23127: This Week in Haiti 22:26 09/08/2004 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

"This Week in Haiti" is the English section of HAITI PROGRES
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                           HAITI PROGRES
              "Le journal qui offre une alternative"

                      * THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

                        September 8 - 14, 2004
                           Vol. 22, No. 26

HUMAN RIGHTS DELEGATIONS BLAST DE FACTO AND OCCUPATION
AUTHORITIES

Two human rights delegations have found that Haiti's de facto
regime is illegally detaining scores of political prisoners while
its police officers, along with former soldiers and paramilitary
thugs, have summarily executed and disappeared people, burned
down and looted homes, raped women, and driven hundreds into
internal or international exile.

For four days last week, the New York-based Haiti Commission of
Inquiry, headed by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, and
the New England Coalition for Human Rights in Haiti, based in
Boston, conducted inspections of Haitian prisons and met with
victims of repression since February 29, when President Jean-
Bertrand Aristide was kidnapped by U.S. Marines and flown into
exile.

"We have found an almost complete lack of due process, resulting
in a large and growing number of political prisoners," the two
groups said in a joint statement during a Sep. 6 press conference
at the Plaza Hotel in Port-au-Prince. "Arrests are made without
warrants, without constitutionally-established procedures and
often by illegitimate authorities such as former soldiers, armed
opposition partisans or foreign troops. Many prisoners are held
in jail for months without any charges."

In addition to Mr. Clark, the Haiti Commission delegation
included former U.S. Army Capt. Lawrence Rockwood. He was court-
martialed in 1995 for defying his commanders and unilaterally
acting to protect the lives of prisoners in Haiti's National
Penitentiary a decade ago.

"For me personally, the most distressing information we received
in our interviews with the political detainees was the role
played by American officials in the internal political affairs of
an internationally recognized government and a sovereign nation,"
Rockwood said at the press conference. "The allegations of the
improper, if not criminal, conduct of American officials include
detainees being transported and transferred in U.S. diplomatic
vehicles, senior American officials in Haitian jails directing
activities, and even the incarceration of four former [Haitian]
government officials on a maritime vessel for 20 days with the
U.S. Coast Guard playing a direct physical role in that
incarceration." Rockwood charged that what is happening in
Haiti's prisons today is "the direct responsibility of the United
States government."

Josué Renaud, a psychologist in Boston and leader of the New
England Coalition, outlined the many violations of human rights
and due process that the two delegations had uncovered.
"Furthermore, almost all of the people we spoke to in prison were
very anxious about their security," he said.

"This moment in Haiti is one of historic importance not just for
the people of Haiti, as if that weren't enough, but for the poor
people everywhere," said Ramsey Clark, who spoke about previous
delegations the Haiti Commission had carried out in Haiti in
1991, 1994 and 1997. "We've come back to see the most
sophisticated and violent effort to destroy the capacity of the
people to exercise their will to choose their own leadership," he
said.

The Haiti Commission also sent delegations to the Central African
Republic and the Dominican Republic last March to investigate the
events of Feb. 29.

The two delegations, composed of both North Americans and
Haitians, arrived in Haiti Sep. 3 and visited at length with
well-known political detainees such as constitutional Prime
Minister Yvon Neptune, constitutional Interior Minister Jocelerme
Privert and singer activist Annette "So Anne" Auguste.

The seven-member Haiti Commission delegation included Haitian
unionist Ray Laforest, radio program host Karine Jean-Pierre,
journalist Kim Ives, filmmaker Katharine Kean, and Catholic
activist Kathy Boylan.

The five-member New England Coalition delegation included Steve
Gillis, head of Boston's bus drivers' union, LeiLani Dowell, a
U.S. Congressional candidate from California in the 2004
elections, radio program host Joseph Chery, and journalist Robert
Benjamin.

"The repression we have observed here is solely and clearly
designed to take power back from the democratically elected
representatives of the people and restore that power to Haiti's
traditional ruling groups: foreign corporate interests, the
comprador bourgeoisie and landed oligarchy," the joint statement
of the delegations concluded.

REPORT OF THE HAITI ACCOMPANIMENT PROJECT
by Laura Flynn, Robert Roth and Leslie Fleming

(The last of three installments)

This week we present the final installment of selected passages
from the Haiti Accompaniment Project's report from their June 29
to July 9 delegation.

- - - -

A Literal Witch-Hunt

Members of Fanmi Lavalas have been using the word witch-hunt to
describe the ongoing repression of Lavalas in Haiti.  We were
shocked to find that this term can be taken literally.  While we
were in Haiti, a wild story was being circulated by the media and
Haitian authorities.  It claimed that a baby was sacrificed
during a ceremony attended by many members of Lavalas in the year
2000.  While we initially took this to be at the level of tabloid
sensationalism, it became clear that this ludicrous charge is
being pursued by the current de facto authorities.

