NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #20/NN_1992_20.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/6531

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Subject: Haiti Info #2
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About HAITI INFO and THE HAITIAN INFORMATION BUREAU:

 * Haiti Info is published every two weeks in Haiti by the Haitian
Information Bureau, and is edited by a group of committed
individuals from democratic and popular sectors.  All articles )
HIB. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED. Please cite Haiti Info and  send  copies
of usage.
 * HIB is a non-profit, independent, alternative news agency
founded to end Haiti's isolation and promote democracy by
disseminatiing information directly from members and organizations
of the grassroots democratic movement. HIB also issues press
releases and provides journalists with contacts and assistance.
 * Haiti Info is available by mail, by fax, and also
electronically via computer. Subscription rates range from U.S.
$18 to $100.
 * Haiti Info will be available in French and Spanish by the end
of 1992.

For North American/European subscriptions contact newsLINK, 67
Pleasant Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.  Tel:  [phone].
E-mail:  [e-mail].

Other correspondence:  Haitian Information Bureau, c/o Lynx Air,
Box 407139, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 33340, USA or B.P. 15533, Ption-
ville, HAITI.  TEMPORARY Fax: [phone]   E-mail:
[e-mail].

*** HAITI INFO ***

News direct from the people and organizations of Haiti's
grassroots democratic movement

14 September 1991, Vol. 1, #2 Haitian Information Bureau, HAITI

<hib>@igc.org  Temporary Fax: [phone]

INDEX:          "CORRUPTION RAMPANT" - main news story
        News Briefs Profile:  Samuel Madistin Human Rights
        Report Behind the Headlines: A State of
        Decomposition Development News Behind the
        Headlines: Promoting the National Interest About
        Haiti Info

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Sept. 14 - Corruption and mismanagement have
reached a critical point in the public administration, leading to
increasing criticism of the de facto government.

Tons of humanitarian food aid rots on the docks. The military
controls the justice system. Soldiers arrest and beat civilians to
generate extra income.

A few families in the elite control the import and export markets,
flaunting their independence from the state by inviting foreign
freighters to unload goods at their private docks.

Former supporters of the coup dUetat have been criticizing the
government, especially the current de facto prime minister, Marc
L. Bazin.

Ironically, Bazin is also known as "Mr. Clean" because he
supposedly attempted to fight corruption under Jean-Claude
Duvalier.

"The Bazin government, with three months in power, that I
personally supported... I thought it was a government that was
going to do something," said Senator Bernard Sansaricq in the
Haitian Senate last Thursday.

Sansaricq, who represents Grande Anse, openly supported the coup
d'tat.  Today he is disenchanted with the levels of corruption in
new government.

Deputy Samuel Madistin of L'Estre has been fighting the corruption
since the first day of the coup.

"The deputies, the senators, they are all into contraband," he
said. "In the army it's the same thing. The military man is a
business man."

Within days of the violent coup, corruption and black market
activities escalated to levels higher than under the Duvalier
regime. Ministers, military and middle-managers quickly vied for
control of various staples such as sugar, rice, and gasoline.

One of the most flagrant abuses is the waste and thievery of
humanitarian food aid.  According to a number of sources, hundreds
of tons of rice and beans have been rotting in government customs
warehouses for three months.

The Minister of Commerce did not deny the charge, but said he was
not responsible for Customs, and told the Senate, "One does not
summon a minister in that manner."

Two other ministries are currently arguing over which should be
monitoring the water table, which is currently in danger of being
overtaxed.

Roads have deteriorated and free-ranging construction workers
boldly excavate the sides of hills and mountains, hauling away
truckload after truckload of rock and sand.

Disputes over land are common, ranging from high-level attempts to
swindle estates to the brutal repression of peasant landholders.
"This coup has made 20 new millionaires," one member of HaitiUs
upper middle class remarked recently. "IUve heard people say, 'If
this coup just lasts one more month, IUll be able to finish my
house.'"

