This Week in Haiti" is the English section of HAITI LIBERTE newsweekly. For the complete edition with other news in French and Creole, please contact the paper at (tel) 718-421-0162, (fax) 718-421-3471 or e-mail at editor@haitiliberte.com. Also visit our website at <www.haitiliberte.com>.
HAITI LIBERTE
"Justice. Verite. Independance."
* THIS WEEK IN HAITI *
August 6 - 12, 2008
Vol. 2, No. 3
LOVINSKY PIERRE-ANTOINE'S KIDNAPPING:
ONE YEAR LATER, STILL A MYSTERY
August 12, 2008 marks the first anniversary of the kidnapping of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, 53, a tireless human rights and anti-imperialist activist who was the national coordinator of the September 30th Foundation.
Lovinsky was kidnapped around 10 p.m. after dropping off a human rights delegation that he had been chaperoning around Haiti (see Haiti Liberté, Vol. 1, No. 4, Aug. 15, 2007).
On August 14, 2007, 36 hours after his disappearance, Haiti Liberté called Lovinsky's cell phone, which was answered by one of the kidnappers (see Haiti Liberté, Vol. 1, No. 15, Oct. 31, 2007). The kidnapper made it clear that he knew Lovinsky's political reputation well. "I know him better than my toe-nail that I wash every morning," the kidnapper said. "I know him better than my eyeball that I wash every morning... He is a guy who has tried to put people like me in prison."
The conversation strongly suggests that Lovinsky's kidnapping was politically motivated, especially since the kidnappers never really tried to collect ransom from his family. It remains unknown if Lovinsky was killed or is still being held somewhere alive.
The Haitian government has shown a singular lack of interest in investigating or publicizing the disappearance of this prominent Haitian leader. An international movement, comprising prominent people like actors Danny Glover and Vanessa Redgrave and Selma James, the widow of author C. L.
R. James, has issued numerous calls rebuking the government for its reluctance and inaction in investigating Lovinsky's fate.
Today we publish two of the latest calls. The first is a motion passed in the British Parliament on July 1. The second is a letter to the Brazilian government from Eusi Kwayana, a Guyanese political leader who played an important role in winning Guyana's independence from England in 1966.
*Resolution by British Parliamentarians concerned with Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine and Wilson Mésilien*
July 1, 2008
EDM 1935, Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine
That this House is extremely worried that there is still no news of disappeared Haitian human rights activist Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine who fought for justice for the victims of the 1991 and 2004 military coups against elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide; recognizes that the world owes a debt to Haiti, the first country to abolish slavery in 1804, decades before the US and Europe, and that Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine represents this long revolutionary tradition; notes that many people are accusing the Haitian and UN authorities of not doing enough to find Mr Pierre-Antoine; welcomes the concern expressed by US Congresswoman Maxine Waters, actors Danny Glover and Vanessa Redgrave, Secretary General of Pax Christi International, Claudette Werleigh, and the Amnesty International report which also warns of threats to the life of Mr Pierre-Antoine's colleague Wilson Mésilien; commends the weekly vigils held in Port-au-Prince, London, Los Angeles and San Francisco for keeping Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine in the public eye; and calls on the Government to use its influence to urge the Haitian and UN authorities to double their efforts to locate Mr Pierre-Antoine and ensure the protection of Mr Mésilien.
Signed by: John McDonnell, Colin Burgon, Jeremy Corbyn, Mike Hancock, Alan Meale, Linda Riordan, Alan Simpson,
*Letter to the Government of Brazil Concerning the Safe Return of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, by Mr. Eusi Kwayana, a Distinguished Elder from Guyana*
20 May 2008
His Excellency Mr. Antonio Patriota,
Ambassador to the US
3006 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 90008
Her Excellency, Ms. Theresa Maria M. Quintella, Consul General of Brazil
8484 Wilshire Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
Your Excellency,
It is time, after nine months of uneasy anxiety, that some authority charged in the name of the international community with responsibility for security in Haiti, advise the international community, that is, the international public, of its findings in regard to the scandalous kidnapping or disappearance of Haitian citizen and patriot, Mr. Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine.
The date of Mr. Pierre-Antoine's disappearance is well established. It is also known that he had been helping human rights delegations from two countries the USA and Canada, countries with famous courts and parliaments.
Please do not misunderstand this appeal. It has great hope in the United Nations as a peacekeeping agency and much hope in the evolution of democracy in Brazil, which holds a leading position in the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti. My disappointment is therefore considerable.
