UN Envoy Calls for Release of Former Haitian Prime Minister

[struggle4progress]

Jun 24, 2005

The U.N. special envoy to Haiti has called on Haitian authorities to release former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, jailed for a year without trial for allegedly masterminding the killings of political opponents in 2004.

Special envoy Juan Gabriel Valdez Thursday questioned the way Haiti's judicial system has handled Mr. Neptune's case. Mr. Valdez suggested the former prime minister could be freed while the case is prosecuted.

Mr. Neptune surrendered to police in June of last year. He is accused of ordering the killings of opponents of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February 2004.

The former prime minister has rejected the accusations as politically motivated. He is reportedly refusing food to protest his detention.

http://www.politinfo.com/articles/article_2005_06_24_1732.html

[magellan]

1. Just another detainee

It's astounding Neptune is still alive, he started this hunger strike at least a month ago and he's no spring chicken. But I believe he will die. Too few care about the plight of Haiti to pay attention.

Americans need to wake up to what Bush** and the Rethugs are doing in our own backyard. Haiti is a prime (and unfortunate) example of how the fanatics in Washington deal with upstarts who think they can redistribute wealth away from the globalists to benefit their own people. It begins with an extreme right-wing military coup, and evolves into the arrest of outspoken former government officials on trumped up charges and public protests that result in bloodbaths. It inevitably winds up with a majority of poor and oppressed people living under a US-backed dictatorship while their country's resources are sold out from under them.

Democracy is fine...so long as it's on the US Reich's terms.