a1745: BBC: Haiti: Piatre peasants deny ex-President Avril was involved in massacre (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Robert Benodin <r.benodin@worldnet.att.net>

Haiti: Piatre peasants deny ex-President Avril was involved in massacre
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 19, 2002



The re-arrest of Gen Prosper Avril will tarnish the image of the Haitian
government and judicial system even further. In statements to the press, a
number of Piatre peasant organizations deny any involvement by the former
president in the Piatre massacre which took place in 1990. The peasants say
that they never mentioned Avril's name in the list of alleged authors and
co-authors of the massacre. Our Saint-Marc correspondent Estiverno Alex
[phonetic] reports the following:
[Alex - recording, in Creole] The news of the re-arrest of Avril has aroused
a reaction from the Piatre peasants. The Par La Foi [By Faith] committee, a
peasants rights organization in the Piatre area, said that they never
mentioned Gen Avril's name in connection with the Piatre massacre case.
Nixon Regis, president of the Par La Foi committee, issued a warning against
anyone who attempts to defend their political interests by using the Piatre
peasants. While accusing former Col Henry Marc Charles of being the leader
who ordered the massacre, Regis said that if Avril has returned to prison
because of the Piatre case, then the Piatre peasants are innocent of that.
[Regis] This is a political case. If they want to observe the law then they
should cancel the arrest warrant against him [Avril]. We know that former
Col Marc Charles was the one who ordered the massacre and he is not in the
country now. The arrest of Avril is a political move by those men. Avril was
not involved in the massacre.
[Alex] According to information given in the Saint-Marc civil court, Gen
Avril will apparently be transferred to the Saint-Marc prison on 19 April.
But ever since Avril was re-arrested following an arrest warrant issued by
Examining Judge Henry Kesner Noel, journalists been unable to get in touch
with Noel in order to confirm the information, because, as he said, he is
not available to talk to journalists.
Source: Radio Metropole, Port-au-Prince, in French 1145 gmt 18 Apr 02
/¸ BBC Monitoring
/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.