Haiti likely to extend voter-registration deadline because of low turnout

Updated at 20:46 on July 23, 2005, EST.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - The deadline for voter registration in
Haiti will likely have to be postponed to allow more people to sign up
for the country's first elections since the ouster of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the interim prime minister said Saturday.

Gerard Latortue said the Aug. 9 deadline may have to be extended to
September, though he insisted October and November elections would
still be held on time.

"I am psychologically ready and so is the president, to postpone the
voter-registration deadline," Latortue said in an interview.

Just 600,000 - or 13 per cent - of Haiti's 4.5 million eligible voters
have registered, partly due to bureaucratic delays.

Latortue said he was optimistic at least one million people would
register by the end of July, adding his goal is to see at least 2.5
million registered.

"My experience in Haiti is that people always wait until the last
moment to register," he said.

He said the government would be able to start printing electoral cards
after one million people register, which would give many Haitians an
identification document for the first time.

"I know that the only topic on which this government will be judged is
its capacity to organize fair and representative elections," he said.

Local elections are scheduled Oct. 9, while the vote for president and
the legislature is set for Nov. 13.

Local and international observers have warned Haitians could be too
scared to vote amid political violence that has claimed hundreds of
lives since the February 2004 revolt that toppled Aristide.

Aristide supporters have also suggested many citizens are not
interested in voting because his Lavalas Family party has so far not
agreed to participate, an argument the interim government has
dismissed.

Latortue said he disagrees with an advisory board's recommendation
that Lavalas be banned from participating in elections because of its
alleged ties to armed gangs loyal to Aristide.

"The government will not exclude anybody from the electoral process,"
Latortue said.

His comments came a day after Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, who has emerged
as a possible Lavalas presidential contender, was sent to prison and
told he could be charged in connection with the slaying of a prominent
Haitian journalist.

Jean-Juste has denied any involvement in the murder, calling his
arrest political persecution.

Authorities said they detained Jean-Juste for questioning because of a
"public clamour" for his arrest by angry demonstrators at the
journalist's funeral Thursday.

Latortue declined comment on the investigation but called Jean-Juste's
appearance at the funeral "a provocation."

He said the government has "a huge file" against the priest, who has
been accused of harbouring gunmen and is under investigation for
possessing illegal arms acquired while Aristide was in power.

Dozens of other Aristide supporters have been jailed, some for months
without charge. The most prominent, former prime minister Yvon
Neptune, spent almost a year in jail before he was charged in May with
the killing of Aristide opponents during the 2004 rebellion.

Although Latortue insisted the interim government stayed out of
judicial investigations, he suggested Neptune and other Aristide
supporters could be freed pending trial.

"The government would certainly have nothing against that," he said.

He dismissed Lavalas claims the interim government is holding
political prisoners, insisting former Aristide officials should be
tried for actions committed under a government he described as
dictatorial.

"It's as if a small group of Nazis came out to complain about the
Nuremberg trials," Latortue said, referring to trial of Nazi leaders
after the Second World War.

Aristide supporters accuse Latortue's administration of similar
persecution, saying police beat, execute and arbitrarily detain
opponents.

Latortue acknowledged police "sometimes act with brute force" but
insisted his government opposes abuses and had ordered police to
respect human rights.

The Canadian Press, 2005

Published on Friday, July 22, 2005 by CommonDreams.org

Haitian Priest Assaulted by Mob at Funeral and Arrested for Murder

by Bill Quigley

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti -- On Thursday July 21, 2005, Fr. Gerard
Jean-Juste went to St. Pierre's Catholic Church to be one of the
priests participating in the funeral of Haitian journalist Jacques
Roche. Fr. Jean-Juste is a cousin of the Roche family and members of
the Roche family protected him from a mob earlier in his life. He went
to express spiritual comfort and reconciliation to the family.

The tragic kidnapping and death of Jacques Roche has been taken up as
a cause by those opposed to the Lavalas party. Jacques Roche was
identified as a supporter of the people calling themselves the group
of 184, who overthrew by force the democratically elected government
of President Aristide, the leader of the Lavalas party, in February
2004.

Opponents of Aristide say that because the body of Jacques Roche was
found in a poor neighborhood that he was executed by the Lavalas party
who is very strong in the poorest neighborhoods. For those of us in
the US, this is much like blaming John Kerry for inner city deaths
because most of the people in the inner city vote democratic.