Sansaricq has called for a commission to investigate the
corruption, a move backed by the National Front for Change and
Democracy (FNCD), the coalition that supported Aristide.  Bazin
has not commented, although Sansaricq reported that when he showed
Bazin a report on cement being smuggled into the country, Bazin
remarked, "Atansyon! Gen mouri ladann," meaning, "Watch out!
ThereUs death in that."

*** NEWS BRIEFS ***

PRESIDENT ARISTIDE AT THE UNITED NATIONS

 UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 11 - President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
presided over a meeting of the Council of the Economic System of
Latin America (CELA) today.

"Today, we still believe that with international solidarity from
the O.A.S. and the United Nations, it is possible to apply
sufficient pressure so that democracy returns to Haiti," he told
the  leaders in Spanish.

Aristide will return to the U.N. next Tuesday to accept the 1992
International Achievement Award from the Inter Press Service
(IPS), the world's sixth-largest news wire.

According to Roberto Savio, Director-General of IPS, Aristide was
chosen because he is "a symbol of the long battle by the people of
Haiti to be free of the yoke of injustice and oppression." (From
IPS )


ANOTHER O.A.S. TEAM TO VISIT HAITI

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Sept. 14 - The Organization of American States is
expected to send an eighteen-member delegation here this week.
The purpose of the visit will be to monitor human rights
conditions in the country's nine departments.

President Aristide reiterated last week that he will not negotiate
with de facto Prime Minister Marc L. Bazin. To do so, he said,
would be unconstitutional.

NEW ECONOMIC REPRESSION

SAVANETTE, Sept. 11 - Peasants in the Savanette area are being
subjected to a new form of repression.

Many are returning home after months in hiding only to find the
military and the Chief of Section waiting to arrest them again,
this time for a ransom. The wife of the Chief of Section lends
themthe money at 100 percent and makes them sign receipts
promising a portion of their harvest.

PEASANTS FIGHT BACK

ACUL DU NORD, Sept. 11 - Peasants in the area have decided to take
action to counter the repression in their region.

After a recent meeting, they decided to distribute pamphlets which
denounced soliders and local strongmen known to harrass residents.
After the distribution, soldiers issued a list of 13 people to be
arrested, some of whom had to go into hiding.

However, the pamphlets brought national and international
attention to the peasants' plight. The 13 were able to return
home. The soldiers were forced to return stolen money to the
peasants, and some were even arrested because it created
embarrasment for an already isolated army.

(Rural news from Nouvel Pou N al Pi Lwen #65)

*** PROFILE - PEOPLE WORKING FOR DEMOCRACY *** Samuel Madistin

"The young people in my town came to ask me to run for office.
They saw in me someone who could represent them, the youth, coming
from their Communal Section [small rural area.] I said to them
there are three reasons why I will accept:

"One, to have a dignified presence that can represent them in a
valuable manner; two, to contribute to reducing the gross
differences between the city and the country by the work I can do
in the Chamber, since I am also a victim of that, and three,
because Haiti has so many people who are ransacking and pillaging
the state coffers.

"If there is an institution like the parliament with serious
people inside that can do a good job, and ensure that state money
is well spent, that would be a fundamental achievement, and if
it's someone who comes from a small Communal Section like L'Estre,
that will give an example of how to be an honest person by
respecting and demanding respect for the money of the state, and
that would be a big thing.  For those three reasons, I accept."

Samuel Madistin is the youngest member of the Chamber of Deputies.
He was elected in December, 1990, to represent about 40,000
citizens in the Artibonite Valley.

Madistin, 29, the son of a Protestant minister in the small town
of Mapou Lagon, is extremely popular because of his work in
sports, theater, and other activities. Prior to running for
office, he was a math and science teacher.

The agreement with the youths changed his life. After seven months
in office, the military took over the young democracy.  "One of
the reasons they gave for the coup d'tat was that there was no
respect for the institutions and the constitution," Madistin said.


"Today we are witnessing an unimaginable situation. People are
arrested, taken to jail, sometimes beaten to death, they are
gravely injured, they lose their eyes, they are forced to eat
their excrement.  These are all things we have been witnessing for
the past twelve months."

