Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Arrests in Martissant and a Haiti file goes “missing”

In what may be a hopeful sign (although in Haiti these days, it’s sometimes hard to tell), 31 presumed bandits and gang members were arrested over 10-11 February in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Martissant in a joint Mission des Nations Unies pour la Stabilisation en Haïti (Minustah) and Police nationale d’Haïti (PNH) operation. Having allowed the terrible violence in Martissant to fester almost unchecked for nearly eight months, it’s good to see some action being taken to protect the innocent population there from further murder and mayhem, however it remains to be seen whether or not arresting those who were picked up this weekend will actually stem the tide of killing there. And then there is also the matter of the relationship between the police and judicial institutions responsible for actually hearing charges and conducting trials. But one can hope.

Mary Anastasia O'Grady had an interesting piece in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal about the disappearance of “a government file pertinent to two civil law suits alleging bribery…(involving) politically influential individuals on both sides of the aisle and a notoriously corrupt former Haitian president that the U.S. supported for a decade.” Readers of this blog will no doubt be able to surmise which individuals and which president she’s referring to. Subscription required by those ruthless capitalist types to read the article at the Journal’s website, I’m afraid, but a free version can be read here.

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