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AUMOHD IS THE HAITIAN LAWYERS LEADERSHIP'S LEGAL PARTNERS IN HAITI|

THE POSITION OF AUMOHD ON THE SOCIOPOLITICAL SITUATION, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND THE NEXT ELECTORAL CONTEST IN HAITI - March 28, 2005

by The Association of University Graduates Motivated For A Haiti With
Rights ("AUMOHD")

 

*
The Association of University Graduates Motivated For A Haiti With
Rights ("AUMOHD")
181, Autoroute de Delmas in front of Sogebank, Port-au-Prince
Phone : (509) 249 3468 / 424 3334 / 249-3468
Email : aumohddwamoun@yahoo.fr

*


TABLE OF CONTENTS


I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE SITUATION OF THE COUNTRY

II. HUMAN RIGHTS: A SITUATION MORE AND MORE WORRIESOME
Eleven documented cases

III. AN INSECURITY THAT SPARES NEITHER PERSON NOR PLACE


Documented cases:
- Six Different Armed Groups

- Two Cases:
o Unbelieveable Disarmament Program
o Petit Goave Massacre by MINUSTAH


IV. THE NATIONAL POLICE OF HAÏTI OVERRUN BY THE EVENTS


- Two Cases:
o National Penitentiary
o Fort Nationale
Responsibilities of Police


V. MINUSTAH IN A DIFFICULT MISSION


- A Failure From The Technical And Logistical Viewpoint
- A Failure From The Moral Viewpoint: rape cases


CONCLUSION: Some essential recommendations to remedy this situation

1 . The creation of a physical meeting space to undertake in a serious manner a National Dialogue under the auspices of the local Haitian churches as facilitator;

2. AUMOHD proposes next an independent and international Investigative Commission for shedding light on 3 cases; and

3. The re-evaluation of the mandate of the Mission of the United
Nations for Stabilization in Haïti (MINUSTAH) and an investigation by
international human rights organizations into the violations of human
rights by this UN body.


THE POSITION OF AUMOHD ON THE SOCIOPOLITICAL SITUATION, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND THE NEXT ELECTORAL CONTEST IN HAITI


I- GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE SITUATION OF THE COUNTRY
INTRODUCTION


More than one year after the forced departure of Ex-President
Jean-Bertrand ARISTIDE, the people voicing their criticisms are
almost in unanimous agreement: "the more things change, the more they
stay the same only they've gone from bad to worse."

This new governmental team imposed by the international community with the
complicity and the clumsiness of the Haitian political class,
hampered by the spirit of sectarianism and the political culture of
demagoguery and exclusivity, characterized by a chronic absence of
dialogue and common vision, is, therefore totally incapable during this
time of conflict of putting national interests above the interests of
a group or sector traditionally used to holding the steering wheel of
the country's economic machine. This manner of poorly acting has
subsequently blocked the country from eventually being open to all
deep and real changes of an antisocial, anti-national, political
system.


Today, still, the Haitian people, particularly the disadvantaged
masses of the country, finds itself on its knees, in quest of a new
political vision able to create a new horizon for a new political
order, based on political legitimacy, respect of the law and human
rights, social justice and the quest for development. As we speak, we
take note of the documented and confirmed failure of this
transitional government which had, as its principal mission, a national
dialogue which should have led this sorely divided people to a
national reconciliation and to the reestablishment of a confident
climate of security throughout the whole national territory in order
to arrive at good, free, believable, and transparent elections.

Unfortunately the nomination of professor Micha GAILLARD, an
influential member of a political sector and a political activist, a
spokesperson for the former opposition to the Aristide government, as
the point-person charged with the responsibility for national
reconciliation raises the following question:

Can she succeed in so noble and so promising an undertaking with the players having the status of both judge and partisan at the same time?

Are not we justified in saying that this is a political calculation pure and
simple that aims to kill right from the beginning the question of
national dialogue?

