Haitian activists demand release of political prisoners

Amnesty International is calling for the release of Haitian opposition activist Ronald Dauphin, saying it opposes his continued detention without trial.  Dauphin, a member of the former President Jean Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas party, has been in jail for four years.

Five years have passed since Aristide was removed from power. The democratically elected Aristide was deposed in a coup and flown out of the country on a US government plane.  Now exiled in South Africa, Aristide calls it a “kidnapping” by the United States and its allies in France and Canada. Following Aristide's ouster, many members of his Lavalas party were jailed by the Haitian authorities without a trial and remain in prison today. Judith Scherr has the story.