We are also motivated by the publication in September of the National Coalition for Haitian Rights policy report, face=Arial color=#606420 Yon Sel Dwet Pa Manje Kalalou: Haiti on the eve of its Bicentennial which contains the following sentence concerning the Group of 184:
"It is not yet clear who finances the group's activities -- whether it receives funding from abroad or if its entire budget comes from its membership or another arrangement altogether."

Thanks to information provided to the Haiti Support Group by the European Commission (EC) staff in Brussels and the EC delegation in Port-au-Prince, we are able to shed some light on this subject:

· The European Commission is co-financing a Human Rights / Democracy project with Haiti's Initiative de la Societe Civile (ISC) group. The European Commission's contribution is 773,000 Euros (US$890,374 at today's exchange rate). The duration of the contract is from 21/12/2001 to 21/12/2003.

· The official recipients of this disbursement are M. Rosny Desroches and the Fondation Nouvelle Haiti. Rosny Desroches is the spokesperson for the Initiative de la Societe Civile. The Fondation Nouvelle Haiti (FNH) is a member of the Initiative de la Societe Civile group.

According to the EC delegation in Port-au-Prince, the reason why the amounts have been disbursed to the FNH and Rosny Desroches, rather than the ISC, is that the ISC had not been officially registered with the Haitian authorities at the time when the grant was authorised.

Regarding funding for the Group of 184:
It is known that Rosny Desroches is head of the Fondation Haitienne de l'Enseignement Prive (FONHEP), and that the FNH is run by M. Andre Apaid Jnr. Both FONHEP and FNH are members of the ISC. All members of the ISC are also members of the Group of 184. Indeed, Andre Apaid Jnr. is the Group of 184's main spokesperson.

According to the EC, M. Desroches and the FNH are charged with disbursing the EC funds to "human rights groups" in Haiti. Fourteen organisations are listed by the EC as among those receiving EC funding via M. Desroches and the FNH. These 14 organisations are:
FNH - Fondation Nouvelle Haiti;
CCIH - Chambre de commerce et d'industrie;
CNEH - Confederation Nationale des educateurs haitiens;
OGITH - Organisation generale independante des travailleurs haitiens;
CRESFED - Centre de Recherche et de Formation Economique et Sociale;
MOUFHED - Mouvement des femmes haitiennes pour l'education et le developpement;
CEDH - Centre oecumenique des droits humains;
Commission Justice et Paix;
Femmes en democratie;
KOP (Coordination des organisations populaires);
CEPRODHD - Centre pour la promotion des droits humains et de la democratie en Haiti;
FPDH - Fondation pour la Promotion des droits de l'homme;
CREDH - Centre de recherche pour le developpement humain;
CED - Collectif pour l'education et le developpement.

The first seven organisations in the above list are members of the Group of 184:

· As we have already mentioned, the FNH is run by Andre Apaid Jnr. - the Group of 184's main spokesperson.

· The head of the CICH, Maurice Lafortune, has also appeared in public as a Group of 184 spokesperson.

· The CNEH and the OGITH are trade unions, both members of the Group of 184.

· The CRESFED is a non-governmental organisation headed by Suzy Castor, a leading member of the Organisation du Peuple en Lutte political party.

· The MOUFHED is a non-governmental organisation headed by Jessie Benoit, a leading member of the Konakom political party.

· The CEDH is a human rights organisation headed by Jean-Claude Bajeux, one of the founders, and a former secretary-general, of the Konakom political party.

The Organisation du Peuple en Lutte and Konakom political parties are members of the Democratic Convergence coalition.

While on the subject of foreign funding for organisations in Haiti, we also note that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) allocated US$3,050,000 (just over three million dollars) to "civil society, the media, human rights organisations and political parties" for its Government and Democracy programme in Haiti in the fiscal year 2003 (year ending September 2003).

face=Arial color=#0000ff Back to Home Page