=?x-unknown?q?29924=3A__Potemaksonje_=28News=29_Lame_Ti_Manch?==?x-unknown?q?=E8t_Accused_of_Role_in_Killing_of_Photojourn?==?x-unknown?q?alist_=28fwd=29?=

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

> From Potemaksonje@yahoo.com

http://www.narconews.com/Issue44/article2517.html Haiti:  Lame Ti Manchèt 
Accused of Role in Killing of Photojournalist   Reporters Without Borders Fails 
to Report the Entire Truth, Even with an Overwhelming Amount of Documented 
Killings Attributed to Vigilante Group
By Jeb Sprague
Special to The Narco News Bulletin  January 25, 2007

Residents of Martissant, a sprawling poor section along the southern part of 
Port-au-Prince, have accused Lame Ti Manchèt (the Little Machete Army), a 
civilian vigilante group, of having a role in the killing of freelance 
photojournalist Jean-Rémy Badio on January 19 2006. According to SOS 
Journalistes, of which Badio was a member, he was assassinated after taking 
photos of the killers. They state that his family received multiple death 
threats. Agence Haitïenne de Presse (AHP) reports that according to Badio’s 
close friends the victim had been the object of death threats from members of 
the vigilante group “the Little Machete Army” and that “residents of Martissant 
accuse the Little Machete Army of committing most of the killings in the area”.
   An early press release put out by the Paris based Reporters Without Borders 
(RSF) attempted to place the blame for the murder on not only Lame Ti Manchèt 
but also another group known as Baz Gran Ravine which has no reported 
involvement in the killing.  RSF’s Directrice générale in Canada Emily Jacquard 
wrote, “Two armed gangs – Lame Ti Manchèt (Little Machete Army) and Baz Gran 
Ravin (Big Ravine Base) – have been fighting for the control of Martissant for 
the past two years.”
   The report, without mentioning the resident’s charges against Lame Ti 
Manchèt for having a role in the murder of Badio, also failed to mention that 
the overwhelming amount of documented political killings in Martissant over the 
last two years have been conducted by Lame Ti Manchèt, this includes a massacre 
of 21 people, the burning down of 300 homes 7/9/06, and a massacre carried out 
jointly with the Haitian police at a USAID sponsored soccer tournament 8/20/05. 
In contrast to massive evidence showing violent rampages by Lame Ti Manchèt, 
people on the ground in Martissant consistently explain that since 2004 the Baz 
Gran Ravin has served as a self-defense grouping.
   Soon after the 2004 coup it is believed that Lame Ti Manchèt came into 
existence under the tutelage of the illegal Latortue regime whose mission was 
to “eliminate people hostile to the interim regime.” (AHP 1/23/07) A young 
journalist Abdias Jean was executed, with a bullet in his head, by police of 
the interim government in January of 2005. RSF and other groups seen as partial 
to Haiti’s interim authorities failed to report on the killing.
   According to reports from AUMOHD, a human rights group active in Martisant, 
the 2006 massacre conducted by Lame Ti Manchèt “was meant as a smoke screen to 
provoke Baz Gran Ravine into a retaliation and thereby distract from the push 
to get police and civilians involved with Lame Ti Manchèt into jail. AUMOHD’S 
community human rights council (CHRC) coordinator, Esterne Bruner, was 
assassinated by Lame Ti Manchèt 9/21/06. But there has not been any retaliation 
reported. Instead the CHRC, non-violent and non-partisan, continues to 
prosecute all the killings.”
   The Institute for Justice and Democracy (IJDH) in Haiti observes, “The 
Little Machete Army will keep going until someone stops them. They carried out 
the August 2005 soccer game massacre with the help of police, and right near a 
MINUSTAH (United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti) observation post. Then 
they struck again the next day, burning house after house. They did a series of 
attacks in the summer of 2006. But neither MINUSTAH nor the PNH will go in and 
arrest the leaders.”
   Footage from the August 2005 soccer game massacre appeared in New York Times 
author Walt Bogdanich’s documentary “Haiti: Democracy Undone”. It shows well 
equiped police officers, with Lame Ti Manchèt serving as police attaches, 
running into a screaming crowd.
   Under international pressure from human rights groups, the PNH with the 
assistance of Sri Lankan MINUSTAH troop succesfully arrested and jailed fifteen 
members of the Haitian police department cited in the official police 
investigation as working with Lame Ti Manchèt. But the arrested individuals 
were released on personal recognizance in February of 2006. On October 19 2006 
Judge Peres Paul issued his final judgment releasing all the police officers 
from any responsibility but named civilians in the case who he referred to 
criminal court.
   Human rights organizations have decried Judge Peres Paul, who as a supporter 
of the interim government, released police officers that were known to be 
working with Lame Ti Manchèt.  PNH chief Mario Andersol later criticized 
corruption among the judiciary, a group of whom went on strike in response. The 
civilians referred to criminal court by Judge Peres Paul were Marck alias Ti 
Ink, Tél Kale, Kiki Ainsi Connu, Roland Toussaint, Frantz alias Gerald Gwo 
Lombrit, Roudy Kernisan alias commandante Roudy (head of Lame Ti Manchèt), 
Carlo alias Choupit, and Jean Yves alias Brown.
   Guyler Delva of the Haitian Associaon of Journalists (AJH) has denounced the 
killing of Badio on numerous Haitian media outlets. Amnesty International has 
also issued a press release denouncing the killing of Badio. The Associate 
Press reports that Fred Blaise, a U.N. police spokesman, explained that gang 
members were suspected in the shooting but no arrests have been made. Following 
the recent murder of Badio, Haitain Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis 
authorized MINUSTAH soldiers to increase patrols in Martissant.
   Thousands have been killed in Haiti since the unconstitutional overthrow of 
its elected government in February 2004. A scientific study done through random 
spatial sampling and published in the British medical journal, The Lancet, 
found that between early 2004 to mid 2006, 4,000 people were killed by the 
interim government’s forces and its armed supporters in the greater 
Port-au-Prince area. The second half of the study which its authors presented 
this month shows that the vast majority of those targeted were supporters of 
Lavalas and Lespwa.
   For more information see HaitiAnalysis.com.


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