20742: (Craig) UN Wire 03/23/04 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig <hoosier@att.net>

UN Foundation Wire
March 3, 2004 (excerpt)

Women Seek Justice For Rapes After 1991 Coup

Meanwhile, Haitian women who were raped by military and paramilitary
groups terrorizing Aristide supporters between 1991, when Arisitde was
first ousted in a military coup, and 1994, when the United States
restored him to power, want to bring their attackers to justice,
the Washington Post
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11357-2004Mar20.html> reported
Sunday.

Because many of the women's attackers wore hoods, and would therefore be
impossible to identify, a women's group representing some of the rape
victims plans to prosecute top leaders in the military who they say
encouraged the rapes, including Raoul Cedras, commander of the forces
that overthrew Aristide in the 1991 coup, and Emmanuel Constant, who
commanded the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti.

The group says the women were targeted because they were leaders in the
country's democracy movement.  "It was a way to destabilize women from
the movement to bring back Aristide, to break the mental strength of
that movement so they can forget about President Aristide," said
Immacula Deluce, a rape victim who leads the support group.

Human rights reports say that hundreds of women were disfigured, some
with machetes that were used to slice off their arms or parts of their
faces, and many were tortured, forced into incest, or forced to watch
the murders of their husbands and children.

According to activists, the women are facing an unprecedented case.  "If
the Haitian women succeed with their campaign to prosecute those
responsible for their rapes, including the top military and paramilitary
leaders, they will provide both an inspiration and a road map for other
national prosecutions," said Brian Concannon, a human rights
activist.  "The initiative is highly ambitious.  No national justice
system has successfully prosecuted top leaders for political rapes," he
said (DeNeen Brown, Washington Post, March 21).

Haitian Children Return to School

In other developments, Haitian children began returning to school
yesterday for the first time since the crisis began in December.  At
least 50 schools were destroyed and many others were gutted by looters,
UNICEF said.

Most schools in Port-au-Prince were closed for weeks, and attendance
dropped by 80 percent at others where students were too afraid to
return. Lack of food also kept away many children who rely on school to
provide their daily meal.

Many are doing their part to help fill classrooms, including U.S.
Marines, who are patrolling near schools, and Haitian-American hip-hop
singer Wyclef Jean, who recorded a song in Creole encouraging people to
"put down the guns and pick up pencils and textbooks."

Newly appointed Education Minister Pierre Buteau said in a weekend radio
address, "There's no need to be afraid, the schools will be secured"
(Jacobs, AP
<http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040323/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/haiti_attacking_education_2>/Yahoo!
News, March 22).

http://www.unwire.org/UNWire/20040323/449_14259.asp