Gunmen Take Haiti Ex-Prime Minister YvonNeptune From Prison

[XXPANTHAXX]

HLLN Notes: Reuters tell one story (See below). AP another:
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=516034
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Lately, it would seems whenever high ranking U.S. officials
visit Haiti - there are currently three former U.S.
ambassadors who are in Haiti right now looking at feasibility
of election and assessing "security concerns" for said U.S.
elections in Haiti; or, as on Dec. 1, 2004 when Colin Powell
was in Haiti) - something horrible for the Haitian poor
happens at the Latortue/Foley Haitian concentration camp,
known as, the National Penitentiary.

Let us never lose our focus. It is NOT Haitian infighting
that has brought Haiti to this precipice, this death trap.
But said same US high ranking officials and their policies to
destroy democracy in Haiti at any cost, with any Haitian
life, so that their corporatocracy may rule Haiti through
Washington puppets like Latortue or Bazin, or Apaid, et al.

They will invent ANY storyline to keep us from focusing on
that truth. But we shall not be distracted. The conflicts
manufactured into Haiti has cost us way too much blood.
-- Download the Human Rights Report at:
http://www.law.miami.edu/cshr/

Marguerite Laurent, Esq.
February 19, 2005
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Gunmen take Haiti ex-Prime Minister from prison

2005-02-20 10:14

Gunmen stormed Haiti's main prison on Saturday and drove away
with jailed former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and other
inmates linked to ousted ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
witnesses said.

Two girls looked at the body of slain prison guard Pierre
Marie Gurrier Romeus, killed outside the National
Penitentiary, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on February 19, 2005,
only a few hours after scores of armed men broke into the
institution and freed around 480 prisoners, including former
Prime Minister Yvon Neptune. Witnesses said the armed men
were from the gangs claiming allegiance to former President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was overthrown on Feb. 29, 2004.
Neptune was his prime minister. [Reuters]

Neptune and former Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert
appeared to have been taken out at gunpoint by the attackers,
who sent poorly armed prison guards fleeing the National
Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince, they said.

A police source speaking on condition of anonymity said up to
500 of the prison's 1,200 inmates may have escaped during the
attack. One off-duty prison guard was killed.

"I saw three gunmen escorting Neptune and several other
prisoners and force them to get into the back of a double-cab
white pickup," said Jacques Dameus, who said he was in front
of the prison at the time.

"When they arrived at the gate of the National Penitentiary,
Neptune did not want to walk any further. One gunman raised
his weapon and forced him to walk and get into the pickup,"
Dameus told Reuters.

Neither the police nor the interim government, which jailed
Neptune and Privert on charges of violence, made any
statement on the prison break.

But deputy public prosecutor Carvest Jean said afterward that
neither Neptune nor Privert, who their supporters say are
victims of political persecution against allies of Aristide,
remained in the prison.

Residents of the area said the heavily armed gunmen arrived
in three vehicles. They entered the prison shooting and
guards fled.

Bullet casings littered the ground outside the prison later
and bullet holes pockmarked the walls of nearby houses.

International police who are part of a 7,000-strong Brazilian-
led U.N. force trying to keep the peace in the chaotic and
impoverished Caribbean country arrived later and began
interviewing witnesses.

Several witnesses mentioned the white pickup truck and said
its license plate had been folded over to obscure its number.

A woman said some of the attackers wore T-shirts with
"Haitian National Police" written on them while the rest were
in casual clothes.

The guard who was killed, Omeus Guerrier, 25, was outside the
jail at the time of the attack.

In addition to Neptune and Privert, who had been jailed for
several months without being indicted, witnesses said the
gunmen took away a former soldier named Anel Belzaire, who
had been arrested after weapons were found in his car.

Almost a year after Aristide fled an armed revolt -- his
stature as the father of Haitian democracy and champion of
the country's poor sullied by charges of despotism and
corruption -- Haiti remains torn by political violence.

The government is pitted against street gangs still loyal to
Aristide, and its once warm relations with former soldiers
who helped lead the revolt against Aristide have chilled
under their repeated demands for the re-establishment of the
army.
*******
Forwarded by the Haitian Lawyers' Leadership Network
******

"Men anpil chay pa lou" is Kreyol for - "Many hands make
light a heavy load."

