Text 13074, 56 rader
Skriven 2005-05-29 21:22:26 av Alan Hess
Ärende: help democracy in our area?
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http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-ed.haiti29may29,1,2936599.story?c
oll=bal-pe-opinion
Hungering for justice



May 29, 2005

MOST AMERICANS HAVE never heard of Yvon Neptune, the jailed former prime
minister of Haiti who has been on a hunger strike since April 17, but his
decision to starve himself speaks volumes about the failure of U.S. policy in
Haiti. And it underscores the hypocrisy of the Bush administration's policy of
engaged diplomacy in defense of human rights and democracy around the world.

Mr. Neptune has been held without trial in a Haitian prison since June 2004. He
is refusing food to protest his detention for allegedly ordering the massacre
of 50 opponents of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, whose government
Mr. Neptune served. The accusations are widely believed to be politically
motivated. Mr. Neptune insists he is innocent, and the reluctance of the
U.S.-backed interim Haitian government to try him in court and provide evidence
of his involvement in the murders supports his claim. Unlike other former
government officials who fled the country after Mr. Aristide's March 2004
ouster, Mr. Neptune turned himself in last year when a warrant was issued for
his arrest. Three months ago, when gunmen stormed the national penitentiary
where he was being held, 500 inmates, including Mr. Neptune, were freed in the
ensuing chaos. He promptly turned himself in to authorities again.

The Haitian government has offered to let Mr. Neptune leave the country, but he
refuses to go unless the allegations against him are officially withdrawn or he
is given his day in court. His imprisonment, along with that of about 1,000
others held without trial or formal charges, many of them Aristide supporters,
is emblematic of a corrupt and politicized justice system. This selective
adherence to judicial processes may explain the recent decision by the Haitian
Supreme Court to overturn the convictions of 38 army and paramilitary leaders
in the 1994 killings of more than a dozen Aristide supporters. Among the
convictions overturned where those of Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a death squad
leader who helped lead the rebellion that toppled Mr. Aristide.

Haiti appears no closer to political reconciliation today than in the early
days after Mr. Aristide's fall, when the streets were literally on fire. Deadly
clashes between disparate political factions remain as predictable as the hot
weather. More than 500 people have been killed in the past eight months.
Chances for successful presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for
the fall are tenuous. And on Thursday, the U.S. State Department ordered
nonessential embassy personnel out of the country after gunmen fired several
shots at an embassy van traveling in the Haitian capital. U.S. citizens were
also urged to leave because of security risks.

If the Bush administration is serious about supporting democracy around the
world, where better than in Haiti, which is in our geographic back yard? It's
not just Mr. Neptune's health that is in peril, it's also Haiti's.

Copyright + 2005, The Baltimore Sun

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