Al
U.S. doesn't
realize depth of Haiti's problems
By Ira
Kurzban
(Editor’s
Note: This column recently appeared in
The Miami
Herald.
Attorney Ira Kurzban stated his point of view on the upcoming elections in Haiti
so clearly we decided to reprint it. It also allowed us to then translate it to
Spanish for our Progreso Semanal readers.)
The
proposed Haitian election is a sham, and the Bush administration knows it.
During her visit to Haiti last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was
under security so tight that she could only remain in the country for several
hours. But that did not stop her from trying to promote U.S.-sponsored elections
even though the registration process has failed on several counts.
To begin with,
most Haitians voters are disfranchised, and the period to register has ended.
Haiti's electoral council, known as the CEP, established only 623 sites to
register voters compared to the 11,238 sites established when Jean-Bertrand
Aristide was elected president.
The current
registration was largely designed to exclude the vast majority of the poor who
are supporters of Aristide's party Fanmi Lavalas. It had the predictable
result. There was no registration site, for example, in Cité Soleil, a poor area
of Port-au-Prince and an Aristide stronghold of 300,000 people. Similarly, there
was only one registration site in Bel Air, where tens of thousands of Aristide's
supporters live.
The Peace and
Justice Commission in Haiti has noted that only 10 percent of rural voters,
traditionally supportive of Fanmi Lavalas, have been registered to vote
in a country where 70 percent of the population lives in rural areas. Less than
60 percent of the voting population has been registered, if you believe the CEP.
In the 2000 Haitian elections almost 94 percent of eligible voters were
registered.
In order to
vote, a Haitian must have a voter-identification card. Unfortunately, the CEP
has distributed only 20,000 voter-identification cards.
In addition,
the two potential candidates for president from Fanmi Lavalas, both of
whom would easily win a fair election, sit as political prisoners in Haitian
jails.
Rev. Gerard
Jean-Juste, a hero to the Haitian community in the United States and the poor in
Haiti, has been designated a political prisoner by Amnesty International and
Human Rights First. Former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune has been incarcerated on
trumped-up charges for more than 14 months, and even former U.S. Ambassador
James Foley called for Neptune's release before he left Haiti.
The CEP,
controlled by the Group 184 that led the overthrow of the democratically elected
government of Haiti, has barred Jean-Juste from running for president on the
grounds that he must ''personally appear'' to register as a candidate.
The interim
Haitian government also has done its part in this farce by keeping both
Jean-Juste and Neptune in jail on no or baseless charges. They have also
arrested most of the leadership of Fanmi Lavalas, banned all
demonstrations until after the elections and allowed the Haitian National Police
to work with death squads for the purpose of executing thousands of Fanmi
Lavalas supporters since the coup against Aristide.
And this is
where the Bush administration's incompetence is evident. The current government
was put into office by the United States with the assistance of France and
Canada. Under Haiti's constitution, its mandate was for 90 days only. Thereafter,
it became an illegal government under Haitian law.
Interim Prime
Minister Gerard Latortue assumed his position after spending 15 years as a radio
commentator in Boca Raton. If the Bush administration really wanted fair
elections, one would suppose that it could put some pressure on Latortue to
release all political prisoners, stop the repression against Fanmi Lavalas
members, allow for the registration of all Haitians and hold fair elections.
Given the fact that Latortue and his government exist solely by virtue of using
U.S. troops to forcibly remove Aristide and put Latortue in office, is it
incompetence, deceit or both that maintains the current situation?
Ira Kurzban was the general
counsel for Haiti for 13 years during the governments of Rene Peval and Jean-Bertrand
Aristide.
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