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</font><h5><b>AHP News - October 5, 2004 - English translation
(Unofficial) <br><br>
</b></h5><font face="Trebuchet MS" size=2>------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
<b>New violence in Port-au-Prince: five presumed Fanmi Lavalas supporters
are killed in Cité Soleil; a man named Déliane Laguerre accused of
being a police spy is killed in Bel-Air</b> <br>
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<br><br>
<b>Port-au-Prince, October 5, 2004 (AHP)-</b> There has been renewed
violence over the past 24 hours in Cité Soleil and in the populist
district of Bel-Air. <br><br>
At least five people considered to be supporters of Fanmi Lavalas were
killed Monday in the Soleil 9 area of Cité Soleil by armed individuals
said to have come from the Boston neighborhood. The victims are accused
of having demonstrated support for the physical return of President
Aristide. <br><br>
When the attackers arrived, said several residents of Cité Soleil, they
spared no one; women and children and a man named John Joseph were said
to be among the victims. <br><br>
As late as Tuesday morning, the corpses of the victims were still lying
in the street in pools of blood, said the residents. <br><br>
In the Bel-Air district this Tuesday, a man named Déliane Laguerre,
accused of being a spy for the police, was killed by a group of
individuals. <br><br>
Déliane Laguerre had reportedly described himself as a former member of
the Haitian armed forces, and said he was currently stationed in Morne à
Cabris. <br><br>
Area residents said he was killed several hours after having been
detained by these individuals, without any intervention by the
police. <br><br>
On Monday, a young student was injured when police officers reportedly
fired upon homes in Bel-Air during a police operation, and last Friday
two Bel-Air residents, including a 15 year-old boy, Wendy Manigat, were
killed during a police operation. <br><br>
At least four police officers were killed on September 30, reportedly by
armed bandits, in the La Saline district of the capital. Police
spokesperson Jessie Cameau Coicou said that two of the these officers
were beheaded. <br><br>
Small shopkeepers in the downtown Port-au-Prince commercial district
spoke out against the tense situation and the violence that are
developing in the capital. <br><br>
Activities have been paralyzed for two days in the populist districts of
Bel-Air and St Martin where schools and public markets have not been able
to function. <br><br>
The small-scale merchants are complaining that the police are carrying
out repeated searches of the area, increasing tensions where they are
trying to do business. <br><br>
They called for an end to the violence from all quarters in order to make
it possible for life to return to something resembling a normal
existence. <br><br>
Lavalas activists have for their part accused certain sectors of the
former opposition to Aristide of banding together to exterminate the
grassroots masses. They also denounced what they termed the complicit
silence of MINUSTHA and some quarters of the international community who
are doing nothing, the activists say, to stop the spiral of violence and
lies to which they are being subjected. <br><br>
<br>
</font><h5><b>AHP October 5, 2004 12:40 PM <br><br>
<br><br>
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Lawyers for the Lavalas members of Parliament who were arrested at the
studios of Radio Caraïbe say their clients are the victims of a vast
political plot <br>
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<br><br>
</b></h5><font face="Trebuchet MS" size=2><b>Port-au-Prince, October 5,
2004 (AHP)-</b> Reynold Georges, one of the attorneys representing
the Fanmi Lavalas members of Parliament who were arrested Saturday at the
studios of Radio Caraïbes, said Tuesday that their clients are the
victims of a vast political plot put together by people from
circles craving power and vengeance. <br><br>
Senators Yvon Feuillé, Louis Gérald Gilles and former Deputy Rudy
Hérivaux were all arrested inside the station at rue Chavannes
immediately following the broadcast of a political program in which they
had taken part. <br><br>
During a news conference, Reynold Georges accused the group of 184,
which is part of the interim government, of being the driving force
behind the political persecution that has been launched against activists
and high-level leaders of Fanmi Lavalas. <br><br>
He stated that his clients were abducted by the interim government which
is in a panic over the dimensions of the demonstrations by Fanmi Lavalas.
<br><br>
Mr. Georges also asked the provisional government to shed light on a
series of cases such as the discovery of the beheaded bodies of police
officers discovered in some parts of Port-au-Prince. <br><br>
He also criticized the statements of interim President Boniface
Alexandre, who claimed that the arrest of the Lavalas members of
Parliament, even though they were carried out without a warrant, are
somehow legal, despite the fact that the acts they are alleged to have
committed were carried out by third parties some 48 hours before the
Parliamentarians were arrested. <br><br>
Mr. Mario Joseph, another attorney for the Lavalas members of Parliament,
also said that these arrests were part of a contrived political scheme
which has nothing to do with the pursuit of justice. <br><br>
According to Mr. Joseph, the case the interim government is bringing
utilizing against his clients in a self-serving manner is entirely
lacking in any logical consistency. <br><br>
<br>
</font><h5><b>AHP October 5, 2004 3:45 PM <br><br>
<br><br>
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Prince Pierre Sonson and attorney Gérard Gourgue denounce the arrests of
the three Fanmi Lavalas Parliamentarians <br>
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</b></h5><font face="Trebuchet MS" size=2><b>Port-au-Prince, October 5,
2004 (AHP)- </b>One of the leaders of MODEREH, the former Lavalas member
of Parliament Prince Pierre Sonson, on Tuesday denounced the method
utilized by the police in arresting the Fanmi Lavalas cadres on Saturday,
including currently serving members of the Haitian Parliament.
<br><br>
According to Prince Pierre Sonson, the thesis put forward by the interim
government to justify the arrests of his former colleagues is without
foundation. <br><br>
He flatly rejected the idea that the arrests were legal because this was
a case of "flagrante delicto" (the discovery of a crime at the
moment it was being committed) because, he said, these Fanmi Lavalas
leaders are accused of being the intellectual authors of the violence
committed over the past few days in Port-au-Prince. <br><br>
Prince Pierre Sonson also stated that the government has no authority to
arrest members of Parliament who are currently serving in that body,
because as Parliamentarians they are entitled to immunity from such an
arrest. <br><br>
He also found fault with the brutality employed by the authorities given
that they could just as well have utilized normal channels if they wished
to question the Fanmi Lavalas cadres. The former Senator said he hopes
that the government will get its act together as quickly as
possible. <br><br>
Attorney Gérard Gourgues, who has been involved in human rights issues at
various points in his professional career, also discussed the illegal
nature of the arrest of the Fanmi Lavalas leaders accused by the
government of having been caught in the act of committing a crime.
<br><br>
"A situation of flagrante delicto applies exclusively to an act that
has just been committed or is in the process of being committed",
Mr. Gourgue pointed out, explaining that it was beyond understanding how
members of Parliament who had been continuously inside a radio station
taking part in a broadcast since 8 o'clock in the morning could possibly
be considered to be an example of suspects being caught in the act of
committing crimes of violence. <br><br>
Gérard Gourgue, who is a professor of criminal law, found the interim
government's explanation of the rationale behind the arrest of the three
men patently absurd. <br><br>
Interim President Boniface Alexandre had for his part stated that he
approves of the decision by the government to imprison the Fanmi Lavalas
members of Parliament. <br><br>
While declaring that he does not wish to interfere on judicial
matters, President Boniface Alexandre sought to make the point that the
arrest of these three senior officials of the Fanmi Lavalas political
organization was carried out in a legal and constitutional manner.
<br><br>
"Everything that the interim government does is legal", he
said. <br>
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