16555: Brown: RE: Haitian sought for military's '94 massacre is arrested (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: "Brown, Stephen D. GG12" <brownst@soc.mil>

 Posted on Wed, Aug. 27, 2003



Haitian sought for military's '94 massacre is arrested
Former army colonel linked to killings of 26
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@herald.com

Even in an era of wanton brutality, what happened in April 1994 outside the
Haitian city of Gonaves was shocking: 26 men, women and children cut down in
a hail of bullets or beaten to death.

Their alleged crime? Living in a neighborhood considered sympathetic to
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who had been overthrown by the military
three years earlier.

The massacre was one of the catalysts for the U.S. military intervention
that restored Aristide to power and ended the military's bloody reign of
terror.

And today, slowly but surely, the killers of Gonaves, some of whom came to
the United States, are being hunted down.

The latest is former Haitian army Col. Frantz Douby, 55, who was arrested
Tuesday in downtown Miami by federal immigration agents.

Douby, who is being held at Krome detention center in West Miami-Dade County
pending his repatriation to Haiti, is the fourth man seized in connection
with the mass killings in Raboteau, an impoverished seaside neighborhood
outside Gonaves. The other three, two of whom also were Haitian military
officers, have already been deported.

They are among the 37 people convicted in Haiti of playing a role in the
massacre, one of the worst mass killings during the military's rule.

The capture of some of those responsible for the massacre is a victory for
the federal government's aggressive campaign to target foreign nationals
living in the United States accused