Food Aid Reform Becomes More Urgent as Food Insecurity and Malnutrition Increase

by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)

The Associated Press’ Trenton Daniel takes a look at high levels of malnutrition and food insecurity in Haiti, reporting that: “Three years after an earthquake killed hundreds of thousands and the U.S. promised that Haiti would ‘build back better,’ hunger is worse than ever. Despite billions of dollars from around the world pledged toward rebuilding efforts, the country's food problems underscore just how vulnerable its 10 million people remain.

            “In 1997 some 1.2 million Haitians didn't have enough food to eat. A decade later the number had more than doubled. Today, that figure is 6.7 million, or a staggering 67% of the population that goes without food some days, can't afford a balanced diet or has limited access to food, according to surveys by the government's National Coordination of Food Security. As many as 1.5 million of those face malnutrition and other hunger-related problems.”

            The AP article follows the release last week of a USAID-sponsored “Famine Early Warning System Network” report that warns that “the early depletion of food supplies from bad harvests, the growing dependence for poor households on market, and a reduction in agricultural employment opportunities have contributed to the increasingly widespread acute food insecurity throughout the country. Many municipalities are currently in crisis.”

            Late rains, seed shortages (driving up seed prices), and withering crops that were planted early are factors contributing to climbing food prices, the report states.

            Daniel surveys some of the government’s responses to the challenge. One of the more hopeful efforts to tackle hunger in Haiti that Daniel describes is the Petrocaribe-funded program “Aba Grangou”:

            “Shortly after taking office, President Michel Martelly launched a nationwide program led by his wife, Sophia, called Aba Grangou, Creole for "end hunger." Financed with $30 million from Venezuela's PetroCaribe fund, the program aims to halve the number of people who are hungry in Haiti by 2016 and eradicate hunger and malnutrition altogether by 2025. Some 2.2 million children are supposed to take part in a school food program financed by the fund.

            “Eberwein, whose government agency oversees Aba Grangou, said 60,000 mothers have received cash transfers for keeping their children in school. A half million food kits were distributed after Hurricane Sandy, along with 45,000 seed kits to replenish damaged crops, he said. Mid- to long-term solutions require creating jobs.

            “But the villagers in the Belle Anse area say they've seen scant evidence of the program, as if officials have forgotten the deaths in 2008 of at least 26 severely malnourished children in this very region. That same year, the government collapsed after soaring food prices triggered riots.”

            The article notes that USAID, which has awarded $1.15 billion in contracts and grants to for work in Haiti since the 2010 earthquake, has devoted only two-thirds as much ($20 million) to a post-Hurricane Sandy food program as the Petrocaribe-funded Aba Grangou. Not to worry – AP cites an expert who assures readers that were people not receiving the aid, they would riot:

            “USAID has allocated nearly $20 million to international aid groups to focus on food problems since Hurricane Sandy, but villagers in southern Haiti said they have seen little evidence of that.

            “Despite the discrepancy, one public health expert said there's sufficient proof that at least some of the aid is reaching the population. Were it not, Richard Garfield said, Haiti would see mass migration and unrest.

            “‘Overall aid has gotten to people pretty well. If aid hadn't gotten to people that place would be so much more of a mess,’ said Garfield, a professor emeritus at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and now a specialist in emergency response at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ‘You'd see starvation and riots ... The absence of terrible things is about the best positive thing that we can say.’”

            But as has been discussed repeatedly in news articles, on CEPR’s blog, and elsewhere – and as former president Clinton has admitted – U.S. food assistance policies are in large part responsible for the destabilization of Haitian agriculture and the related prevalence of food insecurity and malnutrition. As we have previously noted, Chemonics, by far the largest single recipient of USAID funds, used to be a sister company to Comet Rice, which was a central player in this tragedy.

            Proposed reforms to such food aid practices made by the Obama administration could assist an additional four million people for the same amount of funds, according to USAID; the Center for Global Development (CGD) estimates as many as 10 million more. As CGD’s Beth Schwanke describes, these proposals would “relax in-kind and cargo preference requirements on emergency aid, shift $250 million of non-emergency food aid into a new account without in-kind restrictions, and eliminate monetization.” But these and other proposed reforms are being strongly opposed by vested interests that profit from the current system, at Haitians’ expense.

Haiti’s First Lady Sophia Martelly heads the “Aba Grangou” program, which has been criticized for being ineffective.

Dissatisfaction Growing with the Martelly-Lamothe Government

by Thomas Péralte (Haiti Liberte)

In recent months, demonstrations have erupted in different parts of Haiti demanding electricity, river dredging, road and bridge construction, support for farmers, and the building of schools and hospitals.

            The people of Rivière Grise, a neighborhood located in the capital’s vast slum of Cité Soleil, demonstrated last week to demand that the river be cleaned of garbage and debris as the danger of flooding approaches with the summer hurricane season.

            On Jun. 5, residents of the lower Artibonite Valley blocked National Highway # 1 (which runs between Port-au-Prince and Haiti’s North) at Pierre-Payen, Périsse, Carrefour-Peille, Bois-neuf, Liancourt, and Pont-Sondé to demand electricity, among other things. Demonstrators used trucks to barricade the road at various points, turning back vehicles travelling along it.

            Meanwhile, one of the five E’s of President Michel Martelly and Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe is supposed to be energy. Nevertheless, various parts of the capital are mostly plunged into darkness. Only five or six hours of electricity are provided in some places. Lamothe announced at the beginning of 2013 that within six months, Port-au-Prince would have electricity 24 hours a day. The government has clearly not fulfilled this promise, among many others.    As the hurricane season begins, some 320,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) remain homeless after the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake three and a half years ago. This figure includes, according to the latest count, 166,158 women and 153,893 men still living in tents in 385 camps scattered around the capital and its vicinity. Some 22% of IDPs live in 86 camps that are very vulnerable to natural disasters including floods and landslides. This also puts them at greater risk for the spread of diseases such as cholera and H1N1 avian flu. More than three years after the earthquake, some 73,000 Haitians are threatened with forced evictions, while some 1.5 million Haitians are living in food insecurity.

