HUMAN RIGHTS Review 
April - June 1999
A quarterly report by the OAS/UN International Civilian Mission in Haiti (MICIVIH)
|
April - June 1999 |
| A quarterly report by the OAS/UN International Civilian Mission in Haiti (MICIVIH) |
The Human Rights Review is a quarterly report issued by MICIVIH which gives
an overview of the human rights performance of the Haitian police, prisons and
the judiciary. It is based on the Mission's work both at headquarters and in
the field in the three areas of its mandate: monitoring, institution-building
and promotion. It is also published in French.
GENERAL CONTEXT
The overall human rights climate was adversely affected by the polarisation
and the tensions arising from the jockeying for political advantage as the start
of the electoral period approached, as well as by a number of serious incidents
which violated the right to life (in particular, the summary execution by police
of 11 persons in Carrefour-Feuilles) and the fundamental freedoms of assembly
and expression. The most egregious example of the latter was the disruption
by pro-Aristide demonstrators of a rally organized on 28 May by the private
sector and supported by a wide spectrum of civil society. In addition, the continuing
series of violent street demonstrations marked by vandalism and attacks against
private property, including that of street vendors, was increasingly a source
of concern, contributing as it did to the sense that the authority of the state
was eroding and, consequently, heightening the widespread perception of insecurity.
These problems were compounded by an orchestrated campaign against the police
leadership by Fanmi Lavalas and groups close to it, and protests, some
violent, against the directors of several state organisations such as the Direction
Générale des Impôts (DGI), the Autorité
Portuaire Nationale (APN) and the airport.
The fatal shooting of Michel-Ange PHILLIS, a Fanmi Lavalas supporter
also known as "Bora," in the Port-au-Prince district of Bel Air on 20 April
sparked off one of the first serious disturbances after rumours circulated that
police were responsible for the death. Subsequent information suggested that
the killing was a result of a dispute between the victim and a street trader.
Rumours (sometimes false, sometimes true) that police had been responsible for
other killings were also used as a pretext for other incidents of street violence.
Police response to the protests was generally restrained, often in the face
of considerable provocation. At times, the lack of police intervention raised
questions about HNP neutrality, particularly when police did not intervene to
arrest pro-Fanmi Lavalas counter-demonstrators who violently disrupted
the rally organised on 28 May by the Chamber of Commerce and other organisations.
The police director for West Department called a halt to the authorized demonstration
shortly after it started. The Port-au-Prince police commissioner, subsequently
arrested for a series of killings, was allegedly involved in the arrest and
striking of a journalist who was taking a photograph of another individual being
beaten by CIMO agents at the end of the demonstration. Other journalists who
went to the assistance of their colleague were also manhandled by CIMO agents
(see below). Following the demonstration, MICIVIH issued a press release condemning
the violation of the freedoms of speech and assembly by the counter-demonstrators,
calling on Fanmi Lavalas to bring its activists into line, and urging
all those of influence in the community to use it to prevent violence.
One of the consequences of the deteriorating political situation has been an
increase in reports of threats, acts of intimidation and harassment, though
none of these cases were directly linked to the state authorities. The president
of the Chamber of Commerce, who had received death threats before and after
the 28 May demonstration, temporarily left the country with his family because
of fears for their safety. Many of these acts were attributed by certain political
sectors to Fanmi Lavalas, but in most cases it was impossible to identify
the perpetrators, particularly in the case of threatening leaflets and allegations
of anonymous phone calls. In the course of this period, however, the campaign
against the Secretary of State for Public Security, Robert Manuel, and the HNP
leadership became more clearly linked with Fanmi Lavalas as a result
of public statements by Fanmi Lavalas leaders calling for their removal
and the discovery of leaflets in the vehicle of a Fanmi Lavalas activist
(see below).
Human rights activists were again among the targets of harassment. At the beginning
of June, leaflets containing threats were delivered to several organisations
including the Institut culturel Karl Lévêque, the Plateforme
des organisations haïtiennes des droits de l'homme and SAKS, a community
radio network. The leaflets included names and gave personal details of some
of the activists and urged the population to provide information about their
movements to and from work, for example, and the schools attended by their children.
The organisations have continued to work, in spite of the threats. Argentine
Nobel Peace laureate Adolfo Pérez ESQUIVEL visited Haiti at MICIVIH's
invitation on 8-11 April, above all as a gesture of support and solidarity for
human rights organizations which had been subjected to threats, intimidation
and violence (see HRR, January-March 1999). In his public statements
and in his meetings with President Préval and other authorities, he expressed
concern about the climate of violence and said the threats against human rights
activists constituted an erosion of Haiti's democracy.
Some political representatives also claimed to have been targetted, among them
three former OPL deputies who left the country in April after the home of one
of them was reportedly fired on during the night in Port-au-Prince. On 18 June,
the International Republican Institute announced that it was ending its programme
in Haiti due to "safety concerns" as a result of an increase in acts of intimidation
facing its staff. A chronology of these alleged incidents starting in 1998 was
made public. Among the incidents reported was that of a Port-au-Prince grassroots
organisation which told IRI it had received threats from Fanmi Lavalas
representatives for having participated in IRI "dialogue forums". Also reported
was the temporary closing of the US-supported Human Rights Fund (Fon Dwa
Moun) following threats.
Elsewhere in the country, a threatening leaflet circulated in Les Cayes on
the eve of the inauguration of the Forum démocratique du Sud, an
organisation set up by former Deputy Gabriel Fortuné. The leaflet accused
the organisers of being macoutes and warned people to stay away from
the opening ceremony. The latter took place without incident and was attended
by some 400 persons. In Mirebalais, three acts of arson were reported between
25 and 31 May: the vehicle of the departmental délégué
was set on fire and individuals reportedly tried to burn the house of the doyen.
A school building was also burned down. Pro-Fanmi Lavalas leaflets
attacking OPL and the police were distributed on the nights the incidents took
place.
MICIVIH also received several reports of acts of intimidation and death threats
between members of two rival political organizations in the Grand'Anse, Kowodinasyon
Resistans Grandans (KOREGA) and Rasanbleman Militan Grandans (RAMIG).
In one case, RAMIG's general secretary alleged to MICIVIH that he was accosted
and threatened in Jérémie on 20 April by four
armed KOREGA members including one of its leaders.
There was also a spate of killings of police officers during this period, seven
in all, compared with three for the first quarter of 1999. All but two of the
incidents occurred in Port-au-Prince. Circumstances of the killings varied.
A police agent assigned to the department of the South and a former police inspector
from Cite Soleil were killed and another agent - assigned to Jacmel - was seriously
wounded at the Portail Léogâne taptap station in Port-au-Prince
in separate incidents between 1 and 17 June. The police inspector had been implicated
in a number of unlawful killings and had been held for nearly two months in
disciplinary custody in 1998 before being released. A Saint Marc police agent
was killed and two others, including the Saint Marc police commissioner, were
seriously injured on 6 June when attacked by a crowd in Délugé
who believed them to be zenglendo. All three were
in civilian clothing at the time. Some police sources say two of the three were
trying to arrest a drug suspect, but others have cast doubt on this version
and it is unclear whether or not they were involved in a police operation at
the time.
Against this background of violent protests, continuing reports of harassment
and intimidation, incidents of armed crime and the continuing political crisis,
some aspects of the human rights situation deteriorated sharply during this
period, in particular with regard to the right to life. The first reports of
disappearances followed by execution were received (at least 12), and there
were 38 other reports of killings by police in three months, some of them cases
of police apparently working with armed civilians (see below). Although political
debate continued in the news media largely unhindered, journalists covering
demonstrations were assaulted by police on at least two occasions. Most of the
incidents described above were confined to Port-au-Prince, and in some of the
most serious cases police and judicial authorities took swift action to initiate
proceedings against those responsible. These investigations must, however, be
rigorously pursued to restore confidence in the police force and its pledges
to ensure accountability. MICIVIH met regularly with the police leadership during
this period, both concerning the attacks and threats against them and to raise
concerns about these disturbing new developments.
At the same time, after months of paralysis, there were encouraging indications
that the judicial reform process was getting under way following the appointment
of a new Minister of Justice in March. The strengthening of the Ecole de
la Magistrature was one important development, and significant progress
was reported in the judicial proceedings in the 1994 Raboteau massacre case
which has been designated a priority by the Justice Ministry.
At this critical time, following a sharp reduction in voluntary contributions
by member states of the Organisation of American States (OAS), the contracts
of almost all OAS observers working with MICIVIH were terminated on 30 June.
Five of the Mission's regional offices were closed down as a result. The work
of the other regional offices, particularly Cap Haïtien and Les Cayes,
was seriously disrupted in June because of the withdrawal of observers. There
has been an OAS human rights presence in Haiti since September 1992 when the
first group of observers arrived in the country. The reduced mission will continue
to cover all three areas of its mandate, though its activities will be reduced.
