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Benjamin Melançon's Reporter's Notebook

 

Haiti: Large Peaceful Demonstration for Aristide's Return

Posted by Benjamin Melançon - December 18, 2004 at 2:13 pm
More than 10,000 people poured into the streets in Cap Haitian, Haiti's second-largest city, to demand Aristide's return and an end to repression reported the Haiti Information Project (HIP).  The December 16 event marked the anniversary of Aristide and Lavalas' first electoral victory in 1990.  It was one of the first large demonstrations allowed to be held peacefully since a U.S.-chosen government took power after the February 29th coup de etat.

UN troops publicly guarded businesses' private property from the protesters.  Two days before the demonstration, UN and government troops had done nothing while paramilitaries seized Aristide's home.

Moise Jean-Charles, founder of a local peasant movement called Movement of Milot Peasants (MPM) and popular mayor of the town of Milot, quietly joined the crowd to very loud joy as people realized his presence.  He has been in hiding since Haitian police and UN troops invaded his home on June 14th.  At least 700 political prisoners remain in jail in Haiti, even after the high-profile arrest and release of Father Gerard Jean-Juste. Father Jean-Juste gave a press conference in New York yesterday, December 17, and talked of one prisoner, Harold Severe, as an example of the many who must be reunited with their families.  Marguerite Laurent of the Haitian Lawyers' Leadership Network, spoke to Jean-Juste by telephone and reported her conversation in an e-mail that day.

Harold Severe, the second assistant magistrate of Port-au-Prince under the constitutional Aristide/Preval government, was arrested at the Haitian airport on March 14, 2004, and charged with having participated in the events of December 5, 2003 at the University, where anti-Aristide demonstrators were allegedly injured.  No formal evidence has been given or put on the record as to whether Harold Severe was present or committed any crimes.

"He is in prison, like many others, because of the official position he held in the overthrown Constitutional government," said Father Jean-Juste.

HIP quoted an unnamed organizer of the demonstration:

"Although we see the UN and the police allowing us to demonstrate peacefully today for the return of our president in Cap Haitien, we have no illusions that their role could turn repressive once again. Even though we are happy for their cooperation today, we cannot forget it was the same UN that stood by and allowed the police to kill unarmed demonstrators in the capital on September 30th. It is the same UN that has allowed the illegal government of Gerard Latortue to fill the prisons with Lavalas and has allowed the former military to return and kill us."

HIP and Haiti Action have pictures and more reporting on the event, which they helped enable by negotiating with the UN to allow the peaceful demonstration.)

About Benjamin Melançon

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Student-on-hold, ex-stocker and failed union agitator, ex-white-collar consultant and now co-founder and developer at Agaric Design Collective, making web sites with open source free software.

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Comments

The "mainstream media's" deadly role

Submitted December 19, 2004 - 1:50 pm by George Salzman
Oaxaca, Sunday, December 19, 2004

      Thank you Ben for keeping on top of developments in Haiti. I'm all tied up trying to put together a piece tentatively titled, "Beheading America: an open letter to Alberto Giordano on the deadly corporate media" Initially it was to demonstrate the media's continuing attempt to insure the Bush second term by ignoring and/or scoffing at the extent of fraud and of the attempt of theft in the election, but in the meantime Gary Webb gave up the struggle.

      So the fucking corporate media has taken his head, and is trying to take the head of the American people. I'm attempting to combine both instances that show the role of the "mainstream media" in one open letter, which is also a reply to Al's anguished piece on Gary Webb.

      And then I came across your report here. When I clicked on the link you give to the Haiti Information Project (a very good link to follow), I came upon the following near the end: "Search The Web for any other story — with pictures that show they were actually there to get the real facts, not sittin on the veranda of some overrated hotel — that covered this newsworthy event. All credible reports stated that no other news media was there — even though it was a significant operation for the UN MINUSTAH troops. With all their resources, the corporate media is not providing you with real coverage in Haiti. (emphasis added)

The "mainstream media's" deadly role

Submitted December 19, 2004 - 2:07 pm by George Salzman
A minor correction to my comment on Ben's report. There should be a close quote at the end of the boldface statement, just before my (emphasis added). The boldface statement is part of the material to which Ben linked.

Police killed 40 to 110 rebelling prisoners Dec 1

Submitted December 20, 2004 - 10:33 am by Benjamin Melançon
While U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell visited Haiti's national palace under U.N. protection, a special police unit called into the national penitentiary slaughtered rebelling prisoners.  Not just those who had broken free of their cells were shot-- police took other prisoners from their cells and executed them, prisoners at the time and other witnesses told Reed Lindsay.

George Salzman's highlighting that "the corporate media is not providing you with real coverage in Haiti" (see the above comment) is nearly 100 percent accurate.  There is one person being published in the corporate media who is providing real coverage: Reed Lindsay, who (we are always quick to brag) is a Narco News J-school graduate and professor.

"Reed Lindsay is the only journalist to get into the Port-au-Prince prison since a riot three weeks ago," the Observer writes above the article, published Sunday, December 19.

According to official reports, prisoners in a three-storey cell block called 'Titanic' had rioted, breaking free from their cells, setting fire to mattresses and brandishing water pipes as weapons. Prison guards called in a special police unit to help put down the uprising, and officials later said that seven prisoners had been killed and more than 40 detainees and guards wounded during the fracas.

But according to prisoners and others interviewed by The Observer, this is a woeful understatement. The government, they say, is concealing a savage bloodbath in which dozens of detainees were killed by police and guards.

Please, read the whole article.

Almost no prisoners have been convicted of a crime

Submitted December 20, 2004 - 11:58 am by Benjamin Melançon
The demonstrators' charge of repression and discription of their jailed fellows as political prisoners is given additional credence by Reed Lindsay's article and, especially, one underreported fact contained within it: hardly any prisoners in the national penitentiary (where dozens were killed) have been convicted of any crime.

