18805: Lemieux: SCOOP MEDIA (NZ)/Amnesty International: preparations for possible refugee exodus (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

 Haiti: preparations for possible refugee exodus
Thursday, 19 February 2004, 9:24 am
Press Release: Amnesty International


Haiti: preparations for possible refugee outflows underway
as human rights abusers lead armed rebel forces
The joining of notorious perpetrator of human rights
violations Louis Jodel Chamblain and his followers with
armed rebels accused of past abuses in the Central Plateau
would create another devastating threat to respect for
human rights in Haiti, Amnesty International said today.

Over the last two days former paramilitary leader Louis
Jodel Chamblain, convicted of involvement in the
assassination of a prominent pro-democracy activist ten
years ago, has led a group of former soldiers from Haiti's
disbanded military in attacks in the Central Plateau. Other
attacks by alleged former soldiers in the area, such as the
July 2003 ambush and killing of four Ministry of the
Interior employees, have previously been denounced by
Amnesty International as human rights abuses.

"As rebel forces, under leadership of convicted
perpetrators of human rights violations, expand their
control in the centre and north of the country, and the
population of conflicted areas is cut off from supplies of
food and medicines, fears of a mass population outflow from
Haiti are bound to increase," Amnesty International
stressed.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has offered to help
neighbouring countries in forming contingency plans for a
mass exodus of Haitians.

Authorities of the neighbouring Dominican Republic have
reportedly closed border crossing points in affected areas.


United States officials have said that the US is
considering setting up a camp within the US military base
at Guantánamo Bay to temporarily house Haitians intercepted
while trying to flee the country by boat for the US.

"Given the precedent of a dozen years ago, in which
Haitians were interdicted on the high seas by US forces,
transferred to Guantánamo Bay and subjected to inadequate
screening procedures for asylum claims, there is a real
risk of violations of the rights of asylum seekers in the
event of a mass outflow from Haiti, " Amnesty International
said.

"US authorities, and those of other nearby countries, must
ensure that they meet their obligations under international
refugee law as they plan for a possible mass outflow from
Haiti, so that no breaches of their duty towards fleeing
Haitians occur."

Background Information

In September 1995 Louis Jodel Chamblain was among seven
senior military and paramilitary leaders convicted in
absentia and sentenced to forced labour for life for
involvement in the September 1993 extrajudicial execution
of Antoine Izméry, a well-known pro-democracy activist.
Chamblain had gone into exile to avoid prosecution.

Antoine Izméry was gunned down in the Church of the Sacred
Heart in Port-au-Prince on 11 September 1993, while
attending mass. The mass was being held to commemorate the
fifth anniversary of a massacre committed during an attack
on Jean Bertrand Aristide, then a parish priest, on 11
September 1988 at the St. Jean Bosco Church in La Saline, a
shanty town on the outskirts of the capital.

Chamblain has reportedly joined forces with the leaders of
the armed opposition based in Gonaďves. Another of the
leaders, Jean Pierre Baptiste, alias "Jean Tatoune", is
also a former paramilitary leader who was sentenced to
forced labour for life for participation in the 1994
Raboteau massacre.

Louis Jodel Chamblain and Jean Tatoune both belonged to the
paramilitary organisation FRAPH, formed by military
authorities who were the de facto leaders of the country
following the 1991 coup against then-President Aristide.
FRAPH members were responsible for numerous human rights
violations before the 1994 restoration of democratic
governance.

After the 5 February attack in the Artibonite town of
Gonaďves, unrest spread to nearly a dozen towns in the
center and north of Haiti. Concerns are increasing about
the humanitarian situation in the towns under control of
anti-government forces and other areas cut off by the
conflict.

Reports emerging on the 16 February rebel attack on Hinche,
capital of the Central Plateau department, indicate that
former soldiers were among the uniformed assailants who
took control of the town under the leadership of Chamblain.
The police commissioner and two others were reportedly
killed by the attackers, while other police officers fled.
Rebels burned the police station and freed the inmates of
the local prison in Hinche, and are also said to have
burned police stations in the nearby towns of Maďssade and
Pandiassou.

For more information, please see: "Haiti: Abuse of human
rights: political violence as the 200th anniversary of
independence approaches",
http://amnesty-news.c.tep1.com/maabXozaa4tfqbb0hPub/

View Amnesty International's dedicated refugee pages
Refugees have rights at
http://amnesty-news.c.tep1.com/maabXozaa4tfrbb0hPub/


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