Today I received an email (attached) asking me to sign on to a letter by the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti to the US Department of State asking them to retract a statement urging Former President Aristide of Haiti to delay his return to Haiti until after this weekend’s presidential election. The claim is made that "The unimpeded passage of President Aristide’s plane is issue of principle, important both to Haitian and U.S. democracy."
Why are the undersigned lawyers supporting this petition? What good do they think this will do for Haiti? Haiti is a mess and Aristide was instrumental along with a long list of failed leaders in getting Haiti here. Haiti is a failed state in every sense. What good can Aristide's return bring? Ask yourself what role he expects to play? Why is he rushing back on the eve of the election? Whoever wins this election wont take office for a few months and will not have any authority over him just as they have none now. His stated fear that the next next president will not let him enter is unfounded. Any message he wants to send he can do so via radio, email, telephone, twitter etc, insuring his freedom of speech. Why now? I doubt that his rush back is an act of good faith. His professed intentions are belied by the firestorm he is causing by his impending return.
This petition is foolishness. Aristide’s return, Duvalier enjoying the cool mountain air here and a completely unprepared candidate like Michel Martelly (I hope he wins) so close to the presidency are all evidence of the state of our country. We have no politicians, no men/women with the vision and will to be in Haiti and direct her. In that vacuum men like Martelly are on the verge of the presidency. Drug dealers and murders are being elected to parliament. Impunity reigns.
The idea of "principle" that the signers of this letter are citing has Haiti all but dead. Democracy as practiced here has brought her nothing in the last 25 years. She is a nation in name only with no roads worth speaking of, trees for shade, local food security or steady power generation. The capital city is no less than a massive slum with inadequate garbage clean up, non-functioning infrastructure, rampant building code violations, impunity and corruption. Every wall is a public urinal, every gully a trash can. Every piece of clear road, is a license for scores of vehicles (private, ngo and diplomatic alike) to drive on the wrong side of the road to tie up the traffic more intractably further down the road; all as the police sit by and do nothing.
Right now, as you read this note, shanty towns are filling every space on every road. I’m not talking about the temp to perm tent cities resulting from the earthquake. I am talking about small houses cut into hill sides with no services or infrastructure whatsoever. They are mostly built on solid looking foundations composed of river rock and cement. Who is building these one room homes? Is it the people supposedly making $2 a day? I seriously doubt it. Someone is building these houses in violation of every construction code in the law and renting them out. In the process they contribute to the choking urban sprawl with not one citation or cease and desist order from government or a care for urban planning.
Environmental impunity! For god-sake the trees are almost gone. A drive down any road shows the trunks of tall thin trees for rent to be used as support posts in some makeshift construction project. Nearly every meal consumed in Haiti is cooked on charcoal made from other trees. The meals cooked are usually imported US rice and imported US chicken; the American answer to Haitian food security. The sugar cane consumed in the streets, the limes used to prepare food are being imported from the Dominican Republic for lack of domestic production and degraded land.
The biggest crime committed by Haitians themselves and by the international community is the silence with which they face this epidemic of impunity. The return to Haiti of Duvalier, at best, one of its worst leaders, under the protection of police escort, to dine at fine restaurants and enjoy the International Jazz Festival is no less than a sad joke; no less than Haiti's naked emperor moment. (Now we are awaiting another failed and corrupt leader who learned well the message of impunity in Duvalier's return.) After all, what will it take to prosecute these men? We are not talking about mounting an anti-cholera program or housing reconstruction with its huge costs. We are talking about arresting them if appropriate, taking testimony from their victims, evaluating the facts, and coming up with a credible result for better or for worse and under the rule of law of the Haitian constitution. After all, killing and embezzling is still illegal in Haiti.
