24113: Esser (news): Haiti Human Rights Investigation: November 11-21, 2004 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser <torx@joimail.com>


University of Miami, FL

CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF HUMAN RIGHTS
UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI LAW SCHOOL
Professor Irwin P. Stotzky, Director

HAITI HUMAN RIGHTS INVESTIGATION: NOVEMBER 11-21, 2004
published: January 2005


Download the full report:
http://www.law.miami.edu/news/cshr.pdf or
http://www.law.miami.edu/news/368.html

7.3 MB - .pdf file - to download free software to read .pdf files:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html



By Thomas M. Griffin, Esq.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY


After ten months under an interim government backed by the United
States, Canada, and France and buttressed by a United Nations
peacekeeping force, Haiti's people churn inside a hurricane of
violence. Gunfire crackles, once bustling streets are abandoned to
cadavers, and whole neighborhoods are cut off from the outside
world.  Nightmarish fear now accompanies Haiti's poorest in their
struggle to survive in destitution. Gangs, police, irregular
soldiers, and even the UN peacekeepers bring fear. There has been no
investment in dialogue to end the violence.

Haiti's security and justice institutions fuel the cycle of
violence. Summary executions are a police tactic, and even
well-meaning officers treat poor neighborhoods seeking a democratic
voice as enemy territory where they must kill or be killed. Haiti's
brutal and disbanded army has returned to join the fray. Suspected
dissidents fill the prisons, their Constitutional rights ignored.  As
voices for non-violent change are silenced by arrest, assassination
or intimidation, violent defense becomes a credible option.  Mounting
evidence suggests that members of Haiti's elite, including political
powerbroker Andy Apaid, pay gangs to kill Lavalas supporters and
finance the illegal army.
 
UN police and soldiers, unable to speak the language of most
Haitians, are overwhelmed by the firestorm. Unable to communicate
with the police, they resort to heavy-handed incursions into the
poorest neighborhoods that force intermittent peace at the expense of
innocent residents.

The injured prefer to die at home untreated rather than risk arrest
at the hospital. Those who do reach the hospital soak in puddles of
their own blood, ignored by doctors. Not even death ends the tragedy:
bodies pile in the morgue, quickly devoured out of recognition by
maggots.

There is little hope for an election to end the crisis, as the 
Electoral Council is crippled by corruption and in-fighting.

U.S. officials blame the crisis on armed gangs in the poor
neighborhoods, not the official abuses and atrocities, nor the
unconstitutional ouster of the elected President.  Their support for
the interim government is not surprising, as top officials, including
the Minister of Justice, worked for US government projects that
undermined their elected predecessors.  Coupled with the U.S.
government's development assistance embargo from 2000-2004, the
projects suggest a disturbing pattern.

A human rights team conducted an investigation in Haiti from November
11 to 21, 2004. The group met with businessmen, grassroots leaders,
gang members, victims of human rights violations, lawyers, human
rights groups and police and officials from the UN and the Haitian
and U.S. governments, and observing in poor neighborhoods, police
stations, prisons, hospitals and the state morgue. Because of the
importance of their findings, the Center for the Study of Human
Rights has chosen to publicize them. The report concludes that many
Haitians, especially those living in poor neighborhoods, now struggle
against inhuman horror. The Center presents this report with the hope
that officials, policymakers and citizens will not only understand
this horror better, but will take immediate action to stop it.

WARNING: THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS GRAPHIC PHOTOS.