rare dialogue in Haiti

[john engle]

Some of you know Fremy Cesar. Here is an article about an os event he did
some months ago, written by one of our colleagues who was present. It will
be among the articles in Beyond Borders' next newsletter.

A RARE COMMUNITY DIALOGUE WITH LOCAL POLICE
by Kent Annan

Relations between Haitian police and most other Haitians are strained, to
put it mildly. There is little trust between police and the community, for
understandable historic and current reasons. Police officers have a
difficult job to begin with, and they are also often under-trained and
underpaid. Though not all are guilty, too many police officers misuse their
power. Says Fremy Cesar, an associate of Beyond Borders and coordinator of
the Apprenticeship in Alternative Education program, “The result is that
police become almost non-human to the rest of the population. We are in a
moment when nobody has confidence in them.”

There is a long history of power being abused in Haiti. During volatile
political times like this, the relationship with police becomes even more
tense. This relationship must improve if a strong democracy and trustworthy
social institutions are to be built.

For this reason, Fremy decided to invite two policemen to one of the
community meetings that he facilitates in the town of Dabòn (a few hours
outside of Port-au-Prince) every few months. The meeting was held just
before Christmas and employed a method called Open Space that allows the
participants to decide on the discussion topics. The broad theme for the
meeting was, “The Role of Leadership and Power in Developing Peace and
Democracy.”

People gathered, put on nametags, and sat in a large circle to begin the
day. About fifty people from the community attended. As everyone introduced
themselves, the two police officers said their names but didn't say what
their jobs were. Then as everyone proposed subjects for the day's
discussion, the two policemen taped up a sheet of paper that said, “The
Relationship between Police and the Population in a Democratic Society.”

Many other subjects were proposed and small circles of chairs were scattered
around the yard in anticipation of discussions about education or politics
or a hundred other possibilities. But when people discovered who these men
were, the rest of the circles quickly started to empty. Eventually everyone
moved to join the discussion with the policemen.

After each police officer said a quick word of introduction, the circle was
opened for discussion. People did not wait long to get to the heart of the
matter:
“Police are thieves. They're only after money.”
“Whenever we see them, we're nervous and scared.”
“We only ever see the police when they arrest someone.”
“So, this is what we think of police. Is it true? Is there any reason we
should see them differently?”
“What can the police do for us? Why should we trust them?”

The police listened to all of these comments and were not defensive. They
admitted some serious mistakes have been made, and everyone in the circle
agreed there was a long way to go. For almost everyone there, it was the
first time they'd ever had the chance to sit and talk with police officers
like this.  The conversation lasted for three hours. Everyone listened to
each other. Chairs shifted occasionally to follow the migrating shade.
Nobody went to any of the other meetings proposed for the day. Even when
lunch was announced, nobody left the circle.

After the meeting was over, Fremy said, “It was amazing to see people who
are scared of the police, to see them sit next to police officers and
express their anger and fears and questions. This is an important part of my
work: to create spaces for dialogue like this. The police-people who have a
certain power, power that is reinforced by guns-showed a lot of respect for
the community by putting themselves in a circle where they heard a lot of
hard criticism. And people honored their willingness to be here. The
exchange was honest but respectful. This kind of thing is important for
building a respectful society.”
Participants valued the opportunity and hoped it pointed toward real change
in the future of their relationship with the police. When Fremy later asked
the police what they had thought, one of them said, “I think if you hold
another one of these meetings and don't invite us, we'll be upset.”




http://JohnEngle.blogspot.com - Reflections about Haiti, life, and our work.
http://JohnEngle.info
http://TheExperiment.info

_________________________________________________________________
MSN Messenger : discutez en direct avec vos amis !
http://www.msn.fr/msger/default.asp

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist