NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #30/NN_1992_30.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/9433

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Subject: HAITI: RESISTANCE AND DEMOCRACY December 7, 1992
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/** reg.carib: 455.0 **/
** Topic: HAITI BULLETIN #167 **
** Written  8:37 pm  Dec 14, 1992 by smalagodi in cdp:reg.carib **
HAITI: RESISTANCE AND DEMOCRACY #167
Bulletin # 167  December 7, 1992

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

Port-au-Prince

Crisis at the State University. Leaders of the National
Federation of Haitian Students (FENEH) and the Faculty of
Agronomy Student Committee stated in a press conference on
December 4th at the Hotel Christopher that students intend to
continue the struggle for autonomy at the University, to block
privatization and, by means of mobilization, to resist the de
facto government's dictatorship over the University.

The student councils of the Faculty of Agronomy and
Veterinary Medicine (FAVH) announced that the latest figures
have risen to 72 wounded and 12 arrested following
intervention of police and civil militiamen at that faculty on
December 1st. The students also denounced the version of
the facts offered by the police and government media, which
they regard as propaganda and a traditionally pre-fabricated
scenario.

The students suggested that the dismissal of the FAVH
governing board by Dean Fritz Michel is a logical consequence
of its refusal to accept giving priority to sponsorship in the last
competition for admission. According to the students at the
press conference, students will not resume their studies
because the presence of the new dean chosen by Minister
Baker. Mr. Robert Joseph, represents a danger for the security
of the students. "The students did not choose to walk in the
blood of their comrades to attend classes" stated a student,
waving garments spotted with blood.

The national leadership of FENEH stigmatized the academic,
administrative and political degradation now prevailing at the
State University. The latest incidents at the Faculty of
Agronomy, the repression in the Faculties and the installation
of administrative councils at the Faculties of Sciences and
Humanities and the Teachers College have the sole aim of
eliminating those students who want to struggle, at any price,
for autonomy of the State University and against corruption,
patronage, incompetence of certain professors and
authoritarianism of certain deans.

The national leadership of FENEH requested that the
Commissions on Education in the two Legislative Chambers,
professors' associations and all concerned parties join efforts
to resolve the crisis at the University, a crisis aggravated by
the recent measures taken by the Ministry of National
Education. Meanwhile, FENEH requests that all students
remain mobilized to say: "No to disguised privatization of the
State University of Haiti, to repression, to dictatorship and to
the coup d'etat of September 30, 1991 and Yes to the
autonomy of the University, Yes to Democracy." (Le
Nouvelliste, December 4, 1992)

The corpse of Mr. Jacques Derenoncourt was recovered
on Thursday, December 3rd in the afternoon at Morne a Cabrit
in the center of the country. A founding member of
KONAKOM, Mr. Jacques Derenoncourt was abducted by a
unit of armed civilians. According to his wife, he was shot in
the back of the neck. After his disappearance, the secretary
general of the party, Mr. Victor Benoit, alerted the public to the
activity of death squads in full daylight in the country. Benoit
added: "These murderers, whom no police seem able to touch,
have chosen democrats, especially those from KONAKOM, a
legally recognized party, as their favorite target." (Metropole,
December 4, 1992)

Assassination at the Hospital. Jean Sony Philogene, Croix-
de-Bouquets native, was killed on December 6, 1992 at the
Canape Vert Hospital in Port-au-Prince (room 3) by an armed
unit of five men in civilian clothing. The victim was one of a
group of seven students who were shot at Titanyen during the
night of December 4, 1992. Not having been mortally
wounded, Jean Sony succeeded in crawling to National
Highway #1, where he was picked up by a driver and taken to
the St. Francois de Salles Hospital. At the hospital he was able
to tell his story and he was transferred to Canape Vert Hospital
for reasons of security. After being operated on by Dr. Adrien,
he was killed in his bed on Saturday December 6 by an armed
commando unit.