Therefore, in such a climate of uncertainty, insecurity, division and confusion, without first arriving at a national reconciliation, how can this interim government, with no popular support, so beleaguered and discredited, validly summon the
people if they distrust getting a hearing of their civil and
political rights without risking reenacting a new November 29, 1987
on Vaillant Alley? (refers to the 1987 election massacres- on
November 29--the date of the first elections under the 1987
Constitution, the Tonton Macoutes, with the help of the army,
attacked several polling stations, basically closing the elections
down, because the Duvalierists considered them a threat. The worst of
the killing took place at the Ecole Argentine Bellegarde on ruelle
Vaillant in Lalue, PAP.) And what is worse, what are the odds of the
peoples' voting rights being respected, when it is known that the
national percentage of financial participation is 10%, when it is
known that this interim government doesn't have control of the
national territory, when it is known that the offices of the
Provisional Electoral Counsel on Delmas Avenue has been attacked
twice in one month (Friday 3/25 and Tuesday 3/28 2005).

How, in the current state of affairs can one set up registration and voting
stations in Bel Air, Cité Soleil, Village de Dieu, Pernal, Delmas 33,
or Mirebalais, when the majority of the people are hiding underground
or have been taken hostage by heavily armed groups? Throughout its
allegations, AUMOHD feels obliged with a lot of concern to question
the nature and speed of this out of control phenomenon of insecurity,
the role of the National Police and MINUSTAH, the responsibility of
the justice system and that of the International community that is
deciding at all costs to do elections or "selections" in Haiti
without taking account of the Haitian sociopolitical reality and
especially of the extent of the consequences and inconsistencies
these doubtful elections can have on democracy and the future of this
nation in mortal agony.


II.- HUMAN RIGHTS, A SITUATION MORE AND MORE WORRIESOME

One year after the arrival of Mr. Boniface ALEXANDRE, a lawyer, law
professor at the university, judge, presiding over the highest court
of justice of the country as President of the Republic, the
expectations relative to respect for human rights have not been
fulfilled.

The Haitian people, again, continue to pay the price of
the blind violence, hunger, of arbitrariness and of injustice of all
kinds. The notions of basic rights, social and human rights, are far
from being respected especially by this new team that presently runs
the country, that has the highest constitutional obligation to
guarantee them, to protect them and to promote them.

The general situation of human rights and the dignity of the human person is
becoming more and more precarious: arrests without warrants and
without any crime committed, this, in violation of articles 24.1,
24.2, 24.3 of the Haitian Constitution in force.

By way of example we cite some cases of arbitrary and illegal arrests followed by improper and prolonged detention:

1. Philippe THEMA, arrested without warrant and in the absence of any
actual crime by the National Police of the substation of Rue Pavée,
October 31, 2004, accused of associating with criminals without
tangible proof, currently in arbitrary and prolonged detention in the
National Penitentiary.

2. Evelyne BELIZAIRE, arrested without warrant and in the absence of
any actual crime by the National Police of the substation of Rue
Pavée, January 9, 2005 near Cité Soleil for associating with criminals
and wife of a "chimère"; she is currently in arbitrary and prolonged
detention at the Petion-Ville jail.

3. Bien-aimé KERLINE, arrested without warrant and in the absence of
any actual crime by the National Police near Cité Soleil for
associating with criminals and as an accomplice to the chimères (a
pretext); she is currently in arbitrary and prolonged detention at
the Petion-Ville jail.

4. Romane BERTILLE, arrested without warrant and in the absence of
any actual crime by the National Police January 3, 2005 for
associating with criminals; currently in arbitrary and prolonged
detention at the National Penitentiary.

5.- Lucienne BELLE, January 14 2005: she was the victim physical
assault resulting in injuries to the mouth; the person guilty of this
was apprehended and then liberated after bargaining with the judge.
The victim went to the judge to learn of this questionable
liberation. She was arrested, her husband also, Clausel YLLYS, and
thrown in prison arbitrarily by the Justice of the Peace of
Pétionville, Ms. Marjorie VALDEE under pretext of contempt of court.

She was liberated thanks to continuous, repeated intervention with
the commissioner of the government on the part of AUMOHD.

6 .-Jean Ricot CANTAVE, arrested without warrant and in the absence
of any actual crime by the National Police, December 22, 2004 at Bon
Repos, he is accused of associating with criminals. He is in
arbitrary and prolonged detention at the Headquarters of the Central
Judiciary Police (DCPJ).

7. John Baptist WESLY, a minor of seventeen (17-years old) arrested without a
warrant and in the absence of any actual crime, January 1, 2005 by
the National police, he is accused of associating with criminals
without any proof.

8.- Jameson HUGO, a minor of fifteen years (15) arrested without a
warrant and in the absence of any actual crime by the National police
on Monday, January 3 2005, he is accused of association with
criminals without any proof.

