* * * HAITI INFO * * * News direct from the people and organizations of Haiti's democratic and popular movement 24 August 1996, Vol. 4, #19 *** HAITI INFO now has photos in every issue *** Contents: INSECURITY & CONFUSION BRIEF RESUME OF EVENTS ANGER OVER LACK OF JUSTICE MAYORS ON STRIKE World of Labor: TAXI DRIVERS PROTEST IMPROPER LAYOFFS REPORTED Close-up: THE JEAN-MARIE VINCENT FOUNDATION Stories: INSECURITY & CONFUSION PORT-AU-PRINCE, Aug 24 - The recent attacks on government buildings, arrests, assassinations, all taking place in murky circumstances where the details are not clear, has led members of the Lavalas movement to launch accusations against the government, the U.N. to minimize the right-wing offensive, and opponents of government to take advantage of the confusion to criticize Lavalas. [See Resume for a listing of major incidents and reactions.] But out of the confusion, and despite the charges and rising insecurity, which has left at least a dozen dead over the past few weeks, two sectors are emerging with clear messages: the Rene Preval government continues to push its neoliberal agenda forward, while, more and more frustrated over the government's "one-note tune," organizations in the democratic and popular movement are raising their voices with indignant criticism and calls for mobilization. [See JUSTICE story and Close-up for more critical positions.] Preval Cannot Be Distracted President Preval and his government have handled the situation by accusing ex-soldiers and their allies of plotting against the government, by making arrests at the headquarters of a putschist political party and by requesting bigger guns for the police (despite the many problems with that force). At the same time however, the government has stressed it will not be distracted from its the main objective since taking office: the parliament's ratification of laws which would enact neoliberal reforms that would supposedly then unleash hundreds of millions of dollars from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Speaking to Deputies on Aug. 20, Preval noted (again): "each time the government is about to have economic success, you see that there is political disorder to derail the economic success... Ask yourselves the question: why did they attack the parliament? It's because we have almost arrived at the vote on the last two laws so that at the end of August we can appear before the IMF. It's a way to make parliament not come to work." Yesterday he again met with lawmakers to set an agenda for the final passage of the laws. Although the most recent deadline was supposedly Sept. 3, this week Minister of Finance Fred Joseph let it slide again, saying "any time in September" would be fine. To keep the pressure on, this week Preval has also been hosting the Bolivian Minister of Capitalization, who has been meeting with many government and business sectors. Popular Frustration Rising The increasing insecurity, total absence of justice, lack of disarmament, rising prices and the government's sole focus on its neoliberal agenda continue to produce criticism. Today, Father Joachim Samedi attacked the justice system, called for the ridding of "faux Lavalassiens" and for "mobilization and organization." Oganizasyon Politik Lavalas-North criticized the central government for its inaction and said the police cannot provide security alone. "They should integrate the militants. They are the ones in the cities and in the mountains herding their animals!" he said. In Les Cayes and in the capital, members of popular groups erected barricades to protest the insecurity and government inaction. MANUH troops arrested one demonstrator in the capital on Monday. People threw rocks at the soldiers in response. In an interview on Radio Haiti Inter yesterday, the coordinator of Solidarite Ant Jen/Veye Yo harshly criticized the "anti-popular, anti-national" government for its dependence on the "big exploiting countries," and said that its leaders, many who were formerly part of the democratic movement, are losing legitimacy in the eyes of the population. The coordinator said recent events show the government's "incapacity to assure security" and called for people to mobilize and organize neighborhood watch groups. "I think we should draw lessons from the situation," he continued. "Even if the government talks about 'security' in the air, that is for one social category. [The government just announced new steps to protect banks.]