NEWS ALERTS

"FREE HAITI'S POLITICAL PRISONERS!
RESTORE DEMOCRACY TO HAITI! ”

 

In Haiti today, hundreds of political prisoners are jailed under the most inhumane conditions.  Arrested during or after the U.S.-orchestrated 2004 coup d'etat that overthrew the democratically elected government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, most of these prisoners have never been charged or tried. The United Nations occupying forces, charged with enforcing “law and order,” has been a full participant in these illegal detentions, as has the Haitian government of President Rene Preval. 
 
With 9,000 soldiers from 42 countries, led by Brazil, the UN Mission to Stabilize Haiti (MINUSTAH) has spent $2 billion fielding armed patrols throughout Haitian poor neighborhoods to repress and intimidate the people, arbitrarily killing civilians, and sometimes sexually assaulting young girls and women.  In the meantime, the economic conditions worsen and the basic needs of the population remain unmet. 
 
While MINUSTAH issues glowing reports of progress and political stability, the reality is quite different. Prices of basic commodities have risen, leading to popular uprisings demanding food. Grassroots activists, especially those associated with President Aristide's Lavalas Party, have continued to be arrested and attacked.  Human rights activist Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine was disappeared in August of 2007, and neither the United Nations nor the Preval government has launched a serious investigation into his kidnapping. At the same time, conditions inside Haiti's prisons grow more horrific each day.
 
Haiti’s Prisons Are A Nightmare
 
Prisoners are dying inside the sweltering, overcrowded 2500-person National Penitentiary (NP) built to house 800. They suffer dehydration and disease from filthy water. Beriberi from starvation rations is epidemic.  Cell “blocks” built to hold five or six people are packed with up to 26 bodies at a time; prisoners take shifts sleeping and standing. 
 
Violence against prisoners has sometimes escalated to wholesale massacre. On December 1st, 2004, a widely publicized incident occurred at the NP when inmates were shot after they broke out of their cells to protest their conditions and illegal confinement. Eyewitnesses reported the police took up positions on the catwalk and opened heavy fire. The official death toll was 10, but witness statements provided to the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) support a much higher death count.  
 
In May 2006, during inauguration ceremonies for President-elect Préval, MINUSTAH sharpshooters targeted prisoners at the NP, killing an estimated ten men. The prisoners had rallied inside the compound to show solidarity with the incoming president. They condemned the unjust detention of political prisoners, and demanded the return of Aristide. Several thousand supporters left nearby inaugural events and marched to the penitentiary to protest the killings. Survivors held the bodies of dead prisoners over their heads for people to see from the street below.  
 
After Préval took office, grassroots demands and international pressure for the release of well-known political prisoners slowly began to make headway.  These campaigns resulted in the release of former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, key Lavalas activists So Ann, Amanus Maette, Paul Raymond, Rene Civil, and former Interior Minister Privert.  Yet hundreds of lesser-known activists remain locked up, their petitions for justice ignored or denied.
 
The Case of Ronald Dauphin
 
Ronald Dauphin, a grassroots Lavalas activist, was arrested by armed paramilitary troops on March 1, 2004 - the day after US officials forced President Aristide into exile. Mr. Dauphin has spent five years in jail without having been convicted of any crime. For three years his case has been stuck in legal limbo, with no progress or active investigation. Dauphin is the last detainee held for the so-called “La Scierie massacre.” No one has ever been convicted in connection with the La Scierie incident; most defendants have had their charges ordered dismissed by courts. Human rights groups and the UN have concluded that the alleged “massacre” never occurred.
 
In August 2006, Amnesty International joined human rights activists and Haiti's grassroots movement in calling for Haiti's government to promptly bring to trial or release all political prisoners, and condemning the prolonged detention of Aristide supporters as politically motivated. In October 2006, the National Lawyers Guild urged Haiti's government to release the remaining political prisoners, with particular emphasis on the defendants held in the La Scierie case.
 
In July 2008, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that the State of Haiti had violated the human rights of former Prime Minister Neptune, another defendant in the La Scierie case, by holding him without trial for over two years with no proof he committed a crime. Neptune was provisionally released, as was another defendant in the case, Amanus Maette. Yet Ronald Dauphin remains in prison. 
 
Although Dauphin's wife brings him food and medicine when she can, rising costs for food and gasoline make it difficult for her to visit. Without adequate food, clean water, sanitation and medical attention, Dauphin's detention amounts to a death sentence. He is ill from an undiagnosed condition. There is a prison dispensary, but even the prison doctor says the facility is incapable of caring for him. Dauphin's co-defendant, Wantales Lormejuste, died in 2007 from untreated tuberculosis contracted inside prison. Minimally, Dauphin wants to be offered medical release to be treated by specialists.
 
Act Now
 
The case of Ronald Dauphin stands as an example of the ongoing repression faced by the Lavalas movement in Haiti.  As the United States and the United Nations continue to claim progress towards democracy in Haiti, it is more important than ever to shine a light on the desperate situation inside Haiti’s prisons.
 
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
 
    Sign and circulate the on-line petition for Ronald Dauphin's release -http://www.petitiononline.com/march04/petition.html
 
    Sign up at action.haiti@gmail.com to receive latest news and action alerts.
 
    Sponsor a house meeting or film showing.
 
Challenge disinformation! Inform yourself and your friends about Haiti !
 
FREE HAITI”S POLITICAL PRISONERS
 
END THE US/UN OCCUPATION 
 
RETURN PRESIDENT ARISTIDE TO HAITI
 
Haiti Action Committee
PO Box 2218
Berkeley, CA 94702
Website: www.haitisolidarity.net 
 
Labor donated