Kevin Pina, kidnapped…

Consider writing letters, though it might well be a ‘fool’s call’ as the writer of the alert (Marguerite Laurent I think) says. It’s a ‘fool’s call’ but there’s no alternative. And a lot of attention quickly does help…

———————————

Urgent Action Alert
(Please distribute widely)

Masked Haitian police took Kevin Pina and Jean Ristil away today.

Demand immediate release of Kevin Pina and Jean Ristil

Around 5:15 this afternoon the Haitian Lawyers Leadership received a call from Haiti telling us that Haitian police, from the Delma police station, in a car marked with licensed plate # 0879, had entered Father Jean Juste’s presbytery, and was searching it, “destroying the place and generally creating trauma” to the people who were at the church at the time of the police invasion. Apparently, the men had black masks on and were accompanied by an investigative judge to give the exercise a semblance of legality.

The people from the Church and in the area of the Church, fearing the police would plant some evidence against Father Jean Juste to justify his continued imprisonment, alerted us and as many journalists as they could reach.

A half-hour later, we got a call that Kevin Pina and Haitian journalist Jean Ristil where inside the presbytery, asking questions and recording event as they were unfolding. We listened to a recording made by a journalist inside the presbytery and beamed out for broadcast to Haitian radio in the Diaspora as the search and rampage was taking place and learned, practically as it was happening, that the Haitian police had put Kevin Pina under arrest. There were other journalist there but Kevin Pina was placed under arrest. We don’t know the charges.

Later, we learned that after their rampage through the church, both Kevin Pina and Haitian journalist Jean Ristil were put in the police car, both under arrest, taken away by the Haitian police.

Please sound the alarm. We all know that UN soldiers arrested Father Jean Juste. We know that the Haitian police are under the supervision of the UN soldiers in Haiti. More importantly, we know that the grassroots in Haiti, with their leadership dead, in prison or in exile, have declared the people of Haiti, of Site Soley, Bel Air, Cap Haitien, St. Marc, and throughout Haiti, will only go to these sham elections if the killings and arbitrary arrests stop, the political prisoners released, Latortue government resigns and the people in exile return. Obviously, the Coup D’etat contingent can’t allow Father Jean
Juste out of prison, and certainly the UN have shown how cheap Black Haitian life is.

Frankly, it’s a fool’s call to go to the UN for help to release Kevin Pina and Jean Ristil or any of the political prisoners being held by the government the UN helped to bring to power, supports and helps to carry out its repressions, killings and arbitrary arrests. There’s enough evidence and U.N. history in Haiti, since the Coup D’etat, that underlines the U.N. are indeed complicit in the arrests and mayhem in Haiti. (See, the Harvard Report, Small Arms report, Miami Law Center Report, Amnesty International Reports) however, what’s the choice? UN talking heads, like Juan Valdes and Kofi-(n) Annan, say publicly they are in Haiti to bring peace and security. Let them know we know that they know the only way to bring more peace and security to Haiti is to stop the killings, to stop all arbitrary arrests including the current arrests of white American journalist, Kevin Pina and Haitian journalist Jean Ristil, to release the political prisoners including Father Gerard Jean Juste, to facilitate the departure of the Latortue government and the return of the Haitians in exile – those would be concrete and positive UN actions in accordance with international laws of justice, the UN charter, OAS Charter, the Haitian Constitution and the Geneva Convention, all of which acknowledges a nations right to sovereignty, self-reliance, dignity and self-determination.

Call, fax and write MINUSTHA in Haiti and the UN headquarters in NY and
in Geneva. Remind them of their legal duties as a world body for peace,
justice and human rights. Remind them of the people of Haiti’s 5-points: the only real foundation for the restoration of peace and security to Haiti.
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/law/5_pointsgrassroots.html

Sound the alarm to stop the arrest, torture or even murder of
journalists Kevin Pina and Jean Ristil by this UN/US death regime
brought to Haiti.

Contact information is below and on our website at
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/contactinformation/un-intl-contacts.html

Marguerite Laurent, Esq.
Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
September 9, 2005

Dear U.N. officials and Amnesty International

To: pereira17@un.org, kongo-doudou@un.org, beer@un.org,
cisse-gouro@un.org, fagart@un.org, inquiries@un.org, BanksD@state.gov,
presidentga58@un.org, president@whitehouse.gov, ngochr@ohchr.org

CC: louborda@delbrasonu.org, argentina@un.int, chile@un.int,
chinamission_un@fmprc.gov.cn, france@un.int, canada@un.int,
prnce@international.gc.ca, puechguirbal@un.org,
KonareAO@africa-union.org, embassy@haiti.org, kerryp@state.gov

Subject: Urgent: Release journalist Kevin Pina and Jean Ristil

(Fax and telephone numbers of UN representative in Haiti are on our
website at: )

*

For CANADA: Contact information for UN Officials and Canadian Members
of Parliament