... That's a choice the government made... It could not make any other, since it is the pet of the imperialists, of the bourgeoisie." "I am not going to lose time analyzing what the government should do... It made a choice, and so we cannot be anywhere else but opposed to the government," he said. "It is a struggle that has become necessary." SAJ/Veye Yo said the mobilization in La Saline shows that people are upset with the rise of the right-wing, that they "are ready to mobilize again" and that it is time to try to organize a popular front. The Platform of Haitian Human Rights Organizations criticized the government for never enacting disarmament and denounced Preval's use of the recent attacks to push forward his neoliberal agenda. "The Platform notes the erroneous and irresponsible character of such an interpretation," it said. "The economic measures are not in anyway justifiable in themselves, and even less, they are not going to make the political problems disappear." "Once again the Platform condemns the irresponsibility and laxity of the government concerning the repressive dissolved army... Did the government think it was capable of making these assassins adhere to the idea of democracy?" it continued, and concluded calling for the government to follow-up on the recommendations the Platform made last winter, re-evaluate its orientation "which tends to exclude the popular sectors from real political participation," and to analyze "the profound reasons" behind the rupture of the Lavalas movement. PHOTO: U.N. soldiers put out burning barricades erected in La Saline on Aug. 19 by angry and frustrated citizens. BRIEF RESUME OF EVENTS * 16 July: Ex-Gen. Claude Raymond is arrested for "subversive" activities. * 19 July: Ex-army Sgt. Andre Armand is assassinated. [See last issue.] * 26 July: 165 U.S. soldiers arrive, reportedly for a week (some apparently stay), and patrol the capital in heavy combat gear. The driver of a member of Preval's private cabinet disappears. (He is still missing.) * 4 Aug.: At night, gunmen shoot at people on Champ-de-Mars avenue, injuring at least 12. * 5 Aug.: In Cap-Haitien, thieves kill an employee and three guards of PROMOBANK when they hi-jack a vehicle containing 3.5 million gourdes. * 6 Aug.: Preval blames the insecurity on ex-FADH (Forces Armees d'Haiti) members. * 10 Aug.: Officials of MANUH (Mission d'Appui des Nations Unies a Haiti) meet with the executive to develop new security strategies. Patrols are supposedly stepped up. * 12 Aug.: A member of the Police Nationale d'Haiti (PNH) is killed and another wounded when they are ambushed near the capital. * 14 Aug.: Former FADH members call for Preval's resignation and threaten him not to arrest any ex-soldiers. * 17 Aug.: About 20 men, mostly ex-FADH, are arrested at the headquarters of Mobilisation pour le Developpement Nationale (MDN), a party which supported the coup, is violently anti- Lavalas, and has said it is ready to support the demands of ex- FADH. * 18 Aug.: In the night, about 20 assailants in olive-green attack the main Port-au-Prince police station, where those arrested on Saturday were being held, and Parliament with machine- guns and mortars, inflicting minor damage. They also fire toward the National Palace. One passerby is killed and two police officers injured. Shots are also reported around the home of Jean- Bertrand Aristide. * 19 Aug.: A unexploded grenade is discovered at a gas station and is defused. Popular organizations erect burning barricades in La Saline area to protest insecurity. * 20 Aug.: The U.S. Pentagon announces it is sending 50 U.S. Marines to protect the U.S. embassy. The embassy denies that, and says it is a routine, one-week deployment. The PNH issues warrants for MDN chief Hubert Deronceray and ex- Gen. Prosper Avril. Two MDN leaders, one the Number 2 man in the party, are gunned down. A law which would allow police to carry larger weapons is introduced to Parliament. On a tour covering La Saline, Parliament, PNH headquarters and Aristide's house, Preval announces the arrests at MDN foiled a major plot against the government by the forces "opposed to the economic reforms," and also announces some arrests were made within the Palace, with no further details. Mayor Emmanuel "Manno" Charlemagne says he has proof the Sunday attacks were "a set-up, a farce to justify the [MDN] arrests." * 22 Aug.: At night, an attack on Television Nationale d'Haiti. Gunfire and a grenade break windows. Ex-Mayor Evans Paul (FNCD) directly accuses the government of assassinating the MDN leaders, compares it to the Duvalier regime and calls for a "national conference." PANPRA, which supported the coup, calls for "a grand national compromise." U.N. Rep. Enrique Ter Host says "the past can never return" and downplays the attacks, which "do not put into question the democratic system or the political stability." * 23 Aug.: Preval meets with parliamentarians to discuss insecurity and stress the importance of voting on the neoliberal laws. Members and ex-members of FNCD disassociate themselves from Paul's accusations. Prime Minister Smarth says the recent attacks "bother us" but do not threaten to destabilize the government. PHOTO: President Rene Preval trying to reassure people about security in a marketplace near La Saline. PNH Chief Pierre Denize is behind him to the right. ANGER OVER LACK OF JUSTICE PORT-AU-PRINCE, Aug. 20 - As expected, organizations in the democratic and popular movement reacted angrily to the July 24 acquittal of Robert Lecorps and Jean-Rodique Antoine for the Oct. 14, 1994, assassination of Minister of Justice Guy Malary and two aides [see last issue]. The acquittals only confirmed what rights workers, popular organizations and others have been denouncing for almost two years, and revealed the anger and frustration at the government and its international tutors for the complete and cynical lack of justice. Anger and Frustration Rising Solidarite Ant Jen/Konbit Veye Yo issued an angry