21507: (Chamberlain) re: 21481: Esser: Plan Haiti Emerges (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

> Fenton wrote:

> Recently, the National Lawyers Guild's Tom Griffin
provided an eyewitness account of horrific human rights
abuses. Among numerous things, his delegation witnessed:

> "[H]undreds of corpses being dumped by morgues in Haiti and...bodies
coming in with plastic bags over their heads and hands tied behind
their backs..."


According to the NLG report, the delegation did not witness these things.
It said they were simply told they happened.  Heresay is a tricky
business anywhere, and especially in Haiti when outsiders/foreigners/whites

are on the receiving end.

I am not saying these things didn't happen.  I don't know.
But I am very keen to hear Fenton tell us why he chose to
twist and report inaccurately what the NLG delegation said.

_______________________

The NLG report said:


The State Morgue in Port-au-Prince and Cadaver Disposal

-The Director refused the Delegation's request to view the
cadavers and to review the record books.

-Director admitted that "many" bodies have come into the morgue
since March 1, 2004, that are young men with their hands tied
behind their backs, plastic bags over their heads, that have been
shot.

-The Director insisted only 8 bodies were presently in the morgue
(3/31/04).

-Morgue workers, however, told us in confidence that 50 bodies
were then in the morgue.  They confirmed that many bodies
continue to come in that have hands tied behind their backs and
bags over their heads.

-The Director admitted that 800 bodies were "dumped and buried"
by morgue on Sunday, March 7, 2004, and another 200 bodies dumped
on Sunday, March 28, 2004.   The "usual" amount dumped is less
than 100 per month.  The bodies are taken to Titanyen, [a
desolate dump] north of the capital, and buried in a mass grave.