[All] Fwd: CoC-Guelph [ACTION]: Haiti needs emergency relief, not military intervention

[Robert Milligan]

FyI

Robert



Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dave Sills <dsills at sympatico.ca>
> Date: January 25, 2010 7:47:28 PM GMT-05:00
> To: undisclosed-recipients:;
> Subject: CoC-Guelph [ACTION]: Haiti needs emergency relief, not  
> military intervention
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> Please read the letter below and consider signing on to the  
> petition. Recall that, as a chapter, we have been following the  
> crisis in Haiti since democratically elected President Aristide was  
> forced to leave the country in 2004. In fact, three of the  
> signatories are well known to our chapter (Yves Engler, Kevin Pina,  
> Kevin Skerrett) with two of them having given talks here.
>
> Dave
> CoC-Guelph.ca
>
> ======
>
> Petition web site:
>
> http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/relief-not-militarization-for-haiti
>
> Haiti Action Network:
>
> http://canadahaitiaction.ca/
>
> ======
>
> Haiti needs emergency relief, not military intervention!
>
> 21 January 2010
>
> We, the undersigned, are outraged by the scandalous delays in  
> distributing essential aid to victims of the earthquake in Haiti.  
> Since the US Air Force seized unilateral control of the airport in  
> Port-au-Prince, it has privileged military over civilian  
> humanitarian flights. As a result, untold numbers of people have  
> died needlessly in the rubble of Port-au-Prince, Leogane and other  
> abandoned towns. If aid continues to be withheld, many more  
> preventable deaths will follow. We demand that US commanders  
> immediately restore executive control of the relief effort to  
> Haiti's leaders, and to help rather than replace the local officials  
> they claim to support.
>
> We note that obsessive foreign concerns with 'security' and  
> 'looting' are largely refuted by actual levels of patience and  
> solidarity on the streets of Port-au-Prince. The decision to avoid  
> what US commanders have called "another Somalia-type situation" by  
> prioritizing security and military control is likely to succeed only  
> in provoking the very kinds of unrest they condemn.
>
> In keeping with a longstanding pattern, US and UN officials continue  
> to treat the Haitian people and their representatives with wholly  
> misplaced fear and suspicion. We call on the de facto rulers of  
> Haiti to facilitate, as the reconstruction begins, the renewal of  
> popular participation in the determination of collective priorities  
> and decisions. We demand that they do everything possible to  
> strengthen the capacity of the Haitian people to respond to this  
> crisis. We demand, consequently, that they allow Haiti's most  
> popular and most inspiring political leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide  
> (whose party won 90% of the parliamentary seats in the country's  
> last round of democratic elections), to return immediately and  
> safely from the unconstitutional exile to which he has been confined  
> since the US, Canada and France helped depose him in 2004.
>
> If reconstruction proceeds under the supervision of foreign troops  
> and international development agencies it will not serve the  
> interests of the vast majority of Haiti's population. Neoliberal  
> forms of international "aid" have already directly contributed to  
> the systematic impoverishment of Haiti's people and the undermining  
> of their government, and in both 1991 and 2004 the US intervened to  
> overthrow the elected government and attack its supporters, with  
> devastating effects. This is why we urgently call on the countries  
> that dominate Haiti and the region to respect Haitian sovereignty  
> and to initiate an immediate reorientation of international aid,  
> away from neo-liberal adjustment, sweatshop exploitation and non- 
> governmental charity, and towards systematic investment in Haiti's  
> own people and government.
>
> We demand a much greater international role for Haiti's genuine  
> allies and supporters, including Cuba, South Africa, Venezuela, the  
> Bahamas and other members of CARICOM. We demand that all  
> reconstruction aid take the form of grants not loans. We demand that  
> Haiti's remaining foreign debt be immediately forgiven, and that the  
> money that foreign governments still owe to Haiti - notably the  
> massive sums extorted by the French government from 1825 through to  
> 1947 as compensation for the slaves and property France lost when  
> Haiti won its independence - be paid in full and at once.
>
> Above all, we demand that the reconstruction of Haiti be pursued  
> under the guidance of one overarching objective: the political and  
> economic empowerment of the Haitian people.
>
> Signed,
>
> Jean Saint-Vil, Canada Haiti Action Network
>
> Pierre Labossiere, Haiti Action Committee, USA
>
> Noam Chomsky, MIT
>
> Niraj Joshi, Toronto Haiti Action Committee
>
> Roger Annis, Canada Haiti Action Network
>
> Brian Concannon Jr., Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti
>
> BC Holmes, Toronto Haiti Action Committee
>
> Yves Engler, Canada Haiti Action Network
>
> Peter Hallward, Middlesex University
>
> Kevin Pina, journalist and film-maker
>
> Kevin Skerrett, Canada Haiti Action Network
>
> =====
>
> Petition web site:
>
> http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/relief-not-militarization-for-haiti
>
> Haiti Action Network:
>
> http://canadahaitiaction.ca/
>

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