[News] Slaughter inside Haiti's National Penitentiary

[Anti-Imperialist News]

UN accused of slaughter inside Haiti's National Penitentiary

http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/5_18_6/5_18_6.html
Prisoners claim ten were killed

photos: Randall White

<http://www.teledyol.net/HIP/about.html>Haiti 
Information Project (HIP) - Port au Prince - 
While Président-elect René Préval was attending a 
special inaugural mass on May 14 at the 
Port-au-Prince Cathedral in Haiti's, UN 
peacekeepers apparently opened fire on a 
demonstration inside the National Penitentiary. 
Prisoners took over the facility at about 9 a.m. 
as a protest in solidarity with incoming 
president Preval, to condemn the holding of 
political prisoners and the return of exiled president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

According to the UN more than 90% of detainees in 
Haiti's prisons are in pre-trial detention, and 
that most have been in jail for more than two years without seeing a judge.

Displaying large banners from a high rooftop 
within the penitentiary compound, prisoners also 
shouted to journalists below that U.N. forces had 
killed ten protestors as they opened fire earlier 
in the morning. Haiti Information Project (HIP) 
correspondents were at the scene and Director 
Kevin Pina videotaped the UN action. The footage 
clearly shows MINUSTAH soldiers shooting at the 
demonstrators above on a secured catwalk inside 
the prison. Prisoners raised the corpses of two 
victims they claimed were shot by UN 
sharpshooters. While attempting to cover the 
story from the street below Pina was forcefully 
restrained by a contingent of Jordanian soldiers 
who claimed that it was too "dangerous" for anyone to enter the area.

How the prisoners got out of their cells remained 
unclear while some in the local Haitian press 
were claiming that a few guards were responsible. 
The breakout and protest came on the heels of the 
arrest of well-known Lavalas activist and 
community organizer Rene Civil. Civil had 
attempted to enter Haiti from the Dominican 
Republic the night before and was detained by 
U.N. forces and then turned over to the Haitian 
police. Rene Civil, along with Annette Auguste 
and Paul Raymond, are seen as the most popular 
community level leaders of Aristide's Lavalas 
movement among Haiti's poor. Auguste was arrested 
by U.S. Marines in May 2004 and Raymond was 
arrested last year in the Dominican Republic by 
police and a U.S. embassy security detachment. 
Auguste and Raymond have been held in prolonged 
detention without trial amid shifting allegations 
and charges. Their fates remain unclear to this day.

Families and friends of the prisoners left a 
large crowd gathering in front of Haiti's 
National Palace for Preval's inauguration 
celebration after hearing about the incident. 
Several thousand marched to the penitentiary to 
demonstrate their solidarity with the prisoners 
as U.N. soldiers fought to hold the crowd back. 
Loud wails and screams came from the crowd upon 
seeing the bodies of dead prisoners as the 
survivors of the shooting held them above their 
heads for all to see from the street below.

The stand-off ended calmly despite the earlier 
violence as Haitian police took control of the 
compound and brown uniformed members of the Corps 
d'Intervention et de Maintien d'Ordre (CIMO) 
cleared the rooftop. As the last of the prisoners 
were cleared from the roof the crowd below began 
chanting "Down with the U.N., Long Live CIMO!!" 
and "Free the political prisoners and arrest 
Latortue!!" Gerard Latortue is the U.S.-installed 
prime minister who has benn accused of 
innumerable human right violations during the 
past two years including the holding of political prisoners in Haiti.


The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20060519/3105c275/attachment.htm>