30034: Re: 30028 Luce (comment) Reply to Michael Deibert (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tom Luce <hurah_inc@riseup.net>

From Tom Luce, President, Hurah, Inc.

Dear Michael et al,

    O.K., I didn't follow basic non-violent communication rules when I asked 
you to stop supporting the war by proxy.  So I have to take in stride the heap 
of ad hominem attacks and gratuitous charges of fabrication that you have 
heaped on me.  Instead of joining the cyberspace annals of endless and 
pointless "pro-Aristide/anti-Aristide" harangues though, I am coming back again 
to ask you to consider joining the non-violent peace and reconciliation 
movement in Haiti. My intent is to engage you in a positive, transformative 
dialog toward supporting all our Haitian friends who want a lasting, just peace 
based on truth telling and restoration of civil society.  I have a specific 
question of fact for you later on.

   But first, my mention of Fr. Max Dominique was a signal to you and others 
who might suspect my sources on recent Haitian history. In Fr. Max I had a long 
trusted source in my quest for finding out what went wrong with the Aristide 
agenda to eradicate the poverty and oppression of the majority of Haitians. 
Father Max and I were more than just two bodies attending the Gregorian 
University in Rome with thousands of others from 1960 to 1964.  We became 
officers in a revolutionary (for the Jesuits at that time) student body--Vita 
Nostra-- that wanted to give students (graduate theology students, not 
undergrads)  a role in how the university operated.  We  never worked together 
again after our Rome days until 2004. In June, 2004, Fr. Max was ill but still 
on the job.  We had a wonderful reunion.  We exchanged news and our own 
histories in working for the poor, his far more exacting than mine, in the 
Central African Republic and then in the Bahamas working with Haitian refugees. 
We agreed to build on our past and seek to build whatever we could to help the 
cause for the poor in Haiti.  He was open and welcoming to the first young 
political prisoner that had been had liberated from the National Penitentiary 
through the joint efforts of AUMOHD and Hurah, Inc., an alleged chimère, but 
someone totally misjudged who is now doing exemplary work promoting justice for 
the poor himself--non-violently.  Fr. Max told me exactly what he had said in 
Pres. Aristide's presence at Fr. Adrien's funeral.  I asked him if he had 
wanted the coup and the subsequent chaos. His stand had been for resignation. 
He replied "no" with a shrug of resignation. Unfortunately for everyone Fr. 
Max's health deteriorated quickly.  I last visited him in August of 05 in the 
hospital where he was barely able to talk.  We said goodbye and I knew then 
that an authentic part of me was lost forever.
     I have a specific, crucial question for you. Have you written up the 
details of your 2006 visit to Ti Bois that you talk about?  Can you be more 
specific about the torched homes and the refugees, where they lived, why they 
were victimized?  I have never heard of any other attack in the summer of 2006 
than the July 7th massacre in Grand Ravine.  Why haven't you mentioned this 
July 7th attack in your writings? Are you saying there was another house 
torching in Ti Bois that summer?  Esterne Bruner whom you say you interviewed 
then was the coordinator of AUMOHD's Community Human Rights Council in Grand 
Ravine, not Ti Bois. On Sept. 3, 2006 I walked with "Bruner" over every inch of 
the Grand Ravine territory where 300+ homes had been torched. I talked with the 
refugees of this attack. Esterne was assassinated on Sept. 21 because he was 
seeking non-violent solutions. I think the people involved deserve to get the 
facts straight.
    Because I've advocated for Lavalas identified people you have put me into a 
quite despicable group of people who use the "bodies of the dead to score 
political points" and those who have a "fetish" relationship to Lavalas. I am 
confident, though, of my neutrality.  I am comfortable that my advocating for 
human rights for the poor demands my attention to Lavalas victims.  I am aware 
of the deep rifts among those committed to the poor in Haiti, that something 
seriously went wrong with the Lavalas movement.  But I am also well aware that 
something is seriously wrong with other sectors of Haitian society.  The war by 
proxy against the poor is still on. The continuance of bullets instead of 
ballots for influencing policy is mind boggling.  The avoidance of dealing with 
or even acknowledging the killings, the blatant persecution, illegal 
imprisonment and detention, this is sheer madness and irresponsibility.
    Please allow me to invite you once again to move together in the direction 
of non-partisan efforts to get at the facts and a just peace through a credible 
system of truth and reconciliation.  AUMOHD and Hurah have supported the 
neighbors of Ti Bois, Martissant, Grand Ravine and others as well in Cité 
Soleil, Simon Pele and Croix-des-Bouquets, to get together and work out a 
peaceable solution to the war by proxy they have been cruelly dragged into. 
The people you cite as victims from Ti Bois need your help as AUMOHD has given 
them to throw off the warmongers from their backs, to get involved in 
non-violent conflict resolution. This does demand a truth-telling, not lashing 
out with general laments about "gross violations", but verified cases apt for a 
reconciliation commission, and definitely not vengeance killing that compounds 
matters.
     I especially invite you to go to PetitionSpot 
<http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopdeadlyUNattacks> and study the 
petition of the newly formed Haitian Non-violent, Non-partisan Coalition 
(HNVNPC) that is demanding a ceasefire and a Haitian-designed and controlled 
DDR program.  Yes, you'll find my name on the list of supporters along with two 
other "stateside" groups.  But the majority of these groups are Haitian born 
and bred, practitioners of non-violence, living and/or working in Cité Soleil 
and from Grand Ravin/Martissant as well.  You'll be most welcome!

    Thank you.

--
Tom Luce, President
Hurah, Inc. - Human Rights Accompaniment In Haiti
In Partnership with AUMOHD, a Haitian Human Rights Advocacy Group 900 US 
Advocates
1515 Fairview St. Apt. 3	Berkeley, California 94703-2317
E-mail: hurah_inc@riseup.net
Web: http://www.hurah.revolt.org
Tel: 510-428-1419
Skype Name: tomluce / Skypeln # (510) 342-5696

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