|
Congolese president survives coup attempt
By Declan Walsh
Nairobi, Kenya, June 12— Gunfire and explosions rocked
the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kinshasa, on
June 11, as renegade soldiers made a failed attempt to overthrow the
transitional government led by President Joseph Kabila.
Dissident troops from Kabila’s presidential guard sparked fighting
around the presidential mansion, the state radio station and the main
military camp in the early morning hours. Government forces quelled
the attempted coup within hours and, by the afternoon of June 11, were
reportedly chasing the ringleader, Major Eric Lenge, south of the city
using soldiers and a helicopter.
President Kabila made a televised address to reassure the nation that
he remained in control. “Stay calm, prepare yourself to resist
— because I will allow nobody to try a coup d’état
or to throw off course our peace process,” said the 32-year-old
president, dressed in military uniform. “As for me, I’m fine,”
he added, apparently in reference to speculation that he had been caught
up in the gunfire.
The attempted putsch was the second major blow in as many weeks to the
authority of the Kabila-led transitional government, which was formed
last June to end the DRC’s devastating five-year war. Eleven days
ago a separate group of renegades seized of Bukavu, more than 1,000
miles to the east, and occupied it for a week. The dissident leader,
Brigadier General Laurent Nkunda, withdrew his forces voluntarily June
7.
The attempted coup in Kinshasa suggested the atmosphere of upheaval
was spreading across the vast country, Africa’s third-largest.
There was no indication, however, of any link with the group that seized
Bukavu.
The attempted coup started after midnight on June 10 when the dissidents
seized control of the national radio station and apparently cut the
capital’s electricity supply. At about 2:30am Major Lenge appeared
on state radio to declare that his forces had “neutralized”
the transitional government, and urged the army to join him.
But the speech, which was broadcast when most Congolese were sleeping,
went largely unheard and within three hours, government loyalists had
forced the rebels into Camp Tshatshi, the city’s main military
base, close to the Congo River.
At dawn, residents reported heavy gunfire and tank shelling from within
the camp; later, the army announced that it had arrested 12 rebels.
Gunfire was also reported from around President Kabila’s residence,
which was unexplained.
United Nations military officials estimated that about 200 soldiers
took part in the coup. Antoine Ghonda, the Foreign Minister, admitted
that its leaders came from the presidential guard. Diplomats said the
renegades may have been angry at the government’s failure to pay
full wages for several months.
The involvement of the presidential guard in the disturbances has ominous
personal resonances for Kabila: three years ago his father, Laurent,
was assassinated by a presidential guard soldier in still-murky circumstances.
In March, several hundred soldiers attacked military installations around
the city, although it was unclear whether they were attempting a coup
or a localized army mutiny. President Kabila blamed the incident on
supporters of the former dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko; it remained unclear
last night who he blamed for the botched uprising.
The upheavals in Bukavu and Kinshasa inflicted serious damage on the
DRC’s fragile peace process, which had been pointed towards elections
next year. The brief occupation of Bukavu sparked anti-UN protests across
the country; eroded confidence in Kabila; and raised fears of a fresh
war, possibly with neighboring Rwanda.
It also resulted in serious human rights abuses, some of them war crimes,
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said June 11. Ethnically fueled murders, rape
of girls as young as three and widespread looting accompanied the fighting,
said the New York-based lobby group. As many as 80 people were killed.
HRW was “deeply concerned” by the failure of the 800-strong
UN mission in Bukavu to use its Chapter Seven mandate -- which allows
for deadly force -- to protect civilians in danger, although it commended
the peacekeepers for saving some lives.
Source: Independent Digital (UK)
Europe: protest marks parliamentary vote
By Stefania Bianchi
Brussels, Belgium, June 14 (IPS)— Voters across the European
Union (EU) have used their vote in the parliamentary elections over
the weekend to show their disquiet with national governments and the
institution itself.
European elections were held in each of the 25 member states of the
EU between June 10 and June 13.
As results came in June 13 the indications were that many opposition
and anti-EU parties across the bloc recorded their best result.
Governing parties in Germany, France and Poland suffered big losses
as Europe was swept by a wave of protest over a range of EU and non-EU
issues.
The European elections gave some 350 million voters the chance to vote,
but the mood of discontent was also reflected in a record low turnout
of approximately 45 percent. This marked a five percent fall from the
1999 elections.
