URGENT ACTION APPEAL
– From Amnesty Inter­na­tional USA

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http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa33607.pdf

18 Decem­ber 2007

HAITI
Wil­son Mesilien (m), aged 39, human rights activist, interim coor­di­na­tor of the Fon­dasyon Trant Sep­tanm (30 Sep­tem­ber Foun­da­tion),
Lovin­sky Pierre-Antoine (m), aged 54, polit­i­cal and human rights activist, for­mer coor­di­na­tor of the Fon­dasyon Trant Septanm

The life of Wil­son Mesilien, the interim coor­di­na­tor of
Fon­dasyon Trant Sep­tanm (30 Sep­tem­ber Foun­da­tion), may be at
risk due to his con­tin­ued work in defend­ing the rights of
the vic­tims of the 1991–1994 mil­i­tary coup. Amnesty
Inter­na­tional is even more con­cerned for his safety as the
for­mer coor­di­na­tor of the Fon­dasyon, Lovin­sky Pierre–
Antoine, was kid­napped on 12 August and his where­abouts are
still unknown.

Over the last few weeks, Wil­son Mesilien has been receiv­ing
threat­en­ing tele­phone calls. Early in the after­noon of 26
Novem­ber, two unknown indi­vid­u­als tried to inter­cept him as
he rode his motor­cy­cle in Boul. des Indus­tries, North of
Port-au-Prince. Wil­son Mesilien was on his way home after
attend­ing an appeal court hear­ing for Fr. Ger­ard Jean-Juste,
a for­mer pris­oner of con­science who is still fac­ing crim­i­nal
charges.

Lovin­sky Pierre-Antoine has not been seen since 12 August,
after he had left the com­pany of a del­e­ga­tion of human
rights activists vis­it­ing Haiti. The car he was dri­ving was
found aban­doned near the neigh­bor­hood Del­mas 18. Days before
his abduc­tion, Lovin­sky Pierre-Antoine had announced his
inten­tion to stand as Sen­a­tor in the elec­tions ini­tially
sched­uled for Decem­ber 2007 under the ban­ner of the Fanmi
Lavalas Party. There are fears that he may have been
abducted by peo­ple con­nected with the for­mer mil­i­tary
because of his con­tin­ued activism in denounc­ing past human
rights vio­la­tions dur­ing the 1991–1994 mil­i­tary gov­ern­ment
and in gath­er­ing sig­na­tures to amend the Con­sti­tu­tion in
order to elim­i­nate all pro­vi­sions for the exis­tence of a
Hait­ian army.

look like a kid­nap­ping for ran­som. His fam­ily were con­tacted
by his alleged abduc­tors on 14 August and asked to pay a
ran­som of US$ 300,000 for his release. How­ever there has
been no fur­ther con­tact from the abductors.

Lovin­sky Pierre-Antoine is a psy­chol­o­gist and has been
involved for sev­eral years as a grass-roots com­mu­nity
orga­nizer, mainly work­ing with chil­dren. Dur­ing the last
pres­i­dency of Jean-Bertrand Aris­tide, he was appointed
Gen­eral Coor­di­na­tor of the National Office on Migra­tion. He
left Haiti into exile dur­ing the tran­si­tional gov­ern­ment and
returned in Feb­ru­ary 2006.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Wil­son Mesilien is one of the found­ing mem­bers of Fon­dasyon
Trant Sep­tanm along with Lovin­sky Pierre-Antoine. The
Fon­dasyon was named after the date of the mil­i­tary coup, 30
Sep­tem­ber 1991 dur­ing which Pres­i­dent Jean-Bertrand Aris­tide
was ousted. At least 3,000 per­sons were killed dur­ing the
mil­i­tary regime between 1991 –1994. Ever since its cre­ation
in 1996, the Fon­dasyon mem­bers carry out weekly marches in
cen­tral Port-au-Prince and sev­eral other Hait­ian towns to
press for an end to impunity for past abuses and repa­ra­tion
for vic­tims of the 1991–1994 mil­i­tary coup and for the
vic­tims of the tran­si­tional gov­ern­ment of 2004–2006. The
Fon­dasyon also cam­paigns for the total abo­li­tion of the
Hait­ian army through a reform of the Con­sti­tu­tion by
gath­er­ing sig­na­tures dur­ing a tour of a photo-exhibition of
vic­tims of past human rights abuses.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly
as pos­si­ble:
– express­ing con­cern for the safety of Wil­son Mesilien and
of Lovin­sky Pierre-Antoine who has not been seen since 12
August;
– urg­ing the author­i­ties to dou­ble their efforts to locate
Lovin­sky Pierre-Antoine;

pro­tec­tion in accor­dance with his wishes;
– call­ing for a full, prompt and impar­tial inves­ti­ga­tion

the threats received by Wil­son Mesilien, to make the result
pub­lic and to bring those respon­si­ble to jus­tice;
– remind­ing the author­i­ties that the UN Dec­la­ra­tion on the
Rights and Respon­si­bil­ity of Indi­vid­u­als, Groups and Organs
of Soci­ety to Pro­mote and Pro­tect Uni­ver­sally Rec­og­nized
Human Rights and Fun­da­men­tal Free­doms rec­og­nizes the
legit­i­macy of the activ­i­ties of human rights defend­ers and
their right to carry out their activ­i­ties with­out any
restric­tions or fear of reprisals.

APPEALS TO:
Min­is­ter of Jus­tice and Pub­lic Secu­rity
Mon­sieur Rene Magloire
Min­istre de la Jus­tice et de la Secu­rite Publique,
19 Avenue Charles Sum­ner,
Port-au-Prince, HAITI (W.I.)
Fax: 011 509 245 0474
the fax may not be in ser­vice at all times, but please keep try­ing.)
Salu­ta­tion: Mon­sieur le Ministre/Dear Min­is­ter

Gen­eral Direc­tor of the Haiti National Police
Mario Andresol

Grand Quartier Gen­eral de la Police
12 rue Oscar Pacot,
Port-au-Prince, Haiti (W.I.)
Fax: 011 509 245 7374
Salu­ta­tion: Mon­sieur le Directeur General/Dear Mr
Andresol

COPIES TO:
Human rights orga­ni­za­tion
c/o Fon­dasyon Trant Sep­tanm
No. 3, 2eme impasse Lavaud , Boite Postale 19042
Port-au-Prince, Haiti (W.I.)

Ambas­sador H.E. Ray­mond A. Joseph
Embassy of the Repub­lic of Haiti
2311 Mass­a­chu­setts Ave., NW
Wash­ing­ton DC 20008
Fax: 1 202 745 7215
Email: embassy@haiti.org

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the AIUSA Urgent
Action office if send­ing appeals after 29 Jan­u­ary 2008.

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Amnesty Inter­na­tional is a world­wide grass­roots move­ment
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This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, includ­ing
con­tact infor­ma­tion and stop action date (if applic­a­ble).
Thank you for your help with this appeal.

Urgent Action Net­work
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600 Penn­syl­va­nia Ave SE 5th fl
Wash­ing­ton DC 20003
Email: uan@aiusa.org

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Phone: 202.544.0200
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END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL