August 24, 2005
Mr. Philip Alston
Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions
c/o OHCHR-UNOG,
1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Re: Letter of Allegation-Police Massacres in Haiti, August 20 and 21, 2005
Dear Mr. Alston:
I am writing to urge you to make an urgent appeal to the Interim Government of Haiti (IGH) and the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) regarding the recent series of extrajudicial executions by Haitian police and associated civilians, including attacks in Bel Air on August 10 and in Grande Ravine over the past weekend. I also request that you conduct an investigation of the series of police killings over the last year, that have been documented in human rights reports and the media, but never in public reports by the Haitian police or MINUSTAH.
The account of the incidents, below, is based on over twenty witness accounts given to separate investigators for the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) that are mutually consistent and credible, and corroborated by photographs and a site visit. We are not reporting the names of the victims at this time, other than one survivor who has made public declarations, as we have not been able to obtain consent from the families, many of whom are at risk of retaliation.
This communication is preliminary, as IJDH’s investigation is ongoing. We felt it necessary to send a preliminary report now, as this is an emergency situation involving large numbers of deaths already and the prospects of many more. We will provide additional information as it becomes available.
- Football Match Massacre, Saturday August 20, 2005
(1) Information regarding the incident:
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 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. (See also Haitian Press Association Report, attached as Exhibit A).
(2) Information regarding the victims of the incident;
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 witnesses 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 had not found individuals who were taken away by police.
Estimates of the number of victims vary as several bodies were taken away and bodies were scattered throughout the church/school complex. 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.
Victims report that most of the victims were poor, young men, who are the most frequent targets of police abuse. At least two women were reported killed as well. We will provide additional information on victims as more information is confirmed and family members consent to disclosure of the victims’ identities.
(3) Information regarding the alleged perpetrators:
Witnesses report that the perpetrators were uniformed officers of the Haitian National Police (HNP), and civilians accompanying them, armed with machetes. We have not received reliable identification of individual perpetrators, but have received several second-hand reports that the operation was led by the HNP’s Judicial Police Unit (DCPJ).
The football match massacre was another in a series of attacks in which machete-wielding groups attacked civilians with police support. In this incident, as well as an incident on Sunday, August 21, and another incident in Bel Air on August 10, the police actually accompanied the death squads. In other cases, the death squads have made similar attacks without a police presence.
(4) Information regarding the source of the allegations:
This letter of allegation is being submitted by the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), an NGO based in the United States with an office in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. IJDH’s address is PO Box 745, Joseph, Oregon, 97846, telephone number is 541-432-0597, email is brian@ijdh.org. IJDH’s director is Brian Concannon Jr., a U.S. citizen.
- Arson/Machete Attack on Grande Ravine Residential Neighborhood, Sunday August 21, 2005
- Information regarding the incident:
Witnesses 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 journalist Arens Laguerre. 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 report that police loaded persons into a long black Toyota Landcruiser used as an ambulance and removed them from the scene.
(2) Information regarding the victims of the incident;
Arens Laguerre is a televison cameraman with the Tele Timoun radio station, which was illegally closed by the IGH in May, 2004, and an activist with the Lavalas party of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was ousted in a February, 2004 coup d’etat. Mr. Laguerre was illegally arrested and imprisoned by the HNP in May 2004, and only released after protests by press freedom organizations (see report of the Committee to Protect Journalists, attached as Exhibit B). Victims report that those killed were poor, young men. The attackers explicitly targeted houses of Lavalas party supporters. We will provide additional information on victims as more information is confirmed and family members consent to disclosure of the victims’ identities.
(3) Information regarding the alleged perpetrators:
Witnesses report that the perpetrators were uniformed officers of the Haitian National Police (HNP), and civilians accompanying them, armed with machetes. We have not received reliable identification of individual perpetrators, but have received several second-hand reports that the operation was led by the HNP’s Judicial Police (DCPJ).
The arson/machete attack was the latest in a series of attacks in which machete-wielding groups attacked civilians with police support. In this incident, as well as the Football Match Massacre of Sunday, August 21, and another incident in Bel Air on August 10, the police actually accompanied the death squads. In other cases, the death squads have made similar attacks without a police presence.
(4) Information regarding the source of the allegations:
This letter of allegation is being submitted by the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), an NGO based in the United States with an office in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. IJDH’s address is PO Box 745, Joseph, Oregon, 97846, telephone number is 541-432-0597, email is brian@ijdh.org. IJDH’s director is Brian Concannon Jr., a U.S. citizen.
- Previous Incidents
The attacks of August 20 and 21 fall into an escalating pattern of HNP killings with civilian help. On August 10, several witnesses reported that police and civilians armed with machetes killed at least ten people in Bel Air (see articles from the Associated Press, Haitian Press Association and the Village Voice, attached as Exhibits C-E). In the previous year, the HNP perpetrated several massacres, including an attack on the Fort National neighborhood in October, 2004 (see Amnesty International report, attached as Exhibit F), and a prison massacre on December 1, 2004 (see IJDH prison massacre report, attached as Exhibit G). There have been no announced results of investigations into any of these incidents, and there is no public record of any of the perpetrators receiving punishment, or the victim’s families any compensation.
- Response of MINUSTAH
MINUSTAH did announce an investigation into the August 10 killings. But the mission also announced investigations into the December 1 prison massacre and the October Fort National killings, and never issued a report on either event. In fact, MINUSTAH has not issued a single report on any human rights violation by the HNP in its fifteen months of existence.
