25479: (analysis) Holmstead: Faking Genocide in Haiti, part 2 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

FROM: John Holmstead    <cyberkismet5@yahoo.com>

Faking Genocide in Haiti
Canada?s Role in the Persecution of Yvon Neptune,
Part 2

by Kevin Skerrett

June 23, 2005




Canadian Government Funding for NCHR

As noted above, NCHR is a favoured beneficiary of
Canadian government funding agencies and aid
organizations.  By all accounts, it appears as though
both the Canadian and US governments (through CIDA and
USAID) have been funding NCHR for many years.  In
fact, within weeks of the allegations launched against
Prime Minister Neptune by NCHR, the Canadian Embassy
in Haiti announced that a further $100,000 would be
allocated to that group.(44)  As already mentioned, it
was at exactly the same time as this renewed CIDA
funding announcement, NCHR press releases began to
challenge the IGH for not arresting Neptune, against
whom they claim the evidence of complicity is
?substantial?.(45)  As shown above, NCHR has never
actually produced any evidence, ?substantial? or
otherwise.

The impact of these partisan advocacy efforts has been
especially felt among Canadian NGOs and aid groups.
Rights and Democracy, an otherwise credible
(federally-funded) organization previously led by
respected former politicians such as Warren Allmand
and Ed Broadbent, appears to uncritically accept what
groups such as NCHR report.  In fact, such trust leads
Rights and Democracy down some surprising paths.  In a
stunningly one-sided report prepared by Rights and
Democracy following a one-week investigative tour of
Haiti in September 2003,(46) the dominant influence
NCHR and other opposition or opposition-linked groups
is clear.  First of all, they base their report almost
exclusively on interviews with active members of the
political opposition (many of whom are CIDA and USAID
funded).  They then conclude ? quite ridiculously -
that the Group 184, purported to be a ?grassroots?
organization established by Haiti?s business elite and
led by the notorious sweatshop owner Andre Apaid,
represents a "promising civil society movement" that
is reflective of a diverse and broad political
opposition to President Aristide.  Quite amazingly,
they do not mention anywhere in their 54-page report
that the Group 184 is led and represented by Apaid,
one of the wealthiest men in the country who has been
actively involved in right-wing Haitian politics for
many years.  This uncritical acceptance of the
characterization of the Group 184 reflects very poorly
on the judgement and analysis of Rights and Democracy.
 Not coincidentally, Rights and Democracy is one of
the main voices on Haiti called upon by Canadian
parliamentarians.

Likewise, the Quebec-based AQOCI - a network of 53
international development groups ? became so swept up
in the anti-Aristide and anti-government hysteria
generated by groups such as NCHR in the months leading
up to the coup that they issued a press release on
December 15th, 2003 urging the Canadian government to
withdraw all support from the "Lavalas party regime",
and to denounce the Aristide government for being
"riddled with abuses of human rights".  One of the few
specific accusations made by AQOCI is as follows:

Last December 5th, a group of "chimeres" invaded the
local university, injuring students, professors, the
Rector and Vice-Rector, and destroying some of the
infrastructure.(47)

The Rights and Democracy report refers to these
supposed attacks of December 5 in similar terms,
apparently accepting the description of the event
provided by groups such as NCHR (one of their listed
sources).  The December 5 incident came to be known as
"Black Friday" ? the reports of which triggered much
outrage, some even expressed by officials of the OAS.
It was a major story, and it influenced many observers
in Canada.

There are significant problems with the versions of
these events told by NCHR and Rights and Democracy.
In fact, there is significant evidence that the Black
Friday story that was told internationally was
actually a reversal of what took place.  Independent
journalist Kevin Pina has obtained actual video
footage of the incident, and has included it in his
documentary-in progress, ?Haiti: The Betrayal of
Democracy.?  Pina?s footage strongly suggests that the
violence at the University, including the attack on
University Rector Pacquiot, was in fact carried out by
anti-government student demonstrators.  These
demonstrators are seen on the video inside the
University raining rocks down on Lavalas supporters
below, who were clearly assembled outside the
compound.  One segment shows an anxious Lavalas
supporter on a street outside the university compound
listening to the students inside smashing windows and
destroying equipment, and his voice is picked up by
the camera, warning that "they are going to blame the
police and Lavalas".  It is worth noting that the main
student organization involved in this incident, the
Fédération des Étudiants Universitaires d?Haïti
(FEUH), was organized by a USAID-funded NGO known as
IFES (the International Foundation for Electoral
Systems).  One report suggests that IFES staff ?want
to take credit for the ouster of Aristide, but cannot
?out of respect for the wishes of the US
Government.??(48)

