24983: (news) Chamberlain: UN says former Haitian PM jailed illegally (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, May 4 (Reuters) - A top U.N. official in Haiti
on Wednesday denounced the detention of former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune
as illegal and the Organization of American States offered to help end what
it called a standoff with serious moral implications.
     Neptune, 58, has been jailed for over 10 months without appearing
before a judge and began a hunger strike on April 17 that has left him
dangerously weak. Haiti's constitution requires a hearing before a judge
within 48 hours of arrest.
     Former Haitian Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert has been jailed for
over a year without being formally charged.
     Thierry Fagart, chief of the Haiti U.N. mission's human rights
division, cited both cases in delivering the United Nation's strongest
criticism of Haiti's human rights record since the ouster of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide during a revolt in February 2004.
     "Since the beginning of the procedure until today, the fundamental
rights, according to national and international standards, have not been
respected in the case of Mr. Neptune and Privert," Fagart, a French lawyer,
told journalists.
     Neptune and Privert served in the Aristide administration and are
accused of masterminding what opponents called a massacre on Feb. 11, 2004,
in the village of La Syrie.
     A U.N. human rights expert who investigated the case said it was not a
massacre but a confrontation between armed pro- and anti-Aristide groups,
with casualties on both sides.
     Haiti's interim government, backed by the U.N., offered to take
Neptune to the neighboring Dominican Republic for medical care, but he
refused and demanded that he be released first.
     Many Haitian politicians who opposed Aristide have criticized the
offer, which they say is illegal.
    "I would like to tell those people they should also pay particular
attention to the fact that the judicial treatment of Mr. Neptune and Mr.
Privert has proved to be illegal since their arrest," Fagart said.
     Fagart said more than 95 percent of Haiti's prisoners are kept in
prolonged custody without seeing a judge.
     No government officials was immediately available for comment, but
interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue and Justice Minister Bernard Gousse
have repeatedly blamed those violations on a dysfunctional judicial system.
     In Washington on Wednesday, the head of the Organization of American
States called for a joint Haitian-international commission to try to
quickly resolve the impasse over Neptune's imprisonment.
     Acting Secretary General Ambassador Luigi Einaudi told the OAS
Permanent Council suggested that a commission made up of a Haitian jurist,
an international jurist and an international forensic expert could examine
the case and recommend action.
     Haiti's ambassador to the OAS, Duly Brutus, said he would report the
proposal to his government.