Haiti Action Committee

Haitian political prisoner René Civil had a court appearance yesterday - December 13th - where he was released from prison after being held on phony charges for 16 months. His attorney, Mario Joseph, had expressed optimism about the outcome of the hearing. Mr. Civil has been detained in notoriously bad conditions in an isolated jail far from his family after a transfer from the main penitentiary in Port-au-Prince. His release is a tremendous victory for Haiti's grassroots movement which has maintained a powerful, unrelenting and visible mobilization for the release of all Haiti's political prisoners.

René Civil is a member of Fanmi Lavalas, and a leader of Jeunesse Pouvoir Populaire or JPP (Youth/People's Power), a youth movement founded after the 1991-94 coup when President Aristide returned to Haiti. The JPP organized young people in the struggle for democracy, mainly in the poor neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince. The JPP provided financial support to encourage the youth to pursue their studies in school or learn a trade, and set up centers where young people could get a hot meal and political education.

Two days before his arrest in August 2006, René Civil addressed the 3rd Solidarity Encounter with the Haitian People, at the Aristide Foundation in Port-au-Prince. He denounced the system "which causes economic, political, military and social war on the people of the world", and which is preventing poor nations like Haiti from exercising their independence. "The people of Haiti," he said, "who believe in freedom, who have tasted freedom, will never accept this criminal, slaving system."

A Haiti Action Committee-initiated delegation was able to visit Mr. Civil in late July 2007 in the jail where he was housed over an hour's drive from Port-au-Prince. We saw terrible jail conditions which included lack of clean water, adequate food, sanitation, and health care. Mr. Civil was in poor health, but strong spirits. A member of the delegation, Professor Akinyele Umoja of Malcolm X Grassroots Organization, shared news of political prisoners in the United States with him, and brought greetings from the San Francisco Black Panther 8. Mr. Civil returned the greeting, and sent a message of solidarity to people of Afrikan descent in the US. He expressed his concern for the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.