a780: Human Rights Watch and the Equal Application of Standards (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: kevin pina <kpinbox@hotmail.com>

Comment on Pertinance to Haiti: Mr. Roth's organization has spent far more
time attacking Aristide and Lavalas by towing Washington's pro-Convergence
line than trying to bring Toto Constant and Jackson Joanis to justice.
Constant, former head of the para-military death squad FRAPH, lives
comfortably in the United States while families of the victims in Haiti
continue to demand justice(despite Chamberlain's bleating that this is only
"ancient history"). Jackson Joanis is the former head of the brutal
Anti-Gang Unit of the police under the Francois/Cedras dictatorship and was
arrested last year by the INS only to be released by the CIA citing National
Security interests.

This does not seem to be the application of the same standards where Haiti
is concerned. Makes you wonder doesn't it?


Taliban Atrocity Claims Bolstered
Sat Feb 9, 7:58 PM ET
By BRIAN MURPHY, Associated Press Writer


Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, has urged a
comprehensive U.N. investigation "so that past abusers, Taliban or
otherwise, are held accountable."

"Our experience in numerous contexts, including Sierra Leone, Haiti and the
Balkans, is that arrangements that allow past perpetrators to escape
accountability often lead to new instability and more violence," Roth said
last month.





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