Less Poverty, More Hope by Renè Garcia Preval | Haitian Activists Speaks out Against Deibert | Answer Call: Join list of sponsors | AHP News – March 27, 2006 – The mainstream Press has gone home again, Support AHP, Support HLLN’s work

Date: 29 March 2006

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– HAITI: Less poverty, more hope BY RENE GARCIA PREVAL

– Preval to Be Sworn In May 14

– Haitian Activist Speaks out Against Deibert’s anti-Haiti Propaganda
by Haiti-Progres Thursday, Mar. 23, 2006 at 10:58 AM

– Answer the call, join the list of sponsors for The Free Haiti Movement’s,
May 18, 2006, International Solidarity With Haiti

****
Donate to support HLLN’s work. THE MAINSTREAM PRESS HAS GONE HOME again – Keep up with what’s going on in Haiti, Support HLLN’s Work. To Donate to HLLN: www.margueritelaurent.com/donate/donate.html

***

AHP News – March 27, 2006 – English translation (Unofficial)
Preval at Security Council urges donors to honor commitments, Valdes stresses judicial and police reform – 11 more skulls found, this time in Canape Vert -Teleco administrative director sacked – Haiti ranks second as destination for Dominican exports – Police director Andresol criticizes double standard in judiciary that leaves Neptune in prison while bandits are released-
– Haiti’s president-elect calls upon the international community to honor its commitments to Haiti

– 11 more skulls have been discovered in the Canapé-Vert district

– The administrative director of Téléco has been sacked for “grave administrative errors”

– Haiti was the number 2 market for Dominican exports in 2005

– The head of the Haitian police again denounces corruption within the judicial system and criticizes the double standard (AHP)

SUPPORT AHP and Radio Solidaritè – Please see the note at end of AHP articles in this e-mail for details on how to keep AHP’s service alive.

***
– Exports from Dominican Republic to Haiti grew by 88.2%

– Dominican Republic: protests against US troops (near
Haitian border) continue

– CKUT Radio: HAITI: A Legacy of Resistance | AUDIO online…!

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Posted on Wed, Mar. 29, 2006

HAITI
Less poverty, more hope

BY RENE GARCIA PREVAL

Ten years ago, when I became the 55th president of Haiti through democratic elections, little did I realize that 196 years of strife, foreign interventions and poor governance would be so difficult to overcome. Yet even against the odds, our government worked to redress two centuries of inequality. We tried to tackle, with extremely limited means, some of the most daunting problems that have afflicted our country. We built schools, roads and irrigation systems. We initiated a much needed agrarian reform. We confronted the evil of corruption and addressed the dire shortcomings of an ailing judicial system.

Today, I believe, we could have done better.

So when a delegation of peasants urged me in the summer of 2005 to become a candidate for the upcoming elections, my immediate reaction was to decline. But the insistence of my neighbors, whose determination deserved respect, gradually weakened my resistance. I also had become increasingly involved in local projects and aware that successful local programs had to be extended to other distressed localities in Haiti via structured national policies.

Thus, on Feb. 7, nearly two million Haitians braved doomsday scenarios and organizational lapses to send a message to the world: We, too, want to live in peace and dignity and build a better life. They queued in the hot Caribbean sun for hours to demonstrate to the world that violence is not, as it had been too often written and uttered, a ``Haitian trait.’’

Now I have become the 57th president of my troubled nation. Here is a thumbnail sketch of our predicament:

– An astonishing 50 percent of our population lives under poverty line.

– The infant mortality rate is 61 per thousand.

– The unemployment rate affects more than one fifth of our labor force.

– After years of willful neglect, our infrastructures are quasi nonexistent.

The challenges are great. I know that we are a resilient and proud people nurtured by a glorious past, but we have failed to take advantage of many opportunities to turn the tide. Now, we must reconcile and reunite to avoid getting deeper into this abyss in which we find ourselves.

The first thing that the government that emerges from parliamentary elections and I must do is to reach out to all our compatriots across the political and class divides that have paralyzed our country for two centuries. To that end, I have already begun consultations with many leaders of other political parties as well as those from society at large. Their positive response has, thus far, encouraged me to continue that dialogue and work on a positive agenda:

â?¢ Develop an environment to attract investments from local entrepreneurs, from Haitian living abroad and from international investors. That environment constitutes a prerequisite for job creation in the private sector. Providing security and building our basic infrastructures are key to that end.

â?¢ Create a truly independent justice system and a national police force that serves community interests.

â?¢ Restore our environment while affording farmers means to feed our children.

We cannot accomplish much of our goals alone.

While the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti has performed admirably, we believe its composition should be modified so as to focus more on the training and strengthening of our police force and on reinforcing our institutions. We hope that the international community will continue to help us lay the groundwork for a better Haiti.

We are further encouraged by recent reports suggesting that the Hemispheric Opportunity Through Partnership Encouragement Act, an offspring of an earlier version called Haitian Economic Recovery Opportunity Act, is being once again seriously considered. Introduced by Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, the bill will allow up to 3.5 percent of total U.S. imports to arrive from Haiti duty free, a quite needed boost to Haiti’s failing economy.

