14621: Hermantin: Miami-Herald-Former officers are sent back to Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Miami-Herald

Posted on Tue, Jan. 28, 2003

Former officers are sent back to Haiti
They face prison for role in killings
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@herald.com

In two nightmarish days in April 1994, Haitian soldiers and paramilitary
allies rampaged through a poor seaside neighborhood that was a stronghold of
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the democratically elected president overthrown in a
1991 military coup.

When it ended, at least 26 unarmed civilians had been killed, men, women and
children shot or beaten to death. Their bodies were buried in shallow graves
turned over by pigs and dogs.

Carl Dorelien and Herbert Valmond, two Haitian military officers accused of
orchestrating the massacre, fled to the United States after Aristide was
restored to power. Valmond settled in Tampa and Dorelien in Port St. Lucie,
where he won $3.2 million in the Florida Lottery .

On Monday, justice finally caught up with them.

The two men, who were convicted in Haiti in absentia for their roles in the
mass killings, were sent home aboard a U.S government aircraft to begin
serving their punishment for the killings that convulsed Raboteau almost 10
years ago.

Dorelien, a former colonel who was part of the group that ousted Aristide,
and Valmond, a former lieutenant colonel, are the highest ranking military
officers to be kicked out of the United States because of alleged human
rights violations since the U.S. government began targeting suspected
violators three years ago.

''The United States is not safe haven,'' said James Goldman, assistant
director of investigations for the Miami district office of the Immigration
and Naturalization Service.

``You cannot commit crimes and atrocities against humankind somewhere in the
world and then live happily ever after in the United States.''

At least 45 foreign government officials and military officers from several
countries have been arrested by immigration agents, most in Florida, since
the so-called ''persecutor'' program was launched in early 2000.

About 25 of these suspects have been deported to their homelands, said
Goldman, who oversees the program in Florida.

Immigration agents escorted the hand-cuffed Dorelien, 53, and Valmond, 52,
aboard the aircraft that left Opa-locka Airport at 1:30 p.m. and landed 90
minutes later in Port-au-Prince.

There, the two men, who had both been in INS custody, were turned over to
Haitian authorities, Goldman said.

Attorneys for Dorelien and Valmond could not be reached for comment
yesterday. But both men have said they played no role in the Raboteau
massacre, which led the Clinton administration to pursue a stronger campaign
to return Aristide to power.

For human rights activists who had long sought the deportation and
prosecution of the two men, the deportations were a vindication of their
aggressive campaign to train a legal spotlight on people who have left
behind nefarious pasts in their homelands.

''It's great,'' said Richard Krieger, whose Boynton Beach-based human rights
group targets foreign torture suspects living in the United States. ``It
sends the word out that the United States will no longer tolerate human
rights violators in its midst.''

''It's a positive development,'' added Ira Kurzban, a Miami immigration
lawyer who helped investigate the Raboteau massacre and who represents the
Haitian government. ``The United States must not harbor human rights
violators.''

Dorelien was arrested by INS agents at his home in Port St. Lucie in June
2001, while Valmond was picked up in April 2002 at his home in Tampa. Both
were charged with overstaying their visas, but the INS produced evidence
linking the two men to human rights violations. Dorelien faces a sentence of
hard labor for life. Valmond's sentence could not be determined. Both can
seek new trials in Haiti.

The two were held in INS custody at county jails until their cases were
resolved.

LOST KEY BATTLE

Dorelien lost his last key legal battle on Jan. 13 when the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta lifted a restraining order that had
prohibited the INS from deporting him.

Dorelien also faces a civil lawsuit filed Friday in Miami federal court by a
human rights group seeking compensation for a family of a victim of the 1994
massacre. Marie Jeanne Jean asked for unspecified compensation for the death
of her husband, Michel Pierre.The San Francisco-based Center for Justice &
Accountability sued Dorelien under the same legal theory the organization
used successfully last year to convince a federal jury in West Palm Beach to
order two former Salvadoran generals to pay $54.6 million to three torture
victims.

Dorelien won $3.2 million in the state lottery on June 28, 1997. He held one
of two winning tickets bought in Fort Pierce that split a jackpot of $6.3
million, according to Florida Lottery records. Court records show Dorelien
is to be paid in 20 annual installments of $159,000 and there are no
indications that his deportation will affect his ability to collect.

Valmond attempted unsuccessfully to stay in Florida by adjusting his
immigration status as husband of a U.S. citizen. According to published
reports, Valmond came to the United States to be with his wife, Elizabeth,
and their children, who were living in Tampa.

ISSUED WARRANT

In 1998, Haitian authorities issued a warrant for Valmond's arrest for his
alleged role in the Raboteau massacre.

Dorelien arrived in the United States in 1995 and sought asylum, but was
refused because he had been implicated in the massacre. Before Dorelien and
Valmond were deported, the highest profile torture suspect arrested by INS
was Eriberto Mederos, a Cuban-American former nurse who had been convicted
in Miami federal court of charges connected to the torture of dissidents at
a psychiatric hospital in Cuba in the 1970s.

Mederos died shortly after being convicted. Had he been sentenced, he would
have been stripped of his U.S. citizenship and placed in deportation
proceedings.







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