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

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AUMOHD PRESS CONFERENCE
April 21, 2005 Sweety Restaurant
Autoroute de Delmas 29 en face de Delmas 2000
Association of University Graduates Motivated for a Haiti with Rights
(AUMODH)

"NO ELECTIONS WITHOUT NATIONAL HEALING"

"No elections without national healing." This was the theme of
a press conference yesterday, 4/21/05, held at the Sweety Restaurant
in the Port-Au-Prince neighborhood of Delmas 29, by AUMOHD, a young
Haitian human rights advocacy group. Instead of an improved human
rights record in the past year since the departure of President
Aristide, "things have gotten worse", declared lawyer Evel FANFAN,
President of AUMOHD.

FANFAN highlighted the human rights abuses of both the
Latortue/Alexander interim government and the U.N. mission, MINUSTAH,
and said, "Unless we undertake an authentic national reconciliation
process both acknowledging and repairing these abuses, we cannot have
credible elections in Haiti. Instead we will only have 'selections'
carried out by the traditional political class and our country's
democracy will not be restored. The human rights abuses have
targeted the poor masses of our country, resulting in excluding the
poor from the national dialog."

Thursday's press conference was directed to both the Haitian and
international community to put the spotlight on what is being ignored
in the mainstream press locally and abroad, the conscious exclusion
of the poor leading up to the planned elections in the fall. AUMOHD
brought to the conference a half dozen mothers from the poor
Port-Au-Prince neighborhood of Cite Soleil. These women testified to
the terror unleashed only a few weeks before on their families by
MINUSTAH. They described how their homes were broken into by
MINUSTAH troops who sprayed tear gas on all the occupants, and then
snatched all male teenagers, putting them illegally into detention
centers. One mother wailed for 5 minutes about the random shooting
by MINUSTAH of her 15 year old daughter resulting in her daughter's
senseless death.

AUMOHD issued a 20 page report at the press conference detailing
these abuses and many others documenting a practice by the Haitian
government, under the eyes of MINUSTAH, of illegal arrests,
prolonged detention and no trials of scores of poor people resulting
in a terrorized population. Reports of summary executions by random
shooting by the government forces and other forms of intimidation are
included in the report. The cover of the report shows gruesome
pictures of victims of this campaign, both civilian and governmental.

President Fanfan decried the behavior of the Latortue/Alexander
interim government noting the high level judicial position of Mr.
Alexander, former head of the Haitian Supreme Court and a professor
of law. "We shouldn't be in a state of war against the poor, we have
a socio-economic breakdown to rectify. The poor majority is
suffering more than before. These brutal attacks on innocent poor
people are inept, crass approaches to dealing with the real problems.

It is a lie that only the so-called 'pro-Aristide bandits' are the
cause of the violence," asserted Fanfan. AUMOHD details a half-dozen
other entities involved in violence. As a prime example of
incompetence of MINUSTAH, AUMOHD's report cites the case of the
attack on the former military holding a police station in Petit Goave
last month. "The community there, through diplomacy and non-violent
conflict resolution, had already achieved a staged withdrawal of the
former military. But MINUSTAH launched a military assault using
deadly force and alienating the entire population."

Pointing out its origins during the Aristide administration and
its non-partisan constitution, AUMOHD's President Fanfan implored,
?all Haitians to stop and ask ourselves whether, under the present
circumstances, any credible elections can be held. The examples of
the mothers from Cite Soleil are just a few cases representative of a
general intimidation of 80% of the nation's citizens, the poor,
resulting in their exclusion from participating in the national
dialog now being carried on by the 20% of those who enjoy the
luxuries of Haiti." Fanfan also decried the ?inhumane, slave-like,
chaining of former military to their hospital beds,? as another
example of grave abuses of human rights. ?We propose a genuine
healing of Haiti's sons and daughters before any elections are held.

We need to have a police force that is not only adequately staffed
but that is also behaving in conformance with the law. The sons and
daughters of Cite Soleil must no longer be victims of this wanton
killing,"said Fanfan in front of the assembled mothers from Cite
Soleil and the journalists gathered at Restaurant Sweety.

"MINUSTAH's failure is not only technical, but moral, "says
Fanfan. "This U.N. force should be promoting the highest of
civilized practices in calming a people wracked by unconstitutional
practices. The Latortue/Alexander government and MINUSTAH have made
a mockery of the disarmament procedure with their ceremony in
February when 7 arms, of old vintage, were handed in, continued
Fanfan. "Their continued persecution of poor neighborhoods is a
calculated creation of chaos under the pretext of rounding up of
so-called bandits. Such a practice is leading us to the creation of
a protectorate. AUMOHD categorically rejects the notion of a
protectorate," concluded Fanfan.

"A national dialog totally inclusive is what we are calling
for," pleaded Fanfan. "The 80% poor masses must be included:
peasants, civil societies, the churches, the press, the traditional
political class, the diaspora. Even the political exiles, Duvalier
and Aristide, everyone, must sit down and contribute to the healing
of our society,? insisted Fanfan. "We must have a lasting solution,
not more of the never-ending disruption of our political life; we
must have the cooperation of the international community in this
healing, not the destructive measures we have seen from MINUSTAH,"
Fanfan concluded.

