Paul Wolfowitz, President
The World Bank
1818 H Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20433
U.S.A.
Dear Mr. Wolfowitz,
We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, write in response to the World Bank's recent statement on Haiti.
On July 27, the World Bank posted on its web site an article titled "Haiti: One Year Later"[1] that grossly misrepresents the current reality in Haiti.
To lead readers to the article, the World Bank posted a banner headline at the top of its home page reading: "Haiti's Recovery, A Year of Progress" and the teaser: "New schools, roads, and jobs are among the achievements of the Interim Cooperation Framework, Haiti's economic, social and political recovery program." This is an inexcusable whitewash of the terrible nightmare that most Haitians have suffered through since their democratically elected government was overthrown on February 29, 2004.
Haiti's economic situation remains dire. The country's GDP declined by 3.8% during the last fiscal year, which ended September 2004, and there is little evidence to suggest that there has been substantial improvement since then. The past year has been one of sharp decline in living standards for the vast majority of Haitians. The Haitian people have had to endure arbitrary, politically motivated detentions by the state, police violence including extra judicial killings (particularly directed towards residents of Haiti's slums), and a sharp increase in kidnappings, rapes, and murders. Under the interim government of Haiti human rights conditions have deteriorated so dramatically that United Nations Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno stated at the end of June that "Haitians in Cap Haitien …are in [a] worse situation than some of the IDPs [Internally Displaced Persons] I saw in Darfur."[2]
The Bank touts "recruiting 2,300 new police officers" as one of Haiti's achievements since the coup. It is well known that former members of death squads and of the military, which was disbanded by Aristide in a widely popular move, have been reincorporated into the police. According to the Catholic Institute for International Relations, many members of the Haitian National Police (HNP) have "links to the previous military or have been involved in drug rackets, kidnappings, extrajudicial killings or other illegal activities."[3] Since the incorporation of former military personnel in its ranks the HNP has been accused of numerous human rights abuses from a variety of sources including: the Bureau of International Lawyers, the Center for the Study of Human Rights at the University of Miami School of Law, the Harvard University Law School Advocates for Human Rights, and Amnesty International.
An investigation of human rights in Haiti published in January 2005 by the University of Miami Law School Center for the Study of Human Rights found Cité Soleil and Bel Air (two of Haiti's largest slums) to be under siege by the HNP and UN forces. The report found that UN forces and Haitian police enter these neighborhoods, which are filled with supporters of the elected former government and the Famni Lavalas political party, and mount violent attacks that routinely kill residents. The report also described numerous attacks on unarmed demonstrators and residents of these neighborhoods by the Haitian police including the shooting of unarmed demonstrators in downtown Port-au-Prince on September 30, 2004[4].
Cases of summary executions of unarmed civilians have also surfaced. Haitian police are accused of executing 12 young men on October 25, 2004 in Fort National and 5 men on October 27, 2004 in broad daylight in Delmas.[5] Judy Dacruz, an independent human rights lawyer, has documented eyewitness accounts of summary executions of at least 32 unarmed people by the police between October 2004 and February 2005.[6]
The security situation is not improving, due in part to collaboration between UN and police - in fact, the situation has been made worse. A July 6, 2005 raid in Cité Soleil left at least 23 people dead (including women and children). According to residents who witnessed the raid, UN troops were the chief perpetrators of the violence.[7] Although the UN initially denied reports of unarmed civilian deaths, it later admitted to this possibility and announced an investigation.
Currently hundreds of political prisoners are being detained throughout Haiti.[8] Haiti's two most high profile political prisoners are former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and more recently Father Gerard Jean-Juste, a popular Catholic priest. In both cases these men were arrested for crimes despite an apparent lack of evidence of their involvement. Yvon Neptune was charged with allegedly orchestrating a massacre of anti-Aristide protestors, which to date the government has not been able to prove actually occurred. Father Jean-Juste, who has been an outspoken supporter of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and a critic of the present government, was illegally arrested without a warrant on July 21, 2005 for supposedly murdering a journalist whose death occurred while Jean-Juste was himself abroad.[9] Amnesty International has declared Jean-Juste to be a prisoner of conscience and has raised a "health" and "legal concern" over Neptune, urging the interim government to "abide by its own constitution" and grant Neptune a fair trial.[10] The UN Special Envoy to Haiti, Juan Gabriel Valdes, has also called for Neptune's release.[11]
The World Bank reports that Haiti's interim government is "launching an ambitious electoral registration process." The Bank's claims were at odds with the findings of a report the International Crisis Group issued the next day, which found that only one-fifth of eligible voters - some 870,000 people - had been registered by July 29, none had yet received their new national identity cards required for voting, and only 327 registration centers were open.
