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Haiti:
Latortue's legacy
Myrtha Désulmé, Contributor
Last month, an alarming new report on human rights abuses in
Haiti under the interim Government, by two social work
scholars, Athena Kolbe and Dr. Royce Hutson of Wayne State
University, was published in the British medical journal The
Lancet. The report studied eight types of human rights
violations: property crimes, arrests and prolonged illegal
detentions, physical assaults, sexual assaults, murders
including extra judicial killings and politically motivated
executions, death threats, and threats of sexual or physical
violence.
Households numbering 1,260 were interviewed during the survey
period, accounting for 5,720 residents. To estimate the total
number of victims in the region, the researchers applied crude
rates to the estimated population of the greater
Port-au-Prince area in 2003 (2,121,000). From 219 murders and
1,698 sexual assaults, which were reported to them during the
survey, they extrapolated that 8,000 people had been murdered
and 35,000 women and girls had been raped in Port-au-Prince
alone, during the 22-month period. The numbers seem shockingly
high, and somewhat exaggerated, but the researchers
nevertheless maintain that the extrapolation formula applied
to this random sampling method is standard.
These human rights abuses were allegedly perpetrated by the
police, members of the disbanded Haitian army, organized anti-Lavalas
paramilitary groups, partisans of Lavalas, criminals,
unidentified masked armed men, foreign soldiers, and others
(including neighbors, friends, and family members).
Disastrous embargoes
Under the pretext of encouraging the development of democracy
in Haiti, the U.S. has imposed several disastrous embargoes,
which have crippled its fragile economy and traumatized its
people. Unemployment has soared. Urban violence has spiraled.
Economic stagnation fosters the struggle for scarce benefits,
which can be exploited by demagogues, the politically
ambitious, and vested interests, foreign and local, intent on monopolizing
the means of production, the sources of wealth, and of
economic and political power.
Extreme poverty breeds illiteracy and miserable governance,
which in turn intensifies hunger and instability. Expectations
from rationalist theories of crime, civil war and social
unrest, are that violence will rise as income per capita,
education, and economic growth decline. This is due either to
the declining opportunity cost of violence, (the less people
have to lose, the more likely they are to create mayhem), or
to the decline in state capacity, which are two competing
causal mechanisms. If the state is weak and cannot effectively
police its territory, a greater supply of agitators will
become available to the rabble rousers. Education reduces the
available supply of potential rebels. Unemployment increases
it.
Violent conflict will occur when it is expected to be more
profitable than peace, and there is a difficulty in
structuring a credible agreement, which avoids war or other
forms of conflict. Theories of relative deprivation expect
violence to rise as a result of higher inequality. Persistent
inequality leads to anger and despair, which reinforces the
demand for political change.
The only lasting solution for Haiti is the same as for every
other destabilized country - stimulation of its economy and
wealth creation. A sound framework which combines key public
investments - roads, power, public health and safe water, with
the creation of long-term economic options, such as the
improvement of access to schools, and the development of
sustainable agriculture. Great gains need to be achieved in
education, farming, health and income levels.
Preval has his work cut out for him. Last month, Sorel François,
president of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the House of
Deputies, declared that more than U.S. $6 million, not
counting luxury vehicles, were misappropriated by the Foreign
Affairs Ministry over the two-year administration of interim
Prime Minister Gerard Latortue.
Preval has also inherited a disastrous human rights situation,
which demands a serious and urgent response. He has so far
been successful in liberating the more high profile political
prisoners, but there are many more he needs to deal with. He
does not yet control the judiciary, however, because in
December, 2005, P.M. Latortue unconstitutionally replaced half
of the Supreme Court judges, after the court ruled against him
in the controversial case of candidates with double
nationalities, who were barred from participating in the
presidential elections. Replacements were unilaterally
selected by the executive, and those judges remain on the
bench, resisting the liberation of political prisoners.
Haitians see MINUSTAH, the two-year-old U.N. "stabilization"
force, as occupiers, or worse, "tourists with guns",
who are being paid to kill them. DDR (Disarmament, Demobilization
and Reintegration), was the first mandate of the U.N.
peace-keeping force, but they have failed miserably at it.
Unless MINUSTAH can live up to its original mandate of stabilization,
the US$25 million per month, which it is costing, would be
better utilized in assisting starving and dislocated Haitians,
who cannot earn a living in the prevailing chaos. With the war
of attrition, which is being waged against the Haitian people
since the last aid embargo, dating from 2000, US$25 million
per month could go a long way towards providing food, water,
and basic necessities, rebuilding infrastructure, sewage
systems and utilities, providing social services such as
health care, garbage collection, sanitation, education, the
list is endless. It is precisely the fact that the people are
forced to live in such miserable conditions, which undermine
their human dignity, which is exacerbating the problem.
No one knows for sure how many weapons are out there. The
general estimate is 30,000. Last month, President Preval
warned gangs based in the sprawling slums of Port-au-Prince to
disarm or face death. Up to 1,000 rank-and-file gang members,
who voluntarily lay down arms and rejoin society, will be
eligible for the programmed, the biggest disarmament effort of
the U.N. peace-keeping mission yet.
U.N. envoy, Edmond Mulet, said that gang members participating
in the program will receive ID cards entitling them to money,
medical assistance, food for their families and training for
jobs. The initiative targets only rank-and-file gang members.
Top gang leaders in the capital's volatile Cite Soleil slum
have indicated a willingness to disarm, and the decision to
leave them out sets up a potential showdown with the
Government.
What Haiti needs is assistance in building up institutions for
local governance and democracy. It is imperative that Haiti
change its political culture, and adhere to CARICOM's Charter
of Civil Society. Haiti could take a page out of the British
Caribbean's political traditions, such as the two-party
Westminster system, of which her Majesty's Loyal Opposition
forms an integral part. The main political problem in Haiti is
that the Opposition is the enemy. When one starts out with
that premise, it is quite difficult to maneuver a conflictive
situation to the point where all parties can sit around a
table and negotiate, or even agree to disagree, accept the
opponent's right to his opinion, and coexist amicably.
Channeling conflict
Higher incomes and educational attainment reduce the risk of
political violence by encouraging political participation, and
channeling conflict through institutional pathways rather than
violence. The U.N., the OAS, and the international community
should be offering economic assistance for reconstruction, and
training in negotiation skills for conflict resolution, in
order to achieve a new social contract leading to national
reconciliation. Erasing Haiti's debt, restoring constitutional
rule, ending arbitrary embargoes and sinking significant
resources into public health, public education and public
infrastructure, would ultimately be central to addressing, and
indeed, solving Haiti's social problems.
Myrtha Désulmé is the President of the Haiti-Jamaica
Society.
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