From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Haiti: Student Shot, Abuses Rising
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 05:04:40 GMT

/** reg.carib: 442.0 **/
** Topic: STUDENT SHOT IN HAITI - ABUSES RISI **
** Written  7:49 pm  Dec 10, 1992 by hib in cdp:reg.carib **
From: Jane Regan <hib>
Subject: STUDENT SHOT IN HAITI - ABUSES RISING

Date: Thu, 10 Dec 92 19:33:34 PST
From: Jane Regan <hib>
Subject: MOUNTING ABUSES IN HAITI

>From HAITIAN INFORMATION BUREAU 
An alternative news and information agency 

For more information: 
Tel/fax (509) 574047 NOTE:  THIS IS A NEW NUMBER!!
E-mail: hib@igc.org 

For human rights information in general contact: 
Platform for Human Rights - Tel/fax (509) 451563 

	*    *    *    *  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE *    *    *    * 

	HUMAN RIGHTS CONTINUING TO DETERIORATE IN HAITI 

	    STUDENT SHOT DEAD IN HOSPITAL BY SOLDIERS 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Dec. 10 - Repression in Haiti continues to 
mount daily as soldiers and their civilian "attaches" attack 
peasants, people in poor urban neighborhoods and students. 
   The most recent and most violent attack occurred on Sunday, 
Dec. 6, at the Canape Vert hospital. A 20-year-old student was 
shot in the heart and the head by a group of approximately 
five soldiers dressed in civilian clothes. 

Youth witnessed army executions 
   In an exclusive interview with the Haitian Information 
Bureau yesterday, a source within the Organization of 
American States office here said that Jean-Sony Philogene was 
found lying by the road north of Port-au-Prince Sunday morning 
with bullet wounds in his leg. 
    According to the same source, Philogene had been with six 
other young people, all students, who had been brought to 
Titanyen, a sandy, deserted area north of the capital the 
military frequently uses for executions.  (According to some  
sources, the seven youths were attending a concert when the 
military apprehended them.) 
    Soldiers reportedly shot all seven youths and partially 
buried them, but Philogene was not dead.  He dragged himself 
to the highway, was picked up by a passing driver and 
transported to St. Francis of Sales hospital. 
    At the hospital, Philogene told a doctor the story of what 
had happened. Sensing danger, the doctor had Philogene 
transferred to Canape Vert hospital.   
    According to the O.A.S. source, within hours of Philogene's 
arrival at Canape Vert, a group of five soldiers briefly 
visited the hospital, apparently to ascertain the youth was 
there.   
    Within hours the soldiers returned in civilian clothing.  
Holding a gun to a nurse's head, they demanded to be taken to 
Philogene's room, where the youth was recovering from surgery. 
    Once there, they ordered the youth's grandmother out of the 
room and fatally shot Philogene several times in the heart and 
the head. 
    Police have claimed that the murder was "drug-related."
To date, Philogene has not been identified as a highschool 
or university student, nor have the other six students been 
identified. 
     Neither the two hospitals, the doctors involved, nor the 
O.A.S. has publically disclosed many of the above details, but 
they are expected to do so in coming days.  

Atmosphere of fear 
     Currently over one dozen university students and a number 
of highschool students are missing as a result of repression 
during the past two weeks.  
    On Dec. 1 soldiers beat 62 students at the Faculty of 
Agronomy at the state university and also closed or encircled 
other colleges there as part of a de facto government 
offensive against the institution.  Twelve students are 
missing, and it is not known if they are in hiding, in 
military custody, or dead. 
    Earlier this week a student delegation was prevented by
soliders from entering the state morgue to look for their peers.
    A number of highschool students and members of 
popular organizations are also missing since a military sweep of 
communities around the dates of Nov. 26-30.   
    While human rights organizations have verified that certain 
people were definitely arrested, there are a number of others 
who are simply missing. 
    The army said that the students and popular organizations were
responsible for several small explosions which took place 
around the capital in late November, but has produced no 
evidence to verify that claim.

Names of some of those missing: 

* Jean Augustin, from a popular organization in Carrefour 
Feuilles.  
* Souverain Jean Guardy, Patrick Joseph and a third 
highschool student arrested on Nov. 26 in Leogane.
* Josius Joseph, a teacher in a small school in Arcahaie.
* Cesar Pierre of Boje, north of Port-au-Prince, from a local 
peasant organization. 

Tomorrow the Platform for Human Rights, a coordinating group 
for nine organizations which work in the field of human 
rights, will present some of the following statistics in 
commemoration of International Human Rights day: 


SINCE SEPT. 30, 1991, COUP D'ETAT: 

DOCUMENTED EXECUTIONS:   1,867 (The Platform estimates that at 
least 3,000 people have been killed as a result of repression.) 

DOCUMENTED ILLEGAL AND ARTIBRARY ARRESTS:  5,096 (30% of those people are still missing) 

DOCUMENTED CASES OF INJURY BY BEATING OR BULLETS:  2,171 

Please contact the Platform for Human Rights directly for more 
details and a much more complete report.

To stay in touch with developments in Haiti, please contact the
Haitian Information Bureau for details about receiving press
releases and Haiti Info, a bi-monthly bulletin.

** End of text from cdp:reg.carib **