            In Parliament’s last two Finance Laws for Fiscal Years 2011-2012 and 2012-2013, lawmakers budgeted 10 million gourdes ($231,414) for each of the country's communes (counties). But with only four months remaining until the end of fiscal year 2012-2013, these laws have not been implemented in several municipalities. The executive instead has used these funds to bargain with and corrupt some unscrupulous parliamentarians.

            When summoned to testify before the Senate on Jun. 4, Prime Minister Lamothe said that his government had released about 15 billion gourdes ($347.12 million) after Hurricane Sandy last autumn to solve urgent problems, almost 13 billion gourdes of it from funds provided by Venezuela’s PetroCaribe deal.

            So although 15 billion gourdes have been released during the first half of 2013, most peoples’ needs are still not met, and demonstrations are increasing. Prime Minister Lamothe was unable to present a clear report on how these disbursed funds have been administered. Senate President Simon Dieusel Desras stopped a no-confidence vote against Lamothe’s government on Jun. 4, but, if popular ire continues to rise, the Senate can be expected to organize another no-confidence vote soon that will determine the future of Lamothe’s government.

Demonstrations like this one demanding government action are multiplying across Haiti.

On 9th Anniversary of MINUSTAH’s Deployment: International Gathering Calls for UN Troops to Leave Haiti

Delegates from across Haiti and the world gathered in Port-au-Prince for a Continental Conference on May 31 and Jun. 1 to map out a world-wide campaign to bring a rapid end to the United Nations Mission to Stabilize Haiti (MINUSTAH), a 9,000-member military force which has occupied Haiti since Jun. 1, 2004.

            The delegates met for the two days at the Plaza Hotel, addressed a rally of several hundred people on May 31 on the Dessalines Plaza of the Champ de Mars, and spoke on several radio shows, including Ranmase, Radio Caraïbes’s highly popular Saturday morning round-table.

            “Haitians, this is a battle for our dignity and pride as a people,” Sen. Moïse Jean-Charles, who was a guiding force behind the conference, declared to the enthusiastic outdoor rally in the capital’s main square. Haiti’s founding father General Jean-Jacques “Dessalines fought for us to be masters of this little patch of land. How can we be occupied by a foreign army over 200 years later? We cannot. We will not.”

            By the end of the second day of meetings, which included statements and testimony of organizations from all over Haiti, the delegates unanimously approved the following resolution and vowed to continue their struggle.

Resolution of the Continental Conference in Haiti for the Withdrawal of UN-MINUSTAH Troops

To the Governments of Latin America and the Caribbean,

To All the Governments Involved in the Occupation of Haiti

We – the 140 delegates at the conference coming from Haiti, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, El Salvador, the United States, Algeria, and France, mandated by our respective organizations and associations – have received messages of support from Guadeloupe, St. Lucia, Martinique, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia (1) and France, among other countries.

            On May 31 and June 1, 2013 – after nine years of UN-MINUSTAH occupation of Haiti, the first black republic in the world, established in 1804 after a war of liberation against the French colonial power – we met in Port-au-Prince in response to the call issued by the Host Committee of the Continental Conference in Haiti for the Withdrawal of UN-MINUSTAH Troops: "To Defend Haiti Is to Defend Ourselves."

1 - We heard the testimonies from Haitian citizens and organizations on the consequences of these nine years of occupation.

            The speakers who testified confirmed that the abuses by the MINUSTAH forces continue: rape of the youth in Cayes (Port Salut) by Uruguayan MINUSTAH soldiers, repression of union activities and social protests, proliferation of drug trafficking and distribution of fire-arms.

            The testimonies confirmed that the troops are in Haiti to protect the interests of the multinational corporations from the United States and its allies – interests expressed, in particular, in the various [U.S.] HOPE laws (2), but also through the shameless exploitation of workers in export-processing zones and the looting of the country, especially its mineral resources.

            The testimonies also noted that three years after the earthquake of January 2010, there are hundreds of thousands of Haitians still living in tents in deplorable conditions – and this on top of the massive cholera epidemic brought into Haiti by MINUSTAH troops from Nepal, an epidemic that has already taken the lives of 9,000 Haitians and infected hundreds of thousands of others.

2 - We also learned about and discussed the report dated March 8, 2013, presented to the United Nations Security Council by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon (3).

            - The UN Secretary-General's Report states that MINUSTAH is in Haiti to ensure "security" -- but whose security? The Report goes on to state that the "UN Mission is faced with widespread and repeated civil unrest, mainly linked to socioeconomic grievances." The Report also notes that there have been "[f]requent anti-Government demonstrations . . . against the high cost of living, food insecurity and the failure to deliver basic services. From August to October 2012, the number of demonstrations held per month tripled from 22 to 64."

            - But then the UN Secretary-General's Report concludes that there is a "need to strengthen the national police and judiciary" and that this "remains a key prerequisite for the Mission's eventual withdrawal from Haiti." In other words, if the forces of repression are not strengthened, the MINUSTAH troops would not get out of Haiti.

            As an example of why the UN presence is still needed, the UN Secretary-General points to the "[r]iots in Jérémie (Grand-Anse Department) late in November 2012 and in January 2013 [which] underscored the need for MINUSTAH to continue to be able to airlift a quick reaction force to remote areas in support of the national police."

            But these "riots" were in fact mobilizations of the people demanding the completion of the road between Cayes and Jérémie – a road needed to break the region out of its isolation; construction on this road had begun more than three years earlier but was abandoned by the Brazilian OAS construction company.

