AHP News - August 22, 2005 - English translation (Unofficial)
New cases of "lynchings" in the Grande Ravine district: between seven and 15 people are said to have been hacked to death by machete
Port-au-Prince, August 22, 2005 (AHP)- Several people were hacked to death and close to a dozen others were injured Saturday and Sunday in the populist district of Grand' Ravine as a soccer match was taking place.
The mutilated victims were accused of being "bandits".
Some witnesses said that seven people were murdered while others said the toll was more than a dozen. Pro-government sources said that only two or three people were killed.
For his part, Lionel Mondestin, one of the leaders of MUR (Republican Unity Movement) who lives in the Grand Ravine district, indicated that some 20 people were murdered during this attack.
According to Lionel Mondestin, members of the National Police accompanied by men armed with machetes looking for presumed bandits encircled the neighborhood before the killings started.
He also indicated that MINUSTAH officers were present at the scene.
Efforts to obtain a reaction from MINUSTAH regarding this incident have been unsuccessful.
As for the Haitian police, PNH spokesperson Gessy Cameau Coicou indicated she was not aware of the reported killings. "I have not yet received any report on these incidents", she said.
Several homes were also set on fire during the grave incidents at Grand Ravine.
"This is unacceptable", said the MUR leader, asserting that these criminal acts are part of a vast campaign of instant justice.
He called for the arrest of the killers and their accomplices and for them to be turned over to the judicial authorities. Several area residents have abandoned their homes for fear of being murdered.
A spokesperson for Fanmi Lavalas, Marc Floreste, condemned the criminal acts that took place in Grand-Ravine.
He appealed to human rights organizations and the international community to assume their responsibilities in the face of these repugnant acts perpetrated at the very moment when the public is asked to take part in the electoral process.
Many sectors recently spoke out in condemnation of the distribution of machetes in the populist districts carried out with the intention of finding ways to provoke area residents to kill one another.