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Update Gran Ravin 9.25.05
From AUMOHD-Lack of official support
translated by Tom Luce

 


Letter to Hurah Supporters
Tom Luce
Hurah, Inc.
9/28/05
Dear Friends,


Here is an update on the progress in prosecuting the massacres of Martissant (soccer field) and Gran Ravin on August 20-21.

The facts were related by lawyer Evel Fanfan, President of AUMOHD to me, Tom Luce, Pres. of Hurah, Inc.

This case has the potential of being pursued to the end and bringing justice to the victims and the communities involved. It is a case of state/police crimes and impunity. There are enough legal pieces already established to move forward with a formal complaint against the PNH and the Haitian State.

At the same time the former NCHR (Now RNDDH) is falsifying the story by saying the police weren't involved and that it was another case of citizen justice against bandits.

The MINUSTAH reports are vague and incomplete. The goal is far from being achieved.

If you can help defray the expenses of this case please send contributions to Joan Rae, Treas. P.O. Box 418, Fayston, Vt. 05673 or go to http://www.hurah.webhop.org and use PayPal.

AUMOHD is a volunteer organization without regular funding. It uses contributions for the following: assisting the families of victims to bury their dead, providing ongoing phone support for security and organizing, providing transportation of survivors for medical care, continuing to support the investigators who must travel around the city dealing with government agencies, providing office support (phones, electricity, internet access, etc),

The money already donated for this case, approx. $1,800US, has been used for paying for the fees to certify bodies with the Justice of the Peace and 6 victims' families have been compensated for expenses related to funerals. Initially the cost of autopsies was going to be on AUMOHD, but Attorney Fanfan successfully argued with the state prosecutor and the hospital that he was not going to pay one Gourde for a state crime. However, one body, reported to be about to be snatched by the police, was removed by family and the autopsy had to be paid by AUMOHD privately.

At a community meeting on Tues. Sept. 27, Attorney Fanfan was chosen to be the lead attorney in the case. IJHD attorney Mario Joseph is also collaborating.

Today Lawyer Fanfan reported that the state prosecutor has agreed to include the word "massacre" in the complaint. MINUSTAH chief, Juan Valdes is reporting at least 9 victims and that the police and "attachés" were the perpetrators.

Thanks for all your support! Let's keep working together.

Tom Luce

 

TWO MASSACRES IN MORE DETAIL: AUG 20,21


by Attorney Evel Fanfan 9.25.05


Here is a preliminary report compiled from a number of interviews and community meetings facilitated by AUMOHD with different people from the two communities of Martissant I and Gran Ravin, Commune of Carrefour. We met with eye-witness victims, family of victims, trusted leaders from the area and surrounding neighborhoods of the place where the dramatic event happened.


A PEACE SOCCER GAME


According to several almost identical testimonies from eye-witnesses, victims, and neighbors of the massacre site, on Saturday August 20, 2005 in the afternoon four to five thousand people had come from every corner of the commune of Carrefour to attend neighborhood Soccer Game for Peace on the field of the Farm Park of Martissant I, next to the church of St. Bernadette, a few meters from the Martissant police station. This neighborhood soccer game was organized as a pacification activity in the so-called hot zones with the participation of the DDR (Disarmament, Demobilizaiton and Reintregration) unit of MINUSTAH and of OIM (Organization of Immigration). On this Saturday, August 20, the announcement of the presence of star players from the national level like Johnny Decoline and others had stimulated people from all sectors of the area to come there not only to attend the soccer game but also to show their support for the concept of pacification of the zone.


PANDEMONIUM AND THE MASSACRES


According to the witnesses the space used as a stadium wasn't adequate to receive all the participants. Those who couldn't get inside the stadium were obliged to climb up a wall, a tree, or onto roof tops of neighboring houses to attend this Peace soccer match. The first part of the game was already finished. Everything was calm. Happiness permeated the fans of the two teams. All of a sudden, incredible but true, a group of heavily armed, masked policemen accompanied by several civilians armed with machetes with the markings in blue of PNH (Haitian National Police), entered the stadium by the main gate after having surrounded the whole stadium. The witnesses say that at first the spectators thought that the police had come to reinforce the security for the people. They were so happy with this illusion that they warmly applauded the arrival of these police officers. Astonished, they watched the police head for the person in charge of the sound system, the "DJ", and give him the order to stop the music and demand that everyone lie down on the ground. According to different versions from witnesses there was a gunshot inside the stadium. According to others there was a branch of a tree which had cracked on the south side of the stadium. Then there was pandemonium. People tried to run in all directions to escape. At this point the police began to shoot in all directions and at everyone. The people who tried to climb walls were shot. Those who were lying on the ground of the stadium became victims of gunshots, or lynchings by men with machetes who had inspected their victims one after the other.


