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The Failure of Human Rights Watch in Venezuela
and Haiti
By Joe Emersberger
25/02/08 "HaitiAnalysis"
-- - The way Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Haiti and
Venezuela in its 2008 World Report reveals an underlying
assumption that the US and its allies have the right to
overthrow democratic governments.[1]
It is a matter of public record that the US funded groups who
were involved in the coup of 2002 and continued to do so after
the coup took place, but rather than denounce or even
acknowledge US destabilization efforts in Venezuela, HRW
continues to complain about the non-renewal of RCTV's public
broadcasting license. [2] RCTV was one of big television
networks that aided and abetted the coup. HRW objects that
RCTV's involvement in the coup "was not proven in a proceeding
in which RCTV had an opportunity to present a defense." It is
impossible to imagine a non-farcical proceeding that would
conclude otherwise, especially when the coup's perpetrators
thanked the private media, of which RCTV was a major part, for
its help. Before the coup was reversed Vice-Admiral Ramirez
Perez told a Venezuelan reporter:
"We had a deadly weapon: the media. And now that I have the
opportunity, let me congratulate you."
Judging by its reports, HRW is completely uninterested in
whether the broadcaster that replaced RCTV on the public
airwaves, TVes, offers viewers a wider variety of views.
[3]"Freedom of the Press Barons" to perpetrate coups appears to
be HRW's concern, not freedom of expression. It is worth
remembering that HRW's response to the coup in Venezuela was
appalling. Al Giordano summed their response up well in an
exchange with an HRW intern:
"They recognized an illegitimate 'authority' as legitimate. They
failed to call for the removal of that dictatorial regime. They
failed to call on other nations and the OAS to refuse to
recognize it. They failed to call for invoking the OAS
Democratic Charter for the one event it was intended to
prevent."[4]
Giordano's words could also be used to summarize how HRW
responded to the US backed coup in Haiti in 2004.
HRW used the 2008 World Report to criticize, yet again, a
judicial reform law that was passed by the Chavez administration
in 2004. In contrast, HRW's summary about Haiti said nothing
about the coup that ousted Jean Bertrand Aristide's democratic
government in 2004; nothing about the subsequent murder of
thousands of people who supported Aristide's Lavalas movement
(the word "Lavalas" does not even appear in the summary);
nothing about the fact that Haiti's police and judiciary remain
stacked with appointees from the dictatorship of 2004-2006;
nothing about Father Gerard Jean Juste, the most prominent
political prisoner of that period, who continues to be hounded
by Haiti's legal system. [5]
Even if HRW's criticism of Venezuela's judicial reform law of
2004 were reasonable (and it isn't) it cannot deserve more
attention than the coup in Haiti that led to a human rights
catastrophe. [6]
On a positive note, the 2008 World Report belatedly gave some
attention to the disappearance of Lovinsky Pierre Antoine, a
prominent Haitian human rights worker and opponent of the 2004
coup. HRW stated:
"In August 2007 a well known human rights advocate, Lovinsky
Pierre-Antoine, was abducted. At this writing his whereabouts
remain unknown."
Again, the absence of the word "Lavalas" is telling.
Pierre-Antoine disappeared days after he had announced that he
would run for the Haitian senate as a Fanmi Lavalas Party
candidate. The goal of the 2004 coup and the bloodbath that
followed was to eliminate the Lavalas movement - the same goal
with basically the same perpetrators as during the 1991-1994
period about which HRW reported extensively. [7]
At first glance, the 2008 World Report seems to provide
courageous and much needed criticism of powerful countries like
the US. HRW is willing to contradict the Bush Administration on
some important matters. For example, in a press conference about
the 2008 World Report, HRW director Ken Roth refused to label
Venezuela as a "closed country". However, Roth went on to say
that human rights "trends were negative in Venezuela". That
conclusion is justified only if one assumes that perpetrating
coups and other acts of sabotage against a democratic government
should have no legal repercussions at all. Meanwhile, in Haiti,
when human rights trends really were disastrously negative
thanks to a coup backed by the US and its allies, HRW displayed
a chilling indifference.[8]
An important lesson to learn from the coups that took place in
Haiti and Venezuela is that US imperialism cannot succeed
through the efforts of Neocons alone. It needs the help of other
countries, and it needs the help of NGOs like Human Rights
Watch. [9]
NOTES
[1] See Human Rights Watch. World Report. 2008. hrw.org/wr2k8/pdfs/wr2k8_web.pdf
[2] See Eva Gollinger's "The Chavez Code" for details on US
funding of groups that participated in the coup.
[3] There is good reason to believe that freedom of expression
on the public airwaves has been improved by replacing RCTV with
TVES James Jordan notes "The new broadcasting license is being
given to a public station, TVes-Venezuela Social Television,
which will run shows produced mainly by independent parties. The
station will be controlled not by the government, but by a
foundation of community members, with one chair reserved for a
government representative. "
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2416 For more
specifics about RCTV's involvement in the coup see
http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/venezuela/2974.html
[4] Al Giodano's exchange with the HRW intern can be read at
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2004/6/17/15422/6410
[5] for more about the coup and Haiti and its consequences see
Kolbe and Hudson. Lancet Study. 2006,
http://www.ijdh.org/pdf/Lancet%20Article%208-06.pdf
http://www.haitianalysis.com/2007/7/31/interview-with-athena-kolbe-co-author-of-lancet-study-on-haiti
[6] The judicial reform law broke the stranglehold of Venezuelan
elite on the judiciary. For extensive discussion of the reform
law and HRW's objections see note 3
[7]For more discussion of how HRW responded to the 1991 and 2004
coups in Haiti see
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=10011
[8] See Http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_dade/story/401747.html
[9] The priorities displayed in HRW reports are well aligned
with those of liberal imperialists like Lloyd Axworthy, a former
Canadian External Affairs Minister who sits on HRW's board. See
http://www.hrw.org/about/info/board.html For more
about Axworthy's liberal imperialism see
http://www.killingtrain.com/node/397
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