(For non-French speakers, this article basically says that, in an interview with Haiti's Radio Kiskeya this week, the last Prime Minister of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Yvon Neptune, confirms again the fact that Aristide did indeed resign as he abandoned his followers and fled into exile in February 2004, and that armed gangs were part of the president's power base. Not exactly news to those of us who were on the ground at the time. MD)
Haïti-Politique-Aristide
Aristide avait "démissionné" en 2004, dit son ancien Premier ministre
Outre ce coup de massue asséné à son ex-patron, Yvon Neptune, aujourd’hui candidat à la présidence, confirme la présence de "chimères" dans les rangs de la Police Nationale avant la chute de Lavalas
mercredi 6 octobre 2010,
Radio Kiskeya
(Read the original article here)
Le dernier Premier ministre de Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Yvon Neptune (2002-2004), candidat du parti Ayisyen Pou Ayiti aux présidentielles de novembre, a déclaré mercredi sur Radio Kiskeya que l’ancien Président Lavalas avait bel et bien présenté sa démission avant son départ en exil, le 29 février 2004.
“J’ai eu la copie de la lettre de démission de M. Aristide, elle était authentique”, a lâché Neptune en réponse à une question à l’émission Di m ma di w consacrée aux élections.
Une affirmation qui contraste totalement avec les propos d’Aristide lui-même et de ses partisans selon lesquels l’ancien chef de l’Etat, exilé en Afrique du Sud, aurait été victime d’un "kidnapping moderne" commandité par la France et les Etats-Unis.
Tour à tour porte-parole de la présidence et président du Sénat avant de devenir le Premier ministre d’Aristide, au départ de ce dernier, Yvon Neptune avait assuré la transition et cohabité avec le nouveau Président provisoire d’alors, Me Boniface Alexandre.
Gérard Latortue devait succéder au Premier ministre sortant quelques semaines plus tard.
Dans la même émission, le candidat à la Présidence est allé d’une révélation à une autre en affirmant que des “chimères”, nom des partisans zélés du régime Lavalas, avaient intégré la Police Nationale aux derniers jours de Jean-Bertrand Aristide au pouvoir.
Différents témoignages ont été recueillis sur la présence dans l’Artibonite d’un certain nombre de "faux policiers" venus combattre les rebelles du Front de résistance dont la progression de l’insurrection, couplée aux pressions diplomatiques occidentales, avait pratiquement donné le coup de grâce à un régime déjà fortement ébranlé par des manifestations pacifiques colossales de l’opposition démocratique.
Libéré de prison après plus d’un an d’incarcération pour son implication présumée dans le "massacre de La Scirie" à St-Marc (Artibonite, nord), au cours duquel de plusieurs dizaines de personnes proches de l’opposition auraient été exécutées, Yvon Neptune a, encore une fois, protesté de son innocence. spp/Radio Kiskeya
Friday, October 8, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Jacques Edouard Alexis « se déchaine » : « Préval veut garder le pouvoir, des armes ont été distribuées », dénonce-t-il
Haïti-Elections
Jacques Edouard Alexis « se déchaine » : « Préval veut garder le pouvoir, des armes ont été distribuées », dénonce-t-il
Le candidat lançait sa campagne sous le signe de la lutte contre le « petit groupe » qui veut tout accaparer
lundi 4 octobre 2010,
Radio Kiskeya
(Read the original article here)
L’ancien premier ministre Jacques Edouard Alexis, candidat à la présidence sous la bannière du parti Mobilisation pour le Progrès d’Haïti (MPH), a inauguré lundi sa campagne électorale à Port-au-Prince par une attaque en règle contre le chef de l’Etat, ses candidats et le « petit groupe » qu’il dit être derrière eux et dont le mobile n’est autre que de garder le pouvoir.
« Je n’ai plus aucun rapport avec le président René Préval », a scandé M. Alexis, ovationné par plusieurs dizaines de supporters, des jeunes pour la plupart. Il a imputé au chef de l’Etat l’intention de tout faire en vue de garder le pouvoir. Au nombre des manœuvres entreprises à cette fin, le candidat a fait état de la distribution d’armes à travers le pays.
« Le président Préval a bouclé son mandat, il doit partir », a encore déclaré M. Alexis sur un ton enflammé. Comme pour paraphraser l’ancien président Jean Bertrand Aristide réfugié en Afrique du Sud qui, dans ses rares interventions, a implicitement qualifié M. Préval de traitre, M. Alexis a dénoncé les traitres et l’ingratitude, terme qu’il a tout de suite traduit en créole (engratitid) pour mieux indiquer ce à quoi il voulait faire référence, la consonnance des deux dernières syllabes du mot référant au sobriquet d’Aristide "Titid". Le chef de l’Etat avait rejeté le choix de M. Alexis au profit de celui de M. Jude Célestin (alors directeur du Centre National des Equipements, CNE) pour représenter la plateforme officielle INITE (Unité) à l’élection présidentielle.
L’ancien premier ministre s’est engagé à lutter contre le « petit groupe » qui cherche à tout accaparer, tout en reconnaissant que les choses ne seront pas faciles.
Il a aussi préconisé l’art de ne plus négocier « tête baissée » et de retrouver la fierté qui caractérisait l’haïtien, se référant implicitement à la toute puissance de l’étranger actuellement sur le terrain.
Evoquant l’année scolaire dont l’ouverture coïncidait avec le lancement de sa campagne électorale, M. Alexis qui a été ministre de l’éducation nationale puis deux fois premier ministre, s’est engagé à doubler le budget de l’éducation s’il accède à la présidence.
Il a également promis de tout entreprendre en vue de favoriser l’afflux d’investissements directs en Haïti.
Le candidat à la présidence du MPH a enfin lancé un appel à la mobilisation pour éviter la manipulation des résultats des élections.
