Summary Executions by Haitian Police and MINUSTAH complicity

Recent AHP articles

Jessy Cameau Coicou affirms that the police know nothing about the summary executions of several youths but she reports that the lawyer for the police is preparing to go to court to respond to the complaints against the force

Port-au-Prince, January 26, 2005 (AHP)-National police spokesperson Jessy Cameau Coicou said Wednesday that the police have no knowledge regarding the cases of several youths who were killed during police operations in the populist districts.

The spokesperson, who commented at a news briefing, declared that she only learned about the cases of Jimmy Charles, Ederson Joseph and journalist Abdias Jean through the media.

The bullet-ridden body of Jimmy Charles was found at the morgue of the General Hospital while he was supposed to be in the hands of the police after having been initially taken into custody by MINUSTAH.

The second victim, a student in his 6th year of primary school, was killed at his home on Pouplard Avenue in Port-au-Prince.

The third, a radio journalist , was a correspondent for a Miami station.

Jessy Cameau Coicou said that the legal counsel for the police force is preparing to appear in court to respond to the complaints filed against the institution in connection with these killings.

AHP January 26, 2005 1:30 PM

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The human rights organizations CDPH and GADH deplore that the authors of the summary executions remain at large and denounce the indifference of MINUSTAH
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Port-au-Prince, January 26, 2005 (AHP)- CPDH (Committee for the Defense of the Rights of the Haitian People) held a sit-in outside the prosecutor's office in Port-au-Prince to demand that action be taken by the authorities to shed light on the executions of Lavalas activist Jimmy Charles, a student named Ederson Joseph, and journalist Abdias Jean.

CDPH director Ronald St-Jean deplored that no action has been taken by MINUSTAH and the police to find the authors of these summary executions committed over the past few weeks.

Mr. St Jean said he has met with MINUSTAH and CIVPOL officials in this context and urged these international authorities to avoid becoming accomplices in these abuses.

For its part, GADH (the Action Group for the Def4nse of Human Rights) declared that it is shocked and sickened at the conduct of officers of the national police toward residents of certain populist districts of the capital.

In a letter of protest sent to AHP, GADH also cited the same cases of extra-judicial executions in which the police have allegedly been implicated.

According to GADH, this situation is even more critical because the events that have been reported took place in broad daylight and in a systematic manner that was visible and audible to MINUSTAH. These executions, alleged GADH, also were carried out in collusion with certain human rights organizations reputed to be close to the interim government.

In GADH's view, it is always the same script: dozens of hooded police officers accompanied by numerous attachés invade the neighborhoods whose residents are reputed to be close to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and begin shooting at anything that moves, taking care to finish off the wounded before leaving, thus enabling their spokesperson, Jessy Cameau Coicou to declare later in a rote manner simply that bandits had been killed during clashes with the police.

The organization expressed hope that urgent steps will be taken by the appropriate authorities to stop this time bomb in the form of death squads that afflicts without pity the residents of the populist districts and that justice will be rendered to the families of the victims in order that peace and the national dialogue spoken of by everyone will be given a chance.

Several victims of the police raids in the populist districts have indicated they have refused to tell their stories to certain Haitian human rights organizations.

In the past, whenever a victim came forward to seek the assistance of a human rights organization, the police would immediately storm the homes of those who complained of abuses, said a young man from Cité de Dieu, who fled the neighborhood along with his entire family due to persecution he said he had suffered from the police and the attachés.

Dozens of families hase fled Cité de Dieu and taken refuge in the hills of some districts of the capital such as Martissant after repeated raids by hooded police, said several residents.

It was in this neighborhood that journalist Abdias Jean was riddled with bullets on January 14 after he had seen the police execute two youths, according to several accounts.

AHP January 26, 2005 12:35 PM

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The lawyer for the family of three young victims of summary execution files a complaint against senior interim authorities
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Port-au-Prince, January 25, 2005 (AHP)- Mario Joseph, the lawyer representing the families of Lavalas activist Jimmy Charles, the student Ederson Joseph and the journalist Abdias Jean, filed a complaint this Tuesday before the Court of First Instance of Port-au-Prince against the authors of the killings of the three young people on January 13.

According to Mario Joseph, this complaint concerns the President of the Superior C"