Urgent: Help Prevent Further Massacres in Haiti! – Letter to UN
officials

Dear U.N. officials and Canadian Members of Parliament

To: valdesj@un.org, suzukia@un.org, inquiries@un.org,
urgent-action@ohchr.org, pereira17@un.org, Martin.P@parl.gc.ca,
mcdonough.a@parl.gc.ca, Pettigrew.P@parl.gc.ca, laytoj@parl.gc.ca,
Duceppe.G@parl.gc.ca

CC: medili@un.org, christian.do.rosario@undp.org,
amadou.kamara@fao.org, agonzalezregueral@unicef.org,
bonnevaubea@hai.ops-oms.org, Mamadou.mbaye@wfp.org,
kizito.bishikwabo.nsarhaza@undp.org, clavijo@unfpa.org,
marched@imf.org, roelandk@unopsmail.org, allenc@un.org, andy@acn2.net,
szejnera@un.org, banciu@un.org, bmalebranche@unicef.org,
buescher@un.org, bonnevauxbea@hai.ops-oms.org, cecchinir@un.org,
duvalrobert2003@yahoo.fr, elise.benoit@wfp.org, emilioc@iadb.org,
fanfanmel@yahoo.fr, fondpaixdev@hotmail.com, girardengo@un.org,
glherisson@yahoo.fr, goodsamtan@hotmail.com, ji.espinal@unesco.org,
joclau61@hotmail.com, machieng@iom.int, marcher@usaid.gov,
mouillefarine@un.org, msff-port-aux-princes@paris.msf.org,
myrlandeplb@yahoo.fr, paulgmagloire@aol.com, pccraig2004@yahoo.com,
rune.skinnebach@cec.eu.int

Subject: Urgent: Release journalist Kevin Pina and Jean Ristil

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Call and write the United Nations: 212-963-4879, presidentga58@un.org
*

UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)
PHONE: 011.509.244.9650.9660
FAX: 011.509.244.9366/67
Or, Fax, Office of General Secretary (New York) – 212.963.4879

Hon. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General
United Nations
United Nations Headquarters
First Avenue at 46th Street
New York, NY 10017
inquiries@un.org; press office: (509) 510-2563 ext. : 6343

Ambassador Anne Patterson
Acting Permanent U.S. representative to the United Nations:
212-415-4050 or Peggy Kerry: kerryp@state.gov

Bacre Waly Ndiaye
Director-New York Office of the UN Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights
ph: 212-963-1583 or 212-963-5930
fax: 212-963-3463

Louise Arbour
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
ph: 41-22-917-9000
fax: 41-22-917-9011
email: ngochr@ohchr.org

Philip Alston
Special Rapporteur
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Fax: 41 22 917 9006
email: urgent-action@ohchr.org
*

Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General
Juan Gabriel Valdés
United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)
385, Ave. John Brown, Bourdon, B.P. 557,
Port-au-Prince, Haiti (W.I.)
Fax: +509 244 3512

Special Representative Valdés
Head of Human Rights Division

Thierry Fagart
Human Rights Division, MINUSTAH

385, Ave. John Brown, Bourdon, B.P. 557
Port-au-Prince, Haiti (W.I.)
Fax: +509 244 9366
+509 244 9367

*

Fax No. (212) 963-4879
Hon. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General
United Nations
United Nations Headquarters
First Avenue at 46th Street
New York, NY 10017
*************************************
Additional contact information:

Ambassador
Embassy of the Republic of Haiti
2311 Massachusetts Ave.NW.
Washington DC 20008
Fax: 1 202 745 7215
Email: embassy@haiti.org

U.S. Charge D’affairs, Timothy Carney
United States Embassy
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Telephones: 011-509-223-4711, or 222-0200 or 0354
Fax: 011-509-223-1641 or 9038

Email to Dana Banks, Human Rights Officer:
BanksD@state.gov
___________
Canadian Ambassador to Haiti, Claude Boucher
Embassy of Canada
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Telephone: 011-509- 249-9000
Fax: 011-509-249-9920
Email: prnce@international.gc.ca
________________________________________________

Ambassador of France in Haiti, M. Yves GAUDEUL
Embassy of France
51 place des Héros de l’Indépendance – BP 312
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Telephone: 011-509-222-0952
Fax : 011-509-223 5675

cc: Fax or send copies to:

Fax. No. 011-509-245-0474
Me. Henri Dorlèans
Ministre de la Justice et de la Sècuritè Publique
Ministère de la Justice
19 Avenue Charles Sumner
Port-au-Prince, Haiti

*

General Director of the Haiti National Police
Mario Andresol
Directeur Général de la Police Nationale d’Haïti
Grand Quartier Générale la Police
12 rue Oscar Pacot, Port-au-Prince, Haiti (W.I.)
Fax: 011-509 245 7374

*

Prime Minister
Gérard Latortue
Ministère de l’Intérieure, Villa d’Accueil, Delmas 60
Musseau, Port-au-Prince, HAITI (W.I.)
Fax: +509 298 3901
Salutation: Monsieur le Premier Ministre/Dear Prime Minister
Minister of Justice and Public Security

Yvon Neptune and Faking Genocide

A very important, very substantial two part research article by Kevin Skerrett on Haiti and the case of Yvon Neptune, the former Prime Minister of Haiti who was ousted in the Feb 29 2004 coup and who has been languishing in prison for about a year, having been charged after 11 months of languishing, with a set of total sham charges. Neptune is wasting away on hunger strike and is very likely going to die of starvation, one of the thousands of casualties of the coup. Skerrett reviews the evidence and examines the role of the Haitian ‘human rights’ group NCHR, including looking at where the money comes from… Canada… of course.

