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- From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
- Subject: Haiti: Resistance & Democracy #137 August 27, 1992
- Message-ID: <1992Sep4.004603.27357@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
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- Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 00:46:03 GMT
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- /** reg.carib: 300.0 **/
- ** Topic: Haiti Bulletin 138 **
- ** Written 7:03 am Sep 3, 1992 by ewolpert in cdp:reg.carib **
- HAITI COMMUNICATIONS PROJECT
- 11 Inman Street
- Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
- Telephone: 617-868-2900
- Fax: 617-497-4397
-
- Excerpts from Haiti: Resistance & Democracy. Bulletin #137.
- Port-au-Prince, August 27, 1992.
-
- I. POLITICAL SCENE
-
- The OAS Secretary General proposes a meeting between
- representatives of the legitimate and de facto governments. On
- August 27, the Secretary General of the Organization of the American States,
- Jaoa Clemente Baena Soares, proposed that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
- and prime minister Marc Louis Bazin each send a representative to meet in
- Washington Next Tuesday. Mr. Soares proposed that the meeting take place in
- his presence. The Office of the Presidential Commission apponted by President
- Jean-Bertrand Aristide has not yet reacted. Commission members state that, up
- to now, they have only received information through the press. With regard to
- the de facto government, a decision must be made in the council of ministers
- before probable acceptance of this meeeting.
-
- The case of Haiti will again be studies by one of the principle
- bodies of the Organization of American States. Tropic FM announces
- that, according to a source in Washington, on August 28, the Permanent Coucil
- of that organization is to discuss the evolution of the Haitian crisis.
-
- ARMY
-
- Appointment. By decision of the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces,
- Lieutenant Colonel Leopold Clairjeune was named commander of the
- Department of the North-West. In this post he replaces a colonel transferred to
- Port-au-Prince.
-
- PARLIAMENT
-
- Three ministers of the Bazin government summoned to the Senate
- on August 25. The ministers of Education, Interior and Justice of the Bazin
- government were summoned to appear in the Senate at the request of Senator
- Guy Bauduy. In a long intervention at the beginning of the session, the senator
- denounced numerous cases of human rights violations perpetrated in the
- Department of the South-East. He also noted several arbitrary dismissals of
- teachers in Jacmel considered to be suppporters of President Aristide (he
- particularly denounced the case of a female teacher who was whopped by
- soldiers). Some of these [teachers] are in hiding, he noted. He proposed
- creation of an interministerial commission of inquiry.
-
- The Interior Minister, Carl Michel Nicolas stated: " We have a situation in the
- country where passion exceeds reason, but when we are informed by
- parlementarians that there are situations requiring rectification, we intervene."
- He went on to say, "only working together and mutual understanding will permit
- elimination of violence in the country."
-
- He held immigration employees responsible for repeated interference
- experienced at the Mais Gate airport by mayor-elect of Port-au-Prince, Mr.
- Evans Paul. "These are immigration employees at the airport who display an
- excess of zeal. The Interior Minister has no dossier against Evans Paul," stated
- Mr. Nicolas before the Senate.
-
- Senator Wesner Emmanuel demanded suppression of beating by the Army
- across the country. Senator emmanuel termed beating "a humiliating act" for
- the victim and the torturer. According to the senator, at 12 years before the
- bicentennial of our independence, "Are we going to be a museum of
- repression?"
-
- Some other senators also reported many cases of repression in different
- Departments of the country....
-
- POLITICAL PARTIES
-
- KONAKOM and PANPRA IN THE Dominican Republic Delegations
- from these two political parties went to the Dominican Republicto participate in a
- meeting with the Latin American-Caribbean section of the socialist International
- (SICLAC) This meeting began on Tuesday August 25 and ended on
- Wednesday.
-
- Reaction of MDH after the visit of the OAS Secretary General to
- Haiti. Hubert de Ronceray's party notes positive and negative aspects of the
- visit. On the negative side, MDH points out that the mission said nothing about
- "Operation Cesarienne", about murderous attacks against officers, soldiers and
- civilians.
-
- Under the heading of human rights, the Party noted that the OAS mission did
- not mention violations of its own charter, violations of the Haitian Constitution
- and the thousands of deaths caused by the embargo and the situation of 40,000
- boat people.
-
- On the positive side: the MDN emphasized that the Organization of American
- States has ceased being thoughtless and unilateral in its resolutions. It also
- noted that the mission was silent on its new attempt to return Jean-Bertrand
- Aristide to power. The MDH hopes that the "Organization of American States
- will draw lessons from this mission to Haiti, especially relative to leaving
- Haitians to handle their own business."
-
-
- II. HUMAN RIGHTS
-
- PORT-AU-PRINCE
-
- Disapppearance of a young man. On August 27, the media announced
- that a young man named Alix Mondesir had been abducted by two unknown
- armed individuals. According to family members, searches of detention centers
- have been of no avail up to now. Alix Mondesir, who lived in Carrefour, was
- accosted by these two individuals, who threatened him with their weapons
- before leaving with him, according to testimony received by his family.