Every son and daughter of Haiti deserves the protection of the law and of special international arrangements. Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine is a son of Haiti, one who is well-known in the region and is becoming better known in the world. His international reputation is a standard of judgment of the peacekeeping force. Their reputation will rise or fall with his fortunes. In the present day world news of violations is highly saleable.
The world knows of no position by the official agencies in Haiti, whether domestic or international, on this important instance of inhumanity. When this matter was raised from the floor at a Conference on Haiti's children at a University in San Diego, USA, the Ambassador of Haiti to the USA made a spirited response. Not only did he establish the non-involvement of the government of Haiti in the kidnapping of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, but he effectively defended the government, assuring the audience that it had no hand in the unfortunate affair. No one had even suggested that it had. He said that Mr Pierre-Antoine was probably a rival candidate of some other person and hinted that in such circumstances disappearances have sometimes occurred. I do not have a record of his statement before the gathering, and I am open to any correction he or any other party may wish to offer.
All the Ambassador was able to do was to vindicate the Haitian government.
But Mr. Pierre-Antoine's lawyer was present and rose to rebuke the government for its silence and its alleged failure to exercise its national responsibility.
The government of Haiti being ruled out as complicit in Mr. Pierre-Antoine's absence, the hemisphere to which Haiti has always been central turns its searchlight on that multinational force considered to be of vital assistance to a historically crippled domestic government, and on the leadership of that force, the Republic of Brazil, a major hemispheric partner. Their presence there leads the uniformed to presume that they are there to supply the kind of expertise and clout which cannot be expected of the government in Haiti's present circumstances. In these times of secretly employed but widely known intrusive surveillance, satellite observation on land, sea and air, clandestine wiretapping and other equipment useful in both offence and defense, there is a credibility gap. The public is not inclined to believe that a few thugs in Haiti have so completely baffled the humane capacity of the leading States of the hemisphere.
This matter of the disappearance of Mr. Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine must therefore be taken to the bemused population of the hemisphere and the world at present waiting with impatience for some word of encouragement from the United Nations and its peacekeeping forces.
These forces must be aware of the kidnapping and disappearance of Haiti's first Prime Minister, Toussaint L'ouverture. The French regime of that time, a regime of soldiers, treated Toussaint's fate with a silence similar to that with which Mr. Pierre-Antoine's kidnapping is now being treated. Is this French model the model for the UN troops and its officials?
Questions rush to mind. The hemisphere certainly and the international community wish to know what task force has been set up to track the disappearance of Lovinsky and other persons, regardless of their political attachment, who may be less well-known but in similar circumstances.
It is possible to have wrong notions about what happened to Lovinsky. It is possible to make statements and then find the need to revise them. Is it possible in an age such as this, known for invasive surveillance, for criminal secrets to be so well-kept?
In the military context of a peacekeeping force, silence for two weeks on the part of the Commanding Authority may be advisable, after it has made an initial statement of concern assuring the public of its active pursuit of the offenders. Silence for three weeks may be cause for concern, yet understandable if it had given the necessary assurances. Silence for nine months becomes its opposite, and is no longer silence but an eloquent confession of incapacity, or worse, lack of concern.
If a citizen of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine's prominence and popularity can be "caught up in the air": then the fate of the unknown citizen in Haiti under the aegis of the United Nation's force is not an enviable one.
Questions persist: When did the authorities first hear of this kidnapping?
What specific steps have they taken? Who is keeping Pierre-Antoine's wife and their children informed? Are there no suspects? Is the kidnapping seen as self-inflicted? Have the suspects, if any, evaded the UN's multi-national capacity? Were there secret landings of aircraft unknown to the official guardians? Was he spirited away in a small boat and have all suspects been called in? Has Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine been rendered? Where are the international media, famous for increasing effectiveness? Have state and media conspired not to investigate the fate of this man? Is he held by the forces of law and order, and if so where are his rights? If he is held, on what allegations or reasonable suspicion? Was this man, who was well known for his committed to non-violence and aimed to become a senator, suspected of planning to blow up the parliament?
Your Excellency, Ms. Theresa Maria M. Quintella,
I ask you to transmit this letter to your government in Brazil without delay. Out of respect for President Lula as an elected Head of State the author shall release it to the international media in the Region and in all continents not before the end of the second day of its dispatch to the Head Consulate Officer of Brazil in Los Angeles.
Yours sincerely,
Eusi Kwayana
PÉTIONVILLE MAYOR THREATENS SCHOOL WITH EVICTION by Kevin Pina
SOPUDEP is a private non-profit school in Haiti that has served the poorest and most vulnerable children of the community of Petion-Ville since 2001.