MINUSTAH’s has supervisory authority over the HNP as a result of its Security Council mandate to "restructure and reform the Haitian National Police, consistent with democratic policing standards." It should use that mandate to make sure that the police are not organizing massacres.
The Mission also has a mandate to “protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence.” All of these incidents happened in the capitol, Port-au-Prince, most in broad daylight. MINUSTAH has over 7,000 soldiers and police officers in Haiti, including tow bunkers full of soldiers in Bel Air, and a post acr oss the street from Saturday’s football game massacre in Grande Ravine.
I urge you to take all possible measures to ensure that this series of police killings is denounced and stopped. I also urge you to ensure that the past killings are investigated and the perpetrators punished.
Sincerely,
Brian Concannon Jr.
Director, Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti
EXHIBIT A
Association Haitienne de Presse 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.
EXHIBIT B
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EXHIBIT C
Published August 10. 2005 10:42PM
Witnesses: Haiti Police Kill 5 in Raid
By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU
Associated Press Writer
Police stormed a volatile slum in the capital Wednesday in an attack on well-armed gangs that witnesses said left at least five people dead - including a pregnant woman and a teenage boy.
The witnesses said the police, some of them masked, fired indiscriminately during the operation in the Bel-Air slum. Police then stood by as men in civilian clothes attacked suspected gang members loyal to ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Police spokeswoman Gessy Coicou said the officers raided Bel-Air to arrest gang members but only opened fire because a mob was trying to lynch some of the suspects before they could be arrested. She said one or two people had been killed, but said she had no further details.
One witness, 25-year-old Genel Gilo, said police fired at him and others as they hid inside a house in the massive slum, killing the teenage boy. They brought the youth to U.N. peacekeepers, using a door as a makeshift stretcher, but he died on the way.
"We brought him back here for his family to find him," Gilo said as he stood near the corpse hours after the raid.
Nearby, Peterson Larose, 18, wept as he described how the civilians accompanying the officers stabbed to death his 17-year-old pregnant girlfriend.
Witnesses said the civilians who came with the officers lynched three other people as police watched. Video footage taken by a news agency appeared to support their account.
Human rights groups have long accused Haiti's police force of killing Aristide supporters under the pretext of restoring order to the violent capital.
In a report last month, the human rights group Amnesty international said Haiti's ill-equipped police force executes and arbitrarily arrests people with impunity. It also criticized the U.N. for not preventing such police action.
The 7,600-member peacekeeping mission is intensifying operations to stop a wave of shootings and kidnappings that could threaten November elections meant to replace the interim government set up after the February 2004 rebellion that forced Aristide into exile.
EXHIBIT D
Haitian Police Distribute Machetes in Bel Air
by Aina Hunter, The Village Voice (US weekly)
August 19th, 2005
In what some are describing as a new tactic employed by Haiti's notorious national police to control the slums of Port-au-Prince, last week officers were seen distributing machetes to a group of residents in the impoverished neighborhood of Bel Air--setting them loose on their neighbors.
Human rights groups have long accused the Haitian police of terrorizing poor neighborhoods believed to be power bases for exiled President Aristide ever since the February 2004 coup, and in the months leading up to the elections planned for this fall, activists say police oppression has increased. A community leader--who insisted on anonymity--says that Lavalas has splintered into warring factions, with innocent people caught in the middle of the violence. He believes that police are taking advantage of the infighting by arming those willing to cooperate with them.
According to the AP witnesses told reporters that on Wednesday, Aug 10, black-uniformed police entered the slum and fired randomly, injuring several people. Some wore masks.
One week later, filmmaker/independent journalist Kevin Pina spoke to the Voice from Bel Air after he questioned a group of residents who witnessed the bloodshed.
"The police rode in on four jeeps and one small pickup," he says people told him. "When they stopped firing, they handed machetes off the back of the truck to people in what seemed to be some sort of pre-arrangement. It's hard to say how many machetes, [my sources] are just saying 'a lot, a lot.' A pregnant teenager was running away from the gunfire. She tripped and fell, and four men started hacking her. The police just watched. Everyone was running away; they were targeting the injured."
A portion of the witnesses' accounts were captured on film by a news agency and shown on French television.
Pina says at least two people are dead, with six seriously injured. Earlier news reports placed the number of dead at a minimum of five. Haiti's infrastructure and record-keeping system is now so degraded it is difficult to positively confirm deaths. When it comes to the very poor, death certificates are rarely issued and many corpses never see the inside of a morgue. If there is no family to dig a grave, bodies are left to rot in vacant lots.
Although there have been reports of men being "lynched," no one was actually hung by the neck. Victims were shot at by police and hacked to death by a "lynch mob" armed by police. (The problem was likely in the French-English translation.)
MINUSTAH, the U.N. mission in Haiti, may bear a certain level of responsibility for the actions of the police. Installed three months after Aristide's controversial ousting, their mandate is, in part, to "restructure and reform the Haitian National Police, consistent with democratic policing standards."
