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Haiti Report for May 18, 2007

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Haiti Report for May 18, 2007

The Haiti Report is a summary compilation of events as described in
Haiti and international media prepared by Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY. It
does not reflect the opinions of any individual or organization. This
service is intended to create a better understanding of the situation
in Haiti by presenting the reader with reports that provide a variety
of perspectives on the situation.

To make a donation to support this service: Konbit Pou Ayiti, 7 Wall
Street, Gloucester, MA, 01930 or visit our website: www.konpay.org

IN THIS REPORT:

- - Journalist Killed in Gonaives
- - Increasing Sexual Assault Against Women
- - Criminal Deportees Face Stigmatization
- - Constant Doesn't Fear Being Returned to Haiti
- - Contracts Signed to Build Four New Hospitals
- - President Preval Assesses First Year in Office
- - Turks and Caicos Government Statement on Capsized Boat
- - UN Makes Progress in Cite Soleil

Journalist Killed in Gonaives:

Gunmen killed a journalist in northwestern Haiti, shooting him 11
times outside his fiancee's house, his radio station said Thursday.
Alix Joseph, director of private Radio Provinciale in the port town
of Gonaives, was ambushed late Wednesday by two assailants as he sat
in a car with his fiancee, who escaped unharmed, said Frantz Justin
Altidor, a journalist at the station. "She screamed 'Oh my God, they
got us,' and started running. She thought Alix was right behind
her,'' Altidor said. Colleagues returned hours later and found
Joseph's body on the floor of the car. Police have not identified
suspects or established a motive. Altidor said he did not know if
Joseph, 38, had received threats, but said some people were unhappy
with the station's reporting on local crime. Altidor said Radio
Provinciale and other stations in Gonaives went off the air Thursday
to protest insecurity in the town, a base for armed gangs blamed for
a string of recent killings. Last month, gunmen in the city shot and
killed a former journalist with ties to ousted President Jean-
Bertrand Aristide while he slept. His killers were not caught.
Attacks on journalists are common in Haiti, but they have dropped
since the 2006 election of President Rene Preval, according to the
New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. (AP, 5/17)

Increasing Sexual Assault Against Women:

Rocked in recent years by kidnappings and street robberies,
desperately poor Haiti is caught in the grip of a new violent scourge
- -- a rising number of sex assaults against women. As recently as a
decade ago, violence here almost always was of the political variety.
But today, the Caribbean island nation is wracked by street-level
brutality, sometimes by individual attackers, sometimes by roving
gangs, visited more often than not against women. Researchers said
about 80 percent of victims of violence in Haiti are women, of whom
about 40 percent were attacked within their own homes. And in the
capital city Port-au-Prince, gang rape has become a shockingly
familiar phenomenon. Robed Congo Noel, a social worker with the
Medecins du Monde nonprofit group observed that violence here is
linked in large part "to the inferior station of women in our
society." In addition to women, minors also are at risk: more than 55
percent of sex assault victims are between the ages of 10 and 17.
Because the phenomeonon is so new and because Haiti's other needs are
so great, there is little in the way of a support system for the
sexually abused. "The victims, be they battered women, young female
rape victims or abused children, end up somehow normalizing their
experience or blaming themselves -- whether or not they submit to
their attacker," said Michaele Israel, a leader in the Martissant
shantytown on the southern outskirts of Port-au-Prince.

"Violence is everywhere in our society -- but (speaking about it) is
also taboo," said Emmanuel Joseph who runs a crisis intervention
center in Carrefour, a poor section of the Haitian capital. "The
victim often has little choice but to remain mum" about it, he said.
The old rules of social order and civility have fallen away,
increasing the vulnerability of Haiti's victims. One rape victim,
Emilienne, 33, was attacked while visiting a trusted physician in mid-
April. "He made me wait a long time and when night fell, he advised
that it wouldn't be wise for me to go home because of the general
lack of law and order. He suggested I spend the night nearby at the
home of a friend of his," she said. It was there, however, that the
same doctor brutally attacked her and forced her to submit to sex. "I
trusted him," she later said ruefully. "He was a doctor." Emilienne
said she is fortunate in having the support of relatives to cope with
the effects of the abuse. "My family supports me, but they're worried
about me," she said. "It's so easy here to kill someone," she said.
Emilienne counts among the few who have managed to fight back, with
the help of the group Kay Fanm -- a women's collective fighting
against sexual exploitation. Thanks to the work of lawyers and social
workers at Kay Fanm, her accused rapist is now behind bars and
awaiting trial -- a rare occurence in Haiti. "All I want is justice
for myself and for all the raped women who don't dare speak out,"
Emilienne said. (AFP, 5/17)

