News
and opinions on situation in Haiti |
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| 24/6/06 |
Haiti back in Caricom – Former Canadian group-sex leader kidnapped in Haiti |
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Ezili Danto’s note: “…the newly minted coup d’etat coalition government now figure-headed by Rene Preval has yet to reverse the acts of the US-imposed Miami government, who handed three years tax breaks to the most wealthy, 10-years back pay to the murderous Haitian army and put over 4,200 people into indefinite detention while cutting Haiti’s minimum wage by 50%, from about $3.60 for a 12 hour day, down to $1.60. The UN occupation continues, the prisoners unreleased and those who never where voted in by any Haitian populace are being divvied jobs in the “new government” because they participated, though were not elected, but because they “participated” in the coup d’etat elections on the heel of the blood and death of thousands of Haitian citizens who protested the coup d’etat and ouster of the Constitutional government and UN occupation…Batay la fèk komanse, batay la fèk komanse, nou pap bay legin. On July 6, 2006, HLLN along with other Haiti-led groups from Haiti and the US will stand together to demand an end to the occupation, justice for the victims of last year’s UN Massacre in Site Soley on July 6, release of the political prisoners, reversal of the fleecing of Haiti by Canadian companies such as St. Genevieve Resources and KWG Resources, stop to the plunder and pirating of Haitian gas, gold, copper, uranium, iridium and other natural resources and reserves, particularly a stop to the genocidal plans of the Ottawa Initiative foreign governments under this de facto UN Protectorate.” June 24, 2006 ----------------------------------------------------- – Haiti back in Caricom – Former Canadian group-sex leader now a “Canadian missionary” is kidnapped in Haiti, Ransom lowered – US Arrest Seven Bomb Plotters, June 24, 2006 | Xinhua – Haiti garment makers pin hopes on US bill Ezili Danto’s note: “…the newly minted coup d’etat coalition government now figure-headed by Rene Preval has yet to reverse the acts of the US-imposed Miami government, who handed three years tax breaks to the most wealthy, 10-years back pay to the murderous Haitian army and put over 4,200 people into indefinite detention while cutting Haiti’s minimum wage by 50%, from about $3.60 for a 12 hour day, down to $1.60. The UN occupation continues, the prisoners unreleased and those who never where voted in by any Haitian populace are being divvied jobs in the “new government” because they participated, though were not elected, but because they “participated” in the coup d’etat elections on the heel of the blood and death of thousands of Haitian citizens who protested the coup d’etat and ouster of the Constitutional government and UN occupation…Batay la fèk komanse, batay la fèk komanse, nou pap bay legin.” June 24, 2006 Haiti’s President, Rene Preval, said he is happy to be back in the CARICOM fold following the resumption of formal arrangements with the Community. Preval reportedly made the comment during a meeting in Port-au-Prince on Friday with CARICOM Secretary General, Dr. Edwin Carrington. Dr. Carrington reportedly told President Preval that the Community was looking forward to the Haitian leader’s participation in the upcoming 27th Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government to be held in St. Kitts from July 3-6. The CARICOM Secretary General has since promised the Community’s assistance in areas determined by Haiti. Haiti had been suspended from participating in the activities of CARICOM following the 2004 removal of that country’s democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. However, it was re-admitted following Preval’s election earlier this year.
Sat. Jun. 24, 2006. Ransom lowered for missionary in Haiti PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP-CP) — Kidnappers who seized a Canadian missionary from his home in Haiti have lowered their ransom demand some five days after he was abducted, another missionary said Thursday. Ed Hughes’ captors had threatened to kill him unless a $45,000 US ransom was paid, but now say they’ll free him for $10,000, said Nelson Ryman, co-director with Hughes of the Tytoo Gardens orphanage north of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. “We have hopes that he will be released before the weekend,” Ryman said by phone from his home in Tampa, Fla. However, Ryman said it wasn’t clear if Hughes, 72, of Hamilton, could raise the sum his captors are demanding. Hughes, who lost an arm in a December 2005 kidnapping of another missionary in the troubled Caribbean country, is estranged from his family and apparently has meagre personal funds. “I am not confident we can match that amount. It is highly unlikely that friends of Mr. Hughes would be able to come up with that amount,” Ryman said. Hughes was kidnapped Sunday at his home in Cabaret, just north of Port-au-Prince. The Hamilton Spectator reported Thursday the self-styled minister once advocated group sex and wife-swapping and was once convicted of keeping a bawdy house near Hamilton. On July 26, 1981, Hamilton-Wentworth police raided Hughes’ trailer park/swinging club near an abandoned quarry in Flamborough, Ont. Known as the Ramblewood Swingers Club, it had operated out of a hangar-like structure in Burlington for five years until a fire destroyed the building in the winter of 1981. At that time, Hughes had a mail-order divinity degree and called himself a bishop with the Universal Life Church, the Spectator reported. When police raided the club, it was operating out of a large circus tent where police found almost 100 naked people in various compromising positions. Hughes and his wife Jeanette, who had been married about 20 years and had four children, were both charged with keeping a common bawdy house. The visitors, who came from as far away as Florida and New Brunswick, all quietly pleaded guilty