On three occasions individuals have gone on National Television,
reportedly at the behest of the Minister of Justice, to describe
their participation at this so-called ceremony. Despite the fact
that the stories told by these individuals are not even
consistent, (one person claimed the ceremony was held at
President Aristide's house, another claimed it was at the home of
Lavalas activist Annette Auguste, So Anne), Haitian authorities
are using these out of court, unverified statements as the basis
for issuing arrest warrants for Lavalas officials. These charges
are also the justification for continuing to hold Annette
Auguste.

Political Prisoners

Annette Auguste (So Anne)

Annette Auguste (So Anne) is a well-known singer and Lavalas
activist. She is sixty years old . According to her husband,
Wilfred Lavaud, at the time of her arrest she was recovering from
an operation and was under doctor's orders not to leave the
house. On May 10, 20 U.S. marines invaded her home and arrested
her. The Marines did not have a warrant, as the Constitution
requires, and the operation was implemented in the middle of the
night, which is also illegal.   During the arrest, eleven other
Haitians, including children, were hooded and threatened. After
questioning Auguste and all her family members, the Marines
turned her over to the Haitian police.

Ms. Auguste has faced a bewildering series of shifting charges,
none of them legally documented.  First she was accused of
planning attacks against U.S. Marines. Shortly after her arrest,
NCHR made public statements indicating that they had evidence
that Auguste was involved in the events of December 5 2003 at the
National University in which the rector of the university was
injured. On May 13, Auguste was taken before a judge who stated
that there was no evidence for those charges. Still the
prosecutor (Commissaire du Governement) refused to sign her
release, stating that "more charges were coming." According to
Auguste's husband, she is now being held in relation to the
alleged ceremony, although it is unclear if there was any written
complaint to justify this.  We asked him when he thought his wife
would be released.  He replied, "Whenever they decide to release
her." (...)

Prime Minister Yvon Neptune

On June 28, Haiti's constitutionally designated Prime Minister,
Yvon Neptune, turned himself into authorities in Port-au-Prince
after learning that there was a warrant for his arrest.  De facto
authorities have charged him with masterminding a "massacre" in
St. Marc during the violent period preceding the February 29 coup
d'etat. As of our visit on July 8, Neptune had not yet seen a
judge in the St. Marc case, despite the Constitutional
requirement that arrestees be brought before a judge within 48
hours   Neptune has been questioned about other matters in other
jurisdictions, but there is no legal justification for his
detention  in his case file.

As in the case of Annette Auguste, NCHR appears to have played a
pivotal role in the arrest of the Prime Minister.  NCHR was the
first to claim that 50 people were killed in a   "massacre" in
St. Marc in February. At that time journalists and human rights
workers went to St. Marc and found that, in fact, five or six
people had died. The exact circumstances of their deaths were
unclear, but were most likely due to a clash between two rival
groups, Bale Wouze and Ramicos. They did not find the remains of
50 people. Pierre Esperance, the NCHR director in Haiti, publicly
stated that the bodies, including the bones, had been eaten by
dogs. He has since backtracked on this statement, now claiming
that the bodies are hidden.

The Agence Haïtien de Presse reported on July 8 that a source
close to the de facto government had privately expressed
frustration with NCHR. According to this source, the de facto
government blames NCHR for embarrassing the government by pushing
for Neptune's arrest and then being unable to substantiate the
charges. (...)

Attacks Against the Aristide Foundation for Democracy

The de facto authorities have clearly targeted progressive social
and economic projects connected to the Aristide government or the
Lavalas movement. The campaign against the Aristide Foundation
for Democracy is a case in point. We visited the site of the
Foundation on two separate occasions. Most of the large-scale
activities of the Foundation which operated before the coup
(literacy programs, a large community store, a TV and Radio
station for children etc.) have been halted by the de facto
government.  The majority of the staff of the Foundation have
been forced to flee the country. There are continued threats
against the Foundation and its staff. The government has
illegally frozen the bank accounts of the Foundation and of its
sister organization, Lafanmi Selavi. The Foundation and Lafanmi
Selavi are unable to pay salaries owed to its staff or to resume
activities. The free clinic at Lafanmi Selavi, which provided
desperately needed health care to populations at need, remains
closed. While we were in Haiti, we learned that the government
had gone a step further, freezing the personal bank accounts of
individuals who worked for the Foundation and for Lafanmi Selavi.