MINUSTAH spokesperson Damian Onses Cardona told the Voice that MINUSTAH was not made aware of the deadly incursion until the next day, when the story hit the media. When asked how this could be possible, given the fact that MINUSTAH has two large bunkers full of peacekeepers in Bel Air, staffed 24 hours a day, Cardona said that "gunfire is not that unusual in Bel Air." He added that a hotline has been set up so that people can phone to anonymously report violence--police and otherwise. "We are going to investigate this," he said.
EXHIBIT E
Association Haitienne de Presse News August 11, 2005
English translation (Unofficial)
10 new persons lynched including one who was burned alive in the populist district of Bel-air: the authors of these acts express their satisfaction
Port-au-Prince , August 11, 2005 (AHP)- Individuals congratulated themselves Thursday for the murder the day before in the populist district of Bel-Air of at least 10 people accused of being bandits and kidnappers.
At least one of the persons murdered, a man named Shaba, was burned alive.
The authors of these executions declared on the air of radio stations of the capital that they had the police’s support in their actions against those they called bandits and who gave them a hard time. Bel-air and shantytown Cité Soleil are known to be neighbourhoods where kidnappers usually take their hostages.
Police officials themselves had declared Wednesday that residents of the populist district of Solino had been lynched by other individuals. At least forty people who were shot have been registered at the morgue of the University of Haiti Hospital.
Several sectors also denounced the distribution of machetes in populist districts such as Bel-air and Solino to get residents to tear each other to pieces.
Director of the Ecumenical Center of Human Rights Jean-Claude Bajeux denounces this new form of summary justice, accusing a certain sector of taking advantage of the time of confusion to force residents to make their own justice. Authorities must assume their responsibilities in the fight against insecurity even though the population must be able to protect itself, Bajeux declared. He said he believes that this practice can go very far.
Before this new form of violence- lynching- policemen were accused of perpetrating summary executions in populist districts and of repression of peaceful demonstrations. Several residents of Bel-air called the MINUSTAH to intervene in order to avoid more lynching. Wanting to re-establish peace in order to hold elections cannot justify in any case summary executions, the residents denounced.
About the cases of lynching registered Wednesday in Bel-Air, the spokesperson of Lavalas activists, Sanba Boukman rejected the “maneuvers” aiming to make people believe that residents of Bel-air would be involved in these crimes. Those acts are committed by people brought by the police, he declared, adding that at least a dozen persons were lynched only Wednesday.
EXHIBIT F
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE
AI Index: AMR 36/060/2004 (Public)
News Service No: 284
11 November 2004
Haiti : Amnesty International calls on the transitional government to set up an independent commission of enquiry into summary executions attributed to members of the Haitian National Police
- Tuesday, 26 October, Fort National, Port-au-Prince. Individuals reported to be members of the police burst into a house and kill at least seven people;
- Wednesday, 27 October, Carrefour Péan, Port-au-Prince. Four young men are killed in the street in broad daylight by individuals wearing black uniforms and balaclavas. Witnesses identify their vehicles as police patrol cars.
- Martissant, October. A 13-year-old street child is arrested near the National Theatre by the naval police. At the police station, he is questioned about the hiding places being used by the "chimères" (armed groups said to be supporters of former President Aristide) are hiding and brutally beaten by police while handcuffed and blindfolded.
- Martissant, 20 October. A man is arrested in front of witnesses by individuals wearing black uniforms and balaclavas. They put a plastic bag over his head before brutally beating him. He is being detained at a police station in the capital.
At the end of an 18-day visit to the country during which a delegation headed by Javier Zúñiga, Special Adviser to the organization’s Secretary General, went to Port-au-Prince, Mirebalais, Hinche, Cap-Haïtien, Gonaïves and Petit-Goâve, Amnesty International has concluded that there are serious problems with the functioning of the justice system in general and the functioning of the police in particular. These problems must be addressed urgently by the transitional government.
Amnesty International is deeply concerned at reports obtained from independent sources of serious human rights violations such as arbitrary arrests, ill-treatment in detention centres and extrajudicial executions carried out by members of the Haitian National Police (Police Nationale d’Haïti).
The organization has received detailed reports of incidents in which individuals dressed in black, wearing balaclavas and travelling in cars with National Police markings have been implicated in killings which have cost the lives of at least 11 people over the past two weeks.
Javier Zúñiga said that only an independent, impartial and transparent investigation carried out under the direction of the International Civilian Police would restore the population’s confidence in those responsible for law enforcement and in the work of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).
This request, together with other Amnesty International concerns, was presented to the Prime Minister of Haiti, Gerard Latortue, during a meeting which was also attended, at his request, by the Minister of Justice, Bernard Gousse, the Minister of the Interior, Hérard Abraham, and the Director General of the National Police, Léon Charles, as well as the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Representative, Juan Gabriel Valdés, his deputy, Adama Guindo, the head of the International Civilian Police, David Lee, and other members of the interim government and MINUSTAH.
Amnesty International recognizes the difficulties currently facing the transitional government, many of which are the legacy of the actions of the previous government of Jean Bertrand Aristide. However, the organization believes that none of these difficulties can be used by state officials to justify the carrying out of human rights violations with complete impunity.
Amnesty International also reminded the government of its absolute and unreserved condemnation of the killing of police officers and other abuses committed by irregular armed groups, regardless of their political affiliation, as contained in a public statement issued on 8 October 2004 which said that "Amnesty International condemns in the strongest terms the beheading of National Police officers, supposedly by Lavalas supporters" (AMR 36/054/2004).
