14763: Bellegarde-Smith: Haiti: Women's organisations denounce prison rape (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: P D Bellegarde-Smith <pbs@csd.uwm.edu>


http://www.medialternatif.org/alterpresse/

A young prisoner is raped, becomes pregnant, and gives birth while in prison.

Port-au-Prince., 07 February 2003 [AlterPresse] --- The women's organisations
Kay Fanm and Enfofanm have denounced the case of 17-year old Natacha
Jean-Jacques, who gave birth in prison last October after having been raped
by a member of the prison medical staff in February.

Since 6 March 2000, Natacha Jean-Jacques has been imprisoned without being
sentenced in the Fort National women's prison in Port-au-Prince after she
stabbed one of a group of men that attacked her. The aggressors were seeking
revenge against Natacha and her mother, Yolène Benjamin, because they had
informed the police about threats to rape the young girl.

Kay Fanm and Enfofanm are lobbying in support of fair judicial treatment of
the Natacha Jean-Jacques case, for the punishment of the prison staff member
who raped her, and for compensation. The two organisations have criticised
the authorities and the prison adminstration for not intervening to prevent
the rape.

The Minister for Women's Affairs, Ginette Rivière Lubin, has informed the
media of her concern and of the measures that will be taken to secure the
release of and care for Natacha Jean-Jacques, but Kay Fanm's Yolette Jeanty
sees this as just an attempt to avoid a scandal.

The full details about this case (in French) can be viewed at:
http://medialternatif.org/alterpresse/article.php3?id_article=374


(translated from French by Charles Arthur for the Haiti Support Group)

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