UN urges Haiti to probe alleged killings and acts of torture

UN urges Haiti to probe alleged killings and acts of torture

2011-12-29 04:37:50 GMT+7 (ICT)

NEW YORK (BNO NEWS) -- The United Nations on Wednesday urged Haitian authorities to properly investigate and prosecute police officers suspected of carrying out killings and acts of torture in the capital of Port-au-Prince since last year.

The call came after two UN reports raised concerns that the illegal use of force by officers in the Haitian National Police (HNP) may have led to the deaths of nine people in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area between October 2010 and June of this year.

The reports, which were released by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the human rights section of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), detail investigations into six incidents in which approximately 20 members of the HNP were implicated in the deaths of nine Haitians. According to the reports, the deaths may have been the result of police brutality.

"It is urgent that the Government take action to prevent killings, including extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions, by representatives of the Haitian National Police and ensure rapid and effective investigations where deaths do occur, with a view to punishing those police officers responsible or clearing their responsibility where the circumstances and legal justifications for lethal force exist," the OHCHR said in a statement.

The reports noted that criminal investigations were launched following the deaths, resulting in the suspension and detention of police personnel in some cases. However, there have been no criminal convictions in any of the deaths.

"Autopsies and ballistic analyses are not systematically conducted in investigations," the report noted further. "Witnesses are often afraid of the consequences of giving testimony and convinced that justice will not be rendered."

In both reports, the UN Human Rights office and MINUSTAH called on the Government of Haiti to ensure thorough, prompt and impartial investigations into all cases of suspected illegal use of force by the police.

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