12539: Armed men kidnap Haitian radio reporter (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, July 16 (Reuters) - A group of armed men kidnapped a
reporter for a radio station in the Haitian capital after he had received a
series of death threats, family members and radio station sources said on
Tuesday.
     Israel Jacky Cantave, a reporter for Radio Caraibes, was seized along
with his cousin by men who ran Cantave's car off the road as he was driving
home late on Monday night after finishing his radio program, witnesses
said. His car was later found abandoned in Port-au-Prince.
     The climate of press freedom in Haiti has deteriorated in recent
years. Human rights and press freedom groups have criticized President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government for allowing what they call a "climate
of impunity" to develop following the slayings of two high-profile
journalists.
     Jean Leopold Dominique, director of Radio Haiti Inter, was gunned down
along with his station's caretaker on April 3, 2000. Brignol Lindor, news
director of Radio Echo 2000, was hacked to death by a pro-government mob on
Dec. 3, 2001, in the town of Petit Goave.
     A source at Radio Caraibes, speaking on the condition of anonymity,
said anonymous callers had been phoning the station threatening Cantave's
life for unspecified reasons for several days. No ransom demand had yet
been received.
     The investigation into the Dominique killing has focused on a powerful
senator from the ruling Lavalas Family party, Dany Toussaint, a former
Haitian army officer and former head of Aristide's personal security team
who Dominique had criticized in the months before he was killed.
     A judge investigating the case named Toussaint as a suspect but the
senator denied any part in the killing.
     Two judges investigating the Dominique slaying have resigned, claiming
they had received death threats. Two material witnesses have been killed.
     There has been one arrest in the Lindor killing, but no trial date has
been set as yet.