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Report prepared on site in Port-au-Prince by Tom Luce, Coordinator of
April6Vt Citizens Lobby, 30 Park St., Barre, Vt. 05641, e-mail
coordinator@april6vt.org website: www.april6vt.org

AUMOHD (Association of University Graduates Motivated for a Haiti
with Rights) is a non-profit organization registered with the Haitian
government. Its current offices are located at 181, Autoroute de
Delmas 23 en face de la Sogebank, Port-Au-Prince Tel 509-249-3468
Cell of Pres. Fanfan, 424-3334 Check the website www.april6vt.org
for complete text of report and other relevant documents.
--

Translated by:
Tom Luce, Coordinator
April6Vt Citizens' Lobby
Vermonters Working Peacefully For Justice Worldwide
30 Park St.
Barre, Vt. 05641
Tel. 802-476-7056
www.april6vt.org

(See also AUMOHD's March 28, 2005 human rights report on HLLN website under Human Rights Reports:
Also, Tom Griffin's report for University of Miami Law school:

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Human Rights Investigation Calls Haiti “More Violent and More Inhuman”; Report Documents U.S. Role in Chaotic Interim Government
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0129-28.htm

Download CSHR report at:
http://www.law.miami.edu/news/368.html

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Forwarded by the Haitian Lawyers' Leadership Network
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Men Anpil Chaj Pa Lou!!! - is Kreyol for "Many hands make light a heavy load."

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Here is what you can do to help us help the people of Haiti:
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HLLN - Action Requested from Haiti solidarity groups and
Haitian activists for justice and democracy:

Subscribe to and circulate the Ezili Danto mailings and posts to your mailing lists and e-mail contacts. Subscribe or unsubscribe by writing to: Erzilidanto@yahoo.com

Adopt and circulate the Haiti Resolution (updated below) from the Haitian Lawyers
Leadership Network

Circulate the human rights reports, especially the latest Miami Law Center report

Do Press Work: Join our letter writing campaigns to help free the political prisoners in Haiti, to stop the persecution of Haiti's most popular political party and democratic movement and to restore Constitutional rule. Write a letter, call the media, fax, - See our Press Work page for sample letters and for contact information.

Volunteer to help us maintain our Contact Information Sheet by sending us updated or new phone numbers and addresses to put on our Contact Information Sheet pages

Virtual interns and volunteers are also needed to help us translate selected materials into French, Kreyol, or Spanish to reach a wider audience. Volunteers with some research and computer skills are likewise needed to help us update our "List of Victims" and "Personal Testimonies" pages under Campaign One. (We have the information, what we don't have we know where to extrapolate them, but need help to put it together and in the format on our website page.)

More Network volunteer also needed to concentrate as primary coordinators/contributors to one of our seven campaigns

One internet savvy volunteer needed who is interested in logging and archiving, for our new Ezili Danto blog, (not yet unveiled) the regular Erzilidanto posts we send out so that those who only want to see these at their leisure, or, who cannot receive daily mailings, will have alternative access to these materials and posts, in an archived format.

Fundraise for the work of HLLN. Donate to our projects. Or, earn money, save lives and spread meaning and value by becoming an HLLN Marketing Associate trained to train other HLLN Associates and licensed to use our logo and HLLN materials to sponsor a "To Tell The Truth about Haiti Forum and Teach-In." Proceeds from such courses and teach ins will go to pay the Associate and to continue the work of HLLN projects, such as, our partnership with AUMOHD, the young human rights lawyers in Haiti who are defending the defenseless poor whose only crime is that they voted for Lavalas, supported Constitutional rule or are resisting a return of the bloody U.S.-trained Haitian army and US-sponsored dictatorship. For information on AUMOHD, go to: http://www.april6vt.org/
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The Haiti Resolution:
1. Support the return of constitutional rule to Haiti by restoring all elected officials of all parties to their offices throughout the country until the end of their mandates and another election is held, as mandated by Haiti's Constitution;

2. Condemn the killings, illegal imprisonment and confiscation of the property of supporters of Haiti's constitutional government and insist that Haiti's illegitimate "interim government" immediately cease its own persecution and put a stop to persecution by the thugs and murderers from sectors in their police force,
from the paramilitaries, gangs and former soldiers;

3. Insist on the immediate release of all political prisoners in Haitian jails, including Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, other constitutional government officials and folksinger-activist Sò Ann;

4. Insist on the disarmament of the thugs, death squad leaders and convicted human rights violators and their prosecution for all crimes committed during the attack on Haiti's elected government and help rebuild Haiti's police force, ensuring that it excludes anyone who helped to overthrow the democratically elected
government or who participated in other human rights violations;

5. Stop the indefinite detention and automatic repatriation of Haitian refugees and immediately grant Temporary Protected Status to all Haitian refugees presently in the United States until democracy is restored to Haiti; and

6. Support the calls by the OAS, CARICOM and the African Union for an investigation into the circumstances of President Aristide's removal. Support the enactment of Congresswoman Barbara Lee's T.R.U.T.H Act (HR 3919) which calls for a U.S. Congressional investigation of the forcible removal of the democratically elected President and government of Haiti.

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