New York Times

An inde­pen­dent com­mis­sion of inquiry into the Jan. 19 killings of a dozen or more inmates at a prison in Les Cayes, Haiti, was for­mally estab­lished by pres­i­den­tial decree this week, offi­cials said Tuesday.

The com­mis­sion was pro­posed in May after The New York Times pub­lished an inves­ti­ga­tion into the shoot­ing deaths of detainees in con­nec­tion with an escape attempt at the prison.

The Times’s inves­ti­ga­tion indi­cated that the Hait­ian police fatally shot unarmed inmates after storm­ing the prison at the end of an uprising.

The panel’s six com­mis­sion­ers include three for­eign experts, led by Gen. Sal­va­tore Car­rara of Italy, and three Haitians, among them the country’s ombuds­man, Flo­rence Elie. Ms. Elie is well known for over­see­ing the pre­trial work in an impor­tant human rights case involv­ing a peas­ant mas­sacre in Raboteau in 1994.

The com­mis­sion­ers and three tech­ni­cal experts were deployed by Jus­tice Rapid Response, a group of crim­i­nal jus­tice and related pro­fes­sion­als, at the request of the United Nations Sta­bi­liza­tion Mis­sion in Haiti.

Jus­tice Rapid Response most recently assisted a com­mis­sion of inquiry into a mas­sacre in Guinea last fall.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/world/americas/28haiti.html?_r=1