Yvon Neptune, still recognized by the CARICOM (Caribbean) countries as the legitimate Prime Minister of Haiti, is reported to have died while imprisoned without charges by the US/French/Canadian -sponsored puppet government of Gerard LaTortue. The news arrives in the United States via KPFA's Flashpoints Radio. In the midst of a interview with reporter/activist Kevin Pina and US Representative Maxine Waters, Pina was informed that two Haitian radio stations were reporting that Neptune had died. Neptune was in the second week of a hunger strike against his political imprisonment, but Waters said that, due to reports that Neptune had been beaten and tortured, it is impossible to know if he has succumbed to the hunger strike or if violence was involved.
The news is still unconfirmed at this time.
(more...)
Why was Neptune in jail? According to the Haitian puppet government he was involved in a massacre of 50 Lavalas opponents, but UN human rights envoy Louis Joinet after investigating the so-called massacre found only 25 dead, from both sides of the political divide and characterized the deaths as resulting from a "confrontation" and not a "massacre." No official charges had been brought against Neptune and no moves were being made to bring him to trial.
Meanwhile there have been numerous reports of Haitian police, now staffed by former members of the death squads of the Cedras and Duvalier years, have been repeatedly shooting unarmed Lavalas supporters, on some occassions while UN "peacekeepers" simply stood by and watched.
Further, the US has been illegally arming anti-Lavalas forces in violation of an official arms ban to the country. Representative Waters has been attempting to prompt an investigation into the role of John Bolton in these activities. She has also been one of the only persons in government that has been crying out for justice for this country that has faced unrelenting hostility and violence from the US and France since it dared to overthrow its slavemasters 200 years ago.
Call your representatives and ask them to support Representative Waters in her work.
[edit-Well, I broke my promise to update w/ more resources. I finished work and fell asleep from exhaustion. This diary sunk so fast that I guess few of you really care, but to those who were waiting for more, I apologize]
[edit-This morning's Democracy Now reports that Neptune is refusing to be forced into exile, but that news came prior to Flashpoint's, so I think we still don't know what the exact situation is.]