Outre les partisans chauffés à blanc, dont l’épouse du candidat Mme Fédérika Alexis, on pouvait remarquer dans l’entourage de M. Alexis le président du MPH, Samir Mourra, et l’ancien vice-président du Conseil Electoral Provisoire (CEP), Rodol Pierre, qui avait dénoncé, jusqu’à devoir abandonner son poste, les graves irrégularités dont l’organisme électoral s’était rendu coupable dans l’Artibonite et le Sud, lors des dernières élections pour le renouvellement du tiers du Sénat. [jmd/Radio Kiskeya]
Jacques Edouard Alexis « se déchaine » : « Préval veut garder le pouvoir, des armes ont été distribuées », dénonce-t-il
Le candidat lançait sa campagne sous le signe de la lutte contre le « petit groupe » qui veut tout accaparer
lundi 4 octobre 2010,
Radio Kiskeya
(Read the original article here)
L’ancien premier ministre Jacques Edouard Alexis, candidat à la présidence sous la bannière du parti Mobilisation pour le Progrès d’Haïti (MPH), a inauguré lundi sa campagne électorale à Port-au-Prince par une attaque en règle contre le chef de l’Etat, ses candidats et le « petit groupe » qu’il dit être derrière eux et dont le mobile n’est autre que de garder le pouvoir.
« Je n’ai plus aucun rapport avec le président René Préval », a scandé M. Alexis, ovationné par plusieurs dizaines de supporters, des jeunes pour la plupart. Il a imputé au chef de l’Etat l’intention de tout faire en vue de garder le pouvoir. Au nombre des manœuvres entreprises à cette fin, le candidat a fait état de la distribution d’armes à travers le pays.
« Le président Préval a bouclé son mandat, il doit partir », a encore déclaré M. Alexis sur un ton enflammé. Comme pour paraphraser l’ancien président Jean Bertrand Aristide réfugié en Afrique du Sud qui, dans ses rares interventions, a implicitement qualifié M. Préval de traitre, M. Alexis a dénoncé les traitres et l’ingratitude, terme qu’il a tout de suite traduit en créole (engratitid) pour mieux indiquer ce à quoi il voulait faire référence, la consonnance des deux dernières syllabes du mot référant au sobriquet d’Aristide "Titid". Le chef de l’Etat avait rejeté le choix de M. Alexis au profit de celui de M. Jude Célestin (alors directeur du Centre National des Equipements, CNE) pour représenter la plateforme officielle INITE (Unité) à l’élection présidentielle.
L’ancien premier ministre s’est engagé à lutter contre le « petit groupe » qui cherche à tout accaparer, tout en reconnaissant que les choses ne seront pas faciles.
Il a aussi préconisé l’art de ne plus négocier « tête baissée » et de retrouver la fierté qui caractérisait l’haïtien, se référant implicitement à la toute puissance de l’étranger actuellement sur le terrain.
Evoquant l’année scolaire dont l’ouverture coïncidait avec le lancement de sa campagne électorale, M. Alexis qui a été ministre de l’éducation nationale puis deux fois premier ministre, s’est engagé à doubler le budget de l’éducation s’il accède à la présidence.
Il a également promis de tout entreprendre en vue de favoriser l’afflux d’investissements directs en Haïti.
Le candidat à la présidence du MPH a enfin lancé un appel à la mobilisation pour éviter la manipulation des résultats des élections.
Outre les partisans chauffés à blanc, dont l’épouse du candidat Mme Fédérika Alexis, on pouvait remarquer dans l’entourage de M. Alexis le président du MPH, Samir Mourra, et l’ancien vice-président du Conseil Electoral Provisoire (CEP), Rodol Pierre, qui avait dénoncé, jusqu’à devoir abandonner son poste, les graves irrégularités dont l’organisme électoral s’était rendu coupable dans l’Artibonite et le Sud, lors des dernières élections pour le renouvellement du tiers du Sénat. [jmd/Radio Kiskeya]
Monday, September 20, 2010
Haitians Cry in Letters: ‘Please — Do Something!’
September 19, 2010
Haitians Cry in Letters: ‘Please — Do Something!’
By DEBORAH SONTAG
The New York Times
(Read the original article here)
CORAIL-CESSELESSE, Haiti — It was after midnight in a remote annex of this isolated tent camp on a windswept gravel plain. Marjorie Saint Hilaire’s three boys were fast asleep, but her mind was racing.
The camp leader had proposed writing letters to the nongovernment authorities, and she had so much to say. She lighted a candle and summoned a gracious sentiment with which to begin.
“To all the members of concerned organizations, I thank you first for feeling our pain,” she wrote slowly in pencil on what became an eraser-smudged page. “I note that you have taken on almost all our problems and some of our greatest needs.”
Ms. Saint Hilaire, 33, then succinctly explained that she had lost her husband and her livelihood to the Jan. 12 earthquake and now found herself hungry, stressed and stranded in a camp annex without a school, a health clinic, a marketplace or any activity at all.
“Please — do something!” she wrote from Tent J2, Block 7, Sector 3, her new address. “We don’t want to die of hunger and also we want to send our children to school. I give glory to God that I am still alive — but I would like to stay that way!”
In the last couple of weeks, thousands of displaced Haitians have similarly vented their concerns, depositing impassioned pleas for help in new suggestion boxes at a hundred camps throughout the disaster zone. Taken together, the letters form a collective cri de coeur from a population that has felt increasingly impotent and ignored.
With 1.3 million displaced people in 1,300 camps, homelessness is the new normal here. Two recent protest marches have sought to make the homeless a central issue in the coming presidential campaign. But the tent camp residents, miserable, weary and in many cases fighting eviction, do not seem to have the energy to become a vocal force.
When the International Organization for Migration added suggestion boxes to its information kiosks in scores of camps, it did not expect to tap directly into a well of pent-up emotions. “I anticipated maybe a few cranky letters,” said Leonard Doyle, who handles communications for the organization in Haiti. “But to my absolute, blow-me-down surprise, we got 700 letters in three days from our first boxes — real individualized expressions of suffering that give a human face to this ongoing tragedy.”