Because of deficiencies in the electoral process and the violent repression of many of its members and supporters, Haiti's largest political party, Fanmi Lavalas, is boycotting the proposed elections. But the Bank gives only the unelected government's view of the situation.
The Bank also misrepresents the economic situation in the country, painting of picture of economic progress since last year's coup. The article cites the creation of "tens of thousands of jobs." But since the labor force has been growing by 60,000- 80,000 people per year, it is not clear that the jobs cited have even been enough to keep Haiti's massive unemployment rate from growing (some two-thirds of the population do not have formal employment).[12]
The World Bank's whitewash of Haiti's dire situation is especially troubling in light of the Bank's own role in helping to topple Haiti's democratically elected government by "suspending aid, under vague 'instructions' from the US," according to Columbia University's Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan.[13]
We call upon the World Bank to cease taking sides in Haiti's civil conflict, and to conduct an independent investigation into its own role in helping to destabilize the prior elected, constitutional government.
[Please direct response to Tom Ricker, Quixote Center, PO Box 5206, Hyattsville, MD 20782, or tomr@quixote.org]
Signed:
Organizations:
Haiti Reborn/Quixote Center
Tom Ricker, Co-Director
TransAfrica Forum
Bill Fletcher, President
Ecumenical Program on Central America and the Caribbean (EPICA)
Olivia Burlingame-Goumbri, Director
The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights
General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church
James Winkler, General Secretary
United Church of Christ Network for Environmental & Economic Responsibility
Rev. Douglas B. Hunt, Director, International Programs
Hospital Employees' Union (Canada)
Fred Muzin, President
Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti
Brian Concannon Jr., Esq., Director
Haiti Action Committee
Charlie Hinton
Center for the Study of the Americas (CENSA)
Peter Rosset
Fondasyon Mapou
Eugenia Charles, Executive Director
Global Exchange
Kirsten Moller, Executive Director
Friends of the Earth, Honduras
Ambika Chawla
Marin Interfaith Task Force on the Americas
Dale Sorensen, Director
Global Justice Ecology Project
Orin Langelle , Co-director
Office of the Americas
Blase Bonpane, Ph.D., Director
INTERCONNECT
Peter and Gail Mott, Co-Editors
Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA
Director, Patricia Davis
L.A. Weekly
Doug Ireland
Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala
Andrew de Sousa, National Organizer
Nicaragua Center for Community Action
Diana Bohn , Co-coordinator
Nicaragua Network
Chuck Kaufman, National Co-Coordinator
Safe Earth Alliance
Dr. D.K. and F. L. Cinquemani - Largo, FL
Dominican Sisters of Mission, San Jose, CA
Stella Goodpasture, OP, Justice Promoter
Dominican Sisters of San Rafael
Marion Irvine, OP, Promoter of Social Justice
Central NJ Coalition for Peace and Justice
Robert Moir, Steering Committee Member
Chicagoland Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights
Dennis Dixon
No. Colorado Justice for Cuba Group
Elaine Schmidt
Portland Peaceful Response Coalition
William Seaman
San Francisco Bay Area Debt Cancellation Coalition
Thomasville Student Peace Organization
Elias George Mathes
Individuals (alphabetical)
Peter Ackerman
Peace & Social Justice Clerk
Ft. Lauderdale Friends (Quakers)*
Michael Albert
Znet*
Ed Allen
Associate Professor of English, University of South Dakota*
Badrul Alam, President
Bangladesh Krishok Federation*
Julio Soto Angurel
Roger Annis - Haiti Solidarity BC
Dean Baker, Co-Director
Center for Economic and Policy Research*
Natylie Baldwin
Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center*
Nancy Bennett - Santa Fe, New Mexico
Ellen Boldon -Auburn, ME
Gary Bono
Martha Bushnell, Ph.D. - Boulder, CO
Noam Chomsky, Professor
Massachusetts Institute of Technology*
Truman C. Dean
Raymond Dubuisson
Co-coordinator, Comité des Haïtiens de l'outaouais pour la reconstruction d'Haïti (CHORHA)* Ottawa, CANADA
Kostas Diakolambrianos - Greece
Rev. Derek V. Dudek, D.D.
Rosemary Everett, SNJM- Cupertino, CA
Paul Farmer, M.D.
