Untitled Document
August 10, 2005—By now many of you have undoubtedly heard reports of on-going
killings and massacres in poor neighhborhoods of Port-au-Prince, the latest one
apparently conducted by the Haitian police last weekend through Monday August
8 in the community of Solino. According to Haitian media outlets, quoting Solino
residents, many people were killed in a brutal invasion of a poor community reminiscent
of the assault by UN troops on Cite Soleil on July 6th. The source said that so-called
“attaches” or paramilitary death-squad elements participated with
the police in the assault, which targeted supporters of the majority Lavalas political
movement.
Haitian media organizations, quoting Solino residents, reported that machetes
were being distributed out of a National Police car to individuals attached
to the national police. Solino residents described in horrific detail the dismembered
bodies of a number of people, particularly young women, with body parts being
placed in black plastic bags, and that this morning in a ditch in Solino, dogs
had broken into some of the bags to eat the body parts. Women are being targeted
by police and the “attaches” because so many strong Lavalas community
leaders are women, and because women are playing a leading role in the pro-democracy
movement.
Now there are reports from Port-au-Prince that yet another assault on Cite
Soleil is being planned, either by UN troops or by the police or both. Bear
in mind that by recent decree of the UN Security Council, MINUSTAH (the UN Mission
in Haiti) is now officially in charge of the Haitian National Police, and therefore
bears responsibility for the indiscriminate killings by the police in Solino
this past weekend.
According to a community leader, “They are trying to dismantle the grassroots
leadership of Lavalas by killing them—in one neighborhood after another.
This is all in preparation for the sham elections they have cooked up for this
fall to try and legitimize the February 29, 2004 coup d’etat and the coup
regime. By ‘they’ I mean the death-squad government and their US,
UN, French and Canadian backers.”
Many believe these invasions by heavily armed troops and mass killings in the
poor districts are aimed at preventing mass demonstrations by the poor majority
calling for the return of their democratically elected President, Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, such as have occurred with regularity since the 2004 coup.
Action is Needed Now
Please act now and voice your protest to the relevant authorities. Call, email,
or fax the following individuals and demand:
1) an immediate halt to the violence by UN troops and the Haitian police against
unarmed people in poor communities such as Cite Soleil, Bel Air and Solino.
2) an impartial and independent human rights investigation into the July 6th
UN operation in Cite Soleil, the recent police operation in Solino this past
week-end, and similar perations in poor, popular neighborhoods over the past
year.
In addition to your US Congressional representatives, please contact the following:
US Govt. Officials:
James B. Foley
Ambassador to Haiti
phone: 011-509-222-0200, 222-0354, 222-0269, 222-0327
fax: 011-509-223-9038
UN Forces in Haiti:
Juan Gabriel Valdes
Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to
Haiti
phone: 011-509-244-9650 or 9660
fax 011-509 244 3512.
David Beer
Commissioner of CIVPOL the UN Civilian Police in Haiti
phone: 011-509-525-5279
email: beer at un.org
fax: 011-509-244-9366.
UN Human Rights Officials:
Mahamane Cissé-Gouro
Port-au-Prince
cisse-gouro at un.org
011-509-403-4012
Thierry Fagart – fagart at un.org
Louise Arbour
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
ph: 41-22-917-9000
fax: 41-22-917-9011
email: ngochr at ohchr.org
Bacre Waly Ndiaye
Director—New York Office of the UN Office of the High
Commssioner for Human Rights
ph: 212-963-1583 or 212-963-5930
fax: 212-963-3463
Other Human Rights Groups:
Amnesty International
International Secretariat
1 Easton St.
London
WCIXODW, UK
Contact: Gerardo email: Gducos at amnesty.org
Also, all Amnesty members should contact their local
chapters and organize these chapters to contact the
International Secretariat in London.
For more information contact the Haiti Action Committee,
510-483-1781, haitiaction at yahoo.com
or visit
http://www.haitiaction.net