Four regional offices will remain operational, Port-au-Prince, Les Cayes, Cap
Haïtien and Gonaïves. Because of MICIVIH's reduced presence in June,
this report is largely based on information collected in April and May, although
some activities continued, and serious incidents were followed up as far as
resources allowed.
POLICE
Killings by police and individuals linked to them
Fifty killings attributed to police officers were reported during this three-month
period, almost double the total for the whole of 1998 (31), although the degree
of police involvement in some of the killings is still under investigation.
Some were attributed by local residents to a brigade de vigilance in
which elements of the police were said to be involved. These killings took place
in a context of public criticism that police were not doing enough to tackle
crime. A common element in a number of the killings was that the victims were
alleged criminals or the associates of criminals. Particularly disturbing was
the fact that many of the killings appeared to be summary executions. One of
the 50 victims died in custody as a result of a beating. Most of the others
were reportedly shot. Police agents, some of them high-ranking, were detained
in connection with some of the killings.
Six of the alleged killings occurred in the provinces, 44 in Port-au-Prince.
These 44 victims include a group of eight individuals who disappeared after
reportedly being arrested by police in Croix des Missions on the night of 16
April; 16 individuals from Cité Soleil who local residents said were
killed by a brigade de vigilance headed by a group of named police;
and the 11 individuals killed in Carrefour Feuilles on 28 May. Of the killings
in the provinces, a police officer in Port-de-Paix was imprisoned
after dropping a huge rock on a suspected thief he had just arrested; two police
officers from Port-au-Prince were placed in isolement
in June for the fatal shooting of an individual in a commune of Les
Cayes on 30 May; a police officer from Camp Perrin
(South) was imprisoned on charges of beating a detainee to death in Camp Perrin
police station in April (see below); a warrant was issued for the arrest of
a police officer from Cap Haïtien who was implicated in
a fatal shooting on 18 June. A suspected gang member was allegedly executed
after he and several associates were stopped at night in May by police in Saint
Marc and a passer-by in Ferrier (North-East) died
after being hit by a stray bullet during an exchange of shots between police
and an armed suspect in June. In the latter case, though police concluded the
incident was an accident, funeral expenses of the victim were paid by the HNP.
Extrajudicial executions in Carrefour-Feuilles
The killing of 11 individuals by a group of police officers during an official
police operation in Carrefour-Feuilles on 28 May gave rise
to indignation throughout the country and elsewhere. In the course of its investigations,
MICIVIH interviewed police officials, including those detained in connection
with the killings, relatives of some of the victims, residents of the Carrefour-Feuilles
area and judicial officials. It also examined the bodies of the victims at the
morgue. Despite some police allegations that three of the victims had been killed
in an exchange of gunfire and eight others shot dead as they were attempting
to escape from a police pick-up, the nature of the bullet wounds visible on
the bodies, as well as other testimonies collected by MICIVIH, would indicate
that the 11 were executed in cold blood. A justice of the peace was present
when the second group were executed, having been called to write the death certificates
for the three who had already been killed.
Police versions of the 11 killings conflicted. In addition, inevitably, all
of the police in detention denied being directly involved themselves though
some implicated other detained police officers in the killings. A police agent
who escaped shortly after being placed in isolement claimed, in a cassette
sent to a TV station, that it was he who made the initial allegation of a large
group of heavily armed men having taken refuge in the hills and that the killings
had been ordered by high-ranking police officials. Regarding the incident that
brought the police to the area, most of the information collected coincides,
referring to rivalries between two local neighbourhoods which had led to an
earlier incident in which one individual was shot. However, the nature of the
police "response" is difficult to explain. Police have never denied that the
second group of eight individuals arrested and killed were unarmed. Only one
weapon was found on the first group of three. It is unclear how the police agent
was able to escape from isolement or how the police commissioner of
Port-au-Prince was able to leave the country, almost a week after the killings
occurred and had become known publicly. The full circumstances surrounding these
incidents therefore remain obscure.
Judicial and internal police inquiries launched into the 11 killings have resulted in some arrests. At the time of writing, the police commissioner of Port-au-Prince (Jean Coles Rameau) and three police inspectors (Ernest Dumond, Yader Desrosiers and Lucien "Boeuf" Fabien) were detained in the National Penitentiary on charges related to the investigation.
| Reported killings by on-
or off-duty police agents
(1998 figures in parentheses) |
|||||||
| Jan. | Feb. | Mar. | April | May | June | Total | |
| West | 0 (2) | 0 (0) | 1 (4) | 10 (0) | 32 (0) | 2 (1) | 45 (7) |
| North-West | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 1 (0) | 1 (0) |
| North | 1 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (1) | 1 (0) | 2 (1) |
| North-East | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 1 (0) | 1 (0) |
| Artibonite | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (3) | 1 (0) | 0 (0) | 1 (3) |
| Centre | 0 (0) | 0 (1) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (1) | 0 (0) | 0 (2) |
| South-East | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) |
| South | 0 (1) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 1*(0) | 1 (0) | 0 (0) | 2 (1) |
| Grand'Anse | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) |
| Total | 1 (3) | 0 (1) | 1 (4) | 11(3) | 34 (2) | 5 (1) | 52 (14) |
* Detainee died after being severely beaten by a Camp Perrin
police agent
Four other police agents were being held in isolement. Autopsies were carried out on all 11 bodies as part of the judicial inquiry. After some delays, the state prosecutor of Port-au-Prince finally handed the dossier to the cabinet d'instruction on 5 July. It is now being investigated by a special commission made up of three judges who have three months to complete their work. The naming of the commission was hailed by MICIVIH as an important pilot project in strengthening judicial investigations into human rights violations. Court investigations into police abuses are still rare, though more common in the provinces. The absence of judicial investigations into killings in suspicious circumstances by police in Port-au-Prince has been particularly striking. Internal police inquiries into the Carrefour-Feuilles killings are also said to be advanced. Relatives of the victims formed a committee which has been meeting regularly with Ministry of Justice officials. The Ministry has offered compensation to the families, as well as having paid for the funeral of the victims on 2 June. The latter, attended by the Minister of Justice, was disrupted by a small group of protestors who shouted anti-police slogans inside the church and later threw stones at police and passing cars.
It should be noted that most of the police officers detained, including the police commissioner, have been implicated in other abuses which MICIVIH has raised with the authorities in the past. For example, the police commissioner was implicated in a violent raid in April 1998 on a clinic run by the women's organisation SOFA, and in the beating of a group of individuals, also from Carrefour Feuilles, at the commissariat de Port-au-Prince in 1997. His exact role in the killing of a former FAd'H officer shot dead outside the Chamber of Commerce on 27 May 1999, the eve of the protest organised by the Chamber of Commerce and of the Carrefour-Feuilles killings, also needs to be clarified. One of the police inspectors in detention has also been accused of being linked to a series of killings in a Port-au-Prince neighbourhood in May (see below).
Human remains found in Titanyen/disappearances
During the period under review, MICIVIH investigated allegations that the bodies
of 14 individuals shot dead had been found in the Titanyen area
of the metropolitan region. Sources in Titanyen said that two groups of bodies
had been found there sometime in late April. The exact number of bodies is not
yet confirmed as the bones seen by observers had been disturbed and moved around,
probably by animals. Sources also said that they thought at least some of the
victims had been rounded up in Port-au-Prince and shot by police.
Alerted by MICIVIH to the presence of the remains in Titanyen in mid-June,
a joint team of investigators from the HNP (Bureau de Renseignement Judiciaire
and Bureau de la Police Scientifique et Technique) accompanied by their
Canadian technical advisors, a member of CIVPOL and two members of MICIVIH,
went there to begin an official investigation. The preliminary results of these
investigations showed that the human remains belonged to individuals of both
sexes, that some of the bones and also some of the clothing found had bullet
holes, and that the majority of the bones belonged to young people.
In its subsequent investigation, MICIVIH established links between these human
remains and the alleged arrest and disappearance of a group of individuals following
the killing of a CIMO agent, who was shot dead in the Fontamara area
of Port-au-Prince on 9 April. The killing was attributed to gang-leader Hippolite
Elizé, known also as "Chuck Norris". In the course of the search operation
by the HNP after the killing of the CIMO agent, two young people were shot dead
in the Fontamara area. Sources suggested they were arrested and executed by
police but police have denied these allegations. Eight young people (six females
and two males) were reportedly arrested during the night of 16-17 April and
taken away from a house in Croix des Missions which "Chuck
Norris" had reportedly rented. They were never seen again, in spite of attempts
to locate them in prisons, police stations and the morgue. "Chuck Norris" was
subsequently killed in a large police operation on 19 April. Certain pieces
of clothing found on the Titanyen remains were recognised (or described) by
neighbours or those close to the eight disappeared youths as being identical
to items worn by three of the eight (two female and one male).
It should be noted, as indicated below, that on 13 May, MICIVIH also saw the bodies in Titanyen of two recently-killed individuals who, according to information collected subsequently, had been reportedly abducted by police and civilians the previous night from Cité Soleil.