            - The UN Secretary-General also emphasizes the need for legislative (Senate) and municipal elections and for preparing the 2015 presidential elections. But he openly acknowledges that neither the previous elections nor the next ones will be organized by Haitian institutions.

            In fact, the U.S. government, through the edifice of the MINUSTAH occupation, persists in trampling upon the rights of the Haitian people, in violation of the Haitian Constitution and the very Charter of the United Nations.

            What's more, the UN Secretary-General's Report has the gall to state that the UN-MINUSTAH forces are "working to eliminate" the cholera epidemic. These words were stated just a few weeks after the UN refused to take responsibility for the epidemic that was transmitted by the Nepalese troops of MINUSTAH. These words were stated shortly after the UN refused to pay reparations to the victims of the epidemic – under the guise of "diplomatic immunity" of its personnel.

            Therefore, it is with horror that we read in the Report, following a series of disclosures that constitute a real indictment against the MINUSTAH occupation of Haiti, the defense by the UN Secretary-General of the decision to maintain the UN-MINUSTAH occupation of Haiti until 2016.

            This is unacceptable! This is unbearable!

 

3 - To the governments of the countries of UNASUR (Union of South American Nations):

            We appeal to the governments of the countries of UNASUR, whose founding treaty affirms "full respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of States and self-determination of peoples."

            To the governments of the countries of CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States):

            We appeal to the governments of the countries of CELAC, whose Caracas Declaration also reaffirms the defense of national and popular sovereignty, and moreover welcomes the "more than 200 years of independence of Haiti" and recalls the aid given by the Haitian people to Simon Bolivar in his struggle for independence against the Spanish colonial power.

            MINUSTAH is the negation of all that. MINUSTAH is an occupying force in the interests of U.S. multinationals. The so-called "peace" mission of MINUSTAH is a "peace" mission to exploit the workers, the youth, and the natural resources of Haiti.

            Our conference was also addressed by delegates from the United States and France, whose governments are permanent members of the Security Council. They denounced the heinous roles of their governments in this occupation – an occupation that is also against the interests of the workers and peoples in the United States and France. The U.S. delegates, in particular, denounced the coup d'etat of February 29, 2004, that overthrew President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

            The conference concluded that the military occupation of Haiti is part and parcel of the policies of U.S. imperialism and its allies in response to, and as a consequence of, the crisis of the capitalist system, which is accelerating and in this process furthering its policies of war and looting of peoples worldwide, while trampling upon the freedom and sovereignty of nations.

            We also wish to recall the following facts:

            - On September 20, 2011, the Haitian Senate unanimously passed a resolution calling upon the Haitian government to "put forward before the Security Council of the United Nations the formal request for a gradual, orderly and definitive withdrawal of all components of MINUSTAH in a period not exceeding one year, or no later than October 15, 2012."

            - In a hearing on July 10, 2012, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Brazil – the country in command of the MINUSTAH troops – stated: "I believe that MINUSTAH has already extended its mission longer than desirable."

            - In October 2012, a delegation was received at the United Nations by Mr. William Gardner, then representative of UN Secretary-General Mr. Ban Ki-moon. Mr. Gardner stated that "the UN Security Council would soon take steps to reduce the number of troops in Haiti."

            A year later, where do we stand?

            - In Argentina, in April 2013, at a hearing at the Foreign Affairs Ministry,  Argentine diplomat Pablo Tettamanti stated: "It is now a problem of internal security in Haiti, and the MINUSTAH forces are not there for that. Before, it was justified, but not now, because the protests are internal affairs of Haiti, and we have nothing to do with that."

            - Even the interim director of the MINUSTAH forces, Mr. Nigel Fisher, said in an interview in February 2013 that "the presence of MINUSTAH in Haiti is leading to a 'dead end'."

            - Once again, on May 28, 2013, the Haitian Senate passed a resolution calling "for the withdrawal of MINUSTAH. "

FOR THE IMMEDIATE WITHDRAWAL OF MINUSTAH!

            It follows from these observations that the only measure consistent with the sovereignty of the Haitian people and the Haitian nation is the immediate withdrawal of UN-MINUSTAH troops from Haiti!

            It is now, right now, that each and every government can and must decide to withdraw its troops. Not one more day for MINUSTAH in Haiti!

            As part of the effort to expand our campaign for the immediate withdrawal of MINUSTAH from Haiti with the broadest unity and determination, the bearers of this Open Letter have been mandated by our Conference to convey to you our urgent and unanimous demands:

- Withdraw your troops from Haiti immediately!

- Vote at the UN against the renewal of the presence of MINUSTAH in Haiti!

- Show your solidarity with the Haitian people by requiring UN compensation/reparations for the victims of cholera!

To Defend Haiti Is to Defend Ourselves!

4 - We, delegates from Haiti, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, El Salvador, the United States, Algeria, and France, meeting in Port-au-Prince in the framework of the Continental Conference for the Withdrawal of MINUSTAH Troops – with the support of organizations, associations, and personalities in a dozen countries, including Uruguay (4);

            - Welcome all the mobilizations and activities demanding the withdrawal of UN troops from Haiti that are taking place across the continent this June 1, 2013 – the 9th anniversary of the occupation of Haiti;

            - Resolve to constitute a "To Defend Haiti Is to Defend Ourselves! Continental Coordinating Committee" to continue and strengthen the solidarity and unity of the people through an ongoing campaign for the withdrawal of the UN-MINUSTAH troops occupying the Haitian soil.

            The Coordinating Committee will aim to strengthen the coordination between the organizations already involved in this fight: the Association of Workers and Peoples of the Caribbean (ATPC); the Sao Paulo Committee "To Defend Haiti Is to Defend Ourselves"; the Guadeloupe-Haiti Campaign Committee, New York; the Host Committee of the Continental Conference in Haiti and the Mexican Committee For the Withdrawal of UN Troops from Haiti, among the many others, and to allow the emergence of other such committees.

