A second gang leader arrested for Gonaïves radio station manager's murder

Another gang member, Bernard Joseph, was arrested on 20 November in connection with the 16 May murder of Alix Joseph, manager and programme host of Radio-Télé Provinciale, in the northwestern city of Gonaïves. Bernard Joseph was arrested in Port-au-Prince, “where he sought refuge in the hope of escaping prosecution,” Gonaïves police commissioner Ernst Bouquet Dorfeuille said. He is alleged to be a member of the “Cannibal Army,” a feared Gonaïves-based gang that became an opposition militia when Jean-Bertrand Aristide was president. Assisted by the peacekeepers of the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), the police already arrested another gang leader, Remilien “Ti Nasson” Emmanuel, in connection with the murder and a wanted notice has been issued for a third suspect, Jerry Bien-Aimé. The motive for Alix Joseph's murder has still not been established. He was shot three times. ---- 18.07.07 - Arrest of gangster suspected of participating in radio station manager's murder Police assisted by peacekeepers deployed by the United Nations Mission for the Stabilisation of Haiti (MINUSTAH) have arrested Remilien “Ti Nasson” Emmanuel, a gang member suspected of participating in the 16 May murder of Radio-Télé Provinciale manager and presenter Alix Joseph in the northern city of Gonaïves. Emmanuel's arrest on 13 July was hailed by the local population. He was a member of one of the most feared gangs in Raboteau, Gonaïves' biggest slum. A total of three journalists have been killed this year in Haiti. The other two are freelance photographer Jean-Rémy Badiau, who was killed on 19 January in Port-au-Prince, and radio presenter François Latour, who was kidnapped in a Port-au-Prince suburb on 22 May and killed after a ransom demand had been made. ----------------------------- 24.05.07 - Second radio journalist murdered in a week
Reporters Without Borders today strongly deplored the murder of well-known actor and radio presenter François Latour, whose body was found yesterday in Port-au-Prince a day after he was kidnapped by armed men on his way home. “The killing, after that of Alix Joseph, manager and presenter of Radio-Télé Provinciale, in the northwestern city of Gonaïves, on 16 May, shows that lawlessness is growing in Haiti. We call on the authorities to thoroughly investigate and find and punish the killers of both men. We send our condolences to Latour's family” said Reporters Without Borders. The 60-year-old broadcaster had a daily advertising programme on Caraïbes FM and had also presented for several months a talk show on another privately-owned station, Radio Métropole. He was shot in the stomach and had managed to call a friend before probably bleeding to death. The radio station said the kidnappers had demanded a $100 000 ransom.