|
|
******************************
***************
Haitian recipients
of USAID/IRI/NED/EU to destabilize, starve democracy and foment
violence and Coup D'etat, mostly under the guise of "democracy
or justice and peace enhancement programs
******************************
***************
The subcontracted Haitians below have sold the nation to foreigners
and their NGOs in exchange for visas, jobs and a few "trickle
down" dollars:
Stanley
Lucas* (For more on
Stanley Lucas see Bush's
man for Cuba author of the Haitian Disaster )
M. Rosny Desroches
M. Rosny Desroches, The Initiative de la Societe Civile (ISC)
Andy Apaid, Jr., The Fondation Nouvelle Haiti (FNH)
Andy Apaid, Jr., Group 184
M. Rosny Desroches, Fondation Haitienne de l'Enseignement Prive
(FONHEP)
Democratic Convergence Coalition
Gerard Gourgue, President of Democratic Convergence and legal
consultant to
Altech (a Belgium firm to build a purified water system known
as Hydopur
in Haiti's Artibonite Valley.
* Judith Roy, Democratic Convergence (member)
* Arcelin Paul, Democrataic Convergence (member)
* Ariel Henry, Democratic Convergence (member)
* Gerard Gourgue, Democratic Convergence (member)
Himmler Rebu, army
officer involved in several coup attempts
Leopold Berlanger, Radio Vision2000
Suzy Castor, Organisation du Peuple en Lutte (political party)&
CRESFED
Jessie Benoit, Konakom (political party) and MOUFHED
Jean-Claude Bajeux - CEDH
Pierre Esperance, National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR)
Michele Pierre-Louis, Fondation Connaissance et Libertè
(fokal)
Herard Abraham, Minister Affair Etrange
Herbert Widmaier - Association National Media Ayisyen - (ANMR),
Director/Radyo
Metropole
Ann Marie Issa - Vis Prezidan, Association National Media Ayisyen
-(ANMR), Signal FM, (also a current member of the Coup D'etat's
"Wise Council.")
- Rico Duplan, Director, Federasyon Baro Ayisyen (AMANA)
(Gervais Charles, member of Group 184 replaced Rico Duplan
as head of AMANA.
AMANA funded ANDM)
- Jean Peres Paul, Assosiasyon Nasyonal Des Majistra (ANDM) |
ANAMAH, the national judges' association, was created by USAID
programs and heavily funded by the IFES program as part of the
effort to set up a civil society opposition to Haiti's constitutional
government.
- Federation des Etudiants Universitaires d'Haiti, similarly created
by IFES through USAID funding to subvert Haiti's democratically
elected government.
- Other,
subcontracted Haitians include:PAPDA,
CARLI, CONAP and ENFOFANM.
(See, CIDA’s
Key Role in Haiti’s 2004 Coup d’État: Funding
Regime Change, Dictatorship and Human Rights Atrocities, one Haitian
"NGO" at a Time)
******************************
The Massacres & Abitrary
imprisonments (See, Bush
bloodbath brought to Haiti: List of Victims and Massacres since
the Bi-centennial Coup D'etat):
Under the leadership of de facto Haitian authorities (from 2004
to 2006), such as:
Bernard Gousse, Former Minister of Justice;
Henri Dorlèan, his successor as defacto
Justice Minister
Herard Abraham, defacto Minister of Foreign Affairs (former
army general and former interior minister under Latortue)
Lèon Charles, Former de facto Chief of
Police
Mario Andresol, current defacto Chief of Police
David Basile, defacto Secretary
of State for Public Security
Renand Etienne, Direction Departementale De L'Ouest ("DDO")
with US/UN- backed men-in-black-former-Haitian-military dressed-up
as "police" referred as CIMO or SWAT units and their
civilian attaches in regular clothes, allegedly hired by Renand
Etienne's DDO as
A.S. DDO operatives - (such as
"Jaki" who is accused of taking part
in the Solino (August 5-10, 2005 Solino machete massacres of even
a pregnant woman;
and other similar acting A.S.-DDO operatives such as the ones
known to their Bel Air Haitian victims as:
Jean Yves “Nasson” Gerald;
Narage “Eleus” Laguerre;
St. Gor “Père Reklè” Clermond;
and,
“Gwo Fanfan” who were, according
to the people in Bel Air, the shooters who fired into the crowd
killing and wounding peaceful unarmed demonstrators February 28,
2005 in plain sight of Haitian police, international media and
UN troops.
Chief of police at Martissant -
Summer Camp For Peace Soccer Massacre, on Aug. 20 and 21, 2005:
According to witnesses who live in the Grand Ravine area,
more than 50 people
where slaughtered during a soccer game on Sat. August 20 and the
next day, Sunday, August 21, 2005 by civilian
attaches to the Haitian police, particularly to the chief
of police of Martissant. Victims and witnesses testified
that these attaches wore red shirts and head bands and
were equipped with machetes and hatchets distributed by the police
at the Martissant police station. The people of Grand Ravine and
those attending the soccer match recognized and identified these
executioners the same men who were at least a month previously
thrown out of the area as trouble makers and among whom were some
of the prison escapees let out during the coup d'etat. (AUMODH
report) The people in the Martissant area identify
some of these assassins by name as follows:
Georges Jean Yves,
Gérard, aka, Gwo l'Ombril (Big Belly Button),
Élifet aka Tête Calé (Shaved Head),
Ti Clody,
Rudy,
Joël,
Eddy,
Apoupann aka Colonel,
Ronald Toussaint,
Kiki ,
Rocky Rambo, and
Cliska. - (See: List
of Coup d'etat attaches - Lame Timanchet)
Fort National Massacre
on October 26, 2004 - A certain Desiral, agent
#4 in the police force was the head of the men-in-black
commando unit that massacred 18
people at Fort National. After the massacre, said Desiral, was
promoted within the police "agent" ranks.
(Bush
bloodbath brought to Haiti: List of Victims and Massacres
and List
of protected Coup d'etat attaches - Lame Timanchet
)
The US-installed and maintained
de facto Latortue regime has presided over systematic State-sponsored
summary executions, indefinite detentions, mutilations, rapes
and brutal repression in Haiti. The witch hunt against Lavalas
and the poor demanding return to Constitutional rule from Feb.
29, 2004 to present led by the above-identified de facto Haitian
authorities are supported, encouraged and guided by the coordinated
and focused efforts of the US/Canada and France through military,
technical, diplomatic and humanitarian pressure along with unremitting
UN and Haiti "police" incursions into the poor sections
of Haiti. (Note, for example, the diplomatic and public dispatches
of the chief U.S. architects of the bi-centennial Coup D'etat
-
Roger Noreiga,
James Foley and
Haiti
Democracy Project's Timothy Carney
(the interim US ambassador replacing James Foley and former US
ambassador to Haiti (1998 to 1999)
- as they push for more aggressive UN action and do not discourage
the summary execution of people in the black poor neighborhoods
demanding return of the Constitutional government. Noreiga's
comments to Miami Herald and Foley's
comments, (trial by innuendo against Haiti's poor and strongest
political party) on July 4, 2005 (reported
by AHP) singling out Lavalas
as "bandits," "gangsters" and clearly signaling
to UN & MINUSTHA permission to continue their brutal incursions
and be more aggressive in silencing these US policymakers' political
oppositions in Haiti.) - Look up generally
our Human
Rights Reports, Ezili
Danto Witness Project, Press
Work, Ezili
Danto Listserve and Haitian
Perspectives.
