26607: Craig (news) OAS Urged to Rein In Police, Peacekeepers (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From:  Dan Craig <sak-pase@bimini.ws>

RIGHTS-HAITI:
OAS Urged to Rein In Police, Peacekeepers
Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Nov 16 (IPS) - A dozen U.S. rights groups, attorneys and activists 
have submitted petitions to the human rights arm of the Organisation of 
American States (OAS) to take urgent measures to protect Haitian civilians from 
U.N. peacekeepers and the Haitian National Police.

The petitions, which were filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human 
Rights Tuesday, are directed against Brazil and the United States. As the 
commander of the U.N. Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), Brazil is 
accused of complicity in dozens of killings since late 2004. The United States 
is cited for arming the Haitian National Police (PNH) which, according to the 
groups, has been responsible for most of the violence.

Both countries are committing substantial violations of the American Convention 
on Human Rights, according to the petitioners.
They allege that dozens of unarmed civilians have been killed during raids by 
both MINUSTAH and the PNH into poor sections of the capital, Port-au-Prince, 
that have remained loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was ousted 
from power in early 2004, and his party, Fanmi Lavalas.

"Despite the official claims made by PNH and MINUSTAH spokespersons that the 
aim of these operations is to neutralise armed, 'gang' or 'bandit' elements in 
these neighbourhoods," according to the groups' complaint, "those killed by PNH 
and MINUSTAH forces include a long list of unarmed men, women, and children."

"In many cases, these victims were not 'collateral damage' of the operations, 
accidentally caught in crossfire, but rather they were intentionally targeted 
and killed...," asserted the complaints submitted by the National Lawyers 
Guild, Global Exchange, and the Institute for Justice and Democracy, among 
others.

The groups said they had prepared dozens of affidavits by victims, 
eyewitnesses, including Haitian journalists, and family survivors, as well 
videotapes taken at the scene of the raids or shortly afterwards.

"MINUSTAH's role is to protect Haitian civilians," said National Lawyers Guild 
attorney Kasey Corbitt, who helped draft the petitions. "Instead, the troops 
are actively participating in campaigns of terror on the Haitian people or 
turning a blind eye to atrocities committed by the PNH in conjunction with 
members of the former military."

The petitions are also backed by two members of the U.S. Black Congressional 
Caucus, Reps. Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters, both long-time supporters of 
Aristide. Given the ongoing violence, Waters told reporters Tuesday, "I don't 
understand how they can possibly hold democratic elections."

Aristide was ousted in early 2004 during an insurrection by former soldiers and 
flown into exile aboard a U.S. military jet after U.S. troops, who had been 
rushed to Port-au-Prince, informed him that they could not guarantee his 
protection. Many of his supporters, including Waters and Lee, have charged that 
the U.S. and France conspired to remove the president, who is currently living 
in South Africa, both from power and from Haiti itself.

An initial multinational force consisting of troops from the U.S., France, 
Canada, and Chile assumed peacekeeping duties in the major cities immediately 
after Aristide's departure. They were replaced after several months by the 
7,000-man Brazilian-led MINUSTAH, whose mandate was to support the interim 
government of Prime Minister Gerard LaTortue, a former Haitian diplomat who had 
been living in the United States for most of the last 30 years.

His government's mandate has been to maintain order, jumpstart the economy, and 
prepare elections to take place next month. Despite substantial progress by the 
U.N. in registering voters, however, the government has largely failed in these 
tasks. With much of the countryside and even the major cities still under the 
control of local strongmen and their private militias, it remains unclear 
whether the election, if it goes forward, can be free or fair.

Aristide's supporters have long charged the interim government, and 
particularly the PNH, with targeting their leaders and activists, among them 
former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and the Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, both of whom 
have spent more than a year in jail without trial. The George W. Bush 
administration itself has called on the government to either try or release 
them -- so far, however, to no avail.

Most of the repression against Lavalas, which most analysts believe remains by 
far the most popular party among the vast majority of Haitians who live in 
absolute poverty, has been directed against suspected pro-Aristide gangs, or 
so-called chimeres, that continue to dominate or protect -- depending on the 
observer's political orientation -- entire neighbourhoods in slum areas, 
including Cite Soleil and Belair in the capital.

Beginning in December 2004, MINUSTAH forces, along with U.N. Civilian Police 
and sometimes PNH units, have carried out raids in these districts to assert 
the government's authority there and disarm suspected gang members.

While MINUSTAH and the PNH have generally blamed any civilian casualties 
resulting from these raids on the gangs themselves, some community residents 
and other witnesses have charged that the uniformed forces have been 
responsible for most of the deaths and serious injuries.

The complaint filed by the groups details 13 such incidents between September 
2004 and the end of August 2005, the most notorious of which was a 
controversial Jul. 6 raid by MINUSTAH forces into Cite Soleil to apprehend 
Dread Wilme, a chimere leader, who was killed in the raid.

The operation, in which the groups claim more than 300 MINUSTAH soldiers and as 
many as 20 armoured personnel carriers and a helicopter took part, resulted in 
the deaths of as many as 63 people, according to community activists cited by 
Seth Donnelly, who was leading a U.S. labour delegation to Port-au-Prince at 
the time.

He also quoted staff at a nearby hospital run by Doctors Without Borders as 
saying they had treated 26 people who had been injured during the raid, 20 of 
whom were women and children. In an interview after the raid, MINUSTAH 
commander Lt. Gen Augusto Heleno Riberio Pereira denied that any civilians had 
been shot by his troops.

In August, according to the petitions, the PNH carried out a series of four 
massacres with the help of civilian "attaches" armed with PNH machetes in 
various Port-au-Prince districts.

The worst of these took place Aug. 20 when the police interrupted a 
USAID-funded soccer match, ordered several thousand spectators to lie down and 
then summarily executed an undetermined number identified by informers as 
"bandits". In each case, according to the petitioners, MINUSTAH troops in the 
area failed to intervene.

For its part, the director of the U.N. operation in Haiti, former Chilean 
foreign minister Gabriel Valdes, has acknowledged receiving reports of 
executions allegedly carried out by PNH personnel, as well as complaints 
against MINUSTAH itself. He has said inquiries have been initiated in each 
case, but no findings have been published to date.

While the current petitions are directed solely against Brazil and the U.S., 
Donnelly said the groups would soon file petitions against the PNH, as well. 
(END/2005)