9.- David PRUDANT, a minor of 19 years arrested on Friday, January 7,
2005 at eleven o'clock in the evening without a warrant and in the
absence of an actual crime by the agents of MINUSTAH at Cité Soleil.
He is accused of being a chimère and associating with criminals,
spent more than a month in arbitrary and prolonged detention without
seeing his assigned judge. He is still in jail.

10.- Schiller BEAUCEJOUR, Mickel BEAUCEJOUR (19 years) and Michelet
BEAUCEJOUR (17 years) three brothers, minors arrested without a
warrant and in the absence of an actual crime, January 7, 2005 by
MINUSTAH at Cité Soleil
. It is necessary to note that after a week of
their arrest, their parents did not know in which police station they
were being held. They are now in preventive detention in complete
contempt of their rights to individual freedom.

11.- Marie Mode ALBERT, arrested without a warrant and in the absence
of an actual crime, by the National police accompanied by her husband
MR. Julio CALIXTE and by her two daughters Junette and Filomène
CALIXTE at their home at Terre Noire on Route Nationale, # 1, January
27 2005, she was beaten and tortured. She and her husband are
currently in arbitrary and prolonged detention respectively at the
Delmas 33 station and at the National Penitentiary without seeing
their appointed judges since then.

12.- Helena ROMELUS, was arrested without a warrant and in the
absence of an actual crime by the National police on Wednesday
October 20, 2004 at the Port-Au-Prince police station, where she had
come to visit the father of her two children
who himself was arrested
and held illegally in this police station. Since this date, she is
being held in preventive detention sometimes at the Canape Vert
police station, sometimes at the Port-au-Prince station without
seeing her appointed judge to act on her case. She is currently sick,
held arbitrarily at the Pétionville prison. And there are hundreds
other similar cases.

Add to this situation of the phenomenon of illegal and prolonged
detention, something even worse, the subhuman conditions under which
these people suffer. Today AUMOHD wishes to state that almost all the
centers used for illegal detentions are becoming true centers of
torture and where people's lives are at stake, places without minimal
living conditions, without drinkable water, without toilets, without
electricity, without means to lie down, without medical care, and, in the
majority of cases without access to family visits. This is the case
of Helena ROMELUS who was arrested on Wednesday October 20, 2004, by
agents of the National Police (PNH) station in Port-Au-Prince just as
she was preparing to visit the father of her two children, James
JACQUES, who was himself arrested inside the Hospital, Bernard MEUS
on the road to the airport.

As for the right to food, because of the ever-increasing cost of
living, the situation of the poor is becoming more and more
aggravated, especially for the people living in the popular
neighborhoods. Since the establishment of this new team, the cost of
living has not stopped rising. The products of basic necessities are
becoming more and more expensive. A bowl of rice has gone from
thirteen (13) to twenty three (23) Gourdes, a bag of sugar has gone
from 850 Gourdes to 900 Gourdes, a bowl of corn has gone from 35
Gourdes to 50 Gourdes. Therefore, the possibility of feeding oneself
is becoming extremely difficult.

III. AN INSECURITY THAT SPARES NEITHER PERSON NOR PLACE

How can a serious government summon its people to act on its civil
and political rights in a climate of such insecurity?

Last March 2, the Brazilian general Augusto HELENO, commander in
chief of the Stabilization Mission of the United Nations in Haïti
(MINUSTAH), in charge of reestablishing security, recognized the fact
that the opposite is true and admitted that the security situation of
the country is becoming more grave. On this point AUMOHD would like
to remind people of the following facts:

Sunday, March 6, 2005, citizen Clautaire Jean BAPTIST was assassinated at Mirebalais;

Wednesday March 16, 2005, the owner of the market of Saint Pierre, Mr. Rodolphe
SOLAGE was assassinated at Pétionville;

Sunday February 6, 2005, a graphic designer for the newspaper "Le Nouvelliste", Harold BREZAUDT was assassinated at Delmas.

January 14, 2005, Claude Bernard SERANT and Jonel JUST, two journalists for "Le Nouvelliste", were victims of cruel torture in the neighborhood of the Bel Air.

February 4, 2005, the political columnist of Radio MEGASTAR, Raoul
Saint LOUIS, was victim of an attempted assassination near the radio
station.

