12449: COMMISSION OF INQUIRY REPORTS ON VIOLENCE IN HAITI (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Stanley  Lucas <slucas@iri.org>

Organization of American States
www.oas.org

Press Release                                                                                                                        (E-130-02)
July 1, 2002



COMMISSION OF INQUIRY REPORTS ON

VIOLENCE IN HAITI



The report of the three-man independent Commission of Inquiry into the December 17, 2001 Events in Haiti has been submitted to the Organization of American States (OAS), with a 22-point package of recommendations, in keeping with an OAS Permanent Council resolution, CP/RES. 806 of 15 January, 2002.



Summarizing their findings after extensive hearings and interviews in Haiti, the Commissioners' 87-page report contains a graphic account of facts surrounding the attack on the National Palace and the violence against opposition leaders that followed.  It recommends that "All persons found to be implicated in the violence of December 17, 2001, and subsequent days be prosecuted without delay."



Urging a speedy conclusion of cases stemming from the December 2001 incidents, currently the subject of another OAS report to the government of Haiti, the Commissioners urge that "prompt and adequate payment of reparations be made to all organizations and individuals who suffered damage and/or injury."



Medium and long-term recommendations relate to security and reform of the judiciary, police, human rights and media, among measures that would generate an atmosphere "conducive to the restoration of a relationship of confidence in the country."  The report recommends that the donor community recommence its grant and loan programs, side by side with the implementation of the political agreements reached in Haiti, work already begun by the OAS Special Mission in Haiti.



Referring indirectly to the virtually complete Initial Accord on elections, the independent Commission also calls on Haiti's ruling party and the opposition to "put aside attitudes of mutual disrespect and engage in confidence-building with the support of third parties to oversee the implementation of the agreements that may be reached for the benefit of their country."



The commission's members, Roberto Flores-Bermúdez, former Honduran Foreign Minister; Alonso Gómez-Robledo, an International Law Professor from Mexico; and Nicholas Liverpool, a





more









Dominican jurist and a Judge of Appeal in the Courts of The Bahamas, Belize, Grenada and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), submitted their report to Haitian President Jean-Bertand Aristide and OAS Secretary General César Gaviria.



The Secretary General today submitted the report to the Chairman of the Permanent Council for circulation to member states and permanent as an informational document.



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