Like NCHR, both Rights and Democracy and AQOCI (and
most of AQOCI's constituent groups) receive very large
portions of their operating budgets from CIDA ? in
other words, the Government of Canada.  In this
regard, it is less surprising that they accept the
word of their CIDA-funded sister group in Haiti.
However, Canadian citizens, journalists, and even
elected leaders are not generally informed of these
financial connections, nor are they publicly
reported.(49)

Perhaps the most extreme case of a Canadian
organization adopting a fiercely partisan
anti-Lavalas/anti-Aristide position is an informal
coalition of development agencies called Concertation
Pour Haiti (CPH) based in Montréal.  When paramilitary
groups launched their attacks in Gonaives and St. Marc
in early February 2004, CPH joined the attack on
Aristide by going beyond the previous appeal for
economic sanctions and actually demanding that the
government of Canada publicly call for Aristide?s
resignation and encourage the international community
to do likewise.(50)  While CPH had previously used the
extreme language normally reserved for a Haitian
audience to describe Aristide (i.e. ?tyrant,?
?dictatorship,? a ?regime of terror?, etc), the
group?s mid-February 2004 call for outright regime
change suggests a remarkably partisan position for a
coalition of supposedly independent and non-partisan
aid agencies.  Interestingly, while Foreign Minister
Bill Graham initially rejected this call, he changed
his mind 9 days later and joined the US and France in
calling for Aristide?s resignation on February 26.(51)

The politicization of human rights group funding in
Haiti has now reached a point of some absurdity.  As a
supporter of the February 29 coup d?état, the
Government of Canada now utilizes some portion of what
is called ?international aid? to pay the salary of
CIDA employees such as Philippe Vixamar, a senior
official in the "interim" Haitian Ministry of
Justice.(52)  The January 14 2005 University of Miami
human rights report cited above describes a peculiar
interview conducted with Vixamar, during which he
disputes recent reports of grave human rights abuses
by the Haitian police, and confidently refers to his
government's practice of having all police activities
(including oversight of the prison system) screened
and reviewed by the one human rights group that the
government fully trusts - NCHR.  This means we have a
senior CIDA-funded government official?s work being
assessed by a CIDA-funded ?human rights? group, whose
criticisms just happen to be either absent or muted,
which in turn just happens to shield Canada?s recent
foreign policy in Haiti from criticism.  Even after
this perverse relationship was revealed publicly, it
appears that Vixamar?s Canadian paycheques continue to
flow, despite CIDA officials recently distancing the
organization from his ?views?.(53)

In this context, it is hardly surprising to find that
NCHR has very little to say about the grave human
rights violations extensively documented in the
University of Miami report.  That report, along with
material published in recent months by the Associated
Press, Reuters, the UK Observer, the Toronto Star, the
Miami Herald, Amnesty International, and the
International Crisis Group show definitively that the
Haitian police have been witnessed carrying out
violent raids on poor neighbourhoods where Lavalas
support is most concentrated and open.(54)  Yet, very
few of these attacks and violations have been even
mentioned by NCHR in their most recent press releases.


Even where NCHR does admit to the occurrence of
summary executions, as they do in a press release of
October 28, 2004, they claim that they do not have
enough information to confirm police
responsibility.(55)  In this release, they report
quite calmly that a horrifying torture and execution
of 15 young people, including ten boys and five girls,
had taken place two days before, in an area where a
?commando unit? of ?masked officers? was seen storming
a home where 13 of the young people had been meeting.
Nonetheless, NCHR refers to the killings ? which
appear to constitute an actual ?massacre? ? with some
skepticism as an act ?attributed? to the Haitian
police.  In St. Marc, then, NCHR was able to conduct
an investigation that quickly concludes that a
barbaric ?genocide? had been ordered by Yvon Neptune
himself, whereas in the case of the Fort National
killings, a few victims names are collected, and then
a ?commission of inquiry? is called for.  Such calls
ignored, the incident and the victims are promptly
forgotten by NCHR.

