24329: Blanchet: (news) Fw: Haiti: Answers as elusive as prison escapees in Port-au-Prince (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Max Blanchet <MaxBlanchet@worldnet.att.net>


> Answers as elusive as prison escapees in Port-au-Prince
>
> By Reed Lindsay, New York Newsday special correspondent
>
> February 22, 2005
>
> PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - How could only a handful of heavily armed,
> black-hooded gunmen storm the national penitentiary in broad daylight,
freeing about 480
> prisoners?
>
> Were they supporters of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide? Were they
> gang members? Former soldiers? Or the police themselves?
>
> Two days after the daring assault on the prison, there are more questions
> than answers.
>
> Two key allies of Aristide were among the escapees. Both former Prime
> Minister Yvon Neptune and Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert were back at
the
> penitentiary five hours after it was raided Saturday, with government
officials and
> representatives of the United Nations peacekeeping mission giving
> contradictory accounts of how they were returned.
>
> Police spokeswoman Gessy Coicou said Neptune and Privert were captured by
> police after escaping. But UN spokesman Damian Onses-Cardona said that in
the
> chaos of the gunmen's assault the two had sought refuge in the house of
another
> escapee. They contacted the UN and asked to be returned, he said, because
> they'd had no intention of fleeing or living as fugitives. Bill Quigley,
an
> American lawyer who visited Neptune and Privert yesterday, confirmed this
account.
>
> In the local media, the prison break was portrayed as an attempt to free
> Neptune and Privert. UN Civilian Police Commissioner David Beer said,
however, the
> heavily armed men who attacked the penitentiary were likely chimeres, or
> armed gangs, seeking to free fellow gang members. And one top official in
the
> police force who asked not to be named said he suspected former soldiers
were
> responsible.
>
> It remains unclear how such a massive prison break could have taken place
in
> downtown Port-au-Prince just three blocks from the national palace and
police
> headquarters, where 125 UN riot police and dozens of Haitian police
officers
> stand guard.
>
> Nor is it apparent how the handful of assailants (witnesses in front of
the
> penitentiary said they saw only one vehicle and several gunmen) managed to
get
> past dozens of guards and free more than a third of the inmates before the
> police and UN troops arrived. Most escapees remained at large last night.
>
> According to Marie-Yolene Gilles, an observer for the National Coalition
for
> Haitian Rights who was at the prison Sunday, only six hooded gunmen
dressed in
> black entered the prison. One off-duty prison guard was shot and killed
> outside, but no guards inside were harmed, Gilles said.
>
> Claude Theodat, chief of Haiti's prison system, declined to be
interviewed,
> and a government spokesman said yesterday that he had been fired,
according to
> The Associated Press. The government has promised to form a commission to
> investigate the prison break.
>
> In the poor, strongly pro-Aristide neighborhood of Bel Air, one man who
> claimed to have escaped said he saw two hooded gunmen in black, "POLICE"
on the
> backs of their shirts, and carrying automatic weapons telling prisoners
they were
> free to leave. Such a uniform is commonly used by Haitian police.
>
> Reynold Georges, a politician and lawyer who represents more than 20
> prisoners, said several of his clients who had escaped told him the
attackers appeared
> to be police officers.
>
> Reached on his cell phone Sunday, prison warden Sony Marcellus said he was
> being held in an isolation cell in the Port-au-Prince police station,
although
> he did not say why. The prison break comes at a time when police are being
> investigated by the UN for a spate of executions and being criticized in
the media
> for failing to capture Remissainthe Ravix, an anti-Aristide leader accused
of
> killing four police officers.
>
> Members of Aristide's Lavalas party accused the government Sunday of
staging
> the attack to divert attention from the manhunt for Ravix and to justify a
> crackdown on Aristide's supporters.
>
> "It's a simulation," said Samba Boukman, spokesman for the Popular Base
> Resistance Movement, a coalition of anti-government groups. "They say it
was
> Lavalas activists, but it was the government who did it."
> _____________________________________
>
>
> This email is forwarded as a service of the Haiti Support Group.
>
> See the Haiti Support Group web site:
> www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org
>
> Solidarity with the Haitian people's struggle for justice, participatory
> democracy and equitable development, since 1992.