US embassy cable - 05PORTAUPRINCE1542

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PORT AU PRINCE 001542 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, PREL, SCUL, HA 
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR ANDREW YOUNG PUSHES RECONCILIATION IN HAITI 
 
Ref: PAP 1039 
 
1. (U) Summary:  Former Ambassador Andrew Young visited 
Haiti May 18-20, delivering a welcome message of optimism 
about Haiti's future and encouraging Haitians to put mercy 
and reconciliation above the search for justice.   In 
meetings with a cross-section of Haitian leaders, he shared 
his experiences in building bridges in the U.S. and in 
conflict-ridden societies.  Young emphasized the importance 
of improving the lot of Haiti's poor majority.  Young also 
visited former Prime Minister Neptune in jail and urged him 
to cooperate in resolving his case.  Even though Young's 
message of mercy and reconciliation before justice was 
challenged by some of his interlocutors, his visit was 
welcomed by all sectors of society and may give a needed 
boost to the so-far anemic process of National Dialogue. 
End summary. 
 
2. (U) Young's visit was put together as a joint effort by 
the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) and the Embassy's 
Public Diplomacy section.  AMCHAM President Phlippe Armande 
invited Young to visit in the wake of Young's participation 
in AMCHAM's post-flood humanitarian efforts in Gonaives last 
year.  Young is well-known in Haiti for his 1977 
intervention, as U.S. Ambassador to the UN, that led to the 
release of several political prisoners under "Baby Doc." 
This background, plus his experience as a close collaborator 
of Martin Luther King in the U.S. civil rights movement and 
his work helping to resolve numerous conflicts throughout 
the world, made him a compelling and respected figure to 
address Haiti's current problems.  In the course of his 
three days in Haiti, he met with the interim President and 
Prime Minister, business leaders, the recently-established 
Preparatory Commission for National Dialogue, civil society 
and political party leaders, and the Provisional Electoral 
Council (CEP).  He gave a widely-covered speech at an AMCHAM- 
organized dinner, was the guest of honor at a reception at 
the Ambassador's residence, visited several relief projects 
in Gonaives, and visited a children's soccer clinic just 
outside Cite Soleil run by Bobby Duval, one of the prisoners 
who was released after Young's 1977 intervention. 
 
3. (U) Young's message, was straightforward.  Haiti's 
continuing problems, rooted in economic and social 
inequities, cannot be solved if Haitians do not truly come 
together, forgive, and agree to address them cooperatively 
and non-violently.  The challenge in Haiti, is to bring the 
benefits of democracy and free enterprise to all people, 
especially the poor.  The most effective way to move forward 
is not to search for justice and punish those who have done 
wrong in the past, but to forgive and move on.  He also 
emphasized anti-corruption, suggesting to political and 
business leaders that they stop tolerating those who steal 
and stop doing it themselves.  To the business community, 
Young devoted considerable time establishing a case for 
reaching out to the poor.  Using examples of his work as 
Mayor of Atlanta, Young conveyed ways to enrich the poor and 
that the results help both to move society forward and to 
generate even more wealth for the rich.  Throughout his 
visit, Young stressed repeatedly his optimism that the 
transition in Haiti would succeed, pointing out that 
elections and reconciliation had occurred in many countries 
with far worse security situations and far worse violence. 
 
4. (U) The most provocative element of this message was his 
insistence that, as he told a group of civil society 
leaders, "reconciliation is a quicker path to peace than 
justice."  He suggested that Haitians would have to keep 
going back years and years to find complete "justice."  He 
cited examples ranging from Rwanda to Algeria to Nigeria to 
South Africa to illustrate his point that progress in post- 
conflict societies was made only when all sides in the 
conflict gave up pursuing punishment for those who had 
committed wrongs, forgave their former enemies, and focused 
on working together for the future.  Young said he would 
have "wasted Dr. King's legacy" if he had focused on finding 
King's killers rather than trying to accomplish King's 
goals.  Trials and proceedings against people for previous 
wrongdoings only dragged out the process in a negative way. 
Asked specifically by a businessman what he thought Haiti's 
"first step" should be to move forward, Young did not 
hesitate:  "A blanket amnesty and forgiveness." 
 
5. (SBU) This message, against the backdrop of numerous 
legal cases underway against former Lavalas government 
officials and widespread unhappiness with the dysfunctional 
justice system here, did not sit well with some.  KID leader 
(and Presidential candidate) Evans Paul said that 
"forgiveness should go hand-in-hand with the truth;...the 
page should be read first before it is turned."  Yannick 
Lahens, G-184 activist, told Young that Haiti had suffered 
so long from impunity and the lack of justice that 
reconciliation could not come until those were addressed. 
"Forgiveness is important, yes," she said, "but first you 
have to know who you are forgiving, and why."  She noted 
that even in Rwanda and South Africa, there had been some 
trials and processes.  Lahens' point was echoed by other 
participants from the anti-Aristide movement.  Young did not 
back down, insisting that "extreme mercy" was a better 
answer than the pursuit of justice in individual cases. 
 