Vendors molested by a group of armed civilians. Many
vendors with stands located near St. Jean Bosco in Port-au-
Prince were chased away during the night of December 4 by a
group of armed civilians accompanied by a uniformed
policeman. Some of them were molested. According to
testimony received by the Haitian Press Agency, the armed
civilians reproached them as being supporters of President
Aristide, ready to organize demonstrations for him. (Tropic FM,
December 5, 1992)

Provinces

Cap-Haitian: Arrest of a former high official of the
Aristide government. Antoine Augustin, a teacher in his
thirties, was arrested on December 6 by police in Cap-Haitian
in the Morne du Nord area. He was cabinet chief for the
Ministry of Information in the Aristide government and also a
member of the People's National Assembly (LAPN). LAPN
denounced his arrest and demanded his release.

He was arrested in the company of two other people at about 9
a.m. while leaving Rival, about 50 kilometers for Cap-Haitian.
In hiding since the events of September 30, 1991, Antoine had
not seen his relatives. The two people accompanying him were
released when they arrived at the Arsenal Caserne in Cap-
Haitian. Antoine Augustin was locked up on the pretext that
the police had a record on him and were looking for him for
several months.

Artibonite (Savanne a Roche). In the morning of November
30th, 1992, a land dispute broke out between two peasants in
Savanne a Roche (4th section of Petite Riviere). According to
information received by a local human rights organization, one
of the peasants had paid a large sum of money to some
soldiers at the Savanne outpost to gain his objective. They
sent an attache from the post to arrest the other peasant. After
reaching his destination, the attache began to shoot at
supporters of the peasant. A 28 year-old man named Elifet,
returning from his land, was struck point-blank and died at
once. Elifet's father, who did not hide his bitterness at the
murder, was arrested, savagely beaten and thrown into prison.
At present he is detained at Savanne a Roche in a precarious
state of health.

St. Marc. On November 18, the Fete of Vertieres, soldiers
from the St. Marc barracks, having partied all night, proceeded
to make several arbitrary arrests. At the Hotel Leoma, in
particular, in Portail Guepe, they beat several people and
arrested four young men. One of them was able to escape
while the soldiers were taking them to prison. The other three
were thrashed and thrown into prison. These arrests were
made at about 2 a.m. Two of the victims were released the
next day after paying the soldiers an arbitrary sum. The other
prisoner, Jordanie Jean Charles, wanted to go to court at any
cost; he had no money and refused to pay ransom. The
soldiers then freed him in the afternoon.

Also in St. Marc, on Thursday, November 19, soldiers arrived
in a neighborhood near the hospital at about 7 a.m. They
insulted residents of the neighborhood and called them
Lavalas supporters before leaving. A little later, about 9 a.m.
the same soldiers returned again to that neighborhood and
beat a great many people. A blacksmith called Ti-Gerard was
forced by blows to gather up his tools. Then, without warrant,
the soldiers entered the home of a cabinetmaker named Saint
Louis and sacked his workshop. All the workers there had to
flee. On leaving, the soldiers broke a bicycle belonging to an
apprentice cabinetmaker named Jacques, who also worked in
that shop.

Cathedral of Gonaives. A mass had been held at the
Cathedral of Gonaives on November 27, 1992, to
commemorate the students who had been killed on November
28, 1985 under the government of Jean-Claude Duvalier.
During the mass, heavily armed soldiers surrounded the
Cathedral and prevented late-coming worshipers from entering
the church. Passers-by who were attending to their personal
business were also diverted to another street. Participants at
the mass were under close surveillance by attaches distributed
inside the church. Aside from the pressure exerted on the
faithful, the ceremony followed its course and the faithful were
able to return to their homes after the mass.

POLITICAL SCENE

Persistent rumors about an imminent visit of Colin
Powell. The Joint Chief of Staff of the American army, Colin
Powell, is expected to come to Haiti in the near future.
According to Le Nouvelliste, this information, announced by
the Haitian Press Agency (AHP) and relayed by the media,
originally comes from the Haitian Embassy in Washington.
The American Ambassador in Port-au-Prince has not yet
issued a denial.

OAS mission. The AHP, citing a source close to the
Organization of the American States, reports that the
abduction of KONAKOM militants, the brutality against
students at the Faculty of Agronomy and the general increase
of repression in the country are preoccupying the OAS
observer mission.

