- Title: HAITI: PRISONERS IN HAITI PROTEST AGAINST THEIR UNFAIR DETENTION
- Date: 16th January 1995
- Summary: PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI (JAN. 16, 1995) (RTV -- ACCESS ALL) 1. SV EXTERIOR OF NATIONAL PENITENTIARY. (2 SHOTS) 0.09 2. SV VARIOUS OF PRISONERS' RELATIVES DEMONSTRATING IN INNER COURTYARD OF PENITENTIARY FOR THEIR RELEASE. (2 SHOTS) 0.18 3. SV VARIOUS OF PRISONERS CHANTING "LIBERTY" AND DEMONSTRATING AGAINST POOR PRISON CONDITIONS. (8 SHOTS) 0.48 4. SV VARIOUS OF INMATES IN PRISON HOSPITAL WARD (3 SHOTS) 1.04 5. SV HAITIAN SOLDIER GUARDING GATE WHERE RELATIVES OF INMATES ARE TRYING TO DELIVER FOOD AND TO VISIT. 1.10 6. SCU UNITED STATES (U.S.) SERGEANT JOSEPH BURKE SPEAKING (ENGLISH) 1.27 7. SV GUARD AT GATE 1.30 8. SV HAITIAN SOLDIER LOOKING DOWN FROM GUARD POST 1.35 SEQUENCE 6 transcript: BURKE :"WHEN THE U.S. ARRIVED PRISON CONDITIONS WERE EVEN POORER AND THAT THE ARMY HAS TRIED TO IMPROVE THEM AND TO IMPROVE RECORD KEEPING SO HAITIAN AUTHORITIES CAN KNOW WHO THEY HAVE IN JAIL AND HOW LONG THEY HAVE BEEN THERE" Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 31st January 1995 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI
- City:
- Country: Haiti CARIBBEAN
- Reuters ID: LVA4754RSXK7J91RTUYCXQCLCEWE
- Story Text: Seventeen prisoners in Haiti's national penitentiary have begun a hunger strike to protest against what they say is their unfair detention, prisoners and jail officials in Port au Prince said.
The prisoners are all left-leaning members of the military who claim they were imprisoned under the former army regime that ruled the Caribbean nation for three years until last October.
On Monday (January 16), in the latest sign of the growing unrest, more than 300 prisoners, including 34 women, demonstrated against their detention.
They chanted: "We just want liberation. Liberation, nothing more." United States (U.S.) Sergeant Joseph Burke said that when the U.S. forces arrived on the island last September, prison conditions were even poorer than they are now.
He said the U.S. army has tried to improve conditions and record-keeping so that authorities know who is in jail and how long they have been there.
The U.S. forces were sent to restore President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. United Nations (U.N.) troops will replace most of the U.S. troops in March.
Haiti's prison system and the national penitentiary in particular are in a state of ruin with the almost non-existent justice system unable to bring all cases to trial.
Hundreds of detainees have escaped since Aristide returned to power on October 15, according to senior army officials.
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