As far as the justice system is concerned, Amnesty International expressed concern to the Prime Minister about the situation of illegality created by the fact that several police stations have been occupied by demobilized members of the military who are discharging de facto judicial duties by acting on arrest warrants issued by magistrates (juges de paix), examining magistrates (juges d’instruction) and government commissioners (commissaires du gouvernement). The holding of individuals in custody in buildings controlled by demobilized soldiers is also unlawful and increases the vulnerability of the detainees concerned. Amnesty International calls on the transitional government to put an immediate end to this state of affairs which, in some cases, has been taking place in close proximity to MINUSTAH positions.
Amnesty International is also surprised at the increasing number of people who the National Police are holding without following legal procedures. The fact that several of those arrested have been held for long periods without charge therefore makes such arrests unlawful.
Amnesty International believes that the lack of an effective disarmament programme throughout the country is a major cause of the current crisis and reiterates its request to the interim government and MINUSTAH to assume their responsibilities in this respect.
Lastly, Javier Zúñiga warned the interim government of the impending humanitarian crisis developping in Cité Soleil in the absence of any state authorities. Cité Soleil is under complete control of politically- and criminally-motivated rival armed groups. The population of Cité Soleil reportedly has no freedom of movement. The rights to health, food, education and physical integrity of the inhabitants of this area of the capital are violated on a daily basis as a result of the closure of the hospital and schools and the difficulties in distributing food aid. Amnesty International has also received eyewitness accounts of the gang rape of women by armed individuals. As well as suffering physical and psychological abuse, the victims of such abuses have no access to medical attention or legal advice.
Amnesty International believes that the mandate of MINUSTAH, as described in United Nations Security Council resolution 1542 of 30 April 2004, which includes a mandate to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence, should be implemented in Cité Soleil.
Following this visit, Amnesty International will prepare a detailed report containing its most important conclusions and recommendations to the interim government, MINUSTAH and representatives of the political forces within the country as well as to the armed groups who also bear responsibility for the critical human rights situation in Haiti.
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For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566
Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW. web: http://www.amnesty.org
EXHIBIT G
Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti
P.O. Box 745, Joseph, OR 97846
(541) 432-0597, www.ijdh.org, info@ijdh.org
Report on December 1, 2004 Killings in the Haitian National Penitentiary
December 20, 2004
(Text Only Version, Version with Photos is available at http://www.ijdh.org/articles/article_ijdh-human-rights_alert_december-20.html)
Introduction
On December 1, 2004, an incident in Haiti’s National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince left at least ten prisoners dead. The Haitian government claimed that most prisoners were killed by other prisoners, and that the police used reasonable force in justified self-defense. Other witnesses, including former and current prisoners and people who live or work near the prison, claim that the police used massive, lethal force to confront a non-lethal prison protest, and continued to execute prisoners long after the protest had been terminated. Witnesses claim that sixty or more prisoners were killed.
Evaluating these conflicting claims is difficult because police have prevented journalists and independent human rights groups from speaking to prisoners, and have not released a list of those killed or injured, even to the prisoners’ families. A preliminary investigation by the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) did find consistent, credible testimony that the December 1 incident included the unjustified use of lethal force on unarmed prisoners by officials of the Haitian prison department (Department des Affaires Penitenciares, or DAP) and police department (Police Nationale d’Haiti, or PNH) which led to many more deaths than initially reported. The investigation also revealed a widespread official effort to obscure the truth about the massacre by issuing untrue statements, intimidating witnesses and refusing to disclose information.
IJDH’s preliminary investigation included interviews with four direct witnesses to the events of December 1, interviews with officials of the Interim Haitian Government (IHG), visits to the National Penitentiary (PN), the state morgue and hospital, a review of the IHG public statements, and interviews with witnesses in the area surrounding the PN. One former prisoner was able to provide an extensive eyewitness account of what happened; other witnesses provided more limited accounts that corroborated the principal witness account in important respects. In order to conduct a full investigation, it would be necessary to interview all witnesses, including several prisoners, witnesses outside of the penitentiary, and authorities present at the time of the incident. Investigators would also need access to all relevant records, including those of the hospital, the morgue the police and the DAP. To this point, only the National Coalition for Human Rights (NCHR) has been permitted access to the penitentiary and to official records.
The primary witness, Ted Nazaire, was arrested in early August for fighting with his brother. He was never formally charged, his case was dismissed on December 2, and he was released on Friday, December 3. Nazaire was one of 20 prisoners held in Cell 14 of the Titanique cell-block, a large 3-story block of cells in the center of the PN.
Other prisoners were interviewed at the State University Hospital of Haiti (HUEH), where they were brought for treatment of gunshot wounds sustained during the December 1 incident. The interviews were limited because police officers either forced investigators to leave or listened in on the interviews. IJDH investigators were able to interview people who lived and worked in the vicinity of the PN, investigative journalists, workers at the hospital and one DAP employee.
Background
The events of December 1 occurred in a context of systematic disregard for the rights of arrestees guaranteed by Haiti’s Constitution and international human rights law. Although Haiti’s jails were emptied during the insurgency that led to the IHG’s installation on February 29, 2004, they are now so overcrowded that some prisoners must wait for a turn to sleep on the cell floor. Many of the prisoners were arrested illegally, and the Catholic Church’s Justice and Peace Commission estimates that there are over 700 political prisoners systemwide. Shortly after December 1, a chalkboard inside the PN indicated that of 1041 people held in the Penitentiary, only 22, or 2%, had been convicted of a crime. Most of the remaining 98% have never been brought before a judge and therefore have little hope of release without paying a bribe, no matter how weak the case against them.