On Tuesday March 22, 2005, an agent of the National police
(PNH), attached to the security services of the Minister of Justice
and Public Security, was murdered at Delmas 31.

On Tuesday March 22, 2005, again in this same evening, the owner of the supermarket Compas Market was the victim of an attempted assassination.

Saturday December 4 2004, a policeman was murdered and another injured by
bullets in the neighborhood of Lasaline.

According to witnesses, on Friday February 25 2005, during a search of the area by the police, on St Martin St. close to Bel Air, 10 persons were reported to have
been killed.

According to a report confirmed by the persons in charge of University of Haiti State Hospital (HUEH) commonly called the General Hospital, fifteen (15) persons were killed and eight others injured on the night of February 24-25, 2005 at a place in Village De Dieu.

On February 24 2005, armed men riding in a pickup truck opened fire on police in the Substation of Jérémie, two policemen were injured and several passersby were hit by bullets.

On Wednesday March 16, 2005, a young man was the victim of several bullets at Delmas 19 and his car was taken away.

On Sunday, March 27, 2005, the commune of Delmas experienced an evening of repeated blasts of automatic weapons that ended with the following report: a murdered girl, the rooms of the National Television (TNH) hit by many bullets and an electric transformer supplying this institution was damaged.

On Monday, March 28, 2005, two policemen were murdered in a cowardly manner at Delmas 33.

Also, this same Monday, Mrs. Mirlande MANIGAT was victim of an attempted
abduction and her car was stolen.

Today in Haïti, no one is spared. No zone is safe: at the market, Tête de Boeuf Boulevard, Cité Soleil, St. Joseph Portal, Lasaline, Carrefour, Matissant, and many others.

Port-Au-Prince is becoming a hell on earth. Many are asking themselves why are these foreign armed men with the blue berets in the country? Are they people on holiday, or on vacation?

And despite the big promises, now turned out to be deceptive, there is no hope in this scene of uncertainty.

AUMOHD wishes to state that illegal armed groups from various sectors are working and sowing terror in Haiti.

Several Different Kinds Of Armed Groups

Talking about illegally armed groups in Haïti currently brings us back to the question of who is profiting from them. AUMOHD, in a long study done on the ground, has come to believe that the idea that these are only Lavalas armed groups that operate in the country is false and biased.

Every sector according to their own interest maintains and manipulates a small group of vulnerable people, victims of this political and social system, to take care of their own business.

Thus, AUMOHD has identified the following:

(1) Armed gangs in the real sense;
(2) The armed groups of resistance that claim to be attached to Fanmi Lavalas;
(3) The demobilized former military officers and soldiers; (4) The former members of the Front for the Advancement and the Progress of Haiti (FRADH); (5) The armed groups of the former opposition, and lastly,
(6) A group that is part of an invisible hand that classically wants to disrupt the country.

1. There are the armed gangs that multiply themselves more and more throughout the national territory. These people benefit from the lax approach and clumsiness of this interim government incapable of mounting a national plan of adequate security to put a stop to these agents of disruption.

2. There are the resistance groups that claim to be attached to
Fanmi Lavalas which is demanding the unconditional return of Ex-President Jean-Bertrand ARISTIDE.

3. The former military officers, demobilized after the return to
constitutional order in 1994, work anarchically since the forced
departure of Ex-Président Jean-Bertrand ARISTIDE, and outside of any
state-controlled structure. This is extremely dangerous for a State
that wants itself to be democratic where rules the principle: "ubi
ius ibi societas"
, "where there is law there is a viable state."

AUMOHD asserts that it is unbelievable and inadmissible to allow an
armed body to function in this generalized disorder. Moreover AUMOHD
does not accept and could in no way accept the irresponsible and
irrational manner in which the interim government is planning to
resolve the problem of the former soldiers. On this point AUMOHD
wishes to note two flagrant cases:

First Case: Unbelieveable Disarmament Program
What an absurdity to try to make the people believe that seven and
only seven (7) unused weapons were turned in, during a ceremony that
took place at Cape Haitien on Sunday, March 13, 2005, to Prime
Minister Gérard LATORTUE by the two hundred (200) demobilized
military officers who were illegally occupying an old prison at Cape
Haitian. AUMOHD wonders why such a ceremony and such a delegation to
collect only seven (7) unused weapons. "Somewhere, something is
strange."

