[HaitiReport] Haiti Report for March 5, 2008
 
Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2008 15:42:14 -0600 (CST)


Haiti Report for March 5, 2008

The Haiti Report is a compilation and summary of events as described
in Haiti and international media prepared by Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY.
It does not reflect the opinions of any individual or organization.
This service is intended to create a better understanding of the
situation in Haiti by presenting the reader with reports that provide
a variety of perspectives on the situation.

To make a donation to support this service: Konbit Pou Ayiti, 7 Wall
Street, Gloucester, MA, 01930.

IN THIS REPORT:
- Haiti's image of fear 'a big myth' to some
-  Protesters March on Anniversary of Aristide's 2004 Ouste
- Haiti's Parliament Rejects No-Confidence Vote Against Prime Minister
- Laura Bush to Visit Haiti
- Influential Montreal Gang Leader will be Deported to Haiti
- Argentinean President to Visit Haiti
- Members of US Congress Urge Suspension of Debt Service Payments from
Haiti
- IMF Completes Second Review of Haiti's Economic Program Under the PRGF
- Mother and Daughter in FL Charged With Having  Slave in their Home

Haiti's image of fear 'a big myth' to some:
U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti say they are battling an image of fear that
is keeping the Caribbean nation mired in hunger and disease, with
little hope of attracting foreign visitors and investment. Forbes
magazine has named Haiti one of the world's 10 most dangerous
destinations, along with Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. The Associated
Press has called Port-au-Prince the kidnapping capital of the
Americas. The U.S. government maintains a perpetual travel warning on
Haiti, while diplomats, journalists and aid workers spend much of
their time holed up in fortified hotels.

The image stems largely from two violent years after the 2004 U.S.
ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide when the slums of Port-au-
Prince erupted in gunbattles between gangs, Haitian police and U.N.
peacekeepers, plus a wave of kidnappings. Today, Haiti's reputation is
undeserved, say security analysts and officials from the U.N.
peacekeeping mission. They argue that Haiti is no more violent than
any other Latin American country. "It's a big myth," said Fred Blaise,
spokesman for the U.N. police force in Haiti. "Port-au-Prince is no
more dangerous than any big city. You can go to New York and get
pickpocketed and held at gunpoint." Reliable statistics are scarce in
Haiti, but U.N. data indicate that the country could be among the
safest in the region. The U.N. peacekeeping mission recorded 487
homicides in Haiti last year, or about 5.6 per 100,000 people. A U.N.-
World Bank study last year estimated the Caribbean's average homicide
rate at 30 per 100,000, with Jamaica registering nearly nine times as
many  49 homicides per 100,000 people  as those recorded by the
United Nations in Haiti. In 2006, the neighboring Dominican Republic
notched more than four times more homicides per capita than those
registered in Haiti: 23.6 per 100,000, according to the Central
American Observatory on Violence. Even the United States would appear
to have a higher homicide rate: 5.7 per 100,000 in 2006, according to
the U.S. Justice Department.

"There is not a large amount of violence [in Haiti]," said Gen. Jose
Elito Carvalho Siquiera, the former Brazilian commander of the U.N.
military force in Haiti. "If you compare the levels of poverty here
with those of Sao Paolo [Brazil] or other cities, there is more
violence there than here." The U.N. peacekeeping mission, known as
Minustah, arrived in Haiti in June 2004, three months after U.S.
troops whisked Mr. Aristide into exile amid an armed rebellion. The
U.S.-backed interim government then waged a campaign against Mr.
Aristide's supporters, igniting two years of gunfights in Port-au-
Prince's slums. A wave of kidnappings also swept panic through the
capital. From 2005 until 2006, Minustah registered 1,356 kidnappings.
Kidnappings have become common in many Latin American countries, but
were rare in Haiti before Mr. Aristide's ouster. "The kidnappings
shocked everyone because they hadn't happened in the past," said Mr.
Blaise, the U.N. police spokesman. "Still, when you compare the number
of kidnappings here, I don't think it's more than anywhere else."