Fr. Jean-Juste went to the funeral expressly to pay his respects to
the family and express his open remorse and opposition to any killing
of anyone, no matter their political affiliation.

Jacques Roche's coffin was in the chapel next to the sacristy and main
area of the church. At 10 o'clock the bishop and about seven priests
robed in white with purple stoles or sashes paraded out of the
sacristy of the church to the chapel next to the main area of the
church to say blessings over the coffin of Jacques Roche.

When Fr. Jean-Juste walked out, people started yelling at him in the
chapel. They called him "assassin" and "criminal" and yelled out to
"arrest and kill the rat."

Fr. Jean-Juste has been publicly accused in the last several days of
"a plot against the security of the state," smuggling money and guns
into the country, and of being behind all the kidnappings. All clearly
false charges but widely reported by unfriendly press.

People knew Fr. Jean-Juste was coming to the funeral because that was
printed on the front page of a conservative paper the day before.

As the well-dressed people continued yelling at Fr. Jean-Juste, the
prayer service nearly turned into a riot. The other priests turned to
leave and a well-dressed crowd of screaming people surrounded him. I
went out to be by his side. Some plainclothes security people and a
few priests surrounded us and helped push us through the increasingly
hostile crowd back into the church sacristy.

The other priests then persuaded Fr. Jean-Juste not to continue in the
funeral service. So we stood aside as the priests and the funeral
crowd filed past us into the main church.

Well-dressed men and women continued to scream and threaten Fr. Gerry
as they moved by us into the church. Then a crowd of 15 or 20 or more
young men, not dressed at all for the funeral came into the sacristy
and the mood turned uglier and more menacing. At that point, the
security forces melted away.

The young men continued the screaming started by the well-dressed
people and then started pushing and hitting Pere Jean-Juste. At that
point a young woman came out of the funeral crowd and embraced Fr.
Jean-Juste shielding him with her body from the blows and the
increasingly loud and angry young men. She started praying loudly and
saying "mon pere, mon pere."

A man in a suit, who identified himself as head of security for the
funeral, rushed back in from the church area - only a few feet away
and in plain view -and told Fr. Gerry these people were going to kill
him there in the sacristy unless he fled. Fr. Jean-Juste knelt to pray
and the woman and I knelt with him in the middle of the growing crowd.

At that point people started slapping Fr. Jean-Juste on the head and
face and spitting on him and the other two of us. Something then hit
Fr. Jean-Juste in the head. Someone punched him in the eye. We stood
up and a few UN CIVPOL officers showed up to help us leave the
sacristy of the church. As we tried to get to the stairs people
continued pushing and screaming and shouting threats. They continued
to call out "assassin," "criminal," and "kill the rat."The crowd now
overwhelmed the police. More people spit on us and hit Fr. Gerry, even
in the face, while others were grabbing his church vestments trying to
drag him off the church steps.

The CIVPOL were trying to hold back the crowd but were still well
outnumbered and were not able to halt the mob. We moved up the steps
into a narrow dark corridor while the crowd pushed and shoved and spit
and hit. We then retreated into a smaller corridor and finally to a
dead end that contained two small concrete toilet stalls.

The three of us were pushed into the stalls as the crowd banged on the
walls and doors of the stalls and continued screaming. The woman held
the door closed and prayed loudly as the people outside roared and the
CIVPOL called for reinforcements.

After a few minutes, reinforcements arrived and the hallway was
finally cleared of all but us and the authorities.

A man in a suit identifying himself as secretary for security for
Haiti told us that he was going to have to arrest Fr. Jean-Juste
because public clamor had identified him as the assassin of journalist
Jacques Roche. The police would bring him to the police station for
his own safety. Fr. Jean-Juste told the man that he was in Florida
when the journalist was killed and he wanted to return to St.
Claire's, his parish. The man left escorting out the woman who helped
us.

In a few minutes, CIVPOL police, including troops from Jordan,
surrounded Fr. Jean-Juste and I and ran us out of the church to a
police truck. The truck with police with machine guns sped away from
the church and took us not to Fr. Gerry's parish but to the police
station in Petionville.

For the next seven or eight hours we were kept in a room while the UN
forces and the Haitian forces negotiated about what to do. Fr. Gerry
read his prayer book while we waited. We were told informally that the
UN wanted to escort Fr. Jean-Juste back to his parish but the Haitian
government was insisting that he be arrested.

The attackers were allowed to go free and not arrested, but they
wanted to arrest the victim!