According to the same source, a reaction from the OAS office
in Washington is expected following these recent events;
authorities of the mission in Haiti are waiting for authorization
to make a public statement on the situation. Also, the observer
mission will finally have at its disposal the logistical means
which it was lacking. Its system of radio communication is to
be installed in a few days. It was only on Tuesday December 1
that this mission, which has been in Haiti since September
1992, undertook its first travel in the country. Six departments
were visited by the observers on a reconnaissance trip which
took them to Cap-Haitian, Port-de-Paix, Fort-Liberte,
Gonaives, Cayes and Jacmel. They will be in Jeremie and
Hinche next week. (Tropic FM, December 7, 1992)

DE FACTO GOVERNMENT

Press conference of the de facto Minister of Education,
Mr. Max Carre. The crisis at the State University of Haiti,
unleashed by the recent measures of Mr. Max Carre, took on
the aspect of polemic between the students and authorities at
the University and the Ministry of National Education. The
rectors at the University support Minister Carre.

In a press conference on December 4th, Minister Carre,
supported by his party (MDN) explained that his decision was
motivated by "bad management on the part of certain deans."
The latter was characterized as "irresponsible leadership."
"The much desired autonomy is at an impasse" stated Mr.
Carre.

PARLIAMENT

New stage in the formation of the Permanent Electoral
Council (CEP). Names of the three representatives for the
Parliament will be communicated to the de facto government
on December 7. The Bicameral Commission which studied the
case has completed its report. Six of the nine members of the
electoral institution are already known. Parliament has already
twice postponed the session of the National Assembly to
choose representatives to the CEP. After this failure, a
bicameral commission of six deputies and three senators was
formed during a meeting of the Assembly. This commission
carefully studied the choice of representatives of Parliament to
the electoral institution. The choices were: Bernadette
Larosiliere for the Department of the South. Ulrick Desire for
the Artibonite and Joseph Apolon for the Central Plateau.

Parliamentary sources indicate that the choice of these three
names will be communicated on Monday to the government of
Marc Bazin, after having been approved by the office of the
National Assembly. This initiative by the office is strongly
criticized by the parliamentary opposition. (Metropole,
December 7, 1992)

POSITION STATEMENTS

Conference of Popular Organizations. Thirty
representatives of Popular and Peasant Organizations met
with the press on December 4 at the Holiday Inn Hotel. They
declared themselves in favor of the return to power of
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and represented themselves
as "survivors of systematic repression". These young people
also called attention to "illegal arrests, abductions and
nocturnal searches". They criticized the efforts of the
government to form the Permanent Electoral Council. (...)
[They] asked international organizations to revise their strategy
regarding humanitarian aid to Haiti, since, according to them,
the aid doesn't reach those most in need. (Metropole,
December 7, 1992)

Debate on human rights. With the aim of reopening debate
on the question of human rights and participating in efforts to
reopen democratic space in the country, the Haitian Platform
of Human Rights and the Inter-OPD Committee are organizing
a press conference to be held at 9:30 a.m. at the Holiday Inn
Hotel on December 10, International Human Rights Day.
Present at the conference will be some foreign human rights
advocates, diplomatic dignitaries and several representatives
of international organizations. The conference will be preceded
by a two day seminar, attended by members of various sectors
of civil society. (Le Nouvelliste, December 4, 1992)

The Inter-OPD Committee protests the assassination of
the engineer, Jacques Derenoncourt. The Inter-OPD, a
group of Organizations for the Promotion of Development,
expresses its indignation at the assassination of the engineer,
Jacques Derenoncourt, active member of the Agency for
Integrated Economic Development. "The assassination of
engineer Jacques Derenoncourt is an odious and abject crime
which joins thousands of other cases of violation of individual
rights recorded in the past fourteen months," stated Maguy
Mathurin and Bernard Etheart of the Inter-OPD Committee.
"This situation reveals the incapacity of the illegitimate
government to safeguard the lives and property of citizens."
(Tropic FM, December 7, 1992)

REFUGEES

203 Haitian refugees repatriated to Port-au-Prince. Two
hundred-three Haitian refugees, intercepted on the high seas
while attempting to reach the shore of Florida, were repatriated
on December 4 by the U.S. Coast Guard. This new contingent
brings to 5,572 the number of Haitian refugees intercepted at
sea and repatriated following the decision made by George
Bush on May 24, 1992. This week, 966 refugees were
repatriated to Port-au-Prince. This figure indicates a sharp
increase in candidates for departure compared with previous
months. (Metropole, December 4, 1992)

###

Translated by the Haiti Communications Project - Boston

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