Sovereignty and Justice in Haiti: Interview of Haitian Human Rights Activist

[magbana]

Further below are links to parts I and II of a very interesting interview of Lovinsksy Pierre-Antoine by independent Canadian journalist Darren Ell. Lovinsky is the highest profile human rights activist in Haiti. When the 2004 coup unfolded
Lovinsky had to run for his life as he explains in an excerpt from Part I below. I met Lovinsky about three days after he got to the US. We became good friends and comrades. On Augut 12, 2007, after meeting with an investigative delegation from the US focusining on human rights abuses in Haiti, he was abducted and has not been seen or heard from since.

These interviews took place in February and March of 2007.

"DE: You fled Haiti in 2004. Explain the reasons.

LPA: I left Haiti not only because my organization was very politically active, but also because I had led a relentless campaign against the return of the former Haitian army with an exhibition of 200 photographs, a traveling exhibition that I took around the country to remind people of the horrors committed by the former military, and to show that we were against the return of this military. Since the US government - via the CIA - used this same former army to carry out murderous actions against the Haitian population in 2003, followed by the coup of February 29th 2004, they were looking for me. I had to hide for several days.

DE: In Port au Prince?

LPA: Yes. I was eventually able to leave the country, ironically with the help of the American Embassy. I have a home in the US but I've never really lived there. I only go from time to time. When I was looking for a way out, I found out there was a plane that was leaving, a flight organized by the US. I had a connection with a sister-in-law who lives in the US and who works in a travel agency and I was told I could leave. But they arrested me. The US marines arrested me.

DE: In Haiti or in the US?

LPA: In Haiti.

DE: They were waiting for you at the airport?

LPA: No, they had told me to go to the Pétionville Club where all people leaving for the US were to meet. When they saw me, they had me arrested and led me to the American Embassy. They threatened me. It was a real psychological torture session led by Luis Moreno, the same man who went to the residence of President Aristide to threaten and kidnap him. When they finally let me leave the embassy, they told Radio Kiskeya who then broadcast that I was leaving and that the soldiers in the streets of Port-au-Prince should go to the airport to arrest me. Fortunately, there were Canadian soldiers guarding the airport and it was them who stopped the former Haitian soldiers from taking me. This was how I left the country."

More of Part I:
http://haitiaction.net/News/HIP/2_18_7/2_18_7.html

Part II:
http://haitiaction.net/News/HIP/3_4_7/3_4_7.html