By Samuel Miller
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America and Oceania

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Legislators in Haiti have chosen an interim president for the country, the first step toward addressing the void left when former president Michel Martelly left office without a successor. Jocelerme Privert, 62, was elected yesterday to be Haiti’s interim president to fill the vacuum following the departure of former President Michel Martelly last week.

Interim President Privert vowed to complete elections and hand power over to the future-elected president.

Opposition parties had called for the establishment of an interim administration to oversee fresh elections in the country and had taken to the streets protesting the outcome of the first round of balloting on August 24 last year as well as preventing the staging of the second round of the Presidential Elections on January 24 this year. Haiti canceled the runoff presidential election in January amid violent protests over alleged fraud in the first round and after the opposition candidate boycotted the vote.

In a speech before he was elected, Privert vowed to ‘foster confidence across society, ensure stability, and hold the much-delayed run-off vote as soon as possible”.

Following his election, he proclaimed at the inauguration ceremony, “We have shown that we can transcend our differences and our quarrels in favor of the public interest. We should welcome the peaceful and inclusive nature of this new step in resolving the crisis.”

Privert faces a daunting task in the coming days and weeks: his first job will be to select a consensus prime minister and government.

Additionally, one of the major challenges ahead will be to reach an agreement about who can participate in the election. Many parties rejected the October results that led to a two-man race between opposition candidate Jude Celestin and ruling party favorite Jovenel Moise, citing voter fraud and corruption.

In an interesting note, Privert served as Interior Minister under former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It is believed that Privert’s selection could help calm the protests led by factions of Aristide’s Lavalas movement, which believed the elections organized under Martelly were not free and fair.

After former President Aristide was forced from power in 2004 by armed groups, Privert was jailed for two years on charges that he orchestrated a massacre of Aristide’s opponents. The charges were later dropped.

Another opposition party, a breakaway faction of Aristide’s movement called ‘Platform Pitit Dessalines’, called for Privert to create a balanced electoral council acceptable to all sides.

A new election is expected to be held April 24, and new president sworn in three weeks later on May 14^th.

For more information, please see:

Jamaica Observer – Haiti elects interim president – 15 February 2016

Latin Post – Haiti Elects Jocelerme Privert as Interim President for the Next 120 Days – 15 February 2016

Reuters – ‘We’re back’ – Aristide allies toast Haiti’s interim president at palace – 15 February 2016

Al Jazeera America – Haiti inaugurates interim president – 14 February 2016

BBC News – Haiti chooses interim president – 14 February 2016

CNN – Haiti gets new president — for 120 days – 14 February 2016

United Press International – Haitian lawmakers choose interim president – 14 February 2016

By Samuel Miller
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America and Oceania

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States of America — Last Friday, the Pentagon released nearly 200 photographs related to its investigation of alleged abuse of detainees held by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, the military is continuing to block the disclosure of about 1,800 other photos from the same criminal investigations, saying that their release would endanger American service members serving abroad.

Taken more than a decade ago during the Bush administration, the photographs consist largely of close-up views of scrapes and bruises on detainees’ bodies.

The photos released Friday show close ups of arms, legs, feet, backs and heads, many with visible injuries and rulers or coins held up next to them for comparison. A few photos where faces would be visible have the faces blacked; furthermore, a few full-body photos show detainees kneeling or with their hands behind their backs.

The photographs were tied to U.S. military investigations that looked into reports of alleged abuse. Of the 56 allegations tied to the photographs, subsequent investigations substantiated the claims in 14 of the cases, which resulted in disciplinary action against 65 service-members, the Defense Department said in a prepared statement.

In 2003, the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the entire cache of photos. The organization sued in 2004 after the gruesome photos of Abu Ghraib prison leaked to the media. In 2009, the Obama administration promised to release the photos, but Congress passed a law that allowed them to remain classified if the Defense secretary certified their release would jeopardize national security.

The American Civil Liberties Union hailed the release of the photos, but said the decision to hold back the remaining 1,800 images could mislead the public about the true scope of what happened.

“The disclosure of these photos is long overdue, but the photos released today are almost certainly the most innocuous of the 2,000 that were being withheld,” ACLU said in a statement released Friday. “From the nearly 6,000 reports, investigations, emails, and other documents the government has been forced to release to us in the course of this litigation, we have found more than 100 documents that either reference photos related to cases of abuse or actually contain photos that were redacted before they got to us.”

In one example, identified as an U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command (‘CID’) case from 2004, black and white photographs depict a detainee holding a pen to his shin just under an area that appears slightly discolored. CID concluded there was not enough evidence to determine whether the detainee, whose name was redacted, had been abused by U.S. or coalition forces.

Investigators did, however, determine the detainee was likely abused by Iraqi Civil Defense troops.

For more information, please see:

AllGov – Pentagon Blocks Release of 1,800 Detainee Abuse Photos, Lets Out 198 – 6 February 2016

IB Times – Pentagon Releases Nearly 200 Photos Showing Detainee Abuse In Iraq, Afghanistan – 6 February 2016

Military.com – Pentagon Releases Photos of Alleged Prison Abuses in Iraq, Afghanistan – 6 February 2016

CNN – Pentagon releases 198 photos of detainees – 5 February 2016

NY Times – Pentagon Releases Small Portion of Photos From Detainee Abuse Cases – 5 February 2016

The Hill – Pentagon releases 198 photos of alleged detainee abuse – 5 February 2016

The Intercept – PENTAGON RELEASES PHOTOS OF DETAINEE ABUSE IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN – 5 February 2016

By Samuel Miller
Impunity Watch Desk Reporter, North America and Oceania

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haitian President Michel Martelly has stepped down from office, leaving the island nation with no immediate successor after elections marred by allegations of fraud were postponed twice. Martelly, who leaves the post after five years in office, delivered a farewell address to Haiti’s National Assembly on Sunday.