Allegations of killings/disappearances by police working with armed
civilians in Cité Soleil
In the course of May and June, MICIVIH received reports of at least 16 killings
and four possible disappearances attributed to a group, described by local residents
as a brigade de vigilance, comprised of at least two police officers
operating with armed civilians mainly in the Bois Neuf area
of Cité Soleil. Another police officer said to be linked
with the group is currently in prison charged with the Carrefour Feuilles killings.
Although it has not been possible to confirm details of all these allegations
so far, observers saw the bodies of four of the victims. In two out of the four
cases, that of Joubert JOSEPH (also known as Macoute) and Ernst CETOUTE,
witnesses said they saw the individuals being taken away at night by some 20
men (including several individuals in police uniforms) who were armed with guns,
machetes and ice-picks. Their mutilated bodies were found in Titanyen the following
day, on 13 May. [It should be noted that a similar case was reported in the
same area in September 1998: having been denounced to police by a police informant,
two individuals were taken from their homes in Bois Neuf in the middle of the
night in a large operation by men in black said to be police. One was shot and
died outside his home. The other was taken away in a pick-up truck and his bullet-ridden
body found at Titanyen the following day.]
In another of the four cases, that of Sonson Jocie ROUSSEAU, witnesses said
they saw the person being taken away by armed men before his body was found
on 26 May. Observers who saw the fourth body, that of an individual known as
Junior, also on 26 May, were told that he had been killed the night
before but no further details were available. These latter two bodies were found
in Bois Neuf itself. In both cases, local residents alleged they were known
thieves. In a fifth case, though MICIVIH did not see the body, numerous individuals
told the Mission that they saw the victim, an alleged thief by the name of Althiese
DESIR (also known as Cheko), chased by three men, one of them a named
police agent, who forced him to stop and then killed him. The Mission confirmed
that a death certificate had been issued by a justice of the peace in this case.
Of the 11 other reported killings in the Cité Soleil
area during this period, all but two of the alleged victims were unidentified.
However, MICIVIH was able to locate witnesses in each area where the bodies
were found who confirmed having seen them and gave information about the date
the bodies were discovered. In two of the cases, reports coincided that the
individuals had been found blindfolded and their bodies dumped in the nearby
Batimat area on 3 June. Local residents there said that family members from
Sans Fil (Bel Air) took away the bodies, apparently without a justice of the
peace having been called to formally record their deaths.
MICIVIH has also been gathering information about four other individuals from
the Bois Neuf area whose whereabouts have been unknown since 17 May 1999. Several
individuals said they had seen them being chased by three of the police implicated
in the brigade before their disappearance, but testimonies differ as
to whether this occurred on the day of the disappearance or the day before.
Families of the four have been searching for their bodies, so far unsuccessfully.
Some reports, yet to be confirmed, suggest that their bodies may have been seen
north of Bon Repos in a garbage dump.
Death in custody as a result of beatings
A police officer stationed in Camp Perrin was detained and
charged in connection with the death, on 13 April, of Felix LAMY. Lamy had been
detained in Camp Perrin and severely beaten before being transferred to Les
Cayes prison on 13 April. Prison officials noted in the register that
he had marks of beatings on his body when admitted to the prison. MICIVIH had
already raised its concerns about the police officer on several occasions with
police authorities in the department because of a series of complaints of beatings
by detainees. No action was taken to sanction him. Following
the death of Lamy, legal proceedings were promptly initiated against the police
agent, who was detained on 20 April. By mid-June, the examining magistrate's
investigations had been completed and the case sent to the state prosecutor's
office.
Treatment of detainees in police custody
During this period, MICIVIH carried out fewer visits to police stations to
investigate the treatment of detainees because of reduced personnel, but most
police stations were visited at least once and some were visited several times.
The figures given below are therefore only indicators rather than definitive
statistics. Nevertheless, 67 allegations of beatings were received, half of
the detainees showing some kind of marks or injuries reportedly caused by the
ill-treatment. One of the detainees died as a result of the injuries (see above),
and several required hospital treatment. In two cases, the detainees alleged
that they were given electric shocks with a small portable instrument similar
to a radio. A handful of such allegations have been received in the past but
have been difficult to confirm. Most of the Port-au-Prince cases occurred in
the Delmas police station.
Sixteen individuals claimed that they were ill-treated by Gonaïves
police, the most serious case being that of two members of a popular organisation
stopped at a night-time roadblock on 24 April. Police said they used necessary
force when one pulled out a gun and the other tried to flee. One was hospitalised
with two broken ankles and a broken rib, the other with a broken wrist. No police
agents were sanctioned in this case, although there appears to have been some
kind of internal inquiry. In April, a police commissioner in Gonaïves
flatly denied allegations that a judicial police inspector and two other HNPs
had been involved in beatings, arguing that the three had presumably been named
by suspects in a recent case because they were well known as members of a special
unit that operated at night. He said suspects always tell MICIVIH that police
beat them and, as in the past, he rejected MICIVIH's requests for inquiries
into these and other allegations of police ill-treatment, including several
against the same three police agents. He said two HNPs had been transferred
from Gonaïves in recent months because of numerous complaints against them,
but declined to discuss the cases with MICIVIH.
Freedom of expression
Journalists in Port-au-Prince organised a peaceful protest
following incidents on 28 May in the Champs de Mars, during which Haiti
Progrès journalist Roudy CHERY was roughed up by police after taking
photographs of a CIMO agent beating a protestor. Four other journalists who
went to his assistance said they were also assaulted by police. Chéry
was briefly arrested and his camera was confiscated. His newspaper reportedly
filed a complaint on his behalf. MICIVIH condemned the incidents in a press
release on 31 May and in a second press release issued on 7 June to mark Latin
America Press Day, expressing support for journalists and other press workers.
The Mission noted that the task of journalists in Haiti had become both more
sensitive and more risky as a result of the two-year political crisis, particularly
in a climate of rising intolerance and in the face of acts of violence, and
encouraged them to pursue their work in spite of the obstacles.
A journalist who works with Haiti en Marche was reportedly assaulted
and his camera and press card confiscated by a CIMO agent as he photographed
the scene outside the Lafanmi Selavi orphanage in Bois Verna
on 24 June. Police agents from CIMO, the palace guard (USGPN), SWAT and Port-au-Prince
commissariat were sent to the orphanage after some
40 recently "graduated" youths, aged between 16 and 21, invaded the compound
and protested violently against the orphanage management, throwing rocks inside
the compound, at passing vehicles and then at the police. The youths claimed
that they had been promised jobs and a place to live but had been given neither.
In the context of the campaign against the police leadership, a press attaché
from the National Palace who is also news director at the Fanmi Selavi Radio
Timoun was arrested on 27 April after his car was stopped in a routine
search operation and leaflets were found denouncing the Secretary of State for
Public Security and demanding justice for the killing of Fanmi Lavalas
member "Bora". He was accused of plotting against state security but was released
the following day after being questioned by judicial police. The case led to
public statements by police warning that anyone inciting violence would be arrested.
Internal police investigations into abuses
The Inspection Générale launched investigations into some of the most serious abuses during this period as well as continuing investigations into other cases. These included the cases of a police agent imprisoned in December for shooting an individual following a traffic dispute; a passer-by shot dead accidentally by a palace guard during pre-carnival activities and the alleged extrajudicial execution of two youths in Fontamara after a CIMO agent was shot dead in April. Investigations were concluded and recommendations made by the Inspection Générale regarding the violent police operation in Plaisance (North) in November 1998 following an attack on a police officer by a crowd, and regarding the March 1998 attack by SWAT police on a radio station in Milot (North) during which a night watchman was shot and wounded. A five-member Inspection Générale team conducted a three-day investigation in April into the police operations carried out in Saint-Michel-de-l'Attalaye after the torching of its commissariat in November 1998, concluding that the Gonaïves UDMO subjected people to ill-treatment during its operations but did not beat detainees while they were being taken back to Gonaïves or while they were detained there. These conclusions conflicted with the information gathered by MICIVIH (see HRR, October-December 1998). Police have still not been redeployed on a permanent basis to the area, in spite of repeated requests from local residents. The Inspection Générale also told MICIVIH that a Jérémie police commissioner had been removed from his post. The commissioner had been implicated in several cases of ill-treatment, including burning detainees with a cigarette or candle (see HRR, January-March 1999).
