Haiti: Priest's arrest highlights repression

Tim Pelzer

Father Gerard Jean-Juste, a Roman Catholic priest, pro-democracy 
activist, former Lavalas government cabinet minister and defender 
of the poor, was arrested by Haitian police on October 13, 
becoming the latest victim of the unfolding wave of repression 
that is washing over the country.

Police surrounded the Church of Saint Claire in the poor 
neighbourhood of Petite Place Cazeau in Port-au-Prince, where 
Jean-Juste is pastor, and arrested him on the relatively trivial 
charge of disorderly conduct. Bystanders reported that police 
beat and then dragged Jean-Juste through shattered glass and 
placed him into a waiting police car. Police then shot into the 
assembled crowd, wounding three children who had been waiting for 
a parish food distribution.

"When we saw the police start to hit the priest with their guns, 
we started to yell for help", said Erseline Louis, 14, who was 
shot in the leg. "They started firing their guns and I was 
running to hide when I got shot."

Jean-Juste has publicly demanded that the US-installed government 
allow deposed President Jean-Betrand Aristide to return to the 
country to finish his presidential mandate, which expires in 
2006. He has also condemned the violent repression unleashed by 
the current regime in Haiti, headed by former Miami businessman 
Gerard Latortue.

William P Quigley, a law professor from Loyola University in New 
Orleans who is in Haiti to advise Jean-Juste's lawyers, said that 
Jean-Juste has still not been brought before a judge as required 
by law, and is being kept in inhuman conditions.

Furthermore, while the police said Jean-Juste was merely brought 
in for disorderly conduct and for questioning, the justice 
minister said he was arrested for importing weapons, even though 
no arms were found, and for inciting the recent violence that has 
rocked the country.

Jean-Juste denies that he engaged in any criminal activity and 
said that his arrest is a desperate ploy by the government "to 
frighten people into silence who they believe do not support 
them". He joins the growing list of Haitians who have been jailed 
by the new government, including former Prime Minister Yvon 
Neptune, the former minister of interior and the former mayor of 
Port-au-Prince. According to Quigley, none of them have been 
given trial dates.

A human rights monitor based in Haiti, who wished to remain 
anonymous, told the People's Weekly World Newspaper that the 
repression "has really intensified" over the last several weeks. 
Government forces and former members of the disbanded military 
are arresting, killing and "disappearing" more people than ever, 
she said.

"The international community, the Haitian and international 
media, and Haitian and international human rights organisations 
are responsible for what is happening right now", the monitor 
said. "They have made it clear that they will not condemn 
violations of human rights and, as a result, the government and 
the irregular armed [groups] working with it know that they can 
carry out any violence against the population without any 
interference."

She said Haitians perceive the United Nation's peacekeepers as an 
occupying force because of their unwillingness to provide 
security to average Haitians and their acquiescence to many human 
rights violations committed by the government.

Speaking of the regular police raids into neighbourhoods known 
for their support of Aristide and his Lavalas Party, she said, 
"The UN hasn't been entering into the neighbourhoods with the 
police, but has been resting at the outside. This is a problem 
because the most serious abuses occur inside the neighbourhoods."

She remarked that there is some armed resistance to the 
repression but is unsure to what extent and its level of 
organisation. "I am hearing people say, 'I am going to die anyway 
so I might as well die defending a cause.'"

Many Haitians, she said, see the current period as worse than the 
period of the 1991-1994 coup. "Then the government was not 
recognised by the international community, whereas now it has 
full diplomatic recognition, is being supported militarily, and 
is receiving bilateral and multilateral aid."

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People's Weekly World