Journalism paralyzed by threats and attacks in Haiti

A mourner marches in Brignal Lindor’s funeral procession Dec. 11, 2001. Photo courtesy of unseennews.com.

By Ives Marie Chanel

Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 7 (IPS)— Haitian journalists say they have been hobbled by a series of attacks and threats perpetrated by government supporters over the past month, and a sense of uncertainty, anxiety, and fear now reigns in most news rooms.

Shortly after radio journalist Brignol Lindor was attacked and killed with machetes and stones on Dec. 3, members of grassroots organizations loyal to the government of President Jean Bertrand Aristide have threatened to burn down radio stations here in the capital and in Cap-Haitien, Haiti’s second largest city.

Lindor worked for the privately run radio station, Echo 2000, in Petit Goave, 68 kilometers southwest of the capital. Since his death, journalists have been threatened and forced to shout “Long live Aristide’’. Some radio stations have suspended all news programming for fear of reprisals, should their reporting on the country’s deteriorating political situation arouse anyone’s ire.

The Association of Haitian Journalists (AJH) has documented the cases of more than a dozen journalists who have been forced to flee the country with their families and seek refuge in the United States or in France during the last few weeks.

The owners of media outlets are concerned for the safety of their journalists and some are distraught because of the “brain drain’’ of individuals who were likely to become Haiti’s next generation of top journalists.

Patrick Moussignac, director of the popular, privately-owned Port- au-Prince radio station Caraibes, says “fear and uncertainty’’ accurately sums up the present atmosphere felt by most news gatherers.

“The situation is difficult,’’ he adds. “The journalists who want to stay and work are getting their visas in order. They’ll tell you the visas are escape hatches in case there’s a problem. Reporters have been hesitating to go out in the field to report because they’re afraid of the ‘chimera,’ a sort of civilian militia, which operates with total impunity.’’

“The failure to punish these people makes them afraid, too, when they write their stories. They are frustrated by the fact that people without any training or education become rich because of corruption, while they see no future for themselves in a country which has little to offer,’’ Moussignac says.

His radio station, which was stoned and threatened Dec. 17, plans to resume its news programming this week, although two of its journalists have already left the country.

The country’s main media owners’ group, in a year-end statement, has condemned the growing violence and actions they say threaten the democratic process, civil liberties, multiparty government, ideological pluralism, and freedom of expression.

Herold Jean Francois, president of the National Association of Haitian Media Outlets (ANMH), says working conditions for journalists have deteriorated because of attacks perpetrated by fanatical government supporters.

“Reporters are avoiding covering certain types of stories,’’ he told IPS. “After the political parties, the press has been the main victim of the violence. In 14 years of democratic transition, this is the first time so many journalists have had to seek refuge in foreign embassies. The situation is catastrophic. Young reporters, who are the future of journalism in this country, are quitting the profession prematurely.’’

Jean Francois says some media outlets have been sorely affected by the departure of journalists in whom they’ve invested several years’ training. He feels that the orchestrated campaign against the press comes from the highest levels of government.

“Telephone threats to editorial offices create a bad atmosphere in which to work. They sow panic and create a permanent sense of psychological stress, which affects the journalists’ work,’’ he says.

At the end of the year, the Haitian press itself took stock of the situation. The theme for the final issue for 2001 of the country’s number one daily paper, Le Nouvelliste, was “The press dismantled’’. The newspaper presented an account of all the threats and attacks experienced during the course of the year by both reporters and media outlets.

“We chose not to go into an account of political news to avoid the Manichean view of just Lavalas (the ruling party), and the Democratic Convergence (the opposition coalition). We chose instead to go into projections for the new year to provide some hope of life beyond those folks,’’ Pierre Manigat Jr., the paper’s editor-in-chief, told IPS.

Manigat says he thinks young journalists have had to absorb a depressing lesson, last meted out to their forebears during the 1980s, under the Duvalier dictatorship, about the limitations of the media as a force for public discourse and political change.