Security improved markedly last year. The number of kidnappings
dropped by nearly 70 percent, and the U.N. peacekeeping mission
wrested control of Port-au-Prince's battle-torn slums from armed
groups. President Rene Preval, elected in a landslide in February
2006, has mollified Haiti's political opposition. Gunshots are now
seldom heard in Port-au-Prince. Violent crime in the countryside has
always been rare. Attacks on foreigners are few and far between, and
in recent months American Airlines flights from Miami to the capital
have been packed with Christian missionaries and aid workers. Even
when the instability was at its peak, observers say, violence usually
was limited to a few Port-au-Prince slums. "If you compare Haiti to
Iraq, to Afghanistan, to Rwanda, we don't even appear on the same
scale," said Patrick Elie, who heads a government commission studying
the creation of a new security force. "We've had a tumultuous history,
that is true, one characterized by political instability," said Mr.
Elie. "But except for the war that we had to wage to obtain our
freedom and independence from the French, Haiti has never known a
level of violence comparable to that which has been waged in Europe,
in America and the European countries in Africa and Asia. Our country
has been one of the least violent."

Viva Rio, a Brazilian-based violence reduction group that came to
Haiti at the request of the U.N. mission's disarmament program, has
found Port-au-Prince's armed groups more receptive than those in Rio
de Janeiro's slums. Last March, the organization persuaded warring
gangs in Bel Air and neighboring downtown slums to sign a peace
treaty, in which they swore to abstain from violence in exchange for
youth scholarships. Since then, the area has been peaceful. "This
would be unthinkable in Rio," said Rubem Cesar Fernandes, Viva Rio's
director.

The humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders classified the
"raging violence" in Port-au-Prince as one of the world's 10 most
underreported stories in 2006. Even then, only one of every 10
patients at its trauma hospital was the victim of a bullet wound. Most
had been injured in car crashes and domestic accidents. "It's not the
insecurity, not the bullets, not the conflict between gangs and
police," said Yann Libessart, the former head of the Doctors Without
Borders mission. "What's killing people in Haiti is not being able to
give birth to a baby in a hospital or not having access to medical
care because they don't have enough money to pay."

While the international community has made security the priority, the
dominant concern for most poor Haitians is the rising cost of food.
The prices of staples such as rice and beans have nearly doubled in
the past three years, a devastating trend in a country where about 80
percent of the population earns less than $2 a day. "Our problem isn't
violence," said Yvner Meneide, an artisan living in downtown Port-au-
Prince. "If we were violent, we would organize demonstrations every
day, we would be destroying things. But the Haitian people are very
moderate. We might be hungry, but we are calm." (Washington Times,
Reed Lindsay, 3/4)

  Protesters March on Anniversary of Aristide's 2004 Ouster:
Protesters jammed the streets of Haiti's capital Friday to mark the
fourth anniversary of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's
ouster, with thousands marching to the presidential palace to demand
his return from exile. Supporters climbed hills and crossed bridges
over garbage-filled canals in the slums of Port-au-Prince, dancing and
singing, "Our blood is the blood of Aristide. We will not betray him."
The peaceful crowd, estimated by police at 5,000, also criticized
President Rene Preval and the U.N. peacekeeping force that has been in
place since Aristide's departure, blaming them for rising food prices
and rampant unemployment. "Preval knows that if Aristide comes back,
he will be the leader of the people here," said Wilson Mesilien,
coordinator of the pro-Aristide September 30 Foundation. Like many
protesters, he wore a T-shirt demanding the return of foundation
leader Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, a human rights activist and critic of
both U.N. and U.S. involvement in Haiti who disappeared in August.
Supporters say Pierre-Antoine received threats beforehand because of
his ties to Aristide. Some marchers toted papier-mache coffins
representing international groups such as the U.N. and the
Organization of American States, which has been criticized for its
involvement in Haiti elections. Not all supported the demonstration. A
street vendor watching the crowds in the Bel Air neighborhood shouted,
"You're trying to put the egg back into the chicken." Marchers shouted
back, "He will return!" (AP, 3/1)

Four years to the day since the ouster of Haitian President Jean-
Bertrand Aristide, 5,000 of his supporters marched Friday down the
streets of Port-au-Prince to demand his return from exile to a country
still politically fragile and economically struggling. Chanting
Aristide's name and waving signs, marchers took their protest to the
gates of the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince and Haiti's National
Palace to remind President Reni Prival -- a one-time supporter of the
former priest -- that Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas party helped elect him
two years ago. ''I believe he heard us,'' said marcher Jean-Michel
Porfil, 32. ``The people . . . are hungry. They don't have work, but
they protested because their president isn't here. We are asking for
him to be returned.'' Aristide's supporters each year have marked his
abrupt departure with his wife and a small contingent of bodyguards at
his side amid an armed uprising, just after dawn Feb. 29, 2004.

