[R-G] fw: Half-Hour for Haiti: Help Save Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine!

[Anthony Fenton]

October 16 , 2007

Half-Hour for Haiti: Help Save Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine!

Update: Thanks to everyone who called over the last two weeks to  
support Debt Relief for Haiti. If you have not yet called, there’s  
still time (see our last alert). The mandate for MINUSTAH, the UN  
Peacekeeping mission in Haiti, was renewed Monday by the UN Security  
Council, for a year (see Reuters Article on the renewal, see our the  
UN in Haiti website section for more background on the mission). Rev.  
Gerard Jean-Juste may be getting closer to having his day in court:  
he had an appeals court hearing scheduled for November 6, but that  
was rescheduled to November 26. If you are interested in joining the  
international legal observer delegation for this hearing, contact us.

Coming Attractions: On October 25 and 26, Project Censored at  
California’s Sonoma State University will hold its annual Media  
Accountability Conference. Among the people to be honored at the  
event are Kevin Pina of the Haiti Information Project, Jeb Sprague of  
HaitiAnalysis.com, and grassroots Haitian Journalist Wadner Pierre.  
All three made important contributions to covering attacks by UN  
troops on civilians in Haiti, which made the list of top censored  
stories of the past year.

More debt relief events: In Portland, Oregon, on October 18, IJDH  
will participate in a panel Responding to Haiti's Unjust Debt With  
Jubilee Justice, as part of the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon’s   
“Interfaith Conference on Poverty.” At the other end of the country,  
Miami Florida will host Overcoming a History of Debt Injustice in  
Haiti and Africa on October 29.

This week’s alert: Last Friday was the two-month anniversary of the  
abduction of Haitian human rights activist Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine.  
Lovinsky has been one of Haiti’s most persistent and effective human  
rights activists in Haiti for almost 20 years. He founded several  
organizations, including the September 30th Foundation, which has  
maintained weekly vigils for justice in Haiti for over a decade,  
through hurricanes, coup d’états and economic privation. For more  
information about Lovinsky, his disappearance, and taking action to  
save Lovinsky's life, see our website, www.HaitiJustice.org.

When Lovinsky was kidnapped on August 12, many U.S.-based activists  
(including us) worked quietly rather than publicly, in order to avoid  
interfering with negotiations with the kidnappers. But there have  
been no negotiations for eight weeks, and the quiet advocacy is not  
working, so there’s a general consensus that we need to go public to  
save Lovinsky’s life.

The public momentum for Lovinsky has been building. The September  
30th Foundation keeps taking to the streets in Haiti; they’ve been  
joined by demonstrations in London, San Francisco and New York, a  
petition drive from Los Angeles, and calls to Haiti and foreign  
governments from Canada, the U.S. and Europe. Several members of the  
U.S. Congress have urged the U.S. and Haitian governments to make  
saving Lovinsky’s life a priority.

There are lots of reasons for all of us to take action to help save  
Lovinsky. He is a husband, father, brother, son, colleague,  
inspiration and a friend to many. He is irreplaceable as an activist:  
no one has organized more demonstrations in Haiti over the last  
decade; no one has so effectively kept justice issues on the national  
radar screen. His disappearance has a ripple effect: as long as  
Lovinsky is missing, other activists will have good reason to fear  
for their safety if they speak out.

But perhaps the best reason for taking action to save Lovinsky is the  
fact that if another activist had been kidnapped- another of our  
friends, colleagues or relatives- Lovinsky would organize tirelessly  
until they were released. He would plan demonstrations, call press  
conferences and apply pressure wherever he could, as long as  
necessary to save the activist’s life.

We are recommending two activities, one easy, the other very easy, to  
help save Lovinsky’s life. Please do both if you can, but at least do  
one:

First, sign the Petition to Save Lovinsky issued  by Global Women's  
Strike. The petition has 1017 signatures already, but it needs  
hundreds more to maximize its impact. Signing takes less than three  
minutes.

Second, send a letter to Haiti’s President René Rene Préval, urging  
him to ensure that his government does everything it can to  
investigate Lovinsky’s disappearance and ensure his safe return. A  
sample letter is below, please customize and personalize it if you  
can. You may send your letter directly to President Préval by regular  
mail ($ .69 postage in US, $1.55 in Canada), or to us by fax: (206)  
350-7986 (a U.S. number) or email: avokahaiti at aol.com, and we will  
ensure that they are delivered.

   _________________________________________________________________

October __, 2007

His Excellency René Préval

President of the Republic of Haiti

Palais National
Port-au-Prince, Haïti

Re: Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine’s Disappearance

Your Excellency:

I am writing because I am extremely concerned about Lovinsky Pierre- 
Antoine, the human rights activist kidnapped over two months ago. I  
sincerely request that you do everything in your power to ensure that  
your government takes every possible step to ensure Mr. Pierre- 
Antoine’s safe return to his family.

Mr. Pierre-Antoine is important to people all over the world who care  
about Haiti [Please personalize here: mention how Lovinsky has  
touched, inspired or educated you ]. His safe return is essential to  
show that Haitians can participate effectively and lawfully in  
Haiti’s democratic process, without fear.

I am concerned about reports from Mr. Pierre-Antoine’s organization,  
Fondasyon 30 Septanm, that the Haitian police are not zealously  
investigating this case. Please demand that everyone working for your  
government- from the Ministry of Justice to police leadership to  
investigators- immediately take every possible lawful step to  
investigate Mr. Pierre-Antoine’s disappearance, pursue the  
perpetrators and return Mr. Pierre-Antoine safely.

  Sincerely,






________________________________________________________________

For more information about the Half-Hour for Haiti Program, the  
Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, or human rights in Haiti,  
see www.HaitiJustice.org. To receive Half-Hour for Haiti Action  
Alerts once per week, send an email to HalfHour4Haiti at IJDH.org.