January 2001 news briefing & analysis this month

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Compiled and written by Prof. Yves A. Isidor. Other staff members assisted with the following reports. Correspond with the concerned parties via electronic mail: wehaitianspol@aol.com Last month news: March/December

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The INS problem with two Haitian or Bahamian deportees Gertha Clairville, 20, and Kervence Carry, 21, were both born in the Bahamas. They speak only English and with a U.S. accent because they were both raised in the U.S. Still, they never became U.S. naturalized citizens. In 1998, Clairville found himself in trouble with the law when he was arrested. According Miami-Dade County criminal records, he was later convicted of aggravated battery and sentenced to two years in prison. During that same year, Carry, was convicted of strong-arm robbery and sentenced to 270 days in Jail. Since the 1996 immigration law mandates that any foreigner convicted of aggravated felonies be expelled permanently from the U.S. after serving his sentence, deportation day came for them last week. After the government of Bahamas told U.S. immigration officials last week Clarville and Carry were not Bahamian citizens, tough they both were born there, but of Haitian parents, they were deported to Haiti. In a letter sent to Robert Wallis, the Immigration and Naturalization Service Miami district office director, and Owen B. Cooper, general INS counsel in Washington, D.C. outraged lawyers for the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center said Clairville and Carry should not be deported to the Caribbean nation of Haiti and demand their immediate return. "Ever since their arrival in Haiti they have been languishing in a Port-au-Prince jail without food, clothing or bed," said immigration attorneys and Cheryl Little of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. "We do not know exactly what to do with those guys because Bahamians officials do not recognize them as citizens. Even so, we have agreed to reopen the cases," said Miami INS spokesperson Rodney Germain. Unlike in the U.S. and most European nations, according to a 1996 law Haitian refugees may apply for permanent residency in the Banana Republic of Bahamas after 10 years of uninterrupted physical presence, and citizenship 10 years or more afterward. Remember the homeless during the winter season!

Once again from Haiti, 880 pounds of cocaine for the U.S. Four days after U.S. drug enforcement agents found 45 kilos of cocaine abroad a Honduran-flagled vessel, which first made a stop in Haiti before docking at the port of Miami, the agents of the same seized Wednesday 880 pound of cocaine shortly after the illicit cargo of a Haitian vessel was loaded into a Ryder truck. The driver of the Ryder truck, a Haitian national, was taken away in handcuffs by custom agents and Miami Police. Customs agents estimated the 880 pounds of cocaine to have a wholesale value of $8 million.

Exiled Haitian National Provisional Electoral Council President writes U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell "I was summoned to the National Palace, where both President Preval and former President Aristide threatened me with death if I did not publish the manipulated results."

Nashua, December 27, 2000

General Colin Powell

Secretary of State-Designee

Bush-Cheney Transition Team

McLean, Virginia

Dear General Powell: As the President of the Haitian Provisional Electoral Council, let me congratulate you as the 65th Secretary of State of the United States. Your integrity, character, sense of honor, and dedication remind me and other Haitians of our own roots, which include General Toussaint Louverture, one of the fathers of our independence. At that time, for the black people of Haiti, he was the savior against oppression and slavery; he was a man of integrity, with the vision of freedom and democracy for his people. Sir, for all the blacks of the world, you continue to carry the flag as a role model for showing that the best is yet to come. Almost two years ago, Haitian President Rene Preval called me out of retirement, at age 74, to serve my country with pride, honesty and dignity. I agreed to become the President of the Provisional Electoral Council of Haiti, despite the obvious difficulties that lay ahead for a country coming out of 23 months of political crisis and the fact that since 1994 both former President Aristide and President Preval violated all agreements on democratization with the parties, civil society, and the international community. During that crisis period, President Preval sought to force the Parliament to accept the results of previous fraudulent elections and impose a prime minister without parliamentary approval. Parliament was dissolved, a prime minister was appointed without constitutional legitimacy, and elections were often postponed and eventually were held, however fraudulently. Political repression and assassinations were common, and regrettably, still are. During the 15 months I served in office prior to fleeing the country for my own safety, I endured the difficulties of the job, wanting only to get my country out of the mess it was in and help it become part of the international democratic community. Despite threats of violence, manipulations of the ruling party, and recriminations by the opposition, we succeeded in organizing reasonably fair elections on May 21, 2000. Turnout was around 60 percent, extremely high by recent Haitian historical experience. Violence was relatively minor, and for the first time since 1995, all the opposition parties and civil society fully participated. But on election night, after the polls closed and the international observers went home, ballots boxes were stolen and replaced with stuff substitute boxes. The replacement boxes were full of ballots in favor of former President Aristide's party, Fanmi Lavalas (FL). Many members of the police forces betrayed their mission of ensuring the security of the electoral process, participating in fraudulent maneuvers. Overall, the night of the elections was one of fraud, with the goal of ensuring the absolute success of the Fanmi Lavalas party. I was summoned to the National Palace, where both President Preval and former President Aristide threatened me with death if I did not publish the manipulated results. I refused to commit such infamy against the Haitian people, and with the support of the international community, I was taken out of Haiti and into exile in the United States. At age 76, I m learning of the difficult conditions of exile. Subsequent to my departure, Presidents Preval and Aristide published the bogus results, which do not reflect the will of the Haitian people. My deepest concern is that Haiti once again has become a one-party de facto dictatorship. In the name of my countrymen, I call on you to do all you can to help Haitians organize free and fair local, legislative, and presidential elections as soon as possible and with the participation of the whole of our democratic society. Because you understand the meaning of honor, decency, and democracy, I am confident you will hear the call of the Haitian people. We want peace and democracy. The Haitian people deserve no less. Thank you for your consideration. I am glad to wish you great success as the Secretary of State of the new administration and all the best for the year 2001 and beyond. Sincerely,

