Former Haitian premier freed

Former Prime Minister of Haiti, Yvon Neptune, looking frail in the wake of his on-and-off hunger strike, was freed on July 27 after two years in prison and ferried away by an ambulance escorted by heavy security. The UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) welcomed the release and said Neptune was being treated by medical staff. "The state of Mr. Neptune's health, which declined dramatically during his time in prison, remains a serious preoccupation and he is currently under the care of medical staff serving with the United Nations in Haiti, where he will remain until he is well enough to return to his family," it said. Neptune won his freedom one day after he spoke to the media for the first time since his arrest and vowed to fight what he called the "machine of injustice" responsible for his prolonged imprisonment without trial. "The machine of injustice must stop," the barefoot Neptune told a small group of reporters in the barren bedroom that served as his cell. "This is not something that concerns just me. It is something that concerns all the Haitian people who don't have the means to face the machine of injustice." Neptune served under president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and was among hundreds jailed by a US-backed interim government after Aristide was driven into exile. Human rights activists hailed the government's decision to free a man they had long considered a political prisoner. "It is a day of victory for a fight against injustice," Patrick Elie, a founding member of a Haitian citizens watchdog group that joined the international campaign for Neptune's release, said outside the prison walls. "Prime Minister Neptune has given us all a lesson in courage." But scores of Aristide supporters and several thousand alleged criminals remain jailed without trial. "I don't think that the justice system in Haiti has really redeemed itself," Elie said. "We've opened a chink in the armor of the beast. A lot remains to be done." Elie called the case "emblematic" of Haiti's problems. His group claims that of an estimated 4,000 prisoners in jail here, only 10 percent have been tried and that many of them were arrested simply for supporting Aristide. Neptune was detained on accusations he masterminded what Aristide's opponents called a massacre on Feb. 11, 2004, in La Scierie, a small village near the western port city of St. Marc. UN investigators characterized the incident as an armed clash with casualties on both sides. Neptune was never tried and has repeatedly denied wrongdoing He said that soon after Aristide fled, unnamed authorities came to tell him he had three options: exile, prison or death. "Exile, they will never get me to leave; prison, I'm already here; and death, that can come any time," Neptune said. Asked if he blamed the US government, which opposed Aristide, for his predicament, Neptune rolled his cloudy-looking eyes and snickered. "The dagger is here," he said, pointing to his stomach. "You want me to give them the ability to twist it?" "The truth is known now. It doesn't have to come from my mouth," Neptune added. Since his arrest, Neptune has issued written statements questioning the arrests of other Aristide supporters, such as singer Annette Auguste, known as Só Ann, also incarcerated without trial since 2004. He also has implied that pressure from foreign opponents of Aristide–not the revolt by armed gangs and former soldiers in 2004 who were at the doors to Port-au-Prince when Aristide fled abroad–led to the president's downfall. Aristide himself has said that US and French officials forced him to surrender power and leave the country. Washington and Paris have denied the allegation. "I have written and will continue writing about what I know," Neptune said. "I write about facts, not fiction. I will continue to do that as long as I live."