For brief background information, see, International
Politics and Haiti in 2004
- On events of February 2004; why the US and France
fueled the fire of coup d'etat in Haiti, ordered Aristide's Steel
Security detail to leave immediately, conducted Haiti's 33rd Coup,
flew Aristide to the Central African Republic where a France-allied
strongmen had removed said countries elected president the year
before, then after Jamaica gave Aristide temporary asylum, Condoleezza
Rice threatened Jamaica if Aristide stayed in the Western Hemisphere.
"Ms. Rice told the Jamaican Government that if Aristide was
not expelled immediately, and anything happened to American forces
in Haiti, that the consequences of that would be exacted against
a president or against Jamaica by the United States with full
force." See,
Democracy Now: Condoleezza Rice Threatens Jamaica Over Aristide.
The Bush Administration
replaced the ousted constitutional Haitian government with a Florida
contingent, Duvalierists, neo-conservative anti-poor Haitian economic
elites, CIA-FRAPH assassins and bloody ex-military
officers.
Canada's
Role in the Coup D'etat in Haiti
France's
Role in the Coup D'etat in Haiti
List
of Coup d'etat attaches - Lame Timanchet
******************************
***************
Notes: According to Ronald St. Jean interview on August
11, 2005 with
a correspondent in Haiti for the Ezili Danto Witness Program,
the Coup D'etat
organizations where paid more than 100million dollars to destroy
the
Constitutional government. IRI and IFES financed and empowered
Coup
D'etat groups, organizing monthly workshops for these organizations
in
the Dominican Republic with the students and university professors
like
Hubert DeRonceray, with ANMH radio stations, radio journalists
and
right wing press like Leopold Berlanger (RadioVision2000), Ann
Marie
Issa (Cignal FM), Widmaier (Radio Metropole); and human rights
organizations such as NCHR and Jean Claude Bajeux's organization.
Herard Abraham met with Ravix in the Dominican Republic with these
monies to buy arms and financed troops for the Coup D'etat.
In an updated interview with Ezili Danto on August 18, 2005 on
the
Ronald St. Jean interview, our Ezili Danto (ED)collaborator indicated
that Apaid's
organization, FNH, received 900million in Euros from the European
Union.
According to the ED source, Rosemond St. Jean and Apaid agrued
because Rosemond St. Jean accused Apaid of taking the money and
that
his organization did not get a good apportionment.
******************************
***************
There are fourteen organisations listed by the EC as among those
receiving EC funding
via M. Desroches and the FNH. These 14 organisations are:
FNH - Fondation Nouvelle Haiti;
CCIH - Chambre de commerce et d'industrie;
CNEH - Confederation Nationale des educateurs
haitiens;
OGITH - Organisation generale independante des
travailleurs haitiens;
CRESFED - Centre de Recherche et de Formation
Economique et Sociale;
MOUFHED - Mouvement des femmes haitiennes pour
l'education et le
developpement;
CEDH - Centre oecumenique des droits humains;
Commission Justice et Paix;
Femmes en democratie;
KOP (Coordination des organisations populaires);
CEPRODHD - Centre pour la promotion des droits
humains et de la
democratie en Haiti;
FPDH - Fondation pour la Promotion des droits
de l'homme;
CREDH - Centre de recherche pour le developpement
humain;
CED - Collectif pour l'education et le developpement.
**
*With USAID monies - a $2 million grant - in
1998, Stanley Lucas, working for the
IRI "hosted some of Aristide's most virulent opponents
in political training sessions. What he did was he merged all
of these disparate groups into one big party called the Democratic
Convergence. Now, the Democratic Convergence is not a traditional
political party, it's more like the political wing of a coup,
because the strategy that it took was to forego the democratic
process entirely. Boycott elections and initiate what seemed like
an endless sequence of provocative protests. Between 2000 and
2002, the Democratic Convergence rejected over
20 internationally sanctioned power sharing agreements which heightened
the tension and provoked more violence. " (see, Stanley
Lucas and IRI).
************************
Notes:
*************************
1. The
2004 Removal of Jean-Betrand Aristide
| Center For Cooperative Research
2. Feeding Dependency, Starving Democracy: USAID Policies in Haiti
Grassroots International | 6 March 1997 |
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/597.html
3 . Desroches
and Apaid get Euro Funding for anti-government civil society front
(http://haitisupport.gn.apc.org/184%20EC.htm)
4 . Stanley
Lucas and the International Republican Institute (IRI)
http://www.sourcewatch.org/wiki.phtml?title=Talk:Stanley_Lucas
5 . ) USAID-
Haiti: Program Data Sheet
http://www.usaid.gov/pubs/cbj2003/lac/ht/521-005.html
6 . http://www.haitipolicy.org/HDPRpt4.htm#TOC2_1 - Names
7 . Help
Save Yvon Neptune's Life - Yvon Neptunes' Letter From Jail , February
24, 2005 http://www.williambowles.info/haiti-news/2005/neptune_jail.html
8. World
History Archives': The working-class history of the Republic of
Haiti
9 . Propaganda
War Intensifies Against Haiti as Oppositon Grabs for Power by
Kevin Pina, Black Commentator, Oct. 30, 2003.
10 . "...even the departing U.S. Ambassador to Haiti, Brian
Curran, lashed out against some U.S. political operatives, calling
them the "Chimeres of Washington" (a Haitian term for
political criminals). The most recent of these Chimeres have been
associated with the Haiti Democracy Project (HDP), headed by former
State Department official James Morrell and funded by the right-wing
Haitian Boulos family.
In December 2002, the HDP literally created from whole cloth a
new public relations face for the official opposition, the "Coalition
of 184 Civic Institutions," a laundry list of Haitian NGOs
funded by USAID and/or the IRI, as well as by the Haitian-American
Chamber of Commerce and other groups.
During the [1991-1994] coup and since, USAID-sponsored "democracy
enhancement" has done its job: whole segments of the popular
movement were chilled or co-opted. Popular leaders were at first
killed off or encouraged to emigrate; later, many of the rest
were bought off. What was once among the most mobilized populations
in the hemisphere has become severely demobilized." Still
Up Against the Death Plan in Haiti: The Aristide government is
straitjacketed by U.S. low-intensity warfare and neoliberal economic
demands by Tom Reeves, Dollars and Sense, Sept/Oct.
2003
*********************
The Selected Articles:
*********************
The
2004 Removal of Jean-Betrand Aristide
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=
the_2004_removal_of_jean-bertrand_aristide
Early May 2003 Haiti Coup
A group of at least 20 paramilitary soldiers—trained and
funded by the US (see (2001-2004)) —cross into Haiti from
the neighboring Dominican Republic and attack a hydroelectric
power plant on Haiti's central plateau. Shortly after the attack,
Dominican authorities, at the behest of the Haitian government,
arrest five men, including Guy Philippe, in connection with the
paramilitary operation. But they are quickly released by the Dominicans
who say there is no evidence of their involvement in the attack.
Philippe is interviewed by the Associated Press afterwards and
asked what he is doing in the Dominican. Philippe, who mentions
to the reporter that he would support a coup against Aristide,
refuses to “say how he makes a living or what he does to
spend his time in the Dominican Republic.” Less than one
year later, Philippe will participate in the overthrow of the
Aristide government. [The Black Commentator, 5/15/2003] On the
same day the five men are detained, Haitian authorities raid the
Port-au-Prince residence of mayoral candidate Judith Roy of the
Democratic Convergence opposition. The Haitians claim to find
“assault weapons, ammunitions, and plans to attack the National
Palace and Aristide's suburban residence.” The Haitian government
contends that Roy is close to Philippe. [The Black Commentator,
5/15/2003]
People and organizations involved: Guy
Phillippe, Democratic
Convergence,
Judith Roy
The
2004 Removal of Jean-Betrand Aristide
*
(2001-2004) Haiti, Haiti Coup
The following is an excerpt from this url:
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org
(2001-2004) Haiti, Haiti Coup
The United States Government funds and trains a 600-member paramilitary
army of anti-Aristide Haitians in the Dominican Republic with
the authorization of the country's president, Hipolito Mejia.
