Haiti Democracy Project

www.haitipolicy.org

Haiti — Jean-Bertrand Aristide

"I make a choice to protect democracy," he says to those who accuse him of tolerating impunity. Since the murder on 3 April 2000 of Jean Dominique, head of Radio Haiti Inter, impunity has been at the root of the authorities' strategy of cowing the media. Every state institution has blocked the investigation into the Dominique murder. At best, Aristide is protecting the killers, at worst he is involved in the murder himself, say many observers. Confident of not being punished, supporters of the former priest's Fanmi Lavalas party have stepped up attacks on journalists they regard as too critical. The attacks peaked in December 2001 with the murder of another radio journalist. But despite confessing, the killers have not been arrested. With the president failing to disown the actions of his supporters, more than a dozen journalists have fled into exile.

Predators

They order violations of press freedom and have others do the deed. They might be president, cabinet minister, army chief, Guide of the Revolution or leader of an armed group. All have the power to jail, kidnap, torture and even kill journalists. Because they have faces, we should learn to recognise these predators the better to denounce them.

Eduardo dos Santos
Angola Alexandre Lukashenka
Belarus François Compaoré
Burkina Faso Than Shwe
Burma
The kidnapping mafia
Chechnya Jiang Zemin
China Carlos Castaño
Colombia Manuel Marulanda
Colombia
Nicolás Rodríguez Bautista
Colombia Fidel Castro
Cuba Joseph Kabila
D.R. Congo Teodoro Obiang Nguema
Equatorial Guinea
Issaias Afeworki
Eritrea Meles Zenawi
Ethiopia Ali Khamenei
Iran Saddam Hussein
Iraq
Shaul Moffaz
Israel Kirsan Iloumjinov
Kalmykia Republic Khamtai Siphandon
Laos Moammar Gaddafi
Libya
Mahathir Mohammad
Malaysia Kim Jong-il
North Korea Palestinian Security Forces
Palestinian Authority Vladimir Putin
Russia
Paul Kagame
Rwanda Abdallah al-Saud
Saudi Arabia ETA
Spain Mswati III
Swaziland
Bashar el-Assad
Syria Gnassingbé Eyadéma
Togo Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali
Tunisia Huseyin Kivrikoglu
Turkey
Saparmurat Niyazov
Turkmenistan Leonid Kuchma
Ukraine Islam Karimov
Usbekistan Nong Duc Manh
Vietnam
Robert Mugabe
Zimbabwe