21308: Lemieux: Amnesty International: Haiti: Armed Groups Still Active (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

Haiti: Armed Groups Still Active - AI Delegation
Tuesday, 13 April 2004, 9:33 am
Press Release: Amnesty International

News Release Issued by the International
Secretariat of Amnesty International
Haiti: Armed groups still active - Findings of
Amnesty International Delegation

AI Index: AMR 36/030/2004 (Public) 8 April 2004

At the end of a 15-day mission to Haiti, Amnesty
International is deeply concerned for the
security of the civilian population. Despite the
presence of the Multinational Interim Force
(MIF), a large number of armed groups continue to
be active throughout the country. These include
both rebel forces and militias loyal to former
President Aristide.

Amnesty International is particularly concerned
for the safety of judges, prosecutors, criminal
investigators, victims, witnesses and human
rights defenders involved in prosecutions
relating to past human rights abuses. Judge
Napela Saintil, the chief judge in the trial of
those responsible for the 1994 Raboteau massacre,
was severely beaten on 30 March by an armed man.
The judge told Amnesty International delegates
that his attacker had threatened him for the part
he played in the conviction, in absentia, of
Louis Jodel Chamblain, one of the participants in
the massacre.

The delegation interviewed Haitians from across
the political and social spectrum. All expressed
a profound sense of insecurity and fear for their
own safety from one or the other of the armed
groups currently at large.

These include those who participated in the 1991
coup d'état; the Chimères who remain loyal to
former President Aristide; unofficial armed
pro-Aristide gangs; non-political armed gangs; as
well as former military authorities and former
rural police chiefs, or chef de section,known to
have been responsible for serious abuses in the
past. Members of the abolished Haitian Armed
Forces and former paramilitary leaders convicted
of past human rights violations are emerging as
new actors in Haiti's political scene and have
taken control, especially in areas where state
authority is weak or absent.

The interim government has yet to establish
control over the country's legal institutions.
When visiting the national penitentiary in Port
au Prince, the Amnesty International delegates
found that part of the prison was controlled by
US marines. US officials have since acknowledged
they are guarding some of the just under 40
detainees that Amnesty International was informed
are being held in the prison. Among them is
Jocelerme Privert, the former Minister of the
Interior who has just been arrested.

US officials were unable to provide Amnesty
International with details about the prisoners or
the legal context of their detention. The Haitian
prisoners reportedly include persons allegedly
involved in drug trafficking and, in one case,
terrorism. Amnesty International called on the US
authorities to immediately clarify the legal
basis justifying their effective detention in US
custody and the steps that have been taken to
ensure that they have access to full legal
safeguards.

Amnesty International welcomes the assurances
that it received from Léon Charles, the new
Director General of Police, during its mission,
that Haiti's new police force will adopt a
neutral approach and will show impartiality in
its actions. The organization believes that such
an approach would be key to restoring confidence
in the security forces' respect for the rule of
law in Haiti.

Since coming to power, however, the interim
government has swiftly moved to arrest members of
former President Aristide's Lavalas Family Party
suspected of acts of political violence or
corruption, while failing to act against a number
of known perpetrators of grave human rights
violations. Louis Jodel Chamblain and Jean Pierre
Baptiste ("Jean Tatoune"), for instance, remain
free. As do others who were named in Amnesty
International's most recent report, Haiti:
perpetrators of past abuses threaten human rights
and the re-establishment of the rule of law.

"By only arresting Lavalas supporters the
government is sending the wrong message. Known
perpetrators of serious human rights violations
among the rebel forces must also be taken into
custody," Amnesty International said. "The
Haitian government must make the defence of human
rights a central part of its political agenda. No
one should be able to get away with committing
human rights violations, including murder,
without fear of arrest, prosecution or
punishment."

Haiti's recurring political crises are rooted in
long-term patterns of human rights violations
committed with impunity. Amnesty International
strongly believes that the Haitian Government
must commit itself publicly and firmly to ending
the cycle of impunity by ensuring that
perpetrators of serious human rights violations
from all factions are brought to justice.

Amnesty International has also received recent
reports of killings and kidnappings of persons
belonging to pro-Aristide grassroots
organizations in poor neighbourhoods of
Port-au-Prince. Among those allegedly responsible
were several escaped prisoners who had been
jailed for rapes and other common crimes. These
men have reportedly been working together with
the Haitian police and MIF forces to identify
people associated with the Lavalas regime.

