25472: (news) Chamberlain: U.N. envoy in Haiti wants jailed ex-PM released (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, June 23 (Reuters) - The U.N. special envoy to
Haiti called on Haitian authorities on Thursday to release former Prime
Minister Yvon Neptune, jailed a year ago on accusations he masterminded a
massacre in February 2004.
     Neptune, who served under former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was
accused of instigating what Aristide foes have called a massacre of
government opponents on Feb. 11, 2004, in a village near St.-Marc, 60 miles
(100 km) north of Port-au-Prince. The deaths -- versions of how many people
died range up to 50 -- occurred during an armed revolt that forced Aristide
from power last year.
     Neptune, who was charged in May, has rejected the accusations, which
he says were politically motivated, and has reportedly refused food since
mid-April to protest his detention.
     U.N. envoy Juan Gabriel Valdes criticized the way the judicial system
had handled Neptune's case and suggested the former prime minister could be
freed while the case was prosecuted.
     "Our appreciation of the legal system and the procedures followed
indicate to us that it would be perfectly possible to release Mr. Neptune
from prison even if his case continued to be processed," Valdes told
reporters.
    "We believe that serious attention should be given to Neptune's
release," he said.
     The Neptune case has become a focal point for critics of the interim
government that replaced Aristide and is battling chronic political and
criminal violence in the poorest country in the Americas. Critics say
authorities have rounded up many Aristide supporters without cause. The
government has denied any political persecution.
     Journalists and human rights activists who visited the scene the day
after the suspected massacre in La Syrie was announced saw five bodies, but
other groups have said up to 50 people were killed.
     A U.N. independent expert on human rights, Louis Joinet, rejected the
notion of a massacre after he visited St.-Marc in April. Joinet said people
who died were killed in confrontations between pro- and anti-Aristide
groups in St-Marc during February last year and there were victims on both
sides.
     The government appointed a new justice minister this week to replace
Bernard Gousse, who had been criticized for the Neptune case and for a
chaotic judicial system in which most of those in prison have not been
tried.