a1672: Magazine: Torturer in Orlando (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

MIAMI HERALD

Posted on Mon, Apr. 15, 2002

Magazine: Torturer in Orlando
Herald Staff

Maj. Gen. Jean-Claude Duperval, a Haitian military officer linked to human
rights violations in Haiti, is living in Orlando and has been working for
Walt Disney World, according to Newsweek magazine.

Duperval is the latest accused torturer found to be living in the United
States.

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in 2000 began detaining and
deporting foreign nationals accused of torturing political foes.

Newsweek, in its latest edition, says it tracked Duperval to his home in
Orlando.

Duperval, according to the magazine, has been connected to the April 22,
1994, massacre in the Haitian beachfront slum of Raboteau where soldiers and
paramilitary thugs targeted anti-military dissidents. Many died in the
action, according to investigators who have researched the event.

Duperval, 55, dropped out of sight after the fall of the Raoul Cedras
military regime in September 1994, but entered the United States on a visa
at some point, according to Newsweek.

In December 1997, a Haitian magistrate issued arrest warrants for Duperval,
Cedras and eight other military officers on charges of murder, attempted
murder, torture and other crimes stemming from the Raboteau massacre.

Contacted by phone at his one-story house in Orlando Thursday, Duperval
confirmed he was the major general who served under Cedras, Newsweek says.

''I want to keep my privacy and don't want to give any declaration,'' he
told the magazine. ``All this is past for me. I have a daughter to educate
and am no longer in public life.''

The father of five also declined to provide details regarding his job at
Walt Disney World.

Disney spokesman Bill Warren told Newsweek in one conversation that Duperval
was an hourly employee of the company. Later, Warren added that Duperval was
hired in 1997 and that as of Friday, he was no longer an employee. Warren
said the company had not been aware of Duperval's past.

Patricia Mancha, an INS spokeswoman in Miami, said Duperval applied for an
immigration benefit under provisions of the Haitian Refugee Immigration
Fairness Act.

INS opposed the application, but Duperval received the benefit and INS has
appealed that decision, she added.

Duperval has apparently applied for political asylum, Newsweek said.

Another former Haitian military officer linked to the Raboteau incident --
Carl Dorelien -- has been in INS detention since June 2001 and is awaiting
deportation.

Richard Krieger, a retired State Department official and former Nazi hunter
who lives in Boynton Beach, said he provided Duperval's address and
telephone number to INS.

INS has detained about 30 foreign torture suspects including Cuban American
Eriberto Mederos who is awaiting trial in Miami on charges of illegally
obtaining U.S. citizenship.

INS says he lied in his citizenship application about allegedly torturing
political prisoners with electroshock treatment at the Havana Psychiatric
Hospital between 1968 and 1978.



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