- Title: HAITI: Peacekeepers face outcry over alleged rape
- Date: 6th September 2011
- Summary: PORT-SALUT, HAITI (SEPTEMBER 05, 2011) (REUTERS) GENERAL VIEW OF EXTERIOR OF HOME WHERE ALLEGED RAPE VICTIM JOHNNY JEAN LIVES. JOHNNY JEAN'S FATHER, FLEURESTE BISSERETH WALKING OUTSIDE OF THE HOME (SOUNDBITE) (Creole) FATHER OF JOHNNY JEAN, FLEURESTE BISSERETH SAYING: "No one feels good. Everyone has been touched by this incident. Everyone you see here are here because
- Embargoed: 21st September 2011 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Haiti, Haiti
- Country: Haiti
- Reuters ID: LVA3UWZQ1DAJDNS4MFPL8O6A3B8S
- Story Text: The father of a an 18-year-old Haitian man reacted on Monday (September 05) to the alleged rape of his son by Uruguayan U.N. naval troops, in the latest incident to threaten the image of U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti.
Speaking from his home in Port-Salut, south of the capital Port-au-Prince, Fleureste Bissereth told Reuters Television that the alleged incident has touched everyone in his small community.
"No one feels good. Everyone has been touched by this incident. Everyone you see here are here because of what happened. Normally, they would just stop by and now, they spend the day visiting with us," Bissereth said.
Haitian President Michel Martelly has condemned the alleged rape of 18-year-old local Johnny Jean.
Public anger in the poor, earthquake-ravaged Caribbean nation has been rising over a video shot by a cellphone camera and circulating on the Internet that shows laughing Uruguayan marines pinning the young Haitian face down on a mattress and apparently assaulting him sexually in a southern town.
Haitian authorities, the U.N. Mission in Haiti and Uruguay's Defense Ministry have launched an investigation into the video.
The four troops suspected of being involved have been detained and Uruguay's Navy has replaced the head of its naval contingent with the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti.
"The Presidency vigorously condemns this act which revolts the nation's conscience and awaits a detailed report establishing the exact facts and circumstances," Martelly's office said in a statement released late on Sunday.
It said the Haitian man suffered a "collective rape." The alleged victim and his mother, Rose Marie Jean, told Haitian radio stations he had been raped by the Uruguayan marines. They have given testimony to a judge in Port-Salut, where the incident allegedly took place on July 28, according to regional police chief Fritz Saint-Fort.
"He is not feeling well at all. He has not visited a doctor yet. He has not gone to Les Cayes. We are just giving him the care that we can," Bissereth said.
Johnny Jean's aunt, Marie Jean, told Reuters Television that they were unaware of what had happened and were alerted by a resident's wife.
"We did not know what had happened to him. We saw him laying down sadly. It was someone who lives around here and whose wife lives abroad that reported that she saw MINUSTAH soldiers raping young Haitians," Jean said.
U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti have faced public anger before, notably over allegations that Nepalese U.N. troops brought a deadly cholera epidemic to the country after their camp latrines contaminated a local river. This sparked riots last year against the 12,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping contingent.
The cholera epidemic has killed more than 6,200 people since October in Haiti, which is still struggling to recover from a devastating 2010 earthquake in which more than 300,000 people died, according to the Haitian government.
Johnny Jean declined to speak to Reuters Television but he told a radio station in Les Cayes, southern Haiti, that four soldiers carried out the assault. "Two held me and two raped me. They hit me several times," he told the radio station.
"After that, the soldiers tried to negotiate with my mother to cover up the act, but my mother did not want to and alerted the authorities and filed a complaint," Jean added.
"My son has been raped. It is a crime that should be punished. So we are demanding justice and reparation," Rose Marie Jean told the radio.
In his statement late on Sunday, Martelly urged Haitian authorities and U.N. mission leaders to meet to prevent any similar incidents of abuse occurring in the future.
The U.N. peacekeeping contingent in Haiti had been working hard to improve its image with Haitians following last year's damaging allegations that some of its members may have caused the cholera outbreak. Some critics condemn the U.N. mission as an occupying foreign military force in Haiti, but many credit the peacekeepers with helping to reduce crime and violence. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None