In some cases, the letters contain a breathless litany of miseries, a chain of woes strung together by commas: “I feel discouraged, I don’t sleep comfortably, I gave birth six months ago, the baby died, I have six other children, they don’t have a father, I don’t have work, my tarp is torn, the rain panics me, my house was crushed, I don’t have money to feed my family, I would really love it if you would help me,” wrote Marie Jean Jean.
In others, despair is expressed formally, with remarkable restraint: “Living under a tent is not favorable neither to me nor to my children” or “We would appreciate your assistance in obtaining a future as one does not appear to be on our horizon.”
Several writers sent terse wish lists on self-designed forms: “Name: Paul Wilbert. Camp: Boulos. Need: House. Demand: $1,250. Project: Build house. Thank you.”
And some tweaked the truth. Ketteline Lebon, who lives in a camp in the slum area called Cité Soleil, cannot read or write. She dictated a letter to her cousin, who decided to alter Ms. Lebon’s story to say that her husband had died in the earthquake whereas he had really died in a car accident. “What does it matter?” Ms. Lebon said, shrugging. “I’m still a widow in a tent with four kids I cannot afford to send to school.”
At this camp’s annex, Corail 3, Sandra Felicien, a regal woman whose black-and-white sundress looks as crisp as if it hangs in a closet, has become the epistolary queen. An earthquake widow whose husband was crushed to death in the school where he taught adult education courses, Ms. Felicien said she wrote letters almost daily because doing so made her feel as if she were taking action. “We are so powerless,” she said. “It is like we are bobbing along on the waves of the ocean, waiting to be saved.”
Like the hundreds of families around her in Corail 3, Ms. Felicien and her small son lived first in Camp Fleuriot, a mosquito-infested, flood-prone marsh where many were feverish with malaria or racked by diarrhea. In July, they were bused here to the outskirts of this planned settlement, which is supposed to become a new town someday.
Transitional shelters are being built in this remote spot, and a hundred or so are completed and stand empty. For the moment, though, the one-room houses, like the tents beside them, exist in a sun-scorched vacuum beneath deforested hills. They are surrounded only by latrines, showers and the information kiosk, with its blackboard, bulletin board and suggestion box.
One afternoon last week, Ms. Felicien settled onto the tarp-covered rocks in front of her tent — “my porch” — and used a covered bucket for a writing desk. She was feeling robust, she said, because a neighbor had just treated her to what amounted to brunch — a pack of cookies that she had shared with her son.
She started to recopy the rough draft of a letter that she had written that morning. She was writing in Creole, although her French is impeccable, because “only a Haitian could really understand,” she said.
While she wrote, with a reporter by her side and a photographer taking her picture, a boisterous crowd from the camp gathered, concerned that she was getting special attention from foreigners. Their complaints grew so deafening that she rose to address them, explaining that, in fact, the particular letter she was writing was not personal but on behalf of all her neighbors.
Raising her voice to be heard, she read aloud the letter: “Sept. 14. Today we feel fed up with the bad treatment in Block 7. Have you forgotten about us out here in the desert?” The crowd quieted. She continued reading: “You don’t understand us. You don’t know that an empty bag can’t stand. A hungry dog can’t play.” Other tent camps have health clinics or schools or at least something to do, she read. “Why don’t we have such things? Aren’t we people, too?”
Heads nodded. The tension dissipated. The crowd dispersed. Ms. Felicien walked her letter to the kiosk to post it. “I don’t know why I keep writing,” she said. “To this point they have not responded. It’s like screaming into the wind.”
Mr. Doyle said that all the letters are read, some aloud on Radio Guinen, which broadcasts daily from tent camps as part of an International Organization for Migration communication program. But the $400,000 program was intended to give voice to the voiceless and not food to the hungry or money to the destitute. So unless the writers express a need for protection, as from rape or abuse by camp leaders, their individual requests are not likely to be answered.
Told this, Ms. Felicien said, “Ay yi yi” and shook her head. And then she posted her letter all the same.
Haitians Cry in Letters: ‘Please — Do Something!’
By DEBORAH SONTAG
The New York Times
(Read the original article here)
CORAIL-CESSELESSE, Haiti — It was after midnight in a remote annex of this isolated tent camp on a windswept gravel plain. Marjorie Saint Hilaire’s three boys were fast asleep, but her mind was racing.
The camp leader had proposed writing letters to the nongovernment authorities, and she had so much to say. She lighted a candle and summoned a gracious sentiment with which to begin.
“To all the members of concerned organizations, I thank you first for feeling our pain,” she wrote slowly in pencil on what became an eraser-smudged page. “I note that you have taken on almost all our problems and some of our greatest needs.”
Ms. Saint Hilaire, 33, then succinctly explained that she had lost her husband and her livelihood to the Jan. 12 earthquake and now found herself hungry, stressed and stranded in a camp annex without a school, a health clinic, a marketplace or any activity at all.
“Please — do something!” she wrote from Tent J2, Block 7, Sector 3, her new address. “We don’t want to die of hunger and also we want to send our children to school. I give glory to God that I am still alive — but I would like to stay that way!”
In the last couple of weeks, thousands of displaced Haitians have similarly vented their concerns, depositing impassioned pleas for help in new suggestion boxes at a hundred camps throughout the disaster zone. Taken together, the letters form a collective cri de coeur from a population that has felt increasingly impotent and ignored.
With 1.3 million displaced people in 1,300 camps, homelessness is the new normal here. Two recent protest marches have sought to make the homeless a central issue in the coming presidential campaign. But the tent camp residents, miserable, weary and in many cases fighting eviction, do not seem to have the energy to become a vocal force.
When the International Organization for Migration added suggestion boxes to its information kiosks in scores of camps, it did not expect to tap directly into a well of pent-up emotions. “I anticipated maybe a few cranky letters,” said Leonard Doyle, who handles communications for the organization in Haiti. “But to my absolute, blow-me-down surprise, we got 700 letters in three days from our first boxes — real individualized expressions of suffering that give a human face to this ongoing tragedy.”
