16578: Dailey: Prosper Avril

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Peter Dailey <phdailey@msn.com>

It is true that an attempt by the GOH in 1995 to arrest Prosper Avril was
thwarted when one of Avril's well-placed American friends tipped him off,
enabling him to take refuge in a foreign embassy. But at some time
thereafter
Avril left the embassy and returned to his home in Port-au-Prince where he
lived for the next six years with no further interference from the Haitian
authorities, writing and publishing a "plaidoyer" that applied a liberal
coat
of whitewash to events during his years in power. It was only when he made
the
major mistake of criticizing President Aristide that his subsequent
troubles
began, and he was hauled out of a book-signing party and thrown in prison,
where he has languished ever since, despite several courts having ordered
his
release. His arrest was so precipitate that the Ministry of Justice,
clearly
taken by surprise, had nothing to charge him with, and had to fall back on
affidavits gathered by Michael Ratner for an Alien Tort Claims Act suit in
Florida. Given that the abuses of the Avril years were widely documented
by organizations like the NCHR and others, prosecuting Avril would appear
to be
straightforward. But perhaps the Ministry of Justice and the BAI have
gotten
out of practice- if Avril was tried it would be the only prosecution for
human
rights abuses, apart from the Raboteau defendants, in the last ten years.

Maybe some of our GOH friends on the list could explain why this is so-
"as a
courtesy."

Peter Dailey