The European Parliament, the EU’s only directly elected institution,
aims to bring a measure of democratic control and accountability over
other EU bodies. Its powers have increased over recent years with new
EU treaties.
Turnout in the EU’s 10 new member states was particularly disappointing.
The novelty of European elections had been expected to attract a high
number of voters.
Just about 40.3 percent from the new states voted, a worrying sign that
the idealism of enlargement is already disappearing.
The main political group in the Parliament — the conservative European
Peoples Party (EPP) — maintained its lead as the biggest single
bloc with a share of 265 (36.9 percent) of the 732 seats.
The biggest shock for the assembly came from Britain, where the United
Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), which wants complete withdrawal from
the EU, secured 12 seats in a total of 78.
Anti-EUs also achieved major victories in other EU member states.
In Sweden the recently formed Junilistan that is critical of the EU
came third, securing three seats. In Belgium the far-right Vlaams Blok
party won an estimated 14.3 percent of the vote, making it the second
biggest party in the vote.
Robert Kilroy-Silk, a former British television presenter and now UKIP
Member of the European Parliament said in his acceptance speech June
13 that “the British public want their country back from Brussels
and we are going to get it back for them.”
Liberal leader Graham Watson said he “regretted” the rise
in the number of anti-EUs. “These people tend to be the wreckers,
the ones who are against finding solutions.”
Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, president of the Party of the European Socialists
(PES) said anti-EUs would not hamper the work of the Parliament.
“The election results are very satisfying, despite reverses in
some countries,” Rasmussen and Enrique Barón, PES leader
in the Parliament, said in a joint statement. “All in all, we have
kept our strength. Now we will deliver on our promises.”
A large part of the electorate voted as a mark of no confidence for
national ruling parties. Many voters in France and Germany used their
vote to record their concern over feeble economic growth and reforms
to the social security and labor markets.
In Britain Prime Minister Tony Blair was punished by voters for supporting
the US-led war in Iraq war as the Conservative party pushed the ruling
Labour party into second place.
The parliamentary election results come just days before Europe’s
leaders meet in Brussels June 17 and 18 to agree the next phase of EU
integration by finalising the draft constitution which outlines policies
after enlargement.
However, the June 13 results may now threaten the ability of EU leaders
to sell the constitution to hostile voters, many of who will be asked
to ratify the treaty in national referendums.
Pat Cox, former president of the European Parliament said the anti-EU
surge was a “wake up call” for pro-EU political leaders across
Europe.
“This is especially important as a wake up call for those leaders
in those states who propose to hold referendum on the constitutional
treaty,” he said in a statement June 13.
Watchdog: UK police fail to eradicate
racism
By Nigel Morris
June 14— In 1993 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence, a member
of London’s Afro-Caribbean community, was stabbed to death by
white teenagers while waiting for the bus.
A 1997 public inquiry into the failed police investigation found not
only gross incompetence but department-wide racism in the Metropolitan
Police Service; the inquiry resulted in demands for sweeping changes
in the police attitude toward black and Asian communities.
Now, the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) has found that only
one of the 43 police forces in England and Wales meets its legal obligations
to ethnic minorities. The renewed accusations of endemic institutional
racism will put Chief Constables, some of whom have struggled to recruit
black and Asian officers, at risk of prosecution.
Trevor Phillips, the CRE chairman, began the investigation after the
BBC documentary The Secret Policeman showed recruits from Greater
Manchester Police making racist comments about fellow officers. In
one scene, a trainee was shown in a Ku Klux Klan-style hood, making
insulting remarks about Lawrence. The organization has also had a
surge in complaints from ethnic-minority officers about prejudice.
The CRE has found that most chief constables and police authorities
had failed to act on the requirement in the Race Relations Act to
promote race equality. It also said tests designed to expose racist
officers had failed, and black and Asian police officers were discriminated
against by internal disciplinary procedures.
The CRE has the power to issue enforcement notices, backed by the
ultimate threat of prosecution, against public bodies that fail to
comply with race equality laws.
Imram Khan, the lawyer who represented the Lawrence family, told The
Observer: “If this is what they have discovered, then the CRE
has to take action against the police. It’s the only way they
will learn. If they instigate proceedings, the impact on every other
public body will be phenomenal. The fear has always been that this
legislation was not taken seriously.”
The inquiry team included Sir David Calvert-Smith, the former director
of public prosecutions, and Ravi Chand, the former president of the
Black Police Association (BPA).