Read.

This weekend’s massacre in Haiti

There were several armed attacks in Haiti over the weekend in which people were massacred. Preliminary reports from the National Coalition for Haitian Rights, broadcast on Haitian Metropole radio on Feb 25: “Village de Dieu district, which caused the deaths of at least eight people by bullets, seven injuries and the destruction of three houses by fire….The NCHR notes that this massacre took place less than eight days after armed bandits, in complicity with the prison guards, facilitated an invasion and allowed 481 prisoners to escape (from the National Pentientiary on 19 February), most of whom are dangerous criminals who killed people and set fire to people’s homes.” I believe that the NCHR is a partisan and pro-coup group – funded by the Canadian International Development Agency, among others. But I don’t doubt that these people were killed, I just think they were probably Lavalas people and that the ‘armed bandits’ are the coup forces… this is a gambit used in murderous propaganda the world over, and was used for example in Venezuela in 2002 during the coup against Chavez: Bolivarians were killed and then ‘claimed’ by the opposition as victims of Chavez, when in fact they were victims of the opposition itself.

The jailbreak last week, which the NCHR mentions, was very strange. At first I thought it was the beginning of an armed struggle against the dictatorship, but I had good reason from the beginning to know I had thought wrong. Pro-Lavalas politicians were taken out of the prison – later it was discovered they were taken out at gunpoint. Yvon Neptune, the former Prime Minister, has been on hunger strike for several days now, demanding to at least have a trial. [As an aside: how can he have a fair or legitimate trial, since the government that jailed him and would be trying him is illegitimate?]

Following the massacre on Feb 25 was another massacre on the 26, reported by Radio Vision 2000 Port-au-Prince in Creole:


“The police carried out an operation today 25 February in Cameroun Base Bel Air , a stronghold of armed Lavalas pro-Aristide gangs. Some reports say that six bandits have allegedly lost their lives and also two Intervention and Maintenance of Order Company CIMO members, allegedly during exchanges of gunfire.

We must say that the Brazilian commander of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti Minustah has confirmed that an operation was carried out but he did not wish to give details on the number of victims. Minustah went to the scene after everything was over, according to Heleno Ribero. He says that members of the population were demonstrating against this intervention by the Haitian National Police PNH . Ribero answered the questions of Marie-Lucie Bonhomme.

Ribero – recording, in French The operation was not a joint operation. We were called after the police – pauses They called us because they were in difficulty. When we arrived there, the police were already in the process of leaving. The operation was already over. So, we did not participate jointly with the police.

So the death toll is around 20 for Thursday and Friday, some by ‘bandits’, others by the police (backed up by the United Nations with its Brazilian commander, thanks again for that to all those progressive Latin American governments), some identified as ‘innocent civilians’, others as ‘bandits’ themselves, depending on who killed them.

As I said, I don’t doubt that people were killed. But I do have doubts about whether the ‘bandits’ that were killed were really ‘bandits’. Heleno’s story sounds very convenient, as well. What a lucky thing for the UN to have been there to ‘back up’ the police, but not have been there when the actual killing happened.

Once upon a time there was an island called Haiti

On that island they had some elections. They chose someone to be their President. Then some people from some other countries decided to get rid of that President and pick a new one. Some of the people from the island disagreed – so they were killed.

Continue reading “Once upon a time there was an island called Haiti”

Canada & the UN do right by the children of Haiti

Lyn Duff, writing for the Pacific News Service, wrote a kind of personal essay. She helped establish a children’s radio station in Haiti in 1995. Aristide, you see, hamstrung as he was by debt and subversion, had managed to create some protections for Haiti’s hundreds of thousands of street children. Even without money, he helped change social attitudes towards them.

Continue reading “Canada & the UN do right by the children of Haiti”

Things to look forward to in the New Year in Haiti

A report of an incursion on January 4 from the Agence Haitiene de Presse (I don’t know anything about this group): “Two people were killed and several others arrested this Tuesday at the Cité de l’Eternel located along Bicentenaire Street. The killings were carried out by police officers dressed in black and camouflage. According to area residents, the dead are Jean Ferres Nazaire, age 28, and Angela, a girl of 13. The residents of Cité l’Eternel are accusing the police of displaying a revolting lack of professionalism. “When the police storm into a neighborhood they have a tendency to shoot everything that moves and that’s what is behind the tragedy of January 4″, they protested, affirming that the two people who were shot dead had nothing to do with the violence prevailing in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area.”

A report of an incursion on January 5 from the Haiti Information Project: “Hundreds of Brazilian soldiers and special units of the Haitian National Police stormed the pro-Aristide neighborhood of Bel Air in the early morning hours of January 5. Residents were surprised and frightened by the armed incursion as gunfire broke out. Witnesses reported that five persons were killed as the operation unfolded… Following the military operation, UN peacekeepers were seen providing photo opportunities to the press as they fixed a few water pipes and cleared the carcasses of burned out vehicles blocking the road. ” The AHP said that the UN troops arrested 9 men in the neighbourhood.