The Foundation also launched the University of Tabarre in 2001.
For two years medical students attended classes at the
Foundation. Last fall a new campus for the medical school, at a
separate site, was inaugurated. The school hosted 247 talented
students, most from poor families in rural areas, all of whom
committed to work in under-served, poverty-stricken communities
after graduation. The program was designed to break the pattern
of only relatively wealthy Haitians being able to afford medical
school, and of doctors being concentrated in wealthy urban areas.
This has left most poor communities without a doctor. There are
fewer than 2000 doctors in all of Haiti, and more than 90% of
them practice in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

In early March the U.S. Marines appropriated the medical school
campus for use as a military base, bringing the education of 247
young Haitian doctors to a halt. We learned while in Haiti that
the Marines have now handed the campus over to the Brazilian
troops who are leading the UN Mission.

Radyo Timoun and TeleTimoun (a children's radio and TV station
owned and operated by the Foundation) did resume broadcasting for
a period in April and early May. On May 18, armed police entered
the premises of the Foundation and closed both the TV and radio
stations. They placed a seal on the doors of both stations, which
states they cannot be opened. A Haitian lawyer with whom we met
said that the closure was on orders from the Ministry of
Education, which has no authority over a private radio and TV
station, and no legal authority in any case.  (...)

Former lafanmi selavi  resident held for three months

We met with a former resident of Lafanmi Selavi, the home for
street children that was founded by President Aristide while he
was a parish priest in the late 1980s. This young man was also a
journalist for Radio Timoun. He was arrested by the police in
March at Lafanmi Selavi. There was no warrant for his arrest,
though the police claimed he was stealing a generator from
Lafanmi Selavi. He maintains that he was on the site in an
attempt to prevent the center from being looted. After his
arrest, armed individuals did loot the center, which at that time
housed a large clinic for the poor.

He described his treatment and conditions at the National
Penitentiary. He reported that during frequent interrogations he
was taunted about his participation in Lavalas and threatened
with physical punishment because of his activism. He further
stated that drinking water for prisoners was their own previously
used bath water, and that prison cells were so crowded that it
was impossible for everyone to lie down at night. People slept in
shifts or sitting up or standing propped against a wall.

He was eventually taken before a judge who ordered him released,
as there was no evidence for the case. The prosecutor
(Commissaire de Gouvernment) refused to sign the paper for his
release, claiming that he was a chimère and a gang leader. He
pointed out to us that at the time of the coup he was a high
school student, that he maintained good grades and that last year
he had passed the first stage of the Baccalaureate exam (Rheto).
This June he was to have taken the second stage of the exam and
graduate from high school, a rare achievement for a former street
child. His imprisonment meant that he lost this school year.

In June a foreign journalist who knew the young man from Radyo
Timoun visited him in prison. After this visit his treatment
improved, presumably because prison authorities took note that an
international was interested in his case. Later in June, an
international activist working with a Haitian attorney took up
his case, and after a week of diligent, constant pressure they
were able to get the various signatures needed and the young man
was finally released.

Coordination des femmes victimes d'haïti (cofevih)

We met with six representatives of the Coordination des Femmes
Victimes d'Haiti (COFEVIH), a group which brings together seven
different women's organizations from Port-au-Prince's poorest
neighborhoods.  All women in COFEVIH were victims of rape or
other forms of violence during the 1991-94 coup period. (...)

The women informed us that since the recent coup they have been
unable to meet, speak and organize.  As one woman stated, "the
same people who raped us in 1991 are again in power." The women
claimed that the incidences of rape have greatly increased in
their communities during the past few months. As one woman said,
"all those prisoners who were let out (of prison in February) are
raping women. They come to a house, ask for money, and if you
don't have money, they rape you."

COFEVIH is unable now to continue their projects, as the women
are without financial assistance and are fearful of being in the
streets. As they told us, the imprisoning of Lavalas members, the
mass firing of Lavalas employees, and the skyrocketing costs of
basic foods have further impoverished their communities. One
representative summarized their situation: "We have no food to
give our kids. We are victims again."

Conclusion

On our trip, we saw first-hand the difference between the
realities of Haiti and what has been projected by the mainstream
international media.  We saw the importance of providing
alternative sources of information and projecting the voice of
grassroots Haitian activists.  We were struck again by the
resilience and vitality of the Haitian people, despite the
tragedy they have just suffered. The fight for democracy in Haiti
has suffered a severe setback, but it is not over. While much of
the world has turned its eyes away from Haiti, the Haitian people
have continued to mobilize, organize and resist.  They deserve
our attention and support. (...)

For more information on the Haiti Accompaniment Project: Phone:
Leslie Fleming (510)558-0371. E-Mail: Haitiaction@yahoo.com

All articles copyrighted Haiti Progres, Inc. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haiti Progres.

                               -30-