News
and opinions on situation in Haiti |
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Haiti Report for February 21, 2005 – Most Recent |
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The Haiti Report is a compilation and summary of events as described in Haitian and international media. It does not reflect the opinions of any individual or organization. This service is intended to create a better understanding of the situation in Haiti by presenting the reader with reports that provide a variety of perspectives on the situation. IN THIS REPORT: Attack at the National Penitentiary: Authorities were investigating whether the attack was aimed at freeing Neptune and Privert, but neither man tried to get away, Onses-Cardona said. Some prisoners did escape, but it was not clear how many, he said. Black and beige rubber sandals of the type worn by inmates were scattered just outside the stone and brick prison, where the wall was pockmarked with several bullet holes and the pavement littered with spent ammunition. The attack began when three or four men dressed in black and armed with assault rifles drove up to the prison in a jeep and began firing into the air Saturday afternoon, touching off a brief gun battle with guards, witnesses said. At least one guard was killed, said police spokeswoman Gessy Coicou, adding that authorities had no information about a possible motive or suspects. Police swarmed around the prison, setting up roadblocks and searching cars. Hundreds of onlookers also gathered outside the prison. Dozens of allies of Aristide, who fled the country amid a three-week rebellion nearly a year ago, were held at the prison. None have been formally charged. (AP, 2/19) More than 350 detainees escaped from Haiti’s largest prison Saturday afternoon, after armed masked men in two vans broke through barricades and attacked the facility, according to police and eyewitness reports. Most of the prisoners who fled from the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince remained at large late Saturday night, but order had been restored at the prison, police said. The motive for the attack remains unclear. Police said at least one guard was killed, and a hospital source told CNN that a total of 15 people had died. That death toll has not been independently confirmed. As the attack began, prison guards spirited to safety two high-profile prisoners being held at the facility — former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and former Interior Minister Jocelerme Privet. U.N. personnel took them into protective custody and later turned them back over to Haitian police, said Damien Onses-Cardona, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti. U.N. peacekeepers, who were sent into Haiti last year to quell political violence wracking the Caribbean nation, helped restore order at the prison, Onses-Cardona said. (CNN, 2/19) Gunmen stormed Haiti’s main prison on Saturday and drove away with jailed former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and other inmates linked to ousted ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, witnesses said. Neptune and former Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert appeared to have been taken out at gunpoint by the attackers, who sent poorly armed prison guards fleeing the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince, they said. A police source speaking on condition of anonymity said up to 500 of the prison’s 1,200 inmates may have escaped during the attack. One off-duty prison guard was killed. “I saw three gunmen escorting Neptune and several other prisoners and force them to get into the back of a double-cab white pickup,” said Jacques Dameus, who said he was in front of the prison at the time. “When they arrived at the gate of the National Penitentiary, Neptune did not want to walk any further. One gunman raised his weapon and forced him to walk and get into the pickup,” Dameus told Reuters. Neither the police nor the interim government, which jailed Neptune and Privert on charges of violence, made any statement on the prison break. But deputy public prosecutor Carvest Jean said afterward that neither Neptune nor Privert, who their supporters say are victims of political persecution against allies of Aristide, remained in the prison. Residents of the area said the heavily armed gunmen arrived in three vehicles. They entered the prison shooting and guards fled. Bullet casings littered the ground outside the prison later and bullet holes pockmarked the walls of nearby houses. International police who are part of a 7,000-strong Brazilian-led U.N. force trying to keep the peace in the chaotic and impoverished Caribbean country arrived later and began interviewing witnesses. Several witnesses mentioned the white pickup truck and said its license plate had been folded over to obscure its number. A woman said some of the attackers wore T-shirts with “Haitian National Police” written on them while the rest were in casual clothes. The guard who was killed, Omeus Guerrier, 25, was outside the jail at the time of the attack. In addition to Neptune and Privert, who had been jailed for several months without being indicted, witnesses said the gunmen took away a former soldier named Anel Belzaire, who had been arrested after weapons were found in his car. (Reuters, 2/19) UN Advisors in Police Stations: (Luc [Moskaluk] – recording) Civpol is being reinforced every day. We now have a total of 1,398 men, including 648 from Civpol and 750 from FPU (expansion untraced). The