Vigil for Haiti's Political Prisoners

EMERGENCY VIGIL TO DEMAND JUSTICE FOR HAITI’S POLITICAL PRISONERS


In Haiti, it’s a crime to wear a t-shirt bearing exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s image. It’s a crime to march in the street with five fingers spread open, signifying the demand for Aristide to fill the five-year term for which he was democratically elected. It’s even a crime to live in a pro-Aristide neighborhood.

For these crimes, people are murdered, beaten, raped and thrown in jail. About 1,000 political prisoners are behind bars today in Haiti. They’ve never been charged with a crime. They’ve never seen a judge. Sometimes their families don’t know where they are. Some have been there for a year. Some are children. Some are pregnant. Some are sick with TB.

The Haiti Action Committee wants the world to pay attention to the human rights abuses going on in Haiti today and the role of the U.S., which overthrew the democratically-elected government. The continued incarceration of the political prisoners underscores the US government’s disregard for Haiti’s people and its constitution, and the complete dissolution of free speech, association and press in Haiti.


HAC is holding an all-night vigil to bring attention to political prisoners in Haiti

Monday, March 28
4:30 p.m.
U.N. Plaza at 7th Street and Market
closing rally:
Tuesday, March 29
4 p.m.


VISUALS: Activists will construct a 9 x 9 jail cell at UN Plaza to replicate the cells without water or bathroom facilities into which as many as 42 prisoners are packed.

The political situation in Haiti has kept Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, Minister of Interior Jocelerme Privert, and Lavalas activist Annette Auguste, along with hundreds of grassroots activists, labor leaders and residents of poor neighborhoods jailed in miserable conditions.

The situation of the prisoners, dramatized by Prime Minister Neptune and Minister Privert’s recent hunger strike, is urgent. On March 7, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) flew to Haiti to visit the Prime Minister in his prison cell just days before he lost consciousness and was hospitalized. Several days later Minister Privert was also hospitalized.

For more information, phone Haiti Action Committee at (510) 483-7481.