Subject: 18915: Globe and Mail online: Riots force police from Haitian
posts(fwd)


>
> From: thor burnham <thorald_mb@hotmail.com>
>
> Associated Press and Canadian Press
> POSTED AT 3:24 PM EST  Friday, Feb. 20, 2004
>
> Port-au-Prince - Haitian insurgents torched police outposts and threatened
> new attacks Friday in a spreading rebellion against a defiant President
> Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
>
> In Haiti's west, pro-Aristide supporters burned down homes in a seaside
> neighbourhood and fired guns above the heads of residents who jumped into
> the ocean for safety. Three people died in the blazes in St. Marc,
> independent Radio Galaxie reported.
>
> Scores of foreigners including missionaries and aid workers streamed out
of
> Haiti on Friday, fleeing the mounting violence.
>
> More than 200 Americans, French and Canadians stood in a long line Friday
> morning at Toussaint Louverture International Airport.
>
> "We knew that it was right for us to leave. It's just hard," said Nancy
> McWilliams, 18, of Ottawa, who abandoned a volunteer job at a children's
> home in northern Cap-Haïtien.
>
> Some foreigners vowed to remain, clinging to an increasingly perilous
> position between armed rebels and gangs loyal to Mr. Aristide. Those who
> left and those who stayed were united by the pain of seeing Haiti torn
> asunder yet again, and fear the little they have accomplished for its
> impoverished people could be erased.
>
> American missionary Terry Snow said six truckloads of pro-Aristide gunmen
> set fire to seven houses in his seaside neighbourhood in St. Marc.
>
> As their houses blazed, residents jumped into the sea and gunmen fired
into
> the air to stop them returning to land, he said.
>
> "Innocent people are being killed and houses are burned down every day and
> night in St. Marc and the police are doing nothing," said Mr. Snow, 39.
>
> He said about 20 American, German, Norwegian and Canadian missionaries
left
> this week for neighbouring Dominican Republic from St. Marc, which has
> become one of Haiti's most violent frontline cities.
>
> No foreigners have been injured or killed in the uprising that since Feb.
5
> has claimed the lives of at least 60 Haitians, about 40 of them police
> officers. Armed men have, however, threatened missionaries and
journalists.
>
> The Foreign Affairs Department in Ottawa has issued an advisory warning
> against travel to Haiti and telling Canadians already there to "assess
their
> need to be in the country."
>
> Spokesman Reynald Doiron said Friday that 2,500 to 3,000 Canadians are
> believed to be in the country, and about 1,000 of them have registered
with
> the embassy. Steps are being taken to ensure the safety of embassy staff
and
> their families, he said, although "there are no plans to close the
embassy."
>
> The United States on Thursday urged the more than 20,000 Americans in
Haiti
> to leave while transportation was still available. Haitian airlines said
> Friday that flights from Cap-Haïtien were sold out.
>
> Mr. Aristide, wildly popular when he became Haiti's first freely elected
> leader in 1990, lost support after flawed legislative elections in 2000
led
> international donors to freeze millions of dollars in aid. Even before the
> rebellion, about half of Haiti's eight million people went hungry daily,
aid
> groups say.
>
> The latest violence came as Canada, the United States and other countries
> prepared to present Mr. Aristide and opposition officials with a political
> plan to help calm tensions.
>
> Federal cabinet minister Denis Coderre will be in the crisis-stricken
island
> this weekend along with representatives from the United States, France,
the
> Organization of American States, and Caricom, the 15-member Caribbean
> community.
>
> Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham said the explosive situation could be
> defused through diplomatic means if Mr. Aristide acted on the Caricom
> resolutions.
>
> The plan presented to Mr. Aristide on Friday calls for an interim
governing
> council to advise him, the disarmament of politically allied street gangs
> and the appointment of a prime minister agreeable to both sides. More
> meetings are planned for Saturday with Aristide and his opponents.
>
> U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the plan does not call for Mr.
> Aristide's resignation, but the United States would not object if he
agreed
> during negotiations to leave office early. His term ends in February,
2006.
>
> Canada has offered $1.5-million in humanitarian aid and Mr. Graham has
said
> Ottawa is willing to contribute 100 police officers to a stabilization
force
> after the duelling factions reach a political solution.
>
> The newly appointed leader of a loose alliance of three rebel groups, Guy
> Philippe, said he plans to attack Cap-Haïtien during carnival celebrations
> that start Friday and run through Tuesday. Mr. Philippe was Mr. Aristide's
> police chief in Cap-Haïtien but fled in 2000 after being accused of
plotting
> a coup.
>
> About 60 frightened police officers have barricaded themselves into their
> station at Cap-Haïtien, saying they are too few and poorly armed to
resist,
> while gangs of armed Aristide supporters have built roadblocks and vowed
to
> fight any rebel attack.
>
> Mr. Aristide, who has survived three assassination attempts and a coup
> d'état, was defiant Thursday, saying: "I am ready to give my life if that
is
> what it takes to defend my country."
>
> He has said he could not negotiate with "terrorists," although opposition
> leaders deny his charges that they back the rebels.
>
> "If you are talking about the opposition that is publicly supporting
> terrorists, don't think I will have the irresponsibility of handing them
> over such a (prime ministerial) post," Mr. Aristide told Radio-Canada in
an
> interview in French.
>
> The Organization of American States approved a resolution Thursday night
> expressing "firm support" for Mr. Aristide's government in its efforts to
> "restore public order by constitutional means."
>
> OAS Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria said he was confident that a political
> solution could come "not in months, but in weeks."
>
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