This week in HaitiHaïti Progrès
January 31 - February 6, 2001
Tough Break for the Convergence
With tight police protection from the very government it scorns, the Democratic Convergence (CD), Haiti's front of 16 tiny opposition parties, held its much ballyhooed Jan. 27 meeting to draw up the "parallel government" it proposes to launch on Feb. 7, President-elect Jean-Bertrand Aristide's inauguration day.
But the meeting was a flop. No government was defined. Instead of the 20,000 participants which CD leaders had predicted, a few hundred showed up. Even the CD's erstwhile international supporters ranging from U.S. Republican congressmen to bigwigs from the Socialist International prudently stayed away. Nor did any members of the Haitian "private sector" choose to attend the gathering.
The CD had planned to rent the Rex Theater on the Champ de Mars, Port-au-Prince's main square, but theater management, fearing popular outrage, cancelled the contract a day before the event.
The CD moved the event to the headquarters of the CD's Organization of People in Struggle (OPL) in Pont Morin section of the capital, which was probably a blessing given the puny attendance.
While the opposition leaders could not arrive at an agreement as to who would lead whom in their small circle, they comforted themselves with thundering pronouncements. "[The Lavalas] might protest energetically but when we finish here the Democratic Convergence will begin working hard, solidly, to set up a transition government of consensus and national unity," intoned the OPL's ex-senator Paul Denis.
"We must stop the demagogic and Machiavellian political practice of the cynical chimera [Lavalas street demonstrators]," said Evans Paul of the CD's Democratic Unity Confederation (KID). "To stop darkness and plant hope, history gives me the right to choose a provisional power."
Hope is not all the CD may have been planting. Police arrested two men with bags of rocks and anti-CD flyers near the gathering. "[W]hen the police wanted to take them away, it was one of the leaders of the Democratic Convergence who intervened to request their release," reported the Haitian Press Agency (AHP). "For his part, the spokesperson for the PNH, Jean Dady Siméon, confirmed that at least five individuals had been arrested by the police. Among these five, at least three had been identified as members of a popular organisation close to the Democratic Convergence."
Meanwhile, Lavalas-supporting popular organizations and human rights groups denounced the CD's maneuvers. The September 30 Foundation, comprised of victims of the Sept. 30, 1991 coup d'état, held its own large rally on the Champ de Mars on Jan. 27. "We have come here to stop the Convergence's planned coup d'état," said Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, the group's leader, "to say yes to peace, no to violence, yes to dialogue, no to divergence, to stop the putschists, all those who have contributed to coups d'état, who supported the Sept. 30, 1991 coup and who want to pass themselves off today as 'civil society' in the role of facilitator which they want to buy at a window. We are here to say to the Convergence: step aside and let the people pass."
Limbé: Trouble at Good Samaritan
The Good Samaritan hospital in Limbé is one of the oldest hospitals in the Northern Department, after Justinien Hospital in Cap Haïtien. The hospital was founded in 1953 by William Hodges, a U.S. Baptist missionary who became a Haitian citizen. Most of the commune's towns have no medical dispensaries or clinics. People from surrounding towns like Marmelade, Plaisance, Au Borgne, Port Margot, and L'Acul rely on Good Samaritan.
After the death of William Hodges in 1995, his son, Paul Hodges, took over the hospital. But Haitians in the area now complain of many problems.
First, they say, many low-level employees have been fired. Those low-salaried workers were people, or the children or grand children of people, who consented to give up their land to allow the construction of the hospital and of a special thoroughfare to it called "Doctor Road." The people received jobs at the hospital as compensation for the loss of their homes and land.
Furthermore, the hospital's services have declined. For instance, Haitian health authorities discovered that the hospital was selling expired medications to its patients, and at a high price. Services at the hospital have also become costly by Haitian standards.
On Friday, Jan. 19 at 10 a.m., more than 4,000 people turned out in response to the invitation of some popular organizations for a demonstration in Limbé's square. Demonstration leaders called for Paul Hodges' resignation and led the crowd toward the hospital. By noon, the crowd calling for Hodges' departure had doubled in size. A police unit of the UDMO (Departmental Unit for the Maintenance of Order) was dispatched from Cap Haïtien accompanied by Limbé justice of the peace Jean Garry Désir.
At around 1 p.m., the demonstration arrived in front of the hospital. The demonstration leaders took the opportunity to respond to U.S. Republican Congressman Benjamin Gilman's charges that the Lavalas has threatened the Hodges family. "Benjamin Gilman, this isn't the Lavalas making this demonstration," said Jean Ronel Jacques Louis, leader of the KLJL (Committee to Open the Eyes of Jacmel). "This is an entire population which the Hodges family has squeezed and which is demanding its rights."
The demonstrators asked for a commission composed of popular organizations, justice officials, local elected officials, the police, and the press to go into the hospital to take the key from Paul Hodges and give it to the town's Baptist Mission, a proposal which justice of the peace Désir rejected after the local elected officials demurred from entering the hospital.
Around 4 p.m., a parliamentary delegation from Port-au-Prince arrived, with the president of the Lower House at its head. The parliamentarians had already begun an inquiry into the Good Samaritan troubles since Jan. 18.
The parliamentarians asked the demonstrators to return home while a
commission was formed to meet with departmental health director Myrtho
Julien to work out a solution. Popular organization leaders agreed to disperse
but asked the population to remain mobilized.
Belle
Anse:
Students
Protest Teacher's Transfer
In the southeast commune of Belle-Anse, of the 15,000 school age children, only 5,000 to 7,000 attend school, whether public or private. Most parents can't afford the needed uniforms or books.
Even those children who can attend school endure harsh conditions. School supplies such as chalk, pens and pencils, and even chairs are scarce.
This somber situation was made worse recently when local school inspector Badio Eliphène threatened to transfer long-time teacher Fritzner Regala to a school in another town.
Regala has taught junior high-school in the town of Belle Anse for the past 19 years. Badio says he will transfer Regala to another school 13 kilometers away. The proposed transfer has stirred students in Belle-Anse to protest.
Regala says that inspector Badio's decision is arbitrary and stems from a personal conflict between the two men. Therefore Regala says he will disregard the transfer and stay teaching where he is. Badio has said that Regala is a state employee and must be ready to be transferred whenever his superiors decide.
