Haiti: RNDDH Commits Slander Against Democracy Activist Sanba Boukman

Port-au-Prince, September 21, 2006 -- (AHP); The president of the national
commission for disarmament, dismantlement and reinteration (CNDDR), Alix
Fils-Aimé, Thursday called on the Haitian people to unite with the goal of
development.

Alix Fils-aimé, who spoke within the framework of the first conference of the
commission since its creation on September 12, said that he could not
understand why Haitians were ripping eachother apart whil other countries
could unite to see real achievements.

Stating that the violence was a threat to Haitian sovereignety, Fils-Aimé
called on all sectors to work towards a climate of sustainable peace.
"We must disarm all individuals and armed groups in Haiti," said the president
of CNDDR.

Alix Fils-Aimé also used the opportunity to reiterate that the commission does
not operate in a judiciary or policing role but as a facilitator to encourage
groups to lay down their arms. In this sense, he said, the awareness campaign will be run in business, schools and every neighbourhood.

Contact has been made with heads of the business sector to have all weapons
purchased for the safety of their business returned. The president of the commission also denounced a recent defamation campaign against the commission's representative for the popular neighbourhoods Jean
Baptiste Jean Philippe, aka Samba Boukman.

RNDDH has made the claim that Samba Boukman is accused of having been arrested for possession of illegal weapons and and other crimes, wanted by the police of Latortue. On the issue, Fils-Aimé recalled that under the previous regime, the police issued warrants with no regard for the law. He called for those responsible for the accusations to show physical evidence of the legitimacy of their
statements immediately; otherwise, they may face legal reprisals.
The presence of Samba Boukman within the commission is very important, said
Fils-Aimé.

It is RNDDH, an organization known to be close to the Latortue regime, who has
launched the defamation campaign. The organization is also accused of having dozens of executives and political activists arrested following the departure of Aristide, including the former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and artist Annette Auguste. They accuse Boukman of being the spokesperson for what they call operation Baghdad.

According to some youth in the area of Bel-Air, this pseudo operation was an
intervention of the Latortue regime to justify police extortion in popular
neighbourhoods.

The controversial human rights activist Pierre Esperance and his organization National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR), now RNDDH, refused to go into poor neighborhoods after the coup, which they explained to a Quixote Center delegation in March 2004. Esparance at the time of Aristide's ouster was a treasurer of POHDH, while his other organization NCHR received $100000 USD from CIDA, renewable every six months. Platform of Haitian Human Rights Organizations (POHDH) which received funding from the Canadian quasi-governmental agency "Rights and Democracy", is a partner with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

U.S. and Canadian government funded "human rights" groups have been used for years to spread false rumors about Lavalas activists and to undermine democracy in Haiti. RNDDH refuses to investigate crimes against the poor and they have attempted to undemine the recent study in the Lancet which shows massive human rights abuses by the Latortue paramilitary regime. They have made no attempt to investigate the mass murders carried out by the little machete army.