|
Allegations of ill-treatment by the police, Jan-June 1999 (with 1998 figures in parentheses) |
|||||||
| Department | Jan. | Feb. | March | April | May | June | Total |
| West | 4 (10) | 8 (5) | 11 (17) | 6 (4) | 10(7) | 5 (16) | 44 (59) |
| North-West | 0 (0) | 1 (0) | 2 (0) | 0 (0) | 1 (0) | 0 (0) | 4 (0) |
| North | 3 (3) | 13 (0) | 5 (4) | 2 (3) | 2 (8) | 0 (0) | 25 (18) |
| North-East | 1 (0) | 1 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 2 (0) |
| Artibonite | 0 (16) | 0 (14) | 12 (7) | 9 (1) | 12 (16) | 5 (2) | 38 (56) |
| Centre | 4 (3) | 12 (24) | 2 (2) | 3 (1) | 1 (0) | 2 (1) | 24 (31) |
| South-East | 9 (0) | 1 (1) | 0 (3) | 0 (0) | 2 (0) | 0 (1) | 12 (5) |
| South | 0 (1) | 4 (2) | 2 (10) | 5 (1) | 1 (8) | 0 (7) | 12 (29) |
| Grand'Anse | 3 (1) | 3 (3) | 2 (5) | 1 (1) | 0 (0) | 0 (2) | 9 (12) |
| Total | 24 (34) | 43 (49) | 36 (48) | 26 (11) | 29 (39) | 12(29) | 170 (210) |
Seven members of the Delmas police "Special Brigade Unit"
were accused of stealing money found during a search of the home of a suspected
drug trafficker in Marigot (South-East) on the night of 20
May, in which the Delmas police were helping units from the Direction Générale
and the Bureau National de Lutte contre le Traffic de Stupéfiants
(BNLTS). One or two of them were also alleged to have subjected the suspect
to ill-treatment during the search. They were questioned the next morning by
the Departmental Director in Jacmel, who ordered their immediate
suspension and confiscated their guns and badges. Subsequently, six of them
(the seventh having reportedly left the country) were placed in isolement
in Anti-Gang in Port-au-Prince but were released on 4 June, reportedly on the
grounds that no complaint had been filed against them. However, MICIVIH established
that two of the suspect's relatives filed separate complaints at the Jacmel
parquet (one of which was passed to an examining magistrate) and one
of the relatives sent a complaint to the Inspection Générale.
In Les Cayes, a motorcycle-taxi driver and police came to
an out-of-court settlement after the driver was kicked, hit and made to roll
in the mud by an UDMO agent in plainclothes during a dispute between the two.
The agreement was reached at a 15 May meeting between police officials, the
UDMO officer, the victim and representatives of the Association of Motorcycle-Taxis
during which the UDMO officer was reprimanded.
Police in isolement or in detention
As of 28 June, 43 HNP agents were detained in Port-au-Prince prisons, among them four accused of the Carrefour Feuilles killings. Most of the others were facing charges for criminal activities. Outside of the capital, six HNP agents were in prison, two of them for alleged human rights violations. In addition, 13 police agents were being held in isolement in Port-au-Prince police stations as of 28 June. In the latter cases, the longest period of isolement was 26 days, considerably longer than the 48-hour period allowed for detention without access to a judicial authority. Nine out of the 13 were being held in connection with human rights violations, mostly the killings in Carrefour Feuilles, two in relation to a killing in a commune of Les Cayes. Warrants were finally issued, on 20 May, for the arrest of two HNP agents who escaped from isolement in Les Cayes on 29 March, having been accused of kidnapping and extortion. The judge had told MICIVIH he had been waiting to see whether the police succeeded in recapturing them before issuing warrants.
Judicial investigations into police abuses
As already stated, the appointment of a special commission of judges to investigate
the 11 killings in Carrefour Feuilles is a positive step forward,
which, if successfully implemented, could be used in other investigations into
serious human rights abuses. In Port-de-Paix, in an encouraging
example of police-justice cooperation, a three-member police commission of inquiry
completed a detailed report for the state prosecutor on the killing of a suspect
by a police agent. The HNP agent was placed in prison on 16 June following a
public outcry that he had not been detained and was instead being held in a
relaxed form of isolement in which he was allowed home. The commission
of inquiry concluded that the police agent, who dropped a large rock on the
victim, had inflicted "deliberate blows and injuries causing death." However,
he was released on 24 June. A third case of a killing, that of a detainee who
died following a beating in Camp Perrin (see above), was also
investigated with unusual swiftness (see above).
Three police agents accused of causing the death in custody of Ludovic DIFFICILE
on 6 July 1998 were acquitted of charges of torture by a Fort Liberté
jury and released on 17 June after an 18-hour criminal trial. The jurors acquitted
the police after listening to inconsistent testimony given by the key witness,
and also on the basis of the report of the forensic expert who gave the cause
of death as strangulation with the victim's shoelace. The police agents had
been imprisoned for almost one year pending the trial. Another judicial case
against police was concluded in the department of the South with the 14 May
sentencing of four police agents originally assigned to Cavaillon
police station but subsequently dismissed from the police force. They were sentenced
to three months imprisonment for illegally arresting a judge in July 1998. All
but one had already spent three months in detention before being provisionally
released. The incident had occurred because police were unhappy with the judge's
decision to release an individual who had been arrested and reportedly beaten
by the HNP.
Judicial authorities pursuing cases against police agents reported difficulties
in ensuring that police agents respond to summons. For example, a judge in Cap
Haïtien issued a mandat d'amener against the local police
commissioner on 9 June because he had repeatedly failed to answer summonses
to appear in court in connection with the ill-treatment of a bus driver in late
1998. The incident occurred when his bus broke down outside the police station.
The police commissioner, who has several complaints pending against him, has
been implicated in a number of abuses including the beating on 5 May of a hospital
worker who did not attend to the commissioner quickly enough. In June, the Inspection
Générale ordered a Petit Goâve police
inspector to obey a court summons from an examining magistrate investigating
allegations of criminal association against him. MICIVIH had previously sent
an aide-memoire to the Inspection Générale about the
inspector's alleged involvement in a number of cases of ill-treatment between
June 1998 and January 1999. In another case, police refused to execute a warrant
for the arrest of a police officer issued by a judge for détournement
de mineur in Hinche.
Although the Ministry of Justice accepted responsibility for the attack on
Milot radio station (see above) and also for a violent raid
on a clinic run by the women's organisation SOFA in Port-au-Prince
in April 1998, there has so far been no progress in judicial proceedings in
either case. In June 1999, the authorities offered SOFA Gdes 400,000 compensation
for the damage sustained. SOFA said it would continue to press for sanctions
against those responsible. The police operation was led by the police commissioner
of Port-au-Prince who is currently in prison.
Irregularities in arrests/detentions
The most common patterns of irregular arrest and detention procedures documented
by MICIVIH were outlined in HRR, January-March. Of particular concern
to MICIVIH during this new period was the release from police custody, on
the orders of the Executive, of an individual closely associated with Fanmi
Lavalas and two others who had been linked to violent protests during a
strike at the Autorité Portuaire Nationale in June. Police authorities
had reportedly refused to release the individual at first but were subsequently
obliged to do so. Other cases monitored during this period included the following:
On 14 June, a second release order, on the grounds of illegal, abusive and
arbitrary detention, was issued on behalf of former Port-de-Paix
judge Luckner Pierre, detained without charge or trial in police custody cells
in Pétionville since October 1998 (see HRR, January-March
1999), but he remained in custody.
A deportee from the United States has been held without charge since October
1998 in Pétionville because, according to police and
prison officials, no one has come to claim him. He said he could not speak French
or Creole and had no relatives in Haiti.
The illegal practice of holding of suspects "pour enquête" (without
specifying any offence) became more frequent at the Jérémie
commissariat. Most of those detained in this fashion
were held for more than 48 hours and were released by the police without ever
appearing before a judge. In some instances, an "authorization" for an extension
to the period of police custody was requested from the juge de paix,
who usually gave it without seeing the detainee. Detainees held for specific
offences at the Jérémie commissariat
were also often not taken before a judge within 48 hours. Police usually cited
the lack of a vehicle as the reason for this breach of the Constitution, although
both the tribunal de paix and the parquet are less than 10
minutes away on foot.
Seventeen youths arrested on 24 June in connection with a violent protest at
the Lafanmi Selavi orphanage in Bois Verna (see above)
did not see a judge until the end of June, when they were transferred to prison.
They were released the following day.
Thirteen Indian citizens arrested in Cap Haïtien on 5
March on charges of illegally entering Haiti were deported at the end of April
after almost two months in police custody cells.
The pregnant wife of an individual accused of involvement in two 1993 political
murders was arrested on 26 April by Delmas police after bringing
food for her husband. She was released on 3 May after MICIVIH intervened. The
wife of a Dominican national was arrested on 14 March by Delmas
police concerning a murder allegedly carried out by her husband many years ago.
She was released on 15 April after MICIVIH intervened. A woman arrested on 1
May in Moron (Grand'Anse) appeared to be in detention for the
sole reason that police had failed to find her husband, who was being sought
as the prime suspect in the 20 April murder of "Bora" in the Port-au-Prince
district of Bel-Air. After MICIVIH raised the issue of her illegal detention
in the Jérémie commissariat, she was finally released
on the orders of the commissaire municipal on 13 May.
A 27-year-old man detained without being registered and without a mandat
de dépôt in Ouanaminthe detention centre
at his parents request since 28 November 1998 was released by a justice of the
peace on 12 April. Two teenagers were held for short periods in the Jérémie
garde à vue at the request of parents, for
punitive reasons. The commissaire municipal said he was unaware of
this and would tell his chefs de poste the practice was not acceptable.
