13957: (Chamberlain) Reporters Without Borders on Lindor (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

HAITI

3 December 2001 - 3 December 2002

Murder of journalist Brignol Lindor
One year of impunity


A year after the killing of Brignol Lindor, a journalist with the Echo 2000
radio station in Petit-Goâve, Reporters Without Borders, the Damocles
Network and the Haitian Journalists' Association (AJH) deplore the fact
that those responsible have not yet been punished.

The three organisations said they were determined to win justice for
Lindor, who was beaten to death on 3 December last year by supporters of
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas party.

The AJH and Pastor Denis Laguerre (representing the Lindor family),
supported by Haiti's Ecumenical Centre for Human Rights, formally protested
on 1 and 3 October before the Port-au-Prince appeals court against the
murder enquiry being officially closed, thus excluding any prosecution of
the instigator of the attack.

Reporters Without Borders and the Damocles Network may file an appeal
before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

"A year after Lindor's death, impunity still reigns," said Reporters
Without Border secretary-general Robert Ménard and AJH secretary-general
Guyler C. Delva.  "It has been turned into a policy aimed at fostering an
atmosphere of terror and silencing the media."  They said seven journalists
were currently in hiding in Gonaives after being threatened by Amiot
Métayer, a fugitive from justice protected by Aristide's party who is
terrorising the local population and the press."

Fritzner Duclair, the judge investigating Lindor's death, officially closed
his enquiry on 16 September.  A fact-finding mission by Reporters Without
Borders and the Damocles Network published earlier that month noted that
the chief instigator of the murder, Petit-Goâve's assistant mayor Dumay
Bony, had not been troubled or charged.

Bony had called at a press conference on 30 November last year for "zero
tolerance" to be applied to Lindor, who he called a "terrorist."  His words
were taken by everyone except Haitian legal officials as an appeal to kill
the journalist.  Many in Haiti consider the term "zero tolerance," first
used by President Aristide a few months earlier to urge police to deal
firmly with criminals, as virtual approval of lynching people.

The Haitian authorities told the Organisation of American States (OAS) in a
report on 4 November this year that 10 people had been charged in the case,
two of whom had been arrested.  But Reporters Without Borders find that
these two, Maxi Zéphyr and Fritzler Doudoute, are in fact being held for
other reasons.  Prison officials in Port-au-Prince, where Zéphyr is being
held, have also refused for several months to allow him to be questioned in
the Lindor murder case.

To mark the first anniversary of Lindor's death, Reporters Without Borders
and the AJH are broadcasting on Haitian radio stations a message from his
family demanding justice.  The text is as follows:

" [voice of Robert Ménard] :  3 December 2001 to 3 December 2002
[voice of Moréno Lindor] :  My name is Moréno Lindor.  I'm the brother of
the journalist Brignol Lindor.  I was at home the day I heard he had been
chopped to death.  I feared it was the end for my family.  I was wrong.
But we were threatened and had to flee the country.  A year later, the
killers can still count on the inertia of the authorities.  The hardest
thing is the injustice of it, that nobody has been punished.  My brother
was killed because he allowed everyone to speak on the radio.  Haitians
must be given their say and Brignol must be given justice.
[Ménard]  In solidarity with the Haitian media, Reporters Without Borders
and the AJH add their voices to those of all who demand justice, justice
for Brignol Lindor. "


Recommendations:

The Haitian Journalists' Association, Reporters Without Borders and the
Damocles Network demand:

n That the Port-au-Prince appeals court cancels Judge Duclair's closure of
the enquiry and orders the case to be reopened.
n That the next judge in charge of the case brings charges against Dumay
Bony for "incitement to murder."
n That the Port-au-Prince prison authorities allow Maxi Zéphyr to be
questioned about his suspected part in Lindor's killing.

The two organisations also reiterate their appeal to President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide to specifically condemn public lynchings and take
action to end the impunity enjoyed by the killers and attackers of
journalists.