Thursday, January 29, 2009

Enlèvement et exécution de Me Eric Dubosse: Réprobation générale

(Note: Coming in tandem with the kidnapping on 12 January of Joseph François Robert Marcello, the National Coordinator of Public Procurement in Haiti since 2004, and what are evidently the efforts of some in the police and government to block an investigation into the crime, the killing of Eric Dubosse is proof that the scourge of kidnapping has yet to fully be shaken off in Haiti. Nor, it would seem, given the particulars of the Marcello case, have the political dimesnsions of kidnappings been thoroughly excised. MD)

Enlèvement et exécution de Me Eric Dubosse: Réprobation générale

Le recteur et les étudiants de l’Université d’Etat d’Haïti ainsi que l’ordre des avocats de Port-au-Prince protestent contre ce nouvel acte barbare qui emporte un professionnel chevronné

lundi 26 janvier 2009,

Radio Kiskeya

(Read the original article here)

L’exécution par ses ravisseurs du pharmacien et avocat Louis Eric Dubosse, 65 ans, a provoqué une onde de choc dans différents milieux, forçant des étudiants de l’Université d’Etat d’Haïti (UEH) et les membres du barreau de Port-au-Prince à protester vigoureusement contre ce nouveau crime odieux.

La nouvelle a provoqué lundi matin la stupéfaction générale parmi les étudiants de la faculté d’odontologie qui ont aussitôt organisé un sit-in pour réclamer justice. Le professeur Eric Dubosse devait assurer comme à l’ordinaire son cours de jurisprudence.

Depuis la confirmation de ce brutal et lâche assassinat, ses étudiants n’en finissent pas de vanter ses qualités.

Abasourdis, les responsables du décanat de la faculté, avaient du mal à trouver les mots qu’il faut pour traduire leurs sentiments vis-à-vis de ce drame. Rappelant que le disparu était un honnête homme et un éducateur consciencieux, ils soulignent que le kidnapping mortifère a encore emporté un des représentants de l’intelligentsia haïtienne.

Pour sa part, le recteur de l’Université d’Etat, Vernet Henry, s’est déclaré choqué devant la disparition d’un homme qui faisait partie du personnel enseignant de l’UEH depuis 1981. Il qualifie la mort d’Eric Debrosse de coup terrible porté à l’ensemble de la communauté universitaire et en particulier à la faculté d’odontologie où les étudiants lui vouaient une grande admiration.

Le recteur Henry souhaite que les forces de sécurité redoublent de vigilance afin de stopper la machine infernale du kidnapping.

L’exécution de l’ex-otage a également provoqué des remous au barreau de Port-au-Prince où Me Dubosse était régulièrement inscrit. Le bâtonnier de l’ordre des avocats, Me Gervais Charles a annoncé qu’une dispense de plaider a été accordée pour toute la journée de lundi en solidarité au confrère disparu. Une pétition a été également lancée en vue d’exprimer les protestations de l’ensemble de la corporation qui seront acheminées au ministre de la justice, Jean Joseph Exumé. Un registre devant recueillir les signatures a été ouvert à cet effet au Palais de justice de la capitale.

Précisant que l’ordre des avocats s’était constitué partie civile face à ce crime qui doit être élucidé, Me Gervais Charles a aussi appelé le titulaire de la justice à relancer des enquêtes, aujourd’hui au point mort, ouvertes sur d’autres cas d’hommes de loi assassinés.

Réginald Delva, expert en sécurité, a déploré le meurtre qui, fait-il remarquer, a été commis –comble de l’ironie- au moment où la Chambre des députés venait tout juste d’approuver la nouvelle loi sur le kidnapping. M. Delva dénonce le refus catégorique des compagnies de téléphonie mobile de coopérer avec la police chaque fois qu’un rapt se produit et entraîne une succession d’appels téléphoniques de la part de ravisseurs en quête de rançon.

Parente de la victime, l’ancienne maire de Port-au-Prince, Dr Marie-Yves Pouponneau Duperval, paraissait très bouleversée dans ses premiers témoignages sur les circonstances dans lesquelles s’est produit le drame. Dans une interview à Radio Kiskeya, elle a raconté que les meurtriers avaient enlevé le sexagénaire mercredi dernier (21 janvier) au moment où il regagnait en voiture son domicile à Delmas 31 (banlieue nord de Port-au-Prince). Son corps méconnaissable a été découvert dimanche matin à Delmas 75 (banlieue est).

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Elections : Divisions profondes au sein de Fanmi Lavalas

Haïti-Elections-Lavalas

Elections : Divisions profondes au sein de Fanmi Lavalas

Deux listes de candidats en compétition au nom du même parti

samedi 24 janvier 2009

Radio Kiskeya

(Read the original article here)

Le parti Fanmi Lavalas de l’ex-Président Jean-Bertrand Aristide, dont l’unité est depuis un certain temps menacée par de profondes divergences entre factions rivales, faisait face samedi à un sérieux problème de leadership potentiellement préjudiciable à sa participation aux prochaines sénatoriales.