            - Propose toward this end a Week of Continental Action on July 29 to August 3, 2013 -- with mobilizations in all countries, including rallies, demonstrations, delegations to governments, petitions, etc.

            - We pledge as of now, if these actions prove to be insufficient to attain our demands, to prepare the sending of an even broader delegation to the UN headquarters in New York in October 2013, at the time of the ratification of the renewal of UN-MINUSTAH mandate in Haiti.

Endnotes

(1) An entire radio program in Bolivia was devoted to this conference in Haiti.

(2) HOPE: Haiti Opportunity Partnership Encouragement act

(3) Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (S/2013/139), March 8, 2013

(4) At the initiative of the PIT-CNT trade union federation, several Uruguayan organizations participated in much of the Haiti conference via Skype. 

Julio Turra, National Executive Director of the Unified Workers Federation (CUT), Brazil’s largest union, speaking to the crowd on the Dessalines Plaza of Champ de Mars on May 31.

Photo by: Wendell Polynice/Haïti Liberté

Haitian and international delegates voting in favor of the final resolution of the Continental Conference.

Photo by: Claudel Merimas/Haïti Liberté

On the Champ de Mars, international delegates to Continental Conference hold banner demanding in Portuguese: “Withdraw the Troops from Haiti.”

Continental Conference to End MINUSTAH

by Kim Ives (Haiti Liberte)

Delegates from around the world will converge on Port-au-Prince May 31 to take part in a two-day Continental Conference aimed at bringing an end to the United Nations Mission to Stabilize Haiti or MINUSTAH, which marks its ninth anniversary on Jun. 1.

            The military occupation force, which now comprises about 9,000 armed soldiers and police officers from some 50 countries and costs some $850 million per year, was deployed by the UN Security Council at the behest of permanent members U.S. and France in 2004 following the Feb. 29, 2004 coup d’état (which Washington and Paris fomented) against former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. At the time, the world public was told that the mission would be deployed for only six months, time enough to hold new elections. Instead, MINUSTAH is now entering its 10^th year. Its latest one-year mandate ends Oct. 15, 2013.

            The Continental Conference, spearheaded by a Brazilian political action committee called "To Defend Haiti Is To Defend Ourselves," will be attended by activists from the Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, France, Spain, the United States, and other countries. Over 150 delegates from all corners of Haiti will also attend the conference, to be held at the Plaza Hotel in downtown Port-au-Prince.

            The Haitian organizing committee, composed of unions and popular organizations, is also organizing a public rally from 3 to 6 p.m. on May 31 in the Place Dessalines on the Champs de Mars in conjunction with the conference.

            On Jun. 1, dozens of Haitians will testify before the Conference about MINUSTAH’s many alleged crimes, including thievery, rape, murder, and massacres.

            From Apr. 15 to 24, outspoken Sen. Moïse Jean-Charles conducted a speaking tour in Brazil and Argentina to build support for the conference, where he will be a leading speaker. “It is an outrage that Brazil and Argentina are doing Washington’s dirty work in Haiti,” Moïse said at a large public meeting held at the Legislative Assembly in Sao Paolo on Apr. 18. “Brazilian and Argentinian troops are not helping Haiti. They are merely defending U.S. imperial interests.”

            Brazilian soldiers make up MINUSTAH’s largest contingent, about 2,200 soldiers. There are about 600 Argentinian troops in the force.

            During the 10 day trip to the two countries, Moïse met with governement officials, parliamentarians, unionists, students, popular organizations, and the general public, in meetings both large and small.

            On Apr. 16, for example, Senator Moïse met with the Foreign Relations Committee of the House of Deputies in Brasilia. Four deputies, Committee president Nelson Pellegrino and Fernando Ferro, both of the ruling Workers Party (PT), and Luiza Erundina and José Stédile, both of the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB), held a cordial meeting of over 90 minutes with the senator, who stressed, as he did at other meetings, that the Haitian Senate had unanimously voted a resolution in 2011 calling on MINUSTAH to completely withdraw from Haiti by October 2012. That resolution has been flagrantly ignored by the UN.

            Then later that same day, Sen. Moïse met for almost two hours with students at the University of Brasilia, who asked him many questions. “Everybody knows that Brazil is heading up the UN military occupation in Haiti,” he said in response to one question. “But who is making the big money in Haiti? The Americans. Who is giving the orders? The Americans. This game of bluff has to stop.”

            Senators, deputies, city councilmen, leaders from large union federations, and prominent activists from Brazil, Argentina, and around Latin America and Europe have pledged to attend the event.

            In the build-up to the Continental Conference, meetings have been held in numerous countries. On May 17 in New York, a political and cultural fundraising rally was held at the Riverside Church featuring the renowned musical group Welfare Poets and several other artists. Other speakers included Dr. Fritz Fils-Aimé of the  Haitian American Veterans Association (HAVA), Dr. M. Alexendre Sacha Vington of Humanity Haiti, Nellie Bailey of the Harlem Tenants Council, Ralph Pointer, the husband of jailed human rights lawyer Lynne Stewart, and Kim Ives of Haïti Liberté.

            “People around the world are standing with the Haitian people in their call for UN troops to get out of Haiti,” said Colia Clark, a veteran civil rights activist who worked alongside Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King, Jr., and who organized the May 17 event. “The upcoming Continental Conference in Port-au-Prince will be the first time people and organizations from around the world will sit down together to see how we can assist our Haitian brothers and sisters in their struggle to regain their sovereignty and send MINUSTAH packing.”

Former civil rights activist and Green Party candidate Colia Clark at Riverside Church rally on May 17. “People around the world are standing with the Haitian people in their call for UN troops to get out of Haiti.”

