By Chris Scott
Briarpatch Magazine
August 2007
Who is in jail in today’s Haiti, it seems, has a lot more to do with stifling political dissent than with bringing criminals to justice. And Canada has played a key role.
Members of the Kolektif Fanmi Prisonye Politik (the Association of Family and Friends of Political Prisoners) march in Port-au-Prince against the ongoing detention of hundreds of Lavalas Party activists. (Photo: Wadner Pierre)
Note: Background information, a glossary of key groups, and resources for further reading can be found at the end of this article.
There were no kids present in the long line of relatives waiting outside the prison gates in Port-au-Prince. Haitian regulations bar children from visiting the National Penitentiary, and it is in fact doubtful whether many would have endured the hot and bothered atmosphere that prevailed that day outside the city lock-up. Under the penetrating stares of Jordanian peacekeepers, 200 Haitian women had assembled in the busy street and were waiting stoically to see their imprisoned loved ones. Filing past a UN armoured vehicle, clutching bundles of food and medicine, they advanced in slow intervals toward a barbed-wire checkpoint.
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