Haiti Forum in Miami promotes Unity

By Michael Imasua | Jubilee USA Network

Father Jean Pierre answers a question.

Proclaiming Jubilee, a forum on overcoming the history of debt injustice in Haiti and Africa, was held in Miami on October 29.  It was a great example of how public education on Debt Cancellation for impoverished countries is reaching out to a diverse population.

The Jubilee USA Network, the Miami Dade NAACP and the Pan African Student Association of Miami Dade College did a great job hosting and kicking off the event. Over 100 people showed up and were exposed to truth about the history of debt and what they can do to help fight for justice in impoverished countries.

Several influential individuals attended, including Mr. Desmond Alufohai, Dr. Michael Lenaghan, Mr. Ed Cooke, Fr. Jean Pierre, Michael E. Imasua, Marleine Bastien, Dr. Bradford E. Brown, and representatives from Florida Senator Bill Nelson’s Office and Florida Congressman Kendrick Meek’s Office.

While it was interesting to hear all the debt experts’ initiatives, I felt this was the most informative community forum I have ever been a part of. It was refreshingly new and unique to both myself and the general public. I was proud to take part in this educational forum as a member Jubilee USA Network, Florida Liaison of Jubilee USA Campaign, and the Founding President of the Pan African Student Association of Miami Dade College. The evening was inspiring and enlightening. It promoted a sense of unity in a sometimes seemingly fragmented world.

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[The Irony of Stanley Lucas Talking about Democracy]

SourceWatch writes:

Journalist Max Blumenthal said of Lucas: "IRI's program in Haiti has been probably its most bellicose thanks to Stanley Lucas. ... He was schooled in Haiti's finest schools with members of the mulatto elite. At the same time, he comes from a wealthy land owning family close to the Duvalier regime, which ruled Haiti with an iron fist for decades. His family is close to the military. Two of Stanley Lucas's cousins massacred -- organized a massacre of 250 peasants, in 1987, who were protesting for land reform after the Duvalier regime crumbled. ... It was a terrible massacre documented by Amnesty International and described to me by someone who witnessed it firsthand. ... He is a judo master who allegedly trained the military in counter insurgency tactics after the Duvalier regime collapsed. He was hired [by IRI] in 1992. ... When I asked IRI's communications director why he was hired, he refused to tell me why, or what his duties consisted of between 1992 and 1998. A lot of people I spoke to suspect that Stanley Lucas is a CIA asset, including former ambassador -- former U.S. Ambassador in the region." [4]

Blumenthal said that a source of his "who lived with Lucas, working with Lucas, in Haiti, told me he saw documents indicating that while Lucas was working for IRI, he was being paid by Michelle Francois, who was a notorious FRAPH [paramilitary] leader. ... [Lucas] lobbied for the opposition to Aristide and managed to tie quite a bit of funding to them and introduced a number of Aristide's most virulent opponents to powerful Republicans in Washington. When IRI's campaign to destabilize Haiti began in earnest in 1998 with a $2 million grant in mostly taxpayer money from the U.S. Agency for International Development, Lucas hosted some of Aristide's most virulent opponents in political training sessions. What he did was he merged all of these disparate groups into one big party called the Democratic Convergence." [4]

Blumenthal added, "At the time, the U.S. Ambassador, who was named Brian Dean Curran, a Clinton appointee, who was a highly respected career diplomat, uncovered evidence that Stanley Lucas was the one encouraging the Democratic Convergence to reject the compromises and to stay out of the democratic process. When he presented this evidence to the U.S. Agency for International Development, and he asked them to block Stanley Lucas from the program, Bush's Assistant Secretary for the Western Hemisphere, Roger Noriega, apparently stepped in, and ... Lucas was barred for four months, but after four months, he was back. ... When Lucas returned to the program, he retaliated against Ambassador Curran. What he did was he spread salacious rumors in Port-au-Prince ... and in Washington about Curran's personal life. ... Lucas threatened two embassy officials and told them they would be fired once the real -- 'real' U.S. policy was implemented." [4]

[Stanley Lucas]

U.S. officials pressuring Haiti to hold critical elections Sentiment for sanctions grows as negotiations on local, parliamentary Remain stalled
Author: Don Bohning Knight Ridder Newspapers
Publish Date: March 31, 2000
Word Count: 833
Document ID: 0ED8221B319E03E8

The talk is getting tougher and patience growing shorter, within the Clinton administration and on Capitol Hill, over continued delays by Haitian officials in holding critical legislative and local elections.