A report from AHP on promised demonstration elections this year: “Interim Prime Minister Gérard Latortue declared Sunday that the elections will indeed go forward this year, despite, he said, the insecurity prevailing in Haiti. The next elections will be free, honest and democratic, he said. Gérard Latortue reaffirmed that February 7, 2006, will be his last day as Prime Minister. “It is out of the question for me to remain even one hour longer”, he promised. Mr. Latortue spoke against the proliferation of political parties in the country because, he said, that constitutes a threat to the success of the elections… Gérard Latortue said he hopes that no more than eight political parties will take part in the next elections scheduled for this year.”

A last crucial note courtesy of the World Bank, from January 6. The international community playing its time-honoured role: “On January 4, 2005, Haiti settled $52.6 million in overdue service payments to the Bank using its own reserves and a US$12.7 million grant contribution from Canada. This paved the way for the Bank to reinstate the country’s rights to make withdrawals under credit and grant agreements. With the exception of special grant programs, disbursements had been suspended since January 30, 2001, due to the accumulation of overdue payments to the Bank.”

So, the very first thing the World Bank has done for Haitians in the new year, after their government was ousted, after paramilitaries took over the country by massacring thousands, after the place was further devastated by hurricanes, was raid the Haitian treasury to the tune of $40 million. Canada went ahead and gave the World Bank another $12 million (Thanks, Canada).

Between the United Nations and the World Bank, Haitians are being helped from misery to even more grinding misery and from fear into massacre.

Protectorate Haiti, Part II

This comes via Marguerite Laurent of the Haitian Lawyer’s Network. I include her introductory note and the document she send around. It speaks for itself, but stay tuned for more analysis in the coming days.

The International Community’s intentions for Haiti are revealed.

The Canadian plan for Haiti to be occupied by the international community in the way that James Foley helped fixed in Kosovo as predicted and specified by Michel Chossudovsky an article entitled “The destabilization of Haiti at http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO402D.html ) has now been crystallized in the Canadian document enclosed. Below is the international community’s UN Mandate Structure for Haiti. The point of the Coup d’etat was to reach this idea of a “protectorate.” For, it is clear if free and fair elections were help in Haiti today, Lavalas, the party that these warmongers unseated would again win. Thus, free and fair elections, or democracy in Haiti must be avoided at all cost. With the help of the Chalabis of Haiti, the tiny morally repugnant Haitian elites, Canada, who has been outsourced the U.S.’s traditional role in the Western Hemisphere with regard to Haiti due to Mr. Bush’s overextension in Iraq, proposes to hold a conference, where the resolutions for this “protectorate” among other pronouncement in contravention of Haiti’s sovereignty, shall be rubber stamped by its Haitian proxies.

Again Haitians of the Diaspora state categorically that neither Canada, France, the UN nor the United States have the legal right, moral or any competence whatsoever to substitute an elected government in Haiti with dictatorship or colonial rule. Only free and fair elections in Haiti shall lead to good governance, stability and security in Haiti.

While all these Internationals are supposedly in Iraq replacing dictatorship with democracy, the document below from Canada formally notes how the U.S./France and Canada along with their selected Haitian stooges are attempting to permanently replace Haiti’s democracy with dictatorship.

The integrity and sovereign right of the Haitian people for self-rule shall not be sold. The only solutions to the overthrow of Haiti’s elected government is 1) its return and for free and fair elections to be held, 2) for the international community to stop turning a blind eye, or worst participating in the targeted political assassinations of Lavalas supporters and for there to be a plan for the disarming of the ex-Haitian military and FRAPH paramilitary. Those are the demands of the Haitian people. A UN protectorate run by UN officials such as Gerald Latortue is as unthinkable to Haitians as the Coup d’etat that first brought the UN occupying troops and its “interim government” to Haiti.

The destabilization campaign which led to this juncture shall not find ultimate success in the complete occupation of Haiti. for ten, twenty or thirty years ( See below and in the context of Schossudovsky’s article at http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO402D.html )

Marguerite Laurent, Esq. Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network December 7, 2004

* www.focal.ca

The Role for Canada in Post-Aristide Haiti: Structures, Options and Leadership

This paper has been prepared for the House of Commons Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade in response to the Committee’s request by Carlo Dade, Senior Advisor with FOCAL (Canadian Foundation for the Americas) and John W. Graham, Chair of FOCAL.

1. Summary

For the third time in 20 years the government in Haiti has collapsed once again leaving the poorest country in the hemisphere as a destabilizing influence on its neighbours, a growing narcotics and transnational crime base and a major source of apprehension to Haitian and Caribbean descendant populations in Canada. These are sources of concern for Canada both domestically and regionally.

Past attempts to improve governance and quality of life have largely failed through a combination of Haitian truculence, corruption, donor fatigue and impatience. Continued failure will make reform more difficult as the repercussions from lawlessness and poverty increasingly impact the region.

