Justice Skewed in Haiti

[struggle4progress]

When former Oakland resident, now Haiti-based filmmaker Kevin Pina and Haitian journalist Jean Ristil Jean-Baptiste were arrested Sept. 9 in Port-au-Prince while covering a police search of the home of a political prisoner/possible presidential candidate, the wheels of justice ground forward. <snip>

Freeing Pina and Ristil took action from Rep. Barbara Lee, e-mails from across the U.S. to Haiti’s justice minister, condemnation from a non-neutral Port-au-Prince press corps and pressure from U.S. Embassy officials.

Victims of Haitian police and U.N. military violence do not have access to such clout; neither do the some 1,000 political prisoners incarcerated mostly without charges and the kids stuffed into the children’s jail.

Pina, whose frequent reports on Haiti can be heard on KPFA’s Flashpoints, got a tip Sept. 9 that police were searching the home of Fr. Gérard Jean-Juste; Associated Press stringer Ristil also got the tip; both were at the St. Claire Church rectory to report on the search. Pina went inside. <snip>

http://www.berkeleydaily.org/text/article.cfm?issue=09-23-05&storyID=22376