CLINTON ST. QUARTERLY By Enrico Martignoni | “Incidents o f severe brutal treat- | ment, verging on torture, have | occurred in Haitian prisons in the recent past, but torture does not appear to be practiced or condoned at present. ” State Department Report on Human Rights, February 1978. “Major Guillaume only threatened her with a whip, saying, ‘I have ways o f making people talk. ’ Then he brought in a Haitian woman and ordered her beaten so badly she had to be carried from the room. ” New York Tinies Magazine, May 10, 1978. “Brutality as opposed to deliberate torture has been used...to extract confessions and to impose discipline in prisons. ” State Department, 2/78. “One method occupied a special place in my fears. Prisoners, I recalled, were forced to squat, handcuffed, their arms clutching their legs. A stick is shoved between the arms and legs, and the prisoner is perched in mid-air, suspended between two high desks. The soldiers take turns beating the prisoner as he spins around like a pinwheel. ” Haitian businessman Patrick Lemoine in Inquiry, March 3,1980. “The (Haitian) Government also adhered to the American Convention on Human Rights and declared its intention tp respect legal norms in the treatment o f all fu tu re security offenders. ” State Department, 2/78. “A ll the while I tormented myself : wondering why I had spent 6 years | behind bars. What crime had I | committed? I was not tried in court, I | was not proven guilty, no sentence = was formally reached in my case. = How did the government profit by | my incarceration? I never came up with any answers. ” Patrick Lemoine, Inquiry, 3/3/80. “Legislation discourages sending economic aid to countries where ‘there is a consistent pattern o f gross violations, or murder, torture, and prolonged imprisonment without charge or trial. ’ ” New York Times 5/10/78. “Between fiscal 1975 and fiscal 1976, it (aid to Haiti) almost quadrupled — from $9.3 million to $35.5 million. ” NYT, 5/10/78. “Give me your tired, your poor, etc. ’’Statue of Liberty. “The Haitians are jailed, beaten, starved, and rarely granted asylum (in the US); yet some o f them still kill themselves rather than return. ” Inquiry, 3/3/80. Andrew Young Aaid a visit to Haiti in 1977; one montn later the Government boasted that all political prisoners had been released. “ An obvious lie,” said Patrick Lemoine, one of those released, “ I personally knew of several dozen political prisoners left behind.” In State’s 1978 report they mention that, “ several exiled opponents of the Government released in September 1977 claim that torture and deplorable conditions continue unabated.” Clearly, adherence to the letter of Carter’s human rights policy would decimate the ranks of our client states, Haiti is no exception. The days of our fascist and subfascist clients like Haiti’s ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier, Indones ia ’s General Suharto, and the Saudi Royal Family are numbered; yet the best we seem to be able to do is to reap as much profit as we can in the interim. JFK cut off all but humanitarian aid to Haiti in 1963. Aid was stopped because of the rampant corruption and persecution of political opponents by ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier. But social conditions deteriorated before ‘Papa Doc’ (when there was aid), under ‘Papa Doc’ (when there was no aid), and after ‘Papa Doc’ (when aid was resumed). In fact, Haiti’s exports in 1789 (the year of the French Revolution) were twice as large as its exports in 1979? coffee production in 1900 was five times today’s output. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, has the highest illiteracy rate (90%), highest unemployment, highest infant mortality, and a complete lack of political activity. What does all this mean? Haiti is goodfo r business! Haitians assemble 90% of all American baseballs and are paid $.38 a dozen to sew them, an average daily wage of $1.50. Assembly is the keyword for industry in Haiti; fabric cut in New York at $7 an hour is sewn in Haiti by people paid less than $2 per day. A ten year tax free status has attracted the makers of blue jeans and belts for Sears and J.C. Penny’s as well as bra makers, the manufacturers of fishing poles, car radios, light switches, radar for the FAA, and Gucci handbags. Duty on items exported from the US and then reimported is normal, contributing to a profit of $.385 for each US dollar invested in Haiti. International aid, which amounts to 10% of GNP, provides little relief for most Haitians. Their average daily income is $.87 and their average caloric intake is 85% of minimum requirements. 180,000 farmers farm 70,000 acres in Haiti’s ‘breadbasket’; in 1965 the railroad to Port-au-Prince was torn up and sold to the Japanese as scrap. In 1977 the US Agency for International Development (AID) decided to spend $8 million on 940km of farm-tozmarket roads, 40km have been built. AID has a major birth- control program in Haiti; during carnival an AID official stood on the roof of the US Consulate and threw 6000 multi-colored condoms to the swirling crowds. Many Haitians try to escape this pathetic situation by braving the 700 miles of ocean to reach Florida. 2500 came last year and 9000 are expected this year. Upon arrival they are imprisoned , beaten , starved , and refused political asylum. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) considers them economic refugees trying to cash in on the ‘good life’. Presently many are in jail, others are working illegally, and only 1% have been granted asylum. A Federal Judge in Miami is reviewing INS policy towards the Haitians, should he uphold it, many will be sent off to the dungeons of Haiti — from which no one returns. We readily accept refugees from Indochina and Cuba because they are “ political refugees” ; Haitians fleeing the tyranny of ‘Baby Doc’ must prove that they have been politically persecuted. How do you “ prove” that starvation, torture and imprisonment without trial constitute political persecution, especially in an American client state? One lawyer who works with the Haitian refugees bitterly suggests that the only means would be for the refugees to return to their homeland and face renewed persecution or, better still, have Duvalier send the State Department a letter which states, “ If this person comes back I will persecute him.” Such ironies are the fruit of a selective, myopic and largely hollow commitment to human rights by the Carter Administration. -guitars-amps-drums- •sound systems- major brands authorized music m on dealer horseshoe music,co. 2419se 39th portland, Oregon (503) 235-7095 226 N.WDavis, Portland 2234447 174 E.Broadway, Eugene 342-3366 Logo by Barry Curtis 21
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