From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord@igc.org>
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Date: 12 Aug 92 09:27 PDT
Subject: HAITI: OPEN LETTER TO U.S. PEOPLE
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1476700355:000:6536
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Aug 12 09:27:00 1992


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: HAITI: OPEN LETTER TO U.S. PEOPLE

/* Written  6:48 pm  Aug 11, 1992 by worth in cdp:reg.carib */
HAITI: OPEN LETTER TO THE U.S. PEOPLE

Washington Office on Haiti first received this letter on August 6, but when ias entered on Peacenet, the first few lines were lost somewhere in the
electronic ethers.  Since several of you have asked, here's the whole
letter again.  It is from Fr. Jan Hoet, a Missionhurst priest who has been
in rural Haiti for 25 years:

Open Letter to the People of the United States:

I feel an irresistable need to write this, while I am condemned to being a
helpless witness to the fact that the Haitian people are being wiped out of
humanity, suffocating under a repression as never seen before.  This repression
is inflicted on the people by the Haitian army, supported by a small group
of unscrupulous politicians and businessmen.  This small group (not 10% of
the population) seems to have decided to force the majority of the Haitian
people and the whole international world to accept its will using, therefore,
lies and violence.  Looking at this I am urged to cry with all my strength:
Stop this injustice!  For God's sake, stop it!

A Belgian by birth, I have been living and working in Haiti, in a rural area,
for almost 25 years as a Catholic missionary priest.  I speak the Haitian
language and I am happy and grateful to have a genuine feeling of acceptance
by these wonderful, friendly and hospitable people.  I have also learned to
share with my Haitian friends joy and sorrow, happiness and distress.  I have
tasted with them 19 years of the Duvalier dictatorship and witnessed their
struggle to get out of it.  I am impressed by their strength and determination
to struggle for a democratic society.  I have seen their hope and happiness
after the first democratic and free elections of their history on December 16,
1990, followed by the installation of their beloved president and leader,
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.  I have seen the growth of this young democracy and
the courageous efforts of the government of Aristide-Preval to root out
corruption and insecurity and to change useless public service into services
to the people.  I also qitnessed the bloody "coup d'etat" of September 30,
1991 and the dissillusionment of the Haitians who by this coup were robbed
of their hope and belief in a better future.  And then this new dictatorship,
installed by the leaders of the coup, more cruel than the one under the
Duvalier family.

What is alarming me is the role the American government seems to play in all
this.  That is the reason why I am willing to ask you a few questions.  Do you
really know what kind of actions your government is carrying out in countries
like Haiti?  Do you really know what the representatives of your country are
doing in Haiti?  I am sure you must hear about growing anti-American feelings
in many Third World countries as well as in Europe.  Did you ever ask
yourselves if there could be serious reasons for this?  Are you really sure
that the foreign policy of your government is serving the purpose of the
peoples concerned with these policies?  I have the strong impression that this
is not always the fact.  I have the feeling that these policies often serve the
interests of a small minority enriching themselves on the back of a powerless
people.

Do you know that the foreign policy of your government gives the strong
impression of being built upon bluff and lies?  How do you explain the
difference between official statements from either the President of the
United States or from the State Department and the concrete actions of the
American Ambassador in Port-au-Prince?  I am urged to express my deep concern
over allegations that the U.S. Embassy is close to those responsible for the
coup.  We receive information implicating the U.S. Ambassador to Haiti, Alvin
Adams, in "behind the scenes" support for the coup and the current illegal
regime.  The Buse Administration appears to be playing a double hand,
publicly applauding democracy but subtly moving to undercut it.  It seems that
the USA, being the only super-power in the world, purports to be the only
capable judge in all national and international conflicts.  All over the world
the USA is showing itself as the big defender of democracy.  What kind of
democracy are your leaders fighting for?  A type of democracy serving its own
interests, or a type of democracy as wanted by the concerned nations?  Do you 
really believe that the USA is the only real model of democracy?

I am impressed by the American motto as written on your money: "In God we
trust."  Don't forget that the Haitian people also are very determined to
trust in God.  Sometimes I ask myself if there could be a different God for
Americans and for Haitians.  In the name of which God is the American
administration doing all the injustices to the Haitian people, especially to
those thousands of refugees running from a cruel repression?  Everybody knows:
return to the Haitian people what belongs to them and for which they voted
with an overwhelming majority in the 1990 election, and there will not be one
more Haitian refugee.  Sometimes I believe that the President of the United
States has power enough to change the political situation in Haiti with only
one single word.

I know that in a couple of months you will vote for a new president.  I hope
you are free enough to make your choice for leaders able to serve the
interests of the American people and to defend the honor of the United States.

John D. Hoet, CICM................... August 5, 1992...........Haiti

#############################################

Similar perspectives on U.S. Ambassador Alvin Adams (reportedly headed for
Peru -- some hold that his original mission of installing Marc Bazin in the
palace had to be accomplished before he could move to "enhance" another
Third World democracy) have been widespread, particularly since the coup.
A more recent quote, from an April 1992 Newsday interview with would-be
coup-regime publicist/attorney Robert McCandless, described Adams as
"a rogue CIA-type ambassador.... who tries to run the country as a
plantation."  Adams is a Kissinger protege who cut his diplomatic teeth
in Viet Nam in the late 60's, was NSC staff under Kissinger, and so on...
I guess this stuff sort of follows a guy around...

For more information: Washington Office on Haiti, 110 Maryland Ave NE,
Suite 310, Washington DC 20002 (202) 543-7095 --- woh on Peacenet.

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