VICTIMS


According to our preliminary findings in this massacre, more than fifty (50) people were hacked to death by machetes and others were shot by policemen stationed all around the stadium. According to witnesses three police ambulances were on the scene to transport the dead bodies to a place still unknown. According to witnesses and family members of victims, several people had been arrested by the police and their bodies were found riddled with bullets and hacked by machetes in the State University Hospital Morgue (HUEH). Among the victims we can list are:


1. Denis Jean Marie age 17
2. Nesdou Fevry, aged 17
3. Gregory Odicee
4. Michel Reginald
5. Ti Blan, so called
6. Franky Herne


According to believable testimony many family members have had no success in finding their loved ones since the event and who reported that many of them were arrested by the police the same evening as the soccer game. AUMOHD has already counted more than a dozen victims with bullet wounds. It is necessary to note that the majority of these wounded do not want to be identified for fear of being killed or arrested by the police or by the Little Machete Army.


ARSON AND KILLINGS IN GRAN RAVIN: AUG. 21
LAVALAS TARGETED


According to witnesses and victims, the police and militants of the Little Machete Army, who had committed the criminal acts of August 20 in the St. Bernadette stadium, had made an announcement for everyone to hear that they were coming the next day to finish their job. In fact the next day around ten o'clock a police contingent accompanied by civilians armed with machetes and knives, with several trucks without any license plates entered the area called Gran Ravin. According to the eye witness victims it was pandemonium. After having ransacked the area they went to Jasmin, a section still in Gran Ravin. The people, in trying to escape the wrath of the police and their militants armed with machetes had to take refuge high up on the hill. The police and their militants, after having identified houses they called houses of the RPK (rat pa kaka dirty rats) or members of Fanmi Lavalas, still according to victim witnesses, looted and ransacked and set fire to several houses among which were those of the following (names witheld for security purposes)


VICTIMS


1. "A", mother of 3 children whose father is dead. Her house was completely burned with all its contents.
2. "B" , mother of 5 children. Her house was completely consumed by fire along with school supplies for here 5 school aged children. Accoding to her statement a sum of $4,000 (Haitian) in change was taken by the police.
3. The house of "C" his business establishment were completely consumed by fire while he was attending Sunday Mass at church. All contents disappeared in the flames.
4. The house and small business of "D" also disappeared in the flames.
5. The house of "E" was looted and shot up with bullets
6. An electrical transformer which fed the neighborhood was destroyed by bullets.
7. The Church of Mary Magdelen was hit by bullets while the faithful were there attending Mass.
According to victim witnesses many people were shot, others severely beaten and wounded with machetes. Several boys were executed on the spot, others arrested and brought in a long black Toyota land cruiser serving as an ambulance for the police.


NOT A BATTLE BETWEEN CITIZENS AND BANDITS


Certain individuals and certain organizations want to describe the events of August 20, 21 as a matter of a confrontation between the police and Lavalas bandits

  • .Considering the testimony of the neighbors of Martissant I and Gran Ravin,
  • considering the testimony of witnesses and victims of the events of Aug 20,21,2005,
  • considering the testimony of the person in charge of the soccer game on Aug. 20, 2005,
  • considering that this soccer game was organized as a pacification activity of the area,
  • considering that all the neighborhoods of the area were completely calm and peaceful,
  • it is therefore incumbent upon us to deny any such reports and ill-willed intentions which for partisan reasons have been meant to mislead the Haitian people.--


Tom Luce, President
HURAH, Inc.
Human Rights Accompaniment In Haiti
900 Advocates In The Northeast of the U.S.
30 Park St.
Barre, Vt. 05641
Tel. 802-476-7056, 522-3525
http://www.hurah.webhop.org?