Trinidad & Tobago Express
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_opinion?id=103094380
September 21, 2005
Haiti's agony-who's in charge?
by Rickey Singh
HAITI'S elections continue to be elusive. Latest indications out of
Port-au-Prince is that the presidential and legislative elections now
scheduled for November 20, may also be delayed.
What's constant is the seeming ineptitude of the US-created interim
administration and a Provisional Electoral Council that mirrors the
political infighting and self-serving agendas of those in
"authority'' that contribute to the barriers frustrating
elections-readiness. Who is in charge?
It may be easy for some to finger the Bush administration for poor
"governance'' in Haiti, having got rid of the Jean Bertrand Aristide
presidency in the coup of February 29, 2004. Surely the Bush
administration cannot escape blame.
But that would be to excuse the very Haitians it had anointed to help
put in place clean and democratic governance.
High among such Haitians would be interim President Boniface
Alexandre (remember him?) He was Chief Justice under the Aristide
presidency.
What role is Alexandre really playing to enable some semblance of
fairness and justice in the temporary governance of Haiti, along with
the US choice as prime minister, Gerard Latortue?
Is Alexandre showing any interest in the politics of revenge that
have resulted in known armed political gangsters being given
preferential treatment by the justice administration system while
leading Aristide loyalists, among them ex-Prime Minister Neptune, and
now the imprisoned priest and presidential aspirant, Gerard
Jean-Juste, continue to suffer?
Neither Alexandre nor Latortue appears to have been affected by the
angry warning that came from Justice Minister Henri Dorlean that it
was "unacceptable for judges and prosecutors to use their powers to
keep people in jail in violation of the law...''
Up to a month ago, according to the Justice Minister approximately 95
per cent of an estimated 1,300 prisoners were languishing in jail for
months without being charged or placed before the courts.
Questions are also being asked as to why those who were charged with
murder but known for their roles in violent opposition to the
Aristide administration, such as Louis-Jodel Chamblain, could be
released from prison, pending trial, but ex-PM Neptune and leading
activists of Aristide's Lavalas party remain incarcerated?
Further, frustrated Haitians, not known to be supporters of Lavalas,
have been asking, amid all the reported incompetence and divisions
within the Electoral Council, what initiatives have Alexandre and
Latortue undertaken to improve the efficient functioning of that body.
For instance, while the Electoral Council claims to have registered
some 2.2 million potential voters, or about 50 per cent eligible to
cast their ballots, the reality is, according to reports from
Port-au-Prince, that the great majority of them are yet to receive
the photo ID that will confirm their registration.
If elections go ahead under existing arrangements then, as noted by
human rights representatives monitoring the situation, it is unlikely
that there could be more than one million voters at the polls.
That would be just one fourth of the estimated four million Haitians
eligible to vote. Even so, electoral fraud on a massive scale is
feared.
The problem gets worse when it is realised that although about 30
candidates would have registered as presidential hopefuls by the
September 15 closing date, the Electoral Council is yet to rule on
the validity of their credentials.
There is no secret about the Council's own bias against Aristide's
Lavalas party.
Consequently, while there has been hasty registration of known
hateful anti-Aristide elements, among them 65-year-old Haitian-born
Texas businessman Dumarsais Simeus, who has been living outside Haiti
for some 44 years, technicalities have been raised to deprive, for
example, the Aristide and Lavalas-backed Catholic priest, Jean-Juste,
held in prison without being placed before the courts.
Last weekend, as PM Latortue was meeting with UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan, UN officials were reflecting on some of the fears of
Haitian electoral and human rights representatives over reports that
fraud and lack of transparency could seriously undermine free and
fair elections if held under existing arrangements in November-or
whenever.
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_opinion?id=103094380
September 21, 2005
Haiti's agony-who's in charge?
by Rickey Singh
HAITI'S elections continue to be elusive. Latest indications out of
Port-au-Prince is that the presidential and legislative elections now
scheduled for November 20, may also be delayed.
What's constant is the seeming ineptitude of the US-created interim
administration and a Provisional Electoral Council that mirrors the
political infighting and self-serving agendas of those in
"authority'' that contribute to the barriers frustrating
elections-readiness. Who is in charge?
It may be easy for some to finger the Bush administration for poor
"governance'' in Haiti, having got rid of the Jean Bertrand Aristide
presidency in the coup of February 29, 2004. Surely the Bush
administration cannot escape blame.
But that would be to excuse the very Haitians it had anointed to help
put in place clean and democratic governance.
High among such Haitians would be interim President Boniface
Alexandre (remember him?) He was Chief Justice under the Aristide
presidency.
What role is Alexandre really playing to enable some semblance of
fairness and justice in the temporary governance of Haiti, along with
the US choice as prime minister, Gerard Latortue?
Is Alexandre showing any interest in the politics of revenge that
have resulted in known armed political gangsters being given
preferential treatment by the justice administration system while
leading Aristide loyalists, among them ex-Prime Minister Neptune, and
now the imprisoned priest and presidential aspirant, Gerard
Jean-Juste, continue to suffer?
Neither Alexandre nor Latortue appears to have been affected by the
angry warning that came from Justice Minister Henri Dorlean that it
was "unacceptable for judges and prosecutors to use their powers to
keep people in jail in violation of the law...''
Up to a month ago, according to the Justice Minister approximately 95
per cent of an estimated 1,300 prisoners were languishing in jail for
months without being charged or placed before the courts.
Questions are also being asked as to why those who were charged with
murder but known for their roles in violent opposition to the
Aristide administration, such as Louis-Jodel Chamblain, could be
released from prison, pending trial, but ex-PM Neptune and leading
activists of Aristide's Lavalas party remain incarcerated?
Further, frustrated Haitians, not known to be supporters of Lavalas,
have been asking, amid all the reported incompetence and divisions
within the Electoral Council, what initiatives have Alexandre and
Latortue undertaken to improve the efficient functioning of that body.
For instance, while the Electoral Council claims to have registered
some 2.2 million potential voters, or about 50 per cent eligible to
cast their ballots, the reality is, according to reports from
Port-au-Prince, that the great majority of them are yet to receive
the photo ID that will confirm their registration.
If elections go ahead under existing arrangements then, as noted by
human rights representatives monitoring the situation, it is unlikely
that there could be more than one million voters at the polls.
That would be just one fourth of the estimated four million Haitians
eligible to vote. Even so, electoral fraud on a massive scale is
feared.
The problem gets worse when it is realised that although about 30
candidates would have registered as presidential hopefuls by the
September 15 closing date, the Electoral Council is yet to rule on
the validity of their credentials.
There is no secret about the Council's own bias against Aristide's
Lavalas party.
Consequently, while there has been hasty registration of known
hateful anti-Aristide elements, among them 65-year-old Haitian-born
Texas businessman Dumarsais Simeus, who has been living outside Haiti
for some 44 years, technicalities have been raised to deprive, for
example, the Aristide and Lavalas-backed Catholic priest, Jean-Juste,
held in prison without being placed before the courts.
Last weekend, as PM Latortue was meeting with UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan, UN officials were reflecting on some of the fears of
Haitian electoral and human rights representatives over reports that
fraud and lack of transparency could seriously undermine free and
fair elections if held under existing arrangements in November-or
whenever.