Two cases were reported in late May/early June of a detainee being held for
five days in the Port-de-Paix garde à vue
and then being released without ever seeing a judge. In one case, police released
the detainee after an agreement was reached with his accuser. In the other case,
the detainee was released at the request of his female partner, whom he was
accused of having beaten and threatened. When MICIVIH raised these illegal detention
practices with a police official, he responded that an accuser sometimes just
wanted the detainee to "suffer a little."
Due to the frequent absence of police, a civilian supervised the detention
of an individual for six days in the garde à vue at the sous-commissariat
in Bonneau (North-West) in May. The arrest had been ordered
by the tribunal de paix. The detention was not logged in the register.
A 65-year-old civilian has been acting as night watchman of the Baradères
(Grand'Anse) police station since 1995, with duties that include supervising
detainees.
Training of police
Further sessions of the joint MICIVIH/HNP course Human Rights, Communication
and Conflict Resolution Training were given to police around the country,
this time in Cap Haïtien, Port-de-Paix, Les Cayes, Croix des Bouquets,
Dame Marie, Gonaïves, Petit Goâve, Jérémie and Hinche.
Sessions on the subject of violence against women and minors were given
at the HNP training centre in Port-au-Prince in April and June.
The content of these two courses was described in HRR, January-March 1999.
JUSTICE
Judicial reform process
With the appointment of a new Minister of Justice, Me Camille Leblanc, at the
end of March, the judicial reform process has been relaunched after many months
of virtual paralysis. Several meetings took place between Ministry officials,
international donors and MICIVIH during this period, at which the Minister presented
a plan of action covering three areas: access to justice, institutional management
and international assistance. The document sets out a series of short and medium
term objectives and tasks including the promotion of itinerant judges to cover
rural communities, the drawing up of a legal aid programme, strengthening the
Ecole de la Magistrature, training of judicial personnel, the strengthening
of the judicial inspection unit, and the creating of mechanisms to improve the
coordination of activities of the international community regarding aid to the
justice system. The paper also proposed the establishment of joint working groups
made up of Haitian and international experts on a variety of themes, including
prolonged pre-trial detention and the drafting of statutes for the Ecole
de la Magistrature.
Ecole de la Magistrature (EMA)
A new director was appointed to the EMA which has now begun preparations for a second training programme for judges. There has been no new intake of students to become judges since the first group graduated in May 1998. In order to improve the quality of the teaching, two trainers from the EMA in Bordeaux, sponsored by the French agency for international cooperation (Coopération Française), led a five-day training session for Haitian EMA trainers from 26 June to 1 July, in which MICIVIH participated. Judges who originally graduated in May 1998 were also brought together for a two-day seminar at the EMA, on 18-19 June, to review their work. One of the outcomes of the meeting was a decision by the judges to create a national association of judges which would, for the first time, include all levels of the judiciary.
Of the 120 justices of the peace chosen to develop their professional skills
at the EMA, the third and last group completed their six week course in June
(see HRR, January-March 1999). MICIVIH staff members acted as trainers
in two of the course's six components, those dealing with human rights and peaceful
conflict resolution. Most of the 120 also attended a final two-day evaluation
programme at the EMA on 28-29 June before graduating on 2 July. The EMA has
also been organising seminars for judicial officials in different parts of the
country on the themes of commission rogatoire (the power of a judge
to request a judicial official in another jurisdiction to undertake a judicial
inquiry on their behalf), tentative (the legal concept of an attempt
to commit a crime) and complicité (the legal concept of criminal
complicity).
Legal Aid
Another initiative during this period was a day of reflection on the question
of setting up a legal aid system which took place on 25 June and which was organised
by the Justice Ministry and the French agency for international cooperation.
The meeting brought together Bar Association members from around the country,
Justice Ministry officials, representatives of the Ecole de la Magistrature
and two Haitian and international NGOs which have programmes of legal assistance,
as well as a MICIVIH consultant. Although initial proposals were to establish
a programme of legal aid run by the Ministry of Justice, it was decided that
government funds for legal aid would instead be channelled through the Bar Associations.
A meeting will take place to discuss these proposals with the Justice Ministry.
In the meantime, another of the outcomes of this June meeting was a second gathering
of the Bar Associations and their announcement, on 1 July, that the Fédération
des Barreaux d'Haïti had been formed to coordinate their activities
and work. The Fédération is currently putting together
a proposal for a legal aid programme throughout the country to be run by the
individual Bar Associations. Such a programme is essential given that the majority
of detainees do not have the financial means to engage a lawyer. Any such programme
will need to be supervised and coordinated at a national level to ensure that
it is properly administered according to uniform criteria.
Pre-trial detention
MICIVIH focussed much of its efforts during this period on cases of prolonged pre-trial detention, visiting prisons with judicial officials (some of whom consented for the first time to do so), pursuing cases through the courts and working with Prison Administration (DAP) legal assistants. In some places there were some signs of progress, for example Gonaïves and Fort Liberté. In Fort Liberté, as reported previously, the appointment of new judicial personnel resulted in steady improvements. New prosecutors focussed on re-examining old dossiers and the preparation of cases for trial (see below, Criminal assizes). The state prosecutor visited detainees in prison and, for the first time, detainees held in pre-trial detention in Ouanaminthe police station.
MICIVIH continued to hold monthly meetings with the judicial authorities in
Gonaïves to argue for such actions as locating misplaced
judicial dossiers, increasing the number of hearings in the tribunal correctionel,
planning for assizes and monthly prison visits in accordance with their obligations
under article 447 of the Code d'instruction criminelle. Such meetings
produced few results until mid-June, when a deputy state prosecutor visited
the prison accompanied by MICIVIH on 17 June. Apparently shocked by the overcrowding
and the signs of malnutrition in many of the detainees (see below), he requested
the presence of the state prosecutor and the other deputy prosecutor. They conducted
interviews with the more than 40 detainees who are considered to be severely
malnourished, and visited all the cells where they spoke briefly with other
detainees. Between 18 and 28 June, more than 30 detainees were released from
the prison, 12 of whom had been diagnosed as malnourished. Five detainees held
for between one and two years in pre-trial detention were among those released.
An examining magistrate had visited the prison with an observer on 11 May, becoming
the first judicial official to do so in 1999. However, other judicial officials
said they would never visit the prison because they feared for their personal
safety. Also released during this three-month period were a suspected thief
whose dossier had been mislaid and who had been held for more than 2½ years
(he was finally released on 15 April by a deputy state prosecutor following
inquiries into the case by MICIVIH), and a second detainee released in May after
three years and two months of pre-trial detention.
| Persons in Pre-trial detention, April-May 1999 | ||||||
| Dept. | Prison | Total in pretrial detention | No. in prolonged pre-trial detention | |||
| Held 1 yr+ | 1-2 yrs | 2-3 yrs | 3+ yrs | |||
| West | Carrefour | 52 | 22 | 14 | 7 | 1 |
| Delmas | 40 | N/K | N/K | N/K | N/K | |
| Fort Nat.
Women/ Minors |
72w | 29 | 18 | 8 | 3 | |
| 58m | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | ||
| National
Peniten. |
1458 | N/K | N/K | N/K | 98 | |
| Pétionville | 114 | N/K | N/K | N/K | N/K | |
| Petit-Goave | 67 | 13 | 13 | - | - | |
| Artibonite | Gonaïves | 217 | 64 | 47 | 8 | 9 |
| Saint-Marc | 67 | 8 | 6 | - | 2 | |
| Centre | Hinche | 81 | 20 | 18 | 2 | - |
| Mirebalais | 45 | N/K | N/K | N/K | N/K | |
| Grand-Anse | Jéremie | 83 | 14 | 11 | 3 | - |
| Anse-à-Veau | 27 | 5 | 4 | 1 | - | |
| North | Cap-Haïtien | 155 | N/K | N/K | N/K | N/K |
| Grande-Rivière | 31 | 1 | 1 | - | - | |
| North-East | Fort-Liberté | 79 | 26 | 22 | 4 | - |
| North-West | Port-de-
Paix |
70 | N/K | N/K | N/K | N/K |
| South | Les Cayes | 76 | 8 | 7 | 1 | - |
| Aquin | 52 | 2 | 2 | - | - | |
| South-East | Jacmel | 104 | 11 | 7 | 4 | - |
| TOTAL | 2948 | 229* | 174* | 40* | 113* | |
*incomplete figures
In Port-au-Prince, MICIVIH continued its survey of dossiers
of detainees held in prolonged pre-trial detention at the National Penitentiary
(see HRR, January-March 1999) by interviewing all those held since
between 1995 and 1996, a total of 173, ten of whom have since been released.
