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Interview with Tortured Haitian Photojournalist Jean Ristil by Eric Feise and Jeb Sprague
At 5pm on September 9, 2005 Haitian Photo-Journalist Jean Ristil, working for the Associated Press, and Pacifica Radio journalist Kevin Pina were arrested, carried away by masked SWAT members of the Police Nationale d'Haiti (PNH). The police claimed they were searching for "weapons" at the church where 600 to 800 children are fed daily, but the journalists felt it likely that they were planting weapons in an attempt to frame the church’s outspoken liberation theologian Father Jean-Juste.
Over the days following their arrest, activists and journalists mobilized for the freedom of the two journalists who had been placed into a tiny jail cell with seven other inmates. Organizations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) spoke out against the arrest, while the Associated Press reported, "In a letter to Haiti's justice minister on Monday, the head of the Association of Haitian Journalists questioned the judge's decision to arrest Pina and Ristil." On September 12, 2005 Ristil and Pina were released. Following his release Ristil continued on with his work photographing and documenting the repression and violence against his community in Cité Soleil while continuing to work with children in his community. In November of the same year he would be arrested again, this time undergoing torture at the hands of the interim government’s police. Ristil is one of the few, possibly the only, photojournalist to live and work within Cité Soleil on a daily basis.
Persecuted Haitian Photojournalist Speaks Out: Jean Ristil & Cité Soleil
Written by Eric Feise and Jeb Sprague, Photos by Jean Ristil Sunday, 27 August 2006
Your illegal arrest by the PNH in 2005 made international news. Tell us about what happened? Jean Ristil: I was first arrested on September 9, 2005 and held until September 12, 2005. The second time, I was arrested in November of 2005 upon the order of the Central Headquarters of the Judicial Police (DCPJ). Well I was arrested twice, both for filming and photographing the results of a MINUSTAH massacre and for filming the PNH attempting to plant weapons at the church of Father Jean-Juste. The first time I was arrested after I filmed them arresting another journalist, Kevin Pina. But following my release the PNH and MINUSTAH came after me. After they knew I had footage and photographs from Cité Soleil showing the results of their operations they came after me. They wanted no one to see the images of the people they had murdered and killed in Cite Soleil. When I was arrested again in November PNH officers threw me on the ground after picking me up by my arms handcuffed behind my back. They grabbed me from the street and threw me in a car. They destroyed my motorcycle with a gun burst of six shots and they broke all my cell phones. Today I cannot afford to fix my motorcycle. I received all these problems for the images I took of the 2005 July 6th massacre by MINUSTAH. At one point they offered me money so I would not release them to the public. They made a big effort to stop the release of these photos. They tortured and interrogated me. Read the entire interview at
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Here is more info on Aug 2005 arrest:
http://bayarea.indymedia.org/newsitems/2005/09/10/35782.php
9/12/2005: Kevin Pina and Haitian Jean Ristil were released today after spending the weekend in jail. They were freed, without being charged, by the judge who had ordered their arrest at the church of the Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste. Read More
9/9/2005: International journalist and Flashpoints Radio correspondent, Kevin Pina, was arrested at about 5:00 PM on Friday. Another journalist, Jean Ristil, was also arrested shortly after he reported on the situation from St. Claire's Church in the Delmas district.
Heavily armed and masked SWAT members of The Police Nationale d'Haiti (PNH) had arrived at Rev. Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste's church to serve a search warrant Friday with a juge d'instruction and juge de paix. The PNH were ostensibly "searching for weapons" at the church where 600 - 800 children are fed. Many children were present when the SWAT police began destroying the rector. Kevin Pina began questioning the government officials as to why they were destroying the church property and was arrested. "You're nothing but a troublemaker! Your friends in California are always causing us trouble ..." claimed the officials as they put Pina under arrest. Reporter Jean Ristil was present during this and was reporting the scene to Marguerite Laurent when he said that he couldn't talk anymore and was also arrested.
Pina and Restil are being held in a small cell with approximately 7 other men. Pina was able to give the following description of events:
"We went to cover the PNH search of Fr. Jean-Juste's church for guns. The police were clearly initmidating the boys in the presbytery. I scaled a wall to enter the compound, but a policeman outside said nothing to stop me from doing so, and I would have stopped had he done so. I also have an open invitation from both Fr. Jean-Juste and the priest who has been conducting the feeding program while Jean-Juste is in prison to come to the church as I please.
"When both Jean and I had scaled the wall the judge of instruction supervising the police operation began screaming at me, saying that I was a foreign terrorist and with Lavalas. He told the police to take my camera, which I would not let them do. I told them that before they did anything else I wanted to see a representative of my embassy. They then handcuffed me and put me in the back of a police car. Now the judge claimed I hit him. I have been covering Haiti since 1989 and I have never raised my hands to anyone in authority, and would never do so."
http://bayarea.indymedia.org/newsitems/2005/09/10/35782.php
9/12/2005: Kevin Pina and Haitian Jean Ristil were released today after spending the weekend in jail. They were freed, without being charged, by the judge who had ordered their arrest at the church of the Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste. Read More
9/9/2005: International journalist and Flashpoints Radio correspondent, Kevin Pina, was arrested at about 5:00 PM on Friday. Another journalist, Jean Ristil, was also arrested shortly after he reported on the situation from St. Claire's Church in the Delmas district.
Heavily armed and masked SWAT members of The Police Nationale d'Haiti (PNH) had arrived at Rev. Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste's church to serve a search warrant Friday with a juge d'instruction and juge de paix. The PNH were ostensibly "searching for weapons" at the church where 600 - 800 children are fed. Many children were present when the SWAT police began destroying the rector. Kevin Pina began questioning the government officials as to why they were destroying the church property and was arrested. "You're nothing but a troublemaker! Your friends in California are always causing us trouble ..." claimed the officials as they put Pina under arrest. Reporter Jean Ristil was present during this and was reporting the scene to Marguerite Laurent when he said that he couldn't talk anymore and was also arrested.
Pina and Restil are being held in a small cell with approximately 7 other men. Pina was able to give the following description of events:
"We went to cover the PNH search of Fr. Jean-Juste's church for guns. The police were clearly initmidating the boys in the presbytery. I scaled a wall to enter the compound, but a policeman outside said nothing to stop me from doing so, and I would have stopped had he done so. I also have an open invitation from both Fr. Jean-Juste and the priest who has been conducting the feeding program while Jean-Juste is in prison to come to the church as I please.
"When both Jean and I had scaled the wall the judge of instruction supervising the police operation began screaming at me, saying that I was a foreign terrorist and with Lavalas. He told the police to take my camera, which I would not let them do. I told them that before they did anything else I wanted to see a representative of my embassy. They then handcuffed me and put me in the back of a police car. Now the judge claimed I hit him. I have been covering Haiti since 1989 and I have never raised my hands to anyone in authority, and would never do so."
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