Haiti’s Elected Mayors Dismissed, Illegally Replaced by Presidential Apointees

By Dady Chery
Haiti Chery
Back in May 2011, undistracted by Haiti’s 4.5-million dollar presidential inauguration, I sounded the alarm about a brewing legislative coup d’etat (1).

“Within five days of being seated and, in two meetings totaling less than 20 hours, Haiti’s newly assembled 49th legislature modified over 100 articles of the 1987 Constitution.
“This document was drafted and voted on so quickly that, when the parliamentary session closed, the president of the assembly had no time to reread to the lawmakers the amendments on which they had voted the two previous days.”

By contrast to these hastily crafted amendments, the 1987 Constitution had been approved by 90% of the voters in a popular referendum that followed the document’s publication in Creole and French. A hallmark of this Constitution was the decentralization of the government and reduction of executive power. Details the Constitution and proposed amendments are discussed in my article (1).

Haiti Wikileaks writer speaks in Canada on post-earthquake political situation

Kim Ives. Photo by Wadner Pierre

By Roger Annis
The following article was published on the Haiti blog of the widely-read web magazine in Canada, Rabble.ca.

February 7, 2012 -- Kim Ives, an editor of Haiti's largest circulation weekly newspaper, Haiti Libert?, recently completed a speaking tour to Winnipeg, Victoria and Vancouver, Canada, and Seattle, Washington in which he described the current political situation and outlook in post-earthquake Haiti.

The theme of his speaking engagements was Haiti: The Wikileaks Files. Ives is one of the lead writers, along with Dan Coughlin and Ansel Herz, of the series of articles published last year in Haiti Libert? and The Nation magazine based on revelations contained in nearly 2,000 U.S. government diplomatic cables that were provided to the two publications by the Wikileaks organization.

Haitian Judicial denies Duvalier's Crime Against Humanity

By Wadner Pierre

The former  Haitian President for life Jean-Claude Duvalier named as "BABY's DOC" to be tried not for the crime against humanity but for alleged financial crime. Human rights groups criticized the decision and qualified it as unfair and politically motivated.

There are several  members of Martelly's administration have  closely tied to Duvalier regime. The former dictator's son Nicolas Duvalier is working in the president's Cabinet.

Duvalier at age of  19 took over the power following the death of his father Francois Duvalier named as "Papa Doc." As his dad he proclaimed himself as the "president for life."

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay was disappointed after learning about  the decision. Pillay asked the Haitian  officials to guarantee that  the former dictator  is prosecuted for international crimes.

In a news briefing at  UNHCHR office  in Geneva Rupert Colville Geneva a spokesman for the office said ,"Very serious human rights violations including torture, rape and extrajudicial killings have been extensively documented by Haitian and international human rights organizations to have occurred in Haiti during the regime of Duvalier."