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Lawsuits
Filed against U.S.-backed terrorists in Haiti by victims of both Bush
(father and son)-orchestrated Coup D'etats in Haiti
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The lawyer for
the family of three young victims of summary execution files a complaint
against senior interim authorities in Haiti - AHP
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Port-au-Prince, January 25, 2005 (AHP)- Mario Joseph, the lawyer representing
the families of Lavalas activist Jimmy
Charles, the student Ederson
Joseph and the journalist Abdias
Jean, filed a complaint this Tuesday before the Court
of First Instance of Port-au-Prince against the authors of the killings
of the three young people on January 13.
According to Mario Joseph, this complaint concerns the President of
the Superior Council of the National Police, Gérard
Latortue, along with the Minister of Justice, Bernard
Gousse and MINUSTAH,
as the entity that took Jimmy Charles into custody and subsequently
turned him over to the Haitian police.
The lawyer for the victims denounced the actions taken by the interim
authorities, he said, to prevent autopsies from being performed
due to the involvement by the police in the killing of the three youths.
The defeat of justice is only temporary, declared Mario Joseph, affirming
that it will triumph even if the complaint concerns high-level authorities.
On Monday, Mr. Joseph condemned what he called the
great conspiracy of silence designed to obscure the summary executions
and other abuses committed in recent weeks in the populist
districts.
AHP January 25, 2005 12:30 PM
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Haitian death squad leader Toto Constant to be brought to justice for
his campaign of rape
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Courageous women bring civil suit for
abuses by FRAPH
(http://www.sfbayview.com/011905/totoconstant011905.shtml
)
New York - Emmanuel “Toto” Constant was served with a lawsuit
Friday that accuses him of responsibility for torture, crimes against
humanity and the systematic use of violence against women, including
rape, for the purpose of terrorizing the Haitian population during that
country’s brutal military regime in the early 1990s.
Despite being the outspoken
leader of the paramilitary death squad known as FRAPH (Revolutionary
Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti), Toto Constant has
lived and worked openly in Queens, New York, for the last 10 years.
The U.S. government tried to deport Constant in 1995, but suspended
its efforts and released him from detention after he threatened on the
60 Minutes news program to expose information
about the CIA’s role in the formation of FRAPH.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in the Southern District of New
York by the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), based in San
Francisco, on behalf of several women who survived savage gang rapes
and other forms of extreme violence, including attempted murder. The
Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), based in New York, is serving
as local counsel.
Following a violent military coup against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
in 1991, the Haitian Armed Forces trained and armed members of FRAPH
to maintain control over Haiti’s poor masses. After democracy
was returned to Haiti in October 1994, the government of President Aristide
issued a warrant for Constant’s arrest. He fled and came to the
United States.
All three plaintiffs in this case are women who were targeted by Constant
and FRAPH as part of a systematic campaign of violence against women.
Two of the women were gang raped repeatedly by FRAPH members in front
of their families. One of the plaintiffs became pregnant and bore a
child as a result of the rape she suffered. FRAPH operatives attacked
the third plaintiff, leaving her for dead. Due to the fear of reprisals,
the plaintiffs in this case have filed their claims anonymously.
The lawsuit is especially timely because Haiti is again suffering from
the massive, systematic human rights violations committed during the
1991-94 military dictatorship. Many of Constant’s former subordinates
in FRAPH are again wielding considerable power. They have embarked on
a campaign of abuses, including widespread rape, since President Aristide
was forced from office in February 2004.
Among the leaders of this renewed violence are FRAPH’s former
second-in-command, Jodel Chamblain, and local chief Jean Pierre (alias
Jean Tatoune), both convicted murderers. In addition, three members
of the military government’s High Command who were deported from
the U.S. for their involvement in human rights violations – Gen.
Jean-Claude Duperval, Lt. Col. Hébert Valmond and Col. Carl Dorelien
– were freed from prison and have not been re-arrested. CJA brought
a case against Dorelien before he was deported and obtained a court
order preventing him from receiving nearly $1 million he won from the
Florida State Lottery.
The types of attacks suffered by the plaintiffs in this case –
the gang rape of women by paramilitaries as a form of punishment for
the women’s political beliefs – have been occurring in alarming
numbers in recent months. One of the plaintiffs in the suit against
Constant, speaking on behalf of all of the plaintiffs, said: “We
hope that the suit will deter at least some of the violence, by sending
a message that anyone who commits atrocities will no longer be able
to visit or live in the U.S. with impunity.”
CJA Executive Director Sandra Coliver stated: “Toto Constant’s
comfortable lifestyle in Queens has enraged and offended the Haitian
community in this country as well as human rights activists around the
globe. We are honored to represent these courageous women who are taking
great risks by coming forward. They brought this lawsuit in the name
of the hundreds of women who cannot speak out because of the violence
that reigns today in Haiti.”
Commonly referred to as “The Devil,” Toto Constant has been
the target of several community protests in Queens. In November 2000,
he was convicted in absentia in Haiti for his role in the notorious
“Raboteau Massacre” of April 1994.