to charges of being found-ins in a common bawdy house. During a sensational trial in Hamilton, Hughes and his wife both fought the charges but the judge ruled group sex was too still salacious for Canadian community standards and found them both guilty of keeping a bawdy house. Ontario’s appeal court upheld the convictions but quashed the fines and gave them both absolute discharges. This spared them a criminal record. In the mid-1980s, Hughes started building a sailboat in the trailer park. A talented carpenter, Hughes did most of the work himself before moving the vessel to Hamilton harbour where he had the sails installed. His wife accompanied him during the first few years they were in the Caribbean. But she became tired of living on the boat and headed back to dry land. They were divorced in the mid-1990s and he continued the journey on his own, the Spectator said. Hughes had all but severed all ties with Canada when he landed in Haiti in the late 1990s. He lived on the boat for a few years while working for the Haitian government. He bought a piece of land near the ocean and started building what he described as a night club with the hope of catering to U.S. tourists. While building the club, however, hungry homeless children kept begging for food. He apparently felt sorry for them and started feeding them. “He had pretty much finished the building,” said Dunnville, Ont., resident Richard Beldman, who met Hughes while working with the Mission of Hope in Haiti. “He felt so guilty he had all this cash. He turned the whole thing into an orphanage,” he told the Spectator. Beldman said Hughes had a religious conversion and became a committed Christian missionary after being confronted by the plight of the children. “He’s a totally, totally changed person,” Beldman said. “The Lord transformed the man. He’s an amazing man.” “He just loves those Haitian children.” A surge in kidnappings has raised fears that security in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country may be worsening after months of relative calm following the election of President Rene Preval. Preval succeeded ex-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was ousted in a February 2004 revolt. Twenty-nine people were kidnapped in the capital last month, up from 15 in April, according to the UN peacekeeping mission. The actual number was probably much higher because victims’ families often prefer to negotiate with kidnappers rather than notify police, who are sometimes involved in the crimes. UN authorities and Haitian police have been negotiating with Hughes’ kidnappers through a mediator, Ryman said. UN police spokesman Ramon Rost declined comment, saying it could affect the negotiations. *************************** Haiti garment makers pin hopes on US bill Carol J. Williams, Contributor Inter-American Development Bank President Luis Alberto Moreno (left) smiles with Haiti’s President Rene Preval after a news conference at Preval’s house in Port-au-Prince on June 5. Haiti’s overall economic situation has now been described as ‘broadly stable’. – REUTERS PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Los Angeles Times): JOBS IN the garment industry, once Haiti’s most vital sector, have dropped from 100,000 in the late 1980s to less than 20,000 today. In a country long plagued by chronic unemployment of 50 per cent to 70 per cent, the apparel assembly sector remains the nation’s most important. But manufacturers that have managed to survive, albeit by borrowing or scaling back production, believe that recovery could be on the horizon. A bill pending in the U.S. Congress would grant Haitian garment makers duty-free entry to the U.S. market for apparel crafted from fabric made in the U.S. JOB CREATION The bill, known as the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity Through Partnership Encouragement, or HOPE, Act, could create as many as 20,000 jobs within four months of its passage, industry leaders say. The HOPE Act is a watered-down version of a humanitarian gesture drafted in 2004. That bill, which was known as the Haiti Economic Recovery Opportunity, or HERO Act, would have allowed all Haitian-made apparel duty-free entrance to the U.S. market, whatever the origin of the cloth. HERO was passed by the Senate but bogged down in the House, prompting supporters of tariff relief for Haiti to bow to pressure from the U.S. textile lobby and scale back their ambitions. Haitian garment makers have been led to believe that action on the bill was imminent, but unrelated Middle East trade issues have upended legislative scheduling, said a congressional source who did not want to be identified because negotiations on the matter are confidential. A spokeswoman for the House Ways and Means Committee, Ianthe Jackson, said the timing of any debate on HOPE was unclear. PREFERENTIAL TRADE TERMS Richard Coles, whose family owns the Multitex factory that produces 150,000 dozen T-shirts a week for customers such as Hanes, J.C. Penney Co., Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., says the preferential trade terms accorded by the HOPE Act would be a far more effective way for the U.S. government to help the Haitian economy than foreign aid. To sew a dozen T-shirts from knitted fabric, U.S. and Canadian apparel companies pay Haitian factories US$1.60 to US$1.80 for the labour. To sew jeans or trousers from woven cloth, manufacturers get US$20 to US$35 per dozen. Coles said he trusted newly-elected President Rene Preval’s commitment to help revive the garment industry, breaking with other business leaders who have taken a wait-and-see attitude toward the new government. But even some business leaders who opposed Preval have become bullish on the garment industry’s outlook. Minimum wage in Haiti is less than US$2 a day, compared with more than US$5 in the neighbouring Dominican Republic and most of Central America. Jean-Edouard Baker, the older brother of an unsuccessful challenger to Preval and a fellow garment maker until Aristide’s loyalists burned