Leon Manus

President in Exile

Provisional Electoral Council

More than 8,000 Haitians respond to Haiti's democratic opposition call to form a national government of consensus and unity Haiti's leftist and chief bandit, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, did not want to go willingly. But on January 27th, perpetual state-sponsored corruption, perpetual politically motivated killings, perpetual gross incompetence, perpetual largely fraudulent elections and destruction of the Haitian economy swept him away when more than 8,000 Haitians responded to Haiti's democratic opposition's call, better known as the Convergence Democratique, to form a national government of consensus and unity. During the democratic opposition's Saturday mass meeting, in the Port-au-Prince section of Pont-Morin, where the offices of the Organization of the People in Struggle are located, also a member of the 15-party democratic opposition coalition, attention was first paid to the Universal Declarations of Human Rights, the Organization of the American States' (OAS) chart and international pacts, involving economic, social, cultural and political rights, which Haiti is a signatory. And then there was the Lavalas government of the inebriated Rene Preval, which leftist Aristide has since 1995, when he was forced to abandon the office of the presidency after a five-year term, been the power behind the throne. "The Lavalas government has completely destroyed the country's economy, democracy, imposed a one-party system, frustrated the Haitian populace, unjustly imprisoned and exiled honest citizens, caused citizens to experience more unemployment and poverty." So while the opposition continued to name leftist Aristide's misdeeds, including those of his political godson, the unarticulated Preval's, all worthy of Stalin and Castro, also was the issue of a total lack of public safety, and as a result thousands of Haitians have lost their lives. The other issues of concern were perpetual social agitation and citizens who have become hopeless because of the Lavalas government's reign of terror and gross incompetence. In an effort to have the country and the majority of its citizens brake away from the total mess they first found themselves in ten years ago, when leftist Aristide ascended to power as president, the opposition declared, tough it is still opened to dialogue, it said, unacceptable and void results for the Nov. 26th sham presidential election, in which leftist Aristide, also a voodoo praticioner and womanizing, was said to have been elected president. Participants at the mass meeting further breathed a sigh of relief and hope when they were informed a national government of consensus and unity was in fact been formed. The composition of the government, however, will be announced before February 7th, when leftist Aristide says he will proclaim himself "Monarch," and de facto Premier, Jacques Edouard, says there will be a bloodbath. The opposition invited the international community to take notice of this national "noble patriotic action." The success of Saturday mass meeting, when leftist Aristide was forced to make room at the national political podium for leaders capable of improving the lot of Haitians, also can be measured by the support of the international community. Prior to the national "noble patriotic action," as millions of Haitians also called it, the international community, particularly, the United States and Canada, celebrated in sympathy, asking the country's national police chief, Pierre Denize, to assure the safety of opposition's leaders and participants as well. In addition to the international community, sure do we congratulate Chief Denize for assuring the safety of opposition leaders and participants, and this, in a very efficient fashion. In another development, but two weeks ago, during a January 16th festivity, honoring one of the neighboring or contiguous Dominican Republic national heroes, Juan Pablo Duarte, the country's Army chief, General Manuel Ernesto Polanco Salvador, had some unpleasant words for Haitians. "We have lot of problems with the Haitians. Drug trafficking, illegal possession of guns, illegal immigration and contraband have defined the Haitians. They are a threat to national stability, they are a threat to national security." Haiti's de facto Prime Minister, Jacques Edouard Alexis, in turn, had a few harsh words for General Salvador. "I have solid proof that Dominican Republic soldiers extort money from well-armed Haitian drug traffickers before letting them into the Dominican Republic," said de facto Alexis in a January 27th interview, published in the Listin Diaro, a major Dominican Republic newspaper. Added de facto Alexis, "When soldiers kill Haitians at the border it is not because they want to stop the float of illegal immigration coming from Haiti, but because some of those Haitians do not want to pay a bribe. Not long ago, soldiers machine-gunned a bus carrying Haitians. Five other buses were allowed to continue their journey into the Dominican Republic after soldiers were bribed by their occupants."

