Principal Authors: Kumi Naidoo
Date of Publication: 1999-11-19
Date of HTML Modification: 2000-11-14
Original Language: English
Regions: Haiti
Subjects: The Haitian Network
Type of Document: Editorials
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A. FROM THE DESK OF THE CIVICUS SECRETARY- GENERAL

In late September 1999, the President of Haiti issued an order to shut down ANC (Alpha Network Communications), the largest Internet Service Provider in Haiti. As a result, 80% percent of the Haiti's Internet users lost access.

The national telephone company, Telecommunications d'Haiti (Teleco), and the National Telecommunications Council (CONATEL) claim that ANC, despite its repeated denials, was illegally selling international telephone cards and providing international telephone service. Many human rights and civil liberties observers suspect that this move is "an attempt by the government to silence dissent and consolidate power", a few months before the next parliamentarian and presidential elections.

In Haiti, the Internet has been a pivotal civil society communication tool, growing in popularity and necessity due to the lack of other communication routes -- there is less than one phone line per 100 residents. Without Internet access, many schools, companies, universities, and banks have lost contact with the world.

The Global Internet Liberty Campaign and Fundacion FUNREDES have called civil society leaders to send letters to the President of Haiti through the Haitian Embassy in the United States urging the immediate reconnection of the Internet service in Haiti.

CIVICUS encourages its members to learn more about the situation in Haiti at www.gilc.org and www.funredes.org/funredes/ht-tld.htm and to support freedom of speech worldwide.

Best Regards,

Kumi Naidoo
Secretary General and CEO

contact@funredes.org
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Networks and Development Foundation http://www.funredes.org/english/editoriales.php3/docid/380 Created 1999-11-19 - Updated 2000-11-14 Copyright © 1999 FUNREDES