Printer-friendly Version
E-mail this page to a friend

Aristide Gangs Alleged to Kill Forty Civilians After U.N. Operation

Haitian human-rights organizations on Radio Metropole, 2005-08-02

Haiti Democracy Project web page item #3153 (http://www.haitipolicy.org)

Local human rights activists are criticizing their colleagues in the international community who seem to think that there was a massacre in Cite Soleil (on July 6) during the operations carried out against former gang leader Dread Wilme (Emmanuel Wilme). These human rights officials say that they do not understand the attitude of some international organizations on this issue. Jean-Robert Francois reports as follows:

(Francois) If certain international human rights organizations speak of a massacre in connection with the operations carried out in Cité Soleil on July 6 by MINUSTAH (U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti) and the PNH (Haitian National Police), the human rights organizations in Haiti have a different view of the situation. RNDDH (National Network for the Defense of Human Rights) executive secretary Pierre Esperance says the reports of these international organizations are just a dishonest act:

"It is unacceptable for people to spread misinformation in this way, especially when it has to do with the blind violence that is prevalent in the country. I believe that these organizations ought to take up the defense of all those people whom the bandits are executing all the time and are preventing from carrying out their activities. By the way, these people have rights, too. So, these human rights organizations should take up their defense as well."

(Francois) The figures published by these human rights organizations have nothing to do with reality, explains the executive director of the Ecumenical Center for Human Rights, Jean-Claude Bajeux. According to Bajeux, the reports issued by these human rights organizations are not based on reality:

"According to the information we received from reliable sources, bandits gunned down at least forty people in Cité Soleil after the operations carried out by MINUSTAH. They killed a lot of people who they thought might rejoice over Dread Wilme's death. And yet, we have seen some reports in which some supposedly serious organizations blame MINUSTAH for the killing of these people. So, it is clear that these people are of bad faith. And most of the time, these organizations belong to a network that is largely financed by the former dictator (Jean-Bertrand Aristide) who is now in Pretoria."

(Francois) Bajeux thinks that these organizations have a special mission. He gives some examples:

"And the worse thing is that it is our money that these people are using to spread their lies. For instance, a lot of people have reported on the event that took place during Jacques Roche's funeral service. A lot of people have written about (Lavalas priest) Gerard Jean-Juste. But if Jean-Juste had had any decency, he would never have set foot in that church at that particular moment."

(Francois) Since the July 6 operations that led to the killing of Dread Wilme, some human rights organizations have spoken of a massacre. Some analysts point out that these organizations always remain silent when it is other people, including Haitian policemen, who were killed since Operation Baghdad was launched last September.