24115: Esser (news): AJH Secretary General: reliable information that police executed journalist Abdias Jean (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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


Agence Haïtienne de Presse - Haitian Press Agency - AHP

January 19, 2005


The AJH Secretary General believes he has reliable information that
the police did indeed execute journalist Abdias Jean


Port-au-Prince, January 19, 2005 (AHP)- Guyler C. Delva, Secretary
General of the AJH (Association of Haitian Journalists), spoke in
condemnation Wednesday of the killing of journalist Abdias Jean in
Village de Dieu during a police operation conducted in that populist
district on Friday, January 14.  

Guy Delva said he has solid information indicating that the crime was
committed by police officers who pursued Mr. Jean to a house after he
witnessed their crimes.

Two other youths were killed during this police sweep.  

Mr. Delva said he was amazed to find that police officers are
summarily executing journalists and seizing the tools of their trade
because they have witnessed criminal conduct.  

"I can not comprehend how such practices can take place at a time
when one is talking about the rule of law and democracy", declared
Mr. Delva.  

He called for the opening of a rigorous investigation into this case.  

For his part, Ronald St-Jean, director of the Committee for the
Defense of the Rights of the Haitian People (CDPH), took issue with
the recent statements of interim Prime Minister Gérard Latortue
assuring that his government would not sink to engaging in arbitrary
practices.  

By way of examples, Ronald St-Jean cited the case of the summary
execution of Lavalas activist Jimmy Charles, whose bullet-ridden body
was discovered Saturday in La Saline though he was known to have been
in police custody, and the case of journalist Abdias Jean who was
killed Friday in Village de Dieu during a PNH intervention in this
populist district.   

Mr. St-Jean strongly urged that an autopsy be performed on the body
of the journalist as a means of producing additional verification.  

He also condemned the behavior of the police toward journalists from
Télé Ginen during the same operation.  

PNH officers had seized the video camera of the journalists and only
returned it several hours later without the video cassette that had
been in the camera.  

According to the CDPH official, this attitude clearly shows that the
police are trying to hide their misdeeds.  

In addition, Ronald St-Jean denounced the ill treatment inflicted
recently upon two other journalists by armed individuals in the
populist district of Bel-Air.