Au lendemain de la clôture de la période de dépôt des candidatures, deux listes étaient en compétition au nom du même parti pour les douze sièges en jeu. Une situation confuse qui a porté le Conseil électoral provisoire à solliciter du ministère de la justice des précisions sur les représentants légitimes de Fanmi Lavalas dûment enregistrés.

Des propositions de candidature divergentes opposaient principalement dans trois départements deux ailes conduites d’un côté par le Sénateur Rudy Hériveaux et le Dr Maryse Narcisse et de l’autre par l’ancien Premier ministre Yvon Neptune, Annette Auguste (Sò Ann) et l’ex-Député Yves Cristallin.

Le premier groupe avalise la candidature de l’ancien maire de Miragoâne, Serge Gaspard dans les Nippes (sud-ouest), de l’ex-directeur de la DCPJ, Schiller Alouidorl dans l’Ouest et de l’ex-Sénateur Louis Gérald Gilles, dans la Grand’Anse. A contrario, le second groupe soutient l’ancien ministre de l’intérieur Jocelerme Privert dans le département des Nippes, de même que l’ex-Député de Pétion-Ville, Phélito Doran, dans l’Ouest et Larousse Pléteau, dans la Grand’Anse.

Le Sénateur de l’Ouest, Rudy Hériveaux, qui se prévaut d’être le représentant de Fanmi Lavalas auprès du CEP, a écrit une lettre ouverte au président de l’institution électorale Frantz Gérard Verret pour lui confirmer les noms des candidats désignés lors des « primaires du parti ». Le parlementaire a aussi fustigé le comportement de certains qui ont choisi leurs alliés dans d’autres familles politiques.

Le premier tour des élections est fixé au 19 avril en vue de renouveler le tiers du Sénat.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Paul Knox reviews Peter Hallward

Paul Knox, a former Latin America correspondent for the Globe and Mail and currently the chair of the School of Journalism at Ryerson University in Toronto, has reviewed Middlesex University philosophy professor Peter Hallward’s thoroughly absurd book on Haiti, Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide and the Politics of Containment, in the new Literary Review of Canada. An interesting and accurate observation by Knox (whom I met once briefly in Haiti in 2004) runs as follows:

If you relied solely on these 360 pages, you would not know what Haiti looks or sounds like, nor would you have much sense of what it is like to live there. You would not be able to visualize the bare brown hills, stripped of wood for fuel; the rich rice fields of the Artibonite valley; the dark, cramped dwellings squeezed along impossibly narrow alleys in Port-au-Prince’s slums. You would be ignorant of vaudou, Haiti’s politically significant popular religion. You would know almost nothing about the devastating environmental consequences of Haiti’s peculiar forms of exploitation. You would be unaware of its rich artistic traditions—the popular music and the folk paintings that express political feeling and personal consciousness...Even when surveying his chosen field, he narrows his gaze sharply. There are Haitians who do not share his views about the importance of Fanmi Lavalas and have chosen to act accordingly. They form other political groups; they make alliances; they keep their distance from Aristide. For Hallward, these people were either bought off, politically misguided or rotten from the start. Intellectuals who were persecuted by the Duvalier regime but found it impossible to work with Aristide are excoriated as opportunists whose true bourgeois colours eventually bled through. The anti-Aristide workers’ organization Batay Ouvriye is guilty of “a distorted sense of betrayal and resentment.” Leslie Voltaire, a former presidential chief of staff, is accused of “collusion” for agreeing to serve on a post-Aristide interim ruling council, even though no evidence is offered that he used the position to betray the departed president. Many of these people are voted off the island by Hallward because they received money from U.S. and other foreign foundations. He refrains from noting that some prominent American backers of Aristide were paid consultants for his government.

Having myself waded through Damming the Flood’s tedious marriage of sloppy scholarship and moral cowardice masquerading as academic inquiry, I have to say that I find much of Knox’s critique quite on the mark.

Readers can find my own review of Hallward’s book here.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Etazini/Barack Obama : Yon prezidan nwa nan Kay Blanch meriken an

Etazini/Barack Obama : Yon prezidan nwa nan Kay Blanch meriken an

mèkredi 21 janvye 2009

(Read the original article here)

Pòtoprens, 21 janv. 09 [AlterPresse] --- Prezidan tou nèf peyi Etazini a, Barack Hussein Obama, antre nan pòs li, nan palè nasyonal ameriken an, jounen madi 20 janvye 2009 la, apre li fin ranpòte lamayòl nan eleksyon ki fèt nan dat 4 novanm 2008 la, dapre sa moun toupatou .sou latè te ka wè nan televizyon entènasyonal yo.

Barack Obama, ki se premye prezidan nwa nan listwa Etazini, te sèmante l ap respekte konstitisyon peyi l devan plis pase 2 milyon moun ki te mobilize pou asiste seremoni an.

Prezidan ameriken an te fè yon diskou 20 minit, kote li rekonèt ki jan defi, l ap jwenn sou chimen l yo, grav anpil

Gwo kriz peyi Etazini ap travèse jounen jodi a se rezilta iresponsablite ak gwo nanm yon latriye moun, dapre prezidan tounèf la ki fè konnen : eta ekonomi amerikèn lan ye a mande pou poze aksyon fèm epi ki rapid.