Ali Dizaei, legal adviser to the BPA, said it had been asking the
CRE to use its powers against racist forces for more than two years.
“We hope racism is tackled once and for all,” he said. “Police
forces have made great strides in tackling racism in the community,
but this is not reflected in their internal dealings with ethnic officers.”
Phillips had said the investigation would be “transparent, focused
and timely.” He added: “I cannot prejudge the outcome, but
... police forces have spent 137,000 days on race and diversity training.
Unfortunately, no one has taken the trouble to evaluate whether this
training did any good.”
Two weeks ago a black constable won a $900,000 payout after she dropped
a claim of racial and sexual discrimination against the Metropolitan
Police. She had complained of years of victimization, including being
sexually assaulted, given white face-paint for Christmas, having her
helmet sprayed with lighter fluid and being locked in a room for an
hour by male colleagues.
Source: Independent Digital (UK)
Chirac’s party rejected as voters
turn back to Socialists
By John Lichfield
Paris, France, June 14— President Jacques Chirac’s
party suffered a humiliating rout in the European elections, scoring
only 16.8 percent of the vote in the lowest-ever turnout in a nationwide
election in France.
The President’s UMP party, created two years ago to “unite”
the French center-right, was comprehensively defeated by a reborn
Socialist Party, which took 30 percent of the vote. The defeat was,
in percentage terms, even more shattering than the disastrous regional
election in March when the center-right lost all but two regions to
the left.
Allowing for the low turn-out of 43 percent, only about 8 percent
— or one in 12 — of potential French voters cast a ballot
for the party of a president, and a government, elected in landslides
two years ago.
Politically, the consequences were difficult to predict. There were
immediate calls for the resignation of the center-right Prime Minister,
Jean-Pierre Raffarin, but President Chirac -- having persisted with
the same leader after the regional elections -- seemed unlikely to
change course now.
Nonetheless, the repudiation of the UMP by so many voters will make
it harder than ever for Raffarin to pursue his program of economic
and state reforms in the remaining three years of this presidential
and parliamentary term.
The betting in Paris June 13 was that Raffarin would be sacked by
the president after the summer break. The poisoned chalice of the
premiership would then pass either to the Interior Minister(and former
foreign minister) Dominique de Villepin or Chirac’s increasingly
powerful rival for leadership of the center-right, Nicolas Sarkozy.
The former Socialist prime minister Laurent Fabius called the vote
a “considerable setback” for Raffarin, saying it posed “a
real credibility problem” for the government.
After a dispiriting campaign, fought mostly on domestic issues, the
big victor, other than François Hollande, secretary general
of the Socialists, was François Bayrou, the leader of the “other”
center-right party, the UDF. The centrist, pro-European UDF took 12
percent of the vote, despite being written off as a meaningless “rump”
when Chirac attracted many figures in the party into his UMP two years
ago. “This is the first time in decades that the UDF has moved
so far ahead of the extreme right,” Bayrou said. “This is
good for democracy.”
Overall it was a bad night for the extremes in French politics, with
the far-right National Front taking only 10 percent of the vote (still
eight seats) and the far-left scarcely registering. The “sovereigntist,”
anti-EU party of the ultra- conservative aristocrat, Philippe de Villiers,
won a solid seven percent of the vote.
Source: Independent Digital (UK)
Iraqi prisoner abuse authorized by
military officials
New information refutes Administration claims
that torture incidents were rare and isolated
Compiled by Josh Ferguson
June 16 (AGR) -- Compelling new evidence has been released
to indicate that torture techniques used at Abu Ghraib prison were
either endorsed or encouraged high up the US military chain of command,
and in some cases perhaps justified under presidential directives
for military intelligence gathering. Reports also show that complaints
by at least five military policemen [MP] assigned to “soften
up” prisoners for interrogation were disregarded by their superiors
for several months.
Army documents obtained by the Associated Press showed that the five
MP’s objected to what they were asked to do last autumn, but
that the noncommissioned officers they reported to did nothing to
stop the beatings, sexual humiliation, and brutal intimidation techniques
practiced in Abu Ghraib’s Tier 1/A.
The documents -- mostly transcripts of the military court hearings
held so far -- showed one soldier at Abu Ghraib complaining last November
that the sight of prisoners being forced to masturbate and being stacked
naked into human pyramids “made me sick to my stomach.”
