Haiti: Amnesty International's Track Record since 2004

Aristide was twice elected President (in 1990 and in 2000). His first government was overthrown in a coup in 1991. The outcome of the 1991 coup was horrific and well documented. Thousands were murdered; tens of thousands were raped and tortured; hundreds of thousands were driven into hiding. The victims were overwhelmingly supporters of Aristide and his Lavalas movement. The 1991 and 2004 coups were both the work of the US government, Haiti’s elite and their armed servants. Canada and France collaborated extensively with the planning and execution of the second coup.[2]

By mid April of 2004, three organizations had sent delegations to Haiti to investigate the aftermath of the coup: the Quixote Center based in Maryland, the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and the Ecumenical Program on Central America and the Caribbean (EPICA). All drew very similar conclusions.[3]

They uncovered a massive terror campaign waged by the de facto government – in collaboration with the tement does not seem to have been much of an exaggeration. During the first four months after the coup Amnesty failed to call attention to the evidence that a massive assault on Lavalas was well underway. Amnesty's statements suggested equivalence between armed Lavalas partisans and their opponents. For example, on April 8, 2004 Amnesty would state that

"...a large number of armed groups continue to be active throughout the country. These include both rebel forces and militias loyal to former President Aristide." [5]

Amnesty criticized the de facto government for arresting “only Lavalas leaders” but it did not condemn the arrests, many of which were made illegaly. It expressed no doubts about the legal authority of the de facto government to make any arrests at all. Moreover, by April 8, 2004, many Lavalas officials such as Jocelerme Privert and Amanus Maette had been imprisoned without charge for longer than the 48 hours allowed by the Haitian Constitution. Amnesty had frequently protested violations of this nature in the past– even in the case of Roger Lafontant, head of Duvalier’s infamous Tonton Macouts, who was arrested by Aristide’s first government in 1990 – but in 2004 Amnesty was silent as the constitutional rights of elected officials were violated. [6]

It was not until a report issued in June of 2004 that Amnesty mentioned some of the facts other investigators had uncovered months earlier. It finally acknowledged that a " large proportion of the victims of violence were Aristide supporters, including members of grassroots organizations and their relatives" It finally stated that "some human rights organizations who have been active in denouncing abuses committed under the Aristide period do not seem inclined to investigate abuses committed against pro-Aristide groups". However, Amnesty failed to name any of those groups. The omission was harmful to the victims because NCHR, the most prominent Haitian human rights groups, was not only willfully blind to the campaign against Lavalas. It eagerly assisted with the campaign. On March 6, the de facto government made an agreement with NCHR to file criminal charges against anyone NCHR denounced. NCHR eventually changed its name to RNDDH at the request of its parent organizatin in New York, who wished to distrance itself from its Haitian associates. Nevertheless it was, and continues to be, frequently and uncritically cited by the international press. [7]


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http://www.haitianalysis.com/2007/1/19/amnesty-international%E2%80%99s-track-record-in-haiti-since-2004