statement on July 26, denouncing the release of "criminals such as Bob Lecorps" and accusing the Lavalas sector, "most of whom are former revolutionaries converted into nation-sellers" who have no "project for improving the condition of the popular masses" and only "receive orders from their bosses," of treason against the people. "The reconciliation they are always singing about has permitted the macoutes, thieves and putschists to take over terrain. They are able to organize to create insecurity when they want," said SAJ/Veye Yo, ominously prescient of the escalation of insecurity over the past three weeks. "Observation: The people are alone at this crossroads. Today, the people are not duped any longer and are realizing that only they will be able to change their situation. On the 81st anniversary of the first invasion of the country [the U.S. Marines invaded on July 28, 1915], organizations that are struggling amidst the popular masses should reflect on how to relaunch the anti- imperialist battle again... which will permit the masses to see clearly their true enemy." They also condemned President Rene Preval for linking the insecurity with the popular struggle against neoliberal policies. [See page 1 story and also last issue.] The Jean-Marie Vincent Foundation bitterly noted: "The kinds of officials we have can in no way give justice to Jean-Marie nor the Jean Rabel peasants nor all the other victims on the death list, because their tutors, the Americans and the rest of the international community, cannot be judge and the accused at the same time." [See also p. 4] On July 28, about 50 members of Assemblee Populaire Nationale (APN) held a sit-in at the Ministry of Justice to denounce the "alliance of OPL [Oganizasyon Politik Lavalas] and the macoutes to block justice." Two months after their delegation was attacked by people reportedly under the direction of Le Borgne Judge Gaston Obas [see Haiti Info v.4 #15], and despite promises from Justice Minister Max Antoine, Obas remains in place, APN said, noting Obas was a Tonton Macoute leader and also Le Borgne mayor under the Duvaliers. "What is Minister of Justice Max Antoine doing in the Ministry, anyway?," APN asked. "The Americans let out Emmanuel 'Toto' Constant and refuse to hand over the 160,000 pages, videos and other things they stole. Criminals like Bob Lecorps and Gros Folio are freed, justice is being sold piece-meal, the Commission of Truth and Justice [CTJ] report is locked in a drawer, insecurity is taking over... Max Antoine sits with his two arms crossed, not doing anything!" Two commissions of Justice et Paix, rights committees attached to the Catholic church, also issued angry and damning statements. The Gonaives branch sent out a very negative six-month report card on the Preval administration on Aug. 7 entitled: "The Victims of the Coup d'Etat still the major forgotten ones by the new power." It directly criticized the President and Minister of Justice and said that, despite promises, after six months, "nothing has budged... no engagements have become concrete." The commission issued a long list of complaints, including the outstanding ones (the 160,000 pages in U.S. custody, the failure to release the CTJ report), but also noted that at the level of prosecutors offices, justices of the peace and others, "no cleaning out has been done," and at least one notoriously corrupt judge has even been promoted. The commission deplored the fact that the government has not enacted CTJ advice regarding the 1994 attack on Raboteau residents where at least a dozen were killed. "The CTJ said that the massive and systematic character of the massacre meant that it could be considered a crime against humanity," the commission said. "By not having undertaken any measures... the new authorities are proving that massacres... are of little importance to them." The Port-au-Prince commission released a statement on Aug. 12 denouncing the insecurity, the government's neoliberal policies, and saying that the July 24 acquittal shows "the justice reform the government was talking about is a failure." "That shows everyone that no other country can apply its own kind of judicial reform to the Haitian people," the commission said, referring to the U.S.-run "reform." Officials: Promises and Ducking As expected, those directly responsible for the outcome, nevertheless deplored the results, calling for "reform" and "measures." Preval, who acted surprised at the results and said "the Haitian justice system gave itself a slap in the face" and "must accept its responsibility for putting murderers on the street," announced shortly thereafter that he would like to close down the Ministry of Justice "for a short time, for restructuring," but to date, the ministry remains open and no plans have been announced. Antoine, who continues to call for "extraordinary measures," was called before Parliament to explain, and some lawmakers even demanded his resignation. He told lawmakers that there is "an inquiry... to discover who is responsible for the evolution of the session," dodging responsibility again, and offered no concrete steps. Neither mentioned the U.S.