In some cases, the letters contain a breathless litany of miseries, a chain of woes strung together by commas: “I feel discouraged, I don’t sleep comfortably, I gave birth six months ago, the baby died, I have six other children, they don’t have a father, I don’t have work, my tarp is torn, the rain panics me, my house was crushed, I don’t have money to feed my family, I would really love it if you would help me,” wrote Marie Jean Jean.
In others, despair is expressed formally, with remarkable restraint: “Living under a tent is not favorable neither to me nor to my children” or “We would appreciate your assistance in obtaining a future as one does not appear to be on our horizon.”
Several writers sent terse wish lists on self-designed forms: “Name: Paul Wilbert. Camp: Boulos. Need: House. Demand: $1,250. Project: Build house. Thank you.”
And some tweaked the truth. Ketteline Lebon, who lives in a camp in the slum area called Cité Soleil, cannot read or write. She dictated a letter to her cousin, who decided to alter Ms. Lebon’s story to say that her husband had died in the earthquake whereas he had really died in a car accident. “What does it matter?” Ms. Lebon said, shrugging. “I’m still a widow in a tent with four kids I cannot afford to send to school.”
At this camp’s annex, Corail 3, Sandra Felicien, a regal woman whose black-and-white sundress looks as crisp as if it hangs in a closet, has become the epistolary queen. An earthquake widow whose husband was crushed to death in the school where he taught adult education courses, Ms. Felicien said she wrote letters almost daily because doing so made her feel as if she were taking action. “We are so powerless,” she said. “It is like we are bobbing along on the waves of the ocean, waiting to be saved.”
Like the hundreds of families around her in Corail 3, Ms. Felicien and her small son lived first in Camp Fleuriot, a mosquito-infested, flood-prone marsh where many were feverish with malaria or racked by diarrhea. In July, they were bused here to the outskirts of this planned settlement, which is supposed to become a new town someday.
Transitional shelters are being built in this remote spot, and a hundred or so are completed and stand empty. For the moment, though, the one-room houses, like the tents beside them, exist in a sun-scorched vacuum beneath deforested hills. They are surrounded only by latrines, showers and the information kiosk, with its blackboard, bulletin board and suggestion box.
One afternoon last week, Ms. Felicien settled onto the tarp-covered rocks in front of her tent — “my porch” — and used a covered bucket for a writing desk. She was feeling robust, she said, because a neighbor had just treated her to what amounted to brunch — a pack of cookies that she had shared with her son.
She started to recopy the rough draft of a letter that she had written that morning. She was writing in Creole, although her French is impeccable, because “only a Haitian could really understand,” she said.
While she wrote, with a reporter by her side and a photographer taking her picture, a boisterous crowd from the camp gathered, concerned that she was getting special attention from foreigners. Their complaints grew so deafening that she rose to address them, explaining that, in fact, the particular letter she was writing was not personal but on behalf of all her neighbors.
Raising her voice to be heard, she read aloud the letter: “Sept. 14. Today we feel fed up with the bad treatment in Block 7. Have you forgotten about us out here in the desert?” The crowd quieted. She continued reading: “You don’t understand us. You don’t know that an empty bag can’t stand. A hungry dog can’t play.” Other tent camps have health clinics or schools or at least something to do, she read. “Why don’t we have such things? Aren’t we people, too?”
Heads nodded. The tension dissipated. The crowd dispersed. Ms. Felicien walked her letter to the kiosk to post it. “I don’t know why I keep writing,” she said. “To this point they have not responded. It’s like screaming into the wind.”
Mr. Doyle said that all the letters are read, some aloud on Radio Guinen, which broadcasts daily from tent camps as part of an International Organization for Migration communication program. But the $400,000 program was intended to give voice to the voiceless and not food to the hungry or money to the destitute. So unless the writers express a need for protection, as from rape or abuse by camp leaders, their individual requests are not likely to be answered.
Told this, Ms. Felicien said, “Ay yi yi” and shook her head. And then she posted her letter all the same.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
A Lingering Problem for IDT — CEO admits company official met with Aristide on contract
A Lingering Problem for IDT — CEO admits company official met with Aristide on contract
Former employee alleges bribe payment to Haiti’s Aristide; company denies allegation.
By Lucy Komisar
Barron’s Magazine, Sept 20, 2010
(Read the original article here)
INVESTORS HAVE BEEN FEELING better about IDT, the quirky company founded by telecom maverick Howard Jonas.
After disappointing many high hopes (“Finally Ready to Roll,” May 29, 2006) the shares (tickers: IDT and IDT-C) have tripled this year to a recent 15.76. The Newark, N.J.-based company may have staunched years of losses by downsizing and discontinuing some of Jonas’ varied ventures. It has about $10 a share in cash and a shale oil prospect in Israel.
But a nagging problem remains: the whistle-blowing suit of an ex-employee who claims he was fired for objecting to bribes that he alleges IDT arranged for Haiti’s former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. A trial is set for Nov. 9 at the U.S. District Court for New Jersey. The Justice Department and the SEC, meanwhile, are investigating whether the company violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. They haven’t filed charges against the company. A money-laundering trial is scheduled for the end of November in Miami’s federal district court against the Haitian official who signed the IDT contract. He denies he laundered bribes from unnamed phone outfits. IDT denies all wrongdoing and says that investigations by expert outside counsel found no improper payments.
In a recent conversation with a reporter, CEO Jonas acknowledged for the first time that Aristide had met with an IDT official. “We thought that was highly unusual,” Jonas said. “In most cases, you’re just talking to the head of the telecom. It was unusual that the president himself would be involved with it.”
The whistle-blowing plaintiff, D. Michael Jewett, says he was fired in 2003 after voicing concerns over a deal in which he says Aristide was to skim IDT’s payments to Haiti’s government phone company via Mont Salem, a shell company run by a Turks and Caicos law firm. That firm has denied the shell company was a front for Aristide.
Jonas told Barron’s, “I have no reason to believe that they were not a legitimate agent.” IDT got a court order that barred Jewett from discovering Mont Salem’s ownership.