Marvin Rosen (finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee from September 1995 until January 1997), former Democratic Congressman Joseph P.Kennedy II, and Bill Clinton confidante Thomas (Mack) McClarty III are all on the same board of Fusion Telecommunications International, according to that company's Web Site. Mr. Rosen, who was active in the DNC at the height of the Clinton fundraising scandals, is also the company's chief executive officer. Fusion may not be well known in the U.S., but it is a well-known name in the Haitian business community. Although Haiti has never privatized Teleco, the state-owned monopoly, or officially deregulated the telecommunications sector, the government, which has been run by former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas Party since 1994, has granted Fusion a concession in the long-distance market. The terms of the deal are a secret, but sources say Fusion has an office inside Teleco. Of course there's nothing illegal about a few heavyweights from the Democratic Party cutting a deal with a foreign government. Nor is it illegal to keep the deal hush-hush. But considering the Clinton administration's remarkable passivity toward Mr. Aristide's political terror and corruption over the past seven years, Fusion's concession is, at the very least, interesting. It's not surprising that many Haiti watchers are asking how deep the connections between the Aristide and Clinton political machines really go. There are also hopes among Haiti's battered democratic opposition that President George W. Bush will have a look at these connections and perhaps reverse a longstanding U.S. policy of not responding effectively to Mr. Aristide's misdeeds. Moreover, it should be remembered that American fighting men were employed on Mr. Aristide's behalf. He was reinstalled as president in 1994 after a U.S. invasion overthrew military coup leader Raoul Cedras. Ever since his return, first as president and then as the power behind the throne during the current presidency of Rene Preval, the Clinton protege has piled up a dubious record. Economic deterioration, drug trafficking and political assassinations of Lavalas critics have defined Mr. Aristide's Haiti. Every national election since 1997, including the one last Nov. 7 in which Mr. Aristide claimed victory, has been ruled fraudulent by independent outside observers. Political violence in Port-au-Prince forced the 1999 closing of offices of the International Republican Institute, a U.S. party-affiliated agency that promotes democracy around the world. The Clinton nonchalance about such matters has puzzled people of both U.S. political parties. One close observer of U.S.-Haitians affairs said before last fall's sham elections in Haiti: "I am a Democrat but I have had a hard time understanding it. The administration can have an influence and they're not doing it. The lengths to which they're going to are rather remarkable. It is a policy of denying reality." Unsurprisingly, one theory is that it has to do with Mr. Aristide's important friendships. There are rumors inside the Haitian telecom industry that Fusion's concession includes a cost for long distance minutes substantially below what competitors are offered. If that is false, Fusion could clear it up. But Fusion's in-house counsel refuses to answer any questions about Haiti, offer the name of anyone at the company who might do so, or return follow-up phone calls. Nor would Mr. McClarty discuss Fusion's Haiti's deal. "Mack doesn't know anything about Fusion and Haiti,' a McClarty spokesman told me. That doesn't seem to jibe with his listing as a board member. People with knowledge of matter say that Fusion in Haiti is a joint venture between Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Aristide. Again, that cannot be confirmed and Mr. Kennedy was not immediately available for comment. But the Haitian despot, whose Lavalas Party was recently denounced by Amnesty International for

"The telephone concessions are an arbitrary distribution of favors.