“The young journalists who have been threatened recently have reacted by leaving the country, since journalists here are no longer considered prime movers for social change. They see the example of their elders, who sacrificed their youth for a change that never happened. They’ve also figured out that in a country in economic crisis, journalism is not a profession with a future,’’ Manigat says.

Journalists, owners, and other media workers have been little reassured by Aristide’s most recent re-affirmations of his commitment to the freedom of the press.

“The ones accused of having assassinated Lindor go around Petit Goave without a care in the world. Right now, there are no longer any journalists in that town - they’ve all left,’’, a technician for Radio Echo 2000 says on condition that his name not be revealed.

After Lindor’s funeral, the radio station shut down and its director, Arbrun Alezi, had to leave town. Lindor’s family remains in hiding.

“We have to hide in order not to get caught by the ‘chimera’. We cannot go back to Petit Goave,’’ a family member of Lindor’s told IPS. He says officials, whom he declines to name, tried to bribe family members to remain silent by offering them a house in the hills of Petion Ville, among other benefits.

Dumerzier Bellande, the head of Petit Goave’s public prosecutor’s office, says he issued arrest warrants for the suspected killers, but that the police failed to act on these.

“You’d better ask the police about that. I did what I was supposed to do on the case. It’s up to the police to do their job,’’ he said during an appearance last week on the private station Radio Ibo.

AJH Secretary-General Guy Delva says the situation remains very serious because of ongoing threats against journalists by unidentified armed individuals since Dec. 17.

“The government can always say it has nothing to do with these acts, but the armed groups perpetrating them, who have identified themselves (as allied) to the government, seem to never have anything to worry about. These people know they will never be punished, and they target journalists who, on the other hand, cannot identify them,’’ says Delva.

Other journalists note that an official investigation into the April 2000 killing of leading media commentator Jean Leopold Dominique remains stymied by politics, with the Senate refusing to lift parliamentary immunity for Senator Dany Toussaint, who is wanted for questioning.

The mandate of Judge Claudy Gassant, in charge of the inquiry, expired Jan. 3. Minister of Justice Louis Gary Lissade has said whether or not to renew the judge’s commission is solely a matter for Aristide to decide.

London police extend cannabis decriminalization experiment

Jan. 4— The Metropolitan Police’s six-month experiment with not arresting cannabis users in the south London borough of Lambeth was due to end on December 31, but will be extended after an interim Scotland Yard study indicated the program was “a complete success,” the Guardian newspaper reported last Saturday. The experimental program, in which cannabis users are not arrested but merely “cautioned” and their stashes confiscated, will continue pending the issuance of a Police Foundation review due in February, the newspaper reported.

According to the Guardian, the move is “a sure sign” that Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens wants to expand the program to all of London. Stevens has called the no-arrest scheme “sensible and progressive,” the paper reported.

The Guardian also noted that the move would encourage Home Secretary David Blunkett to move forward with his announced plan to reschedule cannabis from Class B to Class C, a category reserved for the least dangerous drugs, such as steroids and anti-depressants. Under British law, police cannot arrest people for simple possession of Class C drugs. The Metropolitan Police support that move, wrote the Guardian.

Blunkett is awaiting a report from a parliamentary advisory panel on drug abuse, which will look into the health consequences of cannabis decriminalization. That report is due early this year, and a favorable conclusion could lead to effective decriminalization of cannabis possession throughout Britain as early as March, the newspaper reported.

But even if the law were to change, Britain would not become a safe haven for marijuana users. Police could (and presumably would) continue to “caution” pot-smokers, taking down their names and addresses and seizing their stashes. They have certainly done so in Lambeth, issuing warnings to 381 people between July 2 and November 30, according to police figures. In the same period last year, police in Lambeth arrested 278 people for cannabis possession. In the case of Lambeth, then, the relaxation of enforcement has actually led to an increased number of people harassed by police for cannabis violations.

