Haitian Press Association: UN Negotiates with Haitian Police Over Massacre Body Count, June 7, 2005

A prisoner who was recently released from the Central Prison of Port-au-Prince makes revelations on the deadly events of December 1st, 2004 at the National Penitentiary

Port-au-Prince, June 7, 2005 (AHP)- A prisoner who was recently released from the National Penitentiary for absence of charges, Abner François, declared Tuesday that close to a hundred prisoners were killed during the December 1st, 2004 events in the largest prison of the country.

Political activist Abner François, who was arrested on October 2 nd, 2004 as he was protesting against Lavalas parliamentarians’ arrest, made those declarations during the show « Ann Pale”, on Radio Solidarité.

It was a horrible scene, Mr. François said. He declared that he saw masked policemen shoot point-blank on helpless people. Abner François denied the declarations of the police and the former NCHR that is now the National Network of Defense of human Rights (RNDDH), according to which only 7 prisoners were reportedly shot by masked policemen called by prison officials to repress prisoners who were demonstrating against their bad imprisonment conditions.

He also denounced the incarceration of the ambulance driver of the General Hospital’s morgue who gave the right information to the MINUSTAH, according to him.

Neither the investigation by the MINUSTHA or the one the police claims it had led have been published 7 months after the tragedy. The UN mission had decided to postpone the publication of its investigations because of the fact that there were enormous differences between the number of people killed counted by the mission and those counted by the police. The PNH allegedly managed to convince the MINUSTHA that the ambulance driver who was arrested had mislead them.

AHP June 7, 2005 11:35 AM