30017: Dailey re # 30011 Haiti Alert (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Peter Dailey <phdailey@msn.com>


The question of "collateral damage" resulting from MINUSTAH raids into Cite 
Soleil is of importance to anyone concerned about human rights in Haiti. The 
Haiti Action Committee's complaint about New York Times coverage refers readers 
to its website and that of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, 
both of which have made repeated assertions about the number of casualties 
involved.

Both of these organizations went to elaborate lengths to bolster the 
credibility of the report on crime by Athena Kolbe published in The Lancet. 
(This journal, after determining that the author had an undisclosed conflict, 
asked the Sociology Dept. at Wayne State to conduct a review, which determined 
that the survey's raw data had not been manipulated.) Most recently, IJDH 
claimed that the report documented "findings of massive human rights violations 
against Haiti's pro-democracy movement." In fact it did nothing of the sort- 
the report identified perpetrators of violence not the victims.

Some people who questioned the reliability of this survey were particularly 
troubled by its finding that in the two year period following Aristide's 
departure MINUSTAH had not been responsible  for a single death or assault 
during its operations. Ms. Kolbe, who during the week she was carrying out the 
survey published an article, under the name Lyn Duff, stating that a MINUSTAH 
raid days earlier had resulted in at least a dozen deaths, defended the survey 
by saying that any deaths or casualties resulting from MINUSTAH action were 
"statistically insignificant."

What I would like to know is whether Haiti Solidarity & IJDH were lying to us 
then or are lying to us now?

Peter Dailey