“Without the full evaluation, it would be wrong to read too much into the figures,” a Metropolitan Police spokesman told the Guardian, “but they do show that officers in Lambeth are using the scheme. The number of warnings is higher than the number of arrests, which shows that our officers are not ignoring cannabis possession,” he said.

Source: Drug Reform Coalition Network: www.drcnet.org

Urban homeless seize land in Chile

Jan. 4-- Late on December 31, some 300 people from 75 families occupied a seven-hectare plot of land in El Castillo, in the La Pintana district of Santiago, Chile, and set up tents and shanties there in an effort to pressure the government to include them in plans for state-subsidized housing projects. About a quarter of the plot formerly belonged to the Ministry of Public Works, and was later handed over to the Autopista del Maipo company; the rest belongs to the Ministry of Justice. Occupation leader Lorenzo Reyes said the protest had been planned since October; the participants had been living in the overcrowded houses of relatives in the neighborhood because they can’t afford their own homes.

At 6am on January 3, agents of the Carabineros special forces moved in and broke up the occupation, arresting at least 80 people. Groups of youths reportedly resisted the eviction, throwing rocks, sticks, and other objects at police, who cracked down with tear gas and mounted units, sparking a pitched battle that wasn’t over until noon. Some 40 shots were heard in the area during the pre-dawn hours, some of which hit a police wagon, turned out to have come from nearby residents of El Castillo—not from the squatters, as police had originally charged.

Following the eviction, the substitute mayor of La Pintana, Manuel Gatica, and regional authorities from the Department of Housing and Public Works met with leaders of the occupation and offered them a deal: a definitive housing solution for 150 families within six months. About 30 of the families accepted the offer and were temporarily moved into a municipal building. The remainder rejected the proposal, insisting that temporary housing must be provided for all the families while they await a permanent solution. Protest leaders had reportedly favored the government offer, but said they would support the majority decision to reject it and resume the occupation. The protesters then tried to retake a section of land adjacent to the original occupation site. Carabineros and local police tried to keep them out with tear gas and water cannons; clashes went on into the night of January 3.

Source: Weekly News Update on the Americas

1,000 inmates riot in Chiapas prison

Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico, Jan. 5— As nearly 1,000 inmates rioted in a Chiapas prison, demanding that the prison warden resign, family members of inmates and rights organizations blockaded a prison access road in protest over prison conditions.

Around 200 anti-riot police armed with shields, clubs, and assault rifles stood at the prison entrance as inmate relatives and political activists blocked road access to the prison. Family members claim the anti-riot police have struck and attacked protesters.

Inmates accuse prison warden Fidel Velazquez, a retired military officer, of being corrupt and excessively strict. Velazquez stopped news reporters, inmate families and human rights groups from entering the prison after rioting broke out.

Inmate relatives, informed Thursday, Jan. 3, of the riot via a call from a cellular phone, said the prisoners are routinely beaten, bullied and humiliated by prison guards acting on Velasquez’ orders.

“We demand that these prison authorities, and especially Fidel Velazquez, are fired and punished,” said one of the protesters. “They must be punished for injuring, for abuse of authority, corruption, and the violation of the prisoners’ rights.”

At the same time, members of a civil rights group, which joined the relatives in blocking access to the prison, are demanding the release of at least 100 inmates who they say are political prisoners.

“Our buddies are in because of corrupt rulings,” said Rafael Meono and Tomas Patino, stating that their comrades were locked up for having led land squatters.

Others are imprisoned for allegedly leading protests against the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) due to high and abusive charges and bad service in rural communities in Chiapas.

Many inmates in southern Mexican prisons were also locked up on trumped-up charges because they were considered supporters of the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), human rights groups said.

The protesters admitted they might soon be attacked by the anti-riot police, but said they would remain in front of the prison until Velazquez was fired or resigned.

Source: Agence France Presse