>From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@???>
>
> By Joseph Guyler Delva
>
> PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Haitian police killed dozens
>of prisoners last week and carted out bodies in wheelbarrows during a riot
>that turned into a massacre, according to a human rights group and one
>witness.
> The toll differs from Haitian police who say eight inmates were
>killed. It also puts the spotlight on police whom U.N. officials are
>already probing for the deaths in October of up to 13 supporters of ousted
>President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
> Police said inmates were killed after attacking guards at the national
>penitentiary in Port-au-Prince on Dec. 1, when prisoners rioted over
>prolonged detention without being taken before a judge and an imminent
>transfer to another prison.
> One prisoner who witnessed the riot said up to 60 inmates may have
>been killed by police that day.
> "I saw about 15 bodies where I was, but the dead could total 60. I saw
>the police transporting from the prison loads of bodies in wheelbarrows,"
>Ted Nazaire, a 24-year-old prisoner released a day after the riot and who
>is now in hiding, told Reuters.
> The Committee for the Protection of the Haitian People's Rights, a
>rights group, said dozens of people were killed.
> Another rights group, The Lawyers Committee for Individual Rights,
>(CARLI), said "many more" people had been killed than police reported. The
>group did not give exact figures.
> "The killing of the prisoners cannot be justified and those in charge
>of their security should be held responsible," said CARLI head Renan
>Hedouville. "It's a massacre."
> The penitentiary houses about 1,070 prisoners, including supporters of
>Aristide, who was forced into exile in February following a bloody
>rebellion and pressure from the United States and France.
> The impoverished Caribbean nation has been in turmoil since the start
>of the year. Rebels took over large parts of the country before Aristide's
>departure. A U.N. peacekeeping force was sent after Aristide left to
>stabilize Haiti.
> Aristide supporters have complained that Haiti's U.S.-backed interim
>government, installed after Aristide's departure and led by Haitian Prime
>Minister Gerard Latortue, has rounded up and jailed hundreds of Aristide
>allies without charges.
> Latortue said on Wednesday that an independent probe into the deaths
>would be launched.
> "We have to know the truth. We don't need to hide it, because we know
>in many countries police are capable of wrongdoing," said Latortue, who did
>not confirm or deny the allegation that several dozen prisoners had been
>killed.
> Police showed reporters machetes, blades, knives and other weapons
>that were seized during a cell search on the day of the riot. Several
>police officers were hurt in the melee.
> Nazaire denied police reports that some prisoners were killed by other
>inmates. "The police killed the prisoners because of their opposition to
>their transfer and the detention conditions," he said.
> A lawyer defending several Aristide allies, Reynold George, said those
>killed were political militants who came from the pro-Aristide slums.
> "There is a plan to kill several other political prisoners from
>Aristide's party," he said.