Even more disturbing are cases where NCHR sees fit to
completely ignore widely reported and recognized
police executions.  On January 14 of this year, a
young journalist and law student named Abdias Jean was
executed by Haitian police after he had witnessed them
carrying out other killings.  Reported by Reuters
Haiti correspondent Joseph Guyler Delva and Jamaica
Observer columnist John Maxwell, Abdias Jean?s
execution was subsequently condemned by the
Association of Haitian Journalists, the International
News Safety Institute, the Inter American Press
Association (IAPA), and eventually even by UNESCO
Director-General Koichiro Matsuura.  It is revealing
that NCHR has not seen fit to even mention this
especially ugly killing, perhaps its most glaringly
obvious partisan omission.(56)

By all accounts, these stark problems with the
integrity of NCHR appear to pose no problems for
officials at CIDA or within the Government of Canada.
In fact, it would appear that NCHR stands to gain
further funding from Canadian taxpayers as the
importance of ?human rights? reporting increases in
the the months leading up to the elections scheduled
for October and November, 2005.

Conclusion

After sharp condemnations of Yvon Neptune?s
imprisonment from a number of human rights
organizations, he was finally brought before a judge
on May 26 2005.  In an especially farcical scene,
Neptune was brought before the judge lying on a
stretcher, so weakened by his hunger strike that he
was barely able to speak.(57)  Neptune?s legal and
human rights continue to be treated with contempt, all
under the approving eyes of CIDA?s supposed human
rights watchdog NCHR, whose representative referred
callously to the hearing as a ?good occasion? for the
ailing Neptune to ?defend himself.?(58)

It is difficult to read in detail through
international media reports of the violence in St.
Marc on February 11, 2004, compare them to the
(fluctuating) descriptions of these events within the
sketchy press releases published by NCHR, and maintain
any conviction that NCHR operates under a non-partisan
and independent organization.  While in the years
leading up to the February 29 coup the organization?s
activities were focused almost exclusively on what
they claimed were victims of human rights abuses
committed by Haitian police, supporters of President
Aristide?s Lavalas party, or the Haitian government
itself, their orientation has shifted qualitatively
since the February 29 coup.  As the above brief review
shows, NCHR?s criticism of the post-coup attacks
carried out by the Haitian police is muted, and
qualified by the suggestion that when innocent
civilians are killed by the police, now it is an
instance of ?collateral damage?.

The above analysis raises very serious questions about
the potential debasement of the very concept of human
rights and human rights advocacy by partisan politics
? particularly when foreign-government financing is a
major influence as we see in Haiti and many other
Latin American countries.  It strongly reinforces the
concern that wealthy, militarily powerful countries
are in certain instances utilizing their enormous
financial power to undermine highly dependent
developing country governments whose policies they
seek to influence.

To the questions posed here, the evidence reviewed
above confirms the conclusions reached by an
increasing number of independent observers:  there was
no genocide, and not even a ?massacre?, but rather a
series of violent confrontations that resulted in a
number of deaths ? possibly as many as 10 or 12 ? on
both ?sides? of the conflict in Haiti that led to the
February 29 coup.  Our review strongly suggests that
NCHR?s confident allegation that Prime Minister Yvon
Neptune was implicated in these killings was political
in nature, and in any case remains completely
unsupported by evidence.  When these conclusions are
viewed alongside the fact that Neptune has now been
illegally jailed for almost a year (provoking his
hunger strike), it becomes obvious that any conception
of the fundamental human rights enshrined in the UN
and OAS systems require his immediate release.

Finally, the issues raised by this episode also
suggest that a serious review of CIDA?s human rights
programming is in order, with the aim of ensuring that
Canadian-funded and supported organizations that are
ostensibly working in defense of human rights or in
support of democracy are not being manipulated into
serving very narrow Canadian foreign policy or trade
policy interests.  Clearly, Canadians do not want
their government to join the list of countries best
known for manipulating a rhetoric of human rights and
democracy toward self-serving political and economic
objectives that are in fact hostile to both.

Back to Part 1
Kevin Skerrett is active in the Canada Haiti Action
Network (CHAN). To join the CHAN email list, or for
more information, email him at kskerrett@cupe.ca.

