By: Tom Luce - www.haitianalysis.com

Evel Fanfan, President of AUMOHD (University Graduates Motivated for a Haiti With Rights) was in the waiting room of the national penitentiary in April of 2004. Speaking with a fierce, piercing set of eyes, he painted a picture of Haitians dead on the streets at the hands of their assassins. Multiple jailings without trials and prolonged detentions were occuring early in the days following the coup on Feb. 29, 2004. Prime Minister Yvon Neptune was already jailed there. But Atty Fanfan was there to liberate a poor victim of political persecution. AUMOHD, founded in 2003 by a group of idealist, newly graduated professionals, pledged to work for free for the most vulnerable of Haitians, especially street kids. They would be non-violent and non-partisan. Met' Fanfan (Haitian Creole for Atty. Fanfan) quickly worked out a preliminary partnership with a group HURAH based out of the United States, which would seek funds and people to help AUMOHD accompany its clients.

Before Pres. Aristide was overthrown, AUMOHD was in court contesting government violations of human rights but soon they were to be swamped by Lavalas victims of the de facto US-backed government. The challenge to remain squeaky clean as a "neutral" human rights advocacy group has been vicious and unrelenting. AUMOHD’s defense of a clientele of 100% "Lavalas" supporters was looked upon by those in power as ultra-unwise, if not personally deadly. Soon AUMOHD members were being pressured to back off. Their careers were going downhill working with street kids targeted by the police and paramilitaries as trash, innocent men and women jailed because they were Lavalas party activists. AUMOHD's major benefactor took a job with the interim government and withdrew his support and office space. Several key volunteers parted company. The Latortue administration attempted to recruit Atty Fanfan but he refused the job. And yet AUMOHD continued working with the destitute, the unknown. Only in the last month have UN authorities begun to talk with AUMOHD who they previously claimed were a tool of Lavalas.

In the course of helping the many individuals and families not able to afford legal assistance, AUMOHD began developing an empowerment process with the people it has served. These groups have come together sharing information, moral support, and looking forward to doing more to help themselves and their community. They are called, "Community Human Rights Councils (CHRC)". The first CHRC came about in Cité Soleil. With AUMOHD's free legal services, communication, transportation, and social service referrals dozens of prisoners were liberated, not succumbing to a corrupt judicial-police system. They determined that the first priority was those kids who were vulnerable to becoming street kids because they couldn't afford to go to school. Between the adults, 50 children, some relatives, some orphaned, were set up with scholarships to get them into school.

On Aug. 20-21, 2005, the now infamous Soccer Massacre, a grizzly massacre planned and carried out by the West Police Department of Port-Au-Prince and assisted by mercenary machete killed Lavalas supporters in the communities of Martissant and Grand Ravine. Met Fanfan immediately went to the community and gained the complete trust of the victims and their families. He encouraged them to organize and fight for their rights. In September a study published in the British medical journal the Lancet estimated through random spatial sampling that 8,000 people—many targeted as Lavalas and Lespwa supporters-- had been killed in the greater Port-au-Prince area during the time of the interim government. The violence in the first month alone of the interim government far out-paced any violence under its elected predecessor.

Another human rights group, BAI, brought the case to court and AUMOHD assisted with the difficult ground work of getting bodies autopsied, arranging for funerals, victims identified, families identified and obtained the cooperation of the Haitian National Police (HNP) and the UN Troops to provide some basic security. After our lobbying, HNP Director Mario Andresol pursued an investigation in which all the police involved were identified and referred to court. But in the first of the year 2006, Judge Peres Paul let the police out on personal recognizance and then in October 06 freed them permanently while referring some of the civilians to criminal court. AUMOHD continues its non-violent, non-partisan work through the Grand Ravine CHRC and is expanding the program. Unfortunately another massacre was carried out in July 06 with 200+ homes torched. The Grand Ravine CHRC coordinator, Esterne Bruner, was assassinated. The right to life above politics is still the difficult goal for AUMOHD. More CHRC's are being organized. Perhaps non-violence will win out.

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Tom Luce is the President of Hurah, Inc