Haitian and international human rights groups have criticized the IHG for widespread detention of political opponents, and for maintaining unsatisfactory prison conditions. Some political prisoners are prominent officials or supporters of the ousted constitutional government, but the vast majority are grassroots activists and residents of poor neighborhoods known to oppose the IHG. IJDH reviews of prison records reveal that most prisoners in the PN are charged with either “association de malfaiteurs,” a vague conspiracy or gang-affiliation charge, or with possession of an illegal weapon. In mid-November, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued a public statement urging the IHG to release its political prisoners. Other world leaders have echoed this call, and insisted that the IHG either pursue formal charges against arrestees or release them.
IJDH has observed deteriorating conditions in the PN over the past several months. Cells have become increasingly overcrowded with some holding as many as two or three times the intended capacity. Many prisoners must sleep on the floor, and some do not have mattresses or sufficient space to sleep lying down. Sanitation facilities are inadequate, and prisoners are not permitted sufficient time to bathe and use washroom facilities. Food quality and quantity is poor, prisoners complain that the food is rancid and the water causes skin infections. Recreation time has decreased and the IHG has terminated its predecessor’s educational programs. Family visits for most PN prisoners had been prohibited for several weeks before the December 1 incident, and have not resumed. IJDH has visited prisoners in Titanique and other PN cellblocks with severe injuries, including gunshot wounds, who have not received proper medical attention.
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) warned authorities two weeks before the massacre that if corrective measures were not taken to address prison conditions, a riot would occur. The report’s author, Regis Charron, told the Toronto Star that, "[p]ressure was going up. I told them that at one point the system will break down, you will have disruption, riots, problems. Charron stated that prison authorities failed to respond to this warning. His predecessor at UNDP’s prison program in Haiti, Jacques Dyotte, resigned in November after the IHG refused to accept help from the UN and Canada to improve PN conditions.
The December 1 Incident: Conflicting Versions
PN officials and prisoners concur that the December 1 incident was sparked by a prisoner protest against detention conditions, the failure to bring prisoners before judges, and the prison officials’ threat to transfer PN inmates to other prisons. They sharply diverge on the extent to which the PN authorities and police used lethal force to respond to the protest, the justification for the use of force, and the number of prisoners killed.
A. Interim Haitian Government Version
The PN’s Director, Inspector Sony Marcellus, told IJDH that a riot began on the first floor of the Titanique cell-block during a search for contraband. Marcellus stated that prisoners were plotting an "invasion" to protest conditions of detention and that they had been stockpiling improvised weapons. He produced a box approximately one cubic foot in size containing dull knives, razor blades, and toothbrushes with filed edges, that he stated were confiscated during the search. Marcellus asserted that during the search of Cell 24, inmates began attacking prison guards.
In an interview with the Haitian paper Le Nouvelliste, Fritzner Pierre, the Deputy Director of DAP, claimed that prisoners used cauldron covers to break open cells and then ignited mattresses and other objects in their cells, in order to generate chaos in the prison. Pierre cited the imminent transfer of some detainees as a reason for this riot. In the statement, Pierre said seven prisoners had been killed. Le Nouvelliste later reported an additional person had died in the hospital, and the PNH announced two more after that, bringing the death toll to 10. Police spokesperson Gessy Cameau Coicou said most injuries and deaths were caused by prisoners using improvised weapons against other prisoners who refused to participate in a prison “mutiny.” NCHR also reported that some of the injuries were inflicted by other prisoners.
Justice of the Peace Berge O. Surfus made a request to the morgue, dated December 1, 2004, requesting the transportation of the cadavers of seven persons—Herve Jean-Jacques, Raphael Lorenzo, Icredet Pierre, Luxamar Wilfred, Fanel Pierre, and two unidentified persons—to the morgue. The request is deliberately vague: it does not indicate the location, time, or circumstances of the deaths of these persons, its time of issue, or where the bodies could be found, or the location or time at which it was issued. Morgue records indicate that seven cadavers were received on December 1. The IHG has so far refused to release the names of the prisoners killed in the incident, and prisoners’ families are not allowed to see prisoners in jail or otherwise confirm that they are still living.
One PN official, who spoke with IJDH on the condition of anonymity, indicated that more than seven prisoners had been killed during the incident, but would not give an estimate of how many. He refused to say who was responsible for the deaths.
B. PN Prisoner Version
Witness Nazaire reported that a spontaneous prisoner protest broke out in the Titanique cell-block, after authorities informed prisoners there that some who were "belligerent" would be transferred to other prisons, notably Mirebalais. Prisoners verbally protested this announcement, as well as their prolonged detention without ever being sent before a judge. Nazaire stated that at the time of the announcement, approximately 11 prisoners who were responsible for bringing food to their cells were outside of their cells for meal service. One of them, named “Michael,” a prisoner in cell C16 who believed he was on the transfer list, warned the guards that if he were transferred he would “make Titanique hot.”