second phase of the mandate started this week with these 648 people from Civpol. The second phase concerns the deployment of our technical advisers to police stations. This week we have already deployed a total of 48 technical advisers in six police stations in the Port-au-Prince area, and eight advisers are assigned to each police station. We have deployed advisers to police stations in areas such as Petion-Ville, Carrefour, Croix-des-Bouquets, Delmas, Arcahaie and the PNH Departmental Direction of the West. The role of these technical advisers will be to follow the daily events in the police stations and to give technical advice on the ground. In the Office of the Director-General of the Haitian National Police, for example, before last week there was a total of 22 technical advisers in the different sections. So, now we can change our focus a little from the security mandate and concentrate on training the PNH on the ground. And as people may be able to see, this programme is also being carried out in other places with the creation of three offices in areas such as Gonaives with 15 technical advisers; Les Cayes, 12 technical advisers; and Fort-Liberte, nine technical advisers. Actually, this allows us to follow very closely the daily events which take place in these police stations. (Radio Metropole, 2/17) State-Sponsored Crime Escalating: Jean’s murder is one among a spate of summary executions in poor neighborhoods that witnesses say were committed by the police during raids ostensibly against criminals and armed groups opposed to the government. It is not clear whether Jean’s murder was related to his journalistic work. “The human rights situation in Haiti is critical right now,” said Judy Dacruz, an independent human rights lawyer based in Port-au-Prince. “There has been a complicity of silence about these killings. The authorities don’t even acknowledge violations are taking place, and the majority of the press are simply ignoring what is going on.” Dacruz has documented 14 cases, including the murder of Jean, since October, in which witnesses said police officers summarily executed unarmed people. In three other cases, people who were taken into police custody either showed up dead or were never seen again. Nearly one year since U.S. Marines escorted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from Haiti, some human rights observers say state-sponsored abuses have continued – or even escalated. Most of the abuses have taken place in poor parts of Port-au-Prince, where support for Aristide still runs strong and armed groups demanding his return defy the government and clash with police. While some of those executed were members of Aristide’s Lavalas party, most appear to have had no political affiliation, other than the fact that they lived in a neighborhood sympathetic to Aristide. Government and police officials have denied the police have committed summary executions. In some cases, they have speculated that former soldiers or pro-Lavalas armed gangs might be responsible, while in others they have claimed not to know about the murders but conceded police were in the area at the time. “I guarantee the police are not involved in these kinds of actions,” police spokesman Gessy Coicou said at a news conference last week. “Personally, I don’t know Abdias Jean, I haven’t heard of him and I haven’t seen his name in any of the files I have. Many journalists have reported that there are many witnesses. I would advise them to file a complaint.” (Jean’s mother has indeed filed a formal complaint with the nation’s chief prosecutor.) Aristide himself was accused by rights groups and many in the international community of tolerating and perpetrating abuses, which was a factor in pushing the Organization of American States to freeze millions of dollars in aid to his government. In contrast, abuses under the government of Prime Minister Gerard Latortue have gotten scant censure from the United States, Canada and France, critics of Aristide that led an occupying force in Haiti after his ouster. Meanwhile, recent human rights violations have occurred despite the presence of 7,500 UN peacekeepers whose mandate includes training Haitian police as well as promoting and protecting human rights. David Beer, commissioner of the 1,400 UN civilian police in Haiti, said part of the problem is that a wave of violence has forced peacekeepers to focus on fighting armed groups, some of them Aristide backers. Beer formed a team of 24 UN civilian police officers last month to investigate summary executions allegedly committed by the Haitian police, as well as the killings of at least 10 prisoners in a crackdown at the national penitentiary on Dec. 1. “It’s worse than I would have expected,” Beer said. “If the human rights situation isn’t changing, and obviously changing, and the public has the confidence that it is changing, we can’t have a secure and stable environment. People won’t move around the country in day-to-day activities. They won’t go shopping. They won’t participate in elections in the same way.” The first round of presidential elections is set for Nov. 13. Lavalas leaders have accused the government of a campaign of repression meant to stamp out support for Aristide and to dissuade the poor from voting. The government says it is battling illegal gangs that aim to destabilize the government. In the slum of Bel Air, an Aristide stronghold, a man named Alfred, his eyes red and glazed, stared blankly at the cinder-block wall of his tiny home last week. His wife sat slumped in