The situation in Haiti is dire but not yet at the level of concern as in Afghanistan, Iraq or Somalia, though Haiti clearly is heading in that direction. The challenge is to learn from past mistakes at State building in Haiti and elsewhere to find a development model that will work. Without a forceful and committed advocate from the developed world, discussions at the UN, the OAS, and CARICOM will continue to lack urgency and focus and Haiti will again slip from the forefront of international conscience. Canada has a unique combination of national interest and comparative advantage to work in Haiti. Given its commitments elsewhere, the United States appears reluctant take on long-term leadership. Canada remains the only country in the hemisphere with the appropriate experience and qualifications. This is an opportunity for Canada to assert the leadership, which the Prime Minister is seeking, complement multilateral measures that Canada already has supported and raise Canada’s hemispheric profile. This paper offers a brief analysis, outlines a plan of action and concludes with discussion of the exit strategy.

2. Background and Legal Authority

In Haiti, institutions that support law and order and exercise the functions of government have broken down under internal violence and economic collapse. The remnants of a 2/6 Haitian State persist as a shadow presence; it retains a flimsy legal standing but, for all practical purposes, has lost the ability to exercise authority in its own territory. Haiti has become a ‘failed state’.

States which lack control over their territory and which cannot guarantee law and order threaten international peace by serving as a base for crime, public health threats, refugee crisis and regional unrest. Such States also harm the basic human rights of their own citizens. Failed States have thus become subject to intervention by the international community through actions most often initiated and carried out by the U.N. Security Council under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter.

Haiti clearly meets the definition of a failed State and U.N. Security Council Resolution 1529 of February 2004 on Haiti grants authority both for a peacekeeping intervention (Section 2: “Authorizes the immediate deployment of a Multinational Interim Force…” and Section 3: “Declares its readiness to establish a follow-on U.N. stabilization force…”) as well as a longer-term intervention (Section 10. “Calls upon the international community, in particular the U.N., the OAS and CARICOM to work with the people of Haiti in a long-term effort to promote the rebuilding of democratic institutions and to assist in the development of a strategy to promote social and economic development and to combat poverty.”)

3. Situation in Haiti

While conditions in Haiti are neither as dire nor dangerous as in Afghanistan or Iraq, the vacuum of governance and the scale of appalling human misery is a reproach to the hemisphere and to the principal donor nations. Haiti is in the bottom tier of the UN Human Development Index. Ranked 150 out of 175 countries surveyed it sits below countries such as Sudan and Bangladesh. The next closest country in the Americas is Nicaragua, which is ranked at 121. It is estimated that one of every twelve Haitians has contracted HIV/AIDS and a ten year forecast sets the number of orphaned children at approximately 350,000. Transnational crime is a grave issues. Haiti is a major drug transhipment point. A U.S. DEA spokesman estimates that close to 21 per cent of cocaine leaving Colombia for the US and Canada passes through Haiti. Guy Phillipe, one of the leaders of the insurgency, has been under investigation by US Drug Enforcement Agencies. Money from the drug trade fuels lawlessness, weakens governance and increases instability. Without a competent functioning government in Haiti these problems, and their impacts on Canada and the region, will become more severe.

Given the chaos of the last several months all of these statistics are worsening. Haiti has not been neglected by donor agencies, humanitarian assistance has continued to flow, but the country is a notorious sinkhole for foreign aid. A recent World Bank study indicated that 15 years of development assistance have produced “no noticeable effect”.

It is not the purpose of this paper to determine to what extent this situation is selfinflicted. Without question, governance has been incompetent, corrupt and frequently brutal over the 200 years of independence and these adjectives can all be applied to the government of Jean Bertrand Aristide.

In fairness it should be recalled the birth of a black republic was not welcomed by the international community of the time. Soon after independence in 1804, Haitians were compelled to pay crippling ‘reparations’ to France. A slave owning United States imposed a trade embargo that remained in some form for almost a hundred years. Frustration with Haitian performance, followed by international censure and punishment, was the pattern for the next hundred years. Withholding aid to leverage reform has failed – invariably reversing the little progress achieved during periods of international support.

4. Rebuilding Haiti

The old models for the rehabilitation of Haiti have failed. This paper recommends that a new model should be examined. In our view its major components should be:

Long-term commitment. The UN Secretary General has called for a commitment of ten years. This is emerging as the minimum commitment subscribed to by principal international and bilateral donors based on examination of the most recent State building exercise in Haiti and lessons learned from Kosovo and East Timor. Canada should support this consensus.

Support not control. Most State building as well as traditional development programmes now stress the importance of local ‘ownership’. For example, ‘Afghan solutions for Afghan problems’ was a mantra of the preparations for Afghanistan’s reconstruction. But, Development is notoriously supply- rather than demand-driven process as some donors seek to advance national interest, including pushing pet causes carried out by favoured NGOs. Canada is in a strong position to advocate a more rational developmental approach and stress the prioritization of the development of Haitian institutional capacity.

