Julio López
está desaparecido
hace 6402 días
versión para imprimir - envía este articulo por e-mail

Open Letter to Human Rights Watch
Por Kevin Pina - Tuesday, May. 17, 2005 at 11:38 PM
kpina@teledyol.net

Human Rights Watch (HRW) falls short in its recent letter to the U.N. The organization does not call for an investigation into human right abuses by the haitian police.

Open Letter to Human...
2-28victim1.jpg, image/jpeg, 720x480

Open Letter to Human Rights Watch

by Kevin Pina
May 17, 2005


TO: Human Rights Watch
RE: Letter to the U.N. Security Council on the Renewal of the Mandate of the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) DATE: May 17, 2005

Dear HRW,

In your recent letter to the U.N. Security Council dated May 16, 2005 you stated, "During a recent mission to Haiti, Human Rights Watch documented daily acts of violence in Port-au-Prince. We found that much of the violence is perpetrated by armed gangs claiming affiliation with former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Despite security operations recently carried out jointly by MINUSTAH and the Haitian National Police (HNP), neighborhoods such as Cite Soleil remain paralyzed by violence." You then follow this statement several paragraphs down with, "Given Haiti’s upcoming elections, we encourage you to ensure that MINUSTAH has all necessary resources for establishing a stable and secure environment for the electoral process. In addition to the mission’s efforts to support the process of national dialogue and to address logistical and administrative problems, it should also take concrete steps to ensure the safety of all participants in the electoral campaign. Specifically, we encourage you to enhance MINUSTAH’s capacity to provide security for protests and public marches. MINUSTAH should also undertake to ensure that the police do not use lethal force unnecessarily against demonstrators, as occurred during the February and March 2005 demonstrations in Cite Soleil. To this end, we encourage you to consider deploying additional Formed Police Units to assist and train the HNP in crowd-control techniques compatible with international human rights standards."

These two statements are clearly contradictory.The first places the blame for violence on "armed gangs claiming affiliation with former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide" and follows with praise for "security operations recently carried out jointly by MINUSTAH and the Haitian National Police (HNP)..." Later you make a weak criticism of the PNH for massacres they have committed during peaceful demonstrations while avoiding a call for a public investigation to make the police accountable for these very same killings. With one-hand you praise the Haitian police for raids into poor neighborhoods of the capital with the U.N., where evidence also exists of human rights violations, and with the other hand you acknowledge abuses by the police during peaceful demonstrations without holding them accountable to justice.

As an independent journalist living in Haiti who puts his camera between the Haitian police and demonstrators to cover this story, I am deeply disappointed with your letter because it falls short of demanding the Haitian police be investigated for documented cases of human rights abuses and extra-judicial killings. Not only does this place journalists such as myself in greater danger, but I wonder how I will explain your position to the families of the victims slaughtered by the Haitian police who are merely asking for justice and accountability? Do I tell them that Human Rights Watch agrees with the Haitian police that their loved ones are expendable because they are suspected of being members of "armed gangs claiming affiliation with former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide?" Despite the fact that it is well-documented they were shot in cold-blood during a peaceful demonstration? Do I tell them Human Rights Watch agrees with the documented tactic of the Haitian police of planting guns on the corpses of unarmed demonstrators after they kill them? if you disbelieve me then trust you own eyes and visit: http://haitiaction.net/News/HIP/5_8_5/5_8_5.html . Look at the 35 five images of the handiwork of the Haitian police with your own eyes and know that this is what you are dismissing with your half-hearted and ,apparently biased, human rights work in Haiti.

For my part, I will publicly encourage my readers and listeners to discontinue responding to fund raising appeals by your organization. I will tell them that whenever they read statements released by you they should be suspicious and return any fund raising appeals they receive by you marked: "What about your position on Haiti? Hold the Haitian police accountable!!" I will continue to do this until Human Rights Watch stops dismissing victims of the Haitian police as defacto "collateral damage" and begins to demand a public investigation into human rights abuses committed by the Police Nationale de Haiti (PNH).

Sincerely,

Kevin Pina Editor, Haiti Information Project Associate Editor, Black Commentator Haiti Special Correspondent, Flashpoints Radio on Pacifica Frequent guest commentator on Haiti for several local, national and international radio programs

agrega un comentario


Victim of U.N.-backed Haitian police shot in back
Por Kevin Pina - Tuesday, May. 17, 2005 at 11:38 PM
kpina@teledyol.net

Victim of U.N.-backe...
4-27victim3a.jpg, image/jpeg, 720x480

Many of the peaceful protesters on April 27, 2005 were shot in the back by the Haitian police as they tried to flee. Haitian police spokeswoman Gessy Cameau Coicou, who is by now widely ridiculed for always claiming that civilians killed by the Haitian police are all "bandits", declared that "only 2 persons were seriously injured during a gun battle with a police patrol" on April 27. She added the laughable notion that Lavalas activists who were killed "were not shot during a demonstration since police authorities had received no notice of a demonstration." The truth is the march was announced for several days before it took place on radio stations throughout the capital. What Coicou failed to disclose was that the courier with the official request for the permit to demonstrate on April 27 was beaten and arrested by the Haitian police when he tried to deliver it.

agrega un comentario


Innocent bystander shot by Haitian police
Por Kevin Pina - Tuesday, May. 17, 2005 at 11:38 PM
kpina@teledyol.net

Innocent bystander s...
4-27victim4a.jpg, image/jpeg, 720x480

This innocent bystander's leg was blown to bits by the PNH on April 27, 2005 as he was leaving a local pharmacy in the vicinity of the demonstration after buying insulin for his ailing mother. Note that he is still clutching the bottles of insulin in his right hand.

agrega un comentario


Collaboration of U.N. with killers in Haitian police
Por Kevin Pina - Tuesday, May. 17, 2005 at 11:38 PM
kpina@teledyol.net

Collaboration of U.N...
5_8_5.jpg, image/jpeg, 690x460

As the marchers returned to Bel Air, Haitian SWAT units appeared. Journalists had to call the UN who were about 30 yards behind the protestors when the SWAT unit emerged. Finally, UN troops arrive but appeared to be coordinating with their counterparts in the Haitian police SWAT unit. They seemed unconcerned that similar SWAT units have been responsible for murdering unarmed demonstrators on several occasions. May 4, 2005

agrega un comentario