/ATT EDS: Please relate the following to, ‘U.S.-HAITI: U.S. Speaks With Forked Tongue’, moved from Washington/

WASHINGTON, Dec 5 (IPS) – More than 50 U.S.-based human rights and religious organisations have written to President Bill Clinton, urging him to return to Haiti thousands of documents seized by U.S. troops in 1994.

The letter, dated Dec. 5, says the documents are vital to the Haitian government’s efforts to prosecute human rights violators and begin building an effective judicial system in Haiti.

At least 60,000 pages of documents were taken from the Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress (FRAPH) in Sep. 1994, when U.S. troops entered Haiti on their mission to return exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. FRAPH, a paramilitary group, terrorised Haitians throughout the rule of the military-backed regime.

‘’These documents have obvious evidentiary value to Haitian prosecutors; they reportedly contain extensive information on the activities of the Haitian military and their paramilitary ally FRAPH,’’ the human rights groups write.

‘’These entitities were responsible for gross, systematic human rights abuse through the three years of the de facto regime that cost thousands of lives and took a devastating toll on democracy and development in Haiti,’’ says the letter.

Its signatories include the Washington Office on Latin America, Amnesty International USA, the Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA, the International Labour Rights Fund, the Latin America and Caribbean Solidarity Association, and the Haitian Ministry Commission, Diocese of Richmond, Virginia.

These organisations argue that Haiti faces a delicate transition period over the next months. A change in government is expected following the Dec. 17 elections and Feb. 7 presidential inauguration.

The United Nations mission in Haiti is also due to depart Feb. 29, although there are suggestions here that Washington may try to lengthen the pullout. Some 2,500 U.S. troops form part of the 6,000-strong peacekeeping presence in the Caribbean country.

The Haitian government is, in the meantime, worried that paramilitary units in the country remained armed and may destabilise the country once the troops leave.

In this regard, the government sent a request to Washington Oct. 31, asking that the documents be returned. But the issue is in dispute here: The State Department says the Haitian request is a legitimate one and should be satisfied; the Defence Department is resisting the documents’ release.

Last Friday, Democratic congressman John Conyers sent a letter to Clinton urging the documents be handed over. Thirty-nine other members of the House of Representatives support the request. (END/IPS/YJC/95)

Origin: Washington/U.S.-HAITI/ ----

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