Until now, no court in the U.S. or Haiti has forced him to face trial
in person for the human rights abuses he committed against the people
of Haiti. No one from the ranks of FRAPH or the Haitian Armed Forces
has been held accountable for the hundreds of politically motivated
rapes that were committed and continue to be committed against the women
of Haiti.
CJA, based in San Francisco,
has obtained favorable verdicts in similar cases involving human rights
abusers from Bosnia, El Salvador and Chile who had come to live in the
U.S. The Center for Constitutional Rights has brought human rights cases
against individuals and corporations responsible for human rights violations
since 1980, when CCR filed the groundbreaking case which allowed those
who have suffered human rights abuses to bring their claims in U.S.
courts.
Jennie Green, CCR senior
attorney, commented: “The U.S. government claims to be fighting
a war on terrorism, all the while allowing a man who terrorized people
in Haiti to prosper in our midst. Documents released by the U.S. government
show FRAPH’s role in human rights violations. Constant as its
leader must be held accountable.”
For additional information about the case, see CJA’s website,
www.cja.org/.
For more information
on the current human rights situation in Haiti, contact the Institute
for Justice and Democracy in Haiti at info@ijdh.org or visit www.ijdh.org/.
To get involved in the movement to return justice and democracy to Haiti,
visit www.haitiaction.net.
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Men Anpil Chaj Pa Lou!!!
- is Kreyol for "Many hands make light a heavy load."
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Here is what you can do to help us help
the people of Haiti:
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HLLN - Action Requested from
Haiti solidarity groups and
Haitian activists for justice and democracy:
Subscribe to and circulate the
Ezili Danto mailings and posts
to your mailing lists and e-mail contacts. Subscribe or
unsubscribe by writing to: Erzilidanto@aol.com
Adopt and circulate the
Haiti
Resolution (updated below) from the Haitian Lawyers
Leadership Network
Circulate the human
rights reports, especially the latest Miami Law Center report
Do Press Work: Join our letter writing campaigns to help free the political
prisoners in Haiti, to stop the persecution of Haiti's most popular
political party and democratic movement and to restore Constitutional
rule. Write a letter, call the media, fax, - See our Press
Work page for sample letters and for contact information.
Volunteer to help us maintain
our Contact Information Sheet by sending us updated or new phone numbers
and addresses to put on our Contact
Information Sheet pages
Virtual interns and volunteers
are also needed to help us translate selected materials into French,
Kreyol, or Spanish to reach a wider audience. Volunteers with some research
and computer skills are likewise needed to help us update our "List
of Victims" and "Personal Testimonies"
pages under Campaign One.
(We have the information, what we don't
have we know where to extrapolate them, but need help to put it together
and in the format on our website page.)
More Network volunteer
also needed to concentrate as primary coordinators/contributors to one
of our seven
campaigns
One internet savvy volunteer needed who is interested in logging and
archiving, for our new Ezili Danto blog, (not yet unveiled) the regular
Erzilidanto posts we send out so that those who only want to see these
at their leisure, or, who cannot receive daily
mailings, will have
alternative access to these materials and posts, in an archived format.
Donate or volunteer to
help with fundraising by using our logo and HLLN materials to sponsor
a "To Tell The Truth About Haiti Forum and Teach-In." Proceeds
from such teach ins or donations will go to continue the work of the
HLLN, such as, our partnership
with AUMOHD, young human rights lawyers in Haiti who are defending the
defenseless poor whose only crime is that they voted for Lavalas, supported
Constitutional rule or are resisting a return of the bloody U.S.-trained
Haitian army and US-sponsored dictatorship. For information on AUMOHD,
go to: http://www.april6vt.org/
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The Haiti Resolution:
1. Support the return of constitutional rule to Haiti by restoring all
elected officials of all parties to their offices throughout the country
until the end of their mandates and another election is held, as mandated
by Haiti's Constitution;
2. Condemn the killings, illegal imprisonment and confiscation of the
property of supporters of Haiti's constitutional government and insist
that Haiti's illegitimate "interim government" immediately
cease its own persecution and put a stop to persecution by the thugs
and murderers from sectors in their police force,
from the paramilitaries, gangs and former soldiers;
3. Insist on the immediate release of all political prisoners in Haitian
jails, including Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, other constitutional government
officials and folksinger-activist Sò Ann;
4. Insist on the disarmament of the thugs, death squad leaders and convicted
human rights violators and their prosecution for all crimes committed
during the attack on Haiti's elected government and help rebuild Haiti's
police force, ensuring that it excludes anyone who helped to overthrow
the democratically elected
government or who participated in other human rights violations;
5. Stop the indefinite detention and automatic repatriation of Haitian
refugees and immediately grant Temporary Protected Status to all Haitian
refugees presently in the United States until democracy is restored
to Haiti; and
6. Support the calls by the OAS, CARICOM and the African Union for an
investigation into the circumstances of President Aristide's removal.
Support the enactment of Congresswoman Barbara Lee's T.R.U.T.H Act (HR
3919) which calls for a U.S. Congressional investigation of the forcible
removal of the democratically elected President and government of Haiti.
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