25481: Wharram - news - U.N. envoy in Haiti wants jailed ex-PM released (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

> From Bruce Wharram <bruce.wharram@sev.org>

U.N. envoy in Haiti wants jailed ex-PM released
24 Jun 2005 00:24:30 GMT
Source: Reuters
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.