The Deeper Roots of Haiti’s Economic Slavery: While Administration officials continually allege President Aristide’s mishandling of the Haitian economy, little mention is made of the devastating effects of U.S. enforced macro-economic policy on the nation of Haiti. IMF “structural adjustment” programs to which President Aristide was obliged to acquiesce as a condition of his reinstatement in 1994 have wreaked havoc on the Haitian economy and tied the hands of Haiti’s elected leaders, preventing them from achieving any progress in elevating Haiti’s people “from misery to poverty with dignity” as President Aristide has poignantly described.
Pax Christi USA is convinced that without a full, impartial examination and fundamental reorientation of the international community’s economic policies toward Haiti, no democratic political system can endure, and the economic slavery of the Haitian people will perpetuate the misery and political dislocation that has plagued Haiti for centuries.
Therefore, Pax Christi USA urgently calls upon United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to commission an impartial investigation into the specific effects of IMF/World Bank policies on the nation of Haiti, placing the lived experience of Haiti’s poor at the center of its analysis. Such a report should necessarily inform U.N. Development Program, IMF/World Bank, and other multilateral economic policies toward Haiti as a concrete effort to begin to address the underlying, long-standing, and currently insurmountable problems in the Haitian economy as a precondition for the Haitian people to build a lasting democracy, achieve genuine self-determination and exercise full sovereignty as demanded under international law.
President Jean Bertrand Aristide: Pax Christi USA members have been among those at the forefront of accompanying the Haitian people as they have struggled, first to overthrow the deadly U.S. installed Duvalier dictatorship, through its initial struggles to build a working democracy, and their unceasing efforts to regain that stolen democracy. Pax Christi USA, as the national Catholic peace movement in the United States, has had a longstanding relationship with President Aristide and his family from the time he was a beloved priest working with the poor and orphans in Cite Soleil, his ascendance to the Presidency, his years in exile and through his struggles upon returning to office. It is with deep sadness that we witnessed his departure, signaling as it did, the utter frustration that any leader guided by genuine compassion and a “preferential option for the poor” can expect to experience given the weight of U.S. economic and strategic policy toward Haiti. Similarly, we are saddened by the frustrations experienced by those elements of Haitian civil society who also genuinely seek to address Haiti’s myriad economic, social and political challenges in the face of overwhelming odds and constant U.S. interference.
As a duly elected President of a democratic republic who has been forced from office by political and economic terrorism, President Aristide must be accorded the continued respect and support of the international community. He and his family should be provided safe haven wherever they choose, including the U.S., and their continued security should be guaranteed.
The future of Democracy and Economic Self-Determination: In a time when terrorism occupies the consciousness of all peoples, and democratic aspirations and economic self determination animate the struggles of people the world over, the international community must awaken to the fragility of those aspirations as they are currently assaulted by the misguided and ultimately disastrous machinations of neo-liberal policies foisted by the strong upon the weak. While the future of the Haitian people teeters on this proposition, so too do the aspirations of poor and marginalized people in too many corners of our world. The recent developments in Haiti are a wake up call to the nations of the world. Political freedom, economic self-determination, human rights, justice and peace are the indispensable foundation upon which sustainable democracy must be built. To this end, the international community through all its manifestations, must begin to free itself from its stifling allegiance to narrowly conceived and demonstrably failed neo-liberal policies and the military and paramilitary enforcement those policies ultimately require. Peace, the aspiration of all people of good will, is the fruit of justice. As followers of the nonviolent Jesus, who consistently stood with those most marginalized in society in His time, Pax Christi USA remains committed to supporting this struggle for justice in Haiti and throughout our violence plagued world.
For more information or for interviews, please contact Haiti Task Force consultant Bob DellaValle-Rauth at 540-297-6493, delrauth@aol.com or Johnny Zokovitch at 352-219-8419, johnnypcusa@yahoo.com.
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