This will not be a panacea. But it is estimated that the passing of this bill could generate around 80,000 jobs. Jobs need to be created here. And we must do it fast to bring a lasting solution to the endemic violence that has plagued some of our cities.

We also strongly believe that the rich human resources of the Haitian diaspora can be an invaluable asset in rebuilding Haiti. We are appealing to the many Haitians living abroad and working in technology, the environment, health and education to provide our ailing country the resources it needs to recover and flourish.

A brighter future

We are aware that all the assistance in the world cannot make up for poor governance. And, as the state has grown to be the country’s largest employer, corruption and lack of efficiency have permeated all levels of government. This must change.

Though ravaged, Haiti is not the wretched land as so often described in the media. It is a land of hope for more than eight million people. I cannot achieve miracles, nor have I been promising any. But I feel I have the responsibility to the Haitian people to open doorways on a brighter future: less poverty, less inequality, more wealth, more hope.

This is why I ran again for president.

Renè Garcia Prèval is president-elect of Haiti.

*

(C)2006 MiamiHerald.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
www.miami.com
*********************************************

Prensa Latina
tinyurl.com/gtjfl

March 16, 2006

Preval to Be Sworn In May 14

Puerto Príncipe, Mar 27 (Prensa Latina) Haiti´s president-elect Rene
Preval will be sworn in by the National Assembly on May 14, official
sources announced.

A press release from the office of Prime Minister Gerard Latortue
indicates Preval will take office on that date, according to the
Haitian Constitution of 1987.

Preval´s inauguration, initially scheduled for March 29, was
postponed because of delay in the second round of the legislative
elections, slated for April 21.

The Hope Party candidate won the elections last February 7. The
agronomic engineer, 63 years old, obtained 51.15 percent of the vote.

mh/mgs/ocs/mf

Copyright © 2006 Prensa Latina.

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Haitian Activist Speaks out Against Deibert’s anti-Haiti Propaganda
by Haiti-Progres Thursday, Mar. 23, 2006 at 10:58 AM

How unfortunate that Michael Deibert will not be the last of these self-proclaimed experts on Haiti, who will never get Haiti right, neither this time or anytime soon, for they are forever prisoners of

their arrogance and paternalism.

HAITI PROGRES
“Le journal qui offre une alternative”

* THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

March 22 – 28, 2006
Vol. 24, No. 2

A FEW NOTES ABOUT “NOTES FROM THE LAST TESTAMENT”
BY PATRICK ELIE

“The Aristide government deserved to be overthrown as much as any in
Haitian history,” writes Michael Deibert in his recently released “Notes
from the Last Testament” (Seven Stories Press, 2005), a scarcely-edited
454-page effort to prove that point.

Posturing as an expert, Deibert, who served a brief stint from late 2001
to 2003 as a Reuters correspondent in Haiti, portrays President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, kidnapped from his home on Feb. 29, 2004 by U.S.
Special Forces soldiers and flown into exile, as some kind of monster.
Haitians, Deibert writes, “were forced to endure unimaginable agony so
that one man — with the aid of a small cadre of killers for hire,
corrupt officials and cynical, avaricious foreign advocates — could
attempt to build his own personal empire on the ruins of what was once a
country.”

Studded with factual and typographical errors, the book sports an
introduction by filmmaker Raoul Peck, a disillusioned and bitter critic
of both Aristide and President-elect René Préval, in whose 1996-2001
administration Peck briefly served as Culture Minister. The book has
also been hailed by the Miami Herald’s arch-reactionary former Latin
America editor and State Department-mouthpiece Don Bohning as a
“powerfully documented exposé of what amounts to Aristide’s criminal
rule of Haiti.”

“Deibert deftly chronicles Aristide’s transformation from a perceived
messiah to a master manipulator,” Bohning writes.

But Canadian journalist Justin Podur had a different assessment of
Deibert’s book in a review published in last month’s New Left Review
(www.newleftreview.net/NLR27110.shtml). “Notes from the Last Testament
deploys the standard literary techniques of the middlebrow foreign
correspondent,” Podur writes. “The narrative is essentially
experiential: our man in Port-au-Prince leaves his flat, attends a
demonstration, breathes the air, encounters various characters who
mutter ominous words about Aristide or sigh about what’s happening to
the country. An aerosol of local colour – blue skies, crowded lanes,
pungent smells, snatches of kreybl, barefoot kids, throbbing music – is
spray-painted over a framework supported at all key points by
international officialdom. Time and again, the clinching argument of a
passage will be made by ‘a member of the OAS team’, ‘a veteran of
international observer missions’, or a seemingly ubiquitous ‘US official
‘. Further claims are attributed to still more anonymous sources: ‘many
said’, ‘most said’, ‘critics wondered’, ‘it appeared’; or simply to
‘rumours’, some of which were ‘unusually detailed rumours’. Half a dozen
interviews with prominent Haitian opponents of the Lavalas government –
Andy Apaid, Evans Paul, Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, Hans Tippenhauer, Micha
Gaillard, Pierre Esperance of the National Coalition on Human Rights and
(in Manhattan) Michele Montas, widow of Jean Dominique, the radical
radio journalist profiled in Jonathan Demme’s The Agronomist – fill in
the gaps.”

Deibert answered Podur’s review, and Podur responded. The exchange can
be found on www.zmag.org.

