Jus­tice in Haiti: Signs of Spring?
Boston Hait­ian Reporter, May 2006
Brian Con­can­non Jr.

Lavalas demon­stra­tors vio­lently attacked an anti– Lavalas stu­dent demon­stra­tion, injur­ing sev­eral peo­ple and dam­ag­ing vehi­cles and the Uni­ver­sity.

The Decem­ber 5 case, espe­cially, was a model of polit­i­cal per­se­cu­tion. The defen­dants were all promi­nent Lavalas offi­cials or activists. The stu­dent orga­ni­za­tions that filed the com­plaints were all part of the anti–Lavalas polit­i­cal orga­ni­za­tion, did come to court, but admit­ted that he was not even on the scene of the events of Decem­ber 5. He claimed that he was rep­re­sent­ing his polit­i­cal sup­port­ers and other Group of 184 mem­bers, but could not show that any­one had autho­rized him to rep­re­sent them. Uni­ver­sity Rec­tor Jean Marie Paquiot was indis­putably on the scene and injured– his legs were bro­ken in the clash. But although he described the attack in detail, Mr. Paquiot could not iden­tify any of his attack­ers. He con­ceded that he had named one defen­dant, Yvon Antoine (who is still in jail), as his attacker based on rumors and an email he had received.

But if the Decem­ber 5 case shows hope­ful signs of progress, it also shows how much work still needs to be done. The pros­e­cu­tor rec­og­nized that there was no evi­dence against another defen­dant, folksinger Annette Auguste, alias So Ann,LavalasFanmi Lavalas

Ms. Auguste and Mr. Antoine have appealed the charges against them, and if the democ­ra­ti­za­tion trend con­tin­ues, the appeals court will dis­miss the cases. If not, they go to trial. With no evi­dence in the file and a pros­e­cu­tor who finds lit­tle rea­son to pur­sue the case, the two would run lit­tle risk of con­vic­tion in a fair trial.

Brian Con­can­non Jr. directs the Insti­tute for Jus­tice & Democ­racy in Haiti, www.ijdh.org