Haiti
Haitians Recover from Cycle of Violence
The following is reprinted from Frontlines,
March 2006 issue.
 PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti—A 26-year-old peasant farmer was arbitrarily detained in prison here for 11 months last year. He came out with various injuries, including a broken leg, which he said was the result of a severe beating.
The farmer gained his freedom when human rights organizations, including IFES, brought attention to his story. IFES’s Victims of Violence program does this with political violence cases.
IFES, which is receiving $1.7 million from USAID over three years for its antiviolence project, has helped nearly 1,000 victims since it started in February 2004. The group works with doctors and psychologists to provide medical and psychological care to victims. The program also works to find ways to prevent torture and to increase the ability of local human rights organizations to document their work.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, with 80 percent of the country’s population living below the poverty line. Starting in 1956, the country suffered under a series of autocratic leaders, including Francois Duvalier and his son Jean-Claude Duvalier. Successive coups, reports of electoral irregularities, gang violence, and natural disasters have thwarted the country’s progress.
Random violence of street gangs and armed political factions
have claimed more than 1,500 lives since former president
Jean-Bertrand Aristide left the country in 2004. Kidnappings,
including the seizure of a presidential candidate and international
elections workers, have terrorized the capital. Presidential
elections were postponed four times in four months before
the first round was held Feb. 7.
Lesley Richards, IFES program officer for Haiti, describes politically driven local violence as “systemic.”
“It’s been passed down from generation to generation, the result of many years of tyranny,” Richards said. “IFES’ goal is to teach how to resolve conflict peacefully rather than violently. We want victims to be reinstated in society, and we want society to accept them.”
Added Cecile Marotte, the program’s chief of party: “[The program] is important because it’s implemented in the rural parts of the country, which are not easily accessible.”
Marotte works with individuals to ensure that they qualify to receive assistance, and she organizes therapy groups for the victims. These therapy groups are composed of six people, including both victims and psychologists.
The project runs 15 field monitors in all of Haiti’s nine departments or states.
“It’s not easy to work in Haiti. Nothing is normal in Haiti,” said Marotte, who has aided victims for over 15 years. “It’s different every day, but I know I am working in the right direction.”
The United States has provided foreign aid to Haiti for more than 50 years. USAID/Haiti programs support the improvement of public healthcare and education, the reform of the judicial system, independent media, and training. Haiti is also one of the targeted countries under President Bush’s Emergency Plan for HIV/AIDS Relief. Most recently, aid has gone to prepare the country for presidential elections.
Katie Lynch of IFES contributed to this story. |