                                                                                   

Photo:

Kim Ives/Haiti Liberté

Cholera Legal Suit Against the UN Takes Shape: Lawyers Seek Haitian Claimants in New York

by Kim Ives   (Haiti Liberte)                                                

On May 8, lawyers representing over 5,000 Haitian cholera victims told the United Nations that they are taking the world body to court in 60 days if it doesn’t accept responsibility for introducing the deadly microbe into Haiti’s waters.

            Lawyers Brian Concannon, Jr. and Ira Kurzban of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) said they will file a lawsuit in New York courts in early July if UN officials don’t walk back their claim to be immune from all responsibility for unleashing the world’s deadliest cholera epidemic when they allowed cholera-infected Nepalese troops to deploy and discharge their sewage into the headwaters of the Artibonite River on Haiti’s Central Plateau in October 2010. Since then, the disease has spread throughout Haiti, killing over 8,300 and sickening over 670,000.

            Meanwhile, on May 9, the Haitian Senate unanimously voted for (with only one abstention) a resolution demanding that the UN compensate Haitian cholera victims. Among other things, the senators proposed “the creation of a commission of experts in international and penal law to study what legal means, both nationally and internationally, we could use to prove the MINUSTAH’s responsibility” for unleashing the cholera epidemic.

            In February, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon rebuffed a petition which IJDH and the Port-au-Prince-based Office of International Lawyers (BAI) filed with the world body in November 2011 seeking UN financial compensation for 5,000 Haitian petitioners, constructive action to prevent cholera’s spread, and a formal acknowledgment of and apology for the UN’s responsibility for bringing cholera into Haiti.

            The 37-page complaint charged that the “UN is liable for negligence, gross negligence, recklessness, and deliberate indifference for the health and lives of Haitian people resulting in petitioners’ injuries and deaths from cholera.”

            The lawyers delivered their latest ultimatum at the UN headquarters’ Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium in New York, the same venue where they announced the original petition.

            Concannon and Kurzban were joined by Haitian Dr. Jean Ford Figaro, who is the Health Education Coordinator at Boston Medical Center. “Now cholera is getting worse,” Dr. Figaro told the press conference. “The UN failed to follow the recommendations they asked for, the recommendations they promised to implement, the recommendations that cost them no money at all. Because of this, the Haitian people have no choice but to seek justice by legal means.”

            In their February response, a two-page letter which took 15 months to draft, the UN argued that “these claims are not receivable pursuant to Section 29 of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations.”

            ‘‘They may have immunity, but they don’t have impunity,’’ responded Ira Kurzban.

            The lawyers will seek $100,000 for the family of each cholera victim who died and $50,000 for each victim who lived through the ordeal. If successful, the lawsuit could cost the UN billions of dollars.

            Despite having thousands of petitioners in Haiti, in order to pursue the lawsuit in New York, the IJDH lawyers need Haitians victims living in New York to step forward to be represented by them. The criteria to become a claimant in this imminent suit against the UN are: 1) that you are a resident of New York State; 2) that you or your child have personally contracted cholera in Haiti and sought medical attention in Haiti or elsewhere; or 3) that you lost an immediate family member to cholera.

            For any questions or more information, contact the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, 666 Dorchester Ave., Boston, MA, kolera@ijdh.org or call 347-770-1008.

                             

From left to right, Dr. Jean Ford Figaro of Boston Medical Center, Brian Concannon, Jr. and Ira Kurzban of IJDH. The UN “may have immunity, but they don’t have impunity,’’ Kurzban said.

Two Years After His Return, Aristide Finally Speaks Out

by Kim Ives (Haiti Liberte)

Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide called for national unity to tackle the problem of hunger in Haiti and thanked the Haitian people for their massive show of solidarity the day before when thousands joined him in a slow procession through Port-au-Prince back his residence from making a court deposition on May 8.

            “Yesterday, was an ordinary day, but you made it into an extraordinary day, and I say thank you,” Aristide said on May 9 to about 20 journalists assembled in his home’s Spartan study, where he has spent most of the past two years since his return to Haiti from a seven year exile on Mar. 18, 2011. Since that day, when thousands also accompanied him home, it was the first time he has spoken publicly.

            In the course of his 40 minute talk, Aristide also thanked Haitians in Haiti’s rural provinces, its diaspora, the police force, his Lavalas Family party, and “all the other political parties.”

            Speaking directly to the Haitian people, he obliquely tweaked the government of President Michel Martelly, but refrained from any direct criticism or policy discussion. “I know you have a $1.50 problem,” he said referring to the illegal tax that the Martelly government levies on every money transfer Haitians make to folks back home. “I know you have a problem in the sending of money. I know you have problems in the question of telephone calls [where a 5 cent or 1 gourde tax is placed on every minute of international calls]... I’m not going to get into the problems. I’m not going to get into making criticisms.”

            Instead, he spoke about his university, his emotions after the earthquake, and his love for the Haitian people.

            “I want to say thank you for what you have taught me,” he said. “Yesterday I learned a lot. In the two years since I’ve returned, I’ve been learning at the school of the Haitian people.”

            He reported that his medical school began with 126 students, but that “this year it opened with 254 students, while there are 115 who are in their second year of medical school.” He also said that the University of the Aristide Foundation (UNIFA) now has a nursing school with 73 students and a developing computer school.

            “All the students this year have partial-scholarships,” he said. “When in a university a student pays 90,000 gourdes (US$2,118) for the year, with us in the first year they pay 30,000 gourdes (US$706), one third.”

            “We’d like to do more, but we don’t have the means,” he said. “Whatever little bit I can do for education, I do it.”

            To the consternation of many of his followers that he has not spoken out, he replied: “Nobody forced me not to speak. I don’t take orders. Like the Haitian people, I’m my own boss. I speak when I have to. Nobody can stop me from talking.”

            As for staying in his home, he said: “I didn’t leave with my body, but I left with my heart. My heart’s eyes sees far. My heart’s eyes see what is happening in the provinces and in Port-au-Prince.”

            He said his trip through Port-au-Prince had reminded him of all the suffering and damage after the earthquake and “yesterday I relived it.”

            “I know what it means for you who have not been able to escape the pain of goudougoudou,” he said, using Haitians’ onomatopoetic term for the seism. In typical form, he rattled off various statistics about the damage done by the earthquake.

            “I saw a people that even though they have suffered under rubble, they have a pride, a dignity, a determination, a character, and they want to live, they have to live,” he said. “Despite being deceived, they still stand.”

            Most of his declaration was a call for Haitians to come together to fight hunger, sparked by an old woman who had pointed to her belly during the march the day before. “When I eat, I’m ashamed as I think of people who cannot eat,” he said.

            Aristide called on politicians to “depoliticize” hunger to fight it, and to come together.

            “The Fanmi Lavalas is growing and becoming stronger and more powerful,” he said. “If there are free, honest, democratic elections, it is likely that it will win big.”

            But Fanmi Lavalas is also “fooling itself” if it thinks “it is going to resolve the problem of hunger by itself. That’s false. It cannot.” He also said that the Martelly government, “with all the respect that I have for the current authorities,” could not solve it alone either.

            “The problem of hunger demands that we find a formula where people and parties who are in power and those who are not, overseas Haitians with those here, can dialogue together with respect so we can solve this hunger question because it is no joke.”

After Aristide Testifies to Investigating Judge: Massive March Signals Lavalas Movement’s Resurrection

by Kim Ives (Haiti Liberte)

Well over 15,000 people poured out from all corners of Haiti's capital to march alongside the cortege of cars that carried former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide back to his home in Tabarre from the Port-au-Prince courthouse he visited on May 8.

            Thousands more massed along sidewalks and on rooftops to cheer the procession on, waving flags and wearing small photos of Aristide in their hair, pinned to their clothing, or stuck in their hats.

            Led by Fanmi Lavalas party coordinator Maryse Narcisse through a gauntlet of jostling journalists, Aristide had entered the courthouse (the former Belle Époque Hotel) at exactly 9:00 a.m., the time of his appointment to testify before Investigating Judge Ivickel Dabrésil. Aristide had waited with Narcisse in a car outside the court's backdoor for about 45 minutes. It was only the second time that Aristide had left his home (and the first time publicly) since returning to Haiti on Mar. 18, 2011 from a seven-year exile in Africa following the Feb. 29, 2004 Washington-backed coup d’état which cut short his second government.

            Lawyer Mario Joseph said that he was "very satisfied" with the reception given by Judge  Dabrésil, who is investigating the April 2000 murder of radio journalist Jean Dominique and his radio’s caretaker Jean-Claude Louissaint, for which Aristide is one of many prominent Haitians, including former President René Préval, interviewed for testimony. Joseph said the three hour deposition was very "cordial and relaxed."

            But many Haitians feared that the summoning of Aristide – even if only for testimony –  was a trap set by President Michel Martelly, who, as the former vulgar konpa musician “Sweet Micky,” was the principal cheerleader of both the 1991 and 2004 coups d’état against Aristide.

            “This summoning of Aristide is a political act remote-controlled by the Martelly government, the same as the now discredited legal suits brought a few months ago by Ti Sony [a former resident of the Lafanmi Selavi orphanage who claimed that Aristide had “exploited” him and other orphans] and some who lost money when the cooperative banks went bust [while Aristide was in power in 2002 and 2003],” said outspoken Sen. Moïse Jean-Charles. “Those previous efforts to smear and destroy Aristide failed, so now they are trying this.”

            Many Haitian radio commentators point to Judge Dabrésil’s postponement of Aristide’s deposition from its original date of Apr. 24 as proof that there is a political hand in the judge’s proceedings. The deposition, and the expected anti-Martelly pro-Aristide outpouring, would have taken place during the 5th Summit of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) from Apr. 23-26 held in Pétionville and attended by many regional leaders.

            Furthermore, on Mar. 7, the Defend Haiti website reported that “Presidential Adviser Guyler Delva admitted, earlier this week, to giving Judge Ivekel Dabrésil a car, and Senator John Joel Joseph said on Radio Scoop FM on Wednesday [Apr. 30] that the administration had purchased a house in Florida for the judge.”

            Another impetus for the massive turn-out came on the evening of May 7 when Haitian National Police (PNH) Director General Godson Orélus took to the airwaves to announce that the PNH had “received no formal notification of the demonstration” as required by law and that therefore “any demonstration is formally forbidden” along the route between Aristide’s house and the courthouse.

            “The police don’t want any demonstration,” he concluded, throwing down a gauntlet which the Haitian people took up the next morning.

            Lavalas leaders, including Narcisse, responded that the march was not a “demonstration” but an “accompaniment” of Aristide by the Haitian people. Many Lavalas leaders came to the courthouse to show their solidarity including Senators Moïse Jean-Charles, John Joel Joseph, Francky Excius, and Jean Baptiste Bien-Aimée; Deputy Saurel Hyacinthe; former senator Gérard Louis Gilles; former deputies Jacques Mathelier and Lionel Etienne; former Justice Minister Calixte Delatour; activists Farah Juste, Claudy Sidney, and Volcy Assad.

            About 100 people had spent the night in a vigil across the street from Aristide’s home. At 6 a.m., hundreds more joined them to mass on the sidewalks in front of Aristide's house.

            But the real “accompaniment” began after the hearing. Leaving the courthouse at noon, Aristide's ride home took five hours, passing slowly through downtown Port-au-Prince, the Champ de Mars, the hillside slum of Belair, Delmas 2, then the roads through the old military airport and past the international airport.

