HAITI: Lavalas Demands Obama Remove US Ambassador Janet Sanderson

[magbana]

Popular Initiative calls for removal of Bush appointee in Haiti

by Kevin Pina


HIP - A spokesperson for grassroots organizations aligned with Haiti's Fanmi Lavalas party demanded the Obama administration remove current US Ambassador Janet Sanderson. Reached by telephone in the capital of Port-au-Prince a leader of a group calling itself the Popular Initiative stated, "She is lying about last Sunday's elections by not acknowledging it was our boycott that kept voters away." He continued, "She claims it was because this was not a regular election year and that people may be tired of the political process. The only voter fatigue we have in Haiti is with undemocratic elections. Allow Fanmi Lavalas to participate and we'll show you the voters have a lot of energy and enthusiasm for an authentic democratic process. She is out of touch with reality in Haiti."

Haiti held controversial Senate elections last week that were boycotted by Fanmi Lavalas after all of their candidates were excluded on procedural grounds. Voters mostly stayed at home on election day after Lavalas launched a campaign called Operation Closed Door. The Obama administration is widely seen as having green lighted the contested elections after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Haiti three days prior to the ballot.

The Popular Initiative has also called for a re-evaluation of US policy in Haiti by the Obama administration claiming that its current direction is a holdover from the Bush administration. A second spokesperson in the conference call declared, "It is time for a real change in Haiti and that can only come by breaking with the past which means the policies of the Bush administration. A good place to start is with the removal of Ambassador Sanderson who was put in place by the Bush government."

They also blamed Ambassador Janet Sanderson for pressuring the Preval administration to issue arrest warrants for 42 of the organizers of the election boycott including five hunger strikers who were forced out of the parliament building by police earlier on Monday. "She made remarks on the radio that the organizers should be investigated. Since then several of our people have been forced into hiding including Rene Civil and Nawoon Marcellus. They have invented a new and bizarre charge, obstruction of democracy," concluded the spokesperson.

At a press conference yesterday, the Popular Initiative and other groups aligned with Lavalas announced they would step up the pressure for the return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide from exile in the Republic of South Africa. They declared May and June months of mass mobilization against elections that exclude Lavalas and to fight what they call the "growing misery and poverty as a result of the removal of our democratically elected president on Feb. 29, 2004."

http://www.haitiaction.net/



The Haiti Information Project (HIP) is a non-profit alternative news service providing coverage and analysis of breaking developments in Haiti.

Winner of the CENSORED 2008 REAL NEWS AWARD for Outstanding Investigative Journalism

For further information about the Haiti Information Project (HIP) visit: http://www.teledyol.net/HIP/about.html
Contact: [e-mail]

If you wish to be removed from this list please contact us at the above email address.

[struggle4progress]

1. Who is Janet Sanderson, Haiti US ambassador nominee? (2005)

23/11/05
Who is Janet Sanderson, Haiti US ambassador nominee? by Lyn Duff ...

In a surprise move Nov. 9, President George W. Bush nominated former Algerian Ambassador Janet Sanderson to be the new United States ambassador to Haiti, a position that has been vacant since August ... The State Department released a terse statement Nov. 9 stating that Sanderson is a “career diplomat” from Tucson, Arizona. However, public records show that Sanderson has been a resident of California for three years ...

Sanderson’s career took an interesting turn Feb. 2, 2000, when then President Bill Clinton nominated her to be the new ambassador to Algeria. She quickly became embroiled in a human rights controversy when 24 Algerian nationals were interned in Guantanamo Bay.

In November 2001, the Algerians were working for humanitarian organizations in post-war Bosnia when they were arrested at the behest of the U.S. government, who accused them of “planning terrorist attacks on the American and UK embassies in Sarajevo.” Two of the men are computer programmers, while the other 22 held administrative positions in several different NGOs.

The men were detained without bail for three months before the Bosnian Supreme Court acquitted them. However, in the early morning hours on the day they were to be released, the men were hooded, shackled and taken away to an unknown destination. They wouldn’t be located for over a month ...

http://www.williambowles.info/haiti-news/2005/sanderson.html

[Judi Lynn]

2. Sanderson hardly has a glorious job record. Lucky Haiti!

http://www.dai.com.nyud.net:8090/images/CIMG0149.JPG

http://farm4.static.flickr.com.nyud.net:8090/3276/2550026874_91382514e6.jpg

http://cache.daylife.com.nyud.net:8090/imageserve/0gf88XebLcfp1/610x.jpg
~snip~
There must be oil in Haiti. Just read the CV of the latest prophetess, Ms Sanderson. Her minor qualifications seem to have been her alleged intimate involvement in the illegal detention of two dozen Algerian nationals at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay in 2002.

She completed an honors thesis, "The Arab Oil Weapon," the year before joining the State Department as a career diplomat in August 1977. She later served as the petroleum attaché to Kuwait. During the first Gulf War, Sanderson was working as economic counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Jordan

As Ambassador to Algeria she was most famous for her attitude to the arrest of 24 Algerians working for aid organisations in occupied Bosnia. They were accused of "planning terrorist attacks on the American and UK embassies in Sarajevo." Two of the men are computer programmers, while the other 22 held administrative positions in several different NGOs.

The men were detained without bail for three months before the Bosnian Supreme Court acquitted them. However, in the early morning hours on the day they were to be released, the men were hooded, shackled and taken away to an unknown destination. They wouldn't be located for over a month. Eventually they were found to be in Guantanamo Bay.

After a year in custody, all 24 Algerian aid workers were released. Strangely, Miss Sanderson refused to life a finger to help their families locate them, referring them to the Algerian authorities although she must have known they were in American custody.(Thanks to Lynn Duff for this info)

During a Senate hearing in 2000, Sanderson was gung ho about the so-called drawdown programme, under which, favoured US allies are allowed to receive free of cost, unused US weaponry to control unruly trade unionists and pesky journalists, for example. "The drawdown program, like the rest of our foreign assistance program, underscores the importance we attach to and to our ongoing political, military and security relationship."

That connection, and her little noticed expertise in petroleum matters, suggests to me that Mr Cheney knows that there is oil off the coast of Haiti and that he wants Halliburton to retrieve it for its rightful owner, the USA. Sanderson’s human rights and petroleum background would seem to fit her perfectly for this mission critical.

More:
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/bushblock.html