a white plastic chair. They declined to identify themselves further, fearing police reprisal. A week ago, their son Jeff, 14, left to buy bread a few blocks away. They heard gunfire – commonplace in Bel Air – and soon after, two of Jeff’s aunts carried his blood-soaked body back to the house. One witness said a police officer had shot Jeff in the leg and then, when the boy collapsed and cried for help, shot him in the chest. Nobody has come to investigate, and Jeff’s parents say they will not file a complaint. “We’ll leave it to God to do justice,” said his mother. “I lifted him in my palm when he was a baby,” said Jeff’s aunt, “and now I bring him back to this house covered in blood. If we file a complaint, nothing will come of it. They won’t take it seriously. They’ll keep on killing us.” (Newsday, 2/14) A Plea for Support from the Commission on Women Victims of Rape: Asked how it is that she found the courage to speak out about the violence against women, she quotes a Haitian proverb: “Medicine cannot be found for a sickness that is hidden”. She was 37 when the three uniformed men wearing black masks forced their way into her home. She remembers that they slapped her first. A front tooth went flying. The struggles have been ongoing in the 12 years since that day. She struggles with the loss of her husband, who was disappeared. She struggles to raise her four children, in addition to a girl born of the rape. She struggles with poverty, familiar enough before the rape, but even more devastating for a single mother. And she struggles with the shame that rape victims feel in this society, as in many countries, more painful still because this violence is unacknowledged and rarely reported in the Haitian and international media. She was lucky to find herself among other women with the same immeasurable courage that it has taken to speak the truth. They hold their heads up high with an inspiring and hard-fought dignity as we chat this afternoon in Port-au-Prince. Inherent dignity. It is what human rights talk is all about, and it is the objective of the Haitian Commission for Women Victims of Rape. I discussed the Commission with a half dozen of its members, all victims of rape, listening to their stories as someone new to Haiti, although familiar with some of the widespread causes of its violence. The Commission was formed because – in spite of being almost entirely hidden to the outside world – there is a new surge in violence against women. They are victims of another peak in the chronic violence that flows from centuries of national and international prejudice and exclusion, sparked by yet another armed coup against an elected government. A United Nations stabilization mission is in place to support the ‘transition’ to an election later this year, but these past victims report that the rapes continue even as the UN tanks stand guard at the gates to the many urban slums of Haiti. Scores are being settled as a new regime is installed. Contrary voices are being silenced. Rival gangs are at war. Illegal and irregular armed groups battle to occupy people’s minds and neighborhoods. Journalists with minority voices are under attack, in exile, in hiding, dead. Haitian police enter with UN backup to apparently deal with armed “bandits”, but innocent Haitians are often paying the price. The new wave of violence includes a resurgence in violence against women, whose voices are rarely given recognition in Haiti. But the members of the Commission recount hearing screams of victims in the night, and they are desperate to help those suffering a pain that they know too well. You can help. Opinions may differ on the political events in Haiti during the last year, and on the global causes of poverty and violence. But none of these differences change the fact that the women of Haiti’s poorest slums need help to deal with the consequences of rape and other violence. The victims are arriving every day at the doors of the Commission on Women Victims of Rape. For every victim willing to speak out, there are many more living in isolation, fear, and shame, often moving up the mountainsides or into the countryside because they can no longer live in their own former neighborhoods. But the members of the Commission are as poor as the victims. They collect what they can for medicines, for HIV and other STD tests, for temporary shelter, for legal proceedings. But the need far outweighs the available resources. The Commission also established a transitional school for the children (100 to date) of these women, who could not afford to send them to school. They would like to continue the school and its food program for kids who often arrive with empty bellies. They need funds to do this. (John Tynela for Rights Action, 2/15) [Funds to support the Women’s Commission can be donated directly through Konbit Pou Ayiti (write Fon Fanm on the memo line), 7 Wall Street, Gloucester, MA 01930, or donate on line through Rights Action: www.rightsaction.org] UN envoy says Haiti is more stable but threat of insecurity still