We asked long-time Haitian democracy activist Patrick Elie, the former
head of Haiti’s Anti-Narcotics Unit and secretary of state for Interior
and National Defense under President Aristide’s first administration, to
offer his impressions of the book, which he is now reading. Although on
a speaking tour in Canada, he took time out to send us this response.

– – – – –

I have yet to finish Michael Deibert’s “Notes from the Last Testament”
and I promise I will drag myself through the rest of it, down to the
last page. But I seriously doubt my opinion will change about a badly
written, hastily put together book, which speaks more about Deibert than
about Haiti.

How unfortunate that Michael Deibert will not be the last of these
self-proclaimed experts on Haiti, who will never get Haiti right,
neither this time or anytime soon, for they are forever prisoners of
their arrogance and paternalism. I wonder what judgment would be passed
on a Haitian author claiming to explain England, France or the U.S. to
the world after three mere years of a limited experience of those
countries. But Haiti, it seems, is fair game for all those white
hunters. Isn’t it, after all, a country so easily defined as “the
poorest in the Western hemisphere” with a people that is at best
primitive and infantile?

Why bother to understand a culture so rich and original, a people so
complex, a history so very unique? Why not simply sweep under the rug of
prejudice an example that continues to be so disturbing to reactionary
as well as so-called progressive intellectuals? Halfway through Deibert’
s work I have as much a sense of Haiti as I got about the French
Revolution by seeing “An American in Paris.”

A major problem with the author, as well as many Haitian intellectuals
who actually recently recommended voting for Leslie Manigat, for Christ’
s sake, to be Haiti’s president in the last election, is their inability
to recognize History as it unfolds under their noses. They can only
understand it when it has been safely tucked away in books, 200 years
after the facts, or when they observe it from a comfortable distance.
Hence, their idolization of Mandela and Soweto and their vilification of
Aristide and Cité Soleil. One should note, in passing, that their
Mandela has been reduced to the wise old man at the dusk of his life;
gone is the passionate young rebel, who spent 26 years in jail rather
than renounce armed struggle as a means to defeat injustice. They cannot
stomach revolutions and heroes, unless they have been conveniently
sanitized.

And, there is the little matter of factual accuracy. While I might be
ready to forgive a writer or a journalist for his interpretation of
facts, which after all is often a matter of opinion or ideological
standpoint, getting the facts right is a matter of respect for your
subject. Deibert’s book is full of factual inaccuracies or pure
inventions, for the purpose of dramatization I suppose. Thus, (p.285) he
has me attending a mass for Brignol Lindor in a church alternately
described as the Cathedral or Saint Pierre and shaking my head in
disgust at Aristide’s partisans. Not only do I have absolutely no
recollection of having ever attended such a ceremony, but neither do my
associates of Fondasyon Eko Vwa Jean Dominique. Robert (Bob) Manuel is
described (p. 33) as “a progressive young mulatto officer” who served
“as the chief of Aristide’s security during the campaign.” Deibert’s
fertile imagination follows him all the way to Guatemala (p.91), where
he interviews the “light completed (sic) mulatto with a solid, military
man’s frame.” Well, Manuel has been as much an officer of the Army as I
was an NBA center. And the list goes on and on, but I am presently too
busy to spend my time picking up after Mr. Deibert, like a mother after
an untidy teenager. I will undertake this chore at a later date and at
my leisure.

However, I will not finish this short dispatch, without pointing to
Deibert”s systematic attempt at character assassination wherever
Jean-Bertrand Aristide is mentioned. This reactionary allergy to the
first freely elected President of Haiti’s history is a disease Deibert
might have caught from his too constant frequentation of our pathetic
economic and intellectual “elites” and foreign expatriates haunting the
verandas of the Montana and the Oloffson hotels.

All articles copyrighted Haiti Progres, Inc. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haiti Progres.

www.haiti-progres.com

**********************************
Answer the call, join the list of sponsors for The Free Haiti Movement’s,
May 18, 2006, International Solidarity With Haiti

**********************************
Folks, La Sosyete,

Onè e respè

Once again, it’s time for The Free Haiti Movement?s May 18th International
Solidarity Day with Haiti. Below see our announcement and how you may
participate.

Those of you who have been with HLLN for a while know that HLLN’s work is
public, inclusive and transparent. We promote Haitian self-reliance,
self-defense, self-determination, non-dependency on foreign governmental
funds, charity or any traditional sort of foreign-sponsored “benevolence,”
that breeds dependency and work hard to organize international solidarity
with Haitian-led participation in order to mobilize world attention to regain
Haitian sovereignty and attain justice for the majority poor in Haiti.

