Jacmal

Me (left), Katie and Reed Brody, in Jacmel, Haiti. The photo taken ( as Katie now reports) following the end of the military regime, and the US invasion. Katie, who had been at the UN covering Haiti, and Reed were working together to help the victims of coup crimes build cases against the alleged perpetrators, in 1996. Katie was the trench-digger on the team, mostly doing interviews and taking notes and depositions, setting up meetings, bugging the judges. Reed was one of the international human rights lawyers who flew in to help guide the work (he was already well known for doing this kind of thing in other countries in Latin America). Reed is currently at Human Rights Watch.

Jacmal one of the most beautiful cities I know : pastel walls, surrounded by water and banana plantations; exotic and friendly people. The buildings are historic and date from the early nineteenth century; the town has been tentatively accepted as a World Heritage site and UNESCO reports that the town sustained damage in the 2010 Haiti earthquake.