Independent Commission to Speed Up Stalled Investigations into Slayings
10 August 2007
Haiti has created an independent commission to speed up stalled investigations into the slayings of journalists. Eight journalists have been killed in the Caribbean country since 2000, and the notoriously weak and corrupt justice system has yet to convict anyone in the deaths.
The nine-member body, made up of Haitian journalists, will review each case and issue public reports on ways to move the investigations forward, commission president Guy Delva said Friday. “We want to push the justice system to act. If there are obstacles to these cases, we want to know what they are, who is responsible and how to fix them,” said Delva, a correspondent for the Reuters news agency and the head of a Haitian press freedom group.