See, The Haitian Leadership Networks' 7 "Men Anpil Chay Pa
Lou" campaigns to help restore Haiti's independence, the will
of the mass electorate and the rule of law.
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/law/lawpress.html
*******************
Here is what you can do to help us help the people of Haiti:
**********************
HLLN - Action Requested from Haiti solidarity groups and
activists for justice and democracy

Please circulate our mailings and posts to your mailing list
and e-mail contacts.

Read, adopt and circulate the Haiti Resolution (see below)
from the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network:
http://www.sfbayview.com/080404/hait...on080404.shtml,
and/or the Porto Alegre Declarations on Haiti adopted at the
World Social Forum in 2005:
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pre...claration.html

Circulate the human rights reports, especially the latest
Miami Law Center report
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/cam...ignone/human_r
ights_reports/c1humanrightsreports.html

Do Press Work: Join our letter writing campaigns to help free
the political prisoners in Haiti, stop the persecution of
Haiti's most popular political party and restore
Constitutional rule. Write a letter, call the media, fax, -
See our Press Work page for sample letters and contact
information:
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/cam...ignone/presswo
rk/pressreleases_hll.html

Volunteers to maintain and send us updated or new phone
numbers and addresses to put on our Contact Information Sheet
pages for our Network's pressworks
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/law/lawpress.html

Virtual interns and volunteers are needed to help us
translate selected materials into French, Kreyol, or Spanish
to reach a wider audience; Volunteers with some research and
computer skills are also needed to help us update our "list
of victims" and "Personal Testimonies" pages under Campaign
One. (We have the materials, what we don't have we know where
to extrapolate them, but need help to put it together and
into the format pages on our website for "List of Victims"
and "Personal Testimonies": See:
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/cam...ignone/campaig
none.html

HLLN Networkers are urged, in addition to the general writing
campaigns and e-mail circulations, to also consider
volunteering as primary coordinators/contributors to one of
our seven campaigns
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/cam...campaigns.html

One internet savvy volunteer interested in logging and
archiving, on our new Ezili Danto blog, (not yet unveiled)
the regular Erzilidanto posts we send out so that those who
only want to see these at their leisure or who cannot receive
daily mailings will have access to these materials and posts,
in an archived format.

Fundraise for the work of HLLN, donate to our projects, or,
better yet, earn money, save lives and spread meaning and
value by becoming an HLLN Marketing Associate trained to
train other HLLN Associates and licensed to use our logo and
HLLN materials to sponsor a "To Tell The Truth about Haiti
Forum and Teach-In."
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/DNC...ideshow/DNC_20
04_01.htm

Proceeds from such teach-ins will go to pay the Associate and
to continue the work of HLLN projects, such as, our
partnership with AUMOHD, the young human rights lawyers in
Haiti who are defending the defenseless poor whose only crime
is that they voted for Lavalas, supported Constitutional rule
or are resisting a return of the bloody U.S.-trained Haitian
army and US-sponsored dictatorship. For information on
AUMOHD, go to: http://www.april6vt.org/

*********
The Haiti Resolution:

1. Support the return of constitutional rule to Haiti by
restoring all elected officials of all parties to their
offices throughout the country until the end of their
mandates and another election is held, as mandated by Haiti's
Constitution;

2. Condemn the killings, illegal imprisonment and
confiscation of the property of supporters of Haiti's
constitutional government and insist that Haiti's
illegitimate "interim government" immediately cease its own
persecution and put a stop to persecution by the thugs and
murderers from sectors in their police force, from the
paramilitaries, gangs and former soldiers;

3. Insist on the immediate release of all political prisoners
in Haitian jails, including Prime Minister Yvon Neptune,
other constitutional government officials and folksinger-
activist Sò Ann;

4. Insist on the disarmament of the thugs, death squad
leaders and convicted human rights violators and their
prosecution for all crimes committed during the attack on
Haiti's elected government and help rebuild Haiti's police
force, ensuring that it excludes anyone who helped to
overthrow the democratically elected government or who
participated in other human rights violations;

5. Stop the indefinite detention and automatic repatriation
of Haitian refugees and immediately grant Temporary Protected
Status to all Haitian refugees presently in the United States
until democracy is restored to Haiti; and

6. Support the calls by the OAS, CARICOM and the African
Union for an investigation into the circumstances of
President Aristide's removal. Support the enactment of
Congresswoman Barbara Lee's T.R.U.T.H Act (HR 3919) which
calls for U.S. Congressional investigation of the forcible
removal of the democratically elected President and
government of Haiti.
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