Haitian Prime Minister on hunger strike rushed to hospital criticial cond. [View All]

[seemslikeadream]

Haitian Prime Minister Yvon Neptune on hunger strike rushed to hospital in critical condition
Yvon Neptune, Haiti’s prime minister under President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, on a hunger strike since Feb. 20, has fallen into critical condition and was rushed to a hospital by U.N. soldiers Thursday evening, according to sources in Port-au-Prince. Neptune and Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert have been refusing food to protest their illegal detention as well as the imprisonment of hundreds of Aristide supporters who have not been charged with any crime.

“It has been a crime for people to express their solidarity with President Aristide in Haiti since the coup d’état against President Aristide Feb. 29,” said Pierre Labossiere, a founding member of the Haiti Action Committee. “It’s a crime punishable by summary execution in thousands of cases. Those who aren’t killed are put in jail just for expressing their support for Lavalas , even wearing Aristide t-shirts in peaceful demonstrations. This is the situation that has kept Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, Minister of the Interior Jocelerme Privert, folk singer Annette Auguste (So Anne) jailed in miserable conditions.

“The prime minister and other political prisoners were facing the prospect of being killed in jail – several unsuccessful attempts against the prime minister’s life had been reported. It was these intolerable conditions that brought the Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and the Minister of the Interior Jocelerme Privert to start a hunger strike. The Gérard Latortue government, in partnership with the U.N. and the governments of Canada, France and the United States, bear the ultimate responsibility for the human tragedy that has befallen Haiti since the kidnapping of the popular, democratically-elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.”

Visited in his jail cell on Monday by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, Neptune refused to quit the hunger strike, telling the congresswoman he would not break his fast until the unjust circumstances of his arrest were addressed.

more
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HAC/3_11_5.html


Rep. Maxine Waters travels to Haiti to visit former Prime Minister Neptune
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1301324&mesg_id=1301324
Haiti situation still explosive
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1296317