-directed US$18 million, five-year justice system "reform." MAYORS ON STRIKE PORT-AU-PRINCE, Aug. 21 - In their continued protests against the executive, city halls in two departments have closed down and mayors taken to the airwaves to denounce not being paid, the lack of decentralized services, and that the smaller cities, towns and rural areas in general are being ignored by the central administration. Artibonite Offices Closed Down The first strike came from the Association des Mairies de l'Artibonite (AMA), which groups together the 11 mayor's offices in the Artibonite Valley. All the offices in the department closed on Aug. 12 for one week. They re-opened Monday, Aug. 19, after discussions with the Interior and Finance ministries, but AMA is still not satisfied. "The ministers... said, 'The problem is resolved.' They think they have satisfied our demands because they have decided to pay us more. They say: 'Look how much we are paying them,'" Petite Riviere de l'Artibonite Mayor Dantes Riviere explained in an interview on Radio Haiti Inter yesterday. "But the ministries have falsified the sense of our struggle... We are not defending our pockets." "Our priority is the problem of taxes, of receipts," Riviere continued. "The revenues collected in the provinces should stay in the provinces. It is a problem of money for development. A problem of roads deteriorating and we can't find a tractor or even a dump truck to repair them." "People think the taxes are in our hands," but they are all sent to the capital, which then ignores the rural zones, he said. The AMA offices decided to open their doors again this week, but they are still demanding that the government carry through the "decentralization" it has promised, and that the executive publish the decentralization laws in Le Moniteur, the government bulletin where laws are supposed to be published, so that not only the public, but also the mayors, are made aware of the steps to be taken to deconcentrate government offices and services. [See also Haiti Info v. 4 #15] Offices in South Close, Too This Monday, the Association des Municipalites du Sud (AMUS) followed suit and announced its members were closing down all mayors' offices for two weeks. As in the Artibonite, South mayors agree that they are not providing the population any services, and a main reason is the strangle-hold from Port-au-Prince. In an open letter to the Minister of the Interior, Jean Moliere, whose ministry oversees the municipalities, AMUS said it disagreed with his decision to pay long-overdue back salaries based on the old budget and demanded municipal salaries based on the 1995-1996 budget, which was finally approved by the parliament but has never been formally presented to the public. AMUS demanded it be published in Le Moniteur and also announced it refuses to pay city employees for May or June based on the old figures. "If any of our demands are not respected, all of the mayors of the South department will resign," AMUS said. World of Labor: TAXI DRIVERS PROTEST PORT-AU-PRINCE, Aug. 22 - Taxi and tap-tap drivers' unions are calling for disobedience and threatening direct action to protest the recent decision to raise fees for driver's licenses and license plates, which they said is an underhanded and unjust way for the government to raise money, and is part of the government's neoliberal policies. Fees for license plates for most vehicles have gone up over 80 percent. For instance, plates for a 1301-1800 cc, four-cylinder vehicle went from 367.50 gourdes, about US$24, to 650 gourdes, or about US$42. "This pillaging state, that sucks on the bones of the people in order to profit the International Monetary Fund, owes the people an explanation," said Duclot Benissoit of Aksyon Nasyonal Chofe at a press conference set up by his and five other drivers' unions, and noted that the government unjustly and arbitrarily raises taxes, sets fees, and makes decisions without consulting the population. "The people, who have suffered a lot and continue to suffer, are completely cut off from this government," he said. "This is part of the privatization plans!" "The government has no program, it does not build roads, it does not build bridges, garbage is in the streets, drivers cannot circulate," noted Nally Beauharnais of Centrale Syndicale des Transporteurs Publiques. "If the government does not reverse this arbitrary decision," he said, the unions will resort to more direct actions like the strikes, barricades and other protests they undertook in 1986 and 1987. Several drivers' unions actively participated in the democratic movement in the late 1980s. In response, Jocelerme Privert, director of the Direction Generale des Impots (DGI), the tax authority, said today that the new fees were not set by DGI, but by parliament, in a package of fiscal laws they recently approved. "These are the elected parliamentarians, chosen by the people who gave them a mandate," he said. IMPROPER LAYOFFS REPORTED PORT-AU-PRINCE, Aug. 22 - Several assembly factories are violating rules by laying off workers with no warning, or by refusing to hand over severance pay. Caribbean Contractors, owned by Alex Tunier, laid off most of its 100 employees six weeks ago, but until today still owes a number of long-time workers - mostly women