Madistin is no stranger to repression. Since the coup last
September he has been threatened and harassed. His name has been
circulated on a "black list" for elimination by the military.
Last March when parliament convened to vote on the "Washington
Accord," an agreement between the legitimate government, the
parliament, and a compromise prime minister, he and a number of
other deputies were beaten.

"Had we voted for the agreement," he said, "There's no way we
would have walked out of there alive."

In the face of threats, Madistin continues to fight for democracy,
but he is disappointed with response of international
institutions.

"This is first time I will allow myself to make a public
declaration during the last twelve months of negotiations,"
Madistin said.

"Sadly, I believe that the resolutions of the O.A.S. have done
nothing more than contribute to the increase in dead bodies,
because we have finally realized that they do not really have the
political will to end the crisis. They say one thing in their
resolutions and then do something else in their actions.  "Seeing
that, the criminals, the putschists, feel comfortable.  They
increase the repression. I don't believe there is anything serious
in the O.A.S.

"It's only a mobilization of the living forces of the country that
will permit, first, a raising of awareness of a situation which is
no longer viable. Life is impossible in Haiti. All the morality is
disintegrating. We need a global awareness that will permit a
general mobilization so that all people feel that it is in their
best interest to get out of this situation togetherI

"At the beginning I believed that the O.A.S. civil mission could
help create a political space, but now I believe that it's a
bluff. There is no will to deploy that mission."

Madistin is not giving up, just taking a lesson from recent
history.

"We can't count on the international institutions anymore," he
said. "We need an internal mobilization. We have to count on our
own forces. For me, there's no other way."

*** HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT ***

ASSASSINATION
Port-au-Prince, Sept. 8 P The body of 45-year-old Marcel Trouillot
was recovered today from the morgue at General Hospital by his
family.  He had been kidnapped from his home by armed men three
days earlier.

LAWYER ARRESTED
Cayes, Sept. 8 -  Attorney Paul Yves Joseph was arrested by three
soldiers as he pled a case at the City Tribunal. The soldiers
questioned him about acts of supposed RterrorismS in the area.  He
was later released.

CHILD SHOT IN THE HEAD
Carrefour, Sept. 7 - An eight-year-old was shot in the head by a
military who fired his gun at a civilian during an argument.  The
child, who was reported near death in a hospital, was playing
inside his home when the incident occurred.

DEMOCRAT ARRESTED
Gonaives, Sept. 3 - Lucien Pardo, a well-known democratic
personality, was arrested along with a French nun, Sister Anne
Camille Coyret, by two soldiers. They were held for several hours
and then released.  It is the second time Pardo has been arrested
since the coup.

BODY FOUND
Port-au-Prince, Sept. 3 - A body of an unidentified 30-year-old
riddled with bullets was found near the Canap-Vert road.
Discoveries such as this are increasingly common.

(Note: This is only a partial report.) (Prepared with the
assistance of the Platform For Human Rights)

AMBIGUOUS REPORT FROM U.S. LAWYERS COMMITTEE

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Sept. 7 - The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights
released a report last week calling Haiti "a human rights
nightmare" on the front page, yet also criticizing President Jean-
Bertrand Aristide for his actions before the violent coup d'tat
which removed him one year ago.

The 62-page report strongly condemns the current military-
controlled government and lists numerous examples of unlawful
arrests, beatings and execution.

However, the report also criticizes Aristide for Rfailing to quell
unrestS which occasionally got out of hand when the population was
nervous that anti-democratic forces threatened the new government.
Those pages of criticism have  been used extensively by the
government-controlled radio here in recent days to justify the
coup and campaign against the return of President Aristide.

The report recommends a number of steps to be taken by the
"Haitian authorities," the United States, and the United Nations,
but does not call for the return of the president to his office in
Haiti.

*** BEHIND THE HEADLINES:  A State of Decomposition ***

Almost one year after the coup dUtat Haiti is witnessing a total
deterioration of the state and its institutions. The country is a
"free-for-all." Senators and soldiers, businessmen and bankers are
trying to take as much as they can.

There is a total absence of morality and principle inside the
government which, rather than serving the people, believes it
should be served by the people.

