YOUNG JOHNNY JEAN TO TESTIFY IN URUGUAY AGAINST U.N. PEACEKEEPERS
(Defend Haiti) -
PORT-AU-PRINCE - Johnny Jean, the young man from Port Salut will leave the country and head to South America to testify in a Uruguayan court against peacekeepers accused of violating him.
"This is a step in the right direction," said Chief Information Officer of the United Nations Mission for Stabilization in Haiti (MINUSTAH), Eliane Nabaa, who stated that the presumed absence of the testimony of Johnny Jean caused the trial to be delayed.
"Now he is about to go there, the trial will be resumed and be completed," she assured.
Last July, Johnny John said he was raped by five Uruguayan peacekeepers while returning from a football match. A video was subsequently circulated on the internet, showing the teenager in a vulnerable situation with the Uruguayan soldiers stationed in Port-Salut.
These soldiers were later repatriated to be prosecuted in their country but denied raping the teenager, saying it was just a joke.
In addition to being accused of cholera in the country, UN peacekeepers are also singled out for violence and sexual abuse. 15 cases of abuse have been recorded by the Chairman of the House Justice and Public Safety Committee of the Senate, Youri Latortue (Artibonite/AAA).
Among the cases listed, include the rape of the young Jean Roudy in the Artibonite. A trial has even taken place recently in this city of Gonaives against the two Pakistani soldiers accused of rape, and they were found guilty, dismissed from the Pakistani army, and sentenced to a year imprisonment and hard work; a short sentence, considered derisory by Amnesty International.
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