(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister of the Interior Henri-Claude Ménard, RSF protested the attacks on Radio Vision Nouvelle, Radio Lumière and Radio Vision 2000, during which Fritz Antoine Jean, Radio Vision Nouvelle’s guard, was killed and two other watchmen were injured. RSF asked for an inquiry into each of these incidents in order […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister of the Interior Henri-Claude Ménard, RSF protested the attacks on Radio Vision Nouvelle, Radio Lumière and Radio Vision 2000, during which Fritz Antoine Jean, Radio Vision Nouvelle’s guard, was killed and two other watchmen were injured. RSF asked for an inquiry into each of these incidents in order to establish the motives for these attacks and punish the authors. “These events illustrate the degree to which the reigning climate of violence in Haiti seriously undermines press freedom,” stated Robert Ménard, RSF’s secretary-general. Ménard recalled that Jean Dominique, director of Radio Haïti Inter, was assassinated on 3 April 2000. In an April 2001 report, RSF denounced the fact that the inquiry into the assassination had nearly been cut short several times (see IFEX alerts of 3 April, 16 March, 15 and 3 January 2001, 18, 7, 5 and 4 April 2000).
According to information obtained by RSF, on 20 April nearly 300 people armed with revolvers, machetes and clubs attacked the long wave transmitters of Radio Lumière and Radio Vision Nouvelle in Ménélas, in the suburbs north of Port-au-Prince. Antoine Jean, Radio Vision Nouvelle’s guard, was killed by the attackers with machetes. Another guard at the station, Alcis Delce, as well as a watchman at Radio Lumière, Félix Jean Charles, were also injured in the attack. The assailants put the installations out of service and took away some of the equipment. Radio Vision Nouvelle estimates the losses at US$200,000 (about 220,000 euros). The radio station, which only transmits on long wave, had to stop its broadcasts.
The attackers reportedly said they were looking for criminals hidden in this area. Two days earlier, a punitive raid took place in the nearby neighbourhood of Bois Neuf, suspected of sheltering numerous delinquents. In the opinion of Pierre Joseph Louissant, director of Radio Vision Nouvelle, it is very difficult to identify those responsible for the attack. However, the radio station’s manager does not rule out the hypothesis of a “premeditated act,” emphasising that the radio station has recently been receiving threats. He adds that the end of the broadcasts represents “a hard blow for the peasants,” for whom the programming was aimed. Luviaud Duvernard, director of Radio Lumière, also considers it to be a “troubling act,” noting that the same transmitter was the target of an attack in 2000, during which one of the station’s guards was injured. Radio Lumière, an evangelical station, had to close for several months in 1992 after soldiers burst into its premises.
Furthermore, on the evening of 15 April, a group of armed men illegally entered the premises housing the studios of the private radio station Radio Vision 2000, as well as Radio Express and Télé Express, in Jacmel. The attackers stole some equipment.
Jean Dominique, manager of Radio Haïti Inter, was assassinated on 3 April 2000. Although six people have been arrested for their presumed participation in the assassination, those behind the murder still have not been identified. The inquiry has nearly been cut short on several occasions. In June, Jean Wilner Lalanne, suspected of having acted as an intermediary between those who ordered and those who committed the crime, died in suspicious circumstances after being arrested. For several months, the Senate opposed the summoning of Senator Dany Toussaint as a witness by the examining magistrate. In addition, the magistrate was a victim of acts of intimidation, while his predecessor had preferred to abandon the case after also being subjected to pressure. Following the 7 February inauguration of Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president, many observers believe that the inquiry’s outcome depends above all on the resources that the new administration is ready to put into it. The assassination of Dominique, the country’s most famous journalist, is seen by the profession to be a warning.