Jewett alleges that IDT’s head of international business, Jack Lerer, referred to Mont Salem as “Aristide’s bank account.” Lerer denies that and says he never offered to pay—or caused money to be paid to—Aristide or Haitian officials. The Haitian government filed a civil racketeering suit against Aristide in 2005, alleging that Mont Salem had been his front for receiving kickbacks from several North American telecoms, including three cents a minute from IDT. Haiti dropped the suit for lack of funds.
Jonas told Barron’s that payments to Mont Salem were legal because the law firm McDermott Will & Emery had given IDT a clearance letter after conducting its own due diligence on the matter. The letter isn’t in public court filings, but IDT says it will provide it to Barron’s.
In a deposition, McDermott partner David Levine recalled talking in October 2003 to an IDT lawyer who sought advice on a “hypothetical” deal she considered “fishy” and not “something that IDT ever does.” In a memo written right after his IDT consultation, Levine said he advised IDT to conduct “due diligence” on the payment arrangement. The very next day, IDT’s legal department approved the Haitian deal. McDermott said it doesn’t discuss client matters.
Jonas told Barron’s that the corruption accusations were made as a rationale for overthrowing Aristide. “They had to say: ‘He’s a crook. He took three cents from the telephone company,’” said Jonas. “That justified invading the country and overthrowing him.”
Former employee alleges bribe payment to Haiti’s Aristide; company denies allegation.
By Lucy Komisar
Barron’s Magazine, Sept 20, 2010
(Read the original article here)
INVESTORS HAVE BEEN FEELING better about IDT, the quirky company founded by telecom maverick Howard Jonas.
After disappointing many high hopes (“Finally Ready to Roll,” May 29, 2006) the shares (tickers: IDT and IDT-C) have tripled this year to a recent 15.76. The Newark, N.J.-based company may have staunched years of losses by downsizing and discontinuing some of Jonas’ varied ventures. It has about $10 a share in cash and a shale oil prospect in Israel.
But a nagging problem remains: the whistle-blowing suit of an ex-employee who claims he was fired for objecting to bribes that he alleges IDT arranged for Haiti’s former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. A trial is set for Nov. 9 at the U.S. District Court for New Jersey. The Justice Department and the SEC, meanwhile, are investigating whether the company violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. They haven’t filed charges against the company. A money-laundering trial is scheduled for the end of November in Miami’s federal district court against the Haitian official who signed the IDT contract. He denies he laundered bribes from unnamed phone outfits. IDT denies all wrongdoing and says that investigations by expert outside counsel found no improper payments.
In a recent conversation with a reporter, CEO Jonas acknowledged for the first time that Aristide had met with an IDT official. “We thought that was highly unusual,” Jonas said. “In most cases, you’re just talking to the head of the telecom. It was unusual that the president himself would be involved with it.”
The whistle-blowing plaintiff, D. Michael Jewett, says he was fired in 2003 after voicing concerns over a deal in which he says Aristide was to skim IDT’s payments to Haiti’s government phone company via Mont Salem, a shell company run by a Turks and Caicos law firm. That firm has denied the shell company was a front for Aristide.
Jonas told Barron’s, “I have no reason to believe that they were not a legitimate agent.” IDT got a court order that barred Jewett from discovering Mont Salem’s ownership.
Jewett alleges that IDT’s head of international business, Jack Lerer, referred to Mont Salem as “Aristide’s bank account.” Lerer denies that and says he never offered to pay—or caused money to be paid to—Aristide or Haitian officials. The Haitian government filed a civil racketeering suit against Aristide in 2005, alleging that Mont Salem had been his front for receiving kickbacks from several North American telecoms, including three cents a minute from IDT. Haiti dropped the suit for lack of funds.
Jonas told Barron’s that payments to Mont Salem were legal because the law firm McDermott Will & Emery had given IDT a clearance letter after conducting its own due diligence on the matter. The letter isn’t in public court filings, but IDT says it will provide it to Barron’s.
In a deposition, McDermott partner David Levine recalled talking in October 2003 to an IDT lawyer who sought advice on a “hypothetical” deal she considered “fishy” and not “something that IDT ever does.” In a memo written right after his IDT consultation, Levine said he advised IDT to conduct “due diligence” on the payment arrangement. The very next day, IDT’s legal department approved the Haitian deal. McDermott said it doesn’t discuss client matters.
Jonas told Barron’s that the corruption accusations were made as a rationale for overthrowing Aristide. “They had to say: ‘He’s a crook. He took three cents from the telephone company,’” said Jonas. “That justified invading the country and overthrowing him.”
Friday, August 27, 2010
Risque de réimplantation des gangs à Cité Soleil
Haïti-Insécurité
Risque de réimplantation des gangs à Cité Soleil
Une organisation locale tire la sonnette d’alarme
vendredi 27 août 2010,
Radio Kiskeya
(Read the original artice here)
Le Collectif des Notables de Cité Soleil (CONOCS)-Centre de Respect des Droits Humains a relevé mardi une nette recrudescence des activités criminelles à Cité Soleil, lançant un véritable SOS aux autorités pour éviter la réimplantation des bandes armées dans ce vaste bidonville du Nord de la capitale.
Selon le directeur exécutif du CONOCS-Centre de Respect des Droits Humains, le pasteur Jean Hénock Joseph, sept hommes ont violé une fillette d 12 ans le samedi 21 août à Soleil 19. Un récent raid contre le quartier de Soleil 19 mené par des hommes armés provenant vraisemblablement de Soleil 9 s’est soldé par la mort d’un handicapé et 8 blessés par balle.
Le pasteur Joseph fait par ailleurs état de nombreux cas d’agressions dans divers quartiers de la cité pour dépouiller des passants de toutes sortes d’objets, dont bijoux et téléphones cellulaires.
Face à cette situation, Jean Hénock Joseph réclame l’augmentation de l’effectif de la Police Nationale d’Haïti (PNH) à Cité Soleil, nettement insuffisant quant à présent, selon lui. Il appelle en ce sens le Haut commandement de la PNH à doter la cité d’un véritable Commissariat de police et à restituer au contingent local de l’institution des véhicules que lui avait octroyés l’Agence américaine pour le développement international (USAID).