            Parallel solidarity demonstrations were held in Cap Haïtien, Aux Cayes, and Petit Goâve.

            Alongside the 20 or so cars that followed Aristide’s silver jeep, young and old walked, jogged, and ran, singing, chanting, and laughing. The river of humanity included motorcycles, bicycles, wheelchairs, and the occasional person on crutches.

            Marchers also tore down pink government propaganda posters from lampposts along the way. Several copies of one poster declaring “With the Martelly/Lamothe government, Haiti is advancing” was torn up and left in pieces in the street for vehicles and marchers to pass over. (Martelly’s long-time business partner Laurent Lamothe is Haiti’s Prime Minister.)

            Three times Aristide got out of his car to wave to the crowd -- outside the courthouse gate, in Belair, and in front of his home -- causing people to sprint toward his car and raise their arms, creating a sea of hands. Afterwards, people hugged and high-fived each other, some laughing, some crying.

            Even one man dressed in rags moved down the line of cars following Aristide, wiping each car clean with a dirty cloth but asking for no money in return.

            “Se pa lajan non, se volontè wi,” (It’s not for money, I’m here of my own free will) was the refrain of crowds which turned out for Aristide’s massive campaign rallies when he first ran for President in November and December 1990. The song was heard again on May 8, 2013 in the largely spontaneous march, which grew in size and volume as it made its way through the capital.

            In contrast, when Martelly organized a carnival-like rally of a few thousand in the Champ de Mars on May 14, many participants were paid 1000 gourdes (US$24) a head to turn out. They were also given a t-shirt - either pink or white - to put on. But after taking the money, many "celebrants" discarded their t-shirts in the street, Haïti Liberté reporters observed. (A Haiti Liberté photographer was prevented from accessing media stand at the May 14 rally after presenting his press credentials.)

            Some pundits tried to banalize the historic march, saying it was merely the beginning of the electoral campaign of the Lavalas Family (FL), the party that Aristide founded in 1996. (Many Haitian political leaders, including those in the FL, strongly doubt whether free and fair elections can be held under Martelly, or whether he even wants to hold them. “No matter what, Martelly has to go” was another chant heard during the march.)

            But May 8, 2013 was much more than a mere campaign rally. It was a watershed event, a popular show of force which has changed the political calculus of Haiti in the near-term. Haitian history has shown that when the Haitian people begin to move in such numbers, major political change is imminent. The weeks ahead will reveal exactly what that political change will be.

Following his May 8 court appearance, Aristide was “accompanied” by many thousands of Haitians, young and old, in an emotional march back to his home.

Photo by: Daniel Tercier/Haiti Liberté

ONA: Senate Uncovers Stupefying Corruption

by Yves Pierre-Louis (Haiti Liberte)

Since President Michel Martelly’s accession to power two years ago, corruption has become the hallmark of his regime. The State’s entire administration is in decline, marred by bribery, waste, mismanagement, illegal and arbitrary dismissals, and incompetence.

            The latest corruption scandal to erupt is in the National Insurance Office for the Elderly (ONA), Haiti’s social security institution which is supposed to manage the contributions of Haitian workers in the private sector to ensure their welfare as regulated by the Labor Code.

            This institution has been headed by Director General Bernard Degraff for over a year. Persistent accusations of corruption, mismanagement, illegal firings, and inappropriate employee transfers forced Senator Maxime Roumer, the President of the Senate’s Social Affairs Committee, to summon for a questioning Charles Jean-Jacques, the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor, as well as Degraff. After several postponements, finally the hearing took place in the Senate on Apr. 29.

            The hearing became very difficult for Bernard Degraff and his Special Advisor, Jean Robert Simonise.

            Sen. John Joel Joseph outlined the wholesale corruption, mismanagement, and wrongful dismissals his investigations have uncovered. He charged that Degraff has unilaterally increased his own monthly salary from 152,000 gourdes ($3,576) to 472,000 gourdes ($11,104) and that of Simonise from 190,000 gourdes ($4,470) to 351,270 gourdes ($8,264). These salaries far exceed that of the President of the Republic.

            Degraff also bought three Toyota Prado SUVs at $76,000 each, one for him, one for his assistant, and one for an advisor, which are registered and plated as private cars, not state vehicles. Degraff also paid $32,000 to make the vehicles bullet-proof.

            He bought another 40 vehicles with ONA money for employees who are close to him and those vehicles also do not bear State plates, but are private registered.

            Furthermore, Degraff bought an old house for ONA in Pétion-ville, without any bidding, for a whopping $ 2.5 million and then paid another $1 million to repair it.

            The worst is Minister Charles Jean-Jacques claimed that he was unaware of these fraudulent transactions, and in reports he submitted to the Parliament , there was no mention of these purchases.

            Meanwhile, former ONA employees who had been wrongly fired managed to get into the Parliament, and, with placards in hand, they called for the dismissal and arrest of Degraff . Some of the demonstrators even managed to slap Degraff as he left the Legislative Palace.

            Sen. Pierre Francky Exius proposed firing Degraff for corruption and embezzlement of state funds. This proposal was supported by several of his colleagues, including the Commission’s president, Sen. Roumer.

            Meanwhile, public school teachers continue to demonstrate for payment of several months of back wages, farmers are demanding water and fertilizer to increase their agricultural production, and people around the nation are demanding the construction of roads and public markets. Such corruption only adds fuel to the fires of demonstrations burning everywhere.

            Already, Martelly’s close advisor and cousin, hotelier and musician Richard Morse and Minister of Economy and Finance, Marie Carmelle Jean-Marie have resigned because of blatant corruption. Now, a group of citizens has started a petition entitled "Stop the abuses," which seeks to challenge parliamentarians to start impeachment proceedings against President Martelly.