The funds—totaling $1.2 milllion—are directed through
the International Republican Institute (IRI) on the pretext of
encouraging democracy in Haiti. In order to evade attention, the
paramilitary soldiers appear at their training sessions dressed
in the uniforms of the Dominican Republic national police. The
training—provided by some 200 members of the US Special
Forces—takes place in the Dominican villages of Neiba, San
Cristobal, San Isidro, Hatillo and Haina, and others. Most of
the training takes place on property owned by the Dominican Republic
Government. Technical training, conducted once a month, takes
place in a Santo Domingo hotel through the IRI. Among the Hatians
that take part in the program are known human rights violators
including Guy Philippe and Louis-Jodel Chamblain. [Democracy Now!,
4/7/2004; Radio Mundo, 4/2/2004; Xinhuanet, 3/29/2004; Newsday,
3/16/2004]
People and organizations involved: Guy Philippe, Louis-Jodel
Chamblain, International Republican Institute
February 2003 Haiti, Haiti Coup
Stanley Lucas, who is the point man in Haiti for the Republican-dominated
International Republican Institute (IRI) based in the Dominican
Republic, meets with Haitian rebel Guy Philippe and his men. Three
months later the group will cross into Haiti and attack a hydroelectric
power plant. Lucas has long ties to the Haitian military (see
Early May 2003). After the toppling of Aristide's government 12
months later, it will be learned that the group had been funded
and trained through the IRI (see (2001-2004)).
[The Black Commentator, 5/15/2003; Interhemispheric Resource Center
(IRC), 2/27/2004]
People and organizations involved: International Republican
Institute, Stanley Lucas, Guy Philippe
Early May 2003 Haiti Coup
A group of at least 20 paramilitary soldiers—trained and
funded by the US (see (2001-2004)) —cross into Haiti from
the neighboring Dominican Republic and attack a hydroelectric
power plant on Haiti's central plateau. Shortly after the attack,
Dominican authorities, at the behest of the Haitian government,
arrest five men, including Guy Philippe, in connection with the
paramilitary operation. But they are quickly released by the Dominicans
who say there is no evidence of their involvement in the attack.
Philippe is interviewed by the Associated Press afterwards and
asked what he is doing in the Dominican. Philippe, who mentions
to the reporter that he would support a coup against Aristide,
refuses to “say how he makes a living or what he does to
spend his time in the Dominican Republic.” Less than one
year later, Philippe will participate in the overthrow of the
Aristide government. [The Black Commentator, 5/15/2003]
On the same day the five men are detained, Haitian authorities
raid the Port-au-Prince residence of mayoral candidate Judith
Roy of the Democratic Convergence opposition. The Haitians claim
to find “assault weapons, ammunitions, and plans to attack
the National Palace and Aristide's suburban residence.”
The Haitian government contends that Roy is close to Philippe.
[The Black Commentator, 5/15/2003]
People and organizations involved: Guy Philippe, Democratic
Convergence, Judith Roy
More info about the Democratic Convergence and its relationship
to the IRI can be found at:
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?
entity=democratic_convergence
******************************
***************
Desroches
and Apaid get Euro funding for
anti-government civil society front
*
Haiti Support Group (http://haitisupport.gn.apc.org/184%20EC.htm)
*
Haiti Support Group press release: European Union funding for
members
of the Group of 184 - 11 November 2003
As a solidarity organisation formed by, composed of, and supported
by, citizens of the European Union, the Haiti Support Group feels
it right and proper to put certain information concerning the
European Commissions's human rights and democracy budget line
for Haiti into the public domain.
We are also motivated by the publication in September of the National
Coalition for Haitian Rights policy report, "Yon Sel Dwet
Pa Manje Kalalou: Haiti on the eve of its Bicentennial" which
contains the following sentence concerning the Group of 184:
"It is not yet clear who finances the group's activities
-- whether it receives funding from abroad or if its entire budget
comes from its membership or another arrangement altogether."
Thanks to information provided to the Haiti Support Group by the
European Commission (EC) staff in Brussels and the EC delegation
in Port-au-Prince, we are able to shed some light on this subject:
· The European Commission is co-financing a Human
Rights / Democracy
project with Haiti's Initiative de la Societe Civile (ISC) group.
The European Commission's contribution is 773,000 Euros (US$890,374
at today's exchange rate). The duration of the contract is from
21/12/2001 to 21/12/2003.
· The official recipients of this disbursement are
M. Rosny Desroches
and the Fondation Nouvelle Haiti. Rosny Desroches is the spokesperson
for the Initiative de la Societe Civile. The Fondation Nouvelle
Haiti
(FNH) is a member of the Initiative de la Societe Civile group.
According to the EC delegation in Port-au-Prince, the reason why
the amounts have been disbursed to the FNH and Rosny Desroches,
rather than the ISC, is that the ISC had not been officially registered
with the Haitian authorities at the time when the grant was authorised.
Regarding funding for the Group of 184:
It is known that Rosny Desroches is head of the Fondation Haitienne
de l'Enseignement Prive (FONHEP), and that the FNH is run by M.
Andre Apaid Jnr. Both FONHEP and FNH are members of the ISC. All
members of the ISC are also members of the Group of 184. Indeed,
Andre Apaid Jnr. is the Group of 184's main spokesperson.
According to the EC, M. Desroches and the FNH are charged with
disbursing the EC funds to "human rights groups" in
Haiti. Fourteen organisations are listed by the EC as among those
receiving EC funding via M. Desroches and the FNH. These 14 organisations
are:
FNH - Fondation Nouvelle Haiti;
CCIH - Chambre de commerce et d'industrie;
CNEH - Confederation Nationale des educateurs haitiens;
OGITH - Organisation generale independante des travailleurs haitiens;
CRESFED - Centre de Recherche et de Formation Economique et Sociale;
MOUFHED - Mouvement des femmes haitiennes pour l'education et
le
developpement;
CEDH - Centre oecumenique des droits humains;
Commission Justice et Paix;
Femmes en democratie;
KOP (Coordination des organisations populaires);
CEPRODHD - Centre pour la promotion des droits humains et de la
democratie en Haiti;
FPDH - Fondation pour la Promotion des droits de l'homme;
CREDH - Centre de recherche pour le developpement humain;
CED - Collectif pour l'education et le developpement.
The first seven organisations in the above list are members of
the
Group of 184:
· As we have already mentioned, the FNH is run by Andre
Apaid Jnr. - the Group of 184's main spokesperson. Another FNH
leader is Leopold Berlanger, the director of conservative radio
station, Radio Vision2000, and a long-time US favourite.
· The head of the CICH, Maurice Lafortune, has also appeared
in public as a Group of 184 spokesperson.
· The CNEH and the OGITH are trade unions, both members
of the Group of 184.
· The CRESFED is a non-governmental organisation headed
by Suzy Castor, a leading member of the Organisation du Peuple
en Lutte political party.
· The MOUFHED is a non-governmental organisation headed
by Jessie Benoit, a leading member of the Konakom political party.
· The CEDH is a human rights organisation headed by Jean-Claude
Bajeux, one of the founders, and a former secretary-general, of
the Konakom political party.
The Organisation du Peuple en Lutte and Konakom political parties
are members of the Democratic Convergence coalition.