ANSWER THE CALL: This year those of you who agree to sponsor HLLN’s Free
Haiti Movement/International Solidarity With Haiti, are endorsing and
supporting HLLN’s call for:

1. A stop to the killings, rapes, arbitrary arrests and political
persecutions in Haiti;

2. Respect for the Feb. 7, 2006 vote and Constitutional rule;

3. Support the people of Haiti?s call for the authorities to progress with
all deliberate speed to sit a free and duly elected Haitian Legislature, set
a date firm for the inauguration of President Rene Preval, and to stop
further pressures from the international community, mass media that would
negate the Feb. 7, 2006 peoples mandate by vilifying President Preval or
pressuring his government and team into IFIs compromises and giving seats,
power or unmerited positions to the losers of the Feb. 7th elections;

4. Release of all political prisoners before Preval?s inauguration;

5. The disarmament, prosecution and bringing to justice the death squads,
ex-military, paramilitaries, renegade police and coup d’etat orchestrators to
justice; supporting the equal application of the UN?s Demobilization,
Disarmament and Reintegration program to the people in the poor neighborhoods
such as Bel Air, Site Soley, Solino, Gran Ravine, Martissant, et al, but with
Haitian-led and designed social programs and without remobilizing the former
military or reconstituting well known human rights violators or coup detat
enforcers into the police force.

6. Demanding the demilitarization of the Haitian police and UN peacekeepers,
promoting not any army on Haitian soil, foreign or domestic, but
community-based policing; community-focused UN and Haitian police work and
training and the banning of UN tanks, heavy weapons, equipments and all small
arms exports to Haiti;

7. Requesting a stop to deportations and that temporary protected status be
given to fleeing Haitian refugees;

8. Supporting the calls by CARICOM, OAS, African Union, Congressional Black
Caucus for investigations into foreign powers’ role in the 2004 coup d’etat;
and the call by HLLN for investigation into the role of UN/MINUSTHA, OAS,
HDP, IFES, NED, US Embassy, Group 184, CEP and the de facto authorities, et
al, in electoral fraud to dilute the Feb. 7, 2006 people?s vote, including
HLLN?s call to prevent further fraud in the second Legislative rounds.

There will be teach-ins, rallies, vigils and lectures before and on May 18,
2006 about Haiti’s historical accomplishments; audio and video streaming for
internet and DVD distribution of testimony from victims and resisters of the
coup d’etat; letter campaigns, media outreach campaigns; the wearing and
flying of the blue and red colors of Haiti; and, the sacrilege of the 2004
bicentennial coup, shall be remembered as Africans and friends of Haiti
worldwide commit to fax, call-in and deliver to the French, Canadian and US
Embassies and Consulates worldwide, the People of Haiti?s demand that France,
Canada, the US and the international community respect Haitian sovereignty,
stop inflicting Haiti with their traditional ?benevolence,? racism,
patriarchy and incessant corrupt intervention in Haiti?s affairs, through
foreign ?aid? and debt ? For, it’s the INTERNATIONAL EFFORT that has brought
Haiti where it stands today!

Africans and friends of Haiti worldwide shall deliver to the French and US
Embassies and Consulates worldwide, a letter demanding that France pays back
the 22 Billion dollars and the US pay back the (1914 to 1947) additional
portion of that original illegal slave-trade debt the US also extorted from
Haiti with its ?refinancing? of this illegal blood debt (enforced, through a
19-year occupation), the final payment made in 1947 to the United States,
after Haiti?s people had broken the chains of racial slavery to win their
independence. (Sample letters will be provided to all sponsors)

Please send an e-mail to erzilidanto@yahoo.com or to
eugenia@fondasyonmapou.org to join our list of sponsors this year. The Free
Haiti Movement: Dessalines Is Rising Worldwide
www.margueritelaurent.com/solidarityday/infoforsponsors.html

*
The Free Haiti Movement?s International Solidarity Day with Haiti, May 18,
2006

Mission: To support the resistance inside and outside of Haiti to the
U.S./Canada/France- backed bicentennial Coup D’etat and foreign occupation of
Haiti until the Feb. 7th vote is fully respected and Haiti is free of foreign
armies, dominance, dependency and neoliberalist interventions.

May 18, 2006 (Haitian Flag Day) Is Free Haiti Day! – The World Stands in
Solidarity With The People of Haiti against the Coup, the de facto
protectorate and foreign occupation of Haiti.

Ayisyen: You are not alone! We shall fly Dessalines’ blue and red liberating
colors until Haiti is free!”

Dessalines Is Rising Worldwide!

Answer the call – Join the list of sponsors supporting the Free Haiti Movement

Marguerite Laurent, Esq.
Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
March 20, 2006

*************************************************************

MEDIA ADVISORY

Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN)
P.O. Box 3573
Stamford, CT 06905
www.margueritelaurent.com

For Release On: Contact: Marguerite Laurent
Tuesday, March 21 (203) 829-7210 or
Erzilidanto@yahoo.com

Contact: Eugenia Charles
(301) 537-8162

eugenia@fondasyonmapou.org

DESSALINES IS RISING WORLDWIDE! ANSWER THE CALL
MAY 18, 2006 – THE FREE HAITI MOVEMENT’S INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY DAY WITH
HAITI

JOIN THE LIST OF SPONSORS!

WHO: The Free Haiti Movement?s INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY DAY WITH HAITI has
been initiated and sponsored by the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN)
and co-sponsored by a network of university students, human rights’
activists, lawyers, artists, Haitian activists, Haiti solidarity
organizations, progressive radio and press outlets, reparation organizations
and the global African community from the Caribbean, U.S., Canada, France,
Latin America, Africa.

