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30017: Dailey re # 30011 Haiti Alert (fwd)





From: Peter Dailey <phdailey@msn.com>


The question of "collateral damage" resulting from MINUSTAH raids into Cite Soleil is of importance to anyone concerned about human rights in Haiti. The Haiti Action Committee's complaint about New York Times coverage refers readers to its website and that of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, both of which have made repeated assertions about the number of casualties involved.

Both of these organizations went to elaborate lengths to bolster the credibility of the report on crime by Athena Kolbe published in The Lancet. (This journal, after determining that the author had an undisclosed conflict, asked the Sociology Dept. at Wayne State to conduct a review, which determined that the survey's raw data had not been manipulated.) Most recently, IJDH claimed that the report documented "findings of massive human rights violations against Haiti's pro-democracy movement." In fact it did nothing of the sort- the report identified perpetrators of violence not the victims.

Some people who questioned the reliability of this survey were particularly troubled by its finding that in the two year period following Aristide's departure MINUSTAH had not been responsible for a single death or assault during its operations. Ms. Kolbe, who during the week she was carrying out the survey published an article, under the name Lyn Duff, stating that a MINUSTAH raid days earlier had resulted in at least a dozen deaths, defended the survey by saying that any deaths or casualties resulting from MINUSTAH action were "statistically insignificant."

What I would like to know is whether Haiti Solidarity & IJDH were lying to us then or are lying to us now?

Peter Dailey