While on the subject of foreign funding for organisations in Haiti,
we also note that the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID) allocated US$3,050,000 (just over three million dollars)
to "civil society, the media, human rights organisations
and political parties" for its Government and Democracy programme
in Haiti in the fiscal year 2003 (year ending September 2003).
******************************
***************
USAID: Haiti: Program Data Sheet:
http://www.usaid.gov/pubs/cbj2003/lac/ht/521-005.html
PROGRAM TITLE: Democracy and Governance (Pillar: Democracy, Conflict,
and Humanitarian Assistance)
...
INITIAL OBLIGATION: FY 1991
ESTIMATE COMPLETION DATE: FY 2004
...
Given the political situation, USAID has shifted away from its
previous
efforts to strengthen public institutions such as the judiciary
and the
national elections commission, and launched a new program to strengthen
civil society and develop political parties by:
- developing political leadership;
- helping non-governmental organizations resist Haiti's growing
trend toward authoritarian rule; and
- strengthening the independent media.
...
Principal Contractors, Grantees, or Agencies: Principal partners
are:
International Republican Institute,
National Democratic Institute for International Affairs,
International Foundation for Electoral Systems,
Creative Associates International, and
America's Development Foundation.
There are numerous subcontractors, including Haitian human rights
organizations, business associations, media organizations, election
observation groups, labor, political parties and other pro-democracy
organizations. "
*****
CIVILIAN ATTACHES:
Exerpted from HLLN's "Help Save Yvon Neptune's Life - Feb
24, 2005 Letter From
Prime Minister Yvon Neptune at:
http://www.williambowles.info/haiti-news/2005/neptune_jail.html
):
"According to Bel Air residence we interviewed, the February
28, 2005 shooting, was done by CIMO and SWAT Units, and their
civilian attaches (especially the four A.S.-DDO operatives, known
to Haitian victims as: Jean Yves “Nasson” Gerald;
Narage “Eleus” Laguerre; St. Gor “Père
Reklè” Clermond; and, “Gwo Fanfan.” ).
These four men were among the six men, in the white, unmarked
pickup Chevrolet truck, that stopped at the corner of Rue Des
Cèsars and Rue Des Front-Forts and began shooting indiscriminately
at the unarmed Bel Air demonstrators on February 28, 2005 in plain
sight of the international media and U.N. troops.
According to their victims, the
people of Bel Air recognized these four Direction Departementale
De L'Ouest ("DDO") attaches as part of the shooters
who fired into the crowd on February 28, killing at least 5 people
and wounding over 15 because these four civilian attaches to the
Haitian police, these alleged four murderers, are routinely sent
on killing and arson sprees into their neighborhoods with total
impunity
and in plain sight of MINUSTHA troops. On February 28, 2004 at
the peaceful demonstration even though the international media
was present, along with human rights advocates, these four still
were able to kill with impunity.
Bel Aire residents say the four work for the police station in
Port-au-Prince that is under the command of Leon Charles, Director
General of Haiti's police force and which main police station
is under the jurisdiction of Coup D'etat government employee,
Renand Etienne, the head of DDO. These civilian attaches to the
DDO wear no uniform and are simply identified as A.S.-D.D.O. -
that is "Attachè
Special to the DDO."
**********
Feeding Dependency, Starving Democracy: USAID Policies in Haiti
Grassroots International
6 March 1997
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/597.html
[Note: See also Ezili's
HLLN on oversight needed on USAID]
*
CARE has been 'helping' people in the Northwest for decades. But
each year, the misery of the people of the Northwest increases.
What is the real impact of this aid? To make people more dependent,
more vulnerable, more on the margins?...The aid is not given in
such a way as to give the people responsibility, to make them
less dependent....This is what you call ‘commercializing’
poverty....The people's misery should not be marketed....
Samuel Madisten, Haitian Senator
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
In 1996 Grassroots International began an extensive six-month
research
and investigation project in Haiti. Our primary objective was
to
understand how programs funded by the U.S. government are affecting
food security in Haiti. Given the massive scope of those programs
since
the restoration of democratic rule three years ago, our goal was
to see
for ourselves what impact that programs administered by the U.S.
Agency
for International Development (USAID) were having on Haitis poor,
particularly small farmers and peasants.
The research was conducted by Laurie Richardson, a Grassroots
International Research Associate and writer based in Port-au-Prince.
Fluent in Haitian Creole, she has been studying the impact of
U.S.
policy on Haitis pro-democracy movement since 1991. For this project
Ms. Richardson traveled throughout Haitis Northwest and Artibonite
regions, interviewing hundreds of peasants, members of Parliament,
economists, government officials, community organizers, development
workers, agronomists, and representatives of international private
voluntary organizations.
Extensive bibliographic research including some conducted at the
USAID
library in Port-au-Prince allowed us to study the philosophy behind
USAID programs in Haiti, particularly food-aid and jobs-creation
programs.
WHAT WE FOUND Despite glowing reports from USAID that its field
programs in Haiti are succeeding, our research found that those
programs are not furthering equitable development, nor are they
increasing food security. Three years ago the United States sent
troops
to Haiti with the stated intention of restoring democracy. The
sad
reality is that current international aid policies are robbing
the
Haitian people of independence and the very community initiative
that
is the cornerstone of autonomy. Most troubling, in this hemispheres
hungriest nation, U.S. policies are undermining, instead of enhancing,
the ability of Haitian farmers to grow and market their goods.
Grassroots Internationals research documents how U.S. government
policies and aid programs interfere with the production of local
food
crops and create a dangerous dependence on U.S. food imports.
Grassroots International also found serious problems with food
aid and
other assistance programs, and the non- governmental organizations
(NGOs) implementing them. They are, in fact, derailing community-based
organizations that are the real engines of progress and Haitis
only
hope for sustainable development.
Foreign aid programs and the free-market economic policies that
they
are conditioned upon are exacerbating social tensions in Haiti,
as was
shown by the anti-austerity strikes in mid-January of this year.
Ultimately, such development strategies are threatening to undermine
Haitis chance to build democracy by driving a wedge between the
government of President Ren Prval and the Haitian people.
These policies are also contributing to the exodus of Haitians
from
rural areas. As the World Bank stated in a recent draft strategy
paper,
the rural majority has only two possibilities: work in the industrial
or service sector, or emigrate.
SUMMARY FINDINGS
Throughout Haiti, peasant farmers, agronomists, economists, and
elected
officials are criticizing USAID programs as being largely detrimental
to the long-term ability of the nation to feed its population.
Grassroots Internationals primary findings about U.S. government
policies are:
1. Drastically reduced tariffs on imported food which the U.S.
government has insisted upon as a condition for aid are flooding
Haiti
with cheap food, undercutting prices for locally grown products.
Throughout the rural areas surveyed by Grassroots International,
farmers reported tremendous difficulty competing with cheap, subsidized
foodstuffs imported under new tariff schemes. In the case of rice,
for
example, dramatic reductions in tariffs since 1995 have made imported
rice cheaper than before, undermining Haitian rice farmers. Not
only do
these imports reduce the price that Haitian farmers receive for
their
rice, but they also depress the prices they receive for other
key
cereals, such as millet and corn. Spiraling food imports also
consume
much-needed hard currency; rice purchases now eat up 15 percent
of
Haitis import budget.
2. The U.S.-based NGOs that carry out most USAID programs do not
adequately consult or coordinate with local, regional and national
Haitian government authorities.
Grassroots Internationals survey revealed consistent complaints
that
foreign aid programs, generally implemented by private agencies
such as
CARE and the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF), largely
bypass
relevant Haitian governmental entities, often putting resulting
development projects at odds with stated national, regional, and
local
priorities.
