[R-G] Activist returns from Haiti, alone

[Anthony Fenton]

Activist returns from Haiti, alone
http://gauntlet.ucalgary.ca/story/11616

Raksha Vasudevan
Gauntlet News

September 27, 2007

Haitian people should be left alone to decide their own fate, said  
Annis. Haitian people should be left alone to decide their own fate,  
said Annis.

Credit: courtesy Roger Annis
Canada's role in the political and economic dealings of Haiti--the  
poorest country in the western hemisphere--is often not called into  
question, despite knowledge that Canada helped fund a coup against  
it's democratically elected government in 2004.

Canada Haiti Action Network activist Roger Annis is hoping to change  
this by touring around Canada to present reports of his two-week  
"fact-finding" mission this August.

The investigative human rights delegation was sponsored by Fondasyon  
Mapou, a not-for-profit group in Washington lobbying for Haiti's  
solidarity. With Annis was prominent Haitian human rights advocate  
Lovinsky Pierre Antoine. During their stay Antoine was kidnapped.  
More shocking than his actual disappearance, though, is the Canadian  
government's failure to acknowledge the incident, explained Annis.

"It's an absolute disgrace that Canada has failed to speak out about  
the situation," said Annis. "Haitian elite and foreign backers don't  
want voices like Lovinsky's to be present on the political scene."

The foreign backers in this case are the United States, France, and  
Canada--the three nations that helped overthrow Haiti's  
democratically elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004.  
All three countries have claimed that president Aristide's removal  
from power was necessary because he was ordering the deaths of his  
political opponents and destroying Haiti's already fragile economy.

However, many critics believe there was another, unspoken reason for  
the coup: the foreign powers were feeling threatened the long- 
impoverished country was on the path to political and economic  
empowerment explained Annis.

"The Aristide government had a pre-disposition of favouring the poor  
population," he said. "This angered countries like Canada and the  
U.S. who wanted cheap, uneducated labour."

During his time in power Aristide created new health care programs,  
doubled the minimum wage, and built more schools than were built in  
the entire preceding century.

For the first time since the 2004 coup against Aristide, a  
democratically elected government was elected Feb. 2006, with Rene  
Preval as president. Despite this, the foreign powers that supported  
the coup, have continued to maintain a strong presence there in the  
form of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti. The 8,000- 
strong peacekeeping force is mandated to rid the country of the armed  
gangs that dominate its streets.

Dr. Tim Donais, an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the  
University of Windsor stated he thought this was being accomplished.  
Donais specializes in international security and post-conflict peace- 
building and has made two trips to Haiti, the first in 2004 and the  
most recent in June of this year.

"MINUSTAH has essentially decapitated the gangs," he said. "The  
biggest difference between 2007 and 2004 is that the security  
situation has improved noticeably. Haiti is a country that needs  
massive help and Canada is making a real contribution to that effort."

Prime minister Stephen Harper echoed this sentiment during a visit to  
Haiti in July.

"It is apparent that the people who live there feel increasingly  
secure, and it is gratifying to see Canadian aid achieving real  
results," he said during his Jul. 20 visit to Haiti.

Canada has committed to contributing $540 million to the re- 
construction of Haiti over the 2006-2011 period.

Roger Annis disagreed and has labeled the past three and a half years  
of foreign attempts to restore security and stability in Haiti a  
"complete failure." He pointed out the current broken judicial  
system, virtually non-existent health care, and tragically lacking  
infrastructure--all problems that the foreign governments are trying  
to solve but also ones which, he claims, they created themselves by  
helping to overthrow Aristide.

"It's a bit like someone burning down your house, and then showing up  
in a fire truck," said Annis. "The only solution is a gradual,  
orderly withdrawal of foreign powers and an infusion of unconditional  
aid money to a sovereign Haitian government."

Annis added that the silence surrounding Lovinsky's disappearance  
must end and more critical examination of Canada's presence in Haiti  
must take place.

"People here have to be engaged in what their government is doing to  
their country's name abroad," he said.

Annis will be presenting the findings of his trip to Haiti at  
Carpenter's Hall on October 2.