Barack Obama fè yon diskou ki pote lespwa. Li te manyen sitiyasyon lagè k ap vale teren nan peyi Irak ak Afganistan.

Madi swa 21 janvye 2009, prezidan Obama pran premye desizyon l an favè prizonye ki sou baz militè Gwanntanamo yo, sou teritwa Kiba.

Obama mande sispann, pou 120 jou, tout aktivite lajistis devan tribinal espesyal yo bay non tribinal esepsyon yo.

Yon desizyon jij militè Stephen Henley koumanse egzekite jounen mèkredi 21 janvye a, kote li sispann demach tande 5 prizonye yo te akize nan atak ki te fèt sou Etazini nan dat 11 sektanm 2001.

Barack Obama deja gen tan pale nan telefòn ak chèf teritwa Palestin nan, Mahmoud Abbas, kote li pwomèt li pral travay pou fè lapè tabli nan zon yo rele pwòch oryan an.

An Ayiti, si anpil moun te gen chans suiv devan televizyon yo seremoni enstalasyon Barack Obama a, anpil lòt te branche ti radyo yo pou te tande sa k t ap pase lakay blan meriken, kote yon nèg nwè rive prezidan premye pisans sou latè.

Nan Pòtoprens, yon gwoup sitwayen k ap mache dèyè Obama te menm fè chante yon mès aksyon gras pou salye enstalasyon prezidan tou nèf la nan Kay Blanch ameriken an.

Barack Obama se karantkatriyèm prezidan peyi Etazini.

Li ranplase nan pòs sa a George Walker Bush ki, apre 8 lane sou pouvwa, se youn nan prezidan ki plis pa gen bon repitasyon tèlman yo te wè l kom patizan kagè detan li te sou pouvwa ameriken an.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Politics of brutality

NONFICTION | AN ENCOUNTER WITH HAITI

Politics of brutality


A veteran diplomat explores the minefields of Haiti after the ouster of Aristide


BY MICHAEL DEIBERT

AN ENCOUNTER WITH HAITI: Notes of a Special Adviser

Reginald Dumas. Medianet. 313 pages. $24.95.

The Miami Herald

(Read the original article here)

A native of Trinidad and Tobago, Reginald Dumas was a veteran diplomat by the time then-United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed him as his Special Adviser on Haiti in February 2004. Dumas sorely needed those accumulated decades of experience as he arrived in the Caribbean nation only days after the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, with heavily armed factions still poised in opposition to one another and the future of Haiti's eight million-plus people far from certain.

Aristide's overthrow and its immediate aftermath forms the bulk of Dumas' highly readable and incisive examination of the way the international community has tried -- and often failed -- to engage constructively with Haiti in recent years. Though the book occasionally detours into accounts of arcane intra-agency squabbling, it nonetheless represents a welcome example of a Caribbean intellectual writing about Haiti's gifted, resourceful people and often shockingly brutal political culture with a clear-eyed, unsentimental gaze, something that has often been missing in regional discourses on the subject.

Dumas states flatly early on that Aristide ''had done a first-class job of helping dig his own political grave. . . . acquiring for himself a reputation at home which did not match the great respect with which he was held abroad.'' Recounting the burning down of opposition party houses and headquarters following an attack on Haiti's National Palace in December 2001, the collapse of a government-endorsed pyramid investment scheme in mid-2002 and the savage beating of students and faculty by mobs acting in collusion with police in December 2003, Dumas concludes that Aristide was ''engulfed . . . [by] the syndrome of the autocrat'' during his second mandate as Haiti's president, which commenced in February 2001.

In his account of his attempts to smooth the way for a U.N.-sanctioned peacekeeping mission (which currently numbers at around 9,000 and helped provide security for the presidential ballot that saw René Préval return to power in 2006), Dumas does not spare the international community his opprobrium.

Dumas recounts Haiti's long and tortuous relationship with the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), of which it is the poorest and most populous member. He faults CARICOM for failing to recognize that there might be legitimate opposition to Aristide's rule and (unlike the U.N. or the Organization of American States) for endorsing the disputed May 2000 legislative elections as ``identifying with one of their own.''

Looking on in bemusement as Latin American nations such as Brazil and Chile move into the void left by CARICOM's ineffectualness, Dumas writes that Haiti's current plight is the end result of ''decades of foreign hostility, pillage and intervention, and of despotic and corrupt administration at home,'' to say nothing of the ''vibrant cynicism of the moneyed class'' there.

In using Haiti as a springboard to urge the clarification of future U.N. mandates and rules of engagement for peacekeeping missions, as well as for missions to include the sort of development work necessary for conflict-affected societies, Dumas makes his affection for the country and its citizens clear. Also clear is his frustration at the courtship dance Haiti engages in with the international community every couple of decades, a dance that leaves both sides feeling frustrated and misunderstood. In a plea that such mutual incomprehension not continue, Dumas ends his book with a quote from the British politician Paddy Ashdown, the former High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, that ``we must remember that we cannot reconstruct states at the point of a bayonet, only with the support of the people. . . . Without that, we will fail.''

Michael Deibert is the author of Notes from the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti.