29122: (news) Chamberlain: Lancet report author worked for Aristide (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

(Toronto Globe and Mail, 7 September 06)


Author of Lancet article on Haiti investigated

Writer critical of Canadian peacekeepers worked at orphanage founded by
Aristide

By MARINA JIMÉNEZ



The Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal, is investigating
complaints about a potential conflict of
interest involving the author of a recent article that found systemic
human-rights violations in Haiti despite
the presence of a Canadian-led United Nations police force and peacekeeping
mission.

The study, co-authored by Athena Kolbe, found that 8,000 Haitians have been
slain and 35,000 women and girls
raped since the ouster of president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in early 2004.
Ms. Kolbe said that according to
local Haitians, Canadian peacekeepers made death threats against them
during house raids, and sexual advances
against women while the peacekeepers were drunk and off duty.

However, Ms. Kolbe herself is now the subject of controversy after
revelations that the 30-year-old master's
degree student at Wayne State University's school of social work in Detroit
used to be an advocacy journalist
who wrote under the name Lyn Duff and worked at a Haitian orphanage founded
by Mr. Aristide.

"How can Kolbe/Duff's research into the issues of human-rights violations
be regarded as objective when she
herself states that for 3.5 years she worked with the Lafanmi Selavi centre
for street children, where she
befriended Aristide himself and presumably some of the boys who later left
the centre . . . [who] then acted
as armed enforcers?" Charles Arthur, co-ordinator of the British-based
Haiti Support Group, wrote this week in
a letter of complaint to The Lancet.

"There is a concerted international campaign to distort news and manipulate
information about Haiti with the
apparent aim of repairing the reputation of Aristide. I am concerned The
Lancet has unwittingly been used as
part of the pro-Aristide propaganda campaign."

Nobody from The Lancet was available to comment yesterday, but Ms. Kolbe
said the magazine is investigating,
and she is confident it will find no conflict of interest.

"The Lancet would have appreciated hearing it from me and not from an
outsider," she said in an interview.
"But it's not like they wouldn't have published the article. The findings
aren't at issue."

Ms. Kolbe said she used to write articles under the name Lyn Duff -- an old
nickname and her mother's
surname -- but wanted to go by her father's surname and her real first name
once she entered academia.

She also said that from 1994-1997, she worked at an orphanage founded by
Mr. Aristide, met him several times,
and was an admirer of the then-president. Some of the children at the
orphanage maintained links with him. "I
am not a supporter of Lavalas [Aristide's political party]. I have warm
feelings toward Aristide, but I am
critical of some of his decisions."

She and her co-author, assistant professor Royce Hutson, defended the
results of their survey, which has
prompted some groups to call for a parliamentary inquiry into Canada's role
in Haiti.

Mr. Aristide's first term in office was interrupted by a 1991 military coup
and his second ended abruptly on
Feb. 29, 2004, after a rebellion of thugs and ex-soldiers forced him out.
He argues the United States forced
him into exile.

Canada sent 450 soldiers to Haiti in March, 2004, part of a UN peacekeeping
mission of 6,700 soldiers and
1,600 police. The soldiers left in August that year, and there are
currently 66 police officers in Haiti
leading the UN police force.

The Lancet peer-reviewed study of 5,720 randomly selected Haitians living
in the capital found that in the
22-month period since Mr. Aristide's ouster, 97 had received death threats,
232 had been threatened physically
and 86 sexually. According to survey respondents, one-third of those who
issued death threats were criminals,
18 per cent were Haitian National Police and other government security
agents and another 17 per cent were
foreign soldiers. Only 6 per cent were Lavalas.

Mr. Arthur said these findings contradict independent human-rights
investigators who report that many of the
violations have been committed by criminals, Haitian police and
anti-Aristide groups -- as well as Lavalas
supporters. "My concern is that either the conduct or interpretation of the
research was skewed or biased in
order to exonerate Fanmi Lavalas/Aristide supporters from accusation of
involvement in human-rights
violations," he said in his letter.

Nicholas Galletti, with Rights and Democracy, a Montreal non-governmental
organization, said the author's
background further calls into question a study "based on flawed
methodology" whereby responsibility for crimes
is attributed to groups without a proper criminal investigation or trial.

However, Prof. Hutson says the study acknowledges the limitations of having
to rely on subject recall.

"The charges of bias are baseless. We were aware Athena had written under
another name and found no conflict.
Our concern is the way UN soldiers are interacting with Haitians."