And the longer the elections remain stalled, the more sentiment grows for possible sanctions against Haiti, both at the multilateral and bilateral level, including economic and diplomatic isolation and the denial of U.S. visas to those seen as obstructing the democratic

[Stanley Lucas]

Statement by IRI President Lorne Craner Responding to The New York Times Article "Mixed U.S. Signals Helped Tilt Haiti Toward Chaos"
"Walt Bogdanich's piece (The New York Times 1/29/06) reads like a bad college thesis. Bogdanich strings together disparate allegations to prove a hypothesis, repeatedly leaving out inconvenient contradictory information.

"The article's core charge – that IRI in Haiti 'undercut the official United States policy and the ambassador assigned to carry it out' – is based on accusations by former U.S. Ambassador Brian Dean Curran. The only support for Curran's charge comes from former associates of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and an accused death squad leader. All are dubious sources, and all have ample motivation to criticize IRI. Omitted from the article is any mention of Curran's predecessors or successors as ambassador to Haiti, none of whom has criticized IRI's work. Moreover, none of Curran's superiors – policymakers Otto Reich, Roger Noriega or Colin Powell – express any belief that IRI 'undercut the official US policy,' and none offer any criticism of the Institute's work in Haiti. In fact, for more than a decade, through both the Clinton and Bush Administrations, our work in Haiti has been judged sufficiently meritorious by the U.S. government that we have received funding to work there whenever we requested it.

"If a picture is worth a thousand words, these contradictions are best illustrated in one of the article's accompanying photographs. The photo, sent by IRI to The New York Times, showed three people: Lorne Craner, Stanley Lucas and then-U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Tim Carney (Curran's predecessor). During the event at which the picture was taken, Carney praised IRI and its work. His words, sent to The New York Times, were omitted from the article. Most disturbing, however, is that Carney himself was cropped from the picture before it ran – again, because his presence would have contradicted Bogdanich's hypothesis.

"We, in the United States, have prospered under democracy. And, we wish to share our democratic ideals with our neighbors and with other nations of the world. We realize that each nation is unique, but all nations can benefit from adapting the principles of democracy to their own society. This is why the International Republican Institute is here in Haiti-to work with local Haitian political leadership to help develop a strong, viable, pluralistic democratic society in the Republic of Haiti," then U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Tim Carney, opening of the Political Party Training and Information Center in Petionville, Haiti, August 1998.

"IRI has many more examples of omitted information, which will be forwarded to The New York Times' ombudsman.

"IRI did not undermine U.S. policy in Haiti. Nor, as a U.S. Agency for International Development Inspector General's report showed, did we consort with rebels in President Aristide's overthrow. As Colin Powell has stated, Aristide was 'a man who was democratically elected, but did not democratically govern, or govern well. And he has to bear a large burden, if not the major burden, for what has happened.'

"The most disappointing thing about this article is that it will spur on the kind of events The New York Times has covered in the last few weeks – the shutdown of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Russia and elsewhere. It will be used by authoritarians overseas, from Robert Mugabe to Alexander Lukashenko to Islam Karimov, to justify expelling western human rights and democracy NGOs and to persecute those with whom they have been associated – brave souls who yearn for freedom."

[Remember the Embargo on Aid?]

This is a very amazing response above. Stanley Lucas was representative of the IRI International Republican Institute in Haiti during Aristide's second term in office. The IRI was one of the major groups that backed an embargo on aid to the government of Haiti - this lost the government of Haiti hundreds of millions of dollars for the basic healthcare programs and social services.

It would not be a difficult at all to make the connection that Stanley Lucas and the IRI have the deaths, illnesses and diseases of tens of thousands of people on their head.
These are true criminals that will never be put on trial, just like Louis Jodel Chamblain, Gerald Latrotue and the rest. Walt Bogdanich exposed Lucas in the New York Times well researched article. http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Haiti/MixedUSSignals_HaitiChaos.html
or read the new book by Randall Robinson.

[Stanley Lucas]

I am very supportive of the forum you want to organizae on the elimination of debts of impoverished countries. The fight should be on two fronts:
1. cancellation of the debts of impoverished countries, and
2. accountability. In the case of Haiti, Jean Claude Duvalier stole $800 million from Haiti's treasury from 1971 to 1986 (Leslie Delatours's report) and Jean-Bertrand Aristide stole $350 million from 1990 to 2004 (Senator Paul Denis's Report). To date none of them have been brought to justice and they dared to regain power. In contrast, Peruvian officials recuperated the #40 million stolen by former President Fujimori and now he is facing justice in his country.
Stanley Lucas
www.solutionshaiti.blogspot.com