Prisoners and police say the riot was motivated by the decision to transfer some detainees to another penitentiary, combined with mounting frustration at the slow progress of their legal cases. Only 17 of around 1,100 prisoners at the national penitentiary have been convicted of a crime, and many detainees have not seen a judge.

Again I urge all who have not read Lindsay's article in yesterday's Observer (the weekend edition of the United Kingdom's Guardian) to do so now.

NOTE: There does appear to be an editing error in the second-to-last paragraph, making a sentence nonsense.  I e-mailed the Observor to let them know:

Dear Stephen Pritchard, readers' editor for The Observer:

The excellent, excellent article by Reed Lindsay on the police's massacre of (unconvicted) rebelling prisoners under the coup government in Haiti ("Revealed: Haiti bloodbath that left dozens dead in jail" at
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story /0,6903,1376873,00.html ) appears to contain an editing error in the second-to-last paragraph, second sentence:

"Among the seven dead confirmed by the justice of the peace is a police spokeswoman Gessy Coicou, the official death toll is now 10, as three prisoners wounded in the riot and its aftermath have died since 1 December."

It just doesn't make grammatical or logical sense the way it is.  As I am directing people to the on-line copy of the article, I'd appreciate a prompt correction.

Thank you for publishing such courageous reporting, and for your attention to this apparent editing error.

Sincerely,

Benjamin Melançon
Massachusetts, USA

Lindsay's Haiti prison report: impact and update

Submitted December 22, 2004 - 2:47 pm by Benjamin Melançon
"Riot in the 'Titanic'" by Reed Lindsay, at the Toronto Star, is a more complete version of Lindsay's article at the Observor that I cited above.

I do not know of any U.S. papers that have picked up this critical story.  Nevertheless, the article is already having an impact.  Reed Lindsay's article prodded Amnesty International out of its shamefully muted and infrequent notes regarding Haiti.

The well-established human rights organization issued by e-mail on December 20 an "Amnesty International Alert on Prison Killings," passed to me by Margurite Laurent of the Hatian Lawyers Leadership Council (HLLC).  The alert does not appear to be on-line at the Amnesty web site.

UA 339/04  Fear for safety/unlawful killings

HAITI Prisoners at National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince

A prison riot on the night of 1 December left 10 prisoners dead and around 40 injured, according to official figures, but inmates have claimed that many more died, and that guards were "executing" prisoners.  Visits to the prison have been severely restricted, making
the true situation very difficult to assess. Prisoners who have spoken to journalists are feared to be at risk of reprisals from
prison guards.

The alert is clearly based on Lindsay's article, though it does not credit him.  The HLLC did make the connection.

The Amnesty International alert continued with a requested action:

Please send ppeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in French, English or your own language:
  • urging the authorities to order an independent and thorough judicial investigation into the killings at the National Penitentiary on 1 December, and bring those responsible to justice;
  • expressing concern at reports that prison guards have beaten and threatened witnesses to the killings, and asking for all such witnesses to be fully protected from any reprisals;
  • calling for detainees to be given access to lawyers, their families and any medical assistance they may require;
  • reminding the authorities of their need to ensure that all military police and prison guards are properly trained in accordance with international standards on the use of force and treatment of detainees, and are provided with the conditions and training to perform their duties in such a way as to ensure the safety of both detainees and themselves.
APPEALS TO: (please note that fax numbers can be extremely difficult to get through to)

National Police Director Monsieur Léon Charles
Directeur Général de la Police Nationale d'Haïti
Grand Quartier général de la Police
12 rue Oscar Pacot,
Port-au-Prince, Haïti
Fax:  + 509 245 7374
Salutation:  Monsieur le Directeur

Public prosecutor Monsieur Jean Pierre Daniel Audain
Commissaire du Gouvernement près le Tribunal de première instance de Port au Prince
Parquet de Port-au-Prince
Port au Prince, Haïti
Salutation:  Monsieur le Commissaire du Gouvernement

COPIES TO:

Prime Minister Monsieur Gérard Latortue
Premier Ministre      
Ministre de l'Intérieure
Villa d'Accueil
Delmas 60
Musseau, Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Fax:  + 509 249 5561
Salutation:  Monsieur le Premier Ministre

Justice Minister Monsieur Bernard Gousse
Ministre de la Justice et de la Sécurité Publique
Ministère de la Justice
19 Avenue Charles Summer
Port-au-Prince, Haïti
Fax:  + 509 245 0474
Salutation:  Monsieur le Ministre

UN Special Representative Mr Juan Gabriel Valdés
Special Representative of the Secretary-General
United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti
387, avenue John Brown
Port-au-Prince, Haïti
Fax: + 509 244 3512
Salutation:   Dear Mr Valdés

Marguerite Laurent added:

Please, if you choose to answer the Amnesty International appeal [...] ALSO demand, especially to Chief prosecutor JEAN PIERRE DANIEL AUDAIN, to immediately release all prisoners who have been ORDERED RELEASED by a judge, such as 70-year old grandmother, Annette Auguste; Prime Minister Yvon Neptune; Senator Yvon Feuille and the other political prisoners who have been ordered released by judges, but REMAIN IN PRISON.

At least three different representatives of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network were told by a prisoner in this situation, that all the prisoners who have been ordered released who remain in prison, remain there illegally, virtually as hostages with no more court remedies, on the order of the CHIEF PROSECUTOR in Port-au-Prince, Mr. Jean Pierre Daniel Audain. The political prisoners who have been ordered released ask that the international community, the U.N. and U.S. Congressional representatives to intervene, on their behalf, as the US administration supports and keeps the current Haitian government in power.

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