20920: Esser: Re: 20889: Morrell: Haiti Democracy Project (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Yes, I like correcting erroneous items too! We seem to have something
in common. The article stated that the Haiti Democracy Project has no
ostensible ties to the IRI. To which you answer that you (the HPD)
have no connection with the IRI. Well, this is what one means by "no
ostensible ties", at least to my understanding of english semantics;
it means when asked, you would deny it, which of course you did.

You admit to guidance of the Group of 184, but you dispute the amount
of it. ("Foreign guidance of the Group of 184, from us or any other
source, was minimal.") You are certainly entitled to your opinions,
but it's undeniable that this "opposition" group got advice from up
north and that you engaged in a full press court to further their
despicable cause. I say despicable because this group has shown
itself opposed to just about everything that defines democracy and
when it became clear that their armed allies include convicted human
violators, murderers and coup plotters. While I mention the
incredible allies of Mr. Latortue: or would you prefer: "freedom
fighters", as does the honorable President select? Is the Haiti
Democracy Project on the record in condemning Latortue for his
statements of last week, that provoked an outcry around the world?

You speak of the group of 184 as a broad coalition. I guess it's in
the eye of the beholder. The majority of the Haitian people have
stubbornly refused to believe the propaganda emanating from the
pro-coup media and therefore the "opposition" has adamantly refused
to participate in elections. This seems also the reason behind
Latortue's refusal to abide by the Haitian constitution and hold
elections within the proscribed time frame. But who is to criticize
him as he came to power through extra legal means himself? In any
case - I'd like to see where, outside of Port-au-Prince and it's
environs, this group can muster more than a handful of people. The
media, pro status quo or not, have been awfully silent on this, well
maybe, maybe the Haitian people have a better understanding of which
ruling classes had them traditionally oppressed and which families
paid for the second to the last coup.

I would prefer to keep past activism out of the debate since the case
of Regis Debray shows very clearly that the common sense, that people
should always be judged by their latest actions still holds true, as
he has moved politically in the opposite direction.

You state: "Ours is a project which seeks to communicate the
pro-democracy viewpoint to top policy-makers." Advancing the cause of
people that have shown the utmost contempt for democratic rule hardly
falls into that benign view you project here. Have you condemned the
documented transgressions against Haitian workers by the very people
you like to uphold as champions of democracy?

I also have a further question for you: since the Haiti Democracy
Project likes to trumpet the allegations of corruption and despotism
against Aristide, it must be an oversight that the web site does not
include any actual charges? Given the virulent opposition to the
democratically elected leader of a foreign country and the
seriousness of the allegations, I am sure we can await proof. Should
I hold my breath? You didn't like what Gilbert Wesley Purdy writes
about your noble organization; let me quote Kevin Pina on the subject
and please share your thoughts with us:

"...Let’s start from the beginning with a Washington D.C. based
organization called the Haiti Democracy Project (HDP) that has
fashioned itself into the arbiter of Bush administration policy
towards Haiti. According to Tom Reeves, in an article published last
October in Dollars and Sense magazine, “This July, even the departing
U.S. Ambassador to Haiti, Brian Curran, lashed out against some U.S.
political operatives, calling them the "Chimeres of Washington" (a
Haitian term for political criminals). The most recent of these
Chimeres have been associated with the Haiti Democracy Project (HDP),
headed by James Morrell and funded by the right-wing Haitian Boulos
family. In December 2002, the HDP literally created from whole cloth
a new public relations face for the official opposition, the
"Coalition of 184 Civic Institutions," a laundry list of Haitian NGOs
funded by USAID and/or the IRI (International Republican Institute),
as well as by the Haitian-American Chamber of Commerce and other
groups.” So who is this mysterious Haiti Democracy Project (HDP) that
created the Group 184 and believes it is qualified to intervene in
Haiti’s internal political affairs and thereby represent the hopes
and aspirations of 8 million Haitian citizens?

Novelist cum journalist, Herb Gold, knows the HDP well.  Gold
recently joined the negative hit-piece parade against the Haitian
government and wrote in the SF Chronicle last October 19, “Of course,
there are still folks who love Aristide; Mussolini also has his
loyalists. The variety-pack of current issues in Haiti includes
fraudulent elections, street violence, an entrenched drug
distribution apparatus, and state-implicated murders and
disappearances.” What Mr. Gold doesn’t mention is that his presence
in Haiti had been conjured by a notable HDP founding board member
eleven months earlier to the day. On November 19, 2002 at the
opening of the HDP in Washington, D.C., former U.S. Ambassador to
Haiti Timothy Carney pleads, “There needs to be something done to
begin to get this process under way. I think that the seminars that
the Haiti Democracy Project has in mind doing in an effort to spark a
debate are probably the only thing that can be done given the fact
that there aren’t any journalists worth their salt to go down and
write about Haiti. Where’s Herb Gold? I hope he is still alive. Yes,
he is still in San Francisco.”

(Excerpt from The Black Commentator - The Bush Administration's End
Game for Haiti - Issue 67 by Kevin Pina)
.