[news] There is No Political Persecution in Haiti

[Resist!ca]

Haiti Information Project June 12, 2005 There is no political persecution in Haiti. On June 11, Special Representative and Head of the U.N. Mission in Haiti Juan Gabriel Valdes, made a statement on Haitian radio stations declaring he had lived through the Pinochet dictatorship and, "compared to that experience, there is no political persecution in Haiti." Although his comment was broadcast throughout Haiti's capital, it was ridiculous enough to be ignored by the mainstream international media. More ominously, Valdes comments mirror those of Haiti's traditional economic and political elites, the very forces that are working to close the door on national reconciliation and to exclude Aristide's Lavalas party from participating in the upcoming elections. His words also represent a dangerous shift in U.N. policy in Haiti following what appeared to be a period of acknowledgement of the daily reality of political repression against Lavalas supporters.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2005/6/12/221644/738