present: “The society is stabilized, the political process is developing, a new dialogue is possible, conditions of security are much better than they were some four months ago, yet the agents of insecurity and instability are still there and today our first task is to begin the process of disarmament,” Valdes told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) [this agency]. “I would say the Haitian society is in a situation of stability, yet the threat of insecurity is still there,” he added. The UN official said that the new situation in Haiti, that had been plagued by violence and unrest that preceded the controversial removal of the island ’s first elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was as a result of the recent call by the government for a national dialogue. The UN has indicated its willingness to fund and organize the political dialogue, expected to be held in March, and Valdes said it would include all stakeholders, including members of Aristide’s Lavalas Family party. He said the international community has made it clear it was prepared to support the dialogue on the grounds that “it be carried out without exclusion”. “Everybody will be allowed to participate in the dialogue,” he said noting that discussions have been ongoing with representatives of the Lavalas Family party. But he made it clear that there would be no time-frame on the duration of the dialogue. “I don’t think that the situation of Haiti is a situation that can be achieved in a matter of months. It is a very long-term process and it involves an enormous effort on the part of Haitians,” he told CMC. He said the task the international community has set for itself and the task the Haitians would have to carry out this year “is extremely crucial and extremely complex, and its success is a condition to be able to look at the long range”. Valdes held discussions with Caribbean foreign ministers on Tuesday [15 February] and described the one-hour long deliberations as “very fruitful”. “We have said to the Caricom (that) it was the decision of the Security Council to include Caricom among the main actors in the support of the Haitian transition,” he added. During the opening ceremony of the two-day summit here, both Grenada and Surinam urged a re-think on the Haitian situation, and Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo told reporters on Wednesday that his personal position would be for a “re-engagement only under some clear conditions”. Caribbean states are divided on whether to recognize the [Prime Minister Gerard] Latortue administration that came to power following the controversial removal of Aristide in February last year. (Carribean Media Corporation, CMC, 2/18) Police Operation at Radio Megastar: Responding to the criticism, a Radio Megastar journalist said, “We will continue to defend the weakest ones, to denounce summary executions, and to allow the disadvantaged to speak”. The Haiti Support Group notes that a journalist at Radio Megastar was among of a number of eye-witnesses gave information to human rights investigators following an alleged police massacre at the National Penitentiary on 1st December 2004. The Megastar offices are in a high building with a view inside the National Penitentiary from above. The journalist reportedly saw guards on a cat-walk inside the prison shooting in the direction of prison cells. He said he could hear crying as shots were fired, and heard heavy gunfire for extended periods, including automatic weapons fire. (If any official inquiry into this alleged police massacre of prisoners has been conducted, no findings have been made public.) Radio Megastar also interviewed relatives of prisoners who subsequently gathered outside the prison trying to find out if certain inmates were dead or alive. In what may have been a related incident, on the evening of 4 February, Radio Megastar journalist, Raoul Saint-Louis, was shot in the hand by persons unknown when he was outside the station with his wife and several colleagues. The Haiti Support Group has worked in support of the free exchange of ideas and information in Haiti for over a decade, and is concerned that hard won freedoms are being rapidly eroded, even while a United Nations stabilisation mission is present in the country. (Haiti Support Group press release – 17 February 2005) Former Soldiers Sought in Murder of Four Policemen: Haitian National Police spokeswoman Jessie Coicou told around 200 mourners, “This crime won’t go unpunished. The state has the monopoly on violence and the law must prevail,” she said as several police officers broke into tears. Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue attended the church service. Coicou said a former soldier identified as Eric Pierre-Louis was arrested on Sunday in possession of a revolver belonging to one of the dead policemen. He had been trying to sell the weapon, which he received from another former soldier, Rene Jean Anthony, who reported to Ravix, she said. Coicou said the government was offering a $7,000 reward for information leading to the capture of Ravix and Anthony. Ravix, who has taken refuge in a village near Haiti’s border with the Dominican Republic, denied the accusations against his men. “I and my men have nothing to do with the killings,” Ravix said by cell phone. “The government is made up of traitors. They praised us when we took up weapons to get rid of Aristide. Now that they are in power, they want to get rid of us.” Previously pitted mainly against street gangs still loyal to Aristide’s Lavalas Family party, the police are now also increasingly confronting the disbanded soldiers who helped lead the armed revolt that drove Aristide from power last Feb. 29. Latortue once hailed the soldiers and other anti-Aristide gunmen as “freedom fighters,” and this year his government began to pay them some of the 10-years back pay they demand. But relations have frayed over the soldiers’ demands for the re-establishment of the army, which Aristide disbanded a decade ago. (Reuters, 2/16) Resolution