22676: Haiti Reborn: Let Haiti Live Action Alert for Human Rights (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Haiti Reborn <haiti@quixote.org>

ACTION ALERT!

from the Let Haiti Live: Coalition for a Just U.S. Policy


As Brazil takes over the peacekeeping mission in Haiti, encourage them to end
the violence!


Representative Cass Ballenger, the Chairman of the House International
Relations Committee, will convene a meeting with Brazilian Legislators on
Wednesday, July 14, 2004. They will discuss issues related to bilateral U.S.
relations with Brazil, including: trade, regional security issues, and Brazil
s role in leading the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Haiti. Friends of
Haiti within the U.S. Congress will attend the meeting to highlight the
ongoing violence in Port-au-Prince and throughout Haiti.

TURN UP THE HEAT!!

While our friends from Congress are turning up the heat on Brazilian
legislators Wednesday afternoon, you can turn up the heat on the Brazilian
Embassy. Please call the Embassy of Brazil and express to the ambassador your
concern about human rights and democracy in Haiti. Don't let issues of trade
and aid overshadow human rights violatons and the destruction of Haiti's
democracy! Call the Brazilian Embassy (202-238-2700) and tell them not to
forget the dignity of the Haitian people.

Suggested Talking Points:

** According to reports from Amnesty International, the National Lawyers' Guild,
the Quixote Center and the Ecumenical Program on Central America and the
Caribbean (EPICA), the level of human rights violations since the coup d'etat
is pervasive. Reports include the dumping of hundreds of bodies killed
execution style with their hands tied behind their backs (NLG), and the
blacklisting of suspected supporters of President Aristide and the Fanmi
Lavalas political party on the radio and in newspapers (NLG, EPICA, QC).
According to Amnesty International, "the identity of the victims and the
nature of the threats and other abuses committed were mostly consistent with a
pattern of persecution, especially of those close, or perceived to have been
close, to the former Fanmi Lavalas regime."

** During the coup d'etat on February 29, all of Haiti's prisons were destroyed and convicted criminals were set free, including human rights violators recently deported from the U.S. These criminals are still walking the streets with impunity, and some are controlling villages and towns in Haiti. Amnesty International reported,
While the capacity of the police and judiciary is limited, the interim
government has swiftly moved to arrest members of former President Aristide's
Fanmi Lavalas party suspected of acts of political violence or corruption, but
has not acted with the same commitment against accused or convicted
perpetrators of grace human rights violations.


CONTACT INFO:

Brazilian Embassy in Washington, DC
Phone: (202) 238-2700
Fax: (202) 238-2827
Web: www.brasilemb.org
Email: ambassador@brasilemb.org
Office hours:
9:00 am to 1:00 pm | 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm


For more information on Haiti and the Let Haiti Live Coalition, visit
www.lethaitilive.org or email melinda@haitireborn.org.


To read the reports of the missions noted above:

Quixote Center:
http://haitireborn.org/misc/ob-miss-mar04.pdf
National Lawyers Guild:
http://www.nlg.org/news/delegations.htm
Amnesty International
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGAMR360382004