WHAT: The Free Haiti Movement is launching its second INTERNATIONAL
SOLIDARITY DAY WITH HAITI and asking everyone to ANSWER THE CALL ? remember
Haiti’s historical accomplishments, the unmatched achievements towards
inclusion and social justice of the Lavalas Movement in Haiti and the Haitian
people?s triumphs in 1986, 1990, 1995, 2000 and now February 7, 2006.

WHEN: May 18, 2006 – Haitian Flag Day is International Solidarity Day with
Haiti!!! Worldwide, people are asked to organize an event in their community
in support of Haiti.

WHY: To support the resistance inside and outside of Haiti to the
U.S./Canada/France-backed Coup D’etat and foreign occupation of Haiti.

WHY: To support the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network’s call for a stop to
the killings, rapes, arbitrary arrests and political persecutions in Haiti;
to support respect for the Feb. 7, 2006 vote and Constitutional rule; to
support the people of Haiti?s call for the authorities to progress with all
deliberate speed to sit a free and duly elected Haitian Legislature, set a
date firm for the inauguration of President Rene Preval, and to stop further
pressures from the international community and mass media that would negate
the Feb. 7, 2006 people’s mandate by vilifying President Preval or pressuring
his government and team into giving seats, positions or unmerited positions
to the losers of the Feb. 7th elections;

WHY: On this International Solidarity Day with Haiti we are calling for the
release of all political prisoners before President Preval?s inauguration;
asking the authorities to disarm, prosecute and bring the death squads,
ex-military, paramilitaries, renegade police and coup d’etat orchestrators to
justice; to apply the UN?s Demobilization, Disarmament and Reintegration
program equally to the people in the poor neighborhoods such as Bel Air, Site
Soley, Solino, Martissant, et al, with Haitian designed and implemented
social programs; Demilitarize the Haitian police and the UN peacekeepers,
promoting not any army on Haitian soil, foreign or domestic, but
community-based policing; to not remobilize the former military or
reconstitute human rights violators into the police force.

The Free Haiti Movement is demanding that deportations cease and temporary
protected status be given to fleeing Haitian refugees. We support calls by
CARICOM, OAS, African Union, Congressional Black Caucus for investigations
into foreign powers’ role in the coup d’etat; and the call by HLLN for
investigation into the role of UN/MINUSTHA, OAS, Group 184, CEP and the de
facto authorities in electoral fraud to limit voter participation from the
poor areas and then dilute and diminish the value of the Feb. 7, 2006
people?s votes honestly cast, including HLLN?s call to prevent further fraud
in the second Legislative rounds.

WHY: To work cooperatively with and say to the Haitian voters and Haiti?s
majority poor: “You shall not walk or die along this freedom road alone or in
vain. We shall fly Dessalines’ liberating colors on May 18, 2006 worldwide!”

Media Visuals: There will be teach-ins, rallies and lectures before and on
May 18, 2006 about Haiti’s historical accomplishments; vigils, pickets
outside embassies and U.N. buildings; audio and video streaming for internet
and DVD distribution of testimony from victims and resisters of the 2004 coup
d’etat; the wearing and flying of the blue and red colors of Haiti; and, the
sacrilege of the 2004 bicentennial coup, shall be remembered as Africans and
friends of Haiti worldwide commit to fax, call-in and deliver to French and
US Embassies and Consulates worldwide the People of Haiti?s demand that
France pays back the 22 Billion dollars it extorted from Haiti, and the US
pays back its portion of this illegal slave-trade debt which was ?refinanced?
by the US in 1914 (enforced, through a 19-year occupation), the final payment
made in 1947 to the United States, after Haiti?s people had broken the chains
of racial slavery to win their independence.

###

************************************

AHP News – March 27, 2006 – English translation (Unofficial)
*

Haiti’s president-elect calls upon the international community to honor its commitments to Haiti

Port-au-Prince, March 27, 2006 (AHP)- Haitian President-elect René Préval urged the international donors Monday to honor their commitments to Haiti.

Préval was participating in a UN Security Council debate on Haiti when he said that there can not be genuine democracy and political stability in a country that lacks economic resources.

“Disbursement of the funds that have been promised is indispensable to any renewal of the socio-economic situation and to Haiti’s stability,” said René Préval.

(The majority of Haitians live in misery and almost all of the country’s wealth is concentrated in the hands of a tiny minority. This situation of poverty is the leading cause of violence and criminality in Haiti.)

The president-elect, like his predecessor, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was often close to the poor and the peasants, and has presented himself as a defender of those who have been abandoned by society.

Mr. Préval was accompanied by members of the private sector as well as representatives of the popular sector, who live a life of exclusion on the margins of society and are often labeled as “violent” or “chimères”.

René Préval also took the opportunity presented by his presence at the Security Council to ask the Haitian political community and civil society to move forward on the governability pact that he proposed to them as a roadmap on how to lead the country over the next 25 years.

The special representative of the UN Secretary-General in Haiti, Juan Gabriel Valdès, for his part reiterated the commitment of the UN mission to accompany the next government for the benefit of the Haitian people.

He emphasized, however, that without profound reform of the judicial system and the national police, the government of Mr. Préval will not be able to make the desired changes in Haiti.

Many police officers have been responsible for grave violations of human rights over the past few years. And the judicial system has been accused of involvement in serious cases of corruption.

For his part, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that Haiti has just begun a long journey toward a stable and democratic future and needs the assistance of the international community in order to continue down this path.

The foreign ministers of several countries, including Argentina, Guyana and the Dominican Republic, took the floor at the Security Council discussion, making a commitment to support Haiti in its efforts toward democracy.

Dominican Republic Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso, also offered proposals relating to developing and strengthening democracy in Haiti.

During a meeting Sunday with the UN Secretary-General, Mr. Troncoso advocated additional support for democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean, especially Haiti.

President Préval was scheduled to meet with hundreds of members of the Haitian community in New York on Monday evening at York College.
AHP March 27, 2006 5:30 PM

**********************************

11 more skulls have been discovered in the Canapé-Vert district

Port-au-Prince, March 27, 2006 (AHP)- Another 11 skulls were discovered Monday evening in the district of Canapé-Vert in Port-au-Prince.

This latest discovery brings the total number of skulls that have been found over the past 72 hours in the Haitian capital to 28.

The heads of 17 individuals were discovered Saturday in an open field in the region of Pétion-Ville (Port-au-Prince).

The story behind all these heads is still not known. The Haitian National Police together with the United Nations mission opened an investigation to uncover more information about the incidents.

Numerous summary executions have been perpetrated over the past few years, particularly in the populist districts of the capital.

In most of these cases, the perpetrators of these murders have taken away the bodies of their victims.

AHP March 27, 2006 2:00 PM
*******************************************

Prensa Latina
tinyurl.com/myl8g

March 26, 2006

More Human Skulls Found in Haiti

Port au Prince, Mar 26 (Prensa Latina) Eleven new human skulls were
found Monday in a garbage dump in Canapé Vert neighborhood, Port au
Prince, amounting to 28 skulls discovered in the last 72 hours in
Haiti.

Saturday morning, the Haitian police lit upon 17 skulls in a
garbage-strewn wooded area in Petionville suburb, not far from
several upscale restaurants.

Immediately, Brazilian UN peacekeepers came to that place, giving
their support to the national police.

Eyewitnesses said the bones were thrown by truckers.

This Caribbean nation has undergone` a string of violence and
kidnappings since the rebellion that ousted former President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004.

mh/ymr/mf

Copyright © 2006 Prensa Latina.

******************************************

The administrative director of Téléco has been sacked for “grave administrative errors”

Port-au-Prince, March 27, 2006(AHP)- Téléco Administrative Director Jean-Baptiste Brisseau was dismissed Monday for “very serious administrative errors”, AHP has learned from a source close to the general management of the national telephone company. Senior cadres in the civil service have spoken out in recent days in opposition to what they describe as a vast campaign of disorder, consisting of fraud of all types and waves of nominations and promotions on the eve of the transfer of power following the election of President René Préval.

According to this senior management source, Mr. Brisseau was dismissed due to allegations of suspicious transactions.

Attempts by AHP to contact Mr. Brisseau late Monday afternoon were not successful.

However employees of the National Telephone Company who were contacted spoke of a true race against the clock by certain individuals seeking to take maximum advantage of their situations before the departure of the current government.

“Contradictions and misunderstandings for various reasons are now revealing in broad daylight some strange practices, and this is just beginning,” said one of them.

In a second memorandum sent last week to members of his government, the interim prime minister called for strict limits on foreign travel in order to reduce expenditures and avoid influencing the public policy choices of the next government.

An official in the prime minister’s office asserted to AHP last week that never in recent memory have so many confused and disloyal maneuvers been seen at the end of a government’s term in office.

Sources close to the president-elect have indicated that his transition team was preparing on Monday to write to the interim prime minister to ask him to stop the ongoing disorder in the civil service and in the decentralized State services in particular on the eve of the new government’s taking office.

AHP March 27, 2006 5:00 PM
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Haiti was the number 2 market for Dominican exports in 2005

Port-au-Prince, March 27, 2006 (AHP)- The Republic of Haiti was the second most important commercial market for the export of Dominican products in the year 2005.

Haitians made purchases in the Dominican Republic amounting to a total of US$122.1 million, which is an 88.3% increase over 2004 purchases.

In 2004, Haiti ranked fifth as a destination for Dominican exports. For 2005, Haiti was second only to the United States as a market for Dominican exports.

A total of 29.7% of Dominican vanilla exports went to Haiti.

Several other Dominican products, such as eggs, wheat flour, coconut and herring, are currently selling very well in Haiti.

Dominican exports last year reached US1,080,600,000, or 20.5% more than in 2004.
AHP March 27, 2006 2:00 PM
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The head of the Haitian police again denounces corruption within the judicial system and criticizes the double standard

Port-au-Prince, March 27, 2006 (AHP)- Haitian National Police Director General Mario Andresol was again critical of the corruption he believes is eating away at the Haitian judicial system.

Mr. Andresol, who conducted an inspection last weekend of police stations in the Artibonite and the Central Plateau, said it is unacceptable for bandits accused of documented crimes and massacres to be exonerated and released from prison while other Haitians accused of involvement in massacres that have only been alleged are languishing behind bars.

