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Haiti: Con­gress­woman Waters Urges State Depart­ment to Use U.S. Influ­ence to Avoid Chaos in Haiti

Haiti: Con­gress­woman Waters Urges State Depart­ment to Use U.S. Influ­ence to Avoid Chaos in Haiti

Congresswoman Maxine Waters

April 26, 2012                                                                                                           Con­tact: Mikael Moore
For Imme­di­ate Release                                                                                         Phone: (202) 225‑2201

Con­gress­woman Waters Urges State Depart­ment to
Use U.S. Influ­ence to Avoid Chaos in Haiti

Wash­ing­ton – Con­gress­woman Max­ine Waters (D-CA), a strong advo­cate for the Hait­ian peo­ple in the U.S. Con­gress, sent a let­ter to Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Clin­ton dated April 24, 2012, express­ing grave con­cern about the cur­rent polit­i­cal cri­sis in Haiti.  Con­gress­woman Bar­bara Lee (D-CA), Con­gress­woman Yvette Clarke (D-NY), and Con­gress­man John Cony­ers (D-MI) also signed the Congresswoman’s let­ter.  The text of the let­ter follows:

“As con­gres­sional friends of the peo­ple of Haiti, we have been observ­ing the recent polit­i­cal cri­sis in that coun­try with grave concern.

“The sud­den and unex­pected res­ig­na­tion of Prime Min­is­ter Garry Conille is a cause for seri­ous con­cern.  We had the oppor­tu­nity to meet with him on sev­eral occa­sions, includ­ing while he was in Wash­ing­ton, DC, on Feb­ru­ary 9th.  We believed he was ideal for the job.  He appeared to be very hard-working and ded­i­cated to the peo­ple of Haiti.  He was work­ing hard to develop pro­duc­tive rela­tion­ships with Pres­i­dent Michel Martelly and mem­bers of the Hait­ian Par­lia­ment.  We sup­ported his efforts to improve trans­parency as it relates to gov­ern­ment con­tracts and other impor­tant gov­ern­ment business.

“Prior to his res­ig­na­tion, there were rumors that his life had been threat­ened.  We urged him to share this infor­ma­tion with the U.S. State Depart­ment.  Unfor­tu­nately, less than one month after we met with him, he resigned.  Prime Min­is­ter Conille’s res­ig­na­tion does not speak well for Haiti.

“We are also con­cerned about the deci­sion to drop all charges against Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duva­lier for human rights vio­la­tions com­mit­ted dur­ing his fifteen-year reign.  We sus­pect that this deci­sion is an attempt to exon­er­ate him and rein­te­grate him into Hait­ian soci­ety.  We are espe­cially con­cerned that his reha­bil­i­ta­tion appar­ently has the sup­port of Pres­i­dent Martelly.  What does this mean?  Is there a cred­i­ble, inde­pen­dent jus­tice sys­tem in Haiti at this time?

“We are fur­ther con­cerned by the rumors that for­mer Pres­i­dent Jean-Bertrand Aris­tide may be arrested based on trumped-up cor­rup­tion charges.  These rumors could be an indi­ca­tion that Pres­i­dent Aristide’s life is in dan­ger.  Is this true?  Is Pres­i­dent Aristide’s life in dan­ger?  Pres­i­dent Aris­tide con­tin­ues to have sub­stan­tial and wide­spread sup­port in Haiti.  If any harm should come to him, it would cause tur­moil and dis­rup­tion in Haiti.  Fur­ther­more, the out­cry and dis­rup­tion would only serve to set Haiti back, dis­cour­age invest­ment, and cre­ate yet another cri­sis in this trou­bled country.

“The United States played an impor­tant role in resolv­ing the issues sur­round­ing Haiti’s last pres­i­den­tial elec­tion.  Our action’s helped posi­tion Pres­i­dent Michel Martelly to emerge from the Novem­ber 2010 elec­tion as the strongest can­di­date, thus enabling him to win the runoff elec­tion the fol­low­ing spring.  While some of us may have ques­tioned the role the United States played in the elec­tions, once the elec­tion took place, many of us vowed to give sup­port to the new pres­i­dent and do every­thing we can to assist him in address­ing Haiti’s urgent needs for hous­ing, cholera treat­ment, infra­struc­ture, and job cre­ation.  Just as the United States accepted respon­si­bil­ity for the cri­sis over the elec­tion, we have great hope that the United States will accept respon­si­bil­ity for the polit­i­cal cri­sis Haiti is fac­ing now.

“An espe­cially wor­ri­some devel­op­ment is the unof­fi­cial reestab­lish­ment of the army.  Prior to his elec­tion, Pres­i­dent Martelly sup­ported the reestab­lish­ment of the army, despite the fact that it is known pri­mar­ily among the Hait­ian peo­ple for its gross vio­la­tions of human rights.  The inter­na­tional com­mu­nity appears to agree that there should be no fund­ing or sup­port for the reestab­lish­ment of the army at this time.  How­ever, it appears that the army is being orga­nized on an unof­fi­cial basis.  Old police sta­tions have been taken over by for­mer mem­bers and sup­port­ers of the army and the bru­tal ton­ton macoutes para­mil­i­tary force, and these indi­vid­u­als are con­duct­ing train­ing exer­cises through­out Haiti.

“We rec­og­nize that Haiti is a sov­er­eign nation and has the right to develop its own laws and poli­cies.  How­ever, the Amer­i­can peo­ple have been very sup­port­ive of Haiti since the earth­quake, and the United States has taken a lead­ing role in sup­port­ing democ­racy and recon­struc­tion.  The United States Con­gress pro­vided emer­gency sup­ple­men­tal appro­pri­a­tions for relief efforts and passed leg­is­la­tion to can­cel Haiti’s mul­ti­lat­eral debts.  We can­not sit by idly and watch while cur­rent events under­mine our efforts.

“We respect­fully urge you to estab­lish a com­mis­sion to over­see Haiti’s polit­i­cal devel­op­ment.  Fur­ther­more, we urge you to work with the Martelly admin­is­tra­tion, the Hait­ian Par­lia­ment, and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of civil soci­ety in Haiti to ensure that human rights are respected, demo­c­ra­tic progress is not reversed, and polit­i­cal insta­bil­ity and chaos are not allowed to inter­fere with Haiti’s devel­op­ment.  Finally, we urge you to keep us informed about the work of this com­mis­sion and polit­i­cal devel­op­ments in Haiti.  Sta­ble, effec­tive gov­er­nance is crit­i­cal for Haiti’s future.”

To read more about Con­gress­woman Waters’ long­time work on Haiti, click here.

 

Author

Christophe Celius

Currently residing in Charlotte, NC, Christophe Celius obtained his BA in Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, studying Public Relations and Journalism. Emigrated from Haiti to the United States, Christophe's passion for writing is both insightful and edifying.