Assasination and attempted kidnapping

A few days ago I learned that someone I had met in Haiti, a Community Human Rights Council leader for Gran Ravine, was assasinated on his way home from a meeting with AUMOHD, the human rights outfit I worked with down there. Mr. Bruner was an advocate for the people of Gran Ravine, who have suffered repeated massacres at the hands of the "Little Machete Army" (Lame Timachet), politically motivated and financed thugs and assasins who have shot, killed, and wounded scores of people and burned hundreds of homes. Mr. Bruner himself was a resident of Gran Ravine and was shot twice in sucessive attacks. A few months ago he held a press confrence denouncing the attackers by name and calling for justice and their arrest. On monday last week he held another press confrence. On thursday he was killed.

Now the head lawyer and president of AUMOHD, Evel Fanfan, the man I lived and worked with for 6 weeks in Haiti, has gone on the air and denounced his attackers and those complicit in the violence, including the U.N. "peacekeepers" who propigate the violence and withhold justice. Now he is under attack and in danger for his life. His son was nearly kidnapped at school and he has been advised to go into hiding, though he remains determined to carry on the crusade for justice for those who have carried out the attacks and are well known for their attrocities in the community but who have not yet been taken into custody.

Now you know the score. What are you going to do?

Here is what I hope you do:

1) Sign the following petition addressed to the Chief of the Haitin Police, the head of the Human Rights section of the UN force, and other leaders within Haiti to bring justice to the people of Gran Ravine and Haiti at large and to protect the life of Attny Evel Fanfan.

2) Donate money to the cause, to provide vital infrastructure such as phone cards, electricity, gas, legal expenses, medical expenses, and so on. It is tax deductible and a new fiscal year, so please give; even a small donation of only $25 makes a big differance, it is those donations which are the lifeblood of our operation. You can click the link to donate through Google, which saves us money, or you can go to the website for more ways to donate.

3) Go to the HURAH website and learn more about how you can help by calling and writing to officials letting them know you are watching the case and expect them to do their job. Also learn how you can get involved in the role of accompanying these brave folks as they do their job, lessening the liklihood of attack while accompanied by international observers. This is what I did Jan-March of 2006. You can do it to, if even for only a week or two, even a couple of days. Contact Tom Luce at the website for more information, or get ahold of me for that matter. I'd go tommorrow if I could, but I'm in New Zealand right now and can't get away just yet.