of the Kongre Bwa Kayiman: Toward the end of the Kongrč, participants vowed to work shoulder-to-shoulder for the liberation of Haiti. Those in need of liberation include individuals who are suffering under from oppressive imperialists, and those fighting for the rights of the majority to be recognized. We exchanged ideas at Kongrč Bwa Kayiman 2005, and as a result, developed this resolution. RESOLUTION WHEREAS prevalence of political violence and persecution against women has the making of an imperialist empire and is currently ravaging throughout Haiti. As a result of this instability, we have seen over 1,000 political prisoners who have never appeared before a judge. Over 10,000 Haitian compatriots have left this earth and will never return, in order to protect Haiti’s nascent democracy. Over 100,000 Haitian compatriots are trying to flee the country to avoid repression. More than 600,000 others are living in hiding and fearful for their lives and their families because of the rein of terror that exists throughout the country. Over 19,000 houses have already been set on fire. Over 60,000 livestock have already disappeared from impoverished Haitian peasants. WHEREAS the Haitian people continue their non-stop struggle to emerge from under the thumb of oppression and, as a result, are being victimized once again. WHEREAS the position of the African Union and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) regarding Haiti indicates clearly that this battle involves unconscious whites—who suffer from domination syndrome against Blacks—who want liberty and are fighting to save their dignity. WHEREAS in Mexico during the December 2004 conference, union members from Mexico, the Unites States and Cuba declared that they were in solidarity with the Haitian people, and they demanded respect for the Haitian people’s vote and cries for decency. WHEREAS on January 26-31, 2005 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, the World Social Forum hosted over 150,000 participants from all over the world who indicate their support for the Haitian people struggle and called for the return of democracy in Haiti. WHEREAS President Hugo Chavez has made it clear in his speech declaring his solidarity with the Haitian people that President Jean Bertrand Aristide remains the only president of Haiti until his term is over. WHEREAS the situation in Haiti today does not respond to existing laws within the United Nations, the OAS and, CARICOM charters. WHEREAS international law, the Haitian people’s vote and the Haitian constitution have been severely trodden. Therefore we are demanding that: 1. The president that the Haitian people voted into office must be returned to Haiti without any condition to finish his mandate without further delay. Organize election then hand over power to the next president that will be elected democratically. 2. The principle of democracy must triumph over the domination of the imperialist empire. The United States government, France, Canada must recognize without further delay; President Aristide as the legitimate President of Haiti just like the Caribbean, African, Latin American countries do. They must all work together without any delay for the return of President Aristide to Haiti. 3. All political persecutions must cease, and all the political prisoners must be released immediately without any condition. 4. A government of consensus must be established in Haiti to facilitate normalization of the nation daily activities; immediately upon the return of President Aristide, whom the people voted into office. Such government with the support of the international community should establish a program that will alleviate the suffering of impoverished Haitians among the population while facilitating wide-spread socio-economic and cultural development for the Haitian people. 5. The victims and their families must find justice and reparation. The Organizing Committee of Kongre Bwa Kayiman must take the necessary measures to establish a fund to support the victims, advocate and work for the protection of human rights. 6. MINUSTAH (United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti)—a mission that has the making of an occupying—force leave Haiti immediately. Demand an immediate investigation into the killing and massacre that MINUSTAH has committed in Haiti. The budged of MINUSTAH must be reallocated to develop an emergency program for Haiti. 7. A team of Human Rights observers that comprise of Amnesty International, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR), Members of the United States Congress—particularly the Black Caucus—African Union, CARICOM, ACP, International Parliament Federation, and others to visit Haiti immediately and evaluate the human rights situation. 8. Countries that receive Haitian refugees must stop deporting them. Haitian refugees who seek political asylum must be granted asylum including Temporary Protected Status (TPS). 9. Two committees must be established immediately with the participation of KBK attendees, along with compatriots and friends (two people per region) to conduct follow-up. The Organizing Committee of KBK will contact the people in question without delay: Institute a Follow-up and Planning Committee that is responsible for conducting follow-up for the Kongre, and plan all other activities and mobilization for the return of democracy in Haiti. Institute a Coordinating Committee for the Solidarit _______________________________________________ |
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