Table of Contents and Preface below.  Please click on the link above to read the entire report.  Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to open the file.

Authored in part by Jennifer Van Bergen

I. Overview

II. Major Concerns

A. General concerns

a. Human Rights Violations

i. The emergence & continued presence of armed gangs, including

known human rights violators

ii. Continued repression, violence, and human rights violations

towards supporters of the Haiti’s elected government.

b. Rule of Law

i. Lack of adequate and properly trained police

ii. Lack of adequate judicial process

c. Security

i. Persons in hiding

B. Specific concerns

a. Incidents with U.S. Marines & French forces

b. Failures of the interim peacekeeping forces and/or interim Haitian

government

i. Failure to stop violence or bring rebels to justice for killings and

human rights abuses

ii. Failure to protect peasants and government officials, judges,

activists, and supporters from armed gangs

iii. Failure to pursue and capture those who escaped from prisons

in February 2004

iv. Failure to reestablish the judicial system

v. Failure to adequately support police

III. Narrative Reports

* * *

I. OVERVIEW

On February 29, 2004, the democratically elected Haitian President Jean-Bertrand

Aristide was overthrown and removed from power. As a result of continuing reports of

serious human rights violations occurring in the aftermath of the coup d’état which

removed President Aristide from power, the National Lawyers Guild determined to send

a delegation to Haiti to investigate and report on the human rights situation.

The first phase of this delegation visited Haiti from March 29-April 5, 2004, and issued a

summary report on April 11, 2004. In general, the delegation found the human rights

situation to be grave with a near total lack of media attention, within and outside of Haiti,

to the human rights abuses which were occurring. The delegation noticed a general sense

of insecurity in people due to a number of factors, including: (1) killings; (2) curfews; (3)

the lack of police or any form of working judicial system; (4) patrols of private, heavily

armed militia; (5) the doubling or tripling of food and fuel prices; (6) the loss of value of

the Haitian currency against the U.S. dollar, (7) lack of electricity in major urban areas;

and, (8) the unauthorized return of the uniformed and armed soldiers of the Haitian

Army that President Aristide decommissioned in 1994 for its historical oppression of

Haiti’s poor.

The first NLG delegation visited Port-au-Prince and areas to the south of the capital city,

including Petit Goave, Grand Goave and Les Cayes. The delegation documented a wave

of political violence directed at supporters of President Aristide, his party Fanmi Lavalas,

and Haiti’s elected authorities, and the repression of popular organizations that worked

with the prior government to address basic community needs. The delegation concluded

that the multinational force of 3,600 soldiers from the U.S., Canada, France and Chile,

was not functioning to protect supporters of President Aristide or prevent killings,

kidnappings, and arsons directed at his supporters. The multinational force was generally

limited to guarding fixed positions or engaging in heavily armed patrols in the poorest

areas. Its presence generally was seen as raising tensions in those areas rather than

contributing to a sense of security. The initial summary report of Phase I of the NLG

Delegation can be found in its entirety at www.nlg.org.

Phase II of the NLG delegation was in Haiti from April 12-19, 2004. Consisting of two

attorneys, three law students, and a photographer,1 the delegation visited Port-au-Prince,

Nestor (attorney, Mpls., MN), Jennifer Van Bergen (attorney, Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, FL), Elizabeth

Meyers (law student, CA), Kenavon Carter (law student, Austin, TX), Jennifer Wernersbach (law student,

Gonaïves, Cap-Haïtien, and Milot in the north of Haiti. Delegation members interviewed

human rights lawyers, police officials, members of the multi-national force, political

leaders of Fanmi Lavalas, officials of the new Haitian government, representatives of the

U.S. embassy, journalists, leaders of popular organizations, religious leaders, leaders of

the armed rebel movement, local elected officials, and many other Haitian citizens. Set

out below is a summary of the key observations and findings of Phase II of the NLG

Delegation, followed by a narrative description of some of the key interviews and

findings of the Delegation.