20936: Esser: Re: 20889: Morrell: Haiti Democracy Project (addendum) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Still on the subject Haiti Democracy Project and Boulos
(yes, it could be called : later story)

The Boulos family, major supporters of the "Haiti Democracy Project",
is not in the best standing with Haitians yearning for true
democracy, not the kind prescribed without voting. To keep in
perspective who the Boulos family is, they not only support the
"Haiti Democracy Project" but also have a family member on it's
board, I quote here an article  from In These Times by John
Canham-Clyne & Worth Cooley-Prost (In These Times, January 8, 1996)
in which the authors recount that upon visiting a Boulos plant in
Port-au-Prince, Tipper Gore was greeted by a hail of rocks and
had to move on. Just a little example of how well liked this family
is among Haiti's poor majority.

Boulos = "Haiti Democracy Project"?  certainly!
Boulos = democracy for Haitians?      You decide...



Canham Cline and Cooley-Prost write under the headline 'U.S. AID go
home!':

"...More nefarious still are Boulos' political ties. He has been
linked, notably in articles by Village Voice columnist James Ridgeway
and The Nation's Allan Nairn, to FRAPH, the paramilitary death squad
ushered into power by U.S. intelligence during the coup led by Lleut.
Gen. Raoul Cedras. It is an association that, in at least one case,
has dovetailed nicely with Boulos' cozy relationship with AID. After
a December, 1993 FRAPH rampage in Cite Soleil-in which dozens of
homes were torched and at least 37 people died-U.S. Embassy officials
took a photo-op tour of the site to announce that CDS [Boulos
company] would have complete control over $100,000 to rebuild houses
and care for victims. That aid was dispensed by CDS community health
workers who were members of the local FRAPH chapter. Supporters of
Aristide-by far the majority of victims- could not safely claim any
aid. ..."

and

"...The protests against Boulos are starting to make waves beyond
Cite Soleil. CDS is also home to a huge AID- and National Institutes
for Health-funded medical research operation run by Johns Hopkins
University, and a group of Hopkins graduate students recently called
for a formal investigation into Boulos' operations. On November 5,
the Johns Hopkins News-Letter published an article on the protests
and the criticism of CDS by international human rights organizations.
Patrick Bond, a faculty member at Hopkins' School of Public Health,
told the News-Letter after a trip to Haiti that anti-Boulos graffiti
is everywhere. "This is no ordinary public health clinic," Bond said.
"People associate Boulos with paramilitary terrorism and, I must say,
this is severely affecting Hopkins' reputation.""



Here is a recent exchange between James R.  Morell and Tom Reeves in
'dollar & sense the Magazine of Economic Justice'
http://www.dollarsandsense.org/0304letter.html were Tom Reeves writes:

"...Dr. Rudolph Boulos and his family have funded HDP, and are known
for their ties to Duvalierists and other right-wing elements in Haiti
and in the United States—a fact publicized in Haitian media across
the political spectrum. Boulos has received substantial USAID
funding—as have many of the 184 groups, prominently CLED (the Center
for Free Enterprise and Democracy), a right-wing pro-free market
group. ..."



Here is what Kevin Pina writes in his article 'Haiti Under Siege' in
in the 'Black Commentator' (January 15, 2004):

"...Never mind that Radio Vision 2000 is owned by the same right-wing
Boulos family that funds the Haiti Democracy Project in Washington
D.C.  Never mind that Tele-Haiti was founded by Andre Apaid, the
self-proclaimed leader of Group 184 that was "created from whole
cloth" by the Haiti Democracy Project. ..."



Haiti Info has the following in an article dated 1994:

"...As long suspected, the Central Intelligence Agency created and
has advised FRAPH. The link is Emmanuel Constant, a paid CIA employee
and informant. Also, at least some FRAPH “members” were paid by the
US-government-funded Centres pour le Developpement et la Sante (CDS),
run by Dr Reginald Boulos and linked to FRAPH and to anti-democratic
activities in the past. ..."


Jane Regan writes in the January 1995 issue of 'Covert Action
Quarterly'  ('In the Aftermath of Invasion') about the Boulos family:

"... A consistent pattern of AID funding to groups which cooperate
with the military and paramilitary is hard to ignore. One AID-funded
project, the Centres pour le Developpement et la Sant (CDS) has had
FRAPH members including those accused of brutal murders on its
payroll. CDS operates 12 health centers around the country and
received at least $4 million in AID funding last year. It also has a
database which includes records on most of the 180,000 residents of
the poor, staunchly pro-Aristide neighborhood of Cit Soleil and is
directed by Dr. Reginald Boulos, ..."
.