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25115: HaitiFactsCheck: Fwd: press releaseCENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS CONDEMNS DETENTION OF YVON NEPTUNE (fwd)
From: HaitiFactsCheck@aol.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jen Nessel 212.614.6449
CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS CONDEMNS
DETENTION OF FORMER HAITIAN PRIME MINISTER
DENOUNCES RELEASE OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSERS
May 12, 2005, New York, NY
– The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) joins the growing
international
outcry against the detention of Yvon Neptune who served as prime minister
under President Jean Bertrand Aristide. Mr. Neptune voluntarily turned
himself
in ten months ago when a warrant was issued for his arrest alleging that he
was involved in masterminding a massacre which occurred near the town of St.
Marc during the insurrection which led to the removal of Aristide and the
installation of a U.S.-backed Interim Government. Mr. Neptune has been in
prison
with no formal charges brought against him despite the fact that the
Constitution of Haiti provides that persons arrested must be charged within
48
hours. Mr. Neptune is on a hunger strike and his condition is said to be
deteriorating rapidly. He has refused to give up his hunger strike until the
allegations against him are dismissed and he is released unconditionally.
CCR hosted
a press conference May 11 at its offices in New York where the former prime
minister’s daughter, Maryonne Neptune, issued an urgent moral appeal that
her father be released on humanitarian grounds. She urged the international
community to do more to save her fathers life.
The United Nations Human Rights Commission in Haiti conducted an independent
investigation of incident for which Mr. Neptune is being detained and
concluded that there was a “confrontation” between pro and anti-Aristide
supporters in which people from both sides were killed. The 15 Nation
Caribbean
Community has consistently protested Mr. Neptune’s detention as lacking in
the most
basic respect for due process.
CCR President Michael Ratner said that Mr. Neptune’s prolonged detention
without charges clearly violates international norms: “The international
community is virtually unanimous in condemning the detention of Yvon Neptune
as
unlawful and unconscionable.”
CCR Executive Director Ron Daniels cited the egregious detention of Mr.
Neptune as a part of a broader pattern of arbitrary and illegal arrests of
supporters of Aristide’s Lavalas Movement. “International human rights
organizations have documented the widespread intimidation, detention and
killing of
hundreds political prisoners by the Haitian National Police over the past
year,”
Daniels said. He also denounced the recent decision by the Supreme Court of
Haiti to vacate the sentences of former army personnel and members of FRAPH,
like Louis Jodel-Chamblain and Emmanuel “Toto” Constant, who were
convicted
in 2000 for the 1994 Raboteau Massacre which occurred in Gonaives. “While
Yvon
Neptune is near death and other political prisoners languish in jail,
notorious human rights abusers are set free. This is travesty and truly a
tragic
hour in Haiti’s history.”
CCR has spearheaded efforts to bring Constant, the leader of FRAPH, to
justice. He currently lives in a Queens neighborhood in New York City. CCR is
local counsel with the Center for Justice and Accountability in Doe v.
Constant,
a lawsuit that charges Emmanuel “Toto” Constant with responsibility for
torture, crimes against humanity and the systematic use of violence against
women, including rape, for the purpose of terrorizing the Haitian population
during that country’s brutal military regime in the early 1990’s. The
Center has
also offered to provide legal advice counsel to Yvon Neptune’s legal team
if
needed.
***************************************
David Lerner, President
Riptide Communications, Inc
270 Lafayette Street, Suite 1300
New York, NY 10012
Tel: (212) 260-5000
Fax:(212) 260-5191
_www.riptideonline.com_ (http://www.riptideonline.com/)
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