Haiti under Prival continues to struggle toward normalcy even though
the political tensions that led to Aristide's ouster have eased.
Institutions are still weak, poverty is still high, the cost of living
is rising, unemployment is rampant and social divisions run deep.
''The sense of an explosion is not there, probably because the elite
has accepted Prival,'' said Robert Fatton, a Haiti expert and
political science professor at the University of Virginia who recently
visited his Caribbean homeland. As recently as Thursday night,
lawmakers demonstrated what experts said was political maturity by
declining to censure Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis. Despite
their stated dissatisfaction with the economy and the slow pace of the
government, the lawmakers decided now is not the time to risk
instability. And that, say Haiti watchers, is to Prival's credit.

''We have great cause for optimism [because] over the past two years
in large part, miraculously, Prival has been somehow able to govern
from the middle,'' said Robert McGuire, director of the Haiti Program
at Trinity College in Washington. Prival ''seems to be focusing on
holding the middle, keeping the peace and by so doing not exacerbating
the polarization that almost destroyed Haiti from the beginning of the
century to 2006,'' he added. But that doesn't mean Haiti can't
''descend into hell'' once more, both McGuire and Fatton said, noting
that such an explosion would create the kind of opening that
Aristide's supporters need to win his comeback.
''The only way Aristide can succeed in making a comeback is if Prival
fails,'' McGuire said. ``It's in the interest of everybody in Haiti
that Prival succeeds because no one wants to descend into hell again.''

The Rev. Girard Jean-Juste, a Miami Haitian community activist and
longtime Aristide supporter, said Prival needs to take an active role
in the former president's return. ''Prival should be in touch with
[South African President Thabo Mbeki] and both work it out together to
allow a safe return of Dr. Aristide. That's what we are looking for,''
said Jean-Juste, who led a rally for Aristide's return Friday night in
Little Haiti. Porfil, the Aristide supporter in Haiti, says the people
know that ''he can't be president again.'' But that doesn't stop them
from wanting him home. ''He did a lot of beautiful things in Haiti; he
built hospitals, schools,'' Porfil said. Aristide said almost the same
thing earlier this year in a speech from South Africa, where he has
kept a low profile while teaching at a university and recently
receiving a Phd in African languages. In his videotaped speech,
broadcast on the Internet, he never referred to Prival by name but
said that despite voting for hope -- Prival's party is named Hope --
Haitians have found only hopelessness.

His supporters have been careful with their criticism of Prival,
underlining the delicate challenge facing Fanmi Lavalas as it fights
to rebuild and gain a political foothold with a fragmented base and a
relatively popular president. In the aftermath of Aristide's ouster,
''our members were killed, and jailed. It's still a precarious
situation,'' physician Maryse Narcisse, a former member of Aristide's
government who served as his spokesman after he fled into exile, said
recently in Port-au-Prince. ''We want to remind people that what
happened to our president was a coup d'etat against the Haitian
people, their vote and Fanmi Lavalas,'' she added. Narcisse herself
made headlines last year when she was the victim of a kidnapping. She
paid a ransom for her freedom, but her supporters believe it was
politically motivated. ''It's a very fragile situation. Anything is
still possible,'' Fatton said of Haiti, four years later. ``Things
have changed, but not enough to say the worst is over.'' (Miami
Herald, 3/1)

Haiti's Parliament Rejects No-Confidence Vote Against Prime Minister:
Haiti's parliament has overwhelmingly rejected a no-confidence vote
against Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis, defeating critics angry
over his government's handling of the economy. The decision Thursday,
which followed an all-day debate in the Chamber of Deputies, was also
a victory for President Rene Preval, who survived a serious challenge
from the opposition to dismiss his second-in-command and dissolve his
Cabinet. But while Preval has brought political stability to the
country, the vote reflected rising discontent with his government's
failure to create jobs and control rising food prices. "We can't say
that everything is going to be done fast, but we are working," Alexis
told legislators during a grueling question-and-answer session that
lasted about 10 hours. "Slowly but surely, we are working." In the
end, only the eight legislators who filed the initial petition for
censure and removal voted against the prime minister.