Anybody who got anything received it through Lavalas."

threatening in early January to exterminate its opposition, was a guest at Mr. Kennedy's second wedding, according to press reports. Mr. Kennedy's second wedding, according to press reports. Mr. Kennedy and his mother are both on the board of advisors of the Aristide Foundation for Democracy, a tax-exempt foundation that raises money for Mr. Aristide's use in Haiti. Other foundation board members are U.S. Congressmen John Conyers and Charles Rangel. In the June 26 issue of Insight magazine Catherine Edwards reported that Mr. Conyers had received a letter from a Haitian senator asking him to resign from the foundation. It read, according to the Insight article: 'The incumbent de facto government controls and diverts all the financial resources and power of the Haitian state for the use of the Lavalas political party. The Aristide Foundation is the principal mechanism for diversion of public resources." Whatever the Fusion deal is, members of the Haitian business community insist that it had to be negotiated through the ruling party and its leader, Mr. Aristide. As one leading Haitian businessman told me, "The telephone concessions are an arbitrary distribution of favors. Anybody who got anything received it through Lavalas. They control the telephone sector. There has been no privatization, no transparency and no legal rules." During Mr. Aristide's time as president-elect in exile, he had access to some $40 to $50 million in frozen Haitian government assets. He drew on those assets at a rate of $900,000 per month during his first year of exile, and at a rate of $1.8 million per month starting in October 1992, as previously reported in this paper. He also collected millions of dollars in telephone and other royalties due the government of Haiti. This explains how he was able to pay expensive lawyers, with good political connections, to press his case for U.S. aid in returning him to the Haitian presidency. A book written by Lynn Garrison and published in 2000 by Leprechaun Publishing Group claims that Mr. Aristide holds an unpublished manuscript titled "I Paid For My Return." The Haitian democratic opposition refuses to recognize Mr. Aristide's November "victory" in the presidential elections and it's heading for a showdown. This weekend it will convene in several provinces in order to construct an alternative government. During George W.'s "real good scrubbing" of the White House, a close look at conditions in Haiti and what role the previous administration played in upholding a highly unattractive regime would bear a close look. Ms.O'Grady edits the Americas column. This article was published in The Wall Street Journal of January 26th, 2001, page A15.

More drugs from Haiti for the U.S. Miami U.S. drug enforcement agents seized Saturday a Honduran-flagged vessel with 45 kilos of cocaine on board. Agents had to nearly dismantle the vessel, which only stopped in Haiti before reaching Florida, to find the illicit cargo.

Once again, two unexpected funerals in Haiti, as the country was hoping for more unusual services from two of its few highly educated sons Leslie Delatour, who we previously reported expired on January 24th, after suffering from cancers for a longtime, was bury today after a funeral service in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Petionville. And Dr. Thony Raton, assassinated early this week by bandits, in the provincial city of Petit-Goave,was interred Friday after a funeral service.

Dominican Republic to deport hundreds of Haitians Faced with an increasing number of illegal Haitian immigrants, many of them women and children begging on the streets of the Dominican Republic capital city of of Santo Domingo, the country's immigration officials, accompanied by soldiers, arrested Thursday hundreds of Haitians. The hundred or so Haitians taken out of the circulation Thursday, a handful of the estimated one million Haitians living in the neighboring country, most of them in squalid conditions, will be repatriated to Haiti. The latest round up of Haitian illegal immigrants occurred six days after a truck in which other undocumented Haitians were passenger-prisoners was fired on by soldiers in the Santiago region, North of the Dominican Republic. Two of the prisoners were wounded. Two others, Theodore Alexandre, 28, and Telvi Jean, 28, later succumbed to their wounds. About 4,000 Haitian migrants have been deported from the Dominican Republic to Haiti over the past two weeks. Earlier tragic incidents included seven Haitian illegal immigrants who found death during the night of June 15th, 2000. This, too, happened after the truck in which they were being transported as third world cheap goats was machine-gunned by soldiers.

