(The following article is from the October 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
There is growing concern in Haiti and internationally about the disappearance on August 12 of one of Haiti's best-known advocates of human and social rights, Lovinsky Pierre Antoine.
Several days later, the Haitian National Police confirmed that Pierre Antoine was kidnapped. There has been no communication with alleged kidnappers for weeks now. As the silence continues, his supporters are increasingly concerned that the disappearance is a political act by the Haitian elite and its foreign backers to silence Pierre Antoine.
"If his disappearance is political," says Canada Haiti Action Network spokesperson Roger Annis, "the implications for democracy and political rights in Haiti are very disturbing."
Lovinsky was working as an adviser to a human rights investigative delegation to Haiti when he was kidnapped. On August 15, Annis and one other member of the delegation visited the Canadian embassy in Port au Prince to plead with the staff to issue a statement of concern about the kidnapping. The embassy refused, and has made no statement to date.
Lovinsky Pierre Antoine is a leader of the September 30 Foundation in Haiti, which campaigns to win the release of the hundreds of political prisoners still detained from the time of the illegal, 2004-06 "interim government." It also campaigns for the rights of the estimated 4,000 common prisoners, many of whom are imprisoned in violation of the country's constitution and legal code. The Foundation issued a stark public challenge to the United Nations in late July at the time of a visit to Haiti by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon: help us build a country of prosperity, or you're not welcome in Haiti.
"I and my colleagues in the Canada Haiti Action Network are concerned that the political space that opened up in Haiti following the February, 2006 presidential election would close if such kidnappings are not vigorously condemned and investigated," says Annis. "The violent overthrow of Haiti's elected government in February, 2004 and the foreign military and police occupation that followed has produced an economic and social calamity. That's what our delegation witnessed throughout the country. The Haitian people want an end to foreign intervention and they want their sovereign rights respected."
The Canada Haiti Action Network has appealed to Canadians to raise their concerns about Lovinsky Pierre Antoine's disappearance to the federal government and to the UN authorities in Haiti. For more information, phone the Canada Haiti Action Network in Vancouver at 778-858-5179.