Opposition member Isidor Mercier told the chamber moments before the
vote that the measure was "based on the cry of distress of the
population." Others who supported the prime minister favored a less
drastic government shake up. "We need a new Cabinet with Alexis as
prime minister," said Deputy Steven Benoit, a member of Preval's
Lespwa Party. Hundreds rallied in support of Alexis in front of the
parliament building Thursday afternoon, singing his name and chanting
threats against opposition leaders. Many were supporters of former
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who has called Preval a "traitor."
But they opposed the censure vote because it threatened the country's
fragile stability. "Any disorder in the country is going to be chaos
for us," said Harold Eveillard, a supporter of Artistide's Fanmi
Lavalas Party. Under the Haitian Constitution, there cannot be another
censure vote against the government this year. (AP, 2/29)

Laura Bush to Visit Haiti:
President Bush's wife, Laura, will travel to Haiti and Mexico March 13
and 14 for a two-day visit to highlight U.S. efforts to promote health
care and education in the region. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino
announced the trip Wednesday. In Haiti, Mrs. Bush will visit an AIDS
clinic and a U.S. Agency for International Development education
program. Haiti receives assistance under President Bush's global AIDS
initiative, called PEPFAR, President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
In Mexico, the U.S. first lady will attend the launch of a U.S.-Mexico
Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research. (VOA, 3/5)

Influential Montreal Gang Leader will be Deported to Haiti:
A man described by police as an influential street gang member is
expected to be deported to Haiti today after losing a battle to
challenge his removal order in court. Proceedings to have Thomas
Bernavil, 33, deported began in 2005. Despite living in Canada since
he was 15, Bernavil was only a permanent resident while he put
together a criminal record that stretches from 1996 to last year.
Bernavil, who was born in Port-au-Prince in 1974 and came to Canada in
1991, challenged the deportation order through Immigration Canada's
tribunal system, claiming if he is returned to Haiti he faces possible
torture or persecution. Bernavil lost an appeal of the decision to
have him removed on Oct. 15. Yesterday, Judge Johanne Gauthier of the
Federal Court of Canada turned down his lawyer's request to suspend or
further delay the deportation order. He is expected to board a plane
at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport this morning. His
lawyer declined to comment on the case.

According to court documents, Bernavil claims to have 60 half-siblings
living in the United States and Haiti, including Beaudoin Jacques
Kitant, a convicted Haitian druglord. In 2004, in an effort to reduce
the 27-year sentence he received in a Miami court, Kitant turned
informant and alleged to U.S. investigators that he paid huge bribes
to former Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide and members of his
government to let planes loaded with cocaine from Columbia land in
Haiti. In a written request filed in court last year, Bernavil
suggested his connection to Kitant would put him at risk to people
still loyal to Aristide, who was ousted in 2004. However, according to
a written reply filed by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Bernavil
provided no proof he is Kitant's half-brother.

Bernavil is described by police sources as having long ties to the Bo-
Gars, a street gang that originated in Montreal's north end. He was
arrested in 2005 as a suspect in a series of kidnappings in Laval. A
group of petty criminals between the ages of 15 and 20 broke into a
home in Laval's St. Rose district and stumbled upon $2 million in
cash. After bragging about their haul to friends, word got around and
several of the youths were snatched off the streets, beaten and held
against their will while more seasoned criminals demanded they turn
over the cash. Bernavil was originally charged with forcible
confinement in the case, but ended up pleading guilty only to uttering
threats. During the summer of 2000, he was shot and injured within the
context of a bloody conflict between the Bo-Gars and a rival street
gang in Montreal. In 2001, he was found guilty of perjury and being
part of a conspiracy that involved fake credit cards. Because both
offences are punishable by a maximum sentence of at least 10 years,
Bernavil met the criteria for an expulsion order. In March 2007,
Citizenship and Immigration Canada issued a warrant for his arrest,
alleging he was "inadmissable and is a danger to the public or a
flight risk." This was after he pleaded guilty to negligent use of a
firearm, an offence related to an incident that occurred in Montreal
in June 2002. Bernavil only learned of the expulsion order in June,
after he tried to obtain a copy of a document confirming his permanent
resident status so he could get a drivers license. (The Gazette 
Montreal, 3/4)

