Attack on Haiti's Prison Had Nothing to Do with Lavalas Leaders

The high-profile political prisoners briefly removed from Haiti's National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince during the Saturday afternoon attack had nothing to do with the attack, either as targets for rescuing or an attempt by attackers to cast blame on Lavalas for the attack.  Fellow inmates, at least one of whom happens to be former military from the army President Aristide disbanded in 1995, took the leaders of Aristide's Lavalas from the prison out of concern for their safety.  Former prime minister Yvon Neptune and former interior minister Jocelerme Privert then called the UN to be returned to prison because they do not want to flee or live as fugitives. Independent journalist Reed Lindsay, with a full article carried by New York Newsday, is the first reporter to put together these initial facts from the attack on the prison in Haiti.

Further information comes from Bill Quigley, a professor of law at Loyola University in New Orleans is in Haiti as a volunteer attorney with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti.  The entire text of the article by Bill Quigley, which does not seem to be on-line yet, is reprinted here:

Political prisoners Yvon Neptune, Haiti's former
Prime Minister, and Jocelerme Privert, former Minister
of the Interior, survived the massive prison revolt at the
National Penitentiary of Haiti on February 19, 2005.  
The Saturday afternoon revolt began with the firing of
heavy automatic weapons at the main gate of the prison and
the sudden disappearance of all the guards.  In the
chaos one guard was killed and 490 of the 1250
prisoners left.

Ministers Neptune and Privert were forcibly taken out
of the prison by former military people concerned for
their safety.  Once secure, they immediately called on
international authorities to guarantee them
a safe return to the prison.  They were returned to
the penitentiary by the UN authorities within hours
of the end of the revolt.

Speaking from a cement cell with no running water, no
bathroom, and no electricity, Yvon Neptune and
Minister Privert vowed not to eat to until the
injustice and insecurity of their confinement is
addressed. Privert has been in prison since April 2004
and Neptune since June 2004 and neither has a trial
date set.

Yvon Neptune said, "My life has been in real danger
since the elected President of our country was removed
in February of 2004.  This is the third time my life
has been put in danger in prison.  There was an
assassination plot against me in the fall confirmed by
the National Police.  Then there was the prison
massacre on December 1, 2004, in which unknown numbers
of prisoners were killed.  When the prison was
attacked this weekend, my life was again clearly and
seriously in danger.  I could easily have been killed
by people inside or outside of the prison.  Who is it
that keeps putting me in situations where I
might be killed?"

After Neptune and Privert returned to the
prison by the UN, Haitian authorities wrongfully
reported that the two men had been captured by
national police, a charge Neptune said is a total lie
and a story repudiated by the UN.

Neptune concluded by asking, "We have been patient
for over eight months.  We have given time for the
government and the international community to act.  Enough is enough."