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?