The New Haiti: Arrest, Murder and Repression

Haitian Prime Minister Yvon Neptune was arrested Sunday after living in hiding since the March 12 installation of the new US-backed interim Prime Minister Gererd Latortue.
Neptune is being detained at a prison in the capital city of Port-au-Prince. In an interview from his prison cell Tuesday with the Associated Press and two Haitian radio stations, Neptune said he has no confidence in new Haitian leaders who allowed his home to be looted and burned after the removal of President Jean Bertrand Aristide. Aristide says he was the victim of a modern-day kidnapping in the service of a coup backed by the United States.

Neptune says he went into hiding when Latortue was installed three days before he agreed to step down as prime minister and was told "by official sources that there were people in a position of power who were trying to harm me." He was barred from leaving Haiti along with some 40 ex-officials.

He surrendered after learning there was a warrant for his arrest. The arrest is connected with the killings of anti-Aristide gang members on February 9th. Authorities have yet to list charges, and Neptune has said he is innocent.

In the cell next to Neptune is Jocelerme Privert, the interior minister under Aristide, who said he hadn't seen a judge since being detained in April on similar accusations. At least five other Aristide officials are in the same prison.

Since President Aristide's removal, the new US-backed Haitian regime has unleashed a campaign of terror, particularly supporters of Aristide's Lavalas party. One report from the National Lawyer's Guild found that over a thousand bodies were dumped in a mass grave by the state morgue in March. Today we take a look at some of the stories in the new Haiti. From Prime Minister Yvon Neptune to the arrest of prominent Haitian singer and voodoo priestess Annette Auguste, known as So Anne. We begin with Congresswoman Maxine Waters who has denounced the arrest of Neptune calling it "part of a politically-motivated campaign to arrest and intimidate" Lavalas members.


Rep. Maxine Waters, Democratic Congresswoman from California serving in her seventh term. She is the Chief Deputy Whip of the Democratic Party and serves as Co-Chair of the House Democratic Steering Committee. She is the former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.
David Welsh, labor leader in Bay area who recently returned from Haiti as part of a delegation with the San Francisco Labor Council.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/30/1514246