AUMOHD is within its right to question all the more because of this
demagogic step. Why so long a trip for only seven (7) worn out
weapons? Why so big a ceremony? Why so big a delegation with the
presence of the government leader, Gérard LATORTUE, of Lawyer Michel
Brunache representing the Head of State, of Lawyer Bernard POD,
Minister of Justice and Public Security, of Ms. Magalie Comeau DENIS,
Minister of Culture and Communication, of Lawyer Juan GABRIEL Valdès,
special representative of the General Secretary of the United Nations
in Haïti and so many other personages of high rank for only seven (7)
weapons? A State that respect itself cannot use the taxes of the
citizens to pay for the luxury of demagoguery.


Second case: Petit Goave
The tragic events at Petit Goave occurred on Sunday March 20, 2005,
which resulted in this unhappy report: four deaths two of whom were
presumed members of the demobilized military officers, Joseph Jean
GARRY and Saint Félix ZEDNE, and two Sri Lankan soldiers.

More than a dozen wounded including: Jean Robenson LARAQUE a journalist of the
Radio TV Contact, the latter a victim under the porch of said
station. Passersby, Phara LOUISIUS, Joseph Jean HORIGENE and others
in the band of former military officers like: Wilner JOHN BAPTIST,
Adrien DORVILIEN, Joseph DESAMOUR, Melyle JEUNE, Fritzner OCCIDENTAL
and Louis JOSEPH and more than 37 arrested persons (captured) among
whom, Jameson BATICHO who was arrested and mistreated after having
been identified as a former soldier because he was wearing camouflage
pants. It must be noted that he was beaten and chained by some
MINUSTAH soldiers to a wall where he had to sleep on the ground.

AUMOHD has to remind the national and international community that
this unfortunate event took place even though a mutual agreement
(gentlemen's) was made between the former military officers and a
local commission comprised of The Citizens' Initiative of Petit Goave
(ICPG), the local press, the judge and City Hall. According to this
agreement, the demobilized military officers would have left the
offices of the police station
on Tuesday March 22, 2005 - three (3) days
after aggressive attack by MINUSTAH.

According to some eyewitnesses of this modern barbarity, the military
agents of the UN forces who behaved as soldiers in a great hurry
opened fire on a furious crowd, discontented with the bad treatment
inflicted on the former military officers who did not pose an
immediate threat, according to them, to the people. So where was the
government in this unfortunate event, the Prime Minister? The Interim
Government leader declared publicly that his government ordered this
slaughter and therefore it is the principal author. Then what difference is there between the alleged massacre at La Scierie and the slaughter in Petit Goave? (note: The interim government put former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and former Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert in prison for nearly a year, both, accused of involvement in the alleged massacred at La Scirerie that many international obsevers found did not happen.)

IV.- THE NATIONAL POLICE OF HAITI OVERRUN BY THE EVENTS


This National police, founded after the return to constitutional
order in 1995, is comprised currently of a very minimal force of 3600
for a population of more than 8.000.000 million, 40 policemen poorly
equipped and miserably paid. for each hundred thousand (100.000)
inhabitants. According to a deployment plan unequally spread out
again you will understand quickly enough the security situation of
the communes and community sections of country currently left to
themselves. Out of a force of 3628 in total:

1.- The department of the West has itself more than 48% of the entire
police force of the Republic, that is,1775 policemen for 3,098.699
inhabitants.

2.- The department of the North has only 363 for a
population of 773.546 inhabitants.

3.- The Department. of Artibonite has 300 for a population of
1,070,397 inhabitants

4.- The department of the South has 242 policemen for 627.311 inhabitants.

5.- The department of the Southeast has 217 policemen for 449,585 inhabitants.

6.- The Northeastern department has 188 policemen for 445.080 inhabitants.

7.- The Department of the Center has 187 policemen for 565.043
inhabitants.

8.- The department of Grand Anse has 235 policemen for
603,894 inhabitants

9.- The Northeastern department has 121 policemen for 300.493 inhabitants.

This unequal deployment picture shows that the department of West
alone holds for itself nearly 50% of the total National police force.

Today the Haitian National Police, created to guarantee public order
and protection of life and property of citizens, finds itself
confronting not only the serious problems of a technical order,
equipment and logistics, but also has a serious credibility crisis.