Soon a disturbance broke out. Witness reports are not clear on whether there were only verbal threats, or if prisoners began throwing objects or engaging in other violence from their cells. But all prisoners deny that lethal force was used against guards. Two DAP guards fled, but one remained in the area. The prisoners who were outside of their cells, including Michael, seized the remaining guard and confiscated his nightstick, but according to Nazaire, did not harm him. Four prisoners then broke open the locks of all of Titanique’s cells with the heavy covers of cooking cauldrons. Prisoner leaders instructed all prisoners to leave the cell block. The entire population of Titanique vacated their cells and filtered into the PN’s courtyard.
Nazaire stated that a group of prisoners then advanced in the direction of the Isolation block, where high-profile political prisoners are held. They broke the locks on one of the cells in the unit, seized a person they believed to be a foreigner, and held him hostage to protect themselves against abuse by guards. Nazaire stated that most prisoners remained in the courtyard, during which time DAP officers entered the courtyard and sprayed teargas at them. Some prisoners had advanced further in the direction of the front gate, to an area where deportees from the U.S. are held.
Nazaire reported that masked police officers arrived at the prison late in the afternoon after the protest had begun, and moved into position at the front of the entrance to the cell blocks and on the catwalk above the prison. According to Nazaire, they first opened fire at one of two persons holding the “foreigner,” hitting one of these prisoners in the groin area. At this point, all prisoners including Nazaire began to run down the hallway. Nazaire described being shot at by police officers in this area as he ran for cover.
Nazaire reported that some prisoners were struck by bullets and incapacitated, while others began running back towards Titanique. Some reentered cells there. Others sought refuge in Isolation and other prison areas. Nazaire recounted that he was able to hide in a small area under a stairwell attached to Titanique that is used to store mops. He explained that he lay in this area on his stomach with another prisoner on top of him, and both were able to hear clearly and to see some of the ensuing events.
Nazaire reported that armed police officers pursued fleeing prisoners into the Titanique cell-block. He alleged that several prisoners were forced outside of their cells, and that approximately 15 prisoners from the first floor were summarily executed outside of the cell block, and that others on the second and third floors were shot in their cells. Nazaire heard shooting from above, and reported seeing bodies dragged down the stairs from these floors.
Nazaire stated that some prisoners lit mattresses on fire in order to protect themselves from being attacked. He insisted that mattresses were lit on fire as a protective measure after the shooting began, not before. His account was corroborated by witnesses from the area around the PN, including a journalist from Radio Megastar who observed the events from a building that looks down on the prison. These witnesses state that they noticed smoke emerging from the penitentiary after shooting began, rather than before.
Nazaire and other prisoners interviewed deny that any prisoners were killed by other prisoners. This assertion is confirmed by evidence at the General Hospital and the state morgue. Morgue personnel told a Reuters correspondent that all of the bodies that came to the morgue from the PN following the December 1 incident had bullet wounds, and that none had been killed with improvised weapons. The Reuters correspondent saw seven bodies in the morgue that were listed as prisoners killed in the December 1 incident, and the four he was able to inspect all showed bullet wounds. Neither IHG officials nor prisoners have reported that the prisoners used guns during the incident.
Nazaire reported that after the shooting stopped, prisoners were forced to collect dead from other floors and move them down the stairs of the prison and out of the penitentiary. They were then forced to clean up blood in the cell-block. Cadavers were loaded onto wheelbarrows which made multiple trips to dispose bodies. Nazaire estimated that he saw more than 60 bodies removed from the Titanique cell-block. He reports seeing three ambulances brought into the PN courtyard after the shooting had concluded, that were filled with bodies from the wheelbarrows. He reported seeing a fourth ambulance filled with bodies the next day.
A second prisoner interviewed separately by the IJDH during a brief visit estimated that more than 60 prisoners were killed by the police. Another testified that he personally saw the bodies of 20-25 dead prisoners, but believed that more had died.
C. Other Witnesses
Other witnesses outside of the PN provided information on key details of the incident, especially the number of people killed. Although most of these statements could not be independently verified or investigated, and they are not all consistent on all details, they collectively support a belief that many more than ten prisoners were killed during the incident.
One witness in the PN area reported seeing three ambulances leaving the PN on the night of December 1. Another witness, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, claims to have participated in the removal of several bodies from the PN late on the evening of December 1. He reported that about 11 PM on December 1, three ambulances arrived at the PN, and were loaded up with bodies. They traveled with a police escort to a dumping ground north of the city, where they deposited the bodies. Each ambulance made three trips.
Radio Megastar aired the reports of two prisoners’ relatives who stated that they came to the prison in the days after the incident to bring food. They were handed the prisoners’ belongings, usually a sign that the prisoner had died. They went to look for cadavers in the morgue, but could not find them. Several family members interviewed by IJDH stated that they have not seen their relatives inside of the prison and after two weeks had no information of their status.
Investigators from NCHR, the only investigators allowed full access to the prison following the incident, reported that seven prisoners were killed and 50 were injured, 14 of them with serious gunshot wounds. Residents in the area near the prison reported that late in the afternoon of December 1, after they had heard shooting from the PN, they saw several police officers dressed in black arrive in the area of the prison on Rue du Centre, Rue de la Republique, and Rue de la Reunion.
Witnesses from the area stated that heavy shooting began sometime in the period of 4-5:30 pm and lasted until sometime between 7-9 pm. They described very heavy gunfire during this period. When asked to describe the type of gunfire, some made sounds that suggested automatic weapons. Some witnesses described pauses in the gunfire, others described the shooting as continuous.
