The Haiti Democracy Project Is Not So Democratic

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The Haiti Democracy Project Is Not So Democratic
By Jeb Sprague
Posted on Wed May 4th, 2005 at 06:24:11 AM EST

On May 4, 2005 a U.S. government backed NGO, the Haiti Democracy Project published on its website (haitipolicy.org) a "fact-finding report" carried out during mid February of 2005 in Haiti.  The fact finding mission, while visiting Haiti, met with nine members of Group 184 (a coalition of the wealthy elite) and 26 others, ranging from Coup Prime Minister Gérard Latortue, to U.N. and Haitian Police officials, U.S. Ambassador James Foley, and the Brazilian, Argentinean, Canadian, and Dominican Republic Ambassadors to Haiti.

In the report the Haiti Democracy Project's executive director James R. Morrel along with other members of the "fact-finding" delegation, includingthree former U.S. Ambassadors, conclude that, "Monitoring the election will likely be easier with polling stations reduced to six hundred or so from the twelve thousand of previous elections".  The report also mentions the "utility of a voter registration card".  Both of these measures will work to exclude large swaths of the Haitian population from the upcoming vote and allow the interim government of Gerard Latortue and the former military to better censor the role of Lavalas and the poor.  95% of all the polling stations used in previous elections will be excluded in the upcoming election. 

The HDP's report provides clear statements of advice to the U.S. overseers of Haiti on how best to guarantee the stability of its client state.  The HDP advises that the United States government work to create a "psychological sense of momentum and excitement" towards the upcoming election.  The HDP also advises that the United States "implement a fast track..for the purchase of appropriate armaments, helmets and protective gear for the Haitian National Police".  This statement coming just weeks after Haiti Information Project journalist Kevin Pina exposed a massive illegal shipment of $7 million worth of armaments to the Haitian government from the United States, a violation of the 13 year arms embargo on Haiti.  These are also the same Haitian National Police forces that on April, 29th 2005 were accused by Amnesty International of using "lethal and indiscriminate violence..to disperse and repress demonstrators.."  The Amnesty report states that after police officers opened fire against Lavalas demonstrators "at least 5 people died..and 4 others are reported to have died later on as a consequence of their wounds."

The HDP "fact-finding" report, while claiming that President Aristide's Administration was "predatory" and "murderous", completely neglects to mention the hundreds or possibly thousands of deaths that have occurred over the course of the last year at the hands of the Haitian National  Police under the Latortue government, which has been well documented insuch reports as the University of Miami's Haiti Human Rights Investigation during November of 2004 (http://www.law.miami.edu/news/368.html). 

Under a subsection of the HDP "fact-finding" report entitled, "Haitian views on the police" the only view provided is that of the Haitian National Police themselves.  In this "viewpoint" section the Haitian police stated to the HDP that "the U.N. mission needed to be more aggressive."  Meanwhile, on April 29, 2004 citizens of the Port-Au-Prince slum Cité Soliel accused the U.N. forces led by the feared Jordanian contingent of surrounding their community and lobbing at them fragmentation and incendiary type bombs.  While heavily armed and violent U.N. incursions into and around Cité Soliel have been well documented (http://www.haitiaction.net), the HDP and the Haitian police want more.

The HDP argues that a "triple threat" of drug traffickers and Aristide supporters ("chimères" & ex-FADH) provide a potential threat to which "U.S. policy must respond".   In meeting only with the highest echelons of the Haitian government and international presence in Haiti the HDP's "fact-finding" mission provides an extremely skewed report.  Knowledge or information based on real occurrences (facts) is difficult to ascertain in reading the report because of its extreme bias.

The Haiti Democracy Project on its website, states that it is "an independent research group promoting the cause of settled, responsive government in Haiti and U.S. policies conducive to this end."  Founded in 2002 as an "independent organization" approximately 2 years before the downfall of the Aristide government (the first democratically elected government in Haiti's history), the HDP has a board made up of former U.S. ambassadors, members of the Haitian-American community, and policy analysts.  The HDP has clear links and friendships with the Latortue government and the opposition to Aristide.  What direct funding the HDP has from the U.S. government or such notable institutions as the International Republican Institute remains to be seen.

Describing the involvement of the International Republican Institute in Haiti, Congresswoman Maxine Waters wrote in her statement before the subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere of the Committee on International relations House of Representatives on March 3, 2004, "The International Republican Institute (IRI) has been providing the opposition training for political party development, communications strategies, public opinion polling, web site development and public outreach.  IRI has a blatantly partisan approach.  It trains opposition groups but flatly refuses to work
with Lavalas party members or other supporters of President Aristide.  IRI's Haiti Program is funded by American taxpayers through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)." 

James R. Morrell, Co-founder and former research director of the Center for International Policy, continues to serve as the executive director of the Haiti Democracy Project run out of Washington D.C.  His family relative, Chris Morrell, serves as the primary website programmer or an "independent contractor" for the Haiti Democracy Project.  He receives an hourly wage of $75 for his programming services.  In early April of 2005 Chris Morrell deleted the Haiti Democracy Project's online message board due to the postings of "Lavalas supporters".

Contact the author: jebbathehut@hotmail.com or jsprague@csulb.edu
May 4th, 2005