Trust fund and donor support. Donors should be encouraged to pool funds needed to support an interim Haitian government into a trust fund managed either by an international organization or a private firm. A board including Haitian, UN and major donor members would oversee the fund and sign off on disbursements. Such a fund would encourage fiscal responsibility on the part of the new regime and offer incentive for the more rapid development of institutional capacity in government ministries. Also, evidence from Afghanistan and elsewhere shows that donors actually disburse only about 60 per cent of promised aid. A trust fund would help with planning in Haiti.

Sustained commitment and leadership. It is well known from experience with Haiti and elsewhere that commitment erodes and funding declines as the crisis that first precipitated international engagement fades from media attention. This situation has been avoided only when a major donor nation has taken on the responsibility to lead and sustain the initiative, as did Australia in East Timor and Norway in Sri Lanka. This is not something that the United Nations has proven able to do by itself. The US will be the main donor, but with other more pressing responsibilities and a troubled history in Haiti, it appears to be actively seeking another nation to assume leadership on Haiti. Canada is a natural candidate. Brazil already has committed troops to the planned long-term UN peacekeeping force. But , it is unlikely that Brazil would be able to offer the political leadership to guide UN intervention. Again, Canada has the credentials.

Security. No progress on any front is possible without the restoration and maintenance of security and the rule of law. The first step to restoring order and the rule of law is to move to arrest the leaders of the armed insurgency, for whom criminal charges are already outstanding. Foreign military and police units should remain until they can be gradually replaced by adequately trained local constabulary. Recalling frustrated Canadian experience in the nineties, equal attention must be given to the parallel establishment of a reasonably reliable judicial and penal system. While Brazil will assume primary peacekeeping duties, Canada could take the lead in providing long-term support to the rebuilding of the police and justice system.

International and Multilateral Support. Discussions in Washington indicate plans for a tripartite UN/OAS/CARICOM international framework. The World Bank, the Inter- American Development Bank, the US, Canada, France and the EU should be invited to subscribe to sustained funding over a ten-year period. Canada should continue to take the lead at the UN and other international bodies in promoting wider support for the effort in Haiti. CIDA is already addressing the issue of Hispaniola wide (including the Dominican Republic) planning on environmental and cross border issues.

Bosnia/Dayton, E Timor, Cambodian political models. The present interim government in Haiti is non-elected, exercises almost no control over the territory, lacks popular support and its legitimacy is questioned in Haiti and the region. Discussions on re-establishing the State in Haiti should reflect a new model including agreement between the international community (OAS/UN/CARICOM) and the interim government to delegate authority for a limited period for limited purposes to develop security and the judiciary, to supervise the distribution of aid, to support municipal governance and, rehabilitate essential services including health. The agreement should include a timetable for the devolution of authority and control to Haitians and supervising bodies should increasingly include Haitian participation. The agreement should flow from UN Security Council Resolution 1529.

Elections. The ‘model’ should include approximate parameters for an electoral calendar. Given the chaotic political landscape, the error of a rush to elections in Bosnia must be avoided. First elections should be at the municipal level.

The Haitian Diaspora. Due to out-migration and flight, there is an acute shortage of competent professionals in every vital category throughout government ministries and civil society organizations. Joint and independent CIDA and USAID efforts are underway to incorporate the Haitian Diaspora in the rebuilding process. Canada has long-standing experience in this area and should continue to promote efforts to recruit qualified members of the Haitian diaspora.

Urgency. With the crisis beginning to lose attention in Canada and elsewhere, it is essential to move rapidly to obtain a commitment to a new model and long-term support.

For example, CIDA and the Provincial Ministry of Education in Quebec could agree on a plan for working with the Ministry of Education in Haiti and would draft a budget and assign a project leader, ideally a Haitian-Canadian who would be seconded from the Ministry in Quebec. This person could serve as deputy minister but would report to the UN Special Representative. In reviewing the needs of the Education sector in Haiti CIDA could decide that an intensive intervention would be needed for five years to bring the Ministry of Education to a point where it could work directly with international donors and manage the ministry. The relationship with the Ministry of Education of Quebec ideally would continue either formally or informally past this five-year period. International experience has demonstrated that the concept of the ‘ripeness’ of circumstances is crucial to achieving agreements that are tough enough to be viable. International players have a short attention span.

5. Structure for Rebuilding.

In recent State building interventions, authority has typically flowed from the Security Council to the Secretary General, who appoints a Special Representative and a force commander. The Special Representative is responsible to the Secretary General for all aspects of the intervention as defined in the Security Council resolution. The force commander is responsible for the military effort and may also have “command and control” of the national military contingents deployed to support the mandate. In some cases command and responsibility for executing the mission can flow from the Security Council to a U.N. member state or other organization, such as NATO.

This model should continue in Haiti where, the U.N. already has assigned both a Special Advisor for Haiti and a force commander for a three-month period with stipulations that longer-term arrangements be negotiated at the end of this time. The U.N. resolution also calls for the participation of the OAS and CARICOM.

