Ex-Haitian PM Yvon Neptune Near Death

Growing Concern over Health of Haiti´s Former PM

Port au Prince, May 5 (Prensa Latina) The former prime minister of Haiti Yvon Neptune is near death after 18 days of a hunger strike. He refuses to leave the country for medical treatment unless the government drops charges that he masterminded a massacre.

Doctors from the United Nations mission who have examined the former prime minister said his vital functions are seriously threatened and that he is near death. He was to be flown to a hospital in the Dominican Republic, but he refused, seeing the medical transfer as an attempt to force him into exile.

A top UN official in Haiti denounced the detention of Neptune as illegal. He has been in jail for more than 10 months without appearing before a judge. Haiti´s constitution requires a hearing before a judge within 48 hours of arrest.

Neptune went on a 19-day hunger strike in February and March to protest his prolonged detention, and was ultimately treated for dehydration in a UN hospital. He was not sent back to the prison, where there had been an uprising of inmates. Instead, he was placed under house arrest in an upscale suburb near Port-au-Prince.

Former Haitian Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert has also been in jail more than a year without being formally charged.

Thierry Fagart, chief of the United Nations human rights division in Haiti, cited both cases in delivering the UN´s strongest criticism of the nation´s human rights record since the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide during a revolt in February 2004. Neptune and Privert both served under Aristide.

Mario Joseph, who is Mr. Neptune´s lawyer said that his 58-year-old client wants the government installed under the US military after the forced ouster of president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to free him and drop all charges in connection with the massacre.

But the interim government has refused to release Neptune unconditionally, calling his demands that all charges be dropped absolutely unacceptable.

While Neptune and other of Aristide´s supporters are in detention or have being forced to leave the country, more than 600 people have been killed since September, when pro-Aristide followers held protests to demand his return from exile in South Africa.

The escalating violence has some observers concerned about the country"s ability to hold November"s scheduled election.

The former prime minister of Haiti is near death after 18 days of a hunger strike, his behaviour increasingly irrational as he refuses to leave the country for medical treatment unless the government drops charges that he masterminded a massacre.

Yvon Neptune's self-imposed health crisis is dominating the attention of Haiti's interim government and the United Nations peacekeeping force, which is in the beleaguered country to bring stability after the ouster of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Mario Joseph, who is Mr. Neptune's lawyer, told The Associated Press that his 58-year-old client wants the government to free him and drop all charges in connection with the massacre. Twenty-five of Mr. Aristide's opponents were killed in La Syrie, a village near St. Marc, 95 kilometres north of the capital, on Feb. 11, 2004, during the rebellion against the government that was led by former soldiers and armed thugs.

But the interim government has refused to release Mr. Neptune unconditionally, calling his demands that all charges be dropped "absolutely unacceptable."

Doctors from the United Nations mission who examined the former prime minister on the weekend said his vital functions are seriously threatened and that he is near death. He was to be flown to a hospital in the Dominican Republic, but he refused, seeing the medical transfer as an attempt to force him into exile.

James Morrell, with the Washington-based Haiti Democracy Project, said Mr. Neptune's hunger strike presents the "perfect dilemma" for Haiti's interim rulers.

"On the one hand, it is unfair to have Yvon Neptune sitting in jail without his case progressing because the judiciary is so dysfunctional," Mr. Morrell said. "On the other hand, if the government releases him, then it shows disrespect for the victims of the massacre and for the justice system. And if he dies, it gives the Aristide forces a martyr."

Earlier this year, Mr. Neptune told The Globe and Mail from his three- by two-metre jail cell in Port-au-Prince that he was being held up as an example, and that his arrest was purely political. "The judiciary hasn't been working for a long time in this country," he said.

Mr. Neptune has not been formally charged, even though Haitian law requires all prisoners to go before a judge within 48 hours of their arrest.

Recently, Mr. Neptune was taken up to St. Marc to appear in front of a judge, but ended up biting a female police officer who was escorting him.

"He has been very obstructionist in almost everything," a Western diplomat noted. "He tends to be a wild man. He is inconsistent in his thinking patterns and reacts violently . . . having said that, the general view is he wasn't the intellectual author of the St. Marc massacre."

Louis Joinet, a UN human-rights envoy in Haiti, recently concluded that the deaths in St. Marc were the result of a "confrontation" rather than a massacre.

Mr. Neptune went on a 19-day hunger strike in February and March to protest his prolonged detention, and was ultimately treated for dehydration in a UN hospital. He was not sent back to the prison, where there had been an uprising of inmates. Instead, he was placed under house arrest in an upscale suburb near Port-au-Prince.

The crisis only highlights the many problems facing the poorest country in the Americas, where most citizens live below the poverty line. The judiciary barely functions, the police force is corrupt and the interim government is considered weak and inept.

More than 600 people have been killed since September, when pro-Aristide supporters held protests to demand his return from exile in South Africa. The escalating violence has some observers concerned about the country's ability to hold November's scheduled election.

"The caretaker government inherited an absolute mess when it took over," Mr. Morrell said. "With the onslaught of violence from pro-Aristide gang members, drug dealers and the ex-military, there is a major attempt at destabilizing the interim regime and the UN mission."

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