Of the 173, 20 had no dossier, 23 had empty dossiers, and 31 had dossiers which
did not contain any mandat de dépôt. Many of the mandats
de dépôt did not mention the date or the charges against the
detainee. The average period of time without seeing a judge for the 1995 detainees
was found to be 959 days, whilst for the 1996 detainees it was 596 days. One
hundred and twenty nine (129) of those who still appeared on prison records
were no longer detained, raising questions about the manner of at least some
of the releases. A new examining magistrate, who told MICIVIH that she had inherited
333 dossiers when she took office in January and had since received 25 more,
started scheduling hearings for detainees held since 1995/1996 on the basis
of information given to her by DAP legal assistants. In order to prevent some
of these irregularities, each new detainee is now interviewed by a DAP legal
assistant and an individual dossier created. Two legal assistants have been
appointed to verify release papers and follow up records of appearances in court
and ensure that detainees are released by judges with a proper release order.
Results of the 4 April roll-call at the prison are still awaited. It was carried
out by the DAP, with help from MICIVIH, UNDP and USAID subcontractor Checchi
and Company Consulting, with the aim of bringing prison records up to date.
Computer records in March showed many more detainees than the 1,650 detainees
registered during the roll-call.
In the provinces, in Cap Haïtien, which had the third
highest number of cases of prolonged pre-trial detention, there was little progress
in the cases of tens of individuals held in pre-trial detention for more than
one year. All but one were in the hands of the same examining magistrate. In
Jacmel, MICIVIH observers reported that as of 20 May, the number
of detainees in pre-trial detention was 104, more than double the number for
the same month in 1998.
A meeting between MICIVIH, the Jérémie state
prosecutor and his two deputies on 20 April to discuss some 10 cases of detainees
in pre-trial detention for periods ranging from 20 to 35 months resulted in
decisions to release four and bring two others to trial immediately. The prosecutor
also promised to raise with the Ministry of Justice the case of three minors
who had been held for 21 months on charges of theft and arson.
In Anse-à-Veau (Grand'Anse) where there have been long-term
concerns about the dysfunctional justice system, an examining magistrate finally
began investigating charges against an individual arrested in April 1997 accused
of being a zenglendo. Ten detainees were released between 21 April
and mid-June, two of whom had been in pre-trial detention for more than a year.
Some of the release orders were sent directly to the prison and not via the
parquet. New judicial officials were appointed in May: a judge and
a deputy state prosecutor. The post of doyen, vacant since March, had
not been filled. Some local residents decided to name their own doyen
because of the lack of response from the Justice Ministry.
Criminal assizes
In the context of planning criminal assizes, a seminar on jury selection criteria
and methodology was organised at the Jacmel tribunal civil
for 15 justices of the peace in the department of the South-East on 24
April. The seminar was an initiative of the Ecole de la Magistrature
and also given to judicial officials in Gonaïves, Cap Haïtien
and Les Cayes, mostly in June.
Hopes that criminal assizes would reduce the number of detainees held in pre-trial
detention were dashed when jury assizes due to be held in Port-au-Prince
in April were cancelled, reportedly because of a lack of funding and lack of
security for jury members. However, the first criminal assizes since December
1997 took place in Fort Liberté in June. In all but
one of the cases, that of three police accused of killing a detainee (see above),
the detainees have been awaiting trial since 1997. Although numerous problems
were still reported, observers noted that the courtroom was well managed and
procedures were followed, defence counsels were appointed with time to prepare
the defence and judges made considerable efforts to translate proceedings into
Creole, given that many of the jury members and accused did not understand French.
In spite of the fact that some 300 individuals had been summoned as part of
the jury pool, few turned up and police and the bailiff rounded people up off
the street. See also HRR, January-March 1999 for an analysis of problems
related to criminal assizes.
Non-jury assizes took place in Aquin, Hinche and Jacmel
during this period. Assizes in Petit Goâve were postponed.
Habeas corpus/Non-execution of release orders
MICIVIH continued to press Haitian authorities at all levels for the release
of detainees whose detention has been ruled illegal but where the state prosecutor
of Port-au-Prince has refused to execute release orders or where the release
orders have been systematically followed by the presentation of new charges.
Some of the detainees, including former associates of the military regime, have
been held in detention since 1996 (see HRR, October-December 1998,
and HRR, January-March 1999.) Letters were once again sent to the Justice
Minister on 3 and 31 May regarding these cases. In spite of the fact that copies
of all such correspondence were sent to the state prosecutor of Port-au-Prince
and that some previous MICIVIH complaints had been addressed to him directly,
the state prosecutor requested a list of cases on the spurious grounds that
he did not have any information. It is increasingly clear that these
cases are not the consequences of procedural negligence but are blatant and
egregious violations of the right to individual liberty and of due process requirements.
As such, they cast deep and disquieting shadows on the human rights record of
the Haitian authorities. The long-standing refusal of the state prosecutor to
comply with judicial decisions would increasingly appear to benefit from the
support, tacit or otherwise, of his supervising authorities.
The Port-au-Prince doyen, Gabriel Castor, was replaced at the start
of May following several months of increasing friction with the state prosecutor's
office, which he had criticised for failing to perform its functions adequately.
In his 2½ years in the post, Castor issued many of the release orders on
the grounds of illegal detention which have remained unexecuted because of the
state prosecutor's refusal. An examining magistrate was named as interim doyen,
while Castor was offered an Appeals Court post, which he refused.
As a follow-up to the September 1998 publication of its booklet Le Recours
pour la protection de la liberté individuelle dans la Constitution de
1987, MICIVIH organized a series of activities in March and April to promote
awareness of habeas corpus remedies and issues related to individual
liberty as well as to encourage lawyers to file petitions in appropriate cases.
The most significant event was a round-table debate on 6 April at the Ecole
de la Magistrature at which the more than 150 participants included the
new Minister of Justice, the HNP Inspector General, the DAP Director, several
other judicial and police officials, members of the Bar association, representatives
of NGOs and MICIVIH staff members and local consultants. Justices of the peace
enrolled in the on-going EMA training programme also participated. The event
began with a panel, comprised of MICIVIH's Deputy Director, a judge who is also
an EMA trainer, and two specially-invited MICIVIH consultants (historian Claude
Moïse, and Me Jean Joseph Exumé, former Justice Minister and current
member of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights), responding to questions
posed by a moderator. Their responses dealt, inter alia, with the evolution
of habeas corpus in Haiti's constitutions, related procedural questions,
habeas corpus safeguards under international treaties, and the need
to strengthen habeas corpus procedures in Haiti. A lively and productive
debate followed the question-and-answer session. The same two consultants and
MICIVIH's Deputy Director also made presentations at a seminar on the theme
of habeas corpus at the Law School in Hinche
on 8 April in which some 60 persons participated, including local judicial and
police officials and law students. A similar conference was held for some 30
NGO members and human rights activists at the Office du Protecteur du Citoyen
on 31 March. Several members of MICIVIH's regional offices also made presentations
on the subject to law students and other interested parties (for example in
Cap Haïtien), and round-table debates were held by the
regional offices in Port-de-Paix on 16 April and Fort
Liberté on 19 May. At the Port-de-Paix event, whose participants
included the state prosecutor, law students and legal practitioners, part of
the debate centered on the case of an individual who was held in police custody
in Port-de-Paix without seeing a judge from 9 to 13 April, and was then sent
to prison by the state prosecutor "for investigation" without being interviewed.
Following the debate, the state prosecutor quickly held two interviews with
the detainee and released him five days later.
Minors in detention
The newly renovated tribunal pour mineurs (formerly the tribunal
de paix de la section est) in Port-au-Prince was inaugurated
on 21 May in the presence of government officials and representatives of the
international community. The renovation was funded by CECI, a Canadian development
organisation, which has already funded the building or renovation of 12 courts
of first instance over a four-year period. The judge responsible for minors
in detention in Port-au-Prince was also present. [On 2 July, MICIVIH found that
the tribunal had been closed because of security concerns. It was still closed
in early August.] One of the main impediments to improving justice for minors
is the lack of a special centre to house juvenile offenders. Minors are currently
held at Fort National prison.
Observers in Cap Haïtien noted that since the separate
register for minors had been introduced at the prison in April 1998, 25 youths
(16 male, 9 female) aged between 13 and 17 had been placed in detention, for
periods ranging from a few hours to 61 days. Only three of the youths were ever
sentenced, the others being released without completion of legal proceedings
or held in pre-trial detention at the time of MICIVIH's survey.
Impunity
The new Justice Minister has made the completion of judicial proceedings in
the 22 April 1994 military-led massacre in the Raboteau district
of Gonaïves a priority. Additional human resources have been assigned to
the case and a partial reconstruction of events took place over the course of
three days from 7 to 9 June. With residents looking on, witnesses and surviving
victims retold on-site what they had seen or experienced and were questioned
by the examining magistrate in charge of the case, the state prosecutor, and
trainee lawyers assigned to the Gonaïves Bar. The proceedings were photographed
and videotaped for the Ministry of Justice. Because of security concerns, the
requirement that the accused be present was not upheld. They were, however,
to be shown videos of the proceedings. In the meantime, victims of the massacre
and their families have continued to campaign for the removal of the state prosecutor,
accusing him of being responsible for delaying the proceedings.
