15205: (Chamberlain) Haitian police ignore order to free women's rights activist (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

By MICHAEL NORTON

PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 12 - A top prosecutor has ordered Haiti's police to
free a prominent women's rights activist who was jailed along with her
husband for allegedly possessing illegal weapons.
        But Carline Simon and her husband Serge remained in a police
station Wednesday despite the lack of any formal charges against them,
their lawyer Osner Fevry said.
        Police detained the two Sunday after allegedly finding an
unlicensed automatic weapon in their car, police spokesman Jean-Dady Simeon
said. Two days earlier, Carline Simon had led a group of 100 women in an
anti-government protest march.
        Haitian law requires charges be filed within 48 hours after a
suspect is detained. Government prosecutor Josue Pierre-Louis ordered the
couple released Monday, but police refused.
        "The order is not binding because they were caught red-handed,"
Simeon said on state television.
        In a statement Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy expressed concern about
their "arbitrary" detention.
        "Arbitrary arrests are the very signs of political repression of
dissidents. Such repression is unacceptable in a democracy," the embassy
said.
        The couple was detained Sunday after residents called police to
report that an armed group was threatening the two and other activists at a
meeting on women's rights in the seaside shantytown of La Saline.
        Supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide said on national
television that they threatened the couple because the two were handing out
money and weapons to incite an uprising.
        Resident Venel Belony, however, said he witnessed the detention and
that there were no guns at the meeting or in the couple's car.
        "There was nothing (but a placard) in their vehicle. If weapons
were found, it was because (the police) put them there," Belony told
independent Radio Vision 2000.
        The couple was crowded in with 54 other inmates in a
25-square-meter (270-square-foot) cell at the suburban Delmas police
station, Fevry said.
        Police have said the detention of Carline Simon — who heads the
group Women the Rising Sun — had nothing to do with the demonstration she
led on Friday.
        She called the march to protest economic conditions in Haiti and
urge Aristide to step down early. The president has said he will serve out
his term, which ends in 2006.
        Police dispersed Friday's protest, saying demonstrators had not
kept to an approved route. On Monday, police dispersed another
demonstration by women's rights groups and briefly detained protest
leaders. No reason was given.
        Since November, dozens of anti-government demonstrations have
called for Aristide's resignation. At least four people have died and more
than 350 have been injured in clashes with police and Aristide supporters.
        Human rights groups both in Haiti and overseas have criticized what
they say is a deterioration of the human rights situation under Aristide.
        Aristide's government also has faced stiff opposition since
disputed 2000 legislative elections swept by his Lavalas Family party. The
international community is withholding millions of dollars in aid and loans
until the government and opposition agree on holding new elections.