Le responsable de CONOCS-Centre de Respect des Droits Humains a enfin appelé à la révocation et à l’arrestation des juges de Cité Soleil qui ne font que rançonner la population, notamment en exigeant de fortes sommes en échange de la libération de personnes qu’ils jettent injustement en prison.
Risque de réimplantation des gangs à Cité Soleil
Une organisation locale tire la sonnette d’alarme
vendredi 27 août 2010,
Radio Kiskeya
(Read the original artice here)
Le Collectif des Notables de Cité Soleil (CONOCS)-Centre de Respect des Droits Humains a relevé mardi une nette recrudescence des activités criminelles à Cité Soleil, lançant un véritable SOS aux autorités pour éviter la réimplantation des bandes armées dans ce vaste bidonville du Nord de la capitale.
Selon le directeur exécutif du CONOCS-Centre de Respect des Droits Humains, le pasteur Jean Hénock Joseph, sept hommes ont violé une fillette d 12 ans le samedi 21 août à Soleil 19. Un récent raid contre le quartier de Soleil 19 mené par des hommes armés provenant vraisemblablement de Soleil 9 s’est soldé par la mort d’un handicapé et 8 blessés par balle.
Le pasteur Joseph fait par ailleurs état de nombreux cas d’agressions dans divers quartiers de la cité pour dépouiller des passants de toutes sortes d’objets, dont bijoux et téléphones cellulaires.
Face à cette situation, Jean Hénock Joseph réclame l’augmentation de l’effectif de la Police Nationale d’Haïti (PNH) à Cité Soleil, nettement insuffisant quant à présent, selon lui. Il appelle en ce sens le Haut commandement de la PNH à doter la cité d’un véritable Commissariat de police et à restituer au contingent local de l’institution des véhicules que lui avait octroyés l’Agence américaine pour le développement international (USAID).
Le responsable de CONOCS-Centre de Respect des Droits Humains a enfin appelé à la révocation et à l’arrestation des juges de Cité Soleil qui ne font que rançonner la population, notamment en exigeant de fortes sommes en échange de la libération de personnes qu’ils jettent injustement en prison.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
19 candidats retenus pour les présidentielles de novembre
Haïti-Elections
19 candidats retenus pour les présidentielles de novembre
Eviction de Wyclef Jean pour cause de résidence ; le célèbre rappeur fait partie des 15 aspirants que le CEP a décidé d’écarter de la course
vendredi 20 août 2010,
Radio Kiskeya
(Read the original article here)
La candidature aux présidentielles haïtiennes de la star internationale du hip-hop, Wyclef Jean, 40 ans, a été rejetée par le Conseil électoral provisoire (CEP), selon la liste définitive des compétiteurs habilités à participer aux élections rendue publique vendredi soir et sur laquelle figurent 19 des 34 prétendants qui s’étaient fait inscrire.
Voici la liste complète des candidats agréés et autorisés à faire campagne en vue des présidentielles du 28 novembre :
1.- Axan Abellard, Konbit Nasyonal pou Devlopman Ayiti (KNDA)
2.- Jacques-Edouard Alexis, Mobilisation pour le Progrès d’Haïti (MPH), ancien Premier ministre de René Préval (1998-2001 et 2006-2008)
3.- Jean Hector Anacacis, Mouvement pour le Développement de la Jeunesse Haïtienne (MODEJHA), Sénateur de l’ouest
4.- Charles Henry Baker, Respè
5.- Josette Bijoux, Indépendante, ancienne ministre de la santé publique (2004-2006)
6.- Gérard Blot, Plateforme 16 Décembre
7.- Jean Henry Céant, Renmen Ayiti
8.- Jude Célestin, INITE, ex-directeur général du Centre national des équipements (CNE)
9.- Eric Charles, Parti de l’Evolution Nationale Haïtienne (PENH), ancien directeur de la douane de Port-au-Prince
10.- Yves Cristalin, Oganizasyon Lavni, ministre des affaires sociales encore en fonction
11.- Mirlande Hyppolite Manigat, Rassemblement des Démocrates Nationaux Progressistes (RDNP), ancienne Sénatrice
12.- Garaudy Laguerre, Wozo
13.- Michel Martelly alias "Sweet Micky", Repons Peyizan
14.- Yvon Neptune, Ayisyen pou Ayiti, ex-Premier ministre de Jean-Bertrand Aristide (2003-2004)
15.- Wilson Jeudy, Force 2010, actuel maire de Delmas (banlieue nord-est de Port-au-Prince)
16.- Pasteur Chavannes Jeune, ACCRHA
17.- Leslie Voltaire, Ansanm Nou Fò, ex-ministre des haïtiens vivant à l’étranger et de l’éducation nationale
18.- Léon Jeune, Konbit Liberasyon Ekonomik (KLE), ancien secrétaire d’Etat à la sécurité publique
19.- Génard Joseph, Groupement Solidarité
Exclu de la compétition pour n’avoir pas résidé cinq années consécutivement en Haïti, comme l’exige la constitution, Jeannel Wyclef Jean, qui tentait de se présenter à la magistrature suprême sous la bannière du parti "Viv Ansanm" (Vivre Ensemble), se trouve en tête des quinze candidats évincés parmi lesquels on compte également l’oncle du chanteur, Raymond Alcide Joseph, ex-ambassadeur d’Haïti à Washington, la mairesse de Pétion-Ville (banlieue est de la capitale), Claire Lydie Parent, Dr Kesler Dalmacy, un médecin très connu dans la communauté haïtienne de New York, Lavarice Gaudin, activiste Lavalas de la Floride, et l’homme d’affaires Charles Voight.