Criminal Deportees Face Stigmatization:

In recent years, U.S. authorities have deported to Haiti some 2,000
criminals of Haitian descent under a controversial policy that some
officials here say has helped fuel a wave of kidnappings and other
violent crime. The deportees, who have been convicted in the U.S. of
crimes ranging from armed robbery to sexual abuse, often grow up in
America and return to this impoverished land, instilling fear in
other Haitians while facing their own hardship and discrimination.
"It's been rough," said Augustin Saint-Ville, 30, who said he was
deported from the U.S. a decade ago after serving 5 1/2 years in
prison for selling crack cocaine. "I want to go back. You've got to
have money to be in Haiti, and there is no money." The deportation of
criminals has become a sore point between the U.S. and Haiti, which
is struggling to absorb an increasing number of ex-cons at a time
when the judicial system has collapsed, its prisons are overcrowded,
the police force is weak and political stability is tenuous. "It is a
very sensitive issue," said Raymond Joseph, Haiti's ambassador to the
U.S. "In the past, we've asked that they slow down the pace [of
deportations] because some of the deportees are hardened criminals
who learned their trade in America." In December, Haitian Prime
Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis said U.S. authorities threatened to
cut assistance to Haiti if it refused to accept the deportees. U.S.
diplomats in Port-au-Prince deny making such a threat and challenge
the assertion that criminal deportees, known here as "DPs," imperil
public security. "I'm not sure I've seen any statistics that would
bear out the allegations that deportees are responsible for the crime
wave," Janet Sanderson, the U.S. ambassador to Haiti, said in an
interview. "I think the crime wave in Haiti goes much deeper than that."

Fred Blaise, chief spokesman for the United Nations police force in
Haiti, said not a single criminal deportee is among the hundreds of
Haitians arrested in recent months during a major crackdown by UN
troops against Haiti's powerful street gangs. Diplomats and police
say the gangs are largely responsible for the nation's 603
kidnappings in the past 16 months, along with many other serious
crimes. "People have had that big myth that there was a bunch of
criminal deportees that were involved," said Blaise, who represents
the police component of the UN's 8,000-strong peacekeeping mission in
Haiti. "It ended up being not true." Still, many deportees say the
Haitian government's effort to demonize them has made it difficult to
find jobs or achieve broader acceptance. "Everyone is so afraid of us
even though we haven't done anything here," said James Felix, 31, a
Belle Glade, Fla., resident deported in January after serving 17
months in prison for cocaine possession and child neglect. "We are
looked at as killers. We are public enemy No. 1."

Deportations resumed last year after President Rene Preval took
office, and, because of a backlog, about 100 ex-cons arrive each
month in Haiti, more than double the average number since 2003. Many
of the deportees are from Boston, New York and Florida, where there
are large Haitian-American communities. Gerard Morency, adjunct
coordinator at Haiti's National Office of Migration, said most
deportees are not violent offenders, a fact he hopes to spread to the
public through radio and television ads beginning this month. "We
want to tell people that they [deportees] are not that bad," Morency
said. "We want to get rid of that stigma." The U.S. also is spending
$1 million to provide new deportees counseling, job training and
other services to ease their reintegration into Haitian life. But the
program is in its infancy, and its results are unclear. New deportees
are detained on arrival in Haiti for anywhere from several days to
several months before being released on probation. Some detainees
like Felix complain that police pressured them into paying bribes to
get out of jail.

At a police headquarters near the airport, some 80 prisoners—
including 11 deportees—are packed into a holding cell where many
sleep on a bare, concrete floor. The jailers provide no food or
bedding. "Your family has to provide for you. If you have no family,
you might die," said Christopher Desamours, a 38-year-old Florida
resident held at the facility who was deported in April after serving
32 months in prison for conspiracy to possess cocaine. Buffed from
prison weights and sporting earrings and fresh clothes, some new
arrivals project an air of superiority when faced with Haiti's
crushing poverty and underdevelopment. But that attitude is soon
displaced by loneliness and despair as they struggle in an unfamiliar
land without wives, children and other loved ones back in the United
States. (South Florida Sun Sentinel, 5/17)

Constant Doesn't Fear Being Returned to Haiti:

Haiti's Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, the once feared leader of the Front
for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, yesterday told a judge in
Brooklyn he has no fear of being returned to his homeland. In state
Supreme Court in Brooklyn, where he appeared for sentencing in a
mortgage fraud case, Constant told Justice Abraham Gerges, "I have no
fear to be deported to Haiti" even though he faces charges of murder
and torture there. State and federal prosecutors want Constant to be
sentenced to time served 10 months of a proposed 1-to-3-year sentence
and to be subsequently deported. Judge Gerges, however, postponed the
sentencing after the Center for Constitutional Rights claimed the
country remained too unstable to keep Constant, 50, from evading
justice. He has suggested may kill a plea deal and force the former
FRAPH leader to withdraw a guilty plea and go to trial on charges he
defrauded lenders out of more than US$1.7 million. If convicted,
Constant faces five to 15 years in jail.