The offices of Radio Megastar, in a high building located on Rue de la Reunion, have a view inside the PN from above. Radio Megastar journalist Saby Kettny reported that at around 4 pm, he first heard shooting from the PN area, but was not at the station at the time. He described a “great panic” and shooting in the streets in the PN area at about 4 PM. He saw police officers from special units in the area by 5 PM.
Kettny returned to the Megastar offices, where he could see inside the PN. He saw guards on the cat-walk of the prison shooting in the direction of prison cells. “When I was above, they were shooting at the direction where prisoners were staying,” Kettny reported. He could not see down to the bottom of the PN and did not see any bodies. He could hear crying as shots were fired and heard heavy gunfire for extended periods, including automatic weapons fire.
Impeded Investigations
IHG officials have systematically impeded independent investigations of the December 1 PN massacre by making untrue statements, refusing to release information and intimidating witnesses.
Nazaire reported two separate incidents of intimidation. On the night of December 1, two men Nazaire believe to be recently terminated prison guards, brutally beat him in the PN. During the attack, they asked him what he had seen earlier that day. He has extensive injuries including lacerations on his arms and legs, a severe injury to one ankle, baton marks on the back, several bumps on his head, and a swollen eye. After a judge dismissed the case against Nazaire, PN officials threatened him, telling him that if he spoke to the press he would have no place to hide and that they knew where he lived. On several occasions following his release, threats were made against his life. He went into hiding, and on the night he left his home, armed men wearing civilian clothing came to his home at 9:30 pm and made threats against him. Nazaire remains in hiding and his family has been forced to leave their residence.
Wounded prisoners in the hospital are kept under close watch by police officers. Each time IJDH investigators attempted to speak with a prisoner, the police either forced them to leave or insisted on listening in to the interview. Witnesses at the hospital emergency room reported that even doctors were not allowed to treat wounded prisoners without police supervision. As late as December 14, three guards were posted in the main room of the hospital to guard prisoners there.
As of December 15, no human rights organizations other than NCHR had been permitted access to the interior of the prison. Only one foreign journalist had been allowed in, and his access was restricted.
In a December 8 press conference, Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue announced that an independent investigation would be opened into the December 1 incident, "We have to know the truth." Chief Prosecutor Daniel Audain also called for an investigation, and there are reports of commissions of inquiry established at both the DAP and the police internal affairs office. But three weeks after the incident, all these investigations have failed to yield even a list of prisoners killed on December 1. The mother of one prisoner, whose name appears on the justice of the peace’s list of those killed in the massacre, has not been told her son’s status. Hundreds of families continue to wait in front of the prison without any information about their loved ones inside.
Conclusion
IJDH’s preliminary investigation of the December 1 prison killings reveals serious inadequacies and inaccuracies in the official Interim Haitian Government’s account of the violence. The failure to correct these inaccuracies, to provide basic information to victims’ families or to allow investigations by journalists and independent human rights groups indicates a determined policy to conceal the truth. In this context, it is unlikely that the IHG will conduct a credible investigation of the incident.
Accordingly, IJDH calls for an independent investigation by the UN, including a) a prompt autopsy for all prisoners killed; b) forensic medical exams of all injured prisoners and guards; c) independent, exhaustive interviews with witnesses, including prisoners, former prisoners, prison guards and police, that include confidentiality protections for those who desire it; and d) examination of all relevant records, including electronic and paper records at the PN, the morgue, the hospital and police headquarters. Journalists and human rights groups should be provided access to these same materials.
The investigation should determine the total amount of prisoners killed, and people injured. It should also assess the relative percentage of casualties inflicted by prisoners and by prison guards and police. It should examine the justification and reasonableness of the IHG’s use of lethal force.
The tragedy of the PN massacre is compounded by the fact that most of the prisoners should not even have been in the PN in the first place. Statistics predict that for most of the dead, their assassination was the last of a long string of human rights violations. Only one in fifty is likely to have actually been convicted of committing a crime. The vast majority were likely arrested illegally without a warrant and detained on vague charges with no evidence in their file and no chance of judicial review of the detention.
Statistics predict that most of the prisoners killed were brought to the PN from Cité Soleil, Bel-Air, Fort National, Martissant and other poor neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince, where they and their neighbors rarely enjoyed the minimum healthcare, nutrition and education guaranteed by the Haitian Constitution and international human rights standards. Those same neighborhoods are also the subject of other calls for investigations, for a wave of systematic police killings over the last few months.
An investigation of the PN massacre may be the best chance for justice for these compounded human rights violations. The events took place in a well-defined area over a defined period of time. There are hundreds of known witnesses, their names listed in prison and guard registers. Responsibility for injuries can be allocated easily, as from all accounts, one side had a monopoly on firearms, the other a monopoly on toothbrushes, razor blades and other improvised weapons. An effective investigation of the December 1 events becomes, therefore, not a test of investigative skill and resources as much as a test of a investigative will.
NCHR has criticized the DAP’s handling of the incident, but its accounts agree with the IHG version in some important respects, including the presence of prisoner-on-prisoner violence, and casualty numbers. NCHR has not issued any written statements, but press accounts of its oral statements are available at www.ijdh.org.
