26299: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Former Premier (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Sept 20 (AP) -- A Haitian judge has ruled there is
enough evidence to try a jailed former prime minister in the massacre of
more than 40 political opponents during the rebellion that ousted President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
   Investigative Judge Cluny P. Jules decided that former Prime Minister
Yvon Neptune and 29 others should stand trial for the February 2004
massacre in the western town of St. Marc, said prosecutor Leslie Jules.
   The prosecutor said he received the indictments Friday. The Justice
Ministry will make the final decision on whether to order the trials, he
said.
   Neptune is one of dozens of Aristide loyalists who have been held
without trial for more than a year. The former prime minister has been
jailed since July 2004.
   U.N. officials and U.S. lawmakers have called for Neptune's release,
criticizing his prolonged detention without trial. The former prime
minister, who has denied involvement in the massacre, staged a hunger
strike for several weeks earlier this year to protest his detention.
   The indictment said that Neptune had been in constant contact with the
alleged leaders of the massacre. A list of calls from Neptune's cell phone
showed that he had spoken for at least 350 minutes with the alleged
perpetrators of the killings from Feb. 7 to Feb 13, when the killings were
either being organized or taking place at St. Marc.
   Neptune's defense attorney, Mario Joseph, declined to comment, saying he
had not seen the indictment.
   Neptune's case became a rallying point for Aristide backers who accused
the U.S.-backed interim government of persecuting the ousted president's
supporters.
   Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue insists authorities are acting
independently to bring former Aristide officials to justice for abuses and
corruption.
   Meanwhile, two men were stoned and hacked to death Tuesday on the
outskirts of Bel-Air, a volatile slum of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
   A wave of killings has claimed at least 20 lives since last August.
Residents say the murders are being committed by the so-called "machete
army," a group of vigilantes targeting Aristide supporters.
   Aristide's Lavalas Family Party agreed recently to participate in
November and December elections, despite threatening for months to boycott
the vote. The Nov. 20 general elections will be the first since the armed
revolt that forced Aristide to flee Haiti on Feb. 29, 2004.
   The indictment said a pro-Aristide gang hacked or shot 44 people to
death in St. Marc over three days in February 2004.
   The massacre came as the government sought to contain the rebellion that
ousted Aristide two weeks later. Some witnesses claim more than 100 people
were killed in St. Marc.