Two days of activities, an official ceremony and also a demonstration organised
by the Port-au-Prince-based organisation Fondation 30 septembre, were
held in Gonaïves to mark the 5th anniversary
of the Raboteau massacre. MICIVIH provided some logistic support on both days.
In a press release to mark the anniversary, MICIVIH said shortcomings in the
conception, planning and execution of policies on criminal prosecution and reparation
continued to be the underlying cause of impunity in Haiti. The Mission's press
release recommended that the Ministry's priorities should include the installation
of the follow-up and compensation commissions recommended by the National Truth
and Justice Commission and the creation of the commission consisting primarily
of judges envisaged in the judicial reform law. The release also noted that
the return of the FAd'H and FRAPH documents seized by U.S. authorities in 1994
could help combat impunity.
Argentine Nobel Peace laureate Adolfo Pérez ESQUIVEL also reiterated
his call for the return of the FAd'H/FRAPH documents during his April visit
to Haiti, as well as reiterating other recommendations previously made in letters
to senior government officials and human rights organizations following his
earlier visit in August 1998, which focussed on the fight against impunity.
He met with President Préval, the President of the Senate and other government
officials as well as former President Aristide and representatives of several
Haitian human rights organizations. The latter have continued to press for government
action on impunity. With MICIVIH support, MAP VIV finalised Jalons pour
une politique de réparation, due to be published in July, which
grew out of a review of victims' groups and their needs and a national conference
in 1998. It contains a series of recommendations addressed to both the authorities
and to civil society. Also in June, the Plateforme des Organisations haïtiennes
des droits de l'Homme (POHDH) re-published a document Pour un plan
d'action contre l'impunité which it had first issued with the Coalition
Nationale pour les Droits des Haïtiens in September 1998. It was incorporated
into a June 1999 POHDH report Rapport spécial sur la situation des
droits humains en Haïti containing a series of reflections and proposals
on Violence, Insecurity and Human Rights. The report was presented
at a day-long conference organised by the POHDH. Impunity was identified as
one of the key problems underlying the current situation and the report stressed
the need to implement recommendations drawn up by the POHDH and by other organisations
including the Commission Nationale de Vérité et de Justice
(CNVJ) and MICIVIH.
As concerns other past human rights violations before the courts, there were
developments in three other cases during this period. In Les Cayes, Fritznel
JEAN BAPTISTE, a palace guard and former FAd'H member known as "La Fimen",
was sentenced to five years imprisonment and a Gdes 50,000 fine on 21 May after
being tried during criminal assizes without jury. He was accused of the illegal
arrest and the torturing of a detainee in Maniche in January
1993. He had been detained in October 1998 after the mayor of Les Cayes, while
visiting the National Palace, recognised him as the individual concerned. In
another case in the same department, on 27 April, one individual was acquitted
of illegal arrest and torture of two persons in the military barracks of Camp
Perrin in 1994. A second person was sentenced to three years imprisonment
as an accomplice to an illegal arrest and detention. A former FAd'H sergeant
and a former chef de section were sentenced in absentia to three years
imprisonment for illegal arrest and detention, and ordered to pay Gdes 150,000
damages to one of the victims. The judge did not rule on charges of torture
which were also brought against the accused as he pronounced himself without
jurisdiction to deal with them. Some local sources have alleged that the whereabouts
of the two tried in absentia is known but that no attempt has been made to arrest
them (see HRR, January-March 1999). In the department of the North,
a former adjoint of the military regime in Le Borgne
was released on 7 May 1999 after three hearings this year at which witnesses
failed to appear. The adjoint had been in detention since July 1996,
accused of arson (see HRR, January-March 1999).
Protestors continued to press for the payment of compensation to those whose
homes were burned by FRAPH in December 1993 in Cité Soleil
(see HRR, January-March 1999), and at the end of June the Justice Ministry
announced that Gdes 25 million would be made available. Disbursement of the
funds began in July, to 914 victims, each one receiving Gdes 27,000 to rebuild
their homes. A further 162 were due to receive houses which had been built for
the victims several years ago but were never allocated.
Women who were victims of rape and other forms of violence during the coup
d'état period were among a number of women interviewed by the UN
Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Radhika Coomaraswamy, and her
delegation during their visit to Haiti in June. They also met with organisations
who support women victims of violence both past and present.
PRISONS
The civilian prison administration, originally the Administration Pénitentiaire
Nationale and now known as the Direction de l'Administration Pénitentiaire,
celebrated its fourth anniversary on 30 June with an open day for journalists
at the National Penitentiary. Even the prisoners acknowledged improvements in
conditions there, while deploring arbitrary and prolonged pre-trial detention.
MICIVIH also issued a press release to mark the occasion.
Internal prison regulations, which have been in draft form since 1997 pending
official approval, were finally adopted and made public on 30 June. The Règlements
internes des Etablissements Pénitentiaires give directives concerning
admission procedures (including guidelines as to what to do if a detainee appears
to have been ill-treated in police custody) procedures for record-keeping, prison
conditions (provision of food, sanitary conditions, exercise, medical care,
social rehabilitation, visiting rights and other links with the family). The
regulations also include disciplinary guidelines and procedures (including placing
detainees in punishment cells) which prison guards have been requesting for
a long time, and also rules for carrying out body and cell searches, as part
of the chapter on security.
Prison conditions
A survey of prisons during this period shows that at least as regards medical
care and the provision of food, prisons are not meeting the requirements given
in the internal regulations. Many prisons, for example, were providing only
one meal a day, as opposed to two. Although prison authorities introduced new
forms for controlling the use of food stocks on a daily basis, these appeared
to be rarely used. Protests at the lack of food were organised in Fort
Liberté and Les Cayes prisons in April. In
the latter case, the Departmental Director of the HNP intervened to find provisions
for two days while the prison inspector travelled to Port-au-Prince to obtain
stocks. Virtually no records on food stocks are kept in Les Cayes prison and
detainees alleged that food disappears before it reaches them. Prison authorities
in several prisons reported that they rarely received their budget for buying
fresh food. Food shortages were so low in some prisons that the ICRC purchased
items during their visits. There are serious concerns, too, about the long-term
provision of basic food staples after September, when the BND, a Dutch-funded
NGO which has been supplying 70 per cent of staples to prisons, terminates this
arrangement.
The impact of inadequate food was becoming increasingly felt. In Gonaïves,
for example, 92 out of 293 detainees were considered to be suffering from malnutrition
following examinations by officials of the International Committee of the Red
Cross in June. Forty-seven cases were considered to be "advanced" and six "severe".
The ICRC began a nutrition programme for those diagnosed as malnourished. At
least three detainees from Gonaïves prison died in the first half of June,
possibly from diseases related to malnutrition. In the National Penitentiary,
in Port-au-Prince, concerns about malnutrition continued. A
team of physicians who examined 217 detaineees in April found 153 to be suffering
some degree of malnutrition and a feeding centre was set up to supplement the
regular prison diet. As of the end of May, 54 detainees were well enough to
be removed from the feeding programme. Doctors in Fort Liberté
were also concerned about malnutrition-related illnesses.
| PRISON POPULATION | |||||
| Prison | Date visited | Total pop.