Meanwhile, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft told Congress that he
would not release to members a 2002 policy memo on the degree of pain
and suffering legally permitted during enemy interrogations, but he
said he knows of no presidential order that would allow torture for
al Qaida captives.
“There is no presidential order immunizing torture,” Ashcroft
said. He cited President George W. Bush’s statement that al Qaida
captives should be treated in a manner consistent with the Geneva
Conventions, even if the conventions do not apply to such prisoners,
but said he could not discuss whether there had been any order or
directive from Bush regarding interrogations.
Ashcroft said he would not discuss the contents of the memo and said
he would not turn it over to the committee.
The memo said that inflicting physical or mental pain might be justified
in “the war on terror” “in order to prevent further
attacks on the United States by the al Qaida terrorist network,”
adding that “necessity and self defense could provide justifications
that would eliminate any criminal liability.”
The Bush administration has said that the memo’s discussion notwithstanding,
al Qaida and Taliban detainees, including those held at Guantanamo
Bay, have been treated in accord with international conventions prohibiting
torture.
Despite this claim, the Bush administration has been accused of routinely
bypassing or overruling Pentagon experts on international law and
the Geneva convention to construct a sweeping legal justification
for harsh tactics in the “war on terror.” In one instance,
President George Bush’s military order of Nov. 13, 2001, which
denies prisoner-of-war status to captives from Afghanistan and allows
their detention without charge or access to a lawyer at Guantánamo,
was issued without any consultations with Pentagon lawyers, a former
Pentagon official said.
The revelation follows reports of a Pentagon memo that argued that
Bush was not bound by laws against torture, and that interrogators
who torture detainees at Guantánamo cannot be prosecuted.
The military order issued by Bush in November 2001 was the first such
directive since the WWII, and the administration’s failure to
seek the Pentagon’s advice on what would emerge as the entire
system of detention at Guantánamo surprised Pentagon officials.
However, Senator Edward Kennedy said that the Pentagon memo and other
such rulings laid the legal foundations for the abuse. “We know
when we have these kinds of orders what happens: we get the stress
test, we get the use of dogs, we get the forced nakedness that we’ve
all seen, and we get the hooding,” Kennedy said, holding up pictures
from Abu Ghraib prison.
The Washington Post, meanwhile, has disclosed that the commander of
US forces in Iraq, General Ricardo Sanchez, had passed a policy document
last September that approved the use of military dogs, temperature
extremes, reversed sleep patterns, sensory deprivation, and near-starvation
diets.
Gen. Sanchez, who announced that he was stepping down from his post
soon after the scandal erupted in April, stipulated in the document
he signed that such techniques (known in US military circles as “stress
and duress,” as opposed to torture) could be applied at will
without approval from anyone outside Abu Ghraib prison.
The document -- based on a similar list of techniques in use at Guantanamo
Bay -- was modified a month later after objections from US Central
Command, with some of the 32 duress techniques dropped or subjected
to approval higher up the system.
The newly obtained documents reinforce the picture that the abuse
falls into two categories: sexual humiliation and beatings at the
hands of MPs, and intimidation using dogs that is clearly tied to
military intelligence. The sexual abuse happened weeks and even months
before the dog incidents, some of which appear to be part of an organized
strategy by military intelligence to scare detainees into talking,
according to the statements.
“Using dogs to frighten and intimidate prisoners is a violation
of the Geneva Convention,” said Elisa Massimino, Washington director
of Human Rights First, an international organization based in New
York. “It’s a violation of US policy as stated in the Army
field manual, and it’s a violation of the prohibition against
cruel treatment.”
On Jan. 13, Spec. John Harold Ketzer, a military intelligence interrogator,
saw a dog team corner two male prisoners against a wall, one prisoner
hiding behind the other and screaming, he later told investigators.
“When I asked what was going on in the cell, the handler stated
that he was just scaring them, and that he and another of the handlers
was having a contest to see how many detainees they could get to urinate
on themselves,” Ketzer said.
In addition to special investigations regarding use of dogs in interrogations,
forced nudity is also being examined as a method of humiliation for
the purposes of intelligence gathering. According to soldiers’
testimony, detainees were paraded naked past other prisoners and guards;
some were ordered to do jumping jacks and sing The Star-Spangled Banner
in the nude, according to several witnesses. The International Committee
of the Red Cross, visiting in October, found prisoners left naked
in their cells for days, modestly trying to shield themselves behind
cardboard from ready-to-eat meal boxes.
