Haiti inmates call prison riot a massacre

[Rose Siding]

...Officials said seven prisoners were killed during the riot, and three of the 40 who were injured have since died of their wounds.

But prisoners and other witnesses contend the government is concealing a bloodbath in which police and prison guards killed dozens of detainees.

"I saw everything," said Ted Nazaire, 24, a prisoner on the first floor of the Titanic who was released two days after the riot and is now in hiding. "It was a massacre. More than 60 were killed."
...
Both prisoners and guards agree the immediate motive behind the riot was a decision to transfer some detainees, but human rights observers have cited both dismal living conditions and mounting frustration at the sluggish legal system as underlying factors.

Charron said the riot was over insufficient food, overcrowded cells, too few mattresses and the lack of productive activities and recreation. He also said only 17 of the some 1,100 prisoners at the national penitentiary -- about 1.5 percent -- have been convicted of a crime, and many detainees have not yet seen a judge.

While penitentiary officials have refused to grant permission to enter the prison, chief prosecutor Jean Pierre Audain gave a Chronicle reporter special authorization. During the recent visit, which lasted about an hour before guards cut it short, estimates given by prisoners on the number of those killed during the riot ranged from 40 to 110. All disputed the much lower official figures.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/01/02/MNGQ3AK1PA1.DTL

[seemslikeadream]

1. Protests mark anniversary in restive Haiti

...

Earlier, Alexandre and Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue listened to a church sermon while about 200 protesters gathered outside the cathedral. Some demanded that the U.S-backed government deliver on promises made in October to rebuild the battered city.

Hundreds are still homeless from September floods that killed at least 2,000 people and left another 900 presumed dead. Mud still blocks roads, agriculture is in ruins and half the city's schools have yet to reopen.

"They said there's money coming, but we don't see any money," said Barthelemy Dieu-Fils, a teacher.

Last year, bloody clashes between police and protesters in Gonaïves and the capital, Port-au-Prince, ruined Aristide's lavish bicentennial tribute to Haiti's independence as the world's first black republic.

A month later in February, anti-Aristide gangs attacked the Gonaïves police station, killing officers and joining with former soldiers to launch a rebellion that drove Haiti's first democratically elected leader into exile.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/caribbean/sfl-hhaiti02jan02,0,145170.story?coll=sfla-news-caribbean