“This is a policy of revolting double standards,” he said, referring again to the case of former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, who has been incarcerated for almost two years without any real charges being filed against him.

The police director also spoke of the need to carry out genuine disarmament in the country.

In that context, he stressed the fact that illegal weapons are not to be found solely in the populist districts.

AHP March 27, 2006 2:00 PM
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SUPPORT AHP and Radio Solidaritè – Keep AHP’S Service alive – AHP continues to rely on your generous support for a great portion of its operating resources during these extremely difficult times.. You may now make tax-deductible contributions through the Marin Interfaith Task Force on the Americas (MITF). Heartfelt thanks to all who have contributed; the team in Haiti is extremely grateful for all your help!.

**

AHP and its sister operation, Radio Solidarité, greatly need your financial support to enable them to continue to bring news about events in Haiti to the Haitian people and an international audience, in a manner not available elsewhere.

We are very pleased that your contributions sent through the Marin Interfaith Task Force on the Americas are tax deductible.
Please make your checks out to:

MITF/Friends of AHP
and send them to:
Friends of AHP
P.O. Box 370
Osceola, WI 54020

Checks made out to AHP/Radio Solidarite and sent to:
Friends of AHP
PO Box 370
Osceola, WI 54020
are also greatly appreciated and will be rushed immediately to AHP in Haiti, however they are not tax deductible.
Many thanks to all contributors and to MITF!

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Dominican Today
www.dominicantoday.com/app/article.aspx?id=11775

March 27, 2006

Exports to Haiti grew by 88.2%

Santo Domingo.- During the past year, Haiti represented the second
trade market for exports od national products. Haitians purchased
from Dominicans at the rate of US $ 122.1 million; that is, 88.3%
more than in 2004, when Dominican Republic exported to that country a
sober US $ 64.8 million-worth.

In 2004, Haiti was the fifth destination of all national exports.
Today, our neighbor is only surpassed by the United States.

Over twenty-nine percent (29.7%) of construction rods produced in the
Dominican Republic were sold to Haiti. This product represented 11.8%
of the total exports to that nation.

Other products demanded by Haiti are eggs, wheat flour, pastas,
coconuts, and herring fish.

Last year, national exports reached the US $ 1,080.6 million, 20.5% more
than in 2004.

Copyright © 2006 Dominican Today.
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World War 4 Report
www.ww4report.com/node/1789

March 27, 2006

Dominican Republic: protests against US troops continue

On March 21 Dominican vice president Rafael Albuquerque, US
ambassador Hans Hertell and a number of Dominican and US officers
officially launched the “New Horizons 2006" Dominican-US joint
military operation in the southwestern Dominican city of Barahona.
The operation’s stated goal is to build four rural health clinics and
three wells in the area. According to US military spokesperson Robert
Appin, a total of about 3,500 US troops will be taking part in “New
Horizons” but no more than 450 will be in the Dominican Republic at
any one time. The soldiers began to arrive in February and will leave
at the end of May, Appin said.

Dominican activists have held several demonstrations against the
operation since US troops began arriving in February. A number of
organizations protested again in Santo Domingo on March 18, chanting
“Not one more yankee in Barahona” and burning a US flag. Hundreds
participated in the protest, according to Associated Press.

The Alternative Social Forum, the umbrella organization for grassroots
groups that organized the demonstration, charged that the US was
actually building a base in the Dominican Republic to be used for
aggression against Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela. “To construct clinics
you do not need tanks or rifles,” Alternative Social Forum
coordinator Jesus Adon told the Spanish wire service EFE.

US troops are also scheduled to participate this year in “New
Horizons” operations in Honduras, Peru and El Salvador. The US
military began the program in 1998.

(El Universal, Santo Domingo, March 18 from EFE; El Nuevo Herald,
Miami, March 19 from AP; El Diario-La Prensa, NY, March 20 from AP;
Miami Herald, March 22 from AP; El Nacional, Santo Domingo, March 19,
22)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, March 26, 2006.

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HAITI: A Legacy of Resistance…
Special Programming on CKUT Radio, 90.3fm in Montreal.

Produced by the Community News Collective of CKUT Radio in
collaboration with Haiti Action Montreal…

Listen / Download interviews, documentaries, in-studio discussions &
poetry recorded / produced by CKUT Radio’s Community News Collective
during a week of special programming focused on the Haitian struggle
for self-determination… Featuring interviews recorded on the streets of
Port-au-Prince & the voices, perspectives & ideas of Montreal’s Haitian
community.

This special programming on Haiti at CKUT took place of in the shadow
of recent Haitian presidential elections & two years proceeding the U.S.,
French & Canadian government sponsored coup d’etat,which saw Haiti’s
democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was removed
from power & forced into exile in South Africa…

Featuring Haitian activist PATRICK ELIE, JEAN ST. VILLE of the Canada

Haiti Action Network, GUY ROUMER of Haiti Progress, YVES ENGLER of
Haiti Action Montreal, CAROLYN FICK Professor of History at Concordia
University, Haitian poets JAHNICE & PHENIX of the Kalmunity Vibe
Collective in Montreal… Below is specific programming information &
links from which you can download / listen-to this special & exciting
programming from CKUT Radio. All radio programers / producers are
requested to infor CKUT Radio in Montreal prior to re-broadcast

the Community News Collective at CKUT Radio in Montreal
514 398 6788 / news[at]ckut.ca / ckut.ca/news.php

----> CKUT Radio: Haitian Historical Struggles for Self-Determination.
radio.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/9112.php

A 30 minute documentary on Haitian history, featuring an interview with

CAROLYN FICK a Professor at the History Department at Concordia
University, who traces & explores Haiti’s revolutionary history…
Born out of a slave revolt, Haiti became an independent nation on Jan. 1,
1804, a territory the French called St. Domingue won its independence
through a revolutionary struggle that triumphed on Jan. 1, 1804…
Before that, it was France’s most lucrative colony for over a century,
as more than half a million Africans slaved to produce sugar, rum,
cotton, tobacco and indigo.

