30010: HaitiAnalysis (News) Manipulating Death: Deibert and Martissant (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: haitianalysis-at-gmail-dot-com


Manipulating Death: Deibert and Martissant
By: Jeb Sprague - HaitiAnalysis.com


http://www.haitianalysis.com/2007/2/14/manipulating-death-deibert-and-martissant



A freelance photojournalist Jean Rémy Badiau was killed on January 19 2007
in the Port-au-Prince district of Martissant. AHP interviewed family and
friends that claimed his murder was connected to the vigilante group Lame Ti
Manchet. The Haitian newspaper Nouvelliste made a similar report on February
13.

In an earlier report the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontières placed equal
blame for violence in Martissant on another group known as Baz Gran Ravine.
The report provided no proof to back up the statement. A recent article for
AlterPresse by Michael Deibert states that Badio was "murdered in his home,
evidently by gang-affiliated gunmen from the area, last month". The article
made no mention of the widespread charges against Lame Ti Manchet for having
involvement in the killing of Badio and scores of other people in
Martissant.

A previous article by Deibert on August 2 2006 also ignored the numerous
documented attacks and killings carried out by the group, acknowledging only
the charges that "a former police official" was accused of "financing and
organizing a gang known as Lamè Ti Machet". He makes no mention of the
numerous and well recorded Lame Ti Manchet attacks.

According to human rights workers active consistently in Martissant, such as
those within AUMOHD and the Community Human Rights Councils (CHRC), it is
the Lame Ti Manchet that has been responsible for the vast amount of
reported attacks over the last few years and is the driving force behind
violence in the area.  This does not mean that Baz Gran Ravine has committed
no violence, but it does mean that according to human rights workers and
community groups in Martissant the vigilante group known as Lame Ti Manchet
has conducted the huge majority of recorded violence.

AUMOHD observed that 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".

Other attacks conducted by Lame Ti Manchet which is also ignored by Deibert
include 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. The attempts at transference and manipulation are
important to document because they show how scientific human rights studies
(Lancet, Miami University Griffin report, etc) and testimony collected by
human rights workers (AUMOHD, CHRC, IJDH) from poor victims of violence is
ignored. Many of the same authors/groups that ignore the reports coming from
Martissant also ignored the half dozen human rights reports that came out
during the 04-06 period showing the interim government's role in violence
against slum dwellers, such as the extrajudicial killing of young journalist
Abdias Jean.

Human rights workers on the ground in Martissant now report that the wife of
Rudy Kernizan has been apprehended. Rudy himself - chief of the vigilante
Lame Ti Manchet - has escaped reportedly to the Dominican Republic. In early
February human rights workers reported that several (3-4) Lame Ti Manchet
people were arrested by MINUSTAH and the Haitian police. Another 31
individuals were arrested days ago in Martissant.