12545: AP on Missing Journalist (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: PSlavin@unicefusa.org

http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/americas/07/16/haiti.journalist.ap

Haitian journalist missing

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) --A journalist known for his investigations into
gangland supporters of Haiti's President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was
reported missing Tuesday after receiving a series of threats on his life, a
media group official said.

Israel Jacky Cantave, 28, finished his evening newscast at 10 p.m. Monday
(0300 GMT Tuesday), telephoned his wife to say he was on the way home and
left the Radio Caraibes station with his cousin Frantz Ambroise, said
Guyler Delva, president of the Haitian Association of Journalists.

Both men have disappeared.

Radio Caraibes reported Tuesday morning that Cantave's car was found near
his home in suburban Delmas. His cellular phone was in the car; the door on
the driver's side was dented, causing speculation he had been pursued and
bumped by another vehicle.

Cantave told colleagues Monday morning he had received another in a long
series of telephone death threats.

"You're going to lose your life over this," the voice said.

Cantave, who has a law degree, was recently investigating the often bloody
gang rivalries among Aristide partisans in the seaside slums of Cite Soleil
and La Saline, which border the capital.

The government is investigating Cantave's disappearance, said Information
Under-Secretary Mario Dupuy.

"We have mobilized the police and judicial system and will do everything we
can to get to the bottom of Cantave's disappearance," he said.

Radio Caraibes has been singled out before by Aristide partisans for
political reasons.

On December 17, when an armed commando attacked the National Palace in what
Aristide called an attempt to assassinate him, rampaging Aristide partisans
burned down opposition headquarters and threatened at least a dozen
journalists. The opposition said the attack was staged as a pretext to
clamp down on dissent.

After the attack, 15 journalists fled Haiti fearing for their lives. They
included four members of Radio Caraibes.

"Freedom of the press is under fire in Haiti," Delva said.

This year, about 20 incidents of government supporters harassing
journalists have been reported, he said.

No journalists, however, have been kidnapped.

In May, the France-based media freedom group Reporters Without Borders put
Aristide on its blacklist of media predators, charging he had blocked the
investigation of the April 3, 2000, murder of journalist Jean Dominique.

Dupuy denied that the government was persecuting journalists.

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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