25357: Haiti Progres (new) This Week In Haiti 23: 13 6/8/2005 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Haïti Progrès <editor@haiti-progres.com>

"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 *

                               June 8 - 14, 2005
                                Vol. 23, No. 13

FORT LAUDERDALE:
PROTESTORS SLAM OAS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Led by Haitian, Cuban and Venezuelan flags and flanked by 50 police
officers on bicycles, over 1000 demonstrators marched about two miles on
Jun. 5 from a union hall to the Ft. Lauderdale Convention Center, where
the 35th General Assembly of the Organization of American States was in
its opening day.

The three-day General Assembly was a spectacle of U.S. arrogance, in
which Cuba, Venezuela and Haiti were vilified and threatened. Protestors
came to the defense of the targeted countries, denouncing Washington's
schemes against them.

Cuba is the only nation in the hemisphere which is excluded from the
OAS, which Cubans call Washington's "Ministry for Colonial Affairs."
Venezuela is battling a U.S. campaign to isolate and overthrow president
Hugo Chavez. Haiti is hostage of a U.S.-installed illegal government
after elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was kidnapped by U.S.
Special Forces soldiers and flown into exile on Feb. 29, 2004.

The protest was largely organized by the Miami-based Haiti Solidarity
Committee (HSC) and Little Haiti's long-standing popular organization,
Veye Yo. Hundreds of Latin Americans and North Americans joined
Haitians, who made up about one-third of the demonstrators and called
primarily for Aristide's return to power in Haiti. Groups like the
Bolivarian Circle of Miami, the Committee to Free the Five Cuban Heroes,
the Green Party, and the Broward Anti-War Coalition also helped organize
the protest.

"We are here to demand that the OAS live up to its rhetoric and refuse
to seat the criminals who are here claiming to represent Haiti," said
the HSC's Jack Lieberman, referring to the Haitian de facto regime's
delegation."These criminals were put in power by Tonton Macoutes. They
kidnapped the democratically elected government of Haiti and they have
no basis for being here and they should be in jail. They should be
charged for crimes against humanity. Just yesterday in Belair [a
neighborhood in the capital], twenty people were murdered by this
terrorist regime. Condoleeza Rice goes around Latin America talking
empty phrases about freedom and democracy while she supports terrorism
in Haiti. We say to [Secretary of State] Condoleeza Rice and George
Bush, you are hypocrites."

Lieberman also denounced the "free trade" policies championed by Bush
and Rice, both of whom spoke at the meeting. "These treaties promote
slave labor, they attack the living standards of American working
people, they threaten our environment and they threaten the independence
of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean," Lieberman said.
"There's no free trade. It's trade for the big corporations which
dominate and rip off the people of the Third World."

Michael Martinez of the Miami Bolivarian Circle agreed. "I would like to
tell all the ministers here at the OAS who are fighting for slavery, the
contamination of the environment, and the complete loss of sovereignty
of all lands, that they cannot do this to Latin America because the
people will rise up to take back what's theirs," he said. "We saw the
attempted coup d'état in Venezuela in April 2002 backed by the U.S.
government. What did the OAS do for the people? Nothing. What has been
the message of the OAS? Impunity towards U.S. imperialism. The people
want progress, not slavery. The people want freedom, not colonization.
We want Aristide. We want Chavez. We want Fidel."

Martinez also demanded freedom for the five Cuban agents now imprisoned
in the U.S. for infiltrating Miami-based anti-Cuban terrorist cells and
the extradition from a Texas jail of Cuban terrorist Luis Posada
Carilles to Venezuela, where he is charged with blowing up a Cuban
airliner on Oct. 6, 1976, killing 73 people.

The demonstrators were penned in by 10 foot iron grills behind which
dozens of black-clad and helmeted riot police stood at the ready.

"We are not birds," said singer activist Farah Juste of Veye Yo. "We are
human beings. We are tax payers." Demonstrators were kept about a
half-mile from where the delegates were meeting.

Other speakers included MarlPne Bastien of Haitian Women of Miami and
Yves Alcindor of the Boston chapter of the Lavalas Family party.

Father Gérard Jean-Juste, a pro-democracy leader in Haiti who was jailed
for seven weeks in 2004, also addressed the crowd. "We want Haiti to
return to constitutional order as soon as possible," Jean-Juste said.
"We want President Aristide to return as quickly as possible. No member
of the OAS is supposed to take part in the coup d'état."

Meanwhile, in the Convention Center's vast halls, Washington was
orchestrating a show to promote its two principal projects: 1) "free
trade," in other words the even greater opening of Latin American
economies to invasion by U.S. products and domination by U.S. capital
and 2) the "monitoring" of democracy, as defined by the U.S., through
treaties designed to undermine national sovereignty in the hemisphere.

Luigi Einaudi, the out-going OAS assistant secretary general,
unabashedly declared in his opening statement: "The hemisphere has
become democratic. The days of colonialism and military dictatorship are
long past." In step with his superiors Rice and Bush, he called on Latin
American countries to sacrifice their "rights to sovereignty" to agree
that "democracy should be the architecture of regional cooperation,"
that is democracy as defined by Washington.