Fr. Gerry told me "This is all a part of the death sentence called
down upon me on the radio in Miami. The searches at the airport, the
visits to the police stations, the mandate to appear before a criminal
judge yesterday, and now this. It is all part of the effort to silence
my voice for democracy."

At about 6pm, several Haitian officers came into our room and ordered
Fr. Gerry and I and Haitian attorney Mario Joseph to come with them.

The officers held out a piece of paper that they said was an official
complaint against Fr. Gerry accusing him of being the assassin of
Jacques Roche. The complaint was based on "public clamor" at the
funeral identifying him as the murderer. They refused to let Fr.
Jean-Juste or the lawyers see this paper. It was their obligation,
they said, to investigate this public clamor identifying him as the
murderer. If Fr. Jean-Juste chose not to talk with them, they would
put him in jail immediately.

Fr. Jean-Juste agreed to the interrogation and it went on for over
three hours. He was growing increasingly sore and tired from the
beating he took, but was not bleeding externally. When the lawyers
argued with the police, Fr. Gerry read his prayer book.

The police already knew that Fr. Jean-Juste was in Florida at the time
of the kidnapping and death of the journalist, because the police had
already interviewed him several times in the last few days in
connection with the other false allegations against him, but asked him
many questions anyway. How many cell phones did he have? What is his
exact relation to Jacques Roche? Why did he go to the funeral? Can he
prove he was in Florida? Since he was on the news in Florida can he
provide a copy of the newstape showing he was in Florida? When
Aristide was president was he provided with armed security? What
happened to the pistols that his security had? Could he find out and
have any pistols returned to the government? Why did he go to the
funeral? Did Lavalas promise Aristide to execute someone from the
group of 184 in retaliation for them taking power? When was the last
time he was in the US? Are the Catholic sisters in Bel-Air with you
when you got to demonstrations there? and on and on.

After over three hours, the interrogation finished.

With great solemnity the police told Fr. Jean-Juste that he was being
charged with participating in the death of Jacques Roche and not
returning state property. The said the law orders that he will be
brought before a judge within 48 hours for further decision.

At exactly 10pm, Fr. Gerry handed me his keys and church vestments and
was locked into the jail cell at Petionville with many, many others.
He was holding a pink plastic rosary, his prayer book and a roll of
toilet paper.

He flashed a tired smile and told me: "Now you see what we are up
against in Haiti. If they treat me like this, think how they treat the
poor people. Tell everyone that with the help of God and everyone else
I will keep up the good fight. Everyone else should continue to fight
for democracy as well. The truth will come out. I am innocent of all
charges. I will be free soon. Freedom for Haiti is coming. The
struggle continues."

As I left him, a very tired Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste was being greeted by
all the prisoners in the very crowded jail cell as "mon pere!"

Action:

Write or fax UN Special Representative Juan Gabriel Valdés, urging him
to release MINUSTAH's prison report immediately, and to resist
pressure from the Haitian police to minimize the number of casualties.
A sample letter is below. Mr. Valdés speaks English, French and
Spanish. His fax number is (dial 011 first from the US for an
international line) 509 244 3512. __________

Mr Juan Gabriel Valdés
Special Representative of the Secretary-General
United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti
387, avenue John Brown Port-au-Prince, Haïti

Contact Information:

U.S. Ambassador to Haiti, James B. Foley
United States Embassy
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Telephones: 011-509-223-4711, or 222-0200 or 0354
Fax: 011-509-223-1641 or 9038
Email: Dana Banks, Human Rights Officer: Ban...@state.gov

Canadian Ambassador to Haiti, Claude Boucher
Embassy of Canada
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Telephone: 011-509- 249-9000
Fax: 011-509-249-9920
Email: pr...@international.gc.ca

Ambassador of France in Haiti, M. Yves Gaudeul
Embassy of France
51 place des Héros de l'Indépendance - BP 312
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Telephone: 011-509-222-0952
Fax : 011-509-223 5675

Haiti Authorities:
Fax. No. 011-509-245-0474
Me. Henri Dorléans
Ministre de la Justice et de la Sécurité Publique
Ministère de la Justice
19 Avenue Charles Sumner
Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Bill Quigley is a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans and
is co-counsel with Mario Joseph and the Institute for Justice and
Democracy in Haiti. Mario Joseph can be reached at 509.554.4284. Bill
can be reached in Haiti at 509.401.4822 and in US at 504.861.2709.

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