6. Exit Strategy

A key factor in designing the structure and mechanisms is to plan for the graduation of the Haitian State to independence and a return to the international community. This should be sequenced on a ministry-by-ministry basis – in other words return to full Haitian authority would depend not on a fixed date for all ministries, but on case-by-case basis of the institutional maturity of each ministry. The end of the UN Special Representative’s tenure would signal the formal end of the State building process. Engagements with the line ministries could end earlier or later. In essence, the Donor’s Group would divide/assign responsibility and funding for each ministry. The oversight and coordination for this work would be done by the UN Special Representative The primary goal would be to identify agencies in donor countries that have significant resources, and especially those involving the Haitian Diaspora, that could be seconded to work in Haiti to jump-start the rebuilding process. The secondary goal in doing this is to build donor confidence and attract the resources needed for reconstruction. The third goal is to establish long-term relationships that could allow for continued, sometimes informal, transfers of knowledge and skills. Under the UN programme, peacekeepers should remain for one to three years while police would remain for up to 10 years. An initial force of two to three thousand peacekeepers would be needed to provide overwhelming force to disarm gangs and restore the rule of law. Once this is accomplished the force could be reduced to 500 police advisors and trainers who would support the Haitian police.

Peacekeeping requirements will be lighter in Haiti than in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Iraq because the country lacks cadres of seasoned, trained, well-armed fighters. Given time and improved narco-connections, armed gangs in Haiti could develop into formidable gang bosses or warlords along the Jamaican and Somali models. But organized Haitian gangs have not yet reached this stage and one goal of this intervention is to prevent that scenario from emerging. For peacekeeping to be effective the international community must move decisively now to disarm the population and then re-establish the police and judiciary.

The key to successful disarmament is tying it to reconstruction in the popular view. Those who hold weapons must be portrayed by the international community, and must be understood by Haitians, to be impediments to the resumption of aid, rebuilding of the country and the creation of jobs.

******* Forwarded by the Haitian Lawyers Leadership ******

“Men anpil chay pa lou” Â is Kreyol for – “Many hands make light a heavy load.”

See, The Haitian Leadership Networks’ Â 7 “Men Anpil Chay Pa Lou” campaigns to help restore Haiti’s independence, the will of the mass electorate and the rule of law. See, http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaigns.html and http://www.margueritelaurent.com/law/lawpress.html .

******** To subscribe or unsubscribe, contact Erzilidanto@aol.com

yes, we should talk about orchard, etc. Please circulate this. We’ll need some folks to support Vwa Zanset who will be out in numbers for sure…I’ll call you tomorrow, time?

Montreal Conference with the Chalabis of Haiti

Below is an announcement of a Conference to be held by the Chalabis of Haiti and their International sponsors in Canada on December 11 and 12, 2004.

The same Canadian officials, who conspired to destroy Haiti’s democracy with the forceful removal of Haiti’s elected government, are currently in the process of following through with the international communities’ ultimate plans to place Haiti under direct occupation with the pretext of an “international protectorate.” To that end, Canadian foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew iis holding a meeting with the Chalabis of Haiti on December 10, 11, 2004. The Government of Canada is proceeding with its war on the Haitian people in the form of this new conference ostensibly to be attended by the “leaders in the Haitian community abroad.” However, the leaders in the Haitian community who have credibility with the grassroots movements for democracy in Haiti are not invited or welcomed to attend this meeting. Yes! Authorized Lavalas officials and grassroots leaders from Haiti and abroad are not invited. Thus, this is simply another Canadian attempt, like to Ottawa Initiative, to further humiliate the people of Haiti.

We at the Haitian Lawyers Leadership take this opportunity to state that the Chalabis of Canada, like Gerald Latortue and his “interim government,” have absolutely no popular base in Haiti or abroad. Nothing shall endow the Chalabis of Haiti with credibility they do not own. We again denounce, in the strongest of terms, all efforts whatsoever, by these un-electable warmongers to take completely from the Haitian people, their right to self-rule, their independence and dignity.

Moreover, the Canadian officials calling for this conference have no credibility with protecting the rule of law in Haiti. (http://www.haiti-progres.com/2003/sm030305/eng03-05.html ) They are not unbiased. This new “Ottawa Initiative” conference to be held in Canada next week is just as reprehensible as the first one in 2002.

No resolution to come out of this new “Ottawa Initiative”, this time with the Chalabis of Haiti, actually in the room in attendance with the foreign interventionist, shall have any validity or be relevant whatsoever to the pro-democracy movement and resistance agaisnt such organized tyranny in Haiti or aborad.

“We are under extreme pressure from the international community to use violence,” General Augusto Heleno Ribeiro told a congressional commission in Brazil. “I command a peacekeeping force, not an occupation force … we are not there to carry out violence, this will not happen for as long as I’m in charge of the force.”

He cited the United States, France and Canada among countries pressing for the use of force against armed groups.” ( http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6983380&src=rss/worldNews )

For two hundred years, Haiti’s greatest problem has been foreign domination, debt and dependency. No receivership by the U.N. nor by any U.N official, whether his name is Gerald Latortue or Kofi Annan, is an acceptable solution to the problem forced-on the Haitian people when Canada, France and the U.S. conspired to overthrow the democratically elected government of Haiti.