down his factories in February 2004, has drawn up plans for a free-trade zone in the town of Croix-des-Bouquets, just east of the capital airport. The current president of the Haitian Industrialists Association, Baker accompanied Preval on a March visit to Washington, where they lobbied congressional leaders to pass the HOPE Act “to send a clear signal that Haiti is back open for business.” Newly appointed Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis has promised to streamline business-licensing procedures to make Haiti an attractive venue for foreign manufacturers, Baker said. The new government is also working to ensure a reliable supply of electricity and water to the existing industrial park and to the site of the proposed free zone, he added. *************************** “Today terrorist threats may come from smaller, more loosely defined cells who are not affiliated with al-Qaida, but who are inspired by a violent jihadist message. And left unchecked, these homegrown terrorists may prove to be as dangerous as groups like al-Qaida.” At a Justice Department news conference in Washington, DC, Gonzales outlined an alleged plot against the 110-floor Sears Tower in Chicago and a federal building in Miami. The seven individuals – ranging in age from 22 to 32 – were indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami, in the US state of Florida. Five are US citizens, one is a legal immigrant from Haiti and the last is a Haitian national in the country illegally. The indictment accuses the men of seeking help from al-Qaida, pledging an oath to the terrorist organization and supporting its plot to destroy FBI buildings. It says they took these steps to raise money and support for their mission. _______________________ Posted on Sat, Jun. 24, 2006 Little evidence of plot found WASHINGTON – Even as Justice Department officials trumpeted the arrests of seven Florida men accused of planning to wage a “full ground war against the United States,” they acknowledged the group did not have the means to carry out the plan. The Justice Department unveiled the arrests with an orchestrated series of news conferences in two cities, but the severity of the charges compared with the seemingly amateurish nature of the group raised concerns among civil libertarians. “We’re as puzzled as everyone else,” said Howard Simon, the director of the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. “There’s no weapons, no explosives, but this major announcement.” The seven men are charged with conspiring to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and FBI buildings in five cities. Prosecutors said they swore allegiance to al-Qaeda after meeting with a confidential government informant who was posing as a representative of the terrorist group. But after sweeps of various locations in Miami, government agents found no explosives or weapons. Investigators also did not document any direct links to al-Qaeda. “This group was more aspirational than operational,” said John Pistole, the FBI’s deputy director. According to the indictment, Narseal Batiste, the accused leader of the group, provided the informant with a list of materials and equipment needed to build an Islamic army, including boots, uniforms, machine guns, radios and vehicles. At one point, he even provided shoe sizes for his “soldiers,” the indictment states. Batiste bragged that the planned bombings would rival the Sept. 11 attacks, but there were signs even he questioned the group’s ability to carry out the plan. In May, Batiste told the informant that the plot was being delayed because of problems within his organization. U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales held up the case as a good example of the Justice Department’s strategy of taking out domestic terrorists before they strike. He said the group is representative of “homegrown” terrorist cells that operate without ties to a larger group such as al-Qaeda. “We clearly believe there’s sufficient information, sufficient facts, to support this prosecution,” Gonzales said. “And therefore we took action when we did because we believe we have an obligation to prevent America from another attack here.” Other officials described the group as a distinct threat to national security and, at the same time, as something akin to the gang that couldn’t think straight. Some suggested that hinging the case on conspiracy charges robs a potential jury of the hard evidence of a crime. “This is the sort of early strike strategy that will invite possible Bill of Rights violations,” said Nathan Clark, an attorney for one of the defendants, Rotschild Augustine. “If a group doesn’t have the means then it’s less likely the government will have enough evidence to sustain the burden of proof.” The indictment identified the six other defendants as Patrick Abraham, 26; Burson Augustin, 21; Rotschild Augustine, 22; Naudimar Herrera, 22; Lyglenson Lemorin, 31; and Stanley Grant Phanor, 31. Abraham is an undocumented immigrant from Haiti; Lemorin is a permanent resident. The other five are U.S. citizens, officials said. Friends and relatives of some of them have expressed shock — and doubt over their guilt. “I believe my husband is innocent of all the accusations against him,” said Minerva Batiste, 34, the wife of the alleged ringleader. Despite early reports to the contrary, the men didn’t appear to be members of mainstream Muslim communities. A close friend of one of the defendants said Batiste’s teachings came from the Moorish Science Temple of America, an early 19th-century religion that blends Christianity, Judaism and Islam with a heavy influence on self-discipline through martial arts. Prosecutors refused to discuss the informant’s role or detail how the group came to the attention of authorities. © 2006 Duluth News Tribune and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. **************************************** Batay la fèk komanse, batay la fèk komanse, nou pap bay legin. |
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