seamstresses, many who have been there from 10 to 20 years - severance. The workers' attempts, through the government Ministry of Social Affairs, to get the factory owner and manager to pay up have been unsuccessful. At Confection et Emballage, a plant owned by the Baker family, workers say an employee was given her layoff "pre-warning" the day that she was laid off, and was refused severance pay, in violation of the Labor Code. Her fellow employees protested on Aug. 9, 12 and 13. The management responded by firing one of them, Julio Duperval. Workers say they will continue to mobilize. Close-up: THE JEAN-MARIE VINCENT FOUNDATION Two years ago, at the gates of the Montfortain residence in Port- au-Prince, Father Jean-Marie Vincent was brutally assassinated. It was the last major putschist offensive before the U.S.-managed "Port-au- Prince Accord" and military intervention. The commando-style attack, well-planned and orchestrated from the very highest level, was not random. Vincent was known, respected and admired by peasant and popular organizations, ti legliz activists and others throughout Haiti and even in other countries, for his tireless work for justice, land reform, economic development and literacy. He was responsible for getting funding to many organizations and believed strongly in the importance of action and organizing. [See Haiti Info v.2 #25 for details of the assassination as well as a complete biography of Vincent.] The Foundation's Goals Within a month of the murder, friends, co-workers and family of Vincent founded the Fondation Jean-Marie Vincent (FJMV). "The foundation was set up to keep the spirit of Jean-Marie Vincent alive in the history of the Haitian people's struggle," explained Father Yves Voltaire, a member of the foundation. Voltaire said the founders are: family members, members of his "religious family" (the Montfortain congregation), friends, members of institutions (like FONHADES, Fonds Haitien de Developpement Economique et Social) and organizations (like Tet Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen) he helped found, or of the numerous peasant, youth, church and women's groups he worked with in consciousness-raising, popular education, development and literacy. "The foundation is there to support the activities and institutions that he and his collaborators started, and to encourage the birth of new institutions and organizations that will follow the same spirit of standing with the people struggling for their liberation, a spirit of linking faith with justice, a spirit of loving, of respecting people as people," he explained. "The grouping together of all those forces keeps his spirit alive." Foundation Activities Founded almost two years ago, the FJMV aims at coordinating activities of the groups and sectors that worked with Vincent, as well helping support them. Over two dozen institutions and organizations are part of the foundation, and have representatives in ten commissions on such activities as training for artisans, appropriate technology, justice and popular education. FJMV recently set up an executive committee and hired an executive secretary, explained Marc-Arthur Fils-Aime, assistant coordinator of FJMV and director of the Institut Culturel Carl Leveque. "We are still in a phase of setting up," he said. "But so far we have commemorated the assassination of our friend, and we have taken positions on the conjuncture, because we feel that is a way to truly respect Jean-Marie: by taking correct positions on the invasion, the occupation, the deterioration of the economic life of the masses." Since its founding, the FJMV has strongly denounced the occupation and neoliberalism. (Despite these correct positions however, there is an ambiguity and perhaps even a contradiction between the foundation's declarations and the actions of some of its members, who have remained very close to the Jean-Bertrand Aristide and Rene Preval administrations, meaning they don't seem to have problems with government policies.) In 1995, to commemorate the Sept. 11, 1988, St. Jean Bosco massacre, where at least 13 were killed and over 70 wounded, FJMV called for popular struggle against the "restavek" (child-slave) government (Aristide was president at the time), denounced the "economic plot against the Haitian people," and recalled what Aristide himself used to say at St. Jean Bosco, his former church: "In truth, in truth, capitalism is a mortal sin." On the fourth anniversary of coup, in a statement that called for mobilization against neoliberal reforms, the foundation also denounced impunity and the hypocritical presence of foreign troops: "A year after the military intervention in Haiti, when we see the big criminals circulating freely, without the rope of justice around their necks... we ask if the Multinational Force is not here to protect the big criminals!" To commemorate Vincent's assassination last year, the FJMV organized a week of activities, mostly around the capital, with conferences on such topics as land reform and the peasant struggle, liberation theology and justice, and a visit to the mass grave sites at Source Puante and Titanyen, where the military used to dump bodies of victims. This year, the foundation