The current disintegration is the final death throes of a system
based on the creole saying "peze-souse," or "squeeze and suck."
That was the prevailing philosophy of the Duvalier era and it
continued under the various interim governments which followed.
Not until the election of Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide did a
government sitting in the National Palace attempt to reform this
corrupt extractive system which has been aptly dubbed a
"kleptocracy" or "rule of thieves."

During its first few months in office, AristideUs government
removed some of the more offensive generals from the army.  It
began to reform the justice system. The public administration
functioned with a distinctly lower level of corruption.

Many Haitians paid their taxes for the first time, expecting the
money would be used to improve Haiti rather than fatten Swiss bank
accounts.

Today, however, all that has changed. The levels of corruption and
mismanagement are higher than ever.

Almost every Haitian is personally affected by the deteriorating
system, except for a small clique within the Haitian elite and
military which controls the state, trade, and contraband.
Everybody else, from factory owner to peasant, suffers, and that
suffering is magnified by the fact that the rotten structures are
held together only through repression and intimidation.

Even in the parliament intimidation is a part of daily life.
Members of the Senate or Chamber of Deputies come to sessions
armed. The military is currently circulating a "black list" of
deputies who should be eliminated.

Just the way frightened and starving animals will eat their young,
the tiny and powerful upperclass in Haiti is disintegrating into
self-destructing warring factions as the crisis continues.

The past year has exposed the ugly underside of the elite and
their ties to the state apparatus. HaitiUs youth is  waiting
patiently for the return of the president who promises them a
brighter future. In the meantime, it is growing up watching a
pillaging rampage like none other in Haitian history.

*** DEVELOPMENT NEWS ***

COUP EFFECTS POPULATION'S HEALTH

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Aug., 1992 -  The 1991 coup dUtat was a "giant
blow to the fragile health of the population."

That was one finding in a 97-page study released last month  by
the Permanent Commission on Emergency Aide (CPAU), representing
over 60 non-governmental  development, democratic, and popular
organizations.

The CPAU says the death rate has been rising and the health of the
population dropping since the coup, due to violent repression (at
least 2,000 civilians killed) and the deterioration in state
services.

The Departments  of Public Health and Water  are  totally
mismanaged.

The supply of drinkable water has dropped by 50 percent in the
cities and 20 percent in the countryside. According to health
engineer Terence Niyungeko, "the situation is extremely critical
and just waiting for cholera to strike."

Other problems include an increase in garbage in the streets (only
about 25 percent of the countryUs garbage is collected), a rise in
the number of preventable illnesses, and a deterioration of mental
health.

The health study is only one of six sections followed by an
emergency plan  recommending U.S. $17.5 million for the first
phase.

CARIBBEAN NGOS SUPPORT HAITI

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Sept. 11 - Over two dozen Caribbean non-
governmental organizations have vowed to work together to support
the Haitian struggle for democracy.

In a two-day meeting last July sponsored by the St. Lucia Haiti
Committee, members of 25 organizations from ten countries vowed to
coordinate communication and other projects. Priorities include
increased circulation of information, joint research programs, and
a possible NGO solidarity mission to Haiti in the near future.

Another outcome of the meeting was the Caribbean Day of Solidarity
with the Haitian People, celebrated on Aug. 21, anniversary of the
beginning of the Haitian Revolution.

A complete report on the meeting will be published in the upcoming
Liaison magazine published by the Haitian Association of Voluntary
Agencies (HAVA), a participant in the meetings.

*** COMMON GROUND:  PROMOTING NATIONAL INTERESTS ***

Democracy justifies more tyranny than one might imagine.  When one
country wants to attack another, or one politician his rival, the
cry RdemocracyS is heard again and again.

The United States is no longer fighting "communism." Stealth
bombers, Contras and consultants are promoting "democracy." One of
the most subtle and efficient weapons developed in recent years is
the "National Endowment for Democracy."

Across the globe, NED picks labor unions, business groups,
newspapers and political parties that comply with its charter by
promoting "the broad concerns of United States national
interests." *

Since its creation in 1983 NED has spent over $120 million in U.S.
taxpayer dollars promoting U.S. interests in 77 countries.