When Red Cross monitors expressed alarm about prisoners being left
in their cells or forced to move about naked, they said military intelligence
officials “confirmed that it was part of the military intelligence
process.”
“It was not uncommon to see people without clothing,” Capt.
Donald J. Reese, the warden of the tier where the worst abuses occurred,
told investigators in a sworn statement in January. “I only saw
males. I was told the ‘whole nudity thing’ was an interrogation
procedure used by military intelligence, and never thought much of
it.”
Accusations of torture at the prison are coming not only against military
personnel. Lawyers representing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison
are taking two US-based security companies to court, accusing them
of conspiring to “direct and conduct a scheme to torture, rape,
and, in some instances, summarily execute plaintiffs.”
The class-action suit, filed last week in federal court in San Diego
by a law firm from Philadelphia and the New York-based Center for
Constitutional Rights, accuses the two firms -- Titan Corporation
and CACI International -- of violating the Racketeer Influenced and
Corrupt Organizations Act, (RICO), which was passed to fight organized
crime. The plaintiffs are seeking compensation for their suffering,
punitive damages, and an injunction banning the firms from government
contracts.
It is the first suit of its kind to have arisen from the revelations
of torture and killings at Abu Ghraib, but is unlikely to be the last.
Nine Iraqi individuals are mentioned in the suit, not all of them
named. Another 1,000 prisoners at Abu Ghraib are also included in
the action.
Although most accusations to date have focused on military policemen
at Abu Ghraib, the lawsuit accused the two companies of carrying out
“heinous and illegal acts to demonstrate their abilities to obtain
intelligence from detainees, and thereby obtain more contracts from
the government.”
One person, identified in court documents only as a prisoner named
Rasheed, told lawyers his tongue was shocked with electricity and
his toenails pulled out. Another person, identified only as a prisoner
named Ahmed, said he was forced to watch while his 63-year-old father,
Ibrahiem, was tortured to death.
Sources: Washington Post, AP, Independent
(UK), Guardian (UK)
British troops beat man so severely
his kidneys fail
By Severin Carrell
June 13— A detailed medical file passed to The Independent
on June 13 has revealed that an Iraqi civilian was so severely beaten
about the body by British troops that it caused his kidneys to fail.
British hospital consultants have revealed that medical records
for Kifah Talah, 44, an engineer arrested last September, showed
that his kidney damage was due to a sustained and prolonged physical
assault all over his body. Doctors say the beatings led to the massive
release of a toxic enzyme into his blood stream that overloaded
his kidneys, causing them to fail, and left him needing kidney dialysis
for life.
Talah’s case is one of the most notorious to come out of a
now infamous raid on a hotel near Basra by a Queen’s Lancashire
Regiment (QLR) unit on Sept. 13 last year, in a search for an illegal
weapons cache.
One of seven other men arrested in the raid; Baha Mousa, 26, died
in hospital three days later from injuries allegedly sustained by
repeated beatings by QLR members. Up to six QLR soldiers face prosecution
for allegedly systematically abusing Mousa at an army interrogation
center. The same ill-treatment allegedly left Talah and the five
other men with kidney damage, broken ribs, organ damage, severe
bruising, and permanent scarring.
An expert analysis of Talah’s medical notes is expected to
be given to the High Court, with witness statements from all six
men, for a hearing next month into allegations that British troops
illegally killed more than 20 Iraqi civilians, including two children.
Phil Shiner, lawyer behind the court hearing, said: “His records
are highly significant because they show he was beaten black and
blue.”
Last week, the armed forces minister, Adam Ingram, revealed that
the Army and RAF police had investigated 75 complaints of deaths
in custody, deaths through shootings, and cases of alleged ill-treatment
-- far more than previously acknowledged. His admissions have led
to further pressure for independent investigations into the UK’s
treatment of Iraqi detainees.
On June 12, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) repeated that it was vigorously
pursuing the abuse cases, but added that it could not comment further
because it could prejudice prosecutions. In a statement the MoD
said: “We are trying to be as open as possible about these
investigations given the intense public interest, but this has to
be carefully balanced against the right to privacy and the need
to protect investigative and criminal proceedings.”
Source: Independent (UK)
Kurd unrest spreads to Syria
By George Baghdadi
Damascus, Syria, June 14 (IPS)— Kurds within Syria
are beginning to demand increasing recognition in the face of the
autonomy enjoyed by Kurds within Iraq.