-
- Radio Metropole on the Repression. This station broadcast a long report
- by Jean Max Blanc (who is also a Voice of America correspondent) on the
- torture undergone by prisoners at the Petionville barracks. Various testimony
- by prisoners was rebroadcast. They affirmed having been subjected to beating
- and all sorts of humiliation, and that there had been adolescents among them.
- They noted the mistreatment to which they were subjected at the time of their
- imprisonment. According to one of them, he lost an eye as a result of torture.
- The same news was later rebroadcast on Voice of America.
- This sudden breach of silence on Radio Metropole concerning the repression
- surprised observers.
-
- PROVINCES
-
- Miragoane: A Catholic priest and four civilians apprehended by a
- solider and three civil militiamen in a Miragoane locality. Father
- Valery Rebecca, Belle-Riviere parish priest, a locality of Lomon (communal
- section of Miragoane) was arrested on Monday August 24, 1992 in that locality
- by three civil militiamen.
- According to the Bishopric of Cayes, the priest was taken to the Miragoane
- barracks where he has since been detained. The priest, a member of the
- Brotherhood of Priests of the South, has already been interrogated at
- Miragoane military headquarters several times since the coup d'etat of
- September 30, 1991, according to the same source. The motive for this arrest
- without warrant is not known, according to sources close to the Parish of Belle-
- Riviere. (AHP, August 26, 1992)
-
- Cap-Haitien: Spokesman of the Milot Peasant Movement arrested
- on August 22 in Cap-Haitien. Moise Jean-Charles, spokesman of the
- Milot Peasant Movement (MPM) was arrested by the police at the enterance of
- Cap-Haitien on Saturday August 22, 1992 in the afternoon, the Haitian Press
- Agency (AHP) has learned.
-
- Jean-Charles returned from Ouanaminthe and was heading towards Milot by
- way of Cap when he was identified by some policemen in the public transport
- vehicle in which he was travelling.
-
- According to witnesses, at the time he was arrested, soldiers asked Mr. Jean-
- Charles to reveal the contents of the report which he made to the OAS
- delegation, since he was in Port-au-Prince at the same time as they were.
-
- According to the same witnesses, the MPM spokesman was later taken to the
- police station at place called "Lot bo pon", from which he escaped several
- minutes later, leaving his passport and other personal effects.
-
- Without invalidating that version, some associates of Mr. Jean-Charles maintain
- that, since Saturday, he has shown no sign and noone knows whether he is
- actually still being detained or whether he is in hiding somewhere.
-
- MPM headquarters was ransacked by soldiers on November 4, 1991, and the
- property of that farmers' association w2as confiscated. Since then, the MPM
- has operated clandestinely. (AHP, August 26, 1992)
-
- Leogane: A presumed thief killed at the Carrefour Dufort outpost
- (Leogane). A young man known as Fritz was shot to death on Thursday
- August 20, 1992, at the police outpost in Carrefour-Dufort (Leogane).
-
- Arrested the same day at Palmiste-Avin, communal section of Leogane, under
- accusation of having, with two accomplices, participated in the theft of a colt, the
- accused was shot to death without orders bythe sergeant who conducted the
- interrogation. The reason given: the accused grabbed hold of his weapon.
-
- However, according to different testimony, agreeing with that received by the
- AHP on this incident, the wrists of the accused were securely bound with a cord
- when he was killed and his body was buried near the outpost, against the
- desire of one of his relatives who was present.
-
- According to the same witness, the accused had not yet expired whenhis body
- was disposed of outside the outpost; the sergeant went to get a rifle to
- administer the coup de grace to the presumed thief. He called for a justice of
- the peace before proceeding with the burial, the same sources reported. (AHP,
- August 26, 1992)
-
- Montrouis. A third year student at the Faculty of Law and Economic Science,
- Pierre Charles Bordenave, was arrested in Montrouis on Wednesday August
- 19. He was given the third degree because he didn't have his driver's license
- with him. Bordenave was returning from a beach near Montrouis in his car
- when he was brutally forced to stop by soldiers posted in that area. When the
- sergeant of that post asked for his driver's license, Bordenave replied that it had
- been confiscated earlier by Anti-Gang Service patrols during a search
- operation, and that he had to pay $30 to recover it. The sergeant, in turn,
- demanded money to release him. Bordenave refused. Thus, he caused himself
- to be treated as a Lavalas supporter and a terrorist in the pay of President
- Aristide. He was mistreated and thrown into prison. A little later, the sergeant
- took him before Major R. Jerome where he was again interrogated. Bordenave
- was released thanks to the intervention of the Colonel of Gonaives. He was
- beaten on the face, the head, the waist and the buttocks. He now suffers terrible
- headaches and sharp pains in the ears, eyes and head.