This crisis of mistrust is due to their systematic violations of
human rights: illegal and arbitrary arrests; extended and improper
detentions and summary executions. This, despite the considerable
efforts of the Inspector General of said institution to right the
ship, the civilian population does not stop seeing it as a body of
gangsters, of killers, of drug traffickers, even though the Haitian
Constitution of March 29 1987 currently in force, in its sections 273
and following, gave to the National Police of Haïti the status as the
helper of justice. This was for the purpose of taking care the
principle, "the Bayonet is iron, the Constitution is paper." In
practice unfortunately, it has not respected this constitutional
hierarchy and has become a body functioning as a political militia,
as true transgressors of human rights.Two Cases: National Penitentiary and Fort Nationale.

Today the examples are numerous and various. AUMOHD wants for a
second time to attract national and international attention to:

The slaughters that took place at the National Penitentiary on December 1
2004, that has cost the lives of more than a hundred 100 inmates, and
the one that took place at Fort Nationale, November 23, 2004 where
thirteen (13) young people were killed;

The illegal descent by the police on the premises of Radio MEGASTAR under false pretenses and without foundation;

Brutal attacks made many times over to disperse demonstrations of partisans of Jean-Bertrand ARISTIDE notably the brutal attack of February 28, 2005 on a peaceful demonstration in Bel Air, killing three (3) demonstrators: Dieudonne JUSTE,16 years old, Alexandre François, 18 years old, Chichi, 23 years old, and several injured by bullets.

AUMOHD finds it hard to understand the declaration made by the spokeswoman for the National Police, Mrs. Jessie Cameau COICOU who would have the people believe that shots were not fired on the demonstrators on February 28, even though the
press and MINUSTAH were witness to the inappropriate attack by the
Hatian National Police.

Responsibilities of Police

AUMOHD wants to remind for a second time the persons in charge of the
Haitian Police Institution in general and the policemen in particular
that the Haitian Constitution currently in force, in its articles 274
and following, has made agents of the national police a civilized
person who has both civil and criminal responsibility for his/her
actions. It takes the occasion, among others, to remind them of their
obligation during an arrest:*

1. The policeman must tell the arrested person, why he/she is
arrested;

2. He must notify the government prosecutor and the judge immediately of this arrest;

3. He must tell the defendant that he has a right to a lawyer or
witness of his choosing at the time of the hearing;

4. He must take the person to court within 48 hours to appear before the judge.Policemen must know among other things:


*One does not arrest a person for the purpose of investigation but
after the investigation (art.24.1Cont.1987)

*All arrested persons are presumed innocent (art. 11 DUDH) *The policeman doesn't have authorization to make up his own (?) crime (art.10 DUDH)

*A person cannot be in place of another (art.24.3 Cont. 1987)

*A person cannot be questioned in the absence of his lawyer or of a
witness of his choice (art.25.1 Cont. 1987)

* A person cannot be deprived of his life under pretext of attacking the police (6.1 pact int. Civil and political rights)

In such a case, the police officer must understand: that all persons,
victims of an arbitrary act can go to court and have the right to
prosecute the authors and/or the enforcers of these arbitrary acts.

(Art. 27 of the constitution of March 29 1987)



V. MINUSTAH IN A DIFFICULT MISSION

The Mission of the United Nations, as it is called, for Stabilization
in Haïti (MINUSTAH) has currently more than seven thousand four
hundred (7.400) blue helmets, a majority of whom are of Brazilian
nationality, along with Jordanians, Argentineans, Pakistanis
Chileans, Chinese, Sri Lankans, Moroccans, and Nepalese, and more
than a thousand (1000) civilian policemen. This mission replaced on
June 1st, 2004, a multinational force of three thousand three hundred
(3.300) military officers directed by the United States of America.

According to a resolution of the Security Council MINUSTAH was to
have six thousand seven hundred (6.700) soldiers and one thousand six
hundred (1.600) policemen. In terms of material and logistical means, it has enough means to adequately fulfill their official mandate given by the United Nations which is: to reestablish a State of law and to protect the human rights of people in Haïti.

Ten months after the expectations are not fulfilled, the pledges of
the United Nations still remain only pious phrases. The security
situation of the country is becoming more precarious, no disarmament
and the illegally armed groups are functioning without the least
worry. The situation of human rights remains very disturbing,
arbitrary arrest, extended and improper detentions, summary
executions, political persecution in a modern form.