That the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) led by Brian Concannon is pressing a weak constitutional argument in the face of what is Haiti today is a an exercise in fantastic intellectual gymnastics completely and stupendously disconnected from the reality that is Haiti and what she needs to move forward. The IJDH would better serve the Haitian constitution by helping it honor its commitment to free education for its children or prosecuting lawless and corrupt government officials like ex-presidents and corrupt customs officers. I, for one, reject this petition on the basis that it supports everything that is wrong with Haiti today. It is an argument for more impunity, the one thing Haiti has too much of. Alain Armand
www.twitter.com/thehaitian
From: Brian Concannon <brian@ijdh.org>
Subject: Lawyers Supporting Haiti's President Aristide's Human Right to Return
To: "'Brian Concannon'" <brian@ijdh.org>
Date: Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 12:05 AM Dear Colleagues: We are circulating a sign-on letter (below and attached) from lawyers and law professors to Cheryl Mills, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) Chief of Staff, in response to the DOS’ outrageous statements Monday that Haiti’s President Aristide should not return to Haiti because he might “impact Haiti’s elections.” President Aristide is expected to try to fly out of South Africa on Wednesday or Thursday in a non-commercial jet, along with our colleague Ira Kurzban, actor/activist Danny Glover, journalist Amy Goodman and others. The South African government states that the U.S. government has pressured it to prevent the plane from leaving, but asserts that it will not bow to that pressure. It is expected that if the plane leaves South Africa that the U.S. government will try to prevent the plane from landing, in or near Haiti. The unimpeded passage of President Aristide’s plane is issue of principle, important both to Haitian and U.S. democracy. But it is also one of personal safety for those on board the plane. So please consider adding your name to this letter. We ask that you list your organizational affiliation, but we will state in the letter that this is for identification purposes only. Our time is tight, as the plane may leave on Wednesday. We will hand-deliver the letter and signatures on Thursday morning, and would therefore need to close the signatures by 2 PM ET on Wednesday. We apologize for the short notice. To sign on, simply send an email to Brian@ijdh.org. Let us know if you have any questions, and thank you for considering supporting this initiative. Best, William Quigley Legal Director Center for Constitutional Rights Brian Concannon Jr., Esq. Director, Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti ________________________________________________________________________ Cheryl Mills, Esq. Counselor and Chief of Staff U.S. Department of State 2201 C Street NW Washington, DC 20520 Re: United States Government Opposition to the Right of Haiti’s Jean-Bertrand Aristide to Return Dear Chief of Staff Mills: The undersigned lawyers and law professors are writing to express our deep concern that the United States Department of State (DOS) is actively interfering with the human and constitutional right of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to return to his country. As you know, President Aristide was removed from Haiti on February 29, 2004, on board a U.S. Government plane.[1] He has not returned to the country since then. According to numerous press reports, on Monday March 14, DOS spokesperson Mark Toner stated that “[w]e encourage the South African Government as a committed partner to Haiti’s stability to urge former President Aristide to delay his return until after the elections,” and that “[w]e would urge former President Aristide to delay his return until after the electoral process has concluded....” These statements, read in light of previous United States Government efforts to diminish President Aristide’s presence and influence in Haiti,[2] demonstrate a deliberate effort to restrict President Aristide’s ability to travel to Haiti. Haiti’s Constitution[3] guarantees the right of any Haitian national to return to the country. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which is binding on both the United States and Haiti, declares that “[n]o one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.”[4] The DOS justification for restricting President Aristide’s constitutional and human rights- that his “return this week could only be seen as a conscious choice to impact Haiti’s elections” is itself a violation of his political rights, including his right to free expression,[5] freedom of association,[6] and freedom to take part in the conduct of public affairs.[7] It is especially disturbing to see such disrespect for internationally-accepted human rights from a Department that has made human rights an important part of its foreign policy, and that includes such noted human rights experts as Legal Advisor Koh and Assistant Secretary Posner. We would urge you to reconsider the DOS policy of discouraging President Aristide’s exercise of his right to return to Haiti in light of the applicable legal standards, and to announce unequivocally that the United States government supports President Aristide’s right to return, and discourages other countries from interfering with that right. Very truly yours, *Organizational affiliations for identification purposes only Brian Concannon Jr., Esq. Director, Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti Brian@IJDH.org (617) 652-0876 541-263-0029 (cell) PO Box 52115 Boston, MA 02205-2115
[1] President Aristide and many others assert that the departure was involuntary. [2] Including a June 2005 DOS Cable explaining that the U.S. Ambassador to Brazil and the Embassy Political Counselor “stressed continued USG insistence that all efforts must be made to keep Aristide from returning to Haiti or influencing the political process,” and the U.S. Government role in removing President Aristide from Haiti in February 2004. [3] Constitution of the Republic of Haiti, Art. 41 and 41-1.
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Posted via email from The Haitian