IJDH investigators observed several PN prisoners with gunshot wounds in the General Hospital’s Emergency Ward on December 3 and 4. On December 3, heavily armed police officers guarded the unit while prisoners with severe gunshot wounds were dragged out. Other injured prisoners were left on the floor. IJDH investigators were able to speak briefly with prisoners, but each time police either broke the interview off or listened in.
Reuters, “UN: Human Rights Problems in Haiti Worry UN’s Annan,” November 20, 2004, (all documents cited in this report are available at www.ijdh.org); Amnesty International, “ Haiti: Amnesty International calls on the transitional government to set up an independent commission of enquiry into summary executions attributed to members of the Haitian National Police,” November 11, 2004; Haiti Accompaniment Project, “Human Rights Conditions in Haiti’s Prisons, July 30 – August 16, 2004,” November 2004, www.haitiaction.net; Amnesty International, “ Haiti: Illegal and arbitrary arrests continue -- Human rights hampered amid political violence,” October 19, 2004; Pax Christi USA, “Report of Pax Christi USA Human Rights Mission to Haiti,” October 12, 2004, www.paxchristiusa.or g .
The table was in the PN Director’s Office. The figures may not be precise or current, but they amply illustrate the magnitude of the pre-trial detention crisis. Pre-trial detention is a complex problem that did not start with the IHG, but under Haiti’s Constitutional governments (1995-2004) the percentage of prisoners who had been convicted was generally at least 20% of the prison population.
Toronto Star, “Massacre in the Titanic,” December 20, 2004; Haiti Accompaniment Project, “Human Rights Conditions in Haiti’s Prisons, July 30 – August 16, 2004,” November 2004; Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, “Human Rights Alert: Illegal Arrest of Political Leaders,” October 5, 2004; Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, “Human Rights Update,” July 26, 2004.
Reuters, “Human Rights Problems in Haiti Worry UN’s Annan,” November 20, 2004.
Miami Herald, “ Haiti's Leader Urged To Focus On Security, Human Rights,” December 16, 2004.
Toronto Star, “Massacre in the `Titanic,'” December 20, 2004, www.thestar.com.
Sony Marcellus initially told IJDH that he was unable to discuss the events of December 1 and that all inquiries should be directed to the central DAP office. He later began an account of the events, but stopped after a few minutes, at the instruction of others present in his office.
Cell 24 is located on the ground level of the Titanique building. Titanique is a large three story cell-block in the prison complex.
Le Nouvelliste, “Sept détenus tués, quatre policiers blesses,” No. 37048, Port-au-Prince, December 2, 2004.
Le Nouvelliste : “Le bilan s’alourdit,” No. 37049, Port-au-Prince, December 2, 2004.
Agence Haitienne de Presse (AHP), “Anger and indignation in Port-au-Prince following the murder by police agents of about ten detainees who protested their conditions of imprisonment,” December 2, 2004, www.ahphaiti.org.
Prison officials did produce Bruno Jean Renald, a.k.a. “Ti Pay,” a popular singer who had been reported killed. IJDH investigators saw him in the presence of PN officials and his wife. PN officials verbally abused Renald’s wife for speaking on the radio about being turned away when she went to bring food for her husband.
Mirebalais is in Haiti’s remote Central Plateau region. As prison food is inadequate, most prisoners receive supplementary meals from their families, which would be unavailable at remote prisons. For pre-trial detainees, a transfer would sharply reduce their chance of seeing a judge, and limit their ability to consult with a lawyer. Authorities have transferred several political prisoners from the PN to other detention facilities, either as punishment or to isolate them from judges who might free them. For example, when a judge in Les Cayes ordered local official Jacques Mathelier freed on July 12, the IHG transferred him to the PN.
None of the persons interviewed, including prisoners, had a watch at the time the events took place. Times varied among persons interviewed but all fell within the same window of time. For those inside of the prison, it is likely that time was distorted by the general chaos surrounding the events within the prison.
IJDH interview with Reuter’s correspondent.
For more reports of casualty estimates higher than the official count, see, Toronto Star, “Massacre in the `Titanic,'” December 20, 2004; The London Observer, “Revealed: Haiti Bloodbath That Left Dozens Dead in Jail,” December 19, 2004; and Reuters, “Rights Groups Say Haiti Prison Riot a Massacre,” December 9, 2004.
Security concerns prevented IJDH from investigating these claims and searching for human remains in the area described.
Ronald Saint-Jean, head of the Comité de Défense des Droits du Peuple Haitien (Committee for the Defense of the Rights of Haitian People), and a leader of the Groupe pour la Défense des Prisonniers Politiques (Group for the Defense of Political Prisoners), stated that he had received reports from several families who went to bring food to prisoners and were sent away by guards at the facility who would not take the food.
BBC Monitoring Service, “Highlights of Metropole Radio News,” December 3, 2004. NCHR has not issued revised casualty figures.
Toronto Star, “Massacre in the Titanic,” December 20, 2004.
Reuters, “Rights groups say Haiti prison riot a massacre,” December 9, 2004.
Amnesty International, “Action Alert: Prisoners at National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince,” December 20, 2004.
Toronto Star, “Massacre in the Titanic,” December 20, 2004.
Amnesty International, “ Amnesty International calls on the transitional government to set up an independent commission of enquiry into summary executions attributed to members of the Haitian National Police,” November 11, 2004.