Argentinean President to Visit Haiti:
President Cristina Fernandez will visit Argentinean troops deployed in
Haiti with the UN Stabilisation Mission (MINUSTAH), official sources
confirmed. Fernandez will travel to Venezuela on Wednesday to meet her
counterpart Hugo Chavez in order to sign commercial, energetic,
cultural and agricultural agreements. Tomorrow, she will travel to
Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, to attend the 20th Summit of
Rio Group. She will later pay her first visit to the Argentinean
troops of the MINUSTAH, a peacekeeping mission established by the UN
Security Council on 2004. Argentina keeps 562 soldiers, four Police
officers and a hospital in Haiti, as part of MINUSTAH, which has 9,500
soldiers and policemen from over 40 countries. Argentinean soldiers
are developing cooperation programs in Port of Prince, aimed at
supporting social plans. (Prensa Latina, 3/5)

Members of US Congress Urge Suspension of Debt Service Payments from
Haiti:
Rep. Maxine Waters has sent a letter to US Treasury Secretary Henry
Paulson, urging him to use his influence to expedite the cancellation
of Haiti's debts and to suspend further debt service payments from
Haiti. The letter was signed by 54 members of the House of
Representatives, including Barney Frank (D-MA), Chairman of the
Financial Services Committee, and Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Ranking
Member of the Financial Services Committee. The text of the letter
follows:

"We urge you to use your influence to expedite the cancellation of
Haiti's debts to the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank,
and other multilateral financial institutions and to urge an immediate
suspension of all further debt service payments from Haiti to these
institutions. As you know, these institutions have already agreed to
cancel Haiti's debts, but under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries
(HIPC) Initiative, Haiti must complete a number of final steps before
receiving debt cancellation. However, Haiti is the most impoverished
country in the Western Hemisphere - many believe it should have been
admitted to the HIPC process ten years ago - and for a number of
reasons would benefit from an immediate cessation of debt service
payments.

"Haiti endured two hurricanes last year, following three years of
civil conflict and decades of environmental devastation. Tens of
thousands of people have either lost their homes or seen them severely
damaged. Thousands remain in temporary shelters, and the combination
of the two storms last year has devastated harvests throughout the
island. Given these circumstance, we feel that the people of Haiti
would be better served if the government could use its limited
resources to address the environmental crisis, improve healthcare,
expand access to education, and reform the justice system. Haiti's
government has already agreed to use the savings from debt service
relief for these purposes.

"We think it would be best if Haiti reached the "completion point" for
the HIPC process immediately and had its debts cancelled. In the
interim, before such cancellation takes place, we urge you to call for
an immediate suspension of all further debt service payments from
Haiti to the multilateral financial institutions. We understand that
Haiti is scheduled to send $48.7 million to these institutions in
2008. Clearly, this money would be better spent on basic
infrastructure and poverty reduction for the Haitian people. We
appreciate your continuing support for debt cancellation for poor
countries, and we hope you will do everything in your power to suspend
Haiti's debt service payments and expedite debt cancellation for
Haiti." (Caribbean Net News, 3/4)

IMF Completes Second Review of Haiti's Economic Program Under the PRGF:
  The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
completed on February 29, 2008 the second review of Haiti's economic
program under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF)
arrangement. The completion of the review allows for an immediate
disbursement of SDR7.6 million (about US$12.2 million). The Executive
Board also approved Haiti's request for a waiver for non-observance of
two end-September 2007 performance criteria related to the
implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards by the
central bank and the assessment of possible recapitalization and
restructuring needs of state bank BNC. The authorities implemented
both performance criteria prior to the Executive Board's consideration
of the review. The PRGF arrangement was approved on November 20, 2006
(see Press Release No. 06/258) in the amount equivalent to SDR73.7
million (currently about US$118.1 million).