is focusing on the need "to continue the battle for justice, against impunity, against the high price of living, against the new form that foreign imperialism is taking," Voltaire said. In the week leading up to Aug. 28, the FJMV has organized a number of activities in the North and Northwest. In Cap-Haitien, FJMV will sponsor a radio program on injustice, literacy and other themes, as well as a press conference, a debate, and an exposition of local art and handicrafts. In Port-de-Paix, the Montfortain fathers, celebrating their 125th anniversary in Haiti this year, will open the Centre d'Animation Jean-Marie Vincent and hold a debate on the conjuncture with popular organizations and parliamentarians. In the capital, FJMV is holding a mass at Titanyen and an exposition of paintings and handicrafts by artists. The FJMV also just released a statement which illustrates once more the anger and frustration growing throughout the country and across all popular sectors: anger at the government for the lack of justice, for its neoliberal policies, and for its collaboration with the occupants, especially the U.S. Foundation Denounces Gov't "This week, we are celebrating the second anniversary of the death of our comrade in a political ambience that would make that content man very bitter. Today, many of his former colleagues that are directing the country are liquidating the riches and sovereignty of our dear Haiti," the FJMV said. "The short-sighted political line of the Preval/Smarth government is out to confuse our heads with its promises of economic modernization. What straight-thinking person would not want to modernize the country's economy? Except, the modernization they want to do is to sell off the country's riches to pay the Duvalierists' debts..." "The foundation denounces the American presence in the major ministries," the declaration continued. "It is so sad to know that the U.S. embassy has certain days when it meets regularly with a series of ministers to pass on their orders. We guarantee everyone, in the name of Jean-Marie, this is not a lie." The FJMV denounced the foreign troops here "to give the twins [Aristide and Preval] security," the government's insulting of China by its recognition of Taiwan, which rewarded it with grants and gifts, and the lack of land reform, "which has stayed on paper, since the foreign tutors are against popular participation." To conclude, the declaration denounced the neoliberal policies and said the "Foundation encourages everyone, every group, every institution that is fighting against macoutes..., against insecurity..., against the policies of the government that has gone down the path that those very same big powers who supported the macoutes want to oblige it to follow..., all efforts that help force the courts to give everyone justice." "We need to continue to believe in justice," explained Voltaire. "The same way, after many years, they were able to get some of the assassins of Bishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador, I am certain that that can happen for Jean-Marie, too... but it is not at all easy... There needs to be a popular mobilization to destroy this system." "We understand why there is no justice for Jean-Marie nor for the peasants of Jean Rabel nor anyone else," said Fils-Aime. "Those tutoring the government cannot be judge and accused at the same time. We think that they are implicated directly and indirectly in the death of Jean-Marie." According to Fils-Aime, "Real justice is not the style of this government. That will only come when people have control of political power," and the foundation, despite all of its limits, is there to try to assist in that process. "We simply can organize activities, help people have hope at the economic level, and that hope will reinforce them at the political and ideological level," he said. "It is that kind of accompaniment in the struggle that Jean-Marie used to give, through organizations, assistance so they could function and fly on their own... to go down that same path which will permit that one day the people re-gain their national sovereignty. It is not a victory for tomorrow. It is a long-haul struggle." [PHOTO: FJMV poster. Translation of text: "The werewolf-thug army, nation-sellers and pillagers from overseas devoured Father Jean-Marie Vincent. 28 Aug. 1994 - 28 Aug. 1996. Two years since the big enemies of the Haitian people riddled this valient man with bullets. THE CRIMINALS MUST PAY FOR THE BLOOD.] ABOUT HAITI INFO: * Haiti Info is published every two weeks in Haiti by the Haitian Information Bureau, an alternative news agency, and is edited by a group of committed individuals from democratic and popular sectors. * All articles Copyright HIB. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED. Please cite Haiti Info and send copies of usage. * Haiti Info is available by mail, and electronically via computer. Subscription rates range from U.S. $25 to $100, depending on location and method of reception. For subscriptions, other correspondence and help for journalists: Haitian Information Bureau, c/o Lynx Air, Box 407139, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 33340, USA. For electronic mail: hib@igc.apc.org.