ONA’s Director General Bernard Degraff stands accused illegally hiking his salary, buying private vehicles, and firing employees.

Despite Losing $1 Billion in Iraq, DynCorp Given Haiti Troop Contract

by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)

This article reveals how Washington is still investing in Haiti’s military occupation, not winding it down. HL

In an Apr. 9 press release, DynCorp International announced that the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) had awarded the company with a $48.6 million contract. The purpose of the contract is to “recruit and support up to 100 UNPOL and 10 U.N. Corrections Advisors. DI will also provide logistics support to the Haitian National Police (HNP) Academy and each academy class. In addition, DI will supply five high-level French and Haitian Creole speaking subject matter experts to advise senior HNP officials.”

            The contract was actually awarded to DynCorp a year ago, and the first funding through the award was given to DynCorp in November 2012 in the amount of $12.9 million. DynCorp is one of the largest government contractors, receiving well over $3 billion in 2012.

            As the company points out, its previous work in Haiti began in 2008 and involved the training of over 400 police officers. That work, part of the Haiti Stabilization Initiative, also entailed increasing the size of the U.N. military base in Cite Soleil. DynCorp, which continues to receive funds through that task order, has received over $23 million since 2008 for its work in Haiti.

            One of the primary tasks of the U.N. military mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) is to recruit and train members for the Haitian National Police, so that they could eventually take over for the foreign troops. With this latest contract, DynCorp has gone from training police to take over for MINUSTAH, to simply supplying troops directly to MINUSTAH.

            But the awarding of the contract to DynCorp is also problematic given the company’s terrible track record in the same exact program areas where they will now operate in Haiti.

            In Bosnia in the late 1990s, DynCorp was contracted by the State Department to provide “peacekeepers” for the UN police there, just as in Haiti now. One employee, Kathryn Bolkovac, was eventually fired after blowing the whistle to her superiors at DynCorp on the participation of her colleagues in sex trafficking, among other abuses. The case was the basis for the 2011 Hollywood movie, The Whistleblower.

            Unfortunately, these types of abuses have been all too common in Haiti since the arrival of UN troops in 2004. And similar to the situation in Bosnia, there have been only sporadic and piecemeal efforts to hold those responsible, accountable.

            Additionally, DynCorp has a history of waste, fraud and abuse, including under U.S. government contracts to provide police training in Afghanistan and Iraq, similar to their program in Haiti. In 2010, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction issued a report which found that the State Department and DynCorp could not account for $1 billion dollars spent training the Iraq police. At the time, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) said “[INL has]been managing this contract in Iraq since 2004 and, according to this report, they have no idea where any of the money went… What's even worse is that these are the same people responsible for police training in Afghanistan, so I don't have any confidence that they're doing a better job there.”

            Sure enough, in 2011 DynCorp was slammed by a joint audit from the State Department and Defense Department over their work training the Afghan police. It wasn’t the first time. Also In 2011, according to the Project on Government Oversight’s Contractor Misconduct Database, DynCorp paid $7.7 million to settle a False Claims Act lawsuit after a whistleblower alleged that the company had inflated claims under a “contract with the State Department to provide civilian police training in Iraq.”

DynCorp has gone from training police to take over for MINUSTAH, to simply supplying troops directly to MINUSTAH.

Lawyer Mario Joseph is Finalist for Swiss Human Rights Award

by Kim Ives (Haiti Liberte)

The Switzerland-based Martin Ennals Foundation and the City of Geneva have announced that Haitian human rights lawyer Mario Joseph of the Port-au-Prince-based International Lawyers Office (BAI) is one of three finalists for the Martin Ennals Award.

            Since 1993, the award is given annually by a jury of human rights organizations to “human rights defenders who have shown deep commitment and face great personal risk,” the foundation said in a press release. The aim of the award is to provide protection to the awardees through international recognition.

            Mario Joseph, recognized by many as Haiti's most important human rights lawyer, has worked on some of the most important cases in Haiti, including the current case against the former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier. His family received asylum in the United States in 2004, but he chose to return to Haiti. He has faced threats and harassment for much of his 20 years as a lawyer, although it has intensified in recent months.  “This recognition from the Ennals Award shines a vital spotlight on my work, and on the work of everyone who is fighting for human rights in Haiti,” Joseph said. “That spotlight will make our work safer and more effective."

            The other two finalists are Mona Seif in Egypt and the Joint Mobile Group in Chechnya.

            Seif is a core founder of the "No to Military Trials for Civilians", a grassroots initiative. Since Feb. 25, 2011, Mona has brought together activists, lawyers, and victims' families to start a nationwide movement against military trials. As part of the recent crackdown on freedom of speech in Egypt, she has been charged along with other human rights activists.

            Meanwhile, Igor Kalyapin started the Joint Mobile Group after the murder of several human rights activists working in Chechnya. To reduce risk, they send investigators on short missions to Chechnya to document human rights abuses. This information is then used to publicize these abuses and seek legal redress.

            The Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders (MEA) will be presented on Oct. 8 at a ceremony hosted by the City of Geneva. The award is made possible by a unique collaboration among ten of the world's leading human rights organizations to give protection to human rights defenders worldwide. The Jury is composed of the following organizations: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, International Federation for Human Rights, World Organisation Against Torture, Front Line Defenders, International Commission of Jurists, German Diakonie, International Service for Human Rights, and HURIDOCS.

            The prize also includes 20,000 Swiss Francs which the foundation specifies is “to be used for further work in the field of human rights.”

            Martin Ennals (1927 – 1991) was a British human rights activist who served as the Secretary-General of Amnesty International from 1968 to 1980.

The BAI’s Mario Joseph is a finalist for the world’s foremost human rights award.

Photo by Kim Ives/Haïti Liberté