[News] Baptiste is wrong for the Goldman Award

[News at freedomarchives.org]

April 20, 2005

Chavannes Jean Baptiste is wrong for the Goldman Award

contact:

Brian Concannon, Institute for Justice and Democracy
in Haiti [www.ijdh.org] 541 432 0597

Robert Roth, Haiti Action Committee
[www.haitiaction.net] 415-297-7869


Today international human rights lawyer Brian
Concannon described Goldman Award winner Chavannes
Jean Baptiste as "a strong organizer behind the
political end of the coup which drove Haitian
President Aristide from power." Concannon added that
"Baptiste's organization also directly supported
paramilitaries that waged terror campaigns leading up
to the February 29, 2004 coup." The current coup
government is conducting an ongoing campaign of
violent repression that rivals the terror of the
1991-1994 coup, when at least 3000-5000 Haitians were
killed.

Robert Roth of the Haiti Action Committee noted, "As
director of Peasant Affairs Chavanne has assisted in
the coup government's persecution of thousands of
pro-Arisitide peasants, resulting in many
hundreds of killings of dissidents."

Robert Roth continued, "Chavanne and other members of
the MPP hosted members of the former military when
they began their terror campaign against Haitian
civilians in the Central Plateau in January 2004.
Peasants from Mirabalais in the Central Plateau, as
well as union organizers and priests, have shown human
rights observers evidence that most of the weapons and
men moved from the Dominican Republic to start the
terror campaigns in Gonaives and Cap Haitien in early
February 2004, came through Chavannes' territory, and
received his support."

Numerous elected officials from the Central Plateau
including the mayor of Hinche and the director of the
area's literacy program are now in hiding due to false
allegations Chavanne
has made against them over Haitian radio and
encouraged the notoriously brutal Haitian police to
arrest them.  These officials now live in hiding,
unable to return to their communities.


Scores of U.S. human rights leaders and lawyers have
documented and denounced repression carried out by
Haiti's current illegal coup regime, including
representatives of the Quixote Center, EPICA
(Ecumenical Program in Central America and the
Caribbean), The National Lawyers' Guild, The Black
Lawyers' Association, and Amnesty International.


For more information:

University of Miami Law
School Human Rights Report,
http://www.law.miami.edu/cshr/CSHR_Report_02082005_v2.pdf

Haiti's Disappeared by Tom Reeves,
http://www.april6vt.org/HaitiMain/background/Reeves.html

April 18 KPFA Flashpoints report on Goldman award to
Baptiste
http://www.flashpoints.net/index.html#2005-04-18

The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20050419/71171674/attachment.htm>