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<font size=3><br><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=3><b>Institute for Justice and Democracy
in Haiti<br>
P.O. Box 745, Joseph, OR 97846<br>
(541) 432-0597,
<a href="http://www.ijdh.org/" eudora="autourl">www.ijdh.org</a>,
info@ijdh.org<br><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=5>Urgent Haiti Human Rights Alert:
<br>
Attacks Against Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste on March 24 and 25, 2005<br><br>
</b></font><font face="arial" size=2>Each of the last two nights has seen
attacks against Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste or his church, Sainte Claire's
Catholic Church, located in a poor neighborhood of Delmas, Haiti.
Fr. Jean-Juste is a prominent activist for peace and justice in Haiti,
and spent seven weeks as a political prisoner in October and November
2004. Despite his high profile and the history of
politically-motivated attacks against him, the United Nations
Stabilization Mission to Haiti (MINUSTAH) declined to respond to his call
for help after Friday's attack. We urge you to contact MINUSTAH
today to insist that the Mission provide protection for Fr. Jean-Juste,
especially at this evening's Easter Vigil mass at Ste. Claire's.<br><br>
Late at night on Thursday, March 24, Fr. Jean-Juste surprised an intruder
by the back door of the Ste. Claire rectory. The man fled, but
later that night neighbors caught a man they believe to be the intruder,
and handed him over to the police. On Friday evening, March 25, men
dressed in black in one or more pickup trucks arrived outside Ste.
Claire's and started shooting wildly, reportedly with automatic
weapons. People contacted MINUSTAH on Fr. Jean-Juste's behalf, and
were told by top officials that MINUSTAH would send people right
away. As of late morning on Saturday, MINUSTAH police had not
arrived, although Fr. Jean-Juste reports a MINUSTAH helicopter did fly
over his church in the morning.<br><br>
Late tonight Ste. Claire's will hold an Easter Vigil mass. The
church will be filled with parishioners, most from the poor neighborhoods
that have been targeted for political violence over the last year.
There may be no electricity outside, and there will be few people out
besides the churchgoers. Gunmen attacked Haitian Catholic churches
filled with pro-democracy activists in 1987 (the St. Jean Bosco Massacre)
and 1993 (the Antoine Izmery Assassination). We must not let this
happen again.<br><br>
Please contact MINUSTAH immediately to insist that the Mission assure the
security of Fr. Jean-Juste and Ste. Claire's church, especially at
this evening's Easter Vigil mass. Your call or email does not
need to be complicated, just communicate that: 1) you care about Fr.
Jean-Juste, and 2) MINUSTAH should protect him. Calling is best
because of the urgency, but if you are unable to get through (it may take
a few tries, calls to Haiti are difficult today), please send an email or
fax. More background information on Fr. Jean-Juste and
MINUSTAH is below.<br><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=3><b><u>Contact Information<br><br>
</u></font><font face="arial" size=2>Lt. General Augusto Heleno Ribeiro
Pereira</b>, UN Military Commander in Haiti: 011-509-554-8074,
pereira17@un.org.<br><br>
<b>Damian Onses-Cardona</b>, Spokesperson for Gen. Pereira:
011-509-527-5118 (cell), 011-509-510-2563, ext. 6303.<br><br>
<b>Touissant Congo-Doudou</b>, Head of Communications, MINUSTAH:
011-509-557-5906, kongo-doudou@un.org. <br><br>
<b>David Beer</b>, Commissioner of CIVPOL, the UN Civilian Police in
Haiti: 011-509-525-5279<br>
beer@un.org, fax: 011-509-244-9366.<br><br>
<b>Juan Gabriel Valdes, </b>Special Representative of the UN
Secretary-General to Haiti: 011-509-244-9650 or 9660, fax 011-509
244 3512.<br><br>
<br>
</font><font face="arial" size=3><b><u>Background Information<br><br>
</u></font><font face="arial" size=2>Fr. Jean-Juste<br><br>
</b>On Wednesday, October 13, 2004, Haitian police forcibly entered Ste.
