28961: Sprague (News) So Anne (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

 From Sprague <jebsprague@[nospam]mac.com>



Haiti political prisoner released after two years without charge
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10396518

1.00pm Wednesday August 16, 2006
By Andrew Buncombe

A popular Haitian folk singer and political activist has been
released from jail - more than two years after she was seized by US
Marines and incarcerated without charge.

Annette Auguste, better known as So Ann ("Sister Ann") was released
after her lawyer persuaded a judge in Port-au-Prince that there was
no evidence to hold her.

Yesterday, freed after 826 days in jail, she spoke of her
incarceration onDemocracy Now radio in the US.

"The conditions in prison were very bad for everyone," So Ann said.

"Everybody was suffering. It was not only me."

"I was only released yesterday after two years and three months. They
had no evidence to condemn me - that is why I'm released and I'm free."

So Ann, 65, was one of several high-profile supporters of former
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide rounded up and imprisoned with the
barest of evidence after he was forced from power in the spring of 2004.

Her case was highlighted by Amnesty International who said she had
been seized by US Marines - part of an international force deployed
to Haiti - who said she had been arrested on suspicion of "possessing
information that could pose a threat to the US-military force".

Even though the US military admitted it found no weapons or evidence
to support the allegations against her, she was taken into custody
and held by the interim government of Gerard Latortue, which had been
imposed by the US, France and Canada.

She was held on suspicion of "incitement to violence", though Amnesty
said she was never formally charged with a recognisable offence.

The Latortue government was widely criticised for its suppression of
pro-Aristide supporters and his Lavalas political party.

Other high profile figures imprisoned were former prime minister
Yvonne Neptune, who was freed on appeal last month.

The release of So-Ann and others comes five months after the election
of Rene Preval, a former Aristide ally, who had formerly served as
president.

During his election campaign he vowed to release all political
prisoners.

"This is an important step forward," said Brian Concannon, director
of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, a US-group that
supported Aristide.

"The struggle now continues to release those other prisoners being
held for political reasons who do not have such a high profile."

Mr Preval secured his election victory with the overwhelming support
of Haiti's poor.

As he predicted at the time, turning around the fortunes of the
poorest country in the hemisphere where three-quarters of the
population survives on less than $2 a day, has not been straight-
forward.

The charity ActionAid recently confirmed that a kidnapping in Haiti -
which fell around the time of the election - has now risen again and
the country has become the kidnapping capital of the Americas.

The charity's Jack Campbell recently called on the UN mission in
Haiti to take on more to prevent such violence, saying: "Ordinary
Haitians are crying out for change.

The Haitian government has opened its door for continued
international support.

The United Nations must not let this opportunity for real progress
slip by."

- INDEPENDENT