Haïti is becoming a powder keg that will take the smallest spark to
blow it up. Considering the declaration of the Brazilian general,
commander in chief of this mission when he says that, "he will not
disarm armed people", one has the right to question what exactly is
the mission of the these foreign men heavily armed in a country that
is taking on the form a volcano that is going to explode? Listening
to the declaration of the principal counselor of the Brazilian
president in Haïti, Mr. Marco Aurelio GARCIA when he says, "If you're
expecting more, there will be no more Haïti", then, everyone has the
right to worry about the future of this first Free Black Republic in
the world. Think about the mounting phenomenon of insecurity on the
eve of the elections for November 2005 next one.

A Failure From The Technical And Logistical Viewpoint

If this official mandate of the United Nations given to Brazil as the
leader is to be evaluated, it certainly will not made the grade
because it has not shown the ability of a highly capable leadership
throughout this mission that seems to be fanciful, an all too
embarrassing test for Brazil which is in the process of making its
attempt in a complex environment where the stakes are high. First,
Brazil is the only country on the American continent that speaks
Portuguese not knowing either Creole or French or English or Spanish.

In terms of communication, Brazil is completely isolated from Haïti
that speaks Creole and French as official languages and English and
Spanish as next in line. This cultural problem tied to language has
caused a lack of understanding of the Haitian reality by the
Brazilian command that finds itself every day in the field with a lot
of tanks and trucks, but really not present in terms of getting the
job done appropriately. Secondly, in political matters, Haïti
completely has surpassed Brazil, therefore giving rise to an historic
superiority complex confronting the UN leadership in the form of a
test.

On this point for example, on Sunday March 20, last, in order
to evict about forty (40) presumed former demobilized military
officers armed with twelve rifles and some guns who had illegally
occupied the offices of the police in Petit Goave, a much larger
number of troops of MINUSTAH made up of Jordanians and Sri Lankans
accompanied by more than thirty (30) fighter tanks, an ambulance,
trucks and a helicopter, was sent. Unfortunately, two deaths and
several injuries were recorded on the side of MINUSTAH; on the side
of the demobilized military officers, two deaths are recorded,
namely, Joseph JOHN GARRY and Saint Félix ZEDME; injured were: Wilner
JOHN BAPTIST, Adrien DORVILIEN, Joseph DESAMOUR, Melyle JEUNE,
Fritzner WESTERN, and Louis JOSEPH. It is necessary to note that
among those injured by bullets, there is John Robenson LARAQUE a
journalist of the station of the Radio/TV Contact, the latter a
victim under the porch of said radio station; passersby were also
victims of this operation, as is the case for Phara LOUISUIS and
Joseph ORIGENE.

Following this assault, a climate of general insecurity has taken over the country, especially after the public call by the demobilized soldiers' central commander, MR. Joseph JOHN BAPTIST, to join the urban guerrilla army.


A Failure From The Moral Viewpoint
In addition to the technical and operational failures, MINUSTAH has
also failed morally. On February 18, 2005, three soldiers of this UN
mission of Pakistani nationality raped a girl 23 years old in
Gonaives. Worse, the spokesman of said mission, Damian Onses CARDONA
admits that in effect there were sexual relations between Nadège
NICOLAS and the soldiers of MINUSTAH, even though she didn't say how
and in what condition three men can have sexual contact with a girl
at once and why they would use a banana plantation for such a act. It
is necessary to note that this case is not in the least unique. In
the month of January 2005, MINUSTAH soldiers arrested Dimmy CHARLES .

A few days later, he was found murdered riddled with bullets out on
the street.



CONCLUSION:


SOME ESSENTIAL RECOMMENDATIONS TO REMEDY THIS SITUATION IF ONE REALLY WANTS TO SAVE HAITI FROM A HUMANITARIAN CATASTROPHE

- In the face of this de facto situation of unrest and of generalized
confusion;

- Considering the almost total failure of the international community
regarding the Haitian crisis which, instead of playing a constructive
role in the economical, social and political problems of the country,
has unfortunately reduced it to an almost ungovernable entity by
their clumsy stand;

- Considering that Haïti is the first Black and
Free and Independent Republic in the world, the second free and
independent country of the American continent;

Haiti cannot and would in no way accept any planned PROTECTORATE
under the pretext that she is becoming a pariah State or on the way
to extinction. The Haitian people do not deserve this treatment or
this deceptive attitude and diplomatic hypocrisy.