-
- Five arrests in Thomonde.The Ministry of Information informs us that five
- individuals were arrested by the police in Thomonde on Thursay August 20
- under accusation of having assassinated Mesac Augustin. The accused
- assassins told the Thomonde police that some Domincans had participated in
- that murder. (Le Nouvelliste, August 26, 1992)
-
- Artibonite: Gonaives. Claudomy Jean Philippe and his daughter were
- arrested in place of Milo Jean Philippe, son of Claudomy and student at the
- Faculty of Law in Gonaives. In effect, Milo had paid his final examination fees
- for that Faculty and was standing in line with other students when Captain
- Castra apppeared. The latter said to the cashier, "I am here" and Milo
- responded "We are here." The Captain became angry and threatened to make
- Milo pay for his impertinence. Very early Monday morning, some soldiers from
- Gonaives appeared at the student's home to arrest him. Milo was not there that
- day, his father and sister were arrested, beaten and taken to prison. A little
- later, Milo was apprehended on Christophe Street in Gonaives and taken to
- prison. The three victims were severely beaten and are now hospitalized.
-
- On Thursday, August 20, 1992, Isophe Danestor, FNCD official for the
- Department of Artibonite, 30 years old, was also arrested in Gonaives, on Grand
- Rue. According to the information which we have received, Isophe had been
- one of the supervisors of the Gonaives election office during the elections of
- December 16, 1990. olitical persecution had forced him into hiding after the
- coup d'etat. He was apprehended on Thursday August 20, 1992 at the civilian
- court of that town by soldiers in uniform. Isophe was severely beaten and is
- now in very precarious physical condition.
-
- POSITION STATEMENTS
-
- The Bishop of Jeremie protests the arrest of a priest in Miragoane
- and asks the OAS and the United Nations to claearly define their
- position in the Haitian crisis. In a statement dated August 26, 1992, the
- Bishop of Jeremie, Mgr. Willy Romelus, president of the Justice and Peace
- Commission of the Catholic Church, strongly protests the arrest and detention
- on August 24 of the parish priest of Belle-Riviere, Father Valery Rebecca.
-
- Regarding this arrest as additional evidence of the generalization of repression
- and persecution directed particularly against the Church, the Bishop stated that
- "all of these acts are perpetrated because the soldiers and the government, not
- supported by the people [of Haiti], still benefit from the support of foreign
- countries which supply them with weapons..."
-
- The Bishop questioned the role of the OAS and the UN in the search for a
- solution to the crisis. He noted that these two institutions have accomplished
- nothing in 11 months of crisis. "It is time for that to stop," he added.
-
- Calling for all to place their hope in God, who, alone, can help "escape from the
- claws of the eagle," Mgr. Willy Romelus recalled, as well, that the people are
- responsible for their own liberation.
- ...
-
- III. INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
-
- Lenders demand the return of President Aristide. Representatives of
- several donor organizations and countries meeting at OAS headquarters in
- Washington on August 26, agreed unanimously that any resumption of
- economic aid to Haiti is conditional on the return of political stability.
-
- The funders decided that they will provide aid to Haiti only after restoration of
- constitutional order and the return to power of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
-
- Delegates from Germany, Canada, United States and France were present at
- this meeting, as well as representatives from the following organizations: Inter-
- american Development Bank, CARICOM, the High Commission for Refugees
- and the
- Pan-american Health Organization.
-
- Statement of the permanent representative of the United States to
- the OAS, Mr. Luigi Enaudi. "This is not the time for delay," was the
- position expressed on August 26 by the Permanent representative of the United
- States to the OAS, Mr. Luigi Enaudi, referring to the Haitian political discord.
-
- Chicago: Haitians contest George Bush' decision. The decision taken
- by the Bush administration to directly repatriate Haitian boat people intercepted
- at sea was warmly contested on August 26 by several hundred compatriots who
- live in Chicago in the United States. The demonstration was organized on the
- occsion of a visit by George Bush to Chicago.
-
- IV. REFUGEES
-
- The United States intends to legalize summary repatriation of refugees, and this
- does not apply only to Haitians intercepted on the high seas, according to a
- petition originating from the U.S. Department of Justice.
-
- The judicial text stipulates that, in 1951, U.S. laws and the United Nations
- Convention on refugees approved legalization of repatriation of refugees, while
- making reservations.
-
- Let us recalll that summary repatriation of Haitian refugees on the high seas
- was suspended on July 29 by the New York Court of Appeals. This wave was
- migration was provoked by the political and economic crisis created by the
- overthrow of President Aristide last September and the commercial embargo
- decreed by the Organization of American States.
-
- In the view of the Department of Justice, the United States justified the policy of
- repatriation in order to terminate the influx of Haitian boat people.
-
- Repatriation continues... Forty-nine Haitian refugees were returned on
- Monday to Port-au-Prince by the American Coast Guard. Nine of these were
- detained by the police. They were the organizers of the voyage.
-
- Eleven Haitians, who were to have been returned to Port-au-Prince from the
- Bahamas by airplane, did not arrive due to hurricane Andrew which caused
- damage to the Bahamas.
-
-
- [Translated by Haiti Communications Project]
-
-
-
- ** End of text from cdp:reg.carib **
-
-