Given the size and scope of international aid in Haiti approximately
60
percent of the Haitian governments budget comes from external
sources
this not only produces ineffective development programs but also
undercuts the very democratic process the U.S. government says
it wants
to build.
3. USAID programs do not respond to Haitis stated priority of
revitalizing national agricultural production; only 4.3 percent
of the
USAIDs four-year US$ 443 million aid package is destined for
agricultural development.
Although Haitis government and community organizations have clearly
stated that their top development priority is revitalizing agriculture,
USAID is devoting only 4.3 percent of its four-year budget to
agricultural projects. By contrast, food aid makes up 13 percent.
The
failure to invest in agricultural development further weakens
the
efforts of Haitian farmers to increase domestic production.
Our primary findings about U.S.-funded food aid and jobs-creation
programs are:
4. U.S. food aid depresses local prices for basic grains, reducing
incentives for Haitian farmers to grow them.
Food security analysts acknowledge that massive deliveries of
U.S.
wheat to Haitis government under the Public Law (PL) 480 Title
III
program drive down prices for rice, millet, and other cereals
in Haiti.
Grassroots Internationals research found evidence supporting widespread
complaints that PL 480 Title II food aid aid distributed by U.S.
NGOs,
also undercuts the prices for locally produced staples. This has
discouraged Haitian farmers from growing basic grains, increasing
Haitis dependence on imported food.
5. Food aid shifts consumption patterns away from locally produced
goods in favor of imported goods.
This well-documented phenomenon was clearly evident in the communities
Grassroots International surveyed. The massive distribution of
surplus
U.S. wheat has fostered a taste for products that can only be
produced
with this imported staple. As Haitians incorporate these products
into
their diets, growers of local grains such as corn which grows
well in
Haitis mountainous terrain have seen shrinking demand for their
products. This breeds dependency, undermines food security and
creates
an unsustainable reliance on imported food.
6. Private aid agencies consistently operated jobs-creation programs
in
rural areas at key planting and harvesting times, pulling people
out of
their fields with the lure of relatively high short-term wages.
Peasant farmers surveyed by Grassroots International repeatedly
complained about temporary NGO-supervised employment projects.
Short-term projects were run by PADF in rural areas during periods
of
peak agricultural activity. The relatively high wages paid by
these
projects lured farmers and farm laborers out of their fields.
This in
turn reduced the amount of land planted, left ripe crops rotting
in the
fields, and increased the labor costs for those farmers who tried
to
compete with wage levels paid in the jobs programs.
Grassroots International also found that many of these infrastructure
projects were poorly designed and had little long-term impact.
In one
case, local residents were paid to dig drainage ditches during
rainy
season. Runoffs from the rains filled the ditches with rocks and
soil
almost as soon as the project was completed.
Camille Chalmers, head of the Haitian Platform for Alternative
Development (one of Grassroots Internationals partner organizations),
observed, We saw with our own eyes the quantity of rice which
is ripe
but rotting in the fields because the peasants dont have enough
money
or cant find people to work in the fields. [This] creates the
paradox
of rice rotting in the fields in a country where there is hunger.
7. USAID-funded programs stifle local initiative with short-term
offers
of free food and employment, creating cycles of dependency among
Haitian farmers.
Over and over, Grassroots International heard complaints from
local
peasant and community leaders that USAID-funded programs for jobs
creation are changing Haitians attitudes about community work.
These
programs pay people for work previously performed out of a sense
of
concern for their villages. Grassroots International also heard
consistent reports of poor families and small farmers who began
to rely
heavily on food aid distributions and paid less attention to increasing
their own food production.
Instead of spending two or three years teaching people to fish,
[these
NGOs] prefer to give them a fish every day....The people who are
working to produce...come to the conclusion that it is better
to go get
a plate of food, a fish, instead of going out to fish themselves,
notes
Haitian Senator Samuel Madisten from the rice-growing Artibonite
region.
8. Private aid agencies frequently fail to consult or work with
local
community organizations; instead they either directly implement
projects themselves or work closely with discredited local elites.
Though most development professionals acknowledge that the involvement
of local communities is essential to the success of any development
project, U.S.- funded programs in Haiti regularly fail to consult
with
or involve appropriate local leaders and organizations. In community
after community, Haitians painted a picture of U.S. aid workers
as
outside experts who impose their own projects with little regard
or
respect for local priorities or institutions.
More disturbing still, Grassroots International found a consistent
pattern of unsavory alliances between U.S. agencies and local
elites
associated with the deposed military regime. The choice of such
partners by U.S. agencies not only produces ineffective development
projects but also destroys democracy at the local level by reinforcing
the power of undemocratic leaders at the expense of democratic,
community-based organizations.
THE ROLE OF U.S. AGENCIES
One of the most troubling findings of Grassroots Internationals
research was the consistently negative role played by the U.S.
NGOs
responsible for implementing much of USAIDs Haiti program. The
two
primary implementing agencies for food aid and jobs-creation programs
were CARE and PADF. Grassroots Internationals investigation revealed
consistent complaints about their role and their effectiveness.
The following flaws were of particular concern:
* failure to consult with and involve local communities in the
design, implementation and evaluation of projects;
* failure to identify correctly and respond to local needs;
* failure to sufficiently monitor the impact and effectiveness
of
projects and make needed changes;
* frequent selection of Haitian counterparts who not only lack
community support but are closely associated with the former military
government; and
* failure to coordinate with local and regional Haitian government
bodies, thereby creating projects at odds with stated Haitian
priorities.
At a time when U.S. foreign aid programs are under fire from
conservatives, the community of private aid agencies in the United
States has a particular obligation to ensure that all funds, whether
from taxpayers or private contributors, promote long-term,
community-based solutions to hunger. Projects must foster self-reliance
and community initiative, strengthen local democratic institutions,
and
break cycles of dependency. The programs Grassroots International
reviewed in Haiti rarely contributed to these goals; in many cases,
they did the opposite.
Grassroots International, which as a matter of policy does not
accept
U.S. government funds, believes that one of the strongest factors
contributing to private aid agencies ineffectiveness in Haiti
is their
dependence on U.S. government funding for programs. This often
leaves
private aid organizations more beholden to U.S. government policies
than they are to the communities they are trying to assist.
In Haiti, this has led CARE, PADF, and others to support projects
that
are clearly undermining rather than contributing to Haitians courageous
and admirable efforts to achieve food security.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on its findings, Grassroots International recommends that
the
U.S. government and U.S. agencies operating in Haiti adhere to
one
basic principle: Aid policies and programs should support the
goal of
enhancing Haitis food security by supporting, not undermining,
Haitian
food producers.
Specifically, Grassroots International recommends that:
1. The U.S. government should not condition its aid to the Haitian
government on the implementation of policies that undermine Haitian
food producers and weaken the development of democratic institutions
in
Haiti.
2. The U.S. government should end pressure on Haiti to reduce
tariffs,
particularly on food. Haitian food producers should be protected
from
subsidized U.S. imports while they rebuild their productive capacity.
3. Policies should cease to emphasize short-term emergency programs,
including jobs and food aid, in favor of long-term, small-scale
development.
4. All programs should be designed and carried out with the full
participation and approval of the affected communities, in ways
that
strengthen Haitian organizations and institutions including the
Haitian
government particularly at the local level.
