24778: Hermantin (News) Aristide supporters ask U.N. for help

[sak-pase@bimini.ws]

leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Fri, Apr. 15, 2005
LITTLE HAITI
Aristide supporters ask U.N. for help

The political party of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide 
protested human rights concerns in a letter sent to the U.N. Security 
Council.

BY TRENTON DANIEL
tdaniel@herald.com


Backers of ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's political 
party, who have been living in Miami in self-imposed exile, announced 
Thursday they have sent a letter to the U.N. Security Council detailing 
their concerns with what is taking place in their homeland.

''What exists in Haiti today is that the Constitution is being violated,'' 
Angelot Bell, a Lavalas leader, said at a news conference in Miami's Little 
Haiti neighborhood. ``We have underlined what the Haitian people are asking 
for.''

The letter, dated April 8 and signed by four leaders of the Lavalas party, 
says the U.N. Security Council is not doing enough to protect Haitian 
citizens. Since the Feb. 29, 2004 ouster of Aristide, the Haitian economy 
has deteriorated and the government of Gerard Latortue is doing too little 
to reverse the decline, they wrote.

The Lavalas party demands the release of political prisoners, the end of 
what it calls illegal arrests and summary executions and asks for U.N. 
officials to meet with Lavalas leaders.

The U.N. Security Council delegation is currently in Haiti on a four-day 
mission to see firsthand the situation there and investigate claims of human 
rights abuses. More than 400 people have been killed since September in 
clashes between gangs, ex-soldiers, police and U.N. peacekeepers, according 
to advocacy groups.

The delegation is also checking on preparations for the upcoming Haitian 
elections and efforts to disarm militant groups and is assessing conditions 
on extending the mandate for the United Nations' year-old peacekeeping 
mission, which is due to expire next month.

Also Thursday, the New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch 
criticized the Latortue administration's inability to halt widespread 
violence in the capital of Port-au-Prince, and advised the Security Council 
to step up pressure.

During recent protests in Miami, Aristide supporters have carried life-size 
photos of Haitians who have been maimed or killed during violent outbreaks. 
While waving the photos, they have called Latortue an assassin and demanded 
that he step down.

In Miami earlier this week, Latortue dismissed the calls for his 
resignation, adding that his administration is working to curb human rights 
abuses.