Ned's record

NED's activities are not always democratic. It has been criticized
for suspicious ties to organizations linked to Oliver North and
the Iran-Contra affair and military groups like the Afghan
mujahedeen and AngolaUs UNITA forces.

NED has also promoted separatist movements in the former U.S.S.R.
and ultra right groups in the Philippines and Guatemala.

U.S. law prohibits NED from financing foreign political campaigns,
but NED dollars have funded  people and parties in South Korea,
Poland, Costa Rica and many more places.

In 1984 U.S. policy-makers aimed NED at NicaraguaUs Sandinista
government.

Over the next four years NED invested over $2 million, most of it
for the  creation and organization of UNO, the coalition that
backed presidential candidate Violeta Chamorro.

NED poured in another $12 million in the two years before the
election and then (with just cause) claimed ChamorroUs victory as
"a tremendous victory for the Endowment as well."

Ned in Haiti

Since Jean-Claude Duvalier's ouster in 1986, both NED and the U.S.
Agency for International Development (AID) have been actively
promoting democracy which falls in line with U.S. "national
interests."

They chose their grantees carefully, especially as the 1990
presidential elections neared.  That year alone about $10 million
went to research groups such as the NED-founded Haitian
International Institute for Research and Development (IHRED), the
Haitian Center for Human Rights (CHADEL), as well as a number of
labor unions and other organizations, many of which supported the
candidate known as "Mr. Clean" and "Mr. America" - longtime
Washington favorite, Marc Louis Bazin.

Nobody knows exactly how much ended up in BazinUs campaign
coffers, but IHRED has always promoted Bazin, the NED-sponsored
unions organized voters and registration drives, and BazinUs
television campaign alone outspent all other candidates put
together.

However, Haiti was not as easy as Nicaragua. At the last minute
HaitiUs grassroots democratic movement produced a surprise
candidate, Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and voter registration
sky-rocketed.

The U.S.-backed groups reacted quickly. Just days before the
election CHADEL's Jean-Jacques Honorat, Leopold Berlanger of
IHRED, and Cary Hector,  a Bazin aide, held a press conference to
denounce the upcoming event. Obviously angry at Aristide's massive
support, they attempted to discredit the election by calling it "a
plebiscite" and therefore supposedly not democratic.

U.S. Ambassador Alvin Adams also warned ominously, "Apre bal,
tanbou lou," a creole proverb meaning RAfter the dance, the drums
are heavy."

The Haitian population did not heed the warnings. Aristide won
with 67 percent of the vote, Mr. America trailing with thirteen.
Congress quickly authorized over $24 million for "democracy
enhancement" in Haiti, increasing the flow of dollars to
conservative organizations.

At the same time, a disinformation campaign was launched in the
United States. Only four days after the  inauguration, The
Heritage Foundation, a frequent NED collaborator, warned Aristide
might be "steering Haiti toward communist dictatorship."

The Foundation noted that Haiti's politics could "be infectious,
destabilizing the region at a time when democracy and freemarket
economies are taking hold," and recommended immediate funding for
the losing  party - BazinUs coalition.

Eighteen months later, some uncanny coincidences are obvious in
the wake of the 1991 coup d'tat. Military repression has hit
grassroots democratic organizations (Aristide's strongest
supporters) but spared NED and AID-backed "democratic"
organizations.

More importantly, the three men who claimed the 1990 election was
not democratic have all played important roles in the current,
universally condemned, non-democratic regime. Both Honorat of
CHADEL and Bazin have served as "prime ministers," and earlier
this month IHREDUs Berlanger was part of a delegation from the de
facto government to Washington.

In the meantime, much of the "democracy enhancement" funding has
resumed. NED and its allied organizations continue to work
tirelessly for U.S. "national interests."

*Written with information gathered from: NED: A Foreign Policy
Branch Gone Awry, Council on Hemispheric Affairs and the Inter-
Hemispheric Education Resource Center, 1990; NED, CIA, and the
Orwellian Democracy Project, Holly Sklar and Chip Berlet, Covert
Action magazine, #39; and The NED Backgrounder, Inter-Hemispheric
Education Resource Center, April 1992.