U.N. envoy in Haiti wants jailed ex-PM released
24 Jun 2005 00:24:30 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Joseph Guyler Delva

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, June 23 (Reuters) - The U.N. special envoy to
Haiti called on Haitian authorities on Thursday to release former
Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, jailed a year ago on accusations he
masterminded a massacre in February 2004.

Neptune, who served under former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was
accused of instigating what Aristide foes have called a massacre of
government opponents on Feb. 11, 2004, in a village near St.-Marc, 60
miles (100 km) north of Port-au-Prince. The deaths -- versions of how
many people died range up to 50 -- occurred during an armed revolt
that forced Aristide from power last year.

Neptune, who was charged in May, has rejected the accusations, which
he says were politically motivated, and has reportedly refused food
since mid-April to protest his detention.

U.N. envoy Juan Gabriel Valdes criticized the way the judicial system
had handled Neptune's case and suggested the former prime minister
could be freed while the case was prosecuted.

"Our appreciation of the legal system and the procedures followed
indicate to us that it would be perfectly possible to release Mr.
Neptune from prison even if his case continued to be processed,"
Valdes told reporters.

"We believe that serious attention should be given to Neptune's
release," he said.

The Neptune case has become a focal point for critics of the interim
government that replaced Aristide and is battling chronic political
and criminal violence in the poorest country in the Americas. Critics
say authorities have rounded up many Aristide supporters without
cause. The government has denied any political persecution.

Journalists and human rights activists who visited the scene the day
after the suspected massacre in La Syrie was announced saw five
bodies, but other groups have said up to 50 people were killed.

A U.N. independent expert on human rights, Louis Joinet, rejected the
notion of a massacre after he visited St.-Marc in April. Joinet said
people who died were killed in confrontations between pro- and
anti-Aristide groups in St-Marc during February last year and there
were victims on both sides.

The government appointed a new justice minister this week to replace
Bernard Gousse, who had been criticized for the Neptune case and for a
chaotic judicial system in which most of those in prison have not been
tried.