Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti

Preliminary Report on Police/Civilian Attacks on August 20 and 21 in Grande Ravine

August 24, 2005

 This is a preliminary report on the basis of interviews with over 20 witnesses who gave credible, mutually consistent testimony, corroborated by onsite investigations.

August 20 Football Massacre

 On Saturday, August 20, an estimated 4,000-6,000 persons were present at l’Eglise Ste. Bernadette/l’Ecole Rose Mère, a church/school complex in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Martissant, watching summer vacation football (soccer) matches. The presence of national team players had attracted an overflow crowd, and those who could not find seats or standing room by the field watched from the top of the nearby Mère Rose school building.

Witnesses report that several police officers accompanied by civilians armed with machetes encircled the stadium perimeter, then entered the field area. Witnesses report they initially believed the police had come to provide security, but the police approached the Disc Jockey running the entertainment system and told him to tell everyone present to lie down on the ground.

At this point, witnesses report that someone fired a single shot in the air, and several people ran to leave the stadium. Chaos ensued, and witnesses report that the police shot several individuals, including people who were trying to escape over the walls of the stadium, and others who remained in the main area.

When the police stopped shooting, the armed civilians proceeded to inspect the people lying on the ground, one after another. After inspection by the civilians, some people were allowed to go, and others were hacked with machetes by the civilians. The police and civilian attackers claimed they were looking for gang members.

Many persons were hacked to death with machetes or hacked and then shot by the police. Killings occurred inside of the stadium as well as in several areas surrounding the church. Many witness report that police ambulances carried away the dead bodies. Other people were reported to have been arrested, but were later found in the morgue by their family members. Other families report that three days later they still have not found individuals who were taken away by police.

Estimates of the number of victims vary as several individuals were taken away and bodies were scattered in several areas inside and around the church. Bodies were reported in toilets in the stadium, the grassy area at the edges of the stadium, on the basketball court, in corridors around the church, around the walls of the stadium (some were shot trying to escape over the walls), and in an area where an electoral registration office is located. Witnesses believe some people were suffocated in the stampede to leave the stadium. The most common estimates of deaths range between 25 and 30.

II. August 21 House Raids

itnesses report that on Sunday, August 21, at approximately 10 am, police trucks with several officers in black and camouflage uniforms and hoods arrived in Grande Ravine.  They were accompanied by approximately seven civilians armed with machetes. The group went to the home of Arens Laguerre, a televison cameraman and anti-government activist who was illegally arrested in May 2004, and only released after protests by press freedom organizations.  Mr. Laguerre was able to escape and witnessed subsequent events from a safe place.  He and other witnesses in the area heard the police and civilians with them say "La se kay yon rat," (“there is the house of a rat”). Rat is a derogatory term the police use to designate supporters of the Lavalas movement. 

The attackers continued up the hillside into the area of Ti Jasmin, where they burned four homes.   The machete-wielding civilians, some of whom were recognized by witnesses as participants in the August 20 football massacre, went from home to home identifying individuals and houses. Houses of suspected Lavalas supporters were ignited, and their occupants dragged outside.  Some people were shot, others were hacked to death or severely wounded with machetes. At least 5-6 young men are believed to have been killed on the spot.  Others were arrested by the police and then handed over to civilians to be hacked with machetes.  Witnesses reported that police loaded persons into a long black Toyota Landcruiser used as an ambulance and removed them from the scene.