Several Haitians yesterday picketed outside the Supreme Court to
demand that the judge sentencing Constant for mortgage fraud apply
the maximum penalty possible. Constant was a CIA agent and terrorist
leader of the death-squad FRAPH during Haiti's 1991-94 coup d'état,
which claimed the lives of 5000. He fled from Haiti to the United
States in December 1994 when a Haitian court issued a warrant for his
arrest for murder and torture. From 1996 until his arrest by New York
State authorities last summer, Constant enjoyed de facto political
asylum and a comfortable lifestyle as a mortgage broker in Queens and
Long Island, despite extradition requests from Haiti for his crimes
against humanity. In 2005, the CJA filed a lawsuit against Constant
in New York on behalf of three women raped in Haiti by the FRAPH. In
October 2006, Judge Sidney Stein of the Southern District of New York
found Constant liable for torture, attempted extrajudicial killing
and crimes against humanity. In 2000, a court in Haiti convicted
Constant in absentia for his role in the "Raboteau Massacre" in
Gonaives in April 1994, in which dozens of people were killed by
FRAPH thugs and Haitian soldiers. (Hardbeatnews.com, 5/16)

Haitian-Dominican Cooperation to Control Drugs at Border:

Jose Serulle Ramia, the Dominican Ambassador in Port-au-Prince, said
Monday that permanent and rigorous control of the Haitian-Dominican
border to deter narcotics smuggling has been in effect since the drug
summit was held in Santo-Domingo in March 2007. Important contacts
have also been established with the U.S. government with regard to
the anti-narcotics campaign, said Ambassador Ramia. The president of
the Dominican Republic has said that he believes these actions will
contribute to stability across the entire island, said the
ambassador, emphasizing the importance of the narcotics problem. We
must not expect immediate solutions, however, because the fight
against drug trafficking is not an easy task because the distribution
market is immense and well structured, said Mr. Ramia. He urged the
countries interested in seeing this campaign succeed to stick with
it. Jose Serulle Ramia also announced the resumption of activities
at the bi-national market in the border town of Dajabon in the
Dominican Republic, which was struck last week by a tornado that
caused considerable damage. Thanks to the assistance of the national
commission on emergencies of the Dominican Republic, more than 200
damaged homes have been repaired and electricity has been restored,
he said. The ambassador visited the area last weekend. The bridge
built across the Massacre river linking Dajabon and Ouanaminthe is
closed to heavily weighted vehicles due to the deterioration of its
foundations. As to whether the bridge can be repaired or whether a
new one will need to be built, the haitian and Dominican authorities
will need to come to agreement as to the proper solution, said Mr.
Ramia. (AHP, 5/14)

Contracts Signed to Build Four New Hospitals:

The Minister for Public Health and Population, Robert Auguste, signed
two contracts this Monday worth a total of 9 million gourdes with
two Haitian businesses that have been hired to carry out renovation
and construction work at hospitals in four provincial cities. The
work will be performed by two Haitian companies, ITC S.A.
(Infrastructure Techniques and Construction) and EMCO (Study,
Maintenance and Construction) in the cities of Cap Haitien, Jacmel,
Les Cayes and Jérémie. These contracts, said Dr. Auguste, comply
with the policy of the Health Ministry's policy of offering quality
health care services in the various communes and communal sections of
the country.

Dr. Auguste also indicated that training for laboratory technicians
will be subject to strict supervision by the Ministry, which will
officially evaluate all personnel who complete their formal training
in laboratory technique before authorizing them to perform medical
analysis throughout Haiti. For their part, Mr. Edwin Médor,
representing the ITC company and engineer Carl François from EMCO
both promised to complete the work within the three months allocated
to them under the contracts. Political and macro-economic
stability, and security: three positive points of the 12 months of
his government, says President Préval. (AHP, 5/14)

President Preval Assesses First Year in Office:

President René Garcia Préval delivered a mixed assessment of the
performance of his government Sunday during its first year in
office. Political and macro-economic stability and security were the
three main objectives of his government in its first year, said Mr.
Préval. In his view, political stability was indispensable to the
creation of favorable conditions for investment that can create
employment in Haiti. He expressed satisfaction at the current
security climate in the country. Thanks to the efforts of the
authorities, the police now have 7,000 officers and approximately 600
more will graduate this coming July, said President Préval.

