Indeed. And the "sucesses" in Somalia, as well.
Posted on 11/13/2004 10:49:31 AM PST by TERMINATTOR
Rights group Amnesty International has condemned what it said were summary executions by police, serious human rights abuses and an alarming number of illegal detentions in Haiti.
After an 18-day visit to the impoverished Caribbean nation, Amnesty called on the interim government to investigate the police, and urged it and a UN peacekeeping force to carry out a program of disarmament.
While acknowledging interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue inherited numerous problems from the ousted democratically-elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Amnesty said, "None of these difficulties can be invoked by state agents to justify violations of human rights committed in total impunity".
Mr Latortue rejected the allegations of human rights abuses and said complaints against police were being investigated and violators sanctioned.
"The government is committed to respect human rights and rejects all accusations of human rights abuses," Mr Latortue told Reuters.
"Under my government, the police are not allowed and will never be allowed to kill people unless it is a question of self-defence or armed confrontation."
The blast from the London-based watchdog added to complaints the US-backed government is persecuting supporters of Mr Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest regarded as the father of democracy in Haiti but who faced accusations of corruption in recent years.
Mr Aristide fled Haiti on February 29 after a bloody month-long revolt by street gangs and former soldiers. Pressured to quit by Washington and Paris, he is now in exile in South Africa.
The Latortue government has blamed Aristide and his Lavalas Family party for fomenting a surge in violence that has killed at least 170 people since early September and which threatens the success of the Brazilian-led UN peace mission.
Lavalas, which retains strong support among Haiti's poor masses, says the government and the police are responsible for the bloodshed because they have targeted the party and arrested hundreds of its allies on sketchy charges.
Amnesty said it received information on at least 11 summary executions, including seven people killed by police in the Fort National slum of Port-au-Prince on October 26.
Javier Zuniga, special envoy of Amnesty's secretary-general, said only an independent investigation directed by international police under UN command could restore public confidence in the local police force and the UN mission.
Among the Lavalas supporters arrested are Mr Aristide's former prime minister, Yvon Neptune, his interior minister, Jocelerme Privert and a popular priest, Father Gerard Jean-Juste.
Mr Jean-Juste was hauled away from his church on October 13 by police in black balaclavas while he was feeding street children and originally faced charges of disturbing the peace, a crime carrying a penalty equivalent to 30 US cents.
"There are people arrested pending investigation and the investigation never takes place and those people are detained for weeks and months in jail without being formally charged," Gerardo Ducos, a member of the Amnesty delegation, said at a news conference in Port-au-Prince.
Amnesty officials said they feared the return of death squads, which rights groups blamed for thousands of deaths from 1991 to 1994, when Mr Aristide was exiled during his first term as president and Haiti was ruled by a military junta.
Haiti will never change, no matter what anyone tries to do. This has been going on ever since I can remember when Papa Doc Duvalier was in charge. Violence rules in Haiti.
This is nothing but a bald-faced attempt to reinstall the Communists (i.e. Aristide and company). If you want to know what's really going on in Haiti, check out the following link.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1260168/posts
So Amnesty wants to build on the UN's success in Rwanda, huh?
Oh, I don't expect Aristide would care to return. He knows what's waiting for him, no matter how many blue helmets he gets for a bodyguard. For a while.
Thanks for the post. Did you by any chance give the following link a read???
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1260168/posts
Indeed. And the "sucesses" in Somalia, as well.
Yep. It's one of those in my bookmarks file, along with a couple of others on Haiti.
We used to have a pretty good *Haitian Operations* pinglist going. And I suspect it'll come back to life again.
"We used to have a pretty good *Haitian Operations* pinglist going. And I suspect it'll come back to life again."
Do keep me posted if it's ever brought back. I used to write about Haiti way back when.
Some food for thought...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1224848/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1252938/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1220747/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1265538/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1260168/posts
http://www.insightmag.com/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=161248
http://www.worldthreats.com/russia_former_ussr/Russia%20911.htm
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/9/23/171350.shtml
http://www.newsmax.com/hottopics/China!Taiwan.shtml
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