All of this was to target countries like Cuba and Venezuela, and much of
the program from June 5 to 7 was aimed at isolating them. For example,
on Jun. 6, meetings for General Assembly participants and the press were
scheduled with Maria Corina Machado, the leader of the bourgeois
opposition to Hugo Chavez, and afterwards with Cuban-American leaders,
that is the counter-revolutionary "gusanos."

In its offensive against Venezuela in particular, the U.S. government is
brandishing the Inter-American Democratic Charter, which it charges the
the popular Chavez government is flouting. Ironically, the U.S. has
blocked efforts by the CARICOM countries to invoke the Charter, which
condemns any "unconstitutional alteration of the constitutional regime
that seriously impairs the democratic order," in the case of the Feb.
29, 2004 coup in Haiti.

CARICOM foreign ministers met with Rice during the General Assembly to
raise their concerns about Haiti. De facto Haitian Foreign Minister
Hérard Abraham, whose legitimacy CARICOM nations do not recognize, was
excluded from the meeting.

HaVti ProgrPs interviewed Colin Granderson, CARICOM's Assistant
Secretary General and formerly head of the 1993-1994 OAS Civilian
Observer Mission in Haiti, who was attending the OAS General Assembly as
an observer. He said there was "no change" in CARICOM's refusal to
recognize Haiti's de facto regime and said that Haiti would only be
welcomed back into CARICOM after "free and credible" elections are held.

"CARICOM foreign ministers have on several occasions expressed their
concern with regards to the human rights situation and the lack of
respect for due process," Granderson said. "[Imprisoned constitutional
prime minister Yvon] Neptune is obviously the best-known case, but it is
one of many. There is a lack of rule of law, and the allegations of
extra-judicial executions at the hands of the police should be
investigated."

Under extraordinary security, Bush addressed the OAS ministers on Jun.
6, while some 200 demonstrators rallied outside in the same pens as the
day before. In his speech, Bush pushed his"free trade" initiative, the
Central American and Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), as
"an historic opportunity to bring prosperity to the citizens of our
hemisphere." This trade is what would make the hemisphere "less likely
to be divided by resentment and false ideologies," he said.

But in an open letter to the OAS meeting, the California-based group
Global Exchange noted that over the past 25 years, "most Latin American
countries have adhered to the economic model of the 'Washington
Consensus,'" resulting in a "staggering decline in growth" where "per
capita income growth has averaged less than 0.5% per year." As a result,
"Latin Americans are increasingly electing leaders who represent the
needs of the majority for economic development," a trend Washington
seeks to curb.



ELECTIONS:
WHY ARE HAITI'S VOTERS STAYING AWAY?
by the Haiti Information Project

The centerpiece of the international community's policy to rebuild
violence-torn Haiti is the upcoming elections, tenuously scheduled to
begin in October. As renewed violence and insecurity grips Haiti,
elections remain the only process that can legitimize and justify the
overthrowing of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's constitutional
government on Feb. 29, 2004. This fact is not lost on supporters of
Lavalas Family, the deposed president's political party, who arguably
still represent the most potent political force in Haiti today.
Independent observers have also begun to ask if the climate of violence
alone explains the disinterest of Haiti's electorate in the next
elections.

Haiti's latest wave of violence and insecurity began after the Haitian
police fired on peaceful marches in the capital on Feb. 28 and April 27
demanding Aristide's return. At least 11 unarmed demonstrators were
killed in the two attacks, prompting U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan
to echo demands by human rights organizations for an official
investigation. The U.S.-installed government of de facto prime minister
Gérard Latortue has dismissed the allegations despite statements made by
Brazilian General Heleno Ribera and video footage taken by a local
television station confirming the unprovoked attacks. The video footage
also shows members of Haiti's police force planting guns on corpses to
justify the April 27 slayings.

Since then, there have been almost daily kidnappings and killings that
U.S. Ambassador James B. Foley and the local Haitian business elite
blame on a small and violent minority claiming allegiance to Aristide.
The fact that some members of Haiti's police force have been implicated
in the recent spate of kidnappings has not softened the rhetoric calling
for violent retribution against pro-Aristide neighborhoods.

Haitian police have sustained an on-going attack against Bel Air, a
neighborhood that served as a launching site for demonstrations
demanding the return of Aristide, for the past four days. Early reports
from the neighborhood claim that the police have killed at least 30
people and 15 homes have been set ablaze. The armed incursions, backed
by U.N. forces, are being described by some human rights groups as a
"scorched earth" policy against Aristide supporters.

As one approaches the modest building not far from a police station in
the suburb of Pétion-Ville, one wouldn't know this is a meeting place
for a women's organization aligned with Lavalas. On this day, 20 women
sit in a circle in a stifling hot room to discuss the topics of the day
that include human rights abuses by the police, politically motivated
rapes against them, the high cost of living and, of course, the upcoming
elections.