5. Aid programs should support Haitian food producers by increasing
their access to:
* land, by supporting a comprehensive land-reform program designed
to transfer quality, arable land to small farmers;
* affordable credit;
* appropriate technology and training;
* infrastructure improvements, particularly irrigation and roads;
* soil restoration and reforestation programs, to improve soil
fertility;
* farm animals, particularly indigenous creole pigs;
* seeds, tools, and farm machinery to help recapitalize peasant
households; and
* food storage and marketing support.
CONCLUSION
Haitians are a determined people. Their commitment to democracy
is
tenacious. They have overthrown the tyrannical Duvalier dictatorship.
They have resisted the brutal attempt to halt their march toward
democracy, preventing the military coup from taking hold. Now,
with
formal democracy restored, the Haitian people are increasingly
focusing
their determination on building an economy and society that responds
first to the needs of the Haitian poor.
With appropriate support, Haitian farmers can increase production
of
and access to affordable basic foodstuffs. Haitis people, the
majority
of whom still make their living from the land, want desperately
to
develop their own self-reliant communities and a nation that is
not
dependent on foreign funds or food.
If the United States government and U.S. NGOs are truly committed
to
building democracy in Haiti, they must rethink their current misguided
policies and practices, which are undermining both food security
and
democracy in Haiti.
*********
PLEASE E-MAIL YOUR FEEDBACK TO:
grassroots@igc.apc.org
*****
I.R.I.
and Stanley Lucas
http://www.sourcewatch.org/wiki.phtml?title=Talk:Stanley_Lucas
Talk:Stanley Lucas
From SourceWatchPasted from Max Blumenthal's statements to Amy
Goodman in
Democracy Now!" interview aired 20 July 2004
(http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/20/1327215):
MAX BLUMENTHAL: Well, to tell you about Stanley
Lucas, and he is the program officer for the International
Republican Institute, or I.R.I.'s Haiti program. I.R.I.
is active in 50 countries worldwide on a mission to "promote
democracy".
In many of their programs, through their means, what they have
demonstrated is something quite different. They have demonstrated
-- I.R.I has demonstrated a penchant for backing opponents in
regimes deemed hostile to the U.S. and specifically to conservative
interests, and I.R.I.'s program in Haiti has been probably its
most bellicose thanks to Stanley Lucas. In Haiti there's two sectors
of Haitian society that are the traditional obstructionists to
progressive change. Number
one, that's the industrial sector of the mulatto elite who run
the sweatshops and lead the civil society wing of Aristide's opposition.
And two, there's the military, which guarantees the conditions
by which the elite can operate their sweatshops.
Aristide disbanded the military in 1995, so, you know, the military
hates him. Stanley Lucas is a bridge between these two sectors.
He was schooled in Haiti's finest schools with members of the
mulatto elite. At the same time, he comes from a wealthy land
owning family close to the Duvalier regime, which ruled Haiti
with an iron fist for decades. His family is close to the military.
Two of Stanley Lucas's cousins massacred -- organized a massacre
of 250 peasants, in 1987, who were protesting for land reform
after the Duvalier regime crumbled.
The massacre --
it was a terrible massacre documented by Amnesty International
and described to me by someone who witnessed it firsthand. You
would think that someone from this background wouldn't be able
to get a position at a group like the International Republican
Institute that promotes democracy. However, Stanley Lucas is a
valuable asset to them. He is a judo master who allegedly trained
the military in counter insurgency tactics after the Duvalier
regime collapsed. He was hired in 1992, but I don't know why he
was hired. When I asked I.R.I.'s communications director why he
was hired, he refused to tell me why, or what his duties consisted
of between 1992 and 1998. A lot of people I spoke to suspect that
Stanley Lucas is a CIA asset, including former ambassador -- former
U.S. Ambassador in the region.
So, when Stanley Lucas was hired in 1992, the country was controlled
by a military junta called FRAPP, which had ousted Aristide in
1990 -- in the first coup in that country. Frappe was busy massacring
thousands of Aristide supporters. One off the recorded sources,
who lived with Lucas, working with Lucas, in Haiti, told me he
saw documents indicating that while Lucas was working for I.R.I.,
he was being paid by Michelle Francois, who was a notorious FRAPP
leader. Stanley Lucas is an impeccable dresser, a smooth operater
and a lady's man with a broad smile and childlike demeanor
that will put his enemies at ease. You have behind that
facade an evil man who has been given way too much power. In my
piece, I compared him to Ahmed
Chalabi, because Stanley Lucas is a card-carrying Republican
who managed to ingratiate himself with powerful Republicans in
Washington.
He lobbied for the opposition to Aristide and managed to tie quite
a bit of funding to them and introduced a number of Aristide's
most virulent opponents to powerful Republicans in Washington.
When I.R.I.'s campaign to destabilize Haiti began in earnest in
1998 with a $2 million grant in mostly taxpayer money
from the U.S. Agency for International Development, Lucas hosted
some of Aristide's most virulent opponents in political training
sessions. What he did was he merged all of these disparate groups
into one big party called the Democratic Convergence. Now, the
Democratic Convergence is not a traditional political party, it's
more like the political wing of a coup, because the strategy that
it took was to forego the democratic process entirely. Boycott
elections and initiate what seemed like an endless sequence of
provocative protests. Between 2000 and 2002, the Democratic
Convergence rejected over 20 internationally sanctioned
power sharing agreements which heightened the tension and provoked
more violence.
At the time, the U.S. Ambassador, who was named Brian Dean Curran,
a Clinton appointee, who was a highly respected career diplomat,
uncovered evidence that Stanley Lucas was the one encouraging
the Democratic Convergence to reject the compromises and to stay
out of the democratic process. When he presented this evidence
to the U.S. Agency for International Development, and he asked
them to block Stanley Lucas from the program, Bush's Assistant
Secretary for the Western Hemisphere, Roger Noriega, apparently
stepped in, and within four months--Lucas was barred for four
months, but after four months, he was back. So, when he -- when
Lucas returned to the program, he retaliated against Ambassador
Curran.
What he did was he spread salacious rumors in Port-au-Prince in
-- and in Washington about Curran's personal life. If I repeated
these rumors, it would make Dick
Cheney look like Ward Cleaver. It's unheard of for
someone like Lucas to actually sabotage a U.S. Ambassador. Lucas
threatened two embassy officials and told them they would be fired
once the real -- "Real" U.S. policy was implemented.
In 2003, Curran was forced to resign in disgust because of Lucas's
activities and the fact that Bush administration seemed to give
Lucas their tacit approval. A number of embassy officials I spoke
to were removed from Haiti by Roger Noriega for opposing what
Stanley Lucas was doing in part. So this whole sad episode that
led up to the coup was allowed to occur because of Bush's policy
of studied neglect in South
America.
*************
|
******************************
***************
Haiti's
Oligarchy:
The Mercenaries Families and other Bourgeoisies
The
families - Acra, Nadal,
Coles, Baussan, Vital, Vorbes, Madsen, Mevs, Brandt, Kouri,
Sada, Loukas, Boulos, Bigio
and others including the various
lesser bourgeoisie wannabees, all also referred to by HLLN as
Category Zero: the
subcontracted
Haitians,
work in tandem with foreign government agents,
foreign embassies in Haiti, foreign financial institutions - USAID/IDB/IRI/NED/WB/IMF,
et al, their subcontracted entities and other such corporate looting
entities, defined as foreign "aid" and "investments,"
foreign NGOs, militaries, paramilitaries, and foreign "charities"
who lay the ground for foreign domination, dependency, endless
debt (financial colonialsim) and Haiti's perpetual underdevelopment
and containment-in-poverty under the guise of "altruism,"
"free trade" and "development".