Endnotes

1.  See Jacqueline Charles, ?Haiti: Meek sees
ex-leader in prison,? Miami Herald, May 17, 2005.  See
also Marina Jimenez, ?Former PM of Haiti said to be
near death from hunger strike,? Globe and Mail, May 5,
2005, p. A18  On the gravity of the recent human
rights crisis, see Thomas Griffin, ?Human Rights
Investigation: November 11-21, 2004,? University of
Miami Law School, Centre for the Study of Human
Rights, January 14, 2005.  See:
http://www.law.miami.edu/news/368.html  Also see
Harvard Law School Clinical Assistance Project,
?Keeping the Peace in Haiti?  An Assessment of the
United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti,? March
15, 2005.

2.  The only detailed review of the evidence provided
and the media coverage of the episode reviewed here is
found in the 67-page book by journalist and human
rights activist Ronald St. Jean, ?A propos du
?Genocide de la Scierie?: Exiger de la NCHR Toute La
Verite,? Comité de Défense des Droits du Peuple
Haïtien (CDPH), Edition Séli, July 2004.

3.  See NCHR-Haiti, ?Events of the First Weeks of
February 2004,? Human Rights Situation Report, NCHR,
February 15 2004.  See:
http://www.nchrhaiti.org/article.php3?id_article=175.
A press release from the Canadian Embassy in Haiti
distributed after the coup announced a Canadian
International Development Agency (CIDA) grant of
$100,000 for NCHR, allocated for their ?human rights?
work.  See Canadian Embassy in Haiti,  ?Canada Gives
$2 million for Humanitarian Aid to Haiti,? Undated,
site last updated April 19, 2005. See:
www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/haiti/wn-04-humanitarian-aid-en.asp.
NCHR-Haiti has recently changed its name, following an
apparent dispute with its parent organization, NCHR
(or NCHR-New York).  See NCHR-Haiti, ?Name Change ?
NCHR-Haiti becomes RNDDH,? Press release, May 9, 2005.
 See:
http://www.nchrhaiti.org/article.php3?id_article=222.
As NCHR is still the name that this group is best
known by, this name will continue to be used
throughout the text, except where specification is
relevant.

4.  ?2 Ex-Haitian Officials Returned to Prison,? New
York Times, Feb. 20, 2005, p. 16 While many reports,
including those by Radio-Canada, characterized this
?breakout? incident as an ?escape? by Neptune and
others, this report cites a prison insider who
indicated that Neptune and (former Interior Minister)
Jocelerme Privert had been taken ?at gunpoint? by the
squad of armed men who had broken into the prison.

5.  NCHR-Haiti, ?Human Rights Situation Report: Events
of the first weeks of February 2004,? Posted February
15, 2004; URL:
http://nchrhaiti.org/article.php3?id_article=175
Accessed May 10, 2005.

6.  NCHR-Haiti, ?Massacre in Scierie (St. Marc): Three
(3) Suspects Behind Bars,? Press Release, March 2,
2005 (posted March 3, 2004).  URL:
http://www.nchrhaiti.org/article.php3?id_article=150)
Accessed March 5, 2005.

7.  Ibid.

8.  Ibid.  Emphasis added.  The other Haitian human
rights group identified, POHDH (Plateforme des
Organisations Haitiennes des Droits Humains), is not
considered here to be a substantially independent
actor.  While theoretically POHDH is a ?coalition? of
nine Haitian groups that includes NCHR, the reality is
that POHDH does not appear to publish material or
reports and is essentially an appendage of NCHR.  In
fact, NCHR Director Espérance appears to often simply
add the name to various NCHR press releases that he
has composed.  Espérance also serves as POHDH
treasurer, creating an inter-connection that casts
doubt on any claims of independence.  It is also worth
noting that at least 5 of the 9 constituent groups of
POHDH are recipients of CIDA funding.  On NGO funding,
see Anthony Fenton, ?Canada?s Growing Role in Haitian
Affairs,? Haiti Progres, March 22, 2005.

9.  Ian James, ?Rebel Uprising Spreads to 11 Towns in
Haiti,? Associated Press, distributed by Canadian
Press Newswire, February 9, 2004

10.  NCHR-Haiti, ?La Scierie Genocide: NCHR advocates
for the organization of a model trial,? Press release,
March 30, 2004.  The provision of Canadian funding for
the legal case is discussed later in the text.

