From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord@igc.org>
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Date: 20 Jul 92 09:34 PDT
Subject: Haiti Update
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1476700236:000:3318
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Jul 20 09:34:00 1992


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: Haiti Update

/* Written  8:42 am  Jul 20, 1992 by nicanetny in cdp:reg.nicaragua */

7. HAITI: REPRESSION GROWS, ARISTIDE PUSHES FOR NEGOTIATIONS
About 60 police and armed civilians attacked a meeting of 300
university students in Port-au-Prince on July 15, arresting
dozens and firing into the crowd, wounding seven. The meeting was
called by Haiti's largest student organization, the National
Federation of Haitian Students (FENEH), to protest the de facto
government established by a military coup last fall. [Inter Press
Service 7/15/92]  A week earlier a supporter of deposed President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Carl Henri Richardson, was arrested and
tortured in Jean Rabel in northern Haiti after his application
for political asylum was turned down by a US consular office. 
The Washington Office on Haiti calls for faxes to de facto Prime
Minister Marc Bazin (011-509-34-1980) and phone calls to the US
State Department (202-647-6575) to demand the release of
Richardson and the students. [WOH Action Alerts via NY Transfer
News Service 7/15/92, 7/16/92]  On July 15, the Dominican
Catholic station Radio Enriquillo told reporters that the
Dominican government threatened to shut it down if it didn't
suspend its Creole transmissions, which reach a large audience in
Haiti.  The station previously dropped its Creole news program
and now only broadcasts songs and biblical passages. [El Diario-
La Prensa 7/16/92]   

The new acts of repression follow a strong diplomatic offensive
by the Aristide government, which has named a 10-member
commission to negotiate with all sectors of Haitian society,
including the army and Bazin, in an effort to restore Aristide to
power.  The commission was to be preceded by an OAS (Organization
of American States) mission headed by OAS Secretary-General Joao
Baena Soares (although as of July 15 it was unclear whether the
mission would be allowed to enter the country). [IPS 7/15/92] 
Aristide talked to Assistant Secretary of State Lawrence
Eagleburger in Washington on July 10 in an hour-long meeting
described as "fruitful," and AP reports that "top Bush
administration officials were said to be enthusiastic about the
[Aristide] plan."  Haitian observers feel that the Aristide
forces have seized the initiative and made a preemptive move
against US charges of inflexibility.  Port-au-Prince Mayor Evans
Paul says that business sectors can't get their businesses going
"without social peace, and there won't be peace without
Aristide."  Others suggest that George Bush wants an end to the
Haitian crisis before the US election campaign starts in earnest.
[Haiti en Marche 7/15-22/92]

But the US may be keeping other options open.  During the June
29-July 2 Caribbean summit, Prime Minister of Dominica Eugenia
Charles called for a military intervention in Haiti and an
ongoing military presence to ensure peace and security for the
rest of Aristide's term. [Haitian Press Agency 6/29-7/5/92 via
Asociacion Latinoamericana de Informacion]  Charles, known as the
"Iron Lady of the Caribbean," was a leading supporter of the US
invasion of Grenada in 1982.  (It should also be noted that
Eagleburger, who is increasingly involved in the Haitian crisis,
is a former US ambassador to what was until recently Yugoslavia.)