(See, Bourgeoisie
Freedom;The
Families: Lekòl Lage; La
Bourgeoisie Haitienne: Une Bourgeoisie Mediocre
(Photos);
Une
bourgeoisie déracinée!;
La
DGI présente les 150 plus grandes entreprises d'Haïti,
October
20, 2007 and
HLLN
Campaign Five)
These families: Acra,
Nadal, Coles, Baussan, Vital, Vorbes, Madsen, Mevs, Brandt, Kouri,
Sada, Loukas, Boulos, Bigio
and others, work, in the shadows, plotting with foreigner transnational
interests to keep Haitian society polarized the better to bring
coup d'etat anarchy and neoliberalism death projects that benefit
their wealth at the expense of the country's productive development;
and the better to exploit and contain the Haitian majority in
poverty. Privatizing everything in Haiti through privatizing the
Haitian government (using dictatorship, occupation, paid-off military,
police and civilian attaches); privatizing all assets, including
Haitian ports as indicated below. These multi-passported "Haitian"
families benefit every which way with duty free imports and duty
free exports for the foreign companies they work for as subcontractors,
repatriating all profits, all capital tax free and exported out
of Haiti without capital restrictions. They sow seeds of division,
financing civilian attaches to massacre dissenters, suppress dissatisfied
workers, slaughter, terrorize the civilian population; creating
chaos with complete impunity, the net result of which is they
pay little or no taxes, maximize the uses of Haiti for their wealth,
foreign interests and political controls. This keeps the country
re-starting from coup-d'etat-ground-zero over and over again which
serves to insure these economic elites are NEVER subjected to
any domestic Haitian laws or constraints...(See Forwarded Mail
below - "Et revient
la question. Et ceux dont les pères sont en Afrique, ils
n'auront donc rien
").
----Forwarded
Mail
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2006 15:49:39 -0400
Subject: Et revient la question. Et ceux dont
les pères sont en
Afrique, ils n'auront donc rien
Lekòl Lage
Messieurs les Sénateurs et Députés élus
de la République, saviez-vous que les Ports d'Haïti
sont contrôlés par 7 mercenaires
Communément désignés chimères cravatés
par les gens de la rue.
Les Ports du pays sont privatizes par un secteur privé
qui se dit progressiste, mais ils sont vraiment les nouveaux pirates.
La contrebande, la drogue, les armes tout rentrent sans vérification.
Le Directeur de la compagnie Simi a eut le courage de dénoncer
dans la presse ce groupe de pillards. Il est arrivé à
parler des 200
Containeurs qui sont passé par le Terminal MSC dirigé
par Richard Coles sans inspections et sans bordereaux
pendant que le premier Ministre Latortue se bourrait les poches
de dollars. Le Ministre des finances Henri Bazin et son poulain
le directeur de la douane Edouard Vallès n'ont rien dit
à ce sujet. Un employé qui n'a pas reçu sa
part de la magouille a mis à la connaissance du public
le vol du cargo. Un juge de paix s'est rendu sur les lieux du
forfait et a sceller le terminal privé de monsieur Coles
pendant une semaine.
Les journalistes ont posés des questions, malheureusement
le « Kassé Fèy Kouvri Sa » a comme d'habitude
eu le dessus.
Les corsaires modernes sont représentés par sept
familles qui depuis longtemps paient une pitance (US$ 40.00 par
an) à la Direction Générale des Impôts
pour la location du bord de mer.
Nous vous demandons d'interroger les directeurs de la DGI ainsi
Que l'actuel Directeur de Douane, monsieur Jean-Jacques Valentin,
lui aussi complice des ces affairistes pour vérifier ce
qui ce passe tout près de vous.
Une inspection directe de ces lieux sacrés vous fera comprendre
comment on peut abuser des ports sans faire de bruit. Les fraudeurs
silencieux sont toujours présents dans les fêtes
du Palais National buvant du champagne avec notre président
alcoolique. Ces filoussont les parasites qui sucent le sang de
notre peuple. La vermin e qui suçote en tenant le pays
dans la misère abjecte,doit être punit. Le jour viendra
ou le crépitement des fusils, fera courir la canaille qui
s'alimente de la pauvreté des innocents qui ne peuvent
même passe défendre.
Les Bahaméens disent toujours : Les pirates chassés,
le commerce restauré, celui qui pille avec un petit vaisseau
se nomme pirate; celui qui pille avec un grand navire s'appelle
conquérant. Les nouveaux champions du ALOUFA-ISME sont
connus par tous, excepté par la Chambre des députés.
Un jour ils doivent connaître le VANT MENNEN qui est la
norme pour tous les ALOUFA.
Nous ramons tous sur le même bateau pour arriver au Port,
de Port-au-Prince. Le Port est supposé être l'endroit
où les Embarkations sont à l'abri des tempêtes,
en Haïti, ils sont exposées à la furie des
douanes, de la SGS, de la DECSA et surtout des mercenaires. En
temps de paix, les mercenaires dérobent ; en temps de guerre,
ils désertent, alors nous devons être vigilant.
Messi eurs les Sénateurs et Députés de la
République, nous vous Prions de faire votre travail et
exiger des explications à l'exécutif. Les
Sept Mercenaires : Nadal,
Coles, Baussan, Vital, Madsen, Acra, Mevs détiennent
les ports gratuitement pour tromper et profiter commedes rapaces
sur un homme qui se meurt. La richesse du pays ne peut pas appartenir
à certainshaïtiens, en particulier, ceux de la trempe
de ces flibustiers des temps modernes.
*********************************************
*******************
Bigio - Haiti’s few Jews
hold on to history
BY LARRY LUXNER
Miami Herald March 21, 2004
Source: Ourjerusalem.com
PETIONVILLE, Haiti - At the once-elegant El Rancho Hotel in the
hills above Port-au-Prince, aggressive young men peddle exotic
African sculptures next to the taxi stand, and colorful Haitian
paintings decorate the reception area.
Yet it’s hard not to notice the black, wrought-iron menorah
in the middle of the lobby.
‘’My father was Jewish,'’ manager Elizabeth
Silvera explains as she sips coffee in the hotel’s near-empty
restaurant.
Like many members of Haiti’s mulatto elite, Silvera —
a practicing Catholic – proudly claims ties to Judaism in
a country dominated by Catholicism and Vodou beliefs.
Haiti has no more than 50 Jews out of a total population of 8.5
million. Most of the Jews who did live here fled to the United
States, Panama and elsewhere in recent years, in the face of crushing
poverty and worsening violence.
‘’The country is very poor and there’s no business
here, so the Jews don’t stay long,'’ said David Ades,
an intellectual who works in real estate and writes political
articles for Le Nouvelliste, a daily newspaper in Port-au-Prince.
Ades, 71, is a Sephardic Jew whose father came from Syria and
his mother from Egypt. He recently returned to Haiti after more
than 20 years in Brooklyn.
‘’After my divorce, I figured the best thing for me
was to go back to my roots,'’ said Ades, whose two sons
still live in New York. “I was always part of the community,
but I never had a Jewish education.'’
Not much is known about Haiti’s Jewish history except that
Luis de Torres, the interpreter for Christopher Columbus, in 1492
was the first Jew to set foot in Haiti.
The first Jewish immigrants came from Brazil in the 17th century,
after Haiti was conquered by the French. These marranos (Jews
who feigned conversion to Christianity but secretly practiced
Judaism) were all murdered or expelled — along with the
rest of the white population — during the slave revolt of
Toussaint L’Ouverture in 1804.
Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a synagogue in Jeremie,
a city along Haiti’s southern peninsula that was home to
many mulatto families of Jewish origin. There are also vague historical
references to Jewish tombstones in the port cities of Cap Haitien
and Jacmel.