According to him, kidnapping should be viewed as another form of
insecurity because, he said, with no more than a revolver one can
kidnap somebody. "Progress has been made in macro-economic
performance, with inflation falling from 46%% in 2004 to 8.5%% today",
he said. He was also pleased at what he called the good relations
existing between the Parliament and the Executive, despite the fact
that there are occasional disagreements. In response to sectors
urging the government to dismiss former civil servants appointed to
diplomatic posts by the previous government, the president declared
that it isn't wise to take on too many tasks at once. The Haitian
president promised to continue to work against drug trafficking and
to increase revenues and upgrade the morals of Haitian public life.
(AHP, 5/16)

Turks and Caicos Government Statement on Capsized Boat:

The following statement has been issued by The Turks and Caicos
government on 11 May as an update to those issued on 4 and 7 May:
"The facts remain as set out in the previous statements. At approx 2
am on Friday 4 May, a Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police patrol
boat intercepted a Haitian sloop about 2 miles south of
Providenciales. The boat was suspected of containing illegal
migrants and, in line with standard practice, the police boat took
the sloop in tow, in order to bring it in to South Dock,
Providenciales. On the way, they encountered rough seas and the
heavily-overloaded sloop capsized. The Police boat immediately set
about rescuing as many of the passengers as possible from the sloop,
and called in assistance from civilian vessels on Providenciales and
the US Coastguard.

The number of survivors still stands at 78 (69 males and 9 females).
None have serious injuries. The Turks and Caicos Island Government
safely returned the majority of the survivors by air to Haiti
yesterday: the remainder will be flown home today. The search has
been continuing all week, but no further bodies have been found. The
Turks and Caicos Island Government is working with the Haitian
Government to identify the remains of the deceased and repatriate
them to Haiti. Two Haitian Government representatives are in
Providenciales to help with this work. The TCI Government have
offered to refund the repatriation of the remains to Haiti. On the
order of the Coroner, two US pathologists are currently in
Providenciales conducting post mortems on the bodies.

At the invitation of the Turks and Caicos Islands Government, a team
of three investigators from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch
of the UK's Department of Transport arrived in the Turks and Caicos
Islands on Saturday 5 May to conduct a thorough, independent and
expert investigation. They have completed their investigation in the
Turks and Caicos Islands, and will return to the UK today. They
will now compile their report which will be released in due course,
in line with normal practice. The Turks and Caicos Islands Government
again extends its deepest sympathies to the relatives and loved ones
of all those who have died in this tragic accident." (provided by the
Haiti Support Group)

UN Makes Progress in Cite Soleil:

Two years ago, one of the main crossroads in the Cite Soleil slum was
a no man's land where street gangs terrorized residents. Now its turn
of fortunes is considered a possible road to success for the rest of
Haiti. In an area once marked only by bullet-scarred buildings and
the torched, overturned carcasses of automobiles, vendors in a
bustling market of street stalls sell everything from mangoes to
laundry detergent. Plans are in the works to build a community center
and revamp the schools. The reason for the dramatic improvement in
Cite Soleil, a bellwether for this impoverished Caribbean nation, was
a major offensive by United Nations peacekeepers against Haiti's gang
leaders. Led by hundreds of Brazilian troops, UN forces seized the
shantytown in a series of nighttime raids in December, January and
February. More than a dozen gang members were killed and more than
400 arrested, including all but one of the gangs' top leaders.

UN forces have been fired at only twice in Cite Soleil since the end
of February—a far cry from last year when two peacekeepers were
killed by gang members while fortifying a guard post there. "We broke
the backbone of the gangs, but it doesn't mean that the gangs are
finished," said Maj. Gen. Carlos Alberto Dos Santos Cruz, commander
of UN forces in Haiti, known as MINUSTAH. "We need to keep going
after the leaders, going after the criminals, to prevent them from
reorganizing." The UN's control over Cite Soleil provides a ray of
hope for a nation that for generations has suffered through coups,
violence and unspeakable poverty. Edmond Mulet, the UN's special
representative in Haiti, said the challenge now is to provide jobs
and other basic services to Cite Soleil's estimated 400,000 residents
to win their trust and ensure that the gangs do not return.

Two weeks ago the U.S. signed a $20 million agreement to build the
community center, refurbish schools and health clinics, pave roads
and create jobs as part of a broader effort to alleviate the crushing
poverty in Cite Soleil. "We think it will really make a serious and
positive impact on the lives of the people in Cite Soleil after so
long where they've been held essentially hostage," Janet Sanderson,
U.S. ambassador to Haiti, said in an interview. (Chicago Tribune, 5/9)

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