Aristide to leave Jamaica

[struggle4progress]

Deposed Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide will leave Jamaica on Sunday for South Africa, a spokesperson in Kingston told reporters on Friday afternoon.

"The departure is now confirmed for Sunday," said Huntley Medley.
<snip>

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=122&art_id=qw1085751001461B236&set_id=1

[seemslikeadream]

1. WHILE I SIT HERE TRYING TO THINK OF THINGS TO SAY

SOMEONE LIES BLEEDING IN A FIELD SOMEWHERE



SO IT WOULD SEEM WE'VE STILL GOT A LONG LONG WAY TO GO



I'VE SEEN ALL I WANNA SEE TODAY



WHILE I SIT HERE TRYING TO MOVE YOU ANYWAY I CAN



SOMEONE'S SON LIES DEAD IN A GUTTER SOMEWHERE



AND IT WOULD SEEM THAT WE'VE GOT A LONG LONG WAY TO GO



BUT I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE



SWITCH IT OFF IT WILL GO AWAY



TURN IT OFF IF YOU WANT TO



SWITCH IT OFF OR LOOK AWAY



WHILE I SIT AND WE TALK AND TALK AND WE TALK SOME MORE



SOMEONE'S LOVED ONE'S HEART STOPS BEATING IN A STREET SOMEWHERE



SO IT WOULD SEEM WE'VE STILL GOT A LONG LONG WAY TO GO, I KNOW



I'VE HEARD ALL I WANNA HEAR TODAY



TURN IT OFF IF YOU WANT TO (TURN IT OFF IF YOU WANT TO)



SWITCH IT OFF IT WILL GO AWAY (SWITCH IT OFF IT WILL GO AWAY)



TURN IT OFF IF YOU WANT TO (TURN IT OFF IF YOU WANT TO)



SWITCH IT OFF OR LOOK AWAY (SWITCH IT OFF OR LOOK AWAY)



SWITCH IT OFF



SWITCH IT OFF



SWITCH IT OFF



SWITCH IT OFF



SWITCH IT OFF



TURN IT OFF



thanks phil collins for the words
my heart to the people of Haiti




If I gave you everything that I owned and asked for nothing in return
Would you do the same for me as I would for you?
Or take me for a ride, and strip me of everything including my pride
But spirit is something that no one destroys
And the sound that I'm hearing is only the sound
The low spark of high-heeled boys

Traffic

[Matilda]

2. Very good. Thank you.

n/t

[seemslikeadream]

6. Thank you and here's Powell's friends in Haiti

Who's who of the Haiti Coup - death squad veterans and convicted murderers




Rebel leader Louis-Jodel Chamblain talks with other rebels at their headquarters in the Mont Joli Hotel in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, Saturday Feb. 28, 2004. (AP Photo/Pablo Aneli).

Louis-Jodel Chamblain

Convicted assassin and leader of death squads

Chamblain was the number 2 man in the FRAPH death squad which participated in the campaign of terror during the 1991 coup against Aristide.
Terrorising supporters of Aristide's Lavalas Family party, the group was blamed for thousands of killings before a US intervention ended three years of military rule in 1994.
"I am scared of what I did, not of what I didn't do," Chamblain told the AP. "I never committed murder. I am not a terrorist. I am not a drug dealer. I am not a criminal."

He was, however, convicted in absentia and sentenced to life imprisonment for the September 11, 1993 murder of Aristide financier Antoine Izmery, who was dragged from Mass in a church, made to kneel outside and shot.
Chamblain was also convicted for the April 23, 1994 massacre in the pro-democracy region of Raboteau.
A CIA intelligence memorandum implicated him in the October 14, 1993 assassination of Justice Minister Guy Malary who, with his bodyguard, was ambushed and machine-gunned.

According to the CIA memorandum, dated October 28, 1993, and obtained by the Centre for Constitutional Rights, "FRAPH members Jodel Chamblain, Emmanuel Constant, and Gabriel Douzable met with an unidentified military officer on the morning of 14 October to discuss plans to kill Malary".
Emmanuel "Toto" Constant was the founder of FRAPH.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20040307T040000-0500_56740_OB ...

Analysis: Haiti's diverse rebels


The exiles' leader is Louis Jodel Chamblain, 50, who fled to the Dominican Republic in 1994.

A former sergeant, he is accused taking part in a number of atrocities during the years of military rule.

He was suspected of involvement in a 1987 election massacre, in which 34 voters were killed and a civilian-run ballot aborted.

In 1993 in co-founded the Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress - Fraph, which sounds like "hit" in French.


The group is accused of killing thousands of supporters of Mr Aristide.

Plots

Mr Chamblain denies involvement in any paramilitary activities and describes himself as a "Haitian patriot".

He returned from exile with another controversial former soldier, Guy Philippe, 35.


Aristide supporters are being hunted down across the north
Trained in the United States and Ecuador, he was a senior security official under President Rene Preval, a civilian elected in 1995.

Now Mr Philippe and Mr Chamblain are allies, and celebrating their capture of Cap-Haitien, the country's second city at the weekend.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3515267.stm


Louis Jodel Chamblain


Chamblain was joint leader - along with CIA operative Emmanuel “Toto” Constant - of the Front révolutionnaire pour l’avancement et le progrès haïtien, (Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress) known by its acronym - FRAPH - which phonetically resembles the French and Creole words for ‘to beat’ or ‘to thrash’. FRAPH was formed by the military authorities who were the de facto leaders of the country during the 1991-94 military regime, and was responsible for numerous human rights violations before the 1994 restoration of democratic governance.

Among the victims of FRAPH under Chamblain’s leadership was Haitian Justice Minister Guy Malary. He was ambushed and machine-gunned to death with his body-guard and a driver on October 14, 1993. According to an October 28, 1993 CIA Intelligence Memorandum obtained by the Center for Constitutional Rights: “FRAPH members Jodel Chamblain, Emmanuel Constant, and Gabriel Douzable met with an unidentified military officer on the morning of 14 October to discuss plans to kill Malary.” (Emmanuel “Toto” Constant, the leader of FRAPH, is now living freely in Queens, NYC.)

In September 1995, Chamblain was among seven senior military and FRAPH leaders convicted in absentia and sentenced to forced labour for life for involvement in the September 1993 extrajudicial execution of Antoine Izméry, a well-known pro-democracy activist. In late 1994 or early 1995, it is understood that Chamblain went into exile to the Dominican Republic in order to avoid prosecution.

http://www.haiti-progres.com/eng02-25.html

The most disturbing figure in the rebel leadership is Louis Jodel Chamblain. He is reported to have led the insurgents’ attacks on Central Plateau towns, including the regional capital of Hinche.

Chamblain was a sergeant in the Haitian army (FAd’H), and a member of the elite Corps des Leopards. He left the army in 1989 or 1990 and reappeared on the scene in 1993 as one of the founders of the Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress (Front révolutionnaire pour l’avancement et le progrès haïtien, FRAPH). Known as its number two leader, he had a reputation for violence and action (in contrast to the better known and more media-friendly Emmanuel “Toto” Constant). In the report of Haitian Truth and Justice Commission, there is a statement by Emmanuel Constant that explains that FRAPH’s central committee was composed of himself, Chamblain, Mireille Durocher-Bertin, a lawyer who was murdered in 1995, and Alphonse Lahens (a prominent Duvalierist).

Chamblain was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for the 1993 murder of businessman and activist Antoine Izmery, as well as for involvement in the 1994 Raboteau massacre. He is also implicated in the assassination of Justice Minister Guy Malary, who was ambushed and machine-gunned to death with his body-guard and a driver on October 14, 1993. According to a 1993 CIA Intelligence Memorandum obtained by the U.S.-based Center for Constitutional Rights, “FRAPH members Jodel Chamblain, Emmanuel Constant, and Gabriel Douzable met with an unidentified military officer on the morning of 14 October to discuss plans to kill Malary.”

Chamblain escaped to the Dominican Republic in 1994, after the U.S. military intervention in Haiti, and returned to the country in late 2003 or early 2004.

http://www.flashpoints.net/Haiti_Rebel_Leaders.html



Novak's friend Boniface Alexandre


When Caribbean neighbor Jamaica gave asylum to Aristide two weeks ago, an infuriated LaTortue immediately recalled Haiti's ambassador to Kingston. A second return of Aristide as a free man is ruled out. Boniface Alexandre, the Supreme Court chief justice who became provisional president upon Aristide's resignation under Haiti's constitution, is a careful jurist who measures his words -- except when it comes to Aristide. "He cannot come back to Haiti," Alexandre told me. Aristide will return only if it is decided to indict and extradite him, Justice Minister Bernard Grousse informed me.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20040325.shtml

Haiti: Marines patrol and rebels disarm


While Aristide has been replaced by interim President Boniface Alexandre, his real authority in Haiti has come into question, particularly now that rebel forces have entered the city and proclaimed their intention to reinstate the military.

Led by 36-year-old former military officer Guy Philippe -- who Tuesday proclaimed himself the "military chief" in Haiti -- the rebels began taking over cities in the North in early February with the intention of forcing Aristide's resignation.

The rebels and Haiti's political opposition -- though not aligned -- had been calling for Aristide to step down after what has been termed faulty elections in 2000 and widespread allegations of human rights abuses and corruption.

Since completing their sweep of the Caribbean nation, the rebels said days ago that they would put down their weapons at the request of the president, then appeared to modify their stance as Haiti's second coming of the military. Many of the rebels were soldiers in the nation's army when Aristide disbanded it in 1995.

The president was ousted in a military coup in the early 1990s then restored to power in 1994 with the help of 20,000 U.S. troops.

http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20040303-123122-1509r.htm

29 February 2004

Haitian President Resigns, Supreme Court President Sworn In
U.S. deploys Marines as initial contingent of multinational force

Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned and departed Port-au-Prince the morning of February 29, resolving the impasse at the root of violence in Haiti in recent weeks, according to the U.S. State Department.

In a February 29 statement, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that the United States facilitated Aristide's safe departure and noted that Haitian Supreme Court President Boniface Alexandre has been sworn in as head of state until presidential elections are held.

The statement called on all Haitians to respect the peaceful and constitutional succession, and added that the United States will deploy U.S. Marines as the intitial contingent of a multinational force.

The U.S. will also work with the international community to seek a United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing international support for Haiti's transition, the statement said.

Under a plan crafted by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the U.S. and international community "will facilitate the urgent formation of an independent government that will represent the interests of all of the Haitian people."

Following is the text of the statement:




Statement by Richard Boucher, Spokesman


Statement on the Resignation of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti


Jean-Bertrand Aristide has resigned as president of the Republic of Haiti, submitting a letter of resignation before departing Port-au-Prince safely early this morning. At President Aristide's request, the United States facilitated his safe departure from Haiti.
.
In conformity with Haiti's constitution, Supreme Court President Boniface Alexandre has been sworn in as head of state until presidential elections are held. We have been informed that Prime Minister Yvon Neptune will continue to serve as Haiti's head of government until a successor is appointed in the next days, within the framework of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Plan of Action.

We call on all Haitians to respect this peaceful and constitutional succession and to refrain from any actions that will undermine national reconciliation. We urge all Haitians to cooperate with the international community as it supports measures to build a more just society and to help defeat the scourge of poverty and disease.

The decision by President Aristide to resign resolves the political impasse that is the root of the violent unrest in Haiti in recent weeks. Therefore, the United States will deploy a contingent of U.S. Marines as the initial contingent of a multinational interim force. We have been informed that several other countries are prepared to move quickly to join this mission.

During the course of the day we will continue consulting with our partners in CARICOM and the Organization of American States, as well as Canada and France, to seek a resolution of the United Nations Security Council authorizing international support for a peaceful and constitutional transition in Haiti. As envisaged under the CARICOM plan, the international community will facilitate the urgent formation of an independent government that will represent the interests of all of the Haitian people.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2004/02/mil-040229 ...



André “Andy” Apaid, Jr.,


Last December, after a powwow with the International Republican Institute in Santo Domingo, the Haitian opposition returned to Port-au-Prince to establish the “Group of 184,” a supposedly broad front of “civil society” organizations modeled on similar anti-government coalitions in Chavez’s Venezuela and Allende’s Chile.

The head of the “184" today is André “Andy” Apaid, Jr., also head of Alpha Industries, one of the oldest and largest assembly factories in Haiti.

On Nov. 11, Haiti’s Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert confirmed that Apaid is indeed a U.S. citizen, a rumor which had been circulating since the industrialist’s emergence on the political scene. According to Privert, Apaid was born to Haitian parents in the U.S. and came to Haiti in 1976 as a foreign businessman on a visitor’s visa.

After five years, any foreigner can obtain Haitian nationality by naturalization under the Constitution’s Article 12, but “Andy” Apaid has never done this, according to the government.

Andy is following in the political footsteps of his father. As founder of Alpha Sewing in the 1970s, André senior was a close to dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier and remains “a notorious Duvalierist,” according to Eric Verhoogen in the Multinational Monitor (April 1996). Apaid senior headed up the “civil society” (read: bourgeoisie) campaign to support the 1991-1994 military coup against President Aristide, which successfully eased U.S. sanctions on the export of goods from Haiti’s assembly sweat-shops.

“When asked at a business conference in Miami soon after the coup in 1991 what he would do if President Aristide returned to Haiti, Apaid replied vehemently, ‘I’d strangle him!’” Verhoogen wrote. “At the time, Apaid was heading up the United States Agency for International Develop-ment’s (USAID’s) PROMINEX business promotion project, a $12.7 million program to encourage U.S. and Canadian firms to move their businesses to Haiti.”

http://www.haiti-progres.com/eng11-12.html


ANDY APAID JR.:

The most outspoken leader of the opposition coalition, Apaid is a factory owner born in the United States. His family fled Haiti under Francois Duvalier, or "Papa Doc," who ruled from 1957 to 1971.

Favoring pressed pastel shirts and gold-rimmed glasses, Apaid looks like a Miami businessman but says he is totally Haitian at heart.

"I am just as much a part of this country as anyone," Apaid, in his early 50s, said recently. "That's why I am saying we must choose another path for the country."

But without a constitutional amendment, he will never become president because of his dual nationality. He has rejected the U.S.-backed settlement plan, saying Aristide must leave office.

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/0204/26haitiwho.html

The most outspoken leader of the opposition coalition, Andre (Andy) Apaid is a factory owner born in the United States. His family fled Haiti under Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, who ruled from 1957 to 1971.

Favoring pressed pastel shirts and gold-rimmed glasses, Apaid looks like a Miami businessman but says he is totally Haitian at heart.

"I am just as much a part of this country as anyone," Apaid, in his early 50s, said recently. "That's why I am saying we must choose another path for the country."

But without a constitutional amendment, he will never become president because of his dual nationality.

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/03/01/Worldandnation/Key_figures_in_Haiti_ ...

The Washington-backed Democratic Convergence opposition front and the Haitian bourgeoisie’s “Group of 184” civil society front (G184), led by a U.S. citizen and sweatshop magnate André “Andy” Apaid, Jr. (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 21, No. 35, 11/12/03), have been quick to embrace, foment and urge on the student demonstrations.

So on Dec. 11, about 10,000 students, with the G184 and Democratic Convergence leaders in tow, marched through the streets of the capital. (Bourgeois radio stations inflated the demonstration up to 5 fold). On hand were Apaid, former Haitian Army colonel Himmler Rébu, Convergence leader Evans Paul, writer Gary Victor, the head of the Civil Society Initiative (ISC) Rosny Desroches, and dissident Lavalas senators Prince Sonson Pierre and Dany Toussaint. Later that day on Radio Kiskeya, Toussaint virtually called for a coup by saying that the “international community” was reluctant to remove Aristide from power only because they feared anarchy would result. But, he reassured them, he could “restore order within 48 hours” due to his connections in the police and former army.

http://www.haiti-progres.com/2003/sm031217/eng12-17.html


Propaganda is to a democracy what violence is to a dictatorship. (William Blum)


Evans Paul

The Kerry report claims Martinez is the bag man for Colombia’s cocaine cartels, and supervises bribes paid to the Haitian military. According to Miami attorney John Mattes, who is defending a Cuban-American drug trafficker cooperating with U.S. prosecutors, Martinez was paid $30,000 to bribe Haitian authorities into releasing two drug pilots jailed in Haiti after the engine in their plane conked out, forcing them to land in Port-au-Prince.

Martinez claims innocence from his lavish home in Petionville, an ornate suburb where Haiti’s ruling class live, overlooking the slums of the capital. He runs the casino at the plush El Rancho Hotel, that prior to the embargo realized nearly $50 million in business each week, a cash flow adequate to conceal a major money laundering operation.

But the most disturbing allegations have been of the role played by the CIA in keeping many of the coup leaders on the agency’s payroll, as part of an anti-drug intelligence unit set up by the U.S. in Haiti in 1986. Many of these same military men have had their U.S. assets frozen, and are prevented from entering this country because of their role in overthrowing Aristide, and subsequent human rights violations, including torture and murders of political opponents, raising the question—was the U.S. involved in a cocaine coup that overthrew Aristide?

Former Democratic party head and current secretary of commerce Ron Brown headed a law firm that represented the Duvalier family for decades. Part of that representation was a public relations campaign that stressed Duvalier’s opposition to communism in the cold war. United States support for Duvalier was worth more than $400 million in aid to the country, before the man who called himself Haiti’s President-for-Life was forced from the country.

Even Duvalier’s exit from Haiti, in February 1986, is shrouded in covert intrigue and remains an unexplored facet of the career of Lt. Col. Oliver North. Shortly after Duvalier’s ouster, North was quoted as saying he had brought an end to Haiti’s nightmare, a cryptic statement that was never publicly perused by the Iran-Contra hearings.

Francois and his men have a history of involvement in the torture of opponents and death-squad-style murders of Aristide supporters. In one recent incident, attaches mobbed Port-au-Prince City Hall to prevent the capital’s mayor, Evans Paul, an Aristide supporter, from entering his offices.

One person was killed and 11 wounded during the September 8th incident, when the mob opened fire on Aristide supporters. Witnesses say the attack began when attaches dragged two of Paul’s aides from a car, viciously beating an Aristide official. Francois is also considered responsible for the murder of Justice Minister Guy Malary.

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/415.html

Another top figure in the opposition coalition, Paul is a former mayor of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, who was in hiding from the brutal military regime during much of his term until U.S. troops arrived in 1994.

Paul, who is in his late 40s, was head of a center-left coalition that nominated Aristide for president in 1990. Paul managed Aristide's successful election campaign but broke ranks after Aristide left him out of his inner circle.

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/03/01/Worldandnation/Key_figures_in_Haiti_ ...

EVANS PAUL:

Another top figure in the opposition coalition, Paul is a former mayor of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, who was in hiding from the brutal military regime during much of his term until U.S. troops arrived in 1994.

Paul, who is in his late 40s, was head of a center-left coalition that nominated Aristide for president in 1990. Paul managed Aristide's successful election campaign but broke ranks after Aristide left him out of his inner circle.

A playwright and journalist when dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier ruled Haiti, Paul was jailed for opposing him.

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/0204/26haitiwho.html




Guy Philippe: Profile


In 2000, Haitian authorities said they had discovered Philippe was plotting a coup with a group of other police chiefs. Philippe fled to the Dominican Republic, the country that shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.

Haitian and U.S. authorities say that Philippe was involved in drug trafficking while he was police chief in Cap-Haitien, as well as during his exile in the Dominican Republic, although he has never been officially accused of any drug crimes.

The Haitian government has accused Philippe of organizing an attack on the police academy in Petionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, in July 2001, and another attack in December 2001 on the national palace. The Organization of American States investigated, but was unable to find out who was behind the attacks.

Philippe was thought to have been in exile, but in February 2004, he appeared at a news conference at the side of one of the leaders of the anti-Aristide rebels.

His rebel group, the National Front for the Liberation of Haiti, is largely made up of former soldiers who lost their jobs when the military was demobilized.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/haiti/philippe.html

Guy Philippe
Guy Philippe is a former member of the FAD’H (Haitian Army). During the 1991-94 military regime, he and a number of other officers received training from the US Special Forces in Equador, and when the FAD’H was dissolved by Aristide in early 1995, Philippe was incorporated into the new National Police Force.

He served as police chief in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Delmas and in the second city, Cap-Haitien, before he fled Haiti in October 2000 when Haitian authorities discovered him plotting what they described as a coup, together with a clique of other police chiefs. Since that time, the Haitian government has accused Philippe of master-minding deadly attacks on the Haitian Police Academy and the National Palace in July and December 2001, as well as hit-and-run raids against police stations on Haiti’s Central Plateau over last two years.

http://www.haiti-progres.com/eng02-25.html

The leader of the insurrectionary forces, Guy Philippe, age thirty-five, trained by the United States as an army officer in Ecuador. He was integrated into the new Haitian National Police in 1995 and his first command post was in Ouanaminthe, on the northern border with the Dominican Republic. Later, in about 1997 to 1999, he served as police chief for Delmas, a large urban district on the north side of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. During his tenure there, the UN/OAS International Civilian Mission learned that dozens of suspected gang members were summarily executed, mainly by police under the command of Inspector Berthony Bazile, Philippe’s deputy.

On October 18, 2000, Haiti’s prime minister announced that Philippe and other officers were plotting a coup d’etat. Before they were arrested, however, the men escaped over the border to the Dominican Republic.

http://www.flashpoints.net/Haiti_Rebel_Leaders.html

Ernst Ravix



According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights report on Haiti, dated 7 September 1988, FAD’H Captain Ernst Ravix, was the military commander of Saint Marc, and head of a paramilitary squad of “sub-proletariat youths” who called themselves the Sans Manman (Motherless Ones). In May 1988, the government of President Manigat tried to reduce contraband and corruption in the port city of Saint Marc, but Ravix, the local Army commander, responded by organising a demonstration against the President in which some three thousand residents marched, chanted, and burned barricades. Manigat removed Ravix from his post, but after Manigat’s ouster, he was reinstated by the military dictator, Lt. Gen. Namphy.

Ravix was not heard of again until December 2001 when former FAD’H sergeant, Pierre Richardson, the person captured following the 17 December attack on the National Palace, reportedly confessed that the attack was a coup attempt planned in the Dominican Republic by three former police chiefs- Guy Philippe, Jean-Jacques Nau and Gilbert Dragon - and that it was led by former Captain Ernst Ravix. According to Richardson, Ravix’s group withdrew from the National Palace and fled to the Dominican Republic when reinforcements failed to arrive.

http://www.haiti-progres.com/eng02-25.html


Jean-Pierre Baptiste - nom de guerre is Jean Tatoune


Among the rebel leaders was the notorious Jean-Pierre Baptiste, smiling and looking triumphant. It did not seem to matter that Mr. Baptiste, whose nom de guerre is Jean Tatoune, had been freed by rebels last year from a prison where he had been serving a life sentence for his participation in the killings of Aristide supporters in Gonaïves in 1994. Mr. Latortue hailed the rebels as "freedom fighters."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/29/international/americas/29HAIT.html

Haiti: Perpetrators of serious past abuses re-emerge

Haiti Support Group

The emergence of former paramilitary leaders convicted of past human rights violations as leaders of the armed opposition force is fuelling a conflict that has already taken too many lives, said Amnesty International as the crisis in Haiti continues to deepen.

"At the best of times, the spectre of past violations continues to haunt Haiti," Amnesty International said today. "At this crucial stage, when the rule of law is so fragile, the last thing that the country needs is for those who committed abuses in the past to take up leadership positions in the armed opposition."

On 14 February Louis Jodel Chamblain, a notorious former paramilitary leader, reportedly gave an interview to a Haitian radio station to say that he had joined the armed movement seeking to overthrow President Jean Bertrand Aristide. He was accompanied by a former police commissioner.

In September 1995 Chamblain was among seven senior military and paramilitary leaders convicted in absentiaand sentenced to forced labour for life for involvement in the September 1993 extrajudicial execution of Antoine Izméry, a well-known pro-democracy activist. Chamblain had gone into exile to avoid prosecution.

Chamblain has reportedly joined forces with the leaders of the armed opposition based in Gonaïves.

Another of the leaders, Jean Pierre Baptiste, alias "Jean Tatoune", is also a former paramilitary leader who was sentenced to forced labour for life for participation in the 1994 Raboteau massacre. He was among the prisoners who escaped from Gonaïves prison during the August 2002 jailbreak of Amiot 'Cubain' Métayer, deceased leader of the formerly pro-government group which violently took over control of Gonaïves on 5 February. Gang
members under Jean Tatoune's direction have been accused of numerous abuses against government officials and supporters, as well as other Gonaïves residents, over past months.

"The Haitian authorities must do everything in their power to arrest these individuals, who have both already been convicted of serious violations," Amnesty International said. "For their part, political opposition parties must condemn the emergence of these notorious figures at the head of the armed movement to oust Aristide, and must do everything in their power to demonstrate their own commitment to human rights and the rule of law."

Background Information

Louis Jodel Chamblain and Jean Tatoune both belonged to the paramilitary organisation FRAPH, formed by military authorities who were the de facto leaders of the country following the 1991 coup against then-President Jean Bertrand Aristide. FRAPH members were responsible for numerous human rights violations before the 1994 restoration of democratic governance.

The group was at first known as the Front révolutionnaire pourl'avancement et le progrès haïtiens, Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress. The acronym FRAPH phonetically resembles the French and Creole words for 'to beat' or 'to thrash.'

Antoine Izméry was gunned down in the Church of the Sacred Heart in Port-au-Prince on 11 September 1993, while attending mass. The mass was being held to commemorate the fifth anniversary of a massacre committed during an attack on Aristide, then a parish priest, on 11 September 1988 at the St. Jean Bosco Church in La Saline, a shanty town on the outskirts of the capital.

After the 5 February attack in Gonaïves, unrest spread to nearly a dozen towns in the center and north of Haiti. Concerns are increasing about the humanitarian situation in the towns under control of anti-government forces and other areas cut off by the conflict. The first demonstration of the political opposition since the violence began took place in Port-au-Prince on 15 February; demonstrators were confronted by rock-throwing government supporters, and police used tear gas and fired their guns into the air to disperse both groups.
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engAMR360062004?Open&of=eng-HTI


Public Document
http://www.oneworld.net/article/view/79531/1 /

Jean Pierre Baptiste ("Jean Tatoune") is another FRAPH member convicted in the Raboteau massacre trial and sentenced to forced labour for life.

Others convicted of or indicted for human rights abuses escaped from the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince on Sunday 29 February in the atmosphere of lawlessness that followed the departure of President Jean Bertrand Aristide. AI fears that they may join the rebel forces, thus gaining access to weapons and potentially to positions of influence.

Police and judicial officers, witnesses and human rights defenders involved in past prosecutions may be at risk of reprisal attacks from those they helped bring to justice.

http://web.amnesty.org/pages/hti-100304-action-eng

Even US officials acknowledge that the leaders of the Haitian coup d’etat are “death squad veterans and convicted murderers,” (NYT 2/28/04). Two of these are Louis-Jodel Chamblain and Jean-Pierre Baptiste, leaders of FRAPH (Haitian Front for Advancement and Progress), a murderous rightwing group that was funded by the US for many years and played a leading role in overthrowing Aristide in 1991. FRAPH’s name, according to the Times, is a play on the French “frapper” (“to hit”).

Both Chamblain and Baptiste have been convicted of political murders. Chamblain, a former Haitian Army officer, has been hiding in the neighboring Dominican Republic. Baptiste was serving a life sentence until he recently broke out of jail.

http://www.ucimc.org/feature/display/16099/index.php

Mr. Latortue has no democratic mandate. Haitians are bitterly split between Aristide supporters and opponents, and both sides are heavily armed. Clearly, he needs to reach out to those on both sides of this divide who want to move their country forward. But Mr. Latortue aided neither national reconciliation nor his own shaky legitimacy by the unseemly ceremony he took part in last Saturday.

Ferried by American military helicopters to the city of Gonaïves, where the anti-Aristide revolt began, he stood on a stage with killers like Jean-Pierre Baptiste. Mr. Baptiste, who escaped from prison in 2002, is a death squad leader convicted of participating in a 1994 massacre of Aristide supporters.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/24/opinion/24WED2.html?th

Jean Tatoune
Jean Pierre Baptiste, alias “Jean Tatoune”, first came to prominence as a leader of the anti-Duvalier mobilisations in his home town of Gonaives in 1985. For some years he was known and respected for his anti-Duvalierist activities but during the 1991-94 military regime he emerged as a local leader of FRAPH.

On 22 April 1994, he led a force of dozens of soldiers and FRAPH members in an attack on Raboteau, a desperately poor slum area in Gonaives and a stronghold of support for Aristide. Between 15 and 25 people were killed in what became known as the Raboteau massacre.

In 2000, Tatoune was put on trial and sentenced to forced labour for life for his participation in the Raboteau massacre. He was subsequently imprisoned in Gonaives, from where he escaped in August 2002, and took up arms again in his base in a poor area of the city. At various times he has spoken out against the government, and at other times in favour of it, but since September 2003 he has allied himself with the followers of murdered community leader, Amiot Metayer, and vowed to overthrow the government by force.
http://www.haiti-progres.com/eng02-25.html



Butteur Metayer


Butteur immediately assumed command of his brother's army, soon renamed the Artibonite Resistance Front. The situation in Gonaives rapidly disintegrated, and some said Butteur's tactics were just as cruel as paramilitary operations in previous years.

The Times of London reported that Butteur's army "left the rotting bodies of dead policemen to be eaten by wild pigs and have taken several other towns in the interior, where they murdered more policemen."

Butteur sometimes sported a Hyatt Orlando golf shirt and bands of bullets across his chest. He challenged Aristide openly during press conferences at the family home.

Aristide, said Butteur and the other rebels, had become corrupt, relying on armed gangs and siphoning money away from the poor, away from schools, giving it to his supporters.

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/03/04/Worldandnation/Haitian_rebel_is_one_ ...

Amiot Metayer's Sept. 22 assassination led to protest rallies in Gonaives that eventually boiled over into rebellion. He had been the leader of the Cannibal Army street gang, which Butteur Metayer says was armed by Aristide's Lavalas Party to terrorize the president's opponents in the city -- a charge Aristide denied.

Metayer was viewed by many people in Gonaives as a Robin Hood who lavished gifts on slum dwellers and his killing angered supporters.

After Butteur Metayer launched the rebellion, former soldiers of the disbanded Haitian army crossed the border from the Dominican Republic to join the uprising. It was the former troops who gave impetus to the push that put half of Haiti in rebel hands within two weeks.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,112992,00.html

Aristide finally had Metayer arrested last year after months of pressure from the OAS, which demanded he be tried for allegedly burning homes of opponents. Gang members rammed a tractor into the prison to free him in September, and Metayer's bullet-riddled and mutilated body was found days later.

"They took out his eyes. They took out his heart," Latortue said.

Metayer's brother, Butteur, assumed leadership of the gang; he claimed Aristide ordered his brother's killing to keep him from publicizing damaging information about him.

With his death prompting the uprising that brought about Aristide's downfall, Metayer has become a hero in the town. Many feared him. Others saw him as a Robin Hood who lavished gifts on slum-dwelling Aristide supporters.

Thousands of them have fled the city since the Feb. 5 gunbattle in which Metayer's men killed several police officers and torched government buildings.
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/03/20/haiti.leaders.ap /

The city of Gonaives, where the slaves finally overcame Napolean's forces and gained independence has been one of the most political cities in the country. In the 1980s, the city was again the center of independence when rebel forces defeated the brutal (U.S. supported) Duvalier dictatorship. The country has experienced 30 coups since gaining its independence. As of February 5, it seems the country is thrown into armed conflict again. Rebel forces began a violent effort to overthrow the Aristide government and take control of the capital. Over 40 people been killed and more than a dozen cities seized by the rebels. Gonaives is now in the hands of what the newly named "Artibonite Resistance Front" (formally known as the Cannibal Army). Led by two brothers, Amiot and Butteur Metayer, the Gonaives chapter of the resistance has received "reinforcements" from neighboring Dominican Republic. The men who have joined the resistance from abroad are largely former military leaders of Haiti, exiled or hiding from histories of torture and abuse. Butteur Metayer told the Associated Press that Louis-Jodel Chamblain, former soldier from Haiti responsible for death squads in the 1980s and atrocities following the 1991 military coup is gathering forces for the resistance as well.

Back in Orlando, Metayer and his sister also have gratitude for another person: President Bush.

"I don't know how to thank him" for encouraging Aristide to get out, said Gertrude Metayer.

http://www.thesnapper.com/news/2004/02/19/NationWorldIssues/Haiti.A.Ne ...



The new Prime Minister of Haiti, Gerard Latortue, waves duirng a visit to his hometown, Gonaives, Haiti on Saturday, March 20, 2004.(AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

[Matilda]

11. None of them look like someone you'd want to meet in an alley at night.

Such a shame that there hasn't been more of an outcry from other
Latin American countries. I know the pressures that can be brought
to bear on them, but it could happen to any of them.

Aristide might not have been perfect, but he was the best hope that
Haiti had in my memory.

[nodehopper]

3. very powerful, thank you. who is the photographer?

[seemslikeadream]

7. I appreciate you're taking the time - WATCH THIS VIDEO

EVERY DEATH CREATES NEW ENEMIES
MORE TERRORISTS
MORE DANGER
MORE DEATH
AND REMEMBER...
HE IS JUST GETTING STARTED...
BUSH'S PLAN FOR PEACE
IS THE PEACE OF THE COMMON GRAVE

LET AMERICA BE AMERICA AGAIN

http://www.bushflash.com/pax.html


Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!


Langston Hughes

[burrowowl]

4. Damn U$ Imperialism!

And Congress doesn't give a shit.
Who is the world's biggest terrorist? 3 guesses and the first 2 don't count.

[seemslikeadream]

9. Conclusive Evidence of U.S. Role in Kidnapping and Coup

PRESS ADVISORY
Monday, April 4, 2004
Media Contact: Dustin Langley 212-633-6646

As Bush Administration Scrambles to Shore Up Appointed Haitian Regime Commission to Present Conclusive Evidence of U.S. Role in Kidnapping and Coup

Date: Wednesday, April 7
Time: 6:30- 9:30 pm
Location: The Whitman Theatre at Brooklyn College

Panel to include: Rep. Maxine Waters, Rep. Major Owens, Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Ossie Davis, Gil Noble, Amy Goodman, Ron Daniels, and other prominent activists and journalists

The Bush Administration is facing a growing crisis over its role in the coup in Haiti and the kidnapping of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who continues to speak out about his abduction by the U.S. The 15-member organization of Caribbean nations, CARICOM, has refused to recognize the U.S.-installed regime and has called for an investigation, despite intense pressure and threats from the U.S. The 53-member African Union has raised the same demand.

On Wednesday, April 7, the Haiti Commission of Inquiry will initiate a public inquiry of the role of the Bush Administration in the crisis in Haiti. Delegations that visited both the Central African Republic and the Dominican Republic will present conclusive evidence that U.S. Special Forces armed, trained, and directed the "rebels" and engineered the abduction of President Aristide.

The preliminary report from the Commission states, "two hundred U.S. Special Forces soldiers came to the Dominican Republic as part of 'Operation Jaded Task,' with special authorization from President Hipólito Mejia. We have received many reports that this operation was used to train Haitian rebels. We have received many consistent reports of Haitian rebel training centers at or near Dominican military facilities. We have received many consistent reports of guns transported from the Dominican Republic to Haiti, some across the land border, and others shipped by sea."

Johnnie Stevens of the International Action Center, a member of the delegation to the Central African Republic, said, "The U.S.-installed Prime Minister, Gerard Latortue, has hailed the paid mercenaries as freedom fighters, and had thus discredited himself among the Caribbean nations."

Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a desperate bid to lend some credibility to the Latortue government, is now visiting Haiti for the first time. This attempt to put U. S. weight behind the isolated colonial-style regime is a response to its growing isolation. Sara Flounders, of the International Action Center, said, "This visit by Powell is a sign of the Bush Administration’s growing isolation and disarray. The U.S. is desperately trying to shore up a discredited regime in the face of international opposition to the appointed government of Haiti after the stinging rebuke directed at the U.S. by the recent CARICOM meeting." Flounders is a member of the Haiti Commission of Inquiry and was part of the delegation to the Central African Republic, where she visited with President Aristide shortly after his kidnapping.

Kim Ives from Haiti Progres, who was part of the delegation to the Dominican Republic, told the media, "In the course of our investigation here, we met with many Haitians who were forced to flee Haiti following the coup d'etat of Feb. 29. Their testimony gave very concrete names and faces to the stories of violence which we have heard that the so-called rebels, trained and assembled in the Dominican Republic, have carried out in Haiti over the past month. We were also touched by the tears of refugees who told us of how they are apprehensive over the fate of their loved ones left behind in Haiti."

For more information, or to schedule an interview with a member of the Commission, call Dustin Langley at 212-633-6646.

International Action Center
39 West 14th Street, Room 206
New York, NY 10011
email: [email protected]
En Espanol: [email protected]
web: http://www.iacenter.org
CHECK OUT SITE http://www.mumia2000.org
phone: [phone]
fax: [phone]
To make a tax-deductible donation,
go to http://www.peoplesrightsfund.org

http://www.iacenter.org/haiti_0407press.htm


Operation Jaded Task

From 2/23/2003:

US Troopers Secretly Land in Dominican Republic
http://english.pravda.ru/world/2003/02/20/43514.html
The military training operation nicknamed Jaded Task took by surprise Dominican Foreign Ministry.

The US Army started today a training operation in the Caribbean country as part of routine maneuvers of the Southern Command. The landing had been kept so secretly that Dominican Foreign Ministry Hugo Tolentino was reported... by the TV.

As per the first reports, the US troops are training Dominican soldiers on anti-terrorism operations in the north of the island. When the national media started announcing the landing, country's Foreign Minister was having a lunch. Tolentino said that, as chief of the Dominican diplomacy, he should have been formally advised, as personally requested to the Dominican Army and the US Embassy to Santo Domingo.

(snip)

However, the most interesting thing, here, is that the Communist Party of the Dominican Republic did know about the operations. This correspondent had access to two formal communications issued by the US Embassy including details of these activities, during the Communist summit held in Buenos Aires in January. There, the US ambassador to Santo Domingo reported about 10.000 soldiers coming to the Dominican Republic to take part of the training.

Moreover, the communists and other leftist forces in the country made know such documents to the local media in November. According to the denounce, US soldiers can freely enter and leave the country without any kind of permission. Also, they can do it through owned means of conveyance.

(more at link)



Leon still waiting for response on Haiti arms

March 24 2004 at 02:09PM

Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Wednesday that he had written another letter to President Thabo Mbeki regarding a consignment of arms sent to Haiti in the dying hours of president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's regime.

Leon said he had to date received no answer to his previous query regarding the dispatch in February of a South African Air Force Boeing 707 to the Caribbean island state loaded with 150 R1-assault rifles, ammunition and assorted equipment.

"This is the most extraordinary thing in a constitutional democracy. If it wasn't for a journalist and a newspaper in Jamaica, we would never have known about this deployment," Leon told a press conference in Johannesburg.

The DA leader said he had taken legal advice on the matter from an advocate in Cape Town who advised him that the flight to Haiti amounted to the employment of the Defence Force as contemplated in the constitution as well as in the new Defence Act, and that government, by not reporting this deployment to parliament within the stipulated 14 days, was in breach of the law.
(snip/...)
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=6&art_id=qw1080130142942B265&s...

[Minstrel Boy]

5. thank you very much

May we not forget Haiti, nor Aristide.

[seemslikeadream]

8. The Fire This Time in Haiti was US-Fueled - Minstrel Boy

The Fire This Time in Haiti was US-Fueled

The Bush Administration Appears to have Succeeded in its Long-Time Goal of Toppling Aristide Through Years of Blocking International Aid to his Impoverished Nation

by Jeffrey Sachs

Haiti, once again, is ablaze. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is widely blamed, and he may be toppled soon. Almost nobody, however, understands that today's chaos was made in Washington -- deliberately, cynically and steadfastly. History will bear this out. In the meantime, political, social, and economic chaos will deepen, and Haiti's impoverished people will suffer

The Bush administration has been pursuing policies likely to topple Aristide since 2001. The hatred began when Aristide, then a parish priest and democracy campaigner against Haiti's ruthless Duvalier dictatorship, preached liberation theology in the 1980s. Aristide's attacks led US conservatives to brand him as the next Fidel Castro.?

They floated stories that Aristide was mentally deranged. Conservative disdain multiplied several-fold when then-president Bill Clinton took up Aristide's cause after he was blocked from electoral victory in 1991 by a military coup. Clinton put Aristide into power in 1994, and conservatives mocked Clinton for wasting America's efforts on "nation building" in Haiti. This is the same right wing that has squandered US$160 billion on a far more violent and dubious effort at "nation building" in Iraq.?http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0301-10.htm

[seemslikeadream]

10. Laurelton protestors urge arrest of ex-Haitian leader

04/01/2004

Brooklyn Councilman Charles Barron (far r.) joins protesters marching toward the reputed Laurelton home of Emmanuel "Toto" Constant.

Brooklyn Councilman Charles Barron (far r.) joins protesters marching toward the reputed Laurelton home of Emmanuel "Toto" Constant.
Several dozen protesters attended a march in Laurelton Saturday to demand the arrest of a former Haitian paramilitary leader said to be living in the neighborhood and wanted in his country.

"Toto must go! Toto must go!" they shouted as they walked up 225th Street to the man's reputed residence near 137th Avenue. The protesters carried wanted posters of the man with charges of "murder" and a "rape."


Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, co-founder of the Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress, or FRAPH, is accused of human rights abuses during the early 1990s in Haiti, where he was convicted in absentia in 1994 for a massacre that year.

"Why is it that in the middle of the war on terror we have a known terrorist living in New York?" asked Ron Daniels, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a Manhattan-based group that helped organize the protest.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11223384&BRD=1079&PAG=461&de...

Constant tied to voodoo


BY RON HOWELL
STAFF WRITER

March 31, 2004


Emmanuel Constant, wanted in connection with a massacre in Haiti, apparently has been seeking inner peace in the practice of voodoo, say local Haitians who have seen him at ceremonies.

Several practitioners said Constant was initiated into the voodoo belief system - which combines elements of Catholicism with African-based traditions - about a year ago

But a decade ago, when Constant led an alleged right-wing terror group in Haiti, he had invoked what he referred to as the power of voodoo for political purposes. He threatened to use a magical powder against U.S. soldiers attempting to restore then-exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. The U.S. soldiers eventually came with Aristide and Constant fled to New York.


The United States permits Constant to stay even though he was convicted in Haiti for a 1994 massacre of two dozen Haitians.

Critics say Constant is being allowed to remain because he was once a CIA informant, a relationship Constant has acknowledged.

more

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/newyork/nyc-nytoto313730688mar31,0 ...

Campaign to Deport Constant - Who is Toto Constant?

Edited on Wed Mar-31-04 10:34 AM by seemslikeadream
Emmanuel "Toto" Constant was the founder and head of FRAPH, first the "Revolutionary Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti," later "Armed Revolutionary Front of the Haitian People." FRAPH was Haiti's most prominent paramilitary organization during the de facto regime. Constant was also a close advisor to the dictatorship, and maintained an office in the military headquarters. U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher called FRAPH "a paramilitary organization whose members were responsible for numerous human rights violations in Haiti in 1993 and 1994." A less restrained U.S. Embassy cable called FRAPH a group of "gun carrying crazies", eager to "use violence against all who oppose it." Numerous monitors, including the United Nations, the Organization of American States, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch documented the multitude of atrocities committed by FRAPH.

FRAPH did not target only Haitians. In October, 1993, when the U.S.S. Harlan County arrived in Port-au-Prince with troops ready to implement a U.S.-brokered peace accord, Constant organized a violent FRAPH demonstration. Demonstrators carried guns, sticks and machetes, and some shouted, in English, "Kill whites! Kill whites!" A year later, when U.S. troops returned to finally oust the dictatorship, Constant ordered that "ach FRAPH man must put down one American soldier." When U.S. troops stormed the FRAPH headquarters, Constant threatened journalists with: "Everybody who is reporting the situation bad... by the grace of God, they will end up in the ground."

Despite these atrocities, Mr. Constant has received the continued support and protection of the U.S. Government. Government sources have confirmed Constant's claim that the CIA encouraged him to form FRAPH, and provided him with financial and strategic assistance. U.S. soldiers arriving in Haiti to oust the de facto dictatorship were told that FRAPH was a legitimate political party that needed to be respected and protected. In the intervention's first days the U.S. Embassy arranged a press conference outside the Presidential Palace for Constant to announce his transition to politics. The conference was cut short, because even a cordon of U.S. soldiers could not protect Constant from the enraged crowd (for more information on this and other aspects of the Constant/U.S. relationship, see David Grann "Giving The Devil His Due" included in this packet).

Constant fled to the U.S. in late 1994, when a Haitian judge called him in for questioning. After a public outcry, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service initiated deportation proceedings. A judge ordered Constant deported to Haiti in September, 1995, because "his continued presence in the United States sends the message that the United States actively endorses his position and undermines the United States' mission in Haiti." That order has never been executed. Shortly after it was issued, Constant discussed his relationship with the CIA on CBS' Sixty Minutes, which led to a secret agreement exchanging Constant's continued presence in the U.S. for his silence.

http://haitireborn.org/campaigns/toto-constant /

Feb. 14, 2004. 07:43 PM


Haitian rebels take two towns

GONAIVES, Haiti (AP) — Haitian rebels brought in reinforcements from the neighbouring Dominican Republic, including a former soldier who led death squads in the 1980s and a police chief accused of fomenting a coup, witnesses said Saturday, as police fled two more northern towns.

A 20-man commando arrived from the Dominican Republic, led by Louis Jodel Chamblain, a soldier who headed army death squads in 1987, and Emmanuel Constant, co-leader of a militia known as the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH, which killed and maimed dozens between 1992 and 1994, witnesses in Gonaives said. Chamblain fled to the Dominican Republic after 1994, while Constant went to New York City.

Guy Philippe, a former police chief who fled to the Dominican Republic after being accused by the Haitian government of fomenting a coup in 2002, also arrived in Gonaives to help the rebels prepare for an expected government showdown. It was unclear when the commando arrived.

The rebels launched a bloody uprising nine days ago from Gonaives, 100 kilometres northwest of the capital Port-au-Prince, and Haiti's fourth-largest city. Some 50 people have been killed.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout ...


AI REPORT 1997: HAITI

In September, police reportedly found an arms cache and evidence of plans to assassinate government officials at the home of Emmanuel Constant, former leader of the paramilitary organization Front pour l'avancement et le progrès d'Haïti (fraph), Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, who had fled to the usa in Decem-ber 1994. Two men were arrested at the scene, including a former army sergeant. By December, some 34 people report-edly remained in detention on suspicion of plotting against the authorities and engaging in other related activities, but had not been brought to trial.


http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aireport/ar97/AMR36.htm

Letter to Attorney General Janet Reno and Secretary Madeleine Albright
Re: Emmanuel "Toto" Constant
New York, December 11, 2000
Dear Attorney General Reno and Secretary Albright:

Our organizations are writing to request that the United States government execute the outstanding final deportation order obtained by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) against Emmanuel "Toto" Constant in December 1995. Constant is wanted by Haitian prosecutors for serious human rights crimes in Haiti.

The Center for Constitutional Rights made this request to Attorney General Reno on August 4 and September 25, 2000, but has yet to receive a reply. Human Rights Watch has similarly written on several occasions to Secretary Albright without response

As you know, Constant was a founder and secretary general of the paramilitary Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH). FRAPH members were responsible for human rights atrocities under the military government that ruled Haiti from 1991 to 1994, including extrajudicial executions, torture, and rape.

In February 1995 Constant's presence in the United States had become public and U.S. officials were pressured to arrest him. On March 29, 1995 Secretary of State Warren Christopher wrote Attorney General Reno an extraordinary letter requesting Constant's "expeditious deportation from the United States." Citing the Immigration and Nationality Act, Secretary Christopher "concluded that the continued presence and activities of Emmanuel Mario Constant ... in the United States ... would . . . cast doubt upon the seriousness of our resolve to combat human rights violations . . . I also request that you take all steps possible to effect his deportation to Haiti." Secretary Christopher understood Constant's role in Haiti's terror:

is officially regarded by the Department of State as an illegitimate paramilitary organization whose members were responsible for numerous human rights violations in Haiti in 1993 and 1994 . . . Mr Constant is one of the co-founders and current President of FRAPH. He was instrumental in sustaining the repression that prevailed in Haiti under the illegal military led regime ...

http://www.hrw.org/press/2000/12/constant1211.htm


How America Determines Friends and Foes

Noam Chomsky
The Toronto Star, March 14, 2004

The arrests were followed by what amounted to a show trial in Miami. The Five were sentenced, three to life sentences (for espionage; and the leader, Gerardo Hernandez, also for conspiracy to murder), after convictions that are now being appealed.

Meanwhile, people regarded by the FBI and Justice Department as dangerous terrorists live happily in the United States and continue to plot and implement crimes.

The list of terrorists-in-residence in the United States also includes Emmanuel Constant from Haiti, known as Toto, a former paramilitary leader from the Duvalier era. Constant is the founder of the FRAPH (Front for Advancement of Progress in Haiti), the paramilitary group that carried out most of the state terror in the early 1990s under the military junta that overthrew president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

At last report, Constant was living in Queens, N.Y.

The United States has refused Haiti's request for extradition. The reason, it is generally assumed, is that Constant might reveal ties between Washington and the military junta that killed 4,000 to 5,000 Haitians, with Constant's paramilitary forces playing the leading role.

The gangsters leading the current coup in Haiti include FRAPH leaders.

http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20040314.htm

U.S. Policy in Haiti


In August 1994 the Clinton administration sent 15,000troops and a high-level negotiating team (Jimmy Carter,Sam Nunn, and Colin Powell) to force the military tostep down. Covert assistance to antidemocratic forcesand U.S. insistence on harsh economic conditionalitymade it clear that the U.S. was out to return a tamedAristide to office. Ultimately, this effort to control thevery essence of Haiti’s burgeoning democracy hasundermined U.S. effectiveness. It has also weakened


Haitian efforts to alleviate poverty and to install a sys-tem of justice that defends the rights of the poor major-ity as well as the wealthy few. Although the presence of U.S. and UN peacekeepershelped restore calm and security, this success was under-mined by their refusal to disarm the disbanded Haitianmilitary and paramilitaries. These forces now lie in wait,threatening the still-fledgling democracy.AID is providing funding and technical assistance tostrengthen Haiti’s judicial system, yet the U.S. hasrefused Haitian government requests to deport FRAPHleader Constant, who was imprisoned in the U.S. andwanted in Haiti on murder charges. Instead, the U.S.Justice Department released him from prison.Furthermore, the Clinton administration refuses to givethe Haitian government uncensored copies of the doc-uments seized from FRAPH headquarters, raising sus-picions that the documents contain incriminatinginformation about CIA and other U.S. collaborationwith Haitian paramilitaries. Documents that wereobtained revealed, for example, that the CIA knew thatConstant was directly implicated in the 1993 murder ofJustice Minister Guy Malory, yet kept him on their pay-roll until the return of Aristide in 1994.The Clinton administration hascontinued to use developmentassistance funds to further open theHaitian economy to foreigninvestors. In late 1995 the newHaitian Parliament, responding tothe vehement popular oppositionto privatization, refused to autho-rize the privatization of state-owned industries as mandated bydonors. This conflict led to the fallof Prime Minister Smarck Micheland the ministers of the parliamen-tary government, which hadnegotiated and supported thedonors’ plan. AID held back dis-bursement of $4.5 million in bal-ance-of-payments support to force movement on priva-tization. This prompted an immediate 20% devaluationin the gourd, throwing the Haitian poor further intocrisis as food and fuel prices shot up over night.In October 1996 President Preval signed structuraladjustment agreements with the IFIs that outlined hisgovernment’s commitment to cut government workers,increase taxes on the poor, provide subsidies to assemblyindustries and export agriculture, decrease tariffs to nearzero (including those which provide some protection todomestic food production), and partially privatize ninestate enterprises. Despite two years of promises andrhetoric about the importance of dialogue and partici-pation with all sectors of civil society, and despite thefact that the SAP will shape the future of Haiti for yearsto come, citizens were never consulted in its formula-

http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:RKmZYH6Q_MYJ:www.fpif.org/pdf/vol ...






If I gave you everything that I owned and asked for nothing in return
Would you do the same for me as I would for you?
Or take me for a ride, and strip me of everything including my pride
But spirit is something that no one destroys
And the sound that I'm hearing is only the sound
The low spark of high-heeled boys

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