From: hrcoord@igc.apc.org (Human Rights Coordinator)
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Subject: HAITI: CAMPAIGNER FOR DEMOCRACY SHU
Date: 4 Jan 93 13:42:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1476700924:000:6467
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Jan  4 05:42:00 1993


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: HAITI: CAMPAIGNER FOR DEMOCRACY SHU

/* Written 12:04 am  Dec 29, 1992 by newsdesk@igc.apc.org in igc:ips.englibrary */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: HAITI: CAMPAIGNER FOR DEMOCRACY SHUTTLES BETWEEN EMBASSIES


an inter press service feature

by ives-marie chanel

port-au-prince, dec (ips) -- evans paul, the mayor of haiti's
capital city, this year won the ''letellier-morfit prize'' for
the courage he has shown in the struggle for democracy, but the
price has been high -- he has been living underground for the
past 14 months.

paul, who has been a campaigner for political and human
rights since the 1970s, has virtually become invisible since the
coup which toppled president jean-bertrand aristide on sep. 30,
1991.

he occasionally surfaces to meet with other members of a
presidential commission appointed by aristide to negotiate a
return to democratic rule in the caribbean island.

but most of the time, this mayor without a town hall shuttles
between the french and canadian embassies and residences known to
only a select few.

evans paul was forced to seek the protection of the two
embassies after he was arrested and mistreated at the
port-au-prince airport on oct. 7, 1991.

he had not been trying to flee haiti, but was among a group of
local political leaders bound for caracas -- where
president-in-exile aristide has his operational base -- to meet
with venezuelan president carlos andres perez to discuss a way
out of his country's crisis.

living underground is nothing new for the 37-year old mayor,
whose political career began in 1976, when 10 people were gunned
down by soldiers at a football match between cuba and haiti.

his younger sister was among them.

it was at her funeral that he launched his public struggle
against political and rights abuses with a speech in which he
lambasted the authorities and described the military as ''savage
beasts.''

but the roots of his commitment to the struggle against the
abuses for which haiti has long become notorious date back much
further than that: he told ips that it was his childhood in a
family which suffered much from repression that led to his
involvement in politics.

long before his sister died from the bullets of the forces
which acted with impunity under the successive dictatorships of
late president-for-life francois duvalier and his son,
jean-claude, evans' father was among the first wave of suspected
or proven duvalier victims. (more)
----


alexandre paul had been a known supporter of daniel fignole --
a populist presidential candidate at the 1957 elections. paul
senior disappeared in 1958, one year after francois duvalier won
the elections.

evans, born in port-au-prince on nov. 26, 1955, was then just
over two years old. he said his father's disappearance made him
an anti-duvalierist in thought at a very early age.

moreover ''at home my mother often criticized the regime. it
is truly my personal history which brought me into politics,'' he
told ips.

as duvalier constructed terror into a system and a pillar of
his permanence in power, evans' mother, athemise clainvil, began
to fear for her life.

that, and economic problems prompted her to flee
port-au-prince for morne rouge, an area near cap haitien, haiti's
second city. she took her two sons with her.

paul attended primary school near cap-haitien and secondary
school in the capital. constraints linked to his political
commitment forced him to cut short studies at the faculty of
ethnology of the university of haiti.

in 1977, he took his criticism of the jean-claude duvalier
regime to the radio, in a programme he ran on ''radio cacique,''
a small but popular radion station in the haitian capital.

but evans paul did not confine himself to one medium to get
his message against dictatorial rule across.

in 1978, a drama troupe he formed reaped huge success in
haiti's two biggest cities with ''debafre,'' a play in which he
questioned the social, political and economic system in the
caribbean country.

the play led the authorities in cap-haitien to ban evans and
his troupe from the town.

then, in 1979, he had his first run-in with the haitian
military: on nov. 9 of that year, he was arrested in a police
crackdown against participants in a conference organized by the
haitian human rights league. (more)
----


on his release, he left for the united states, but his return
to haiti a few months after was followed by a second arrest -- on
oct. 16, 1980. accused of ''fomenting a plot against the security
of the state,'' he was held for 10 days by the police (a branch
of the military) and severely beaten.

fearing for his safety, he went underground for two years,
resurfacing in 1982.

at that moment, evans paul decided to change his political
tactics.

''i turned away from the radio as a means of expression and
communication for organized struggle,'' he told ips. explaining
his decision, he said ''on the radio, people listen to you, you
have an audience. there are many people who agree with you. but
you often find yourself alone.''

a second period underground began in october 1985 when he was
again sought by the police on suspicion of involvement in an
anti-government plot. this did not prevent him from participating
in the main political activities which led to jean-claude
duvalier's fall on feb. 6, 1986.

these included the first anti-duvalier demonstrations ever
held in the haitian capital, which he organized along with other
political activists, one of whom was parish priest jean-bertrand
aristide.

six years later the parish priest was to become haiti's first
democratically elected president.

evans paul and his companions also distributed audio cassette
tapes containing messages and news to the population after the
duvalier government closed down the independent media weeks
before a wave of popular protests led to the dictator's flight.

after duvalier's demise, evans paul created the ''democratic
unity foundation,'' (kid -- creole acronym), participated in the
formation of neighbourhood committees aimed at bringing about
true democracy in haiti, and was generally seen as a potential
leader of the caribbean country.

but the end of duvalier's rule did not mean the end of the
future mayor's suffering at the hands of haiti's repressive
apparatus. (more)
----