Actualités

Letter to US president Barack Obama: The Haitian president is positioning himself to govern by decree, to impose on the Haitian people, against their will, a system that is like a backward dictatorship (NEHRO)

Stanley Lucas adviser of president Michel Martelly who wants to impose on the Haitian people a system that is like a backward dictatorship

Mr. Barack Obama
President of the United States of America
White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington DC 20500

Mister President:

We are writing in the name of the New England Human Rights Organization, an organization for the defense of human rights based in Boston, in the State of Massachusetts, to give you a picture of the sociopolitical reality of Haiti that appears today somber and that calls for all national and international consciences to help avoid a catastrophe that is shaping up at the horizon of this country of more than ten million inhabitants.

Ever since he rose to the highest office in Haiti, three and a half years ago, the Haitian President, Mister Joseph Michel Martelly, runs the country with no respect for the Haitian constitution. Some members of the parliament are arrested and humiliated while working. Attorneys-at Law are harassed, arrested in defiance of the law and cannot freely exercise their profession.

Peaceful manifestations are harshly repressed. The press is under attack. Both individual and collective freedom is in jeopardy. Special judges, with no training and without the required qualifications for the position are hired with the only goal to prosecute the citizens with dissenting political views. We are still waiting for elections that are three and half years overdue. The Haitian president is positioning himself to govern by decree, which is a grave violation to the law of the land.

A Minister of Justice uses his authority to throw in prison all those who say no to the disaster in the conduct of public affairs in the Republic.

Mister President,

We are writing this, as a Haitian American citizens who supported your candidacy and who continue to support you through “Organizing for Action”, to tell you that it is a critical moment in Haiti and that the permissiveness of your administration toward such a shady government puzzle us and we suggest that you appoint a Special Representative to help you collect the facts you might need.

 How come a government commissioner, who orders the arrest of a Haitian citizen for illicit drug traffic, gets fired because the drug dealer is a good friend of the President? Is it acceptable for the Haitian President to choose to spend time in the house of that drug dealer accused by the commissioner? Given the constant harassment the commissioner has been subjected to, he felt the need to seek refuge in Canada in order to save his life. Is it the rule of law when the president acts as if he was the state?

Furthermore, is it acceptable that a judge, who orders the arrest of a kidnapper’s wife for accessory, simply accepts that in the middle of the night and unbeknownst to him the authorities release the woman? Mister Martelly thinks he is the State and if someone is not with him, he has no right.

Mister President,

As we are writing this letter, political prisoners are left to rot in prison only because they have dared to ask the President to give some explanation on his conduct of the affairs of the country.

In January 2015, the President of the Republic of Haiti will govern the country by decree in order to impose on the Haitian people, against their will, a system that is like a backward dictatorship. Act as soon as you can, Mister President, to avoid this terrible outcome in Haiti.

There are enough crises in this world today. One more from Haiti is not truly necessary.

We painted this picture of the reality as thoroughly as we could in order to solicit an urgent intervention of your Administration to avoid complete chaos in Haiti.

We hope that you will fully understand and even accept our reasoning, Mister President

Respectfully yours,

Josué RENAUD, MS, MED
President of NEHRO

 Guy APOLLON, MSW, LCSW
Vice President of NEHRO

Gervens JANVIER
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