Claire's church and arrested Fr. Jean-Juste, without a warrant, while he
was feeding the hungry children of his parish. The men were
heavily-armed men, some wore Haitian National Police (HNP) uniforms, some
did not, and many wore masks. The police dragged Fr. Jean-Juste
out though a window of the rectory, cutting his leg on broken
glass. Fr. Jean-Juste spent almost a month in jail before seeing a
judge. Gérard Latortue, Haiti's interim Prime Minister, and
Justice Minister Bernard Gousse claimed that Fr. Jean-Juste was linked to
terrorist activities, and prosecutors alleged he was connected to
two murders, but no one produced a single piece of evidence linking Fr.
Jean-Juste to any illegal activity. The judge ordered Fr.
Jean-Juste released for lack of evidence, but the government waited
seventeen days to execute the order, then retaliated against the judge by
illegally taking all of his cases away from him.<br><br>
Fr. Jean-Juste speaks out forcefully against all forms of violence, from
the pulpit and on his radio shows. He spoke out against the
state-sponsored violence of the Duvalier regime, the de facto
dictatorship (1991-1994) and the Haitian army. He also speaks out
against violence by the victims of that violence and by supporters of
Haiti's Constitutional governments. When opposition politicians
were attacked following the April 2000 funeral of assassinated journalist
Jean-Dominique, Fr. Jean-Juste spent his entire two-hour radio show
imploring everyone to return to their homes.<br><br>
Fr. Jean-Juste has been highly effective at fighting political and
economic violence through peaceful means. When he was forced into
exile for criticizing the Duvalier dictatorship, Fr. Jean-Juste
retaliated with a lawsuit, winning a judgment against Jean-Claude
Duvalier in Miami Federal Court. In 1979, he co-founded the Haitian
Refugee Center in Florida, which provided assistance to thousands of
refugees from the Duvalier regime, and fought unjust immigration policies
all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In Haiti, Fr. Jean-Juste
encouraged victims of the de facto dictatorship to organize and to
force Haitian courts to deliver justice. On August 16, 2004,
Haiti's interim government held a re-trial in the case of slain
pro-democracy activist Antoine Izmery. Although he knew the
prosecution was not serious (the Washington Post called it "Sham
Justice in Haiti"), and feared arrest, Fr. Jean-Juste bravely
appeared, the only summoned witness to do so.<br><br>
<br>
<b>MINUSTAH<br><br>
</b>The UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) is a Peace-Keeping
mission authorized by UN Security Council Resolution 1542, which mandates
the mission to: "to protect civilians under imminent threat of
physical violence….." (Article 7(I)(f), available at
<a href="http://www.ijdh.org/UNRes1542.pdf?OpenElement). " eudora="autourl">
http://www.ijdh.org/UNRes1542.pdf?OpenElement). </a> MINUSTAH has
more actively enforced this part of its mandate since February 28, when
Haitian Police fired on a peaceful demonstration while MINUSTAH troops
looked on. But human rights groups report that over the long term
"MINUSTAH has provided cover for abuses committed by the HNP during
operations in poor, historically tense Port-au-Prince neighborhoods,
"(Keeping the Peace in Haiti?, Centro de Justicia Global and Harvard
Law Student Advocates for Human Rights, http://www.ijdh.org/#unhaiti, p.
38), and consistently fails to protect ordinary citizens from political
violence ("the failure to do so when civilians beg for UN assistance
is simply incomprehensible", Id. p.29). <br><br>
MINUSTAH's failure to provide protection for Fr. Jean-Juste is
particularly egregious in the context of recent attacks against the
pro-democracy movement. After the February 28 shootings, MINUSTAH
promised to provide better protection, and for a few weeks it did.
But on Thursday morning, another peaceful, pre-announced demonstration
was met with gunfire, killing three people.<br><br>
For more information about Fr. Jean-Juste, MINUSTAH, and human rights in
Haiti in general, consult
<a href="http://www.ijdh.org/" eudora="autourl">www.ijdh.org</a>.<br><br>
<br>
Brian Concannon Jr.<br>
Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti<br>
541-432-0597<br>
541-263-0029 (cell)<br>
<a href="http://www.ijdh.org/" eudora="autourl">www.ijdh.org<br>
</a></font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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