Kurds number about 1.5 million in a Syrian population of 17 million.
A total of 20 million Kurds are scattered across several countries.
Turkey has about half the Kurd population, Iraq about five million,
and the rest are distributed within Iran and Syria.
New Kurdish demands in Syria include citizenship for up to 200,000
Kurds living within the country. They are also demanding the right
to register their land, and for the Kurdish language to be recognized.
Turkey too has accepted several Kurdish demands, including recognition
for Kurdish language.
Syrian officials fear the new demands could lead to a push for Kurdish
autonomy or even to Kurds breaking away to join an Iraqi Kurdistan.
Kurdish unrest following a football match in March in Qameshli 680
kilometers north-east of Damascus left about 30 people dead and
more than 100 injured.
The Syrian government’s concerns are reinforced by the fact
that Kurds live in the area that is the source of most oil and gas
resources. The area, a fertile plain between the Euphrates and Tigris
rivers, is known locally as Al Jazeera, or The Island.
The Syrian government has moved to contain Kurdish unrest by ordering
all unlicensed parties to stop political activities or face a ban,
according to a statement by a human rights activist obtained by
IPS. The Syrian government has not officially announced the ban.
“The regional leadership of the (ruling Ba’ath) party
has taken a decision to ban all political, cultural and media activities,
and to prosecute those who do not heed this,” human rights
activist and lawyer Anwar al-Buni said in a statement.
“This decision impacts on all political parties and associations
in Syria,” he said. “In the absence of a law governing
political activity, it is up to the security services to set the
political agenda in Syria.”
Buni said Kurdish leaders Faud Aliko, Aziz Daoud and Saleh Kado
have been summoned by the secret police and informed of the new
orders.
Daoud, secretary-general of the Kurdish Progressive Democratic Party
said the ban would not deter Kurdish groups. “The Kurdish political
parties are patriotic movements,” Daoud said in a statement.
“They will not halt their political activities.”
The tightening of control on Kurds is a part of increasing control
on opposition political groups. This includes members of the National
Progressive Front, which has been a part of a seven-party ruling
coalition.
President Bashar Assad has sent out several reformist signals since
taking over as president from his father Hafez Assad who died in
2000 after 30 years of autocratic rule since taking power in a military
coup.
Bashar Assad granted amnesty to more than a thousand political prisoners..
Political meetings known as salons flourished.
Civil rights activists and liberal lawmakers gather at these salons
to demand more freedom and democracy, and to criticize corruption
and nepotism. But a crackdown on reformists last year has curbed
many of these activities. Syria is inching along the path of economic
reforms but hopes for political reform have been effectively quashed.
The ruling clique seems in no mood to allow the extent of political
reform demanded by the opposition. The government is emphatic in
stifling new demands being made by Kurdish groups.
The crackdown underlines the struggle for control in Syria between
a well-entrenched old guard and a new generation of reformers. “There
was a lot of hope before the crackdown,” a liberal activist
says. “But the way they came down on these groups has left
the country depressed.”
Caribbean prisons on trial
By Peter Richards
Port of Spain, Trinidad, June 11 (IPS)— More than two
months after human rights researchers warned the Republic of Trinidad
and Tobago that it was in “all our interest” to ensure
that prison conditions here were significantly improved, local lawyers
are describing the country’s jails as “a time bomb waiting
to explode.”
After his tour, Amnesty International’s Piers Bannister spoke
of cockroaches, overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, dark prison
cells and prisoners sleeping on bare concrete floors.
The country is not alone. Other Caribbean nations have announced
plans to ease overcrowded conditions and otherwise reform penal
systems that one human rights expert says imprison so many offenders,
particularly in the US-led “war on drugs,” that they neglect
crime prevention and control.
A delegation from the Council of the Law Association in Trinidad
and Tobago told reporters June 8 that after begging authorities
for six months to grant a prisons visit, what they witnessed was
appalling.
“What we saw was an outrage, a scandal and a serious indictment
against our society, modern Trinidad and Tobago,” said lawyer
Om Lalla, adding, “it is a serious indictment against every
government, past and present, who allowed this to happen.”
Lawyer Natasha Lamy-Ramsden said about 20 cells in the prison in
the capital Port of Spain were in complete darkness at midday.