- Whereas this Nation-State was the one that initiated the most
complex fight of modern times, who alone and all at once was able to
make good on the social claims of the oppressed masses against the
monopolists and oppressors and the racists, the claims of poor Blacks
who had been snatched out of their homeland and introduced to an
unprecedented, subhuman situation;

- Noting once again the publicly acknowledged and confirmed
bankruptcy of this Interim government which knowingly put aside its
principal mission, that of National Reconciliation, and of
reestablishing a climate of security and of confidence for holding
good elections;

- Considering the failure of the Haitian political class composed in
major part of leaders without a modern vision of politics and of
crisis-makers of all sorts;

THEREFORE:

We, the members of The Association of University Students
Motivated for a Haïti with Rights (AUMOHD), whose principal Mission
is to promote the rights and the dignity of the human person, wishes
to propose and in fact proposes to the Interim Government, to the
International Community, and to all those who are able in one way or
another to facilitate a happy outcome of this contrived crisis that
has continued on for too long a time, as the last and indispensable
recourse to a real rectification of the current situation in Haiti.

PROPOSAL I

- The creation of a physical meeting space to undertake in a serious
manner a National Dialog under the auspices of the local Haitian
churches as facilitator. This National Dialog would include all the
organized sectors of the country, notably: the Haitian press, Haitian
political Parties, social groups, unions, the representatives of the
nine departments of the country with a peasant representation and a
representation of the Haitian diaspora. This National Dialog, to
arrive at a serious and lasting National Reconciliation, must hold a
place for all political exiles including Jean Claude DUVALIER, Henri
Namphy and Jean Bertrand ARISTIDE etc. This is a National
Reconciliation that becomes an absolutely essential step for
eventually beginning a new political order capable of bringing about
National Reconstruction. To effectively begin this common undertaking
AUMOHD proposes the creation of a climate of trust that would favor
this collective undertaking.

For this, AUMOHD proposes:


1.- To the Interim Government that they talk in a more peaceful
manner.

2.- The liberation of all political prisoners and of all those who
were arrested and or held arbitrarily. AUMOHD means by "political
prisoners" all those who were arrested and/or held for purely
political reasons.

3.- The formation of an independent commission that will have for
its mission to study any and all cases of arbitrary and illegal
dismissal from office that took place after the departure of the
former administration and to make relevant recommendations to the
authorities of the country.


PROPOSAL II


AUMOHD proposes next an independent and international Investigative
Commission for shedding light on:

1. The event that took place at the Fort Nationale where twelve
persons reportedly were killed by the National Police

2.- The event that took place on Wednesday in the evening on December 1 2004, at the National Penitentiary, an event in the course of which a large
number of prisoners reportedly were killed by the National police.

Also on Thursday February 19, 2005 an event during which more than
450 prisoners are reported to have escapes from of the largest
penitentiary of the country.

3. Cases of assassination and summary executions that took place in popular neighborhoods as in Bel Air, Village de Dieu and other neighborhoods victims of violations of the human rights.


PROPOSAL III

The re-evaluation of the mandate of the Mission of the United Nations
for the Stabilization in Haïti (MINUSTAH) and an investigation by
international human rights organizations into the violations of human
rights by this UN body, notably in:

1. The unfortunate events of Petit Goave on March 19, 2005.

2. The incidents of Gonaïves where 34 pupils were victims in the inside
of their school.

3. The rape cases on the person of Nadège NICOLAS.

Cc: Interim Government
MINUSTAH
Local and International Press
U.S. Department of State
Security Council of UN
U.S. Congress
Organization of American States OAS
Haitian Episcopal Conference
Protestant Federation of Haïti

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Denounce Canada's role in Haiti: Canadian officials Contact Infomation
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Urge the Caribbean Community to stand firm in not recognizing the illegal Latortue regime:

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Addresses
zilibutton Slide Show   at the July 27, 2004 Haiti Forum Press Conference during the DNC in Boston honoring those who stand firm for Haiti and democracy; those who tell the truth about Haiti; Presenting the Haiti Resolution, and; remembering Haiti's revolutionary legacy in 2004 and all those who have lost life or liberty fighting against the Feb. 29, 2004 Coup d'etat and its consequences
     
 
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