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Haitians March To Protest Widespread Kidnappings

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The Associated Press

Published: June 5, 2008

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Thousands of protesters rallied outside government buildings in the Haitian capital Wednesday, demanding officials crack down on a four-year kidnapping scourge that has terrorized the Caribbean country.

Well-dressed Haitians from the hills above Port-au-Prince and sitting lawmakers were among more than 2,000 demonstrators marching to the Justice Ministry and Supreme Court in a peaceful protest. Thousands more lined the streets to watch.

U.N. police said more than 157 people have been kidnapped this year in Haiti, up 10 percent from last year to date and a rate of about one per day.
Kidnappings for ransom have plagued the impoverished country since 2005, leaving restaurants empty, scaring away foreign investment and destabilizing the government. Almost every sector of society has been targeted, including schoolchildren and foreigners.

One protester carried a photo of Kareem Xavier Gaspard, a 16-year-old banker's son who was killed and dumped in an open-air market last month even though his parents paid abductors a ransom.

"Haiti has a grave sickness," said Stephen William Phelps, a friend of the slain teenager's father. "We all have a responsibility to stand up and say no."

Other recent kidnapping victims include a 32-year-old Canadian woman who had been in the country for less than a month and an 11-year-old boy who was snatched in recent days. Both were released unharmed, U.N. police spokesman Fred Blaise said.

Pierre Esperance, director of the National Human Rights Defense Network, said suspects in kidnappings are finding ways to bribe their way out of trouble.

"Many people here are arrested for kidnapping and the judicial system lets them go because someone has paid money," he said. "It is getting worse every day."

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