UN says it has begun investigation into deaths of Haitian prisoners week after earthquake

UN: Big questions on prisoner deaths at Haiti jail

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The United Nations is investigating the shooting of dozens of prisoners during a jail riot in the chaotic days after Haiti’s earthquake, a spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission confirmed Saturday.

The official commented after The New York Times posted a story on its website reporting the riot and suspected killings by police. The Times said there were indications Haitian officials were covering up what happened in the town of Les Cayes.

“As far as we’re concerned there was a major human rights violation in that prison,” U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst told The Associated Press after the newspaper’s story was released.

The Times’ account concerns a largely unnoticed riot that took place Jan. 19, a week after the quake that killed 230,000 to 300,000 people in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas, according to government estimates. The Times said it appeared 12 to 19 prisoners were killed and up to 40 wounded by gunshots.

The newspaper said the riot started when some of the 467 prisoners, severely overcrowded and terrified by aftershocks, tried to escape. Haitian police and U.N. peacekeepers from Senegal surrounded the prison to prevent a mass exodus like the one that occurred at Port-au-Prince’s main prison days earlier.

At some point, Haitian police rushed the building and opened fire, Wimhurst said. He said U.N. police saw the bodies of 10 dead prisoners but more people were believed to have been killed and dozens more wounded.

The U.N. opened an internal inquiry around May 12 and a more extensive formal inquiry is possible. Wimhurst said the U.N. investigation was delayed because of the heavy toll the earthquake took on the 9,000-member peacekeeping force, including the collapse of its headquarters — the largest single loss of life in the world body’s history.

“Seven days after the earthquake we were still digging ourselves out of the rubble,” he said about the day of the riot in Les Cayes, a coastal town about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of the capital and out of the main quake zone.

Haitian authorities were also said to be investigating. Police and prison officials could not be contacted immediately for comment Saturday.