30029: Kawopnabo (reply) Pierre (Comment) Re: 30025: Haiti4peace (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Kawonabo1500@aol.com


It is politically, intellectually, ideologically and morally dishonest for
some people to use the plight of the Haitian People in favor of some political
party. This was the slant that angered most people about the Haiti Human Rights
Study conducted by Athena Kolbe and Royce Hutson of Wayne State University'
School of Social Work. This study first published in the peer-reviewed jounal,
The Lancet, stated that there were 8,000 murders and 35,000 rapes and sexual
assaults in the 2 years following February 29, 2004 in Haiti.

        This study could have been used to document the Haitian ruling
classes and imperialist form of domination over the popular masses. Instead of
looking at it from a class-based perspective with the popular masses at the 
center
of gravity, the study merely tried to whitewash the lavalas government and its
neo-macoutes or chimeres. Many people saw in this a link between Ms. Kolbe
and her sympathy for Aristide.

        Now, everyone knew the lavalas government was part of the
superstructure of domination, division and repression of the popular masses in 
the
interests of the reactionary ruling classes and imperialism. The only folks who 
do
not seem to know that are those BIG BROTHER AND SISTER SUPREMACISTS who are
looking for a semblance or shadow to embrace which they find in lavalas.

        The Latortue/Boniface regime continued the regime of terror against
the popular masses as under the lavalas government. The idea is not to compare
which regime killed more people but to understand their essentially
reactionary nature working in the interests of the ruling classes and 
imperialism.



In a message dated 2/17/2007 9:58:31 AM Pacific Standard Time,
corbetre@webster.edu writes:
Part of the findings of the Haiti Human Rights study conducted by
researchers Athena Kolbe and Royce Hutson of Wayne State University's
School of Social Work were presented in a August 31, 2006 peer-reviewed
journal article in the Lancet. This article focused on answering the
question: "who were the human rights violators?"

MINUSTAH, as well as a number of other political actors including police
and ex-soldiers from the demobilized Haitian Army, were named as
responsible for human rights violations. (Incidentally, the
investigations by both Wayne State's School of Social Work -- not
Sociology -- and the Lancet found that not only had the raw data not been
manipulated, but also that there was no evidence of bias or false reports
in the data analysis or findings. This means that, despite accusations to
the contrary, the findings of the Kolbe-Hutson Lancet Study are now and
always have been accurate.)

Other findings from the report have been presented in subsequent peer
reviewed presentations including one at the American Public Health
Association conference in Boston last October by Dr. Hutson. This
presentation focused on "who were the victims?"

Among other things, Dr. Hutson reported that 57% of the murder victims
were from a household affiliated with Lavalas (30% were from Lespwa
households and 9% from unaffiliated households), meaning that people from
a household affiliated with a political party were ten times more likely
to be murdered than those with no political party affiliation. He also
reported on discrimination against Lavalas and Lespwa households when it
came to arrests and detentions. People from households affiliated with
Lavalas/Lespwa were 3.4 times more likely to be arrested than those from
non-Lavalas/Lespwa households. Since few of those arrested had been to
trial or allowed to see an attorney (or even been charged with a crime)
this means that a large number of Lavalas and Lespwa affiliated household
members had serious human rights violations committed against them as
they were illegally and arbitrarily detained.

Regarding the question of "statistical significance" -- I can only
recommend that Peter Dailey take a basic survey methodology or statistics
course. No one disputes the fact that MINUSTAH killed people during this
period; they themselves have acknowledged it.  If Peter Daily cannot
comprehend why a statistically representative random sample of households
would not detect every case of murder, well then perhaps he is not
intelligent enough to engage in a debate on this issue.