Toutes les décisions de l’institution électorale sont sans appel et ne peuvent par conséquent faire l’objet d’aucun recours, selon la législation en vigueur. spp/Radio Kiskeya
19 candidats retenus pour les présidentielles de novembre
Eviction de Wyclef Jean pour cause de résidence ; le célèbre rappeur fait partie des 15 aspirants que le CEP a décidé d’écarter de la course
vendredi 20 août 2010,
Radio Kiskeya
(Read the original article here)
La candidature aux présidentielles haïtiennes de la star internationale du hip-hop, Wyclef Jean, 40 ans, a été rejetée par le Conseil électoral provisoire (CEP), selon la liste définitive des compétiteurs habilités à participer aux élections rendue publique vendredi soir et sur laquelle figurent 19 des 34 prétendants qui s’étaient fait inscrire.
Voici la liste complète des candidats agréés et autorisés à faire campagne en vue des présidentielles du 28 novembre :
1.- Axan Abellard, Konbit Nasyonal pou Devlopman Ayiti (KNDA)
2.- Jacques-Edouard Alexis, Mobilisation pour le Progrès d’Haïti (MPH), ancien Premier ministre de René Préval (1998-2001 et 2006-2008)
3.- Jean Hector Anacacis, Mouvement pour le Développement de la Jeunesse Haïtienne (MODEJHA), Sénateur de l’ouest
4.- Charles Henry Baker, Respè
5.- Josette Bijoux, Indépendante, ancienne ministre de la santé publique (2004-2006)
6.- Gérard Blot, Plateforme 16 Décembre
7.- Jean Henry Céant, Renmen Ayiti
8.- Jude Célestin, INITE, ex-directeur général du Centre national des équipements (CNE)
9.- Eric Charles, Parti de l’Evolution Nationale Haïtienne (PENH), ancien directeur de la douane de Port-au-Prince
10.- Yves Cristalin, Oganizasyon Lavni, ministre des affaires sociales encore en fonction
11.- Mirlande Hyppolite Manigat, Rassemblement des Démocrates Nationaux Progressistes (RDNP), ancienne Sénatrice
12.- Garaudy Laguerre, Wozo
13.- Michel Martelly alias "Sweet Micky", Repons Peyizan
14.- Yvon Neptune, Ayisyen pou Ayiti, ex-Premier ministre de Jean-Bertrand Aristide (2003-2004)
15.- Wilson Jeudy, Force 2010, actuel maire de Delmas (banlieue nord-est de Port-au-Prince)
16.- Pasteur Chavannes Jeune, ACCRHA
17.- Leslie Voltaire, Ansanm Nou Fò, ex-ministre des haïtiens vivant à l’étranger et de l’éducation nationale
18.- Léon Jeune, Konbit Liberasyon Ekonomik (KLE), ancien secrétaire d’Etat à la sécurité publique
19.- Génard Joseph, Groupement Solidarité
Exclu de la compétition pour n’avoir pas résidé cinq années consécutivement en Haïti, comme l’exige la constitution, Jeannel Wyclef Jean, qui tentait de se présenter à la magistrature suprême sous la bannière du parti "Viv Ansanm" (Vivre Ensemble), se trouve en tête des quinze candidats évincés parmi lesquels on compte également l’oncle du chanteur, Raymond Alcide Joseph, ex-ambassadeur d’Haïti à Washington, la mairesse de Pétion-Ville (banlieue est de la capitale), Claire Lydie Parent, Dr Kesler Dalmacy, un médecin très connu dans la communauté haïtienne de New York, Lavarice Gaudin, activiste Lavalas de la Floride, et l’homme d’affaires Charles Voight.
Toutes les décisions de l’institution électorale sont sans appel et ne peuvent par conséquent faire l’objet d’aucun recours, selon la législation en vigueur. spp/Radio Kiskeya
Wyclef Jean Barred From Haiti Election
August 20, 2010
Wyclef Jean Barred From Haiti Election
By DEBORAH SONTAG
The New York Times
(Read the original article here)
Haiti’s electoral council announced late Friday evening that Wyclef Jean, the Haitian-born hip-hop star, had been disqualified as a candidate for president of his earthquake-shattered homeland.
No explanation was given. A spokesman for the council, Richardson Dumel, facing reporters who had been standing vigil at the election bureau all day, read a list of 19 presidential aspirants deemed eligible and 15, including Mr. Jean, whose candidacy had been rejected.
But in a statement, Mr. Jean said he was rejected because he did not meet the requirement of having lived in Haiti for five consecutive years before the Nov. 28 elections. Born in Haiti, Mr. Jean left as a child for the United States and now, based in New Jersey, travels often to his homeland.
The statement said his heart was heavy but that he accepted the decision and urged his followers to do the same.
“We must all honor the memories of those we’ve lost — whether in the earthquake, or at anytime — by responding peacefully and responsibly to this disappointment,” the statement said.
Tensions had been building throughout the day after the council’s decision to reject Mr. Jean was leaked late Thursday but not confirmed. Hundreds of Mr. Jean’s passionate supporters had rallied in the Delmas area of the capital, chanting, “We want Clef, Clef is Haiti and Haiti is for Clef.”
The police and United Nations peacekeeping troops prepared for the possibility of unrest after a rejection of Mr. Jean’s bid.
The electoral council waited until long after darkness had fallen to issue its list of approved presidential candidates, originally due Tuesday. And it did so in at its Pétionville bureau, and not at the office in Delmas where the crowds had gathered.
Afterward, Mr. Jean, who had been waiting at a nearby hotel to hold a news conference after the announcement, reportedly left the area to return to his hometown of Laserre, outside Port-au-Prince.
His short-lived candidacy, announced in the first week of August, had electrified Haiti and drawn global attention back to the beleaguered country. It also drew scrutiny to the musician’s charity, Yéle Haiti, and questions about Mr. Jean’s ability to take on the enormous task of helping Haiti recover and rebuild.
All Friday, the Haitian news media discussed the possibility that Mr. Jean would be disqualified. But Mr. Jean issued periodic messages on Twitter on Friday suggesting that the final decision had not been made and that he, too, was in a state of suspense.
“We await the decision of the Electoral Council, to see if I made the list as a candidate,” one message said. “As it is written so shall it be done!”
