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Medical journal The Lancet clears Haiti report of bias

2/12/2007, 5:45 p.m. ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) ? British medical journal The Lancet has found there was no evidence of systematic bias in a recent study it published that said 8,000 people were slain under Haiti's previous interim government.

In a clarification published in its Feb. 3-9 issue, The Lancet said it opened a probe into the Aug. 31 study after learning that its American co-author, Athena Kolbe, had written articles about Haiti under the name Lyn Duff without disclosing it.

The Lancet said it also learned that Kolbe, a researcher at Wayne State University in Detroit, had volunteered at an orphanage founded by former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, whose ouster after a violent uprising led to the appointment of the U.S.-backed interim government that led the country from 2004 to 2006.

The Lancet said it opened an inquiry to determine if Kolbe's past work and ties to Aristide constituted a conflict of interest.

As part of the investigation, The Lancet said 100 randomly selected questionnaires used in the study were reanalyzed and that the results matched the report's initial findings, which also said up to 35,000 women were sexually abused while the interim government ruled the Caribbean nation.

"There was no evidence of systematic bias," The Lancet said of the study, which was co-authored by Royce Hutson. "On the basis of this investigation, The Lancet has confidence in Kolbe and Hutson's findings as published."

Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, declined further comment Monday in an e-mail.

Kolbe said she and Hutson were not surprised to be cleared.

"Now that the investigation is complete I hope attention really turns to the victims and holding the people responsible for human rights violations," Kolbe said in a telephone interview.

The London-based journal said it has amended Kolbe and Hutson's study to make readers aware that Kolbe had written past stories about Haiti under a different name.

The study used a random sample method to question 5,720 Haitians in Port-au-Prince about their experience after Aristide's ouster, which set off a bloody wave of clashes among Haiti's national police, pro- and anti-Aristide gangs, U.N. peacekeepers and rebels who participated in the uprising.

The Lancet report blamed half the killings and rapes on criminals, but said Haitian police and anti-Aristide gangs also were involved.

Former Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, who led the two-year interim government, has rejected the report's findings.