The driver of a former Lavalas deputy was
attacked on 3 April in Martissant and died the
next day as a result. On 4 April, another man
with Lavalas connections was shot dead outside
the market in Martissant. After his killing the
assailants went to his house to look for his
wife, who is now in hiding, threatened to kill
her and burned the house. In addition, two
members of KOMIREP, a grassroots organization
that included victims of the 1991 coup d'état,
were kidnapped, one in Martissant and the other
in Cité l'Eternel, in the street on Monday 4
April. Their whereabouts are unknown.

One young woman told Amnesty International
delegates that she is receiving threats from a
police officer who has recently escaped from
prison. He and at least four other men were
accused of gang-raping the girl in November 2003.
Two of the men were subsequently arrested,
including the officer. Both escaped from prison
during a mass jailbreak on 29 February. The
women's organization and the human rights
organization that have been supporting her have
also received threats.

The crucial first step towards restoring the rule
of law and ending impunity must be a nationwide
disarmament that applies to all armed groups.
Amnesty International calls on the new government
to set up a national disarmament plan to ensure
the security of all Haitians.

Amnesty International is dismayed that the
Multinational Interim Force has not made a
serious attempt to work with the Haitian National
Police to establish such a disarmament programme.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell and the French
authorities, part of the US-led multinational
forces, have talked about the need to disarm, but
that has not been followed by the determined
action that is required.

"The international community must take
disarmament seriously now and work closely with
the Haitian National Police to that end", Amnesty
International said. Security Council resolution
1529 gives them ample scope to do so.

Amnesty International believes that the US-led
multinational forces are in a unique and powerful
position to contribute to the national
disarmament effort before their scheduled
departure at the end of May when a United Nations
peacekeeping force is scheduled to take over.

Upholding the rule of law and human rights
requires not only an effective police force but
also a fully functioning judiciary. Rebuilding
the judiciary at all levels was one of the key
recommendations of the Haiti National Commission
for Truth and Justice in 1996.

"Amnesty International calls on the Haitian
authorities to draw up a national plan of action
to strengthen its rule of law institutions in
close consultation with civil society and while
building on the pertinent recommendations made in
the past by Haitian bodies such as the National
Commission."

"Reforming the justice system must be part of a
larger plan to reduce poverty, repair Haiti's
environment, and build-up its health, sanitation
and education systems," the organization said.

Background

As a result of a joint military and paramilitary
operation that began on April 1994 in Raboteau, a
heavily-populated shanty town along the coast at
Gonaïves, an estimated 20 people lost their
lives.

Efforts to bring those responsible for the
massacre to justice continued for several years.
The trial opened in October 2000 and 16 people
were convicted of taking part in the massacre.
Twelve of these were condemned to life in prison
with hard labour; the four others received
shorter sentences of between four and ten years.

Thirty-seven defendants, including General Raoul
Cédras, head of the military government; Emmanuel
Constant, founding leader of the paramilitary
organization FRAPH; police chief Michel François;
and Cédras' deputy Philippe Biamby were tried in
absentia. They were all sentenced to life in
prison with hard labour, and were fined one
billion gourdes, roughly US$43million. However,
they remained at large.

In February 2004, armed government opponents
attacked police stations, court houses in
Gonaïves, the country's fourth largest town,
forcing the police and local authorities to flee.
As rebellion spread throughout the centre and
north of Haiti, former police and army officers
who had left Haiti returned. The rebel forces are
led by men like Louis Jodel Chamblain and Jean
Pierre Baptiste ('Jean Tatoune'), convicted of
carrying out egregious violations under the facto
military dictatorship of the early 1990s.

On 29 February, as rebels threatened to advance
on Port-au-Prince and forcibly remove Aristide,
he left Haiti in disputed circumstances. A
Multinational Interim Force composed by mainly
US, Canadian and French troops arrived, and was
mandated by the UN Security Council to help
ensure law and order and protect human rights.

Further information on the Haiti crisis:
http://amnesty-news.c.topica.com/maab734aa5Tygbb0hPub/

Take action - Convicted human rights violators
must not be allowed to walk free:
http://amnesty-news.c.topica.com/maab734aa5Tyhbb0hPub/

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