6. (U) Others found Young's message more compelling.  Prime 
Minister Latortue publicly agreed with Young, welcoming his 
message of "tolerance and acceptance of other people" and 
acknowledging that justice in Haiti was often colored with 
vengeance.  Lucwansch Duvalsaint, the head of an association 
of former Lavalas mayors (an association that appears to 
fall in the "moderate" Lavalas camp), argued that justice in 
Haiti had always been "victors' justice" and that the IGOH's 
pursuit of legal charges against former Lavalas government 
officials would not be any diffferent. 
 
National Dialogue moving slowly forward 
---------------------------------------- 
7. (SBU) Ambassador Young's visit threw a needed spotlight 
on the still-embryonic formal National Dialogue process 
launched in April by President Alexandre (reftel).   Members 
of the National Dialogue Preparatory Commission, although 
not yet formally announced, met twice with Young, including 
once in a lunch hosted by President Alexandre.  Catholic 
Bishop Francois Gaillot, whom the Commission members elected 
as their chairman, told Young that the Commission had a 
clearly defined mandate to help publicize the National 
Dialogue and help the government establish the technical 
secretariat and Steering Committee to actually run the 
 
SIPDIS 
National Dialogue.  He pointed to the Commission's diversity 
as a strength, noting that it included representatives of 
all religious sectors (including voodoo), all political 
sectors (from Guy Philippe's FRN party to Lavalas), and 
several civil society sectors.  Asked what progress had been 
made, however, Gaillot and other members could only point to 
the several "productive" meetings they have held as the 
Commission.  Presidential counselor Jean-Claude Paulvin told 
PolCounselor on the margins that the official decree naming 
the Preparatory Commission would be issued within the next 
few days, launching the 60-day period within which the 
Commission would have to complete its work.  (Note: The 
decree was published in a ceremony at the Palace May 31. 
End note) 
 
Visit to Neptune 
----------------- 
8. (SBU)  Young, accompanied by the Ambassador and SRSG 
Valdes, visited former Prime Minister Neptune for 
approximately 20 minutes in his jail cell.  Young urged 
Neptune to cooperate with government and MINUSTAH efforts to 
resolve his case.   Neptune ultimately agreed to talk to the 
investigating judge.  At his departure press conference, 
Young described Neptune as a "man of very strong spirit." 
(NOTE: Neptune was transported by MINUSTAH helicopter to St. 
Marc for a hearing on May 25, then returned to his prison 
annex in Port-au-Prince.  Neptune cooperated with the judge, 
answering questions for almost four hours.) 
 
Follow Up 
--------- 
 
9.  Ambassador Foley used his next public appearance, a 
youth sports awards ceremony, to reinforce Ambassador 
Young's message of mercy and reconciliation.  The Office of 
Public Diplomacy is preparing highlighted transcripts in 
Creole, French and English, for targeted dissemination.  An 
American expert on the civil rights Movement will hold a 
session for journalists, political parties and civil 
society, to dissect Ambassador Young's speeches in Haiti, 
explaining how these principles brought about the lasting 
success of Martin Luther King and his followers. 
 
Comment 
-------- 
10. (SBU) Ambassador Young's message on the importance of 
reconciliation was the right message at the right time; it 
needs to be heard in this land where "justice" is rarely 
just and where the victors rarely reach out to the defeated. 
But as the reactions from many highlight, the prospects for 
setting aside the many cries for punishment and retribution 
- often couched as demands for an end to judicial impunity - 
- and moving forward based on forgiveness are not great. 
That will only happen, in our view, if the international 
community makes this a central focus of its engagement here 
for a sustained period of time. 
 
10. (SBU) Young's visit also highlighted the lack of any 
real movement so far in the National Dialogue process 
launched with fanfare nearly two months ago (and talked 
about for many months previous to that).  As we noted in 
April, the government has taken a very cumbersome, 
bureaucratic approach to the project which does not inspire 
great confidence that any real dialogue will happen in the 
months before the elections.  Other efforts, e.g. a series 
of political party meetings being organized by MINUSTAH 
(reftel) and the Norwegian-funded discussions about an 
electoral code of conduct, are proving more fruitful in the 
short term.  Now that the National Dialogue Preparatory 
Commission has been formally established with a 60-day 
mandate to prepare the next phase, we hope that the focus 
Young has brought to the central issue of reconciliation 
will give the process a needed boost. 
 
Foley