a1572: INS: Prison in Haiti not torture (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: kevin pina <kpinbox@hotmail.com>



Miami Herald
Posted on Thu, Apr. 04, 2002

INS: Prison in Haiti not torture
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@herald.com

The federal immigration system's highest court has ruled that brutal jail
conditions in Haiti should not prevent the deportations of Haitian criminal
detainees who say they will be tortured if sent back.

The Board of Immigration Appeals ruled, 13-6, against Jeandis Esteme, a
convicted drug trafficker who was ordered deported to Haiti. He remains in
Immigration and Naturalization Service custody while his lawyers decide
whether to appeal to the federal courts.

Esteme, citing human rights and media reports, argued that his deportation
would violate an international pact that prohibits sending a person to a
country where he or she would likely face torture.

The United Nations' General Assembly adopted the Convention Against Torture
in 1984, and the United States subsequently signed it.

However, the appeals board ruled March 22 that there was not conclusive
evidence that Haitian prison conditions amounted to torture. The opinion
said that while mistreatment of prisoners occurred, torture was isolated
rather than systematic.

`NO EVIDENCE'

''Substandard prison conditions in Haiti do not constitute torture within
the meaning of'' U.S. federal law, the opinion stated. ``There is no
evidence that the authorities intentionally create and maintain such
conditions in order to inflict torture.''

Immigration and human rights advocates say the ruling will make it easier
for the INS to remove Haitian criminals who cite the likelihood of torture
to challenge their deportation orders.

''The board's decision is outrageous, because it completely undermines the
convention against torture and the protections it should afford,'' said
Cheryl Little, executive director of Miami-based Florida Immigrant Advocacy
Center. ``It is extremely disingenuous to suggest that despite clear
evidence that deportees to Haiti are indefinitely detained, beaten and
deprived of adequate food, water and medical care, that they are not being
tortured.''

Esteme entered the United States illegally in 1990 and was convicted June
22, 2000, of selling cocaine. He was ordered deported by an immigration
judge July 2, 2001. But Esteme argued that he would be persecuted and
tortured by Haitian authorities if returned.

As evidence, Esteme submitted State Department human rights reports and
newspaper articles about Haitian prison conditions, including one published
in The Herald on March 25, 2001.

The story concluded that while there is no capital punishment in Haiti, for
many inmates, getting thrown in jail is a death sentence. In one month in
2001, the story said, 11 inmates died at the Penitentier National, mostly
from diseases such as tuberculosis and AIDS.

Three days after the appeals board decision, former Port-au-Prince police
Capt. Jackson Joanis was deported March 25. He is the most prominent
deportee accused of torturing political foes in their homeland since INS
began detaining torture suspects in 2000.

INDIRECT RESULT

Joanis' Fort Lauderdale immigration attorney, Carlo Jean Joseph, said the
Esteme ruling was ''indirectly responsible'' for his client's deportation.

But Patricia Mancha, an Immigration and Naturalization Service spokeswoman
in Miami, said Joanis was deported after the same board dismissed his appeal
Feb. 26.

Joanis, 42, was detained by INS and ordered deported after a Haitian court
convicted him in absentia for the murder of businessman Antoine Izmery, a
supporter of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Joanis is now at the Penitentier National, Haiti's national penitentiary and
one of the jails often cited in human rights reports for its deplorable
conditions, Joseph said.

Besides Joanis, at least another prominent Haitian national in INS custody
is fighting deportation based on his fear of torture if returned to Haiti.

Carl Dorelien, a former army colonel, took part in the 1991 coup against
Aristide, which prompted U.S. intervention in 1994. Dorelien remains in INS
custody pending his appeal to the board.



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