Partners In Health*
Ebrahim Gassab
General Secretary of Banker's Union - Kingdom of Bahrain
Harold Geddings, III
University of South Carolina-Upstate*
Sarah Haywood - Toronto, Ontario
Ken Heard
Political Affairs Officer
Philadelphia National Writers Union*
Devin Hoff - Oakland, CA
Nadia Hyppolite
Felix Ibarra
Connie Jenkins
Pax Christi Maine*
Alejandra Juarez, Student
CSU Stanislaus
Paul S. Kaczocha
Philip Kaisary
Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies Warwick University* - UK
Rob Keithan
Director, Washington Office for Advocacy
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations*
Ira Kurzban, Attorney
Kurzban, Kurzban, Weinger & Tetzeli, P.A.*
Marilyn Langlois
Haiti Action Committee (signed as organization above)*
Robert Levee - Kennesaw, GA
Liam Long - Lansing, MI
Erwin Marquit
Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota*
Jackie Mauro
International High School*
Don Matsuda
Lizbeth McDermott - LeClaire, IA
Edmund McWilliams (Senior Foreign Service, ret.) - Falls Church, VA
Mary E. Meehan - Boston, MA
Bridget Miller
Keith A Miller, CPhT
Henry Millstein - Novato, CA
Stuart Neatby
Haiti Action Committee, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Brian O'Connor - North Bay, Ontario
Paul Pallazola - Gloucester, MA
Kate Patterson - Brooklyn, NY
George Ann Potter - Bolivia
William Przylucki - Boston College '07
Suzanne Radford, Alexander Balfour, Erik & Victoria Grunewald, Dr. Theo Eridanos
Gnostic Communications*
Joan Rae - Fayston, VT
Wey Robinson -Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Jillian Rouleau - Mesa, AZ
John Sanchez
Rachel Satterlee - Minneapolis, MN
Mark Schafer - Cambridge, MA
Emile Schepers - Great Falls, VA
Charles Scurich - Oakland, CA
Paul Sipple - Fayston, VT
Thomas Skayhan - DeFuniak Springs
Ursula Slavick - Portland, ME
William Slavick - Portland, ME
Anne Sosin
Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti
Courtney Szper - Portland, OR
Esequiel Armijo Vargas, UCSB student, CA
Marc Arthur Voorhees, Jr
Jessica Watson-Crosby - New York, NY
Phil Webb
CPUSA*
William Webb, CEO
WorldWideTrade Corporation*
Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director
Center for Economic and Policy Research*
Paul Whetstone, Attorney
Tom Whitney, South Paris
Maine Haiti Solidarity*
Jeremiah Wishon
Greg Wolfe
John Woodford, Journalist
Lisa Wright - Chico, CA
*Indicates organization appears for purposes of identification only.
Footnotes
[1]Found at http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20594578~pagePK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html
[2] Heinlein, Peter. "UN Peacekeeping Chief: Haiti Worse than Darfur." Voice of America. June 28, 2005 Url: http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-06-28-voa63.cfm
[3] Catholic Institute for International Relations. "Haiti: free and fair elections unlikely as security worsens." August 2, 2005. [http://www.ciir.org/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=91967]
[4] Griffin, Thomas. "Haiti: Human Rights Investigation, November 11 - 21, 2004" Center for the Study of Human Rights, University of Miami School of Law, 2005, pg. 9.
[5] Ibid, pg. 10.
[6] Lindsay, Reed. "Among Haitians, Police Are Seen As a Deadly Force." Boston Globe, February 27, 2005, Pg A15.
[7] Buncombe, Andrew. "Peacekeepers accused after killings in Haiti," 29 July 2005. See also Haiti Information Project, "UN 'peacekeepers' in Haiti accused of massacre," July 13, 2005. [http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/7_13_5/7_13_5.html]
[8] Griffin, Thomas. "Haiti: Human Rights Investigation, November 11 - 21, 2004" Center for the Study of Human Rights, University of Miami School of Law, 2005, pg. 12.
[9] Amnesty International. "Haiti: Arbitrary arrest/prisoner of conscience: Gérard Jean-Juste (m), aged 59, Catholic priest." July 25, 2005 [http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR360082005?open&of=ENG-HTI].
[10] Amnesty International. "Haiti: Arbitrary arrest/prisoner of conscience: Gérard Jean-Juste (m), aged 59, Catholic priest." July 25, 2005; Amnesty International. "Haiti: Health concern/legal concern, Yvon Neptune." May 6, 2005. [http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR360042005?open&of=ENG-HTI]
[11] Delva, Joseph Guyler. "U.N. envoy in Haiti wants jailed ex-PM released." Reuters. June 24, 2005.
[12] Data from CIA World Factbook, http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2129.html
[13] Sachs, Jeffrey. "The Fire This Time in Haiti was US-Fueled" in Taipei Times, March 1, 2004
