Principal Authors: Daniel Pimienta
Date of Publication: 1999-10-29
Date of HTML Modification: 1999-11-15
Original Language: Français
Regions: Haiti
Subjects: The Haitian Network
Type of Document: Editorials
See Related Articles

Mr. Kozyn,

It is very promising to see you, as a representant of the Haitian Government, have taken the time to read and answer
the letters of protestation sent to you by persons concerned by the closing of the main ISP of Haiti.

That places you in situation to understand the importance of the Internet for Haiti and the disaster caused by a brutal
decision preventing 80% of the country users to maintain their access to the Internet.

I would like, since the dialogue is now open, to discuss publically each of the arguments you presented.

1) You wrote: "... Subsequently, CONATEL temporarily suspended the usage license granted to the firm. "
The "temporary" suspension is still pending, since Sept. 27th.

2) The contract between Conatel and ACN states a scaled procedure in case of disagreement which has not been respected. See le Nouvelliste Oct. 20th: http://www.funredes.org/funredes/nouv-20102.jpg.

3) The argument that "international calls [and the revenue provided by same] were being fraudulently diverted.",
supported by the presence of equipments and the constatation that the traffic arised after closing ACN is flawed.
See the flow chart of traffic in Le Nouvelliste Oct. 4th, and check that the growth happened two days <before>
ACN was closed: http://www.funredes.org/funredes/nouv04101.jpg. See also the statement of the Sustainable Development Network http://www.funredes.org/funredes/domaine/rddh.html).

4) You wrote "...representatives of ACN during which the latter recognized their faults" and "sanctions against ACN depends upon their fulfilling the conditions to which they agreed at the meeting of September 30th."
These versions are totally and publically rejected by ACN. See announcements by ACN in le Nouvelliste Oct. 20th:
http://www.funredes.org/funredes/nouv-20101.jpg and http://www.funredes.org/funredes/nouv-20103.jpg

Reading the newspapers of your country one can fear, in the brutal closing of the first Haitian ISP, a combination of:

- a will for political control (see the statement of Mr. Gérard Pierre Charles: http://www.funredes.org/funredes/ht-actes.html/)

- an interventionism against free enterprise and free competition (see le Nouvelliste Oct. 6th http://www.funredes.org/funredes/nouv-06101.jpg)

In any case, this decision continues preventing the large majority of Haitian Internauts to get connected.

Regards,

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Daniel Pimienta                           Tel.: +1 809 686 2804
Presidente de FUNREDES         Fax: +1 809 689 3388
Fundacion Redes y Desarrollo     pimienta@funredes.org
PO BOX 2972                           http://funredes.org
Santo Domingo (Republica Dominicana)
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Since the early 90's FUNREDES' position is that "Internet for Development" is NOT about pluging and playing, chatting ans surfing, getting information abroad, converging to one language, one culture and one market. It's about empowering persons and communities, collaborating and social networking, producing local content, facilitating diversity of languages, cultures
and opinions.  Communication above technology. Enabling participative democracy.
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"Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne merite ni egards ni patience." (René Char)

"No se trata de condenar o de felicitar. Se trata de entender" (Spinoza)

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Networks and Development Foundation http://www.funredes.org/english/editoriales.php3/docid/349 Created 1999-10-29 - Updated 1999-11-15 Copyright © 1999 FUNREDES