US criticizes Haiti's human rights record

Thursday, February 26, 2004

WASHINGTON, USA (AFP): Haiti's human rights record "remained poor" last year, according to a US government human rights report released Wednesday which denounced abuses by the Caribbean nation's threatened government.

Supporters of President Jean Bertrand Aristide -- who faces an armed insurrection -- and the country's police were accused of murdering political opponents in the annual State Department report.

"The government's human rights record remained poor, with political and civil officials implicated in serious abuses," said the report, which Secretary of State Colin Powell submitted to the US Congress.

"There were credible reports of extrajudicial killings by members of the (Haitian National Police)," the report said. "Police officers used excessive and sometimes deadly force in making arrests or controlling demonstrations and were rarely punished for such acts."

"Torture and other forms of abuse were reported," it added.

The State Department criticized the conditions in which people are detained.

Moreover, "There were credible reports of politically motivated disappearances; however, there were fewer such reports than in the previous year."

The Haitian judicial system was described as "largely moribund" after years of neglect.

"Judges assigned to politically sensitive cases complained about interference by the executive branch," it said.

While the media "freely criticized" the government and the opposition, "in practice most media admitted to some form of self-censorship" to avoid offending "the politically influential," the State Department said.

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