“There were no lights, the corridor was very narrow, I could
not see the men’s faces; they were sticking out cups with urine
and bags for the toilet,” she said after the tour.
The conditions affected not only convicted prisoners, but those
who were in remand yards awaiting trial, she added.
“They are innocent until proven guilty. I have two sons, they
could end up in the wrong place at the wrong time and be in that
situation in the prison. There were five men in a cell, the stench
was horrendous, there was lack of ventilation. If someone does something
to a prisoner in the night, he can’t tell who did it because
it is so dark,” said Lamy-Ramsden.
Lalla, who represented the Criminal Bar Association, said he had
received complaints from clients about prison conditions, but he
never thought they were so bad.
“Some cells had 14 prisoners. How do they sleep? They are in
a 10 by 10 cell; they spend 23 hours a day there. The prison was
designed in the 17th century to hold 250 prisoners; it is now holding
more than 800.”
Two years ago, the city prison had a population of 1,400.
The Law Association has already indicated it intends to take legal
action on behalf of the prisoners.
“Crime is rampant in our society. Criminals need to be punished,
but this goes beyond punishment,” Larry Lalla, another member
of the delegation, told reporters.
Before his departure, Amnesty’s Bannister predicted there would
be “a public outcry, no matter what people’s view of crime
and criminality,” if law-abiding citizens were allowed to see
the conditions in the jails.
“We are not looking to get into an argument with government;
we want to work constructively with the governments as they seek
to reform the prison system,” he added.
The administration has already appointed a task force to examine
the situation, but National Security Minister Martin Joseph conceded
JUne 9 he was shocked when he visited the prisons.
Admitting conditions were “really, really bad,” Joseph
said the government is committed to “the transformation of
the prison” and was moving to deal with overcrowding.
His plans include making a maximum-security prison recently built
to accommodate 2,400 prisoners fully operational. The facility now
houses 800 inmates.
The government is also awaiting the Amnesty International report,
scheduled to be handed over in November, Joseph added.
Horrid prison conditions are not confined to Trinidad and Tobago,
and some other Caribbean nations have also announced plans to reform
their justice systems.
Barbados Junior Home Affairs Minister Reverend Joseph Atherley said
recently his government was planning to introduce a department of
corrections that would encompass the functions of the probation
and prisons departments, along with government industrial schools.
Jamaica has been urging its business community to support anti-crime
initiatives and to help integrate former prisoners back into society,
in order to ease strains on the system.
Jamaica’s prisons now contain 4,023 inmates, 1,323 more than
the ideal number, according to Prison Commissioner Major Richard
Reese.
Former inmates who were unable to reintegrate into society and obtain
jobs would inevitably return to prison, increasing societal problems
and government spending and resulting in “a high percentage
of our work force being locked away,” he added.
His plans for reform found favor with Wendy Singh, the former co-ordinator
of the Caribbean Human Rights Network (CHRN).
Writing in the just-published magazine of the Association of Caribbean
Commissioners of Police (ACCP), Singh warned the region’s governments
that their justice systems are endangered by current sentencing
policies that emphasize locking up convicted offenders.
Penal reform, effective legal aid services and proper training for
law enforcement agents are urgently needed, she wrote.
“The war against drugs has perhaps had the most negative impact
on the criminal justice system. It has led to the introduction of
legislation resulting in cluttered courts and overcrowded prisons,”
said Singh.
Others note the deportation of criminals from western countries
to their Caribbean homelands has helped crowd the jails. The United
States alone has deported 500,000 offenders since 1996, more than
80 percent of them from the Caribbean and Latin America, according
to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
Singh argues that while an effective and efficient justice system
is a prerequisite for good governance, the current imprisonment-oriented
policy “is paralyzing the effective functioning of the criminal
justice system ... producing, in the process, hard-core offenders
and recidivists and diverting resources away from crime prevention
and control.”
In May, Singh addressed the leaders of the sub-regional Organization
of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) on the issue.
St. Lucia Prime Minister Kenny Anthony, current OECS chairman, said
her report raised a number of concerns for the nine-member body.
“We have asked for the report to be reset for the reconsideration
of the heads of government at the next meeting, some time in November.”
Small states stand tall on Haiti
By Dionne Jackson Miller
Kingston, Jamaica, June 10 (IPS)— Former Haitian president
Jean-Bertrand Aristide has left the Caribbean for South Africa,
but the controversy over the way he was spirited out of his beleaguered
country remains, and at the center stands the Caribbean Community
(CARICOM), the grouping of 15 tiny states that dared to stand up
to western powers led by the United States.
