From Caribbean360

Amnesty International said it was “dismayed” by news of the killing, on February 8, of Daniel Dorsinvil, general coordinator of the Platform of Haitian Human Rights Organisations (POHDH) and his wife, Girldy Lareche.

LONDON, United Kingdom, Friday February 14, 2014, CMC – The London-based human rights group, Amnesty International, has called for a “thorough investigation” into the killing of a Haitian human rights activist and his wife.

Amnesty said it was “dismayed” by news of the killing, on February 8, of Daniel Dorsinvil, general coordinator of the Platform of Haitian Human Rights Organisations (POHDH) and his wife, Girldy Lareche.

The couple were shot by a gunman in the residential neighbourhood of Canapé Vert of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

According to Haitian human rights organisations, Daniel Dorsinvil was shot in the heart, while his wife was shot five times. The circumstances and the motives of the killings are unclear.

The Secretary of State for public security has stated that it could be the result of an armed robbery, which occurred after the couple had left a bank, Amnesty International said.

But it said a police spokesman, interviewed by a Haitian radio station, did not indicate a motive for the killings.

Amnesty International said Haitian human rights organisations fear that it could be an assassination, “especially considering the manner in which the couple was killed and the senior position of the human rights activist within the organization”.

The murders have been condemned by the Haitian government and human rights groups and Amnesty said the Minister for Human Rights announced that formal instructions had been “passed to the authorities concerned to find the culprits and bring them to justice and promised that this crime will not remain unpunished.

“These statements are welcome. It is now crucial that they translate into thorough, effective, impartial and independent investigations without delays.”

Chiara Liguori, researcher on Haiti for Amnesty International, said the human rights defender angle should be fully taken into account since there was the “possibility that the killings are a reprisal for the defender’s human rights work.

“Too many crimes and human rights violations in Haiti go unpunished. This should not be yet another case. It is the safety and the work of human rights defenders in the whole country which is at stake,”, she added.

Amnesty International said it was also concerned about the “degraded environment in which human rights defenders are operating in Haiti”.

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