OCTOBER 4, 2005 UPDATE LACK OF OFFICIAL SUPPORT

Following is a translation by Tom Luce, Hurah, Inc. of a report issued by our Haitian partner Evel Fanfan, Pres. of AUMOHD, Oct. 4, 2005.  For more information e-mail hurah_inc@verizon.net.  Http://www.hurah.webhop.org

Montes Plaisimé, AUMOHD Communications Director, with relatives of massacre victims at the Prosecutor's Office, PAP  Mr. Emane Alce

KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE MARTISSANT MASSACRE

by Evel Fanfan, Pres. AUMOHD,

181, route de Delmas
Phone : 509-4243334
fanfanmel@yahoo.fr
Port au Prince, Haiti

AUMOHD wishes to compliment you and thank you once again for your collaboration in the promotion of human rights and the human dignity of the Haitian people.  You already are aware of the massacres that took place on last Aug. 20 and 21, 2005 at Martissant and Gran Ravin where approximately 50 innocent people were massacred and disappeared by the police and armed civilians carrying the name of the "Army of the Little Machete". More than 20 people were wounded.

As soon as AUMOHD was informed of this drama, we went to the site to get the initial pieces of information.  We met eye witnesses of this massacre, relatives of victims, victims with bullet or machete wounds.

The first elements of the inquiry revealed that it was a crime well-thought out and organized by the Haitian National Police, executed by "attachés" of the Haitian National Police and ex-convicts thrown out of the area by the community for dishonest acts.

AUMOHD wanted to shed light on these massacres and alerted those responsible for human rights in MINUSTAH. At first they responded favorably by sending a team of UNPOL (formerly CIVPOL) and MINUSTAH on the spot to collect for themselves the same information.  However, nothing concrete has been done since then to this date by them, namely,  protect the witness victims, accompany the relatives of victims and make the State  and the Haitian National Police responsible for this massacre perpetrated in front of everyone in a soccer game.

On Tuesday September 6, 2005 we had a meeting at the Hôtel Christopher with the chief of human rights for MINUSTAH, Mr. Thierry Fagart, and his team, with the purpose of explaining the phase in which the case currently was at and of working out jointly a plan of action:  1) continue the investigation underway, 2) determine in detail all who were wounded or dead, 3) protect the witnesses of the massacre, 4) protect the relatives of victims, 5) accompany the relatives of victims as they gave declarations about the dead bodies found in the University Hospital Morgue, as they asnwered questions about the autopsies, and as they prepared for the funerals.

Today, Oct. 3, 2005, a month and 12 days since the massacres, nothing has been done concretely, either on the part of the Haitian State, the author of these massacres, or on the part of the authorities of MINUSTAH, the UN mission in Haiti, to take hold of this matter which risks destroying the expectations of the Haitian people with respect to human rights and to the dignity of the human person in Haiti.

Consequently:

1) The victims of bullet and machete wounds cannot even go to the hospital out of fear of being arrested or finished off by their attacker
2) The bodies that were found are still in the morgue because their parents have not been able to give assurance that they would take charge of the funerals
3) The attackers (police officers and police attachés) are out walking about with complete impunity
4) The autopsies of the bodies were only taken care of after many delaying tactics.

Currently:  The Port-Au-Prince prosecutors office with the new prosecutor, Mr. Emane Alce has just begun a delaying procedure demanding that the parents of those assassinated produce I.D. Cards even though they each have their birth records, and the ID cards of the victims.  Since Friday September 30 , 2005, these parents have been given the run around just to get authorization to take the bodies.

Please, this is the time for all of you friends of justice and rights and morality, supporters of the Haitian people to cry out loudly and strongly that the State fulfill its responsibilities in this massacre, that the UN prove it is believable above all in the area of human rights currently being directed by Mr. Thierry Fagart.  It is time that the authors, co-authors and accomplices of these massacres answer for their acts.

Thierry Fagart: fagart@un.org  Fax509-244-9366
OAS Sec. Gen  Insulza  jinsulza@oas.org Fax 202-458-6836
Philip Alston, Special Rappoteur, urgent-action@ohchr.org, Fax 41-22-917-9006
Mr. Medley, Caricom, hmedley@caricom.org