a1390: Re: a899: Further Information concerning Human Rights Watch's Standards in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Joanne Mariner <marinej@hrw.org>

I just noticed this post, and wanted to briefly respond.  I would first note
that Human Rights Watch's press release on the events of December 17 was
consistent with those of Reporters sans frontieres, the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights, and numberous local Haitian human rights groups, as
well as with the decision of the OAS Permanent Council to conduct an in-depth
investigation of the events.

Second, it is quite misleading and euphemistic to state that the "Haitian
people" responded to the December 17 attack with "inappropriate measures, but
also many legitimate and justified measures of self-defense," and that
"[t]aking to the streets and erecting barracades including burning tires is a
time-honored technique of protecting Haitian democracy against a
dictatorship."  Unfortunately, what occurred on December 17 was not a
spontaneous popular response, but the work of well-organized gangs of heavily
armed men -- some with automatic weapons -- traveling freely through
Port-au-Prince and other areas, attacking journalists and the political
opposition.  They burnt down the offices of opposition parties and the homes of
opposition leaders without any hindrance from the police; indeed, in several
cases, in the direct presence of police.

Third, the cited grounds for the letter's claim of a "recent trend of unfair
reporting" by HRW are inaccurate.  The letter specifies that HRW criticizes the
Haitian government's human rights violations "without reporting the positive
developments."  It cites, in particular, HRW's failure to mention the Carrefour
Feuilles and Raboteau trials in its World Report.  But in fact both of those
trials were discussed in our World Report 2001, as a modicum of research would
reveal.

The following is from the Haiti chapter of our World Report 2001:
      Impunity for past abuses remained a serious concern, but there were
      encouraging steps toward justice. Two important trials took place.
      The first, that of six police officers accused of the 1999 murder
      of eleven people in the capitol's Carrefour Feuilles district, was
      held in August. During three weeks of proceedings, the prosecution
      presented physical evidence as well as twenty-seven witnesses,
      including PNH General Director Pierre Denize. The defendants, who
      included former Port-au-Prince police chief Jean Colls Rameau, were
      assisted by qualified legal counsel. Most defendants received
      three-year sentences for manslaughter, a penalty criticized as
      inappropriately lenient by local human rights groups.

      The second key trial - that of former army officers and
      paramilitaries implicated in an April 1994 massacre in Raboteau,
      Gonaives - opened on September 29. This long-awaited prosecution
      was based on several years of preparation by a mixed Haitian and
      international prosecutorial team. Of the fifty-eight defendants in
      the case, twenty-two were in custody, while others such as Raoul
      Cedras and Michelle Francois, leaders of the 1991 coup, and
      Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, the leader of the paramilitary
      organization FRAPH, were in exile.

This commentary is easily accessible on HRW's website, at
http://www.hrw.org/wr2k1/americas/haiti.html.  (The report went to print prior
to the verdict in the Raboteau trial.)  The letter cites HRW's World Report
2000, but, as is stated prominently on the cover of that report, it only covers
the events of 1999.

The letter also complains that HRW did not applaud the prosecution of former
dictator Prosper Avril.  I will let our World Report's description of the
circumstances of the Avril arrest speak for themselves:
      Former Gen. Prosper Avril, who headed the country's government for
      two years after a 1988 coup, was arrested on May 28 on charges of
      assault, torture and illegal arrest. Avril's rule was characterized
      by egregious human rights abuses. Although efforts to prosecute
      such crimes were all too rare in Haiti, the circumstances and
      timing of Avril's arrest suggested that it was politically
      motivated. The arrest was made on the basis of a 1996 warrant that
      had been ignored for years; it was acted upon only after Avril
      attended a highly-publicized meeting of the main opposition
      coalition. A number of political figures who were tortured under
      Avril's government, but had since joined the current opposition,
      were unwilling to testify against Avril regarding past abuses. In
      June, a court of appeals judge ordered that Avril be freed, but the
      head of the public prosecutor's office refused to sign the release
      form, blocking the defendant's release.

I hope this information helps give a fuller picture of HRW's work in Haiti.

Joanne Mariner
Human Rights Watch