The children who attend SOPUDEP school would never have a chance at an education save for this wonderful project. Most of them also receive their only hot meal every school day through the school's Hot Lunch Program. Given the latest rise in food prices and the hardship this has caused Haitian families, the Hot Lunch Program is an indispensable component SOPUDEP's work in the community.
For several months now, a variety of characters have appeared at the school to demand they vacate the premises. Some falsely stated they were descendants of the original owner but mostly it was an attempt to pressure the school by disrupting its normal operation. On Monday July 28, 2008, the Mayor of Petion-Ville, Lydie Clark Parent, delivered an eight day eviction notice to SOPUDEP to vacate their school premises. This action is NOT legal as SOPUDEP has a 12-year lease on the property that expires in 2012. The school's rights under this contract were ultimately respected by the Mayor's office and the government of Latortue in 2004-2006 and has subsequently been recognized as valid by the Ministry of Education and the Préval administration.
On Tuesday, August 5, 2008, the SOPUDEP school will begin the procedure to file an injunction against Mayor Lydie Clark Parent and ask the court to uphold their binding 12-year lease at their current location. In an effort to show Mayor Parent and the Haitian court the importance of the SOPUDEP school, they ask that all people of goodwill and solidarity please write a letter expressing their support for the school and its more that 450 students. These letters will be critical to showing the wide-spread support SOPUDEP school has throughout the world in the coming days and weeks. Please take five minutes of your time as soon as possible and help save this wonderful resource for Haiti's poorest children in Petion-Ville, Haiti by writing a letter on their behalf today.
Background
Lionel Wooley was an assassin for the regimes of Papa Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier. In exchange for killing opponents of these repressive regimes in Haiti, he was allowed to steal the property of his victims and claim them as his own. In late 2000, Lionel Wooley died in exile in Miami and the government expropriated the properties he had stolen. Most were returned to the surviving members of the original victim's families but a few had no known descendants. Among these few properties was a dilapidated mansion, burned and pillaged by an angry local community after the departure of Baby Doc. It is situated in the hills of Petion-Ville behind the Montana Hotel .
The property passed through Mayor Sulley Guriere of Petion-Ville, to SOPUDEP whose membership actively participates in the National Literacy Project.
Although the literacy campaign is designed for adults 30-60, SOPUDEP was deeply affected by the number of school age children who attended classes as well. They were mostly children of the poor whose parents could not afford to send them to school and could not find a place for them in the over crowded classrooms of the already overwhelmed public schools system. For this reason SOPUDEP made a decision to turn the property into a school for the most vulnerable and poor children of Petion-Ville. The SOPUDEP team hired a lawyer and began the legal process for acquiring a long term lease of the property in 2000 as well as restructuring their organization to meet the requirements of the Haitian government to operate the school. SOPUDEP was given a 12-year lease on the property that expires in 2012 and was provided accreditation by the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Education to conduct a school at the facility.
Their initial enrollment totaled 160 but has now grown to over 480 as of the
2007/08 school year. It stands as a beautiful example of transforming a gruesome legacy of the past into a symbol of hope for the future.
Since its founding, the school also added a government funded hot lunch program to supplement the diet of their students and staff. For many it was their only meal of the day. When President Aristide was ousted in 2004, funding for the program ceased. That same year the school suffered threats of attack from militia groups and unelected officials. Thankfully, no harm was inflicted on them. SOPUDEP struggles each month to pay its staff and continue the hot lunch program that was reinstated in March of 2008. SOPUDEP is a wonderful example of a community initiative founded more on courage and love than money. They try not turn down any poor child of the community for lack of funds.
For further information about SOPUDEP school please visit the school's website at www.SOPUDEP.org or hotzone.yahoo.com/b/hotzone/blogs4095
Urgent Action Requested
We must act quickly if this precious resource is to be saved and the rights of SOPUDEP's school protected. Please forward this alert far and wide.
Please write a letter to:
1. Demand that this illegal attempt to seize SOPUDEP's school property by the Mayor's office in Petion-Ville stop immediately.
2. Demand that the legal rights of this important institution be respected according to the 12-year lease negotiated with the Haitian national government in 2000.
3. Demand that all acts of intimidation and coercion by the Mayor's office in Petion-Ville to seize the SOPUDEP school halt immediately.
Instructions for Letter Campaign
For organizations: Please write a letter on your official letterhead, scan it and email it as an attachment (.pdf is usually the easiest). For
individuals: Please write an email or include attachment (.pdf, .doc) Email your letters to the school's director, Rea Dol. She will make copies and hand deliver them. Email your letters to:
Madame Rea Dol, Director SOPUDEP School
savesopudepschool2008@yahoo.com
SAMPLE LETTER
Honorable Lydie Clark Parent
Mayor of Petion-Ville
Dear Madame Parent,
It has come to my attention that on July 28, 2008 your office issued a 8 day eviction notice to the SOPUDEP school located in Morne Lazarre. As a supporter of this important institution I demand that their rights be respected and the school be allowed to continue without further intervention.