"Many of us are physical victims of the coup of Feb. 29, 2004, against
President Aristide," began one woman. "Most of us sitting here have been
abused physically by the former military and Haitian police. All of us
have lost a father, husband, brother or loved one to the violence
against Lavalas that continues to this day. We have organized quietly to
tell people not to register for this election. We don't go to the
demonstrations because the police might kill us, and this is the only
way left to us to protest the coup."

Apparently she is not alone. The body overseeing the election process,
the Provisional Election Council, announced on May 30 that only 60,000
people have registered out of an eligible 4.5 million potential voters
since registration began on April 25. Patrick FéquiPre, president of the
Electoral Operations Commission for the council, commented on a local
radio station that, at this registration rate, Haiti wouldn't be ready
for balloting until 2007.

As one drives down Delmas road in Port-au-Prince, one can see several
large banners that read, "I am going to register! I am going to vote!"
Radio stations throughout Haiti play commercials round the clock
encouraging people to register. The international community and the
U.S.-installed government are implementing a policy of mandatory
registration. Non-registrants are subject to fines and to paying for a
new national identity card that is being offered for free during the
electoral registration period. Despite these efforts, the number of
people actually registering to vote remains low.

One international observer close to the process commented on the
registration figures: "This is the international community's worst
nightmare. If the numbers of those participating in these elections do
not rise to credible levels, it will give Aristide and his supporters
the argument that this was a national referendum on his ouster. This
will make it an impossible nightmare for the next government to rule.
They won't have a credible mandate, and all we may have succeeded in
doing [in supporting Aristide's ouster] is opening the door for future
instability. We have to wonder when the next Haitian government will
actually finish a full term in office without having to rely upon severe
repression."

In Haiti's second largest city, Cap HaVtien, there appears to be even
less interest by the population in registering for the vote. There is
also nothing close to the level of violence and insecurity racking
Haiti's capital. A peasant leader from a nearby town stated: "Many of us
were driven into hiding after Feb. 29, 2004, but things have calmed down
a lot. We don't have anything close to what's going on in Port-au-Prince
for the moment. It doesn't mean it can't get worse, but they can't blame
violence around here for spoiling the elections. The truth is we are not
interested because we don't have confidence in elections anymore. What
have they gotten us in the past? More killing, more violence, higher
prices . We don't see the point."

Despite the low registration figures and the possibility of an
unprecedented low-voter turnout, consultants working with Haiti's
Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) remain undeterred. "Everyone in the
international community agrees that high registration and high voter
turnout is vital in order to legitimize the next government," said one
consultant. "At the same time, the basic fact is that elections will
occur given the international mandate and constitutional deadlines
involved ."

"The fear is that low registration and a low voter turnout will put into
question the legitimacy of the next government," he continued. "At this
moment in time, the prevailing view among donor nations is that the real
problem is the dysfunction of the CEP, the OAS and U.N. in their mandate
for implementing the electoral process. Only a handful of the planned
registration centers have been opened. This is unacceptable! Even if
these internal problems are resolved soon, if Lavalas sympathizers
abstain from registering out of political convictions, the whole
political transition process will be in deep trouble."

[A flyer now circulating around the country calls on Haitians to shun
the "electoral card trap." Signed by the National Popular Party (PPN)
and several base organizations affiliated to the Lavalas Family, the
flyer says that "If you get a card, you will be playing into the hands
of the Feb. 29 kidnapers! If you get a card, they will vote for you
without your knowing." Elections are not possible under the current
occupation and climate of insecurity, the tract says.]

For the moment, most donor agencies and diplomatic circles involved in
Haiti's electoral process are wary. They fear a new government lacking a
credible mandate and heavily dependent on backroom political deals and
increasing repression to stay in office.

The alternative - negotiating for the return of President Aristide as
demanded by his supporters before the upcoming elections - is also
unthinkable to them. So are the other basic demands of Lavalas
supporters, such as freedom for political prisoners, an end to the
repression against them, prosecution of police involved in human rights
abuses, and a guarantee of security during the upcoming electoral
campaign. The international community wants Haitians to participate in
the next elections en mass without seriously recognizing and addressing
this underlying political stalemate. Instead, many embassies are
following a path of least resistance and focusing the blame on violence
and insecurity attributed to Lavalas. They have bought into the
propaganda of Haiti's business elite that the deadly raids into poor
communities by U.N. forces and the police are a quick-fix solution to
the crisis.

The majority of nations involved in the current U.N. coalition don't
appear willing or able to forge an independent policy and stand up to
the powerful triumvirate of the United States, France and Canada. This
triumvirate is widely viewed as having fomented the coup against
Aristide and for currently backing Haiti's traditional elite in closing
all potential avenues of compromise with Lavalas. In the meantime, the
violence in Haiti continues to escalate.

The Haiti Information Project (HIP) is a non-profit alternative news
service providing coverage and analysis of breaking developments in
Haiti.

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

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