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Under Secretary for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky meets reporters at the State Department in Washington, Monday, Feb. 28, 2005. (State Dept./ AP/Wide World Photo)


Hardbeatnews, WASHINGTON, D.C., Tues. Mar. 1, 2005: Allegations of police brutality and mistreatment of detainees, poor prison conditions and violence against women continue to top the human rights problems in many Caribbean countries.

That’s according to the latest "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices,” released by top U.S. State Department officials yesterday, Feb. 28.

Among those cited for varying degrees of the three alleged rights violations are Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, The Bahamas, Antigua & Barbuda, Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines and Suriname.

But most governments across the region were found to have general respect for the rights of its citizens.

However, governments of the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba were slammed for what the U.S. government claims was their poor human rights record, especially as it relates to security forces continuing to commit unlawful killings.

In the DR, the report stated, “The police and, to a lesser degree, the military, tortured, beat, or otherwise abused suspects, detainees and prisoners.” Prison conditions were found to range from poor to harsh and police allegedly arbitrarily arrested and detained suspects and suspects' relatives.

There was also lengthy pretrial detention and long trial delays continued to be problems, the reports said and the authorities sometimes infringed on citizens' privacy rights, and police entered private homes without judicial orders.

Additionally, it was claimed the journalists and editors practiced self-censorship and the government restricted the movement of Haitian and Dominican-Haitian migrants and forcibly expelled some of them.

In Haiti, which marked one-year since the departure of former President Jean Bertrand Aristide yesterday, Feb. 28, the report claims, “various actors perpetrated numerous human rights abuses, particularly during the armed revolt and the authority vacuum that followed.”

“There were credible reports of arbitrary killings by some members of the HNP (Haitian National Police), the FAd'H (former military) who helped force President Aristide's resignation, and pro-Lavalas partisans and street gangs who were suspected of being paid and armed by President Aristide and his supporters,” the U.S. added.

And in Cuba, highly criticized by the U.S. Bush administration, the report claims citizens there did not have the right to change their government peacefully; members of the security forces and prison officials continued to beat and abuse detainees and prisoners, including human rights activists; government denied political dissidents and human rights advocates due process and subjected them to unfair trials and infringed on citizens' privacy rights and freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and association and closely monitored domestic and international journalists through physical and electronic surveillance.

Racial discrimination was also a problem in Cuba, researchers stated.

Grenada was the only Caribbean country that the report cited as not having problems with its police and instead claimed the only rights violence were continued violence against women and instances of child abuse.

Like Grenada, St. Lucia was also slammed for child abuse problems but the report also claims there “were some allegations of physical abuse of suspects and prisoners by the police; long delays in trials and sentencing (and) domestic violence against women.”

Department officials say in Antigua & Barbuda, “government generally respected the human rights of its citizens” but “problems remained in a few areas.”

They include allegations of police brutality, poor prison conditions and allegations of abuse of prison inmates and sexual harassment of female prison guards and societal discrimination and violence against women.

Similar conditions reportedly exists in Barbados, where the report states, “There were occasional allegations of excessive use of force by police and reports of poor prison conditions. Societal violence against women and children remained problems.”

In The Bahamas, “there were reports of unlawful killings by police and that police occasionally beat and abused detainees” while “conditions at the prison and detention center remained harsh.”

“The police occasionally used arbitrary arrest and detention. Lengthy pretrial detention and delays in trials were problems. Violence and discrimination against women and violence against children also were problems. Discrimination against persons with disabilities and persons of Haitian descent persisted,” the report stated.

In Dominica, in addition to poor prison conditions and violence against women, the U.S. report claims, “there were instances of discrimination against indigenous Carib Indians and societal discrimination against female Caribs in mixed marriages.”

In St. Kitts/Nevis, the report claims there opposition complaints about access to the government-controlled media. Poor prison conditions and violence against women remained principal problems, like other regional neighbors, according to the U.S.

Guyana was again slammed for alleged police abuses and trafficking in persons, through the Guyana government has said it was working hard to stamp out the crime. “Human rights groups and the media asserted that the police continued to commit unlawful killings, and police abuse of suspects continued to be a problem,” stated the report. “Violence against women and children; trafficking in persons; societal discrimination against women, indigenous Amerindians, and persons living with HIV/AIDS; incidents of discrimination stemming from the racial tensions between Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese; and child labor in the informal sector were all problems.”

Jamaica was again cited for unlawful killings by its security forces and for violence against individuals suspected or known to be homosexuals and those living with HIV/AIDS. Child labor was also cited as a problem along with poor prison and jail conditions remained poor; overcrowding, brutality against detainees, and poor sanitary conditions, arbitrary arrest and detention, lengthy delays in trials and like Guyana, trafficking in persons and violence and discrimination against women.

Lengthy trials also seemed to be a problem for St. Vincent & the Grenadines, whose principal human rights problems included an over-burdened court system, and as in other territories, excessive use of force by police, poor prison conditions and violence against women and abuse of children also were problems.

Trinidad & Tobago, like Jamaica, was criticized for police killings, but those alleged killing occurred “during apprehension and deaths of persons while in custody.”
While journalists in Suriname, like in the DR, were found to practice self-censorship and societal discrimination against women, minorities, and indigenous people persisted. And trafficking in women and underage girls and boys also apparently remains a problem.

Paula Dobriansky, Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs, in an official press briefing yesterday, said the “… reports are a key part of this administration's activities to promote human rights and democracy around the world, part of President Bush's forward strategy of freedom.”

Ambassador Mike Kozak, the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, his staff and other colleagues in the State Department, played a role in the compilation of the reports.

Kozak commented, “The justice systems are weak throughout Latin America. I mean, again, it varies from country to country but that is one of the serious problems.”

This year’s report is the 28th edition and focuses on 196 countries. – Hardbeatnews.com

I always say fix yuh own house before yuh try to fix somebody else's..

US Government Bureaucrats CANNOT Lecture ANYONE Today about Human Rights Abuses ANYWHERE------because of the International TORTURE that's being perpetrated by US Gunslingers and Mercenaries from Iraq to Afghanistan to Guantanamo and elsewhere

The US have some nerve. I for one can see past them and their Democracy freedom nonsense.

US Democracy is Pure BULL SH*T--------Imagine people supposed to feel good about standing in a long line every 4 years to vote for Satan or the Devil.


Did y'all see Farrakhan on C-Span last Saturady at Tavis Smiley's State of the Black Union in Atlanta?

Farrakhan told the Republican and Democrat Party to "Go to Hell" he said that inside a Black Church.

Look at that Bullsh*t Election they just staged in Iraq.
US MILITARY FORCE + BRUTALITY = NO SECURITY!!!

Did y'all see Saddam's Judge just got plucked.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4310365.stm