Haiti’s Crisis
As activists in the Haiti solidarity movement since 1991, we have been thinking a lot about the troubling situation in Haiti.
Haiti | Página 13 de 14
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Another Countryside Is Possible
Satellite internet on a mountainside in the heart of Haiti's Central Plateau - only one of the achievements, among many, of the Mouvman Peyizan Papay - The Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP). The oldest and best organized of Haiti's peasant organizations, the MPP, is celebrating International Worker's Day tomorrow with a large agricultural fair drawing peasants from various regional associations to celebrate and demonstrate what can be done when peasants put their heads together.
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Pieces of the Puzzle
Was the armed rebellion that helped drive President Aristide from office a ragtag group of poorly funded freelancers who couldn't get Washington to return their phone calls?
While many (including some of our partners in Haiti and many of our friends in the U.S.) believe that Aristide's ouster was a carefully planned coup financed by the CIA, David Adams reports in the St. Petersburg Times that the rebel forces that swept the Haitian countryside and toppled the Lavalas government may have been "more Keystone Kops than White House-orchestrated covert operations."
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Ni Rire, Ni Pleurer, Comprendre.
During the brief day and a half since I arrived in Ayiti I have had 9 meetings with representatives of GRI partner organizations, journalists, and allied international development organizations.
My head is spinning, but the richness of these exchanges with these tireless Haitian human rights and development activists is a necessary ingredient for understanding how progressive Haitians are living this difficult period of transition. While at the office of Institute Culturelle Karl Leveque, a member organization of POHDH ( The Platform of Haitian Human Rights Organizations) I happened to see the quotation that I used to entitle this journal entry - "ni rire, ni pleurer, comprendre" - loosely translated - "we must not celebrate, we must not cry , we must understand".
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Signs of Hope for Human Rights in Haiti?
The roots of impunity in Haiti stretch deep into the nation's past. If anything, the experience of the last ten years has shown just how difficult it is going to be to establish democratic principles and the rule of law there. That experience has clearly established that loosening the grip of impunity is going to take much more than the removal of one leader and the promotion of another.
That said, we read today's news from Haiti with some sense of hope. Louis Jodel Chamblain, a convicted torturer and murderer and leader of the recent armed rebellion against Jean Bertrand Aristide has turned himself in to Haitian authorities. Of course it remains to be seen how long Chamblain will stay in jail for his crimes, but his surrender is a positive sign. Haiti's leading human rights organization has already put out a statement on this important development.
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Louis Jodel Chamblain in Petion-Ville Prison
Louis-Jodel Chamblain has turned himself over to Haitian authorities and on Thursday, 22 April 2004, Chamblain was transferred to the Civil Prison in Petion-Ville (Port-au-Prince).
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A Break with Haiti’s Past?
Recently, the U.N.'s special representative returned from an assessment trip to Haiti.
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Seeds of Hope
Haiti is in a time of critical transition as it attempts to move forward from a period of significant instability and insecurity.
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From Papaye to Palestine…
On January 25, we decided to spend a couple of weeks using this journal as a way to focus on the crisis in Haiti, and GRI's work there. That crisis immediately took a dramatic turn that has made Haiti the dominant focus of our work ever since.
Our work will remain very focused on Haiti, but the Grassroots Journal must take a turn toward another complex area of the world in which we are privileged to work. In keeping with its mission to share, whenever possible, our first hand experience of the work of our partners and the world around it, the Journal's attention now shifts to Palestine.
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U.S. Connivance Alone…
The people at globalissues.org provide some of the best information available on a wide range of human rights issues. Their page on Haiti is an incredible piece of research, but we believe that it could include a bit more reference to the views of those Haitian social change organizations that have opposed both ex-President Aristide and U.S. military intervention.
We share here our letter to the creators of this excellent site:
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A Small Window for Democratic Reform…
The mainstream news about what is going on in Haiti continues to diminish in scope and reliability. Alternative news sources remain more focused on the circumstances surrounding ex-President Aristide's departure, and his current whereabouts, than events inside Haiti. Across the media board, Aristide's trip to Jamaica has received much more coverage than anything happening in Haiti, itself.
We support the idea that there should be a full investigation of the US role in Aristide's departure. We also believe that those of interested in Haiti should be paying attention to what Haitians are doing to try to move forward out of the current economic and human rights crisis.
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Oak Park Reminds Us
Yesterday, Grassroots and Grantmakers Without Borders organized a conference call between over 20 U.S. funders and the very same Pierre Esperance mentioned in our previous post. The depth of interest in the human rights situation in Haiti was gratifying. Pierre summarized his view of the current situation and outlined his organization's plan to respond to a national human rights emergency.
Over the past six weeks, thousands of you have taken a peek at Grassroots Journal as we have made a modest attempt to be sure that our Haitian partners have some voice in the international discussion of their country. We've received a lot of feedback on our efforts, much of it very supportive. Some people continue insist that we have been too ready to overlook the nefarious role of the U.S. in changing regimes in Haiti. Amidst all of that and the difficult news each day from Haiti, the following note arrived today from a teacher at a middle school in Oak Park, IL.
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We Don’t Want Any More Saviors
In a promising departure from the norm, the March 7 edition of the Houston Chronicle published an article leading with a quote from the director of a Haitian human rights organization. Pierre Esperance of the National Coalition for Haitian Rights and the Haitian Human Rights Platform (POHDH) tells the Chronicle, "We don't need a leader. We don't want any more saviors. We need a structure put in place to satisfy the needs of the population."
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Echoes of the Past in Haiti?
Last week we expressed our hope that the armed groups that both supported and opposed President Aristide would quickly disappear from the Haitian scene. Now that hope has moved into the category of an urgent necessity.
During the past week there have been many reports of threats and killings, the majority involving attacks on supporters of the deposed president. Then, today, armed men--apparently Aristide supporters--visciously attacked a demonstration of the ex-President's opponents, killing six and injuring many more.
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Haiti: The Humiliation of Military Intervention
On March 6, the Brazilian news agency ADITAL interviewed Camille Chalmers in Port-au-Prince.
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Sustained Attention to Needs of Haiti Necessary
Statement of Inter-American Committee of Religious
Gathered in Washington, DC March 5, 2004 -
With All Due Respect, Mr. Wolfensohn…
As you've seen, Haiti has quickly fallen off the priority lists of the international editors at the major media outlets. That probably makes it more important that we continue to try to shed what light we can on the situation here.
"Here" has changed from our last posting. I'm now in Palo Alto, California at the annual gathering known as the Global Philanthropy Forum. The GPF brings together a cross section of international philanthropists, including many of the leaders of this country's most influential foundations. We at Grassroots suffer no delusions about our relationship to the philanthropic elite, but we feel that we must try to take our message to anyone who will listen to it. This year, the conference theme is, "Building Partnership Across Sectors."
Last night, World Bank President James Wolfensohn opened the conference with a reflection on the challenges he sees before the international philanthropic community. Not surprisingly, he declined to mention the case of Haiti in his presentation. I had a question ready for the Q & A, but mine was not one of the questions recognized by Mr. Wolfensohn.
So....I'll use this log to pose the question to you, and I'll send the question to the Public Relations Unit at the World Bank to see if I can get a reply.
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Boston-based aid organization calls on international community to involve human rights organizations in Haiti’s politics
Grassroots International today called on the US and the United Nations to actively seek the participation of Haiti’s grassroots organizations in the country’s political transition.
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Grassroots Calls on International Community to Involve Grassroots Human Rights Organizations in Haiti’s Political Transition
Grassroots International today called on the U.S. and the United Nations to actively seek the participation of Haiti's grassroots organizations in the country's political transition.