Haiti: Update to HTI40716.F of 17 January 2003; parties that make up the Democratic Convergence (CD) and the names of the party leaders; relations between the CD and the Revolutionary Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH) (July 2003)

Please consult the attached electronic document for information on the names of the parties that make up the Democratic Convergence (Convergence démocratique, CD), as well as the names of the party leaders. Sources indicate that the CD is "a motley group of social democrats and ex-authoritarian functionaries with scant public support and [a] pronounced distaste for the Haitian masses" (Village Voice 28 Aug.­-3 Sept. 2002; see also Haiti Reborn/Quixote Center 11 Jan. 2003). Furthermore, according to articles published in May 2003, the Haitian authorities have linked the CD to recent attacks on police stations and power plants near the Dominican border (Financial Times 28 May 2003; Le Monde 10 May 2003). According to the government, the former soldiers who made up the armed group and carried out the attacks were members of the CD, and these attacks were aimed at "destabilising" President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's administration (Financial Times 28 May 2003). Ira Kurzban, an attorney for the Haitian government, said that the former soldiers were part of "a small group of people with no popular support in Haiti but which is well armed and well financed" (ibid.). However, [translation] "Paul Denis, a Democratic Convergence spokesperson, ... denied any implication in a possible conspiracy" (Le Monde 10 May 2003).

No information on the relations between the CD and the Revolutionary Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (Front révolutionnaire armé pour le progrès d'Haïti, FRAPH) could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints for this Response. However, according to a Response to Information Request dated 30 April 2002 of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the FRAPH was "the biggest and most prominent" paramilitary group that operated during the 1990-1994 military regime, and it was relied upon "to spread terror, control the population, and avoid accountability." After the fall of the military regime in September 1994, members of the FRAPH and the Haitian Armed Forces (Forces armées d'Haïti, FAd'H) went into exile or "successfully integrated into the public and private sectors after the Army was disbanded in 1995" (United States 30 Apr. 2002). However, certain FRAPH members were sentenced in absentia by the Haitian courts and arrest warrants were issued against them for their participation in human rights violations during the military regime (ibid.). For more information on former members of the FRAPH and the FAd'H, please consult the INS document at the following address: .

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Financial Times [London]. 28 May 2003. Canute James. "The Americas: Haiti-Dominican Republic Links Cool." (Dialog)

Haiti Reborn/Quixote Center. 11 January 2003. "Investigating the Human Effects of Withheld Humanitarian Aid." [Accessed 4 July 2003]

Le Monde. 10 May 2003. "Un complot contre le président haïtien aurait été dejoué." (Dialog)

United States. 30 April 2002. Immigration and Nationalization Service (INS). "Response to Information Request HTI02002.ZMI." [Accessed 4 July 2003]

Village Voice [New York]. 28 August-3 September 2002. Michael Deibert. "Aristide's Tinderbox." [Accessed 4 July 2003]

Additional Sources Consulted

Attempts to obtain information from the Haiti Democracy Project were unsuccessful.

Attempts to obtain information from the National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR) were unsuccessful.

IRB Databases

World News Connection/Dialog

Internet sites, including:

Amnesty International

Country Reports 2002

Haiti Democracy Project

Haïti en marche [Miami]

Haïti Progrès [Port-au-Prince]

Human Rights Watch

Miami Herald

National Coalition for Haitian Rights

Tambours et Résonances [Port-au-Prince]

Search engine:

Google

Electronic Attachment

Haiti Reborn/Quixote Center. 11 January 2003. "Investigating the Human Effects of Withheld Humanitarian Aid." [Accessed 4 July 2003]

Democratic Convergence (CD):

(This is a text from The Haiti Support Group. For more information, visit their website: http://www.gn.apc.org/haitisupport)

The Democratic Convergence is a coalition of political parties that came together in the days following the 21 May Parliamentary and local elections when it became clear that the Lavalas Family Party had won a landslide victory. In order to explain their abject defeat, these small parties claimed that the elections were rigged, and they refused to participate in the second round of voting. Although international observers found that the elections were, on the whole, free and fair, the Democratic Convergence has continued to question the credibility of the whole process.

The coalition then refused to contest the Presidential and Senate elections in November, and subsequently claimed that a low voter participation reflected a high level of support for them.

The member parties of the Democratic Convergence are:

– Organisation du Peuple en Lutte (OPL) led by Gerard Pierre-Charles,

– Espace de Concertation (EC), an assortment of 5 political organisations: Confederation Unite [sic] Democratique (KID) led by Evans Paul, Generation 2004, Parti National Progressiste Haïtien (PANPRHA) led by Serge Gilles, Congrès National des Mouvements Democratiques (CONACOM) led by Victor Benoit and Micha Gaillard, and Ayiti Kapab,

– Mouvement Patriotique pour le Sauvetage National (MPSN), a grouping of neo-Duvalierist parties, of which the main ones are: Mouvement pour le Développement National (MDN) led by Hubert Deronceray, Parti Democrate Chretien Haïtien (PDCH), L'Alliance pour la Libération d'Haïti (ALAH) led by Reynolds Georges,

– Mouvement Chrétien pour une Nouvelle Haïti (MOCHRENHA)

– Rassemblement des Démocrates Nationaux Progressistes (RDNP)

– Parti Démocrate Haïtien (PADEMH)

It should be made clear that these are not political parties of the type that are part of the political scene in Europe and elsewhere. Apart from the OPL, MOCHRENA and the Espace de Concertation coalition, who recorded modest tallies in the May elections, these parties, or more accurately 'particles', enjoy very little support. They are mainly vehicles for the personal ambitions of wealthy or well-connected individuals. They do not have a mass membership or a party structure.

As for the others, it is worth noting that the OPL enjoyed a dominant role in the government and Parliament from 1995/6 largely thanks to its membership of the pro-Aristide PPL (Parti Populaire Lavalas) coalition - this coalition broke up in 1996 when Aristide and others formed a new party, the Lavalas Family. The main members of the Espace coalition are CONACOM and PANPRHA, both members of the social democratic Socialist International, supported by European social democratic parties.

MOCHRENA is a new party formed by right wing Protestant evangelical churches that are mainly funded by US evangelical groups.