Since shortly after Aristide’s departure, CARICOM has tenaciously
called for a probe into his abrupt departure on a US-chartered jet
Feb. 29 as violent rebels moved toward the capital Port-au-Prince,
despite Washington’s obvious wish to have the matter dropped.
Aristide too continues to insist he was kidnapped and did not resign,
as US officials argue.
With the passage this week of an Organization of American States
(OAS) resolution that could allow for an investigation, CARICOM’s
position appears to have been vindicated.
On the group’s insistence, the resolution invoked Article 20
of the OAS charter, which says, “in the event of an unconstitutional
alteration of the constitutional regime that seriously impairs the
democratic order in a member state, any member state or the secretary
general may request the immediate convocation of the permanent council
to undertake a collective assessment of the situation and to take
such decisions as it deems appropriate.”
The resolution recognizes there was an alteration of Haiti’s
constitutional regime when Aristide left the country, Jamaican Foreign
Affairs Minister Keith Knight said in an interview with the OAS
press office, and which aired on local media.
Knight insists the resolution does not legitimize Haiti’s interim
administration led by Prime Minister Gerard Latortue.
“This resolution does not in any way accord recognition to
the regime, and insofar as CARICOM is concerned, that issue will
be dealt with when the heads [of government] meet in Grenada in
July,” Knight says.
CARICOM has so far refused to recognize Latortue’s government.
But although the OAS resolution could pave the way for CARICOM’s
investigation, there is not a great deal of optimism the probe will
actually materialize.
Former CARICOM diplomat Orlando Marville told the BBC’s Caribbean
Service the resolution will not affect Latortue’s administration.
“It doesn’t hurt that much because nobody is going to
take the OAS position ... that seriously,” he said.
The OAS resolution is likely to have little effect on any possible
return to power by Aristide, but is nevertheless a positive step
by the international body, says Larry Birns, director of the US-based
Council on Hemispheric Affairs.
“The OAS, when it has depended on the executive action of the
secretary general [César Gaviria], has usually resulted in
some form of accommodation to Washington, because Gaviria can be
seen as the US’s guy,” Birns told IPS.
“When the council of the OAS acts as a body, it usually has
taken a notably independent stance towards the US, so I consider
this to be a hopeful sign that the OAS is living up to its responsibility
instead of being the lapdog organization that Gaviria has tried
to fashion it to be.”
But it is the United Nations that has failed Haiti most, suggests
Birns.
Trinidad and Tobago Foreign Minister Knowlson Gift last month told
a news conference that CARICOM’s attempts to have Aristide’s
ouster dealt with by the United Nations were frustrated by the fact
that the UN Security Council, its general assembly and Secretary-General
Kofi Annan all had the power to block a probe.
Given that France and the United Stated played a role in Aristide’s
departure, and both are permanent members of the Security Council
with veto power, failure was certain, Gift added.
An important aspect of the OAS resolution was a call for international
assistance in re-building Haiti, an effort in which CARICOM had
always intended to participate, says Knight. The body also urged
swift elections in the island state, where UN peacekeepers have
begun replacing a US-led multinational force that observers say
kept a lid on large-scale violence in the capital Port-au-Prince
but failed to disarm the rebels opposed to Aristide, who killed
and burned as they swept down from the northern part of the country
earlier this year.
Duncan is anxious to see CARICOM begin to engage in significant
re-building efforts, and concerned with the body’s current
lack of involvement in Haitian affairs.
“We need to go in and try to reduce the attacks on [Aristide’s]
Lavalas [Party] leadership and work towards free and fair elections.
We need to be there, in a bureaucratic and organizational sense,”
Duncan says.
Latortue’s government has promised polls sometime in 2005.
Significantly, the administration does not include members of the
Lavalas Party, still popular among the country’s poor majority
and some of whose members have been arrested for crimes allegedly
committed while in power. Other members and those close to Aristide
have gone into hiding.
Aristide was flown to the Central African Republic on Feb. 29, where
he was kept under tight supervision before Jamaica invited him for
a short-term stay. On May 31, he accepted South Africa’s invitation
to take temporary exile there.
The former president, Haiti’s first democratically elected
ruler, whose presidency survived a 1991 coup, says he will remain
in South Africa only until he can return to his country.
|
