Wednesday, June 19, 2013

RNDDH: Impunity Continues in Haiti

The Haitian human rights group Réseau national de défense des droits humains has released its report of human rights conditions in the country during the second year of the Martelly government, the full text of which can be read here.

Among some of the "highlights":

1.
After the 17 April 2012 murder of PNH officer Walky Calixte, the Haitian deputies accused of involvement in the slaying, Jean Baptiste Nzounaya Bellange and Rodriguez Séjour, still have not been charged or tried. Meanwhile, Walky Calixte's family and former colleagues in the PNH have been attacked and, in some cases (PNH officer Jean Richard Hertz Cayo), murdered.

2.

After the 18 April 2012 murder of Octanol Derissaint, allegedly by Martelly adviser Calixte Valentin, while held at the Commissariat du Canapé-vert in Port-au-Prince, Valentin continued to provide advice to the Martelly government, go out to eat and to sleep in his own home at night. On 8 November 2012, judge Fermo-Judes Paul dismissed the case. To date neither Calixte Valentin nor anyone else has been tried for the murder of Octanol Derissaint.

3.

After CEP (electoral council) president Josué Pierre-Louis is accused on 26 November 2012 of raping and assaulting Marie Danielle Bernardin, the victim is essentially treated as a criminal by Haiti's justice system and subject to threats of violence by Pierre-Louis' supporters. She withdraws the case and it is dismissed. One can only assume that M. Pierre-Louis is still a welcome guest in the halls of MINUSTAH, the government and others as Haiti prepares for it's long-delayed elections.

Anyone who wonders of the ongoing challenge posed by impunity in Haiti needs solely to look therein.

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