The SOPUDEP school has a 12-year lease on its current location that has been respected by previous administrations at the local and national level in Haiti. They have worked closely with the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Education to insure that SOPUDEP school conforms to all the codes necessary for operating the school.
In closing, we are aware of statements you have made in the past concerning the importance of helping the poor in Haiti and the community. We ask that you recognize the value of the service provided by the SOPUDEP school to Petion-Ville's poorest and most vulnerable school age children. Please respect the legal rights of the SOPUDEP school and honor the 12-year lease negotiated with the government in 2000.
Sincerely,
SOPUDEP Legal Defense Fund
SOPUDEP school has contacted an attorney in Haiti who is familiar with the case and is willing to represent them. He has requested a retainer fee of $530.00 US that the school is currently unable to pay. There may be other legal expenses as the case makes its way through the daunting Haitian legal system. Please consider making a donation to the SOPUDEP Legal Defense Fund.
Please go to SOPUDEP.org for details about sending your contributions. All contributions should earmarked "SOPUDEP Legal Defense Fund." You may also make donations towards the school's General Fund, the Hot Lunch Program, and the Textbook Fund and join the SOPUDEP school team in continuing to serve their community.
For further information please contact:
Haiti via email (French or Kreyol only):
Madame Rea Dol, Director SOPUDEP School, savesopudepschool2008@yahoo.com
In the U.S.:
Kevin Pina, kp@teledyol.net, 510.991.7622
HAITI'S EX-MILITARY REARS ITS UNREPENTANT HEAD by Sarah Hamburger, Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA)
On July 29, approximately 200 former members of the Haitian armed forces took over several old military buildings in Haiti. The ex-soldiers were protesting the disbandment of the Haitian Army and the fourteen years of back pay they allege the government still owes them. The army was disbanded in 1995 by then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was overthrown in 2004 by a coup organized in part by former military members. The pay the soldiers demand covers the time after the 1995 disbandment to today. The soldiers claim that since the president's actions were illegal, they still were technically employed by the government.
One of the seized facilities is in Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second largest city.
The building is now used as the ministry offices for foreign affairs and the government's national heritage bureau. Another former military building was taken over in Ouanaminthe, a town that borders the Dominican Republic.
Officials at the scene of the Cap-Haitien takeover reported no violence. In fact, the uniform-clad men waved a white flag as they approached to signify they were unarmed. However, it was reported that in Ouanaminthe the ex-soldiers donned pistols and clubs.
U.N. peacekeeping troops (MINUSTAH) stationed in Haiti since Aristide's overthrow in 2004 did not intervene in the takeover of the military buildings. The Haitian government, however, issued a statement that it would not tolerate the illegal occupation of government offices. Tensions arose the night of the takeover when civilian supporters of the soldiers threw rocks and heckled the peacekeeping and police forces. On July 30, the U.N.
peacekeepers and the Haitian police surrounding the occupied buildings began to negotiate the soldiers' surrender.
Later that night, the ex-soldiers removed the military uniforms they were wearing and surrendered, boarding several school buses that removed them from the scene. The surrender came after nearly an entire day of negotiations with government officials including Interior Minister Paul Antonine Bien-Aimé and ex-Army Col. Jean-Claude Jeudi. At this time, it is unclear what concessions, if any, the negotiations entailed.
The events of the July 29 and 30 remind Haiti and the international community of the continued necessity for the more than 9,000 U.N. forces present in Haiti. Though the seizure by the disgruntled ex-military men lasted only 24 hours, it symbolizes the ongoing violence that has plagued Haiti for decades, namely since the fall of the brutal Duvalier dictatorship in 1986. His administration's corruption and oppression have been replaced by chaos and violence, leaving Haitians wondering which is worse. The Preval government must decide whether to reinstate the military forces as part of a reconstructed armed forces or to continue its reliance upon U.N. supplied troops. It is unlikely, however, that a country with such a historically unstable political system as Haiti's will be saved simply by reinstating the armed services. Ex-soldiers, after all, executed the 2004 coup that launched the country into one of the most violent periods in modern Haitian history.
Few would deny that reactivating the military would likely be one of the worst possible choices for the woebegone Caribbean nation currently suffering from crushing poverty due to the global food crisis and unremitting violence at the hands of street gangs.
All articles copyrighted Haiti Liberte. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haiti Liberte.
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