Amnesty condemns Haiti's human rights failures
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) -- Rights group Amnesty International on Thursday 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 U.N. peacekeeping force to carry out a program of disarmament.
While acknowledging interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue inherited numerous problems from ousted 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."
Government officials were not immediately available for comment.
The blast from the London-based watchdog added to complaints the U.S.-backed government is persecuting supporters of Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest regarded as the father of democracy in Haiti but who faced accusations of corruption and despotism in recent years.
Aristide fled Haiti on February 29 after a bloody monthlong 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 U.N. 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 U.N. command could restore public confidence in the local police force and the U.N. mission.
Among the Lavalas supporters arrested are Aristide's former prime minister, Yvon Neptune, his interior minister, Jocelerme Privert and a popular priest, Father Gerard Jean-Juste.
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 U.S. cents.
On Wednesday, the authorities presented new charges of plotting against state security and of murder, accusations one of his lawyers said were "ridiculous."
"I never knew that feeding children was plotting against state security," lawyer Reynold Georges told Reuters. "They also accused Jean-Juste of murder. When I asked the judge, 'Murder of whom?' he said they (prosecutors) did not have a name."
The interim government, installed by a council of elders, is charged with preparing Haiti for new elections in 2005.
The Organization of American States this week urged it not to exclude Lavalas totally.