This documentary explores Haitian history, while also exploring how the
countries history is related to present day struggles for
self-determination in Haiti…

[Recorded / Produced in Montreal by CKUT Radio’s Community News
Collective member Elise Hugus…]

----> CKUT Radio: The Haitian Revolution and Black History
www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=16412

Patrick Elie is a long-time poltical and human rights activist in
Haiti.

While he is a chemist by trade, he is also someone who is passionate
about his people and their history. We spoke with Patrick Elie in Port
au Prince about Haiti’s history and the slave revolt in the context of
Black History Month. Elie asserts that the Haitian revolution was not
only a momentous event for Haitians, but for people all over the world
in demonstrating that freedom, not slavery was the natural state of
humankind.

Elie elloquently makes the links between Haiti’s distant past, and the
current political situation as imperialist forces are once again
meddling in the country’s affairs. Just like in 1791, Haitians are
today embroiled in a struggle against imperialism and colonization. The
characters and terms have changed, but the game largely remains the
same.

[Recorded in Port au Prince, Haiti by Aaron Lakoff & Leslie Bagg of
CKUT Radio’s Community News Collective…]

For the full transcript of this interview, visit:
aaron.resist.ca/node/64

----> CKUT Radio: Patrick Elie on the Haitian Struggle
www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=16381

Patrick Elie is a long-time political and human rights activist in
Haiti. He served as the Secretary of State for National Defense under
Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s first term in office, and was the national
coordinator against drug trafficking from 1991-94.

In the context of a coup d’etat, massive violence, and a UN occupation,
Elie is a necessary and unheard voice in the Haitian political
landscape. Here, he debunks the myths promoted by Haiti’s elite about

kidnappings and insecurity in the country, speaks about the difference
between armed resistance and terrorism, and breaks down Canada’s role
in creating the human rights disaster which exists in Haiti today.

[Recorded in Port au Prince, Haiti, by Aaron Lakoff & Leslie Bagg of
CKUT Radio’s Community News Collective, and Kevin Pina of KPFA’s
Flashpoints…]

----> CKUT Radio: Haiti – Solidarity Organizing in Canada.
radio.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/9113.php

A 30 minute discussion on the exploring the role which the government
of Canada played in the U.S., French & Canadian government sponsored coup
d’etat in 2004, which saw Haiti’s democratically elected president
Jean-Bertrand Aristide was removed from power & forced into exile in
South Africa.

This discussion also focuses on the role, which solidarity

activists / movements in Canada can play in supporting the Haitian struggle for
self-determination. Featuring JEAN ST. VILLE of the Canada Haiti Action
Network, GUY ROUMER of Haiti Progress & YVES ENGLER of Haiti Action
Montreal.

[Recorded / Produced in Montreal by CKUT Radio’s Community News
Collective member Stefan Christoff…]

Info: Canada Haiti Action Network
www.canadahaitiaction.ca

----> CKUT Radio: Haiti & the Kalmunity Vibe Collective.
radio.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/9114.php

Listen / download three pieces of poetry / spoken word read & performed
in CKUT Radio’s studios by Jahnice & Phenix, Haitian members of
Montreal’s Kalmunity Vibe Collective… Through rythmic poetry & words
reflections on Montreal’s Haitian community

& ongoing struggles concerning identiy, poverty & culture are expressed in these three powerful pieces of spoken word / poetry…

[Recorded / Produced in Montreal by CKUT Radio’s Community News
Collective member Stefan Christoff…]

Info: the Kalmunity Vibe Collective
www.kalmunity.com

********************************************
Forwarded by Ezili’s Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
********************************************

DESSALINES RISING WORLDWIDE!

Answer the call – Join the list of sponsors supporting the Free Haiti Movement

See last year?s partial list of sponsors.
www.margueritelaurent.com/solidarityday/haitisolidarityday.html#sponsors

Sign-on by sending e-mail to Erzilidanto@yahoo.com, or
eugenia@fondasyonmapou.org

Articles & Pictures from last years Haiti International Solidarity Day
www.margueritelaurent.com/solidarityday/pictures/hsd_pictures.html

Info Package For Sponsors of the Free Haiti Movement
www.margueritelaurent.com/solidarityday/infoforsponsors.html

All people of conscience invited to endorse this call and sponsor an event.
(See 2005 official flyer as a sample)
www.margueritelaurent.com/solidarityday/haitisolidarityday.html

Dessalines Is Rising Worldwide! (1806-2006)