October 13, 2005: Headlines: Directors - Schneider: COS - Haiti: Houston Chronicle: Mark Schneider sees problems with Haiti elections
Peace Corps Online:
Peace Corps News:
Directors of the Peace Corps:
Mark Schneider:
January 23, 2005: Index: PCOL Exclusive: Peace Corps Directors - Schneider :
October 13, 2005: Headlines: Directors - Schneider: COS - Haiti: Houston Chronicle: Mark Schneider sees problems with Haiti elections
Mark Schneider sees problems with Haiti elections
``Major problems remain in ensuring credible elections,'' said Mark Schneider, a Washington-based expert on Latin America. ``If they're not resolved, the next government's legitimacy will be in question.'' Mark Schneider, senior vice president of the International Crisis Group in Washington, was the second returned Volunteer (El Salvador, 1966–68) to head the agency.
Mark Schneider sees problems with Haiti elections
Haitians see no use in voting
Newsday
CITE SOLEIL, HAITI - As he loitered on a garbage-strewn street flanked by canals of sewage, near a square where men wandered freely with M-16s slung over their shoulders, Jean Osner twisted his face in anger when asked if he'd vote in upcoming presidential elections.
ADVERTISEMENT
``We have no one to vote for,'' said Osner, 25, a bone-thin man who wore tattered bedroom slippers for shoes. ``No one cares about poor people like us.''
Moments later, gunfire crackled through the air.
Despair and lawlessness shackle this virtually stateless country as it lurches toward elections to replace ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, tempering Washington's hopes that the balloting will usher in democracy.
In this slum inside Port-au-Prince, armed gangs loyal to the routed populist president remain so powerful that 7,600 U.N. peacekeepers couldn't provide enough security to open a voting registration center here until last Thursday - a week after voting registration ended elsewhere.
Adding to the worries, Haiti's electoral council is plagued by allegations of incompetence and political favoritism.
Meanwhile, the interim government has jailed a firebrand priest - the favorite candidate of Aristide supporters - on vague accusations of murder. As a result, some Aristide militants are threatening to boycott the elections.
``Major problems remain in ensuring credible elections,'' said Mark Schneider, a Washington-based expert on Latin America. ``If they're not resolved, the next government's legitimacy will be in question.''
Contested results could spark another round of the violence that has claimed more than 1,000 lives since Aristide's ouster 20 months ago.
When this story was posted in October 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| 'Celebration of Service' a major success The Peace Corps Fund's 'Celebration of Service' on September 29 in New York City was a major success raising approximately $100,000 for third goal activities. In the photo are Maureen Orth (Colombia); John Coyne (Ethiopia) Co-founder of the Peace Corps Fund; Caroline Kennedy; Barbara Anne Ferris (Morocco) Co-founder; Former Senator Harris Wofford, member of the Advisory Board. Read the story here. |
| PC apologizes for the "Kasama incident" The District Commissioner for the Kasama District in Zambia issued a statement banning Peace Corps activities for ‘grave’ social misconduct and unruly behavior for an incident that occurred on September 24 involving 13 PCVs. Peace Corps said that some of the information put out about the incident was "inflammatory and false." On October 12, Country Director Davy Morris met with community leaders and apologized for the incident. All PCVs involved have been reprimanded, three are returning home, and a ban in the district has since been lifted. |
| Why blurring the lines puts PCVs in danger When the National Call to Service legislation was amended to include Peace Corps in December of 2002, this country had not yet invaded Iraq and was not in prolonged military engagement in the Middle East, as it is now. Read the story of how one volunteer spent three years in captivity from 1976 to 1980 as the hostage of a insurrection group in Colombia in Joanne Marie Roll's op-ed on why this legislation may put soldier/PCVs in the same kind of danger. |
| The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related stories in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can find hundreds of stories about what RPCVs with your same interests or from your Country of Service are doing today. If you have a web site, support the "Peace Corps Library" and link to it today. |
| Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000 strong 170,000 is a very special number for the RPCV community - it's the number of Volunteers who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961. It's also a number that is very special to us because March is the first month since our founding in January, 2001 that our readership has exceeded 170,000. And while we know that not everyone who comes to this site is an RPCV, they are all "Friends of the Peace Corps." Thanks everybody for making PCOL your source of news for the Returned Volunteer community. |
Read the stories and leave your comments.
Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.
Story Source: Houston Chronicle
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Directors - Schneider; COS - Haiti
PCOL22648
45