Following the Executive Board discussion, Mr. Takatoshi Kato, Deputy
Managing Director and Acting Chair, said: "Haiti has continued to
perform remarkably well under its PRGF-supported program despite
numerous challenges, including the devastating effects of Hurricane
Noel late last year. During fiscal year 2007, growth accelerated for
the third year in a row and inflation declined. The authorities are
also to be commended for implementing the program's ambitious
structural conditionality, and developing a poverty reduction and
growth strategy that prioritizes needed reforms, with a focus on
restoring basic public goods and services, targeting sectors for
growth, and repairing infrastructure. Consistent with the authorities'
strategy, the key goals for the second year of the PRGF-supported
program are to create conditions for higher growth and to consolidate
the stabilization gains achieved so far. One key element of the
program is to accelerate the execution of public expenditures needed
to improve the provision of public goods and services, as well as to
upgrade infrastructure, while preserving the quality of spending. The
planned improvements in revenue mobilization should be firmly pursued
to help ensure a sufficient resource flow for accelerated spending. A
strong focus on implementing the agreed policy actions will be
important to achieve the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative
completion point as soon as possible.

"Prudent monetary policy will remain important, in light of
inflationary pressure from high international oil and food prices. The
program's monetary targets will allow some accommodation of first-
round effects of the commodity price increases, but the objective is
to keep inflation in single digits. An ambitious plan to recapitalize
the central bank is being embarked upon, in order to ensure the
independence of monetary policy. The authorities' plans to foster
financial sector stability and development will help support higher
growth through increased intermediation. A recent joint IMF-World Bank
Financial Sector Assessment found that indicators of bank soundness
are relatively favorable, but suggested several important reforms,
including: improving regulation and supervision; passage of a new
banking law; and strengthening of insolvency and creditor rights,
audit and accounting, and the payments system. The authorities have
welcomed the assessment and are planning to implement most of its
recommendations.

"Despite the many remaining challenges, the prospects for a further
acceleration of growth and continued strong implementation of the PRGF-
supported program are favorable. Haiti's resource and capacity
constraints and the authorities' strong commitment to reform warrant
continued technical and financial assistance from the international
community," Mr. Kato said. (Caribbean Press Releases.com, 3/5)

Mother and Daughter in FL Charged With Having  Slave in their Home:
  A mother and her adult daughter were convicted Tuesday of keeping a
Haitian teen as a slave for six years in their South Florida home,
with a jury rejecting their claims that the girl feigned abuse so she
could remain in the U.S. Evelyn Theodore, 74, and Maude Paulin, 52,
were convicted of conspiring to violate Simone Celestin's 13th
Amendment rights to be free from slavery and forcing her to work for
them. Paulin, a Miami-Dade County teacher, also was convicted of
harboring an illegal alien for financial gain. Theodore and Paulin's
ex-husband, Saintfort Paulin, were both acquitted of that count but
convicted of a lesser charge of harboring an illegal alien. Claire
Telasco, Paulin's sister, was acquitted of conspiracy and forced labor
charges. Prosecutors alleged that Celestin was stolen at age 5 from
her mother and grandmother in a mountain village and forced to pretend
she was an orphan at the orphanage Theodore ran with her late husband
in Ranquitte, Haiti. At age 14, the girl was taken to the U.S. on a 29-
day visa. Prosecutors alleged that for the next six years, Celestin's
life consisted of 15-hour work days as an unpaid servant, with no
schooling. She escaped in 2005.

Celestin, now 22, testified Wednesday that she considered suicide
after years of beatings and intimidation. She tearfully described
sleeping on the floor, rummaging through cast-off clothes in the
garage for something to wear, bathing from a bucket or a garden hose
and scrubbing floors when she should have been in school. She said
Theodore and Maude Paulin often struck her with their hands, shoes or
objects such as a curling iron or a mortar if she didn't finish the
work to their satisfaction. The defendants denied mistreating
Celestin. Defense attorneys argued during trial that her allegations
of abuse were motivated by her desire to be a permanent legal resident
of the U.S. Attorneys for Maude Paulin and Theodore said each faces
seven to 10 years in prison and said they would appeal.

In court documents, prosecutors identified Celestin as a ''restavek.''
The term is a Haitian Creole word meaning ''one who stays with'' and
applies to poor children who work for wealthier families in exchange
for food, shelter and the promise of school. Many end up victims of
physical and sexual abuse. UNICEF estimates 300,000 children in Haiti
are restaveks. It is unknown how many restaveks are among the
estimated 14,500 to 17,500 involuntary servants estimated to be
trafficked into the U.S. each year. Sentencing for the Paulins and
Theodore is set for May. All have been released on bond. (AP, 3/4)
_______________________________________________
HaitiReport mailing list
HaitiReport@haitikonpay.org
http://lists.haitikonpay.org/mailman/listinfo/haitireport