|
Pretrial detainees | Convicted inmates | |
|
No. |
% | ||||
| Anse-à-Veau | 09/6/99 | 33 | 23 | 10 | 30.30 |
| Aquin | 08/6/99 | 68 | 49 | 19 | 27.94 |
| Arcahaie * | 21/6/99 | 11 | 3 | 8 | 72.72 |
| Cap-Haïtien | 27/5/99 | 213 | 155 | 58 | 27.23 |
| Carrefour | 10/5/99 | 67 | 52 | 15 | 22.39 |
| Delmas | 03/5/99 | 45 | 40 | 5 | 11.11 |
| Fort-Liberté | 24/5/99 | 97 | 82 | 15 | 15.46 |
| Gonaïves | 07/5/99 | 279 | 225 | 54 | 19.35 |
| Gde-Rivière du Nord | 25/5/99 | 49 | 32 | 17 | 34.69 |
| Hinche | 18/5/99 | 129 | 81 | 48 | 37.21 |
| Jacmel | 20/5/99 | 144 | 104 | 40 | 27.78 |
| Jérémie | 21/5/99 | 129 | 83 | 46 | 35.66 |
| Les Cayes | 07/6/99 | 134 | 94 | 40 | 29.85 |
| Mirebalais | 14/4/99 | 96 | 45 | 51 | 53.12 |
| Ouanaminthe * | 21/5/99 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0.0 |
| PAP-Fort National | 19/5/99 | 142 | 130 | 12 | 8.45 |
| PAP-Nat. Penitentiary | 14/6/99 | 1687 | 1458 | 229 | 13.57 |
| Pétionville | 16/6/99 | 128 | 114 | 14 | 10.94 |
| Petit-Goâve | 25/5/99 | 95 | 85 | 10 | 10.53 |
| Port-de-Paix | 14/5/99 | 96 | 70 | 26 | 27.08 |
| Saint-Marc | 10/5/99 | 89 | 68 | 21 | 23.60 |
| TOTAL | 3471 | 3003 | 718 | 19.19 | |
| WOMEN AND MINORS IN PRISON |
|||||
| Prison | Date visited |
Women |
Minors | ||
| Total | No. convicted | Total | No. convicted | ||
| Anse-à-Veau | 09/6/99 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Aquin | 08/699 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Arcahaie * | 05/5/99 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Cap-Haïtien | 27/5/99 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
| Carrefour | 10/5/99 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| Delmas | 03/5/99 | 8 | 0 | 2 (1f) | 0 |
| Fort-Liberté | 24/5/99 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Gonaïves | 07/5/99 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Gde-Rivière du Nord | 25/5/99 | 3 | 0 | 1(f) | 0 |
| Hinche | 18/5/99 | 7 | 2 | 3 | - |
| Jacmel | 20/5/99 | 10 | 2 | 6 | 1 |
| Jérémie | 21/5/99 | 5 | - | 9 | 2 |
| Les Cayes | 07/6/99 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Mirebalais | 14/4/99 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ouanaminthe * | 21/5/99 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| PAP-Fort National | 19/5/99 | 82 | 10 | 43m
17f |
1m
1f |
| PAP-Nat. Penitentiary | - | - | - | - | - |
| Pétionville | 16/6/99 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 2 (1f) |
| Petit-Goâve | 25/5/99 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Port-de-Paix | 14/5/99 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Saint-Marc | 10/5/99 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
|
TOTAL |
162 | 22 | 102 | 13 | |
* Detention centres run by the HNP, not the DAP
A number of cases of sick prisoners were probably exacerbated by delays in
transferring detainees to hospital, including one of the prisoners in Gonaïves
who died. A shortage of guards and/or transport was frequently given as the
reason. Frequent long absences of the prison inspector together with the prison
vehicle were reported in several prisons, the issue being raised by MICIVIH
with the head of the DAP on 31 May. After a prisoner escaped from Port-de-Paix
hospital in early April, the local hospital refused to accept prisoners without
a prison guard, with the result that another detainee, diagnosed with pneumonia
on 5 May, could not be hospitalised until 17 June, when he was diagnosed as
suffering from severe anemia as well. In Jérémie,
prison officials never agreed to MICIVIH's repeated requests for a detainee
to have an X-ray of his arm, injured allegedly during ill-treatment by police
in Abricots on 3 April. In April, MICIVIH put together a list
of 32 detainees apparently suffering from some kind of illness such as skin
diseases and fever in Les Cayes. Observers tried to persuade
local authorities to act but with little success. The local hospital was reluctant
to treat prisoners unless they paid for themselves. In late May a MICIVIH observer
accompanied the Cap Haïtien nurse on a visit to seven
out of 15 cells to check the detainees' health. Thirty of the 77 prisoners questioned
by the nurse were apparently sick, but there were no medical supplies to treat
them. Serious concerns about delays in the provision of medical treatment there,
including hospitalisation, were raised with the prison authorities. The widespread
shortage of medical supplies in prisons continues to be a source of concern.
Sanitary conditions in Les Cayes prison remained precarious,
with prisoners forced to bathe in their cells. In May, the ICRC handed over
cleaning and other sanitary products to improve conditions; most prisoners reportedly
slept on the floor and were not allowed out of their cells to exercise. MICIVIH
began liaising with local authorities to investigate the possibility of an ICRC-funded
project to construct toilet and bathing facilities. Cap Haïtien
prison also lacked products to clean and disinfect cells. Some prisoners there
were also sleeping on the floor.
DAP/respect for human rights
The number of allegations of ill-treatment by prison guards remained relatively
low, and were limited to cases in Fort Liberté and Gonaïves
prisons (as in the previous quarter). In the latter case, a prison official
told MICIVIH that one of the guards implicated in beating six detainees as they
passed from police custody cells to use the DAP showers between 26 and 30 May
had already been transferred. The second guard was still under investigation.
The detainees, also allegedly beaten by police, had been accused of killing
an HNP and three civilians in an armed robbery on 24 May. The Mission also began
investigations into allegations that all 26 occupants of a cell in Gonaïves
were beaten by a guard on 28 June when he mistakenly concluded that one was
missing. Detainees said they were taken to a courtyard and each given five blows
to the buttocks. In the case of Fort Liberté, most of
the cases reported to MICIVIH's regional office since it reopened in May 1998
concerned the same two prison guards but no disciplinary action had ever been
taken against them. One was cited in eight complaints, the other in five. The
allegations included the sexual harassment of a female detainee.
LYNCHINGS/BRIGADES DE VIGILANCE
MICIVIH received reports of 14 individuals being lynched during this period,
including an HNP agent from Saint Marc (see above). Cases occurred
in the departments of the West, Centre, South, North,
North-East and North-West. Staff at the Port-au-Prince
General Hospital went on strike for two days after the notorious Brigade
Fort St Clair - reportedly linked to imprisoned police commissioner Rameau,
though he has denied the accusations - dragged an individual out of the emergency
waiting room and lynched him outside on 11 April. The same brigade had earlier
reportedly caught and burnt alive a suspected thief. The brigade had claimed
in the past that they were given identity cards by police. A second brigade
de vigilance made up of several police and armed civilians was reportedly
operating in Cité Soleil and numerous killings attributed
to them in May and June (see above, Killings by police). A judicial
official told MICIVIH that a local brigade de vigilance was assisting
the courts in executing arrest warrants due to the absence of police and CASEC
members in Mombin Crochu (North-East). Residents and also detainees
in some places in the department of the Centre complained of unlawful activities
of local brigades de vigilance. In two of the cases of lynchings reported
to MICIVIH, victims were taken out of CASEC offices or homes. In a third, the
victim was dragged out of a court. Police were able to prevent some lynchings,
including when a crowd laid siege to the police station in Léogâne
on 17 May in an attempt to seize two suspects.
|
Reported lynchings: No. of victims (No. of incidents in parentheses if different) |
|||||||
| Jan. | Feb. | Mar. | Apr. | May | June | Total | |
| West | 0 | 5 (2) | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 10 (7) |
| North-West | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| North | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| North-East | 0 | 0 | 3 (1) | 2 (1) | 0 | 0 | 5 (2) |
| Artibonite | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1* | 1 |
| Centre | 3 (2) | 2 (1) | 0 | 3 (2) | 0 | 0 | 8 (5) |
| South-East | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| South | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Grand'Anse | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 6 (5) | 7 (3) | 5 (3) | 9 (7) | 4 | 1 | 32 (23) |
* a St Marc police agent
CIVIL SOCIETY
Human rights NGOS
Representatives of the inter-NGO committees for visits to prisons and police stations (Comités inter-ONG pour la visite des Prisons et lieux de garde-à-vue) which have been set up in all departments with MICIVIH support came together twice during this period in Port-au-Prince. Following the first meeting, held on 9-10 June, agreement was reached to set up a secretariat to coordinate the committees. The second meeting, held from 28 June to 3 July, consisted of an intensive six-day training programme to develop the working capacity of the committees. Sessions included information on the judicial system and judicial reform, human rights concepts, practical case studies and discussions about techniques for prison visits. Some training and encadrement had already been given by observers in the provinces. In Port-de-Paix, for example, MICIVIH and the regional office of the Catholic Church human rights organization Justice et Paix jointly hosted a two-day conference on 15-16 June on the monitoring of detention in police stations and prisons for a total of 28 human rights activists from throughout the North-West. A deputy state prosecutor and some 10 representatives of the HNP and DAP (prison administration) also took part in the conference, which included visits to Port-de-Paix prison and the garde à vue, where detainees were interviewed. The conference ended with an agreement in principle to create a local inter-NGO committee that would carry out regular prison and garde à vue visits in the North-West. In April, the MICIVIH regional office in Gonaïves began holding weekly two-hour training sessions for a group of six members of a regional committee formed to monitor detention in prison and police custody. The participants, mainly lawyers and paralegals, received training on such issues as international human rights instruments and standards for the treatment of detainees.
Civic education seminars
As referred to previously, a series of six-day training seminars on civic education, human rights and women's rights for trainers of the Secrétairerie d'Etat à l'Alphabétisation (SEA), organised jointly by MICIVIH and the SEA, took place between April and June. Seminars were given by MICIVIH-selected trainers in Hinche, Port-au-Prince, Cap Haïtien, Saint Louis du Nord, Petit Goâve, Jacmel, Fort Liberté, Saint Louis du Sud and Belle Anse.
Prepared by the Coordination, Analysis and Reports Unit (CARU)
OAS/UN International Civilian Mission in Haiti
MICIVIH Misyon Sivil Entènasyonal ann Ayiti OEA/ONU
Boîte Postale 1602, Port-au-Prince, Haiti
(509) 246-2025 or (1-212) 963-9921