By any means necessary, we commit, that, in this year marking Haiti’s 200 anniversary of independence, no occupation shall be legitimized. This new attempt by Canada, to choose Haitians with absolutely no democratic constituency, both abroad and in Haiti, to better exploit what is left of the Haitian people’s dignity and revolutionary legacy is evil and reprehensible.

Colonialism is an act of war. Haitians worldwide intend to come together to denounce, in one voice, all efforts by the morally repugnant elite of Haiti to legitimaze their rule by gun. Only free and fair elections in Haiti is acceptable to good-willed Haitians authentically concerned with peace and security for the currently disenfranchised Haitian nation. No Bosnia or African-continent-type receivership by the Western powers shall be deemed a “helpful alternative” to the current chaos and destruction forced upon the Haitian people by the international community led by the United States, Canada and France and the Chalabis of Haiti.

We demand the immediate return of the rule of law to Haiti and respect for the ballot box.

Paul Martin and Pierre Pettigrew’s efforts to cement the Feb. 29, 2004 victory over the ballot by putting a “Haitian face” to the Canadian/France/US-led effort to re-colonize the people of Haiti are transparent and repulsive to the extreme, not to mention another callous example of their bottomless racism.

No Haitian worthy of the gift of liberty fought and bled for by our African ancestors shall stand silent as this final humiliation is being metered upon all of us by Paul Martin, Pierre Petttigrew, Jack Chirac or George W. Bush and the Chalabis of Haiti. We shall agitate, agitate, agitate until Haiti is free, all political prisoner liberated and the Chalabis of Haiti and their death squad mercenaries are brought to justice.

Marguerite Laurent, Esq. Chair, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network December 7, 2004

***** GOUVERNEMENT DU CANADA

Invitation

Conférence de Montréal avec la Diaspora Haïtienne 10-11 Décembre 2004 Centre Mont-Royal, 2222 rue Mansfield Montréal, Québec, Canada

Le Ministre des Affaires étrangères du Canada,l’honorable Pierre Petttigrew,et la Ministre de la coopération internationale du Canada,l’honorable Alleen Caroll,sont heureux de vous inviter à la conférence de Montréal avec la Diaspora haïtienne ,les 10-11 décembre 2004.A cette occasion,le Premier Ministre du Canada,le très honorable Paul Martin s’adressa à l’assistance samedi en matinée. Nous espérons pouvoir vous compter parmi nous pour cet événement important.Veuillez noter que l’accés à cette conférence se fait sur invitation seulement.Nous vous prions donc de confirmer par courriel: focal@focal.ca ou par téléphone au 613562-0005 poste 227,avant mardi le 7décembre.

Merci aux organisations de limiter leur participation à deux représentants.

Programme

Vendredi 10 décembre

17:00-19:00 Inscription des participants

19:00-21:00 Ouverture de la Conférence-Allocutions

1 Ministre des affaires du canada,co-président de la conférence 2 Ministre de la coopération internationle Alleen Carroll,co-présidente de la conférence 3 Premier Ministre du Québec Jean Charest 4 Maire de Montréal M Gérald Tremblay 5 Présentation du Ministre haïtien des Haïtiens vivant à l’étranger,Le défacto Alix Baptiste.

Réception.

Samedi 11 décembre

9:00-9:15 Iinauguration officielle de la conférence par le Premier Ministre du Canada.. 9:15-9:30 Mots de bienvenue par les Ministres Pierre Pettigrew et Allen Carroll 9:30-10 Le ministre défacto Roland Pierre Planification et de la Coopération Externe. 10:00-10:40 Ambassadeur Juan Gabriel Valdés(MINUSTAH) sur la situation Actuelle en Haïti 10;40-11:25 Panel 1-L’engagement du Canada au CCI 11:25-13:00 Panel 2 Modes D’engagement de la Diaspora Représentant de la Diaspora des Etats-unis et De la France Projet du Premier Congrès Mondial de la Diaspora Haïtienne Suivi de questions NB (à noter qu’il y aura un modérateur et un rapporteur professionel pour chaque Parnel)

13:00-14:30 Déjeuner et intervention du Premier Ministre Défacto Gérard Latortue Le théme de l’intervention portera sur l’apport potentiel additionnel de la diaspora dans le cadre du CCI.

14:30-16:15 Discussions en Groupes de travail Secteurs prioritaires du CCI et la contribution de la diaspora. Gouvernance Politique Dialogue Nationale Gouvernance économique et développement institutionnel Relance économique Accès aux services de base.

16:15-16:30 Pause Santé 16:30-17:30 Résultats des groupes de travail présentés par les rapporteurs en pléniére

17:30_17:45 Conclusion de la Conférence par les Ministres Allen Carroll et Pierre Petttigrew

Conseil d’administration de la Journée

Coordonnateurs: Une équipe sous la Direction de Guillaume B(Babaras Chanteuse), Jonas Pierre-louis,Faroll? Harry Clerveau (syndicaliste ) Romain E(Eugenia) B.Dorvil

Ordre et Discipline : Anne Métellus

Adresse du Spectacle : Centre Mont-Royal. 2220, rue Mansfield, Montréal, Canada (centreville)