Bandits kill thousands in Haiti;Haitian opposition leader in Haiti's kangaroo court Without listing all, a few things explain why Haiti is a state that disappeared in all but name months after leftist Jean-Bertrand Aristide assumed the presidency, in 1991. Over the past nine years, thousands of Haitian citizens and others have been robbed at gunpoint by bandits. In most cases, victims are fatally wounded or short dead. A handful of the bandits have been arrested only to be seen the next day walking on the streets, as they prepare to add more citizens to the already long list of their victims. The latest victims include a Haitian medical doctor, who was short dead this week after bandits forcibly gained access to the interior of his private residence in the provincial city of Petit-Goave. Also early this week, another Haitian medical doctor was shot dead in Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince while an armed robbery was in progress. Joining the long list of Haitian citizens, about 30, wounded by gun shot or shot dead, early this week by bandits was Mr. Georges Mangonese, a Haitian-American citizen who majored in hotel management in college, and is the son of a prominent businessman. He is now in critical condition. His friend, Bayard, was slightly injured. And early this month, a five-year-old Haitian-American girl was fatally shot in the mouth by bandits after she was told to stop crying, as they were searching her mother, but first entirely disrobed, for money during a home invasion. The country is also prominent for its thousands of politically motivated killings. Many of them, including U.S. educated Atty. Mireille Durocher Bertin's, March 28th, 1995, took place in broad daylight, and this, only over a period of nine years. Yet, a leftist Aristide's Lavalas Family party Congressman, though fraudulently elected in a May election, told judge Claudy Gassant Wednesday he will shoot him as many times as possible if does not stop his questioning of those presumed to be responsible for the April 3rd, 2000, assassination of prominent radio journalist, Jean L. Leopold Dominique. Leftist Aristide, the same very chief bandit and grossly incompetent man who, was elected in a November in sham election, not long ago said he will create 500,000 jobs over the next five years. To be precise, he will start doing so, he said, after he again assumes the presidency on February 7th. "Because of Aristide's gross incompetence and thuggery Haiti died a long time. We don't understand. We don't get it. We don't know where and whom he is going to create those 500,000 jobs for... another big lie," said many last month. Still, the Haitian opposition, better known as the Convergence Democratique, remains hopeful. It thinks Haiti can be resurrected, the same way Christ did. But the only way that something like this will be possible, says the opposition, is by continuing not to recognize leftist Aristide as president-elect and at the same time form a government of consensus, which, it says, members will be known, at the end of a January 27th public meeting. However, as the opposition was arduously preparing for the January 27th public gathering so the government could be installed on February 7th, to replace the current inebriated President, Rene Preval, its spokesperson, Sauveur Pierre Etienne, was accused last week by leftist Aristide's bandits of making threats against citizens and and later ordered to appear Wednesday in Haiti's kangaroo Court. Mr. Etienne, who Wednesday, was asked by presiding judge Jose Pierre-Louis to divulge the source or sources of his information about a plot he said weeks ago Aristide's bandits had to kill opposition leaders said "I belong to a well organized, a structured political party that knows everything that is going on." As the kangaroo court hearing progressed, Mr. Etienne suggested that judge Pierre-Louis again listen to many of his public messages, tape recorded by leftist Aristide and his bandits, to determine if he, in fact, threatened the lives of citizens, as Haiti's de facto Prime Minister, Jacques Edouard Alexis, another buffoon plaintiff, claimed, too. As is customary in Haitian kangaroo court, judge Pierre-Louis could not produce the tape recorded messages he said he had in his possession. However, before the case was being continued for further investigation, Mr. Etienne, who was accompanied to Haiti's Kangaroo court by six prominent attorneys and supporters, urged the judge to commence legal criminal proceedings against de facto Prime Minister Alexis for threatening the lives of opposition leaders. Mr. Etienne was able to leave the Court House only under heavy police protection, as hundreds of leftist Aristide's bandits, with used tires and gasoline in hands, their trademarks, attempted to burn him alive, while shouting "long live Aristide, Aristide for ever, death or Aristide." "Dirty, filthy, hungry, thieves, criminals, condemned to die dirt poor, illiterate. Those people shouting long live Aristide are too dam to realize another five years of Aristide will only cause them and more of their fellow Haitian compatriots to experience more abject poverty," an impeccable dressed young woman said in French, the language of the very few, and who only gave her name as Sasha.

Leslie Delatour, prominent Haitian economist who brought economics to Haiti, too, died on January 24th, aged 53 In the 1980s, there was something particular new in Haiti. Leslie Delatour, a prominent Haitian economist, became a finance and economics Cabinet Minister in the Caribbean country. &