No successor has been chosen as of yet as opposition supporters challenge a deal to select an interim leader.

In a nearly 20-minute speech addressing the joint session of Parliament, Mr. Martelly said his biggest regret was that the presidential election had been postponed. Addressing the Haitian people, he stated he worked as hard as he could to improve the country.

In his address, Mr. Martelly was quoted as saying: “Haiti is recovering; yes, Haiti is standing. I was faced with all the challenges; facing the impossible, facing the most utter despair. … I can say today that I am ready to answer before the tribunal of history.”

Mr. Martelly departed at the end of his five-year term, thanks to a last-minute agreement that laid out steps to implement a provisional government to take his place. Although the agreement left major doubts about who will govern the nation in the months to come, those with direct knowledge of the situation hailed it as an important move toward at least momentarily resolving a political impasse that had put hundreds of protesters on the streets.

Under the agreement reached this weekend, the Prime Minister will stay in power until an interim president is chosen by both chambers of Parliament. Once the interim president is in place, a consensus Prime Minister will be chosen.

Haiti’s latest political crisis has resulted from a presidential election held in October with 54 candidates which critics have said was riddled with fraud. For example, political officials were able to vote multiple times, and the president’s handpicked successor came in first despite being a virtual unknown, leaving the 52 candidates who did not make the runoff vote to question the results.

Mr. Martelly insisted that there had been no fraud and that the runoff should take place, urging voters to choose his candidate, Jovenel Moïse, a banana exporter. However, a former government official who officially came in second, Jude Célestin, refused to participate in the runoff until a new electoral council was chosen and a thorough review of the first round was conducted.

Unfortunately, an hour after Mr. Martelly’s speech and departure from the parliament, violent street protests erupted.

Haiti last created a transitional government in 2004. That interim administration, which lasted for two years, took power in the chaotic days after President Jean Bertrand-Aristide was ousted by a rebellion and a U.N. peacekeeping force came to stabilize the country.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Haiti president steps down without successor in place – 8 February 2016

Latin Post – Haiti President Departs; Chaos Ensues – 8 February 2016

ABC News – Haiti’s President Departs to Make Way for Interim Government – 7 February 2016

CNN – Haiti’s President steps down, leaving no successor – 7 February 2016

Miami Herald – Haitian President Michel Martelly bids farewell – 7 February 2016

NY Times – Michel Martelly, Haiti’s President, Departs Without a Successor – 7 February 2016

Reuters (Video) – Haiti’s president leaves office without a successor – 7 February 2016

By Samuel Miller
Impunity Watch Desk Reporter, North America and Oceania

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala — A trial has begun in Guatemala of two ex-military officers for human rights abuses against indigenous women during the country’s long armed civil conflict. The trial marks the first time in history that sexual slavery will be prosecuted as a war crime in the country where it is alleged to have taken place.

The two former military officers are facing charges of murder, rape and sexual abuse, domestic servitude and kidnapping, according to the Guatemalan attorney general’s office.

Prosecutors accuse Esteelmer Reyes, a 59-year-old retired colonel, of authorizing and consenting for soldiers under his command to exercise sexual violence and inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment against Maya-Q’eqchi’ women. Reyes suggested the trial is a political show to make it appear as if Guatemala’s government is doing justice.

“Within the Guatemalan army, during the 36 years of the civil war that we fought, there was not a single murderer. This is all a farce,” the ex-military commander said.

Prosecutor Hilda Pineda, however, said the former military commanders, in an effort to submit the local population to their will, authorized and consented to systematic acts of sexual abuse and inhumane, cruel and humiliating treatment against the victims and other women.

Guatemala’s civil war lasted 36 years. According to the United Nations, five out of every six victims of human rights violations were Mayan. The surviving women, now in their seventies and eighties, testified that the soldiers raped them and burned their houses down after their husbands were killed.

The women said they were then forced to report to the military base in Sepur Zarco in rotating shifts every three days, to cook and clean for the soldiers. The shifts lasted 10 months between 1982 and 1983, a period during which the women say they were still being raped. Some women were reportedly held on bondage for six years until the military base closed in 1988.

María Domínguez, a government advocate for the protection of indigenous women’s rights, said the importance of this case goes beyond the 11 women in this case.

“When you speak about the rape of women during the armed conflict, you’re talking about Guatemala’s history. Their human rights were violated, and this is something that it’s still happening every day. This is a landmark trial for the Guatemalan justice system,” said Domínguez.

This week’s trial against the two former army officials will be the first time that a case involving sexual slavery committed during an armed conflict will be heard in a domestic court.

For more information, please see:

BBC News — Guatemala military sexual violence trial starts – 2 February 2016

CNN — Guatemala tries 2 ex-military officers in sexual abuse of women in civil war – 2 February 2016

Latin Correspondent — Two former Guatemalan army officials face trial for sexual slavery – 2 February 2016

Latin Dispatch — Landmark Sexual Slavery Trial Begins in Guatemala – 2 February 2016

Latin One — Guatemalan Soldiers to Stand Trial for Civil War Sexual Slavery Charges – 2 February 2016

Tico Times — Two ex-soldiers tried in Guatemala for sex slavery, murder – 2 February 2016