Haiti's Human Rights Disaster

When the paramilitary bands including many members of a former dictatorship’s security forces overthrew the democratically elected government of Haiti more than a year and a half ago, the development was welcomed by the U.S. government (which likely had a role in training the coup forces the neighboring Dominican Republic). The Lavalas government under President Aristide, claimed U.S. officials, had oppressed the Haitian people and violated their human rights, and this new government would restore democracy.

A new report from the Association of University Students Motivated for a Haiti with Rights (AUMOHD) shows that, unsurprisingly, this has not been the case, and that human rights have steadily eroded under the “interim government” despite a heavy U.N. presence. Read on for a summary of the report by the independent Haitian news agency AHP…

A human rights organization finds that the human rights situation in Haiti has deteriorated

Port-au-Prince, November 2, 2005 (AHP)  The Haitian human rights organization AUMOHD (Association of University Students Motivated for a Haiti with Rights) reported Wednesday that the situation of human rights has worsened in Haiti since the sudden departure of President Aristide on February 29, 2004.

One year and eight months after the forced departure of President Aristide into exile and the installation as president of the Chief Justice of the country's supreme court,  Boniface ALEXANDRE, human rights expectations are far from being realized, the organization observed, emphasizing that fundamental rights such as individual liberty, the right to life, the right to health care, the right to security as well as all social rights are violated with a degree of complicity from the new government, which has the obligation to guarantee, protect and promote human rights in this country.

AUMOHD indicated that it has been its experience that over the past 20 months the interim authorities have turned a deaf ear to the concerns and needs of the population and have plunged headlong into arbitrary conduct.

"Arrests are carried out without a warrant and outside of any justification that they are based on offenders caught in the act of committing a crime, and are followed by abusive, prolonged detentions, summary executions, disappearances, cases of torture and massacres perpetrated in the populist districts of the capital including Bel -Air, Cite Soleil, Solino, Fort National and Gran Ravin", AUMOHD writes, citing a series of cases including that of Féquière MATHURIN, arrested July 25 by the Haitian National Police, very severely burned in the police transport vehicle, and now kept in isolation at the DCPJ (Central Directorate of the Judicial Police) despite his injuries.

AUMOHD also describes the case of Fedna St Fleur, a 19 year-old woman who said she was tortured by police officers stationed at the Delmas 33 police station, who are then said to have transferred her to the DDO of  Port au Prince.

The organization also expressed profound concern at the fact that no clear explanation has been provided regarding what it calls the arranged escape at the National Penitentiary, as well as the massacre on November 23, 2004 at Fort National where more than 13 youths were killed under circumstances that remain clouded.

AUMOHD is calling for an explanation of the deaths of innocent people during the intervention by MINUSTAH soldiers and Haitian police on July 6 in Cité Soleil

AUMOHD is also calling on the authorities to shed light on the tragedy of August 20 and 21st, 2005 in  Grand'Ravine (Martissant) where residents were attacked by police and individuals armed with machetes and firearms as they were attending a soccer match that drew more than 6,000 spectators.

The human rights organization published a list of several names of individuals who were killed or injured and affirms that based on testimony it has collected, more than 30 people were killed in the massacre.

AUMOHD is seeking justice and reparations for all the victims of this massacre, for the Haitian State to provide ongoing assistance to the families, and that all those responsible for the massacre be brought to justice, including the authors, co-authors and accomplices.

The organization is also seeking protection and security for the families and witnesses of this odious crime, along with the release of all the political prisoners and an end to all forms of persecution.

(From Mike Levy’s AHP translation mailing list.)