11.  Ibid.

12.  NCHR-Haiti, ?Boniface-Latorture:  The First 45
Days,? April 15, 2004 (posted April 22, 2004).  See:
http://www.nchrhaiti.org/article.php3?id_article=161
Accessed May 24, 2005.

13.  Dominique Levanti, ?Situation tendue en Haïti, au
moins deux morts à St-Marc,? Agence France-Presse,
February 11, 2004, my translation.  All translations
in this text are mine unless otherwise indicated.
This report should be viewed with some caution, given
that it appears as though the reporter had collected
the information about ?opposition? members being
burned to death through a telephone report from an
unnamed ?local journalist?.

14.  Michael Norton, ?Rock-throwing Aristide militants
force opponents to cancel protest march,? Associated
Press, Canadian Press Newswire, February 12, 2004;
This article is also interesting as it reports US
Secretary of State Colin Powell?s comments before the
US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee: ?The policy of
the administration is not regime change?President
Aristide is the elected president of Haiti.'  Within
12 days of these comments, Powell would be openly
encouraging President Aristide?s resignation, soon to
be joined by French Foreign Minister Dominique de
Villepin and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Bill
Graham.

15.  Ibid.

16.  Dominique Levanti, ?Situation tendue en Haïti, au
moins cinq morts à St.Marc," Agence France-Presse,
February 11, 2004.  My translation.

17.  Bertrand Rosenthal, ?Death, fear and silence in
Haitian city,? Agence France-Presse (English),
Thursday, February 12, 2004.  Rosenthal adds to his
description of the dead the phrase ?according to
witnesses?, indicating that he was not present and did
not himself see these bodies first-hand.

18.  Lydia Polgreen, ?Weakened Haitian Police Forces
Overwhelmed by Rebel Violence,? New York Times,
February 22, 2004 (filed February 19, 2004).

19.  Le Nouvelliste, ?Chasse aux insurgés à
Saint-Marc,? February 11, 2004.  My translation.

20.  Michael Norton, Ibid.

21. Michael A. W. Ottey, ?Three gang leaders hatched
plot for a revolt,? Miami Herald, February 15, 2004,
p. 1.  Emphasis added.

22.  Ibid.

23.  Ibid.  Emphasis added.

24.  Ibid.  In fact, as even a brief scan through
these media reports indicate, the actual response by
Haitian authorities was slow and uncertain, partly due
to its utter lack of logistical capacity, but also in
keeping with the stated preference not to launch any
aggressive or militarized counter-attacks against this
death-squad insurgency.  It is worth comparing this
response to that of US/UK occupation authorities in
Iraq to the anti-occupation resistance, particularly
in zones such as Fallujah (April and November, 2004).
The difference, of course, is that the resistance in
Iraq is rising up against a foreign occupation,
whereas the foreign government-funded and supported
?insurgency? in Haiti was rising up against a
democratically elected government recognized by the
US, Canada, and the entire international community.

25.  Ian James, ?Food, medical crisis hits rebel-held
city: As the rebel uprising continues, roadblocks are
halting food shipments,? Associated Press (Vancouver
Sun), February 14, 2004, p. A15.

26. Michael Norton, Ibid.

27.  Ian James, Ibid.

28.  Ibid.

29.  Trenton Daniel and Michael A. W. Ottey, ?Crisis
in Haiti: Police won't fire on rebels, Aristide says;
Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide says he will
not take drastic actions in trying to return peace to
towns seized by armed groups demanding his
resignation,? Miami Herald, February 12, 2004, p. 1.

30.  Michael A. W. Ottey and Trenton Daniel, ?Violence
mars protest; carnival joy dampened,? Miami Herald,
February 16, 2004, p. 11

31.  NCHR-Haiti, Press release, March 3, 2004.
Emphasis added.

32. Anne Fuller, ?La Scierie Killings,? Le
Nouvelliste, April 9-10.  Fuller admits frankly that
she has ?no information? regarding who might have
?ordered? violence in St. Marc.  It is also worth
noting that this writer?s current employer, Human
Rights Watch, had a formal working relationship with
NCHR, to the extent of co-publishing reports on human
rights in Haiti in the 1990s.  Given these
connections, it is even more interesting that Fuller?s
report lends no support to NCHR?s claims.