For a couple of days, Mr. Jean had isolated himself in a family home in Laserre, saying he had received death threats and felt safer there. On Thursday afternoon, he ventured out to see President René Préval, prompting speculation that the departing president was asking Mr. Jean to prevail upon his followers to accept whatever decision the electoral council made.
On Friday, Mr. Jean sent a message to his supporters urging calm, Haitian radio stations reported. He also posted photographs on Twitter of his meeting with the president: “This is another pic of me n President René Préval from Yesterday’s Meeting. Very positive. Smiles all the way.”
The candidates approved to run for the presidency of Haiti include: Mirlande Manigat, a former first lady and university administrator; Yvon Neptune, a former prime minister; Leslie Voltaire, an architect active in reconstruction planning; and Michel Martelly, a musician known as Sweet Micky.
The electoral council was supposed to issue its list of approved presidential candidates on Tuesday, but it delayed that move in order to scrutinize the eligibility not just of Mr. Jean but of many others in the field of 34 contenders.
The decision on whether to eliminate Mr. Jean was considered the most delicate, however. Despite his lack of political experience, Mr. Jean had been considered a potential front-runner from the moment he announced his candidacy in the first week of August. At that time, he described himself as having been “drafted” to run by the youth of Haiti.
“I didn’t create this hurricane, this tsunami you’re feeling in the last couple of days,” he said in an interview before announcing his candidacy.
In an interview this month, Mr. Jean said he believed he met the eligibility requirements for a presidential candidate. He said he never abandoned his Haitian citizenship; he holds a Haitian passport and an American green card, or legal permanent residency.
He also said he should not be disqualified on the basis of the residency requirement because he is a good-will ambassador for Haiti, appointed by Mr. Préval with a mandate to rove the world.
Vladimir Laguerre contributed reporting from Pétionville, Haiti.
Wyclef Jean Barred From Haiti Election
By DEBORAH SONTAG
The New York Times
(Read the original article here)
Haiti’s electoral council announced late Friday evening that Wyclef Jean, the Haitian-born hip-hop star, had been disqualified as a candidate for president of his earthquake-shattered homeland.
No explanation was given. A spokesman for the council, Richardson Dumel, facing reporters who had been standing vigil at the election bureau all day, read a list of 19 presidential aspirants deemed eligible and 15, including Mr. Jean, whose candidacy had been rejected.
But in a statement, Mr. Jean said he was rejected because he did not meet the requirement of having lived in Haiti for five consecutive years before the Nov. 28 elections. Born in Haiti, Mr. Jean left as a child for the United States and now, based in New Jersey, travels often to his homeland.
The statement said his heart was heavy but that he accepted the decision and urged his followers to do the same.
“We must all honor the memories of those we’ve lost — whether in the earthquake, or at anytime — by responding peacefully and responsibly to this disappointment,” the statement said.
Tensions had been building throughout the day after the council’s decision to reject Mr. Jean was leaked late Thursday but not confirmed. Hundreds of Mr. Jean’s passionate supporters had rallied in the Delmas area of the capital, chanting, “We want Clef, Clef is Haiti and Haiti is for Clef.”
The police and United Nations peacekeeping troops prepared for the possibility of unrest after a rejection of Mr. Jean’s bid.
The electoral council waited until long after darkness had fallen to issue its list of approved presidential candidates, originally due Tuesday. And it did so in at its Pétionville bureau, and not at the office in Delmas where the crowds had gathered.
Afterward, Mr. Jean, who had been waiting at a nearby hotel to hold a news conference after the announcement, reportedly left the area to return to his hometown of Laserre, outside Port-au-Prince.
His short-lived candidacy, announced in the first week of August, had electrified Haiti and drawn global attention back to the beleaguered country. It also drew scrutiny to the musician’s charity, Yéle Haiti, and questions about Mr. Jean’s ability to take on the enormous task of helping Haiti recover and rebuild.
All Friday, the Haitian news media discussed the possibility that Mr. Jean would be disqualified. But Mr. Jean issued periodic messages on Twitter on Friday suggesting that the final decision had not been made and that he, too, was in a state of suspense.
“We await the decision of the Electoral Council, to see if I made the list as a candidate,” one message said. “As it is written so shall it be done!”
For a couple of days, Mr. Jean had isolated himself in a family home in Laserre, saying he had received death threats and felt safer there. On Thursday afternoon, he ventured out to see President René Préval, prompting speculation that the departing president was asking Mr. Jean to prevail upon his followers to accept whatever decision the electoral council made.
On Friday, Mr. Jean sent a message to his supporters urging calm, Haitian radio stations reported. He also posted photographs on Twitter of his meeting with the president: “This is another pic of me n President René Préval from Yesterday’s Meeting. Very positive. Smiles all the way.”
The candidates approved to run for the presidency of Haiti include: Mirlande Manigat, a former first lady and university administrator; Yvon Neptune, a former prime minister; Leslie Voltaire, an architect active in reconstruction planning; and Michel Martelly, a musician known as Sweet Micky.
The electoral council was supposed to issue its list of approved presidential candidates on Tuesday, but it delayed that move in order to scrutinize the eligibility not just of Mr. Jean but of many others in the field of 34 contenders.
The decision on whether to eliminate Mr. Jean was considered the most delicate, however. Despite his lack of political experience, Mr. Jean had been considered a potential front-runner from the moment he announced his candidacy in the first week of August. At that time, he described himself as having been “drafted” to run by the youth of Haiti.
“I didn’t create this hurricane, this tsunami you’re feeling in the last couple of days,” he said in an interview before announcing his candidacy.
In an interview this month, Mr. Jean said he believed he met the eligibility requirements for a presidential candidate. He said he never abandoned his Haitian citizenship; he holds a Haitian passport and an American green card, or legal permanent residency.
He also said he should not be disqualified on the basis of the residency requirement because he is a good-will ambassador for Haiti, appointed by Mr. Préval with a mandate to rove the world.
Vladimir Laguerre contributed reporting from Pétionville, Haiti.
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