Gaston Michel, a local tourism official in Jacmel who claims Jewish
roots, says “the Jews in Haiti had to hide their Judaism.
You couldn’t go to school if you weren’t Catholic.'’
Yet by the end of the 19th century, Sephardic Jews began arriving
from Lebanon, Egypt and Syria. In 1937, Haitian officials —
like their counterparts in the neighboring Dominican Republic
— began issuing passports to Eastern European Jews fleeing
the Nazis. Many of those grateful Ashkenazim stayed until the
late 1950s.
Gilbert Bigio, the community’s de facto leader, says that
at one time, as many as 300 Jews lived in Haiti.
‘’Every Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, our house was
completely full,'’ recalled Bigio, noting that, until recently,
all religious ceremonies were at his home. But attendance for
the High Holidays has gradually dwindled, along with Haiti’s
Jewish population. “The last Jewish wedding here was my
daughter’s, eight years ago, and the last brit mila [circumcision]
was that of my son, 30 years ago.'’
Bigio, 68, lives in a big, beautiful house in Petionville, one
of the few upscale neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince. Behind the
well-guarded house is a luxurious swimming pool and a gazebo for
outdoor parties.
Like most of the other Jews who remain in Haiti, Bigio is considered
extremely wealthy in a country where 50 percent of the population
is illiterate and 76 percent of children under 5 are underweight
or suffer from stunted growth.
‘’I don’t think there’s resentment against
people who are rich here,'’ says the retired businessman,
who speaks English, French and Haitian Creole. “If you know
how to manage success, people admire you instead of hate you.'’
Other prominent Jewish families include the Weiners, who are involved
in coffee exports, and the Salzmanns, who fled Austria right before
the Holocaust and remain in Port-au-Prince. These and other families
helped build Haiti’s modern infrastructure and stayed on
during the brutal Duvalier dictatorship, which ended in 1986.
‘’Haiti wasn’t always a poor country,'’
said Bigio. “When Haiti had three or four million people,
everything was beautiful. If most of the Jews left, it’s
because they were hoping to live in a developed country, where
their children could marry among themselves.'’
A case in point is Bigio’s wife Monique, who wasn’t
born Jewish — though she converted to Judaism long ago with
the help of a visiting rabbi from Miami.
And while he isn’t a religious man, Bigio is especially
proud of the Sefer Torah he keeps in his study — the only
Torah in all of Haiti.
‘’My uncle came from Aleppo, Syria, in 1896, and my
father 20 years later, during World War I,'’ he said. “They
were escaping the Ottoman Empire, and at that time, there was
a French law created by the Justice Ministry that would give French
citizenship to the minorities in this region of the world.'’
The family prospered in the export of cotton, cacao and a valuable
wood known as campeche.
‘’Most of the Jewish families in Haiti were in the
textile and retail businesses,'’ he said. “We’re
also in industry and trading. We have a small steel mill, we distribute
edible oils, and we work a little in banking.'’
Bigio is also the honorary consul of Israel in Haiti, which explains
the enormous Israeli flag flying in front of his house —
as well as his bulletproof Mercedes SUV.
A few Israelis live in Haiti, including noted photographer Daniel
Kedar, whose wife, Maryse P?nette, is the country’s former
tourism minister. There are also a few Jews scattered among the
staff of the U.S. and French embassies in Port-au-Prince. But
no active synagogue exists in the capital city — home to
nearly all the country’s Jews — or anywhere else in
Haiti.
Asked if he’s ever experienced anti-Semitism in Haiti, Bigio
laughed.
‘’On the contrary, the Haitians have a lot of respect
for the Jews, and a lot of admiration for Israel,'’ he said,
pointing out that Haiti voted for the United Nations partition
of Palestine in 1947, which created Israel.
Bigio declined to discuss politics. ‘’Our principle,
which we respect daily, is to not mix in Haitian politics,'’
he explained. “Even after three generations, we are considered
foreigners.'’
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Haiti - The Virtual Jewish
History Tour
By Ariel Scheib
Source: Jewishvirtuallibrary.org
The first Jew to settle in Haiti, Luis de Torres, arrived in 1492
as Christopher
Columbus’s Converso interpreter. After Haiti
was conquered by the French in 1633, many Dutch Jews emigrated
from Brazil in 1634. Most of these Jews were Marranos.
Many became employees of French sugarcane plantations and further
developed the industry.
In 1683, Jews were expelled from all French colonies, including
Haiti. Nevertheless, a few Jews remained as leading officials
in French trading companies. After a few decades, in the mid-1700s
many Jews, who had been expelled from Haiti, returned to the country.
In 1804, during the slave revolt of Toussaint L’Ouverture,
much of the Jewish community was murdered or expelled from Haiti.
A few years later, many Polish Jews arrived in Haiti due to civil
strife in Poland.
Most youth did not grow up with a Jewish education due to the
lack of a Sunday school or Jewish communal life. Children had
to conceal their Judaism,
because only Catholics could attend public school.
Jews tended to settle along the shoreline, in port cities. Most
Jews were involved in commerce and trade, therefore, establishing
communities in major industry centers. A few years ago, archaeologists
discovered an ancient synagogue
of Crypto-Jews in Jeremie, the only one discovered on the island.
Several Jewish tombstones have also been uncovered in port cities
such as Cap Haitien and Jacmel.
By the end of the 19th century, approximately 30 Jewish families
arrived from Lebanon,
Syria, and Egypt.
During this period, a French law was enacted that gave French
citizenship to minorities in the North American region; therefore,
many Jews from the Middle East felt secure moving to Haiti. These
Jews brought with them their Sephardic
customs and traditions. By the time of the American occupation
in 1915, roughly 200 Jews lived in Haiti. During the 20 years
of American occupation, many Jews left Haiti for the United States
and South America.
In 1937,
the Haitian government began issuing passports and visas to Eastern
European approximately 100 Jews escaping Nazi
persecution. At its peak, almost 300 Jews lived in
the country. Most of these European Jews remained in Haiti, grateful
to the government, until the late 1950s. Many of the Haitian Jewry
left, however, so their children could marry Jews and not assimilate,
and to find greater economic opportunity. The 21st century witnessed
a continued departure of Jews from Haiti, for the United
States and Panama
because of the poor economy and civil violence. Even after so
many decades of living in Haiti, Jews are still considered foreigners
in the country. Today, only 25 Jews remain in Haiti, predominately
residing in Port-au-Prince.
The community is led by Gilbert Bigio, a retired well-to-do businessman.
Every Rosh
Hashanah and Yom
Kippur, services are held in his house. The last Jewish
wedding
in Haiti occurred 10 years ago, Bigio’s daughter, and the
last bris
was Bigio’s son, more than 30 years ago. Bigio owns the
only Torah
in all of Haiti, which he provides to the community for services.
Israel
and Haiti maintain full diplomatic relations. In 1947, Haiti voted
for the United Nations’ partition
of Palestine and the creation of the State of Israel. Many Haitians
have a lot of admiration for Israel and its struggles. The Israeli
ambassador in Panama represents Israeli interests in Haiti. Israel
maintains an honorary consulate in Port-au-Prince. Currently,
George Bigio is the honorary consul of Israel in Haiti, and flies
a massive Israeli flag outside his home.
The Jewish Community of Haiti
P.O. Box 687
Port-au-Prince
Tel. 509-1-20-638
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Bigio
- Haiti’s few Jews hold on to history
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Haiti
- The Virtual Jewish History Tour
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Bigio
- Haiti's wealthy prosper while the poor decline
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