33.  For some details on Charlienor and RAMICOS, see
Gary Marx, ?Haiti stuck in bog of uprising?s
bloodshed,? Chicago Tribune, May 17, 2005.

34.  Haiti Progres, ?L?arrestation d?Yvon Neptune:
Sous le signe de quelle justice??, June 30, 2004.  My
translation.

35. Ronald St. Jean, ?A propos du ?Génocide de la
Scierie?, Ibid.  p 24.  My translation.

36. Ibid.

37.  NCHR-Haiti, Press release, March 3, 2004.

38.  See ?US Delegation Visits Jailed Haitian Prime
Minister,? Haiti Progres, March 9, 2005.

39.  NCHR-Haiti, Press Release, ?Political Troubles in
Haiti: NCHR invites belligerents to respect the
principles of international humanitarian law,? October
28, 2004 (posted November 12, 2004). Accessed May 24,
2005.  See:
http://www.nchrhaiti.org/article.php3?id_article=203

40. Joseph Guyler Delva, ?UN says former Haitian PM
jailed illegally,? Reuters, May 4, 2005.  See also
Joseph Guyler Delva, ?Haiti?s jailed former PM resumes
hunger strike,? Reuters, April 29, 2005.

41. See Joseph Guyler Delva, May 4.

42.  See National Coalition for Haitian Rights,
?NCHR-Haiti Does Not Speak for the National Coalition
for Haitian Rights (NCHR),? Press release, March 11,
2005.

43.  Ibid.  This ?disavowal? was eventually followed
by the formal re-naming of NCHR-Haiti, as reported
above in NCHR-Haiti, ?Name Change?? This release was
followed by another on May 17, titled ?Unwavering
Dedication in the Face of Constant Adversity,? in
which a feeble defense of its denunciations of Neptune
are offered, along with a belated attempt to express
outrage at the sham trial of FRAPH paramilitary and
coup leader Louis-Jodel Chamblain in August 2004,
outrage that was much more muted and ambiguous in
their published reaction.  For NCHR-Haiti?s reaction
to the widely denounced Chamblain trial, see Viles
Alizar,  ?Verdict Rendered in the Antoine Izmery
Murder Trial: Chamblain and Joanis Acquitted,?  Press
Statement Summary, August 2004.  (All NCHR-Haiti press
releases available at: www.nchrhaiti.org)

44.  Canadian Embassy to Haiti, ?Le Canada soutient
des organisations humanitaires en Haiti,? April 14,
2004. See:
http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/haiti/wn-04-humanitarian-aid-fr.asp
Accessed May 24, 2005.  This financial support was
reiterated three weeks later in a CIDA press release,
which did not identify the amounts involved.  See CIDA
press release, ?Canada Reaffirms its Commitment to the
People of Haiti,? May 6, 2004.  This release also
refers to renewed funding support to the Fondation
Paul Lajoie, an organization that has had an ongoing
relationship with NCHR-Haiti.  For details, see also
Anthony Fenton, ?Canada?s Growing Role in Haitian
Affairs,? Ibid.

45.  NCHR-Haiti, Press release, ?Boniface-Latorture??
Ibid.

46. Philippe Tremblay et al., ?Haiti: A Bitter
Bicentennial,? A Report of a Mission by Rights and
Democracy, January 2004 (see: www.rd-dd.ca).  The full
name of Rights and Democracy is the International
Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, or
ICHRDD.

47.  AQOCI press release, ?The Canadian Government
must stop supporting a president contested by his own
people,? Dec. 15, 2004, my translation.  See:
http://www.aqoci.qc.ca/actualite/haiti_dec_2003.html)

48.  This report based on screening of ?Haiti:
Betrayal of Democracy? as a work-in-progress in
Ottawa, February 8, 2005.  For more detail on the role
of IFES in organizing not only the FEUH but also the
Group 184, jurists, ?human rights? groups, and others,
see Griffin, ?Human Rights Investigation?? Ibid. pp.
27-30.

49.  For a more detailed examination of the Government
of Canada?s politically selective funding of Haitian
NGOs, see Anthony Fenton, ?Canada?s Growing Role??
Ibid.

50.  See Concertation pour Haiti, ?Pourquoi Aristide
Doit-il Partir?  Recommendations de la Concertation
pour Haiti au gouvernement canadien,? February 12,
2004.  This 8-page documents recounts a litany of
accusations against the Aristide government, many
similar in nature to those of NCHR.  In some cases,
NCHR is cited explicitly (see p. 2).  This document
also includes strident references to Aristide himself
as having ?Duvalier as his model,? resting on ?terror
and corruption,? etc.  Most interesting however is
CPH?s endorsement of the political opposition?s Dec.
31 2003 proposal for ?resolving? the crisis in Haiti,
which they indicate includes:  Establishing a
?transition? government presided over by a member of
the Supreme Court and establishing a
non-constitutional Conseil des Sages [Council of the
Wise] that brings together representatives from
various social sectors.  This is precisely what took
place following the February 29 coup.

51.  On Concertation?s call for resignation see
Canadian Press, ?Canada must pressure Aristide to
resign, human rights group urges,? 16 February 2004.
On Graham?s initial defense of Canadian policy against
Concertation?s attacks, see Presse Canadienne, ?Ottawa
de defend de manquer de fermeté à l?endroit du
president Aristide,? February 17, 2004.  For Graham?s
abrupt change of heart one week later, and within 24
hours of the US and French call for Aristide?s
resignation, see Bruce Campion-Smith, ?Graham wants
Aristide to consider resigning,? Toronto Star,
February 27, 2004. The lead editorial in the same
paper (the Toronto Star, which was Canada?s only
mainstream newspaper to condemn the eventual coup),
bitterly commented:  ?Aristide, freely elected in 1990
and 2000, is being hounded out of office again by
violent thugs posing as liberators while Washington
Paris and yes, Ottawa choose not to intervene.?  It is
worth noting as well that CPH has organized two
Canadian speaking tours since the coup in Haiti,
organizing meetings for Yolène Gilles, of NCHR, and
Danièle Magloire, a member of the Conseil des sages ?
the governing body that named Haiti?s interim cabinet.

52.  See Thomas Griffin, ?Human Rights Investigation:
November 11-21, 2004,? University of Miami Law School,
Centre for the Study of Human Rights, January 14,
2005, p. 24-25.

53.  See Stuart Trew, ?Canada?s New Foreign Policy,?
Ottawa XPress, February 24, 2005.  Trew cites CIDA?s
Director of the Haiti Program, who argued that Vixamar
??was not speaking for CIDA.  And we don?t endorse
anything of what he said.  I cannot comment on his
personal point of view.?  Of course, it was not
Vixamar?s personal point of view that was under
discussion, it was Vixamar?s professional point of
view as a representative of Haiti?s Ministry of
Justice.

54.  For just one of many examples, see Amnesty
International, ?Haitian Police Must Be Held
Accountable for Killing of Civilians,? Press Release,
April 29, 2005.

55.  NCHR-Haiti, ?Political Troubles in Haiti,? Press
release, October 28, 2004.

56.  See Joseph Guyler Delva, ?UN says former Haitian
PM jailed illegally,? April 5, 2005.  Also see
Association Haitienne de la Press (AHP), ?The AJH
Secretary General believes he has reliable information
that the police did indeed execute journalist Abdias
Jean,? January 19, 2005.  For more details, see ?This
Week in Haiti: New Police and Occupation Tactics ?
Evacuations and Executions,? Haïti Progres, January
26, 2005.  This particular omission is noticeably
matched by the silence of the organization Reporters
Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontières), an
organization that openly expressed support for the
February 29 coup, and has since praised a ?return of
press freedom? in Haiti.  A recipient of significant
funding from the Government of France, RSF appears to
be yet another example of foreign-financed partisan
?human rights? organizations.  A complete search of
the websites of both NCHR and Reporters Without
Borders finds no mention of Abdias Jean.

57.  On Neptune?s May 25 hearing, see unsigned Reuters
article, ?Haiti: Ex-Premier Goes Before Court,? New
York Times, May 27, 2005 and Associated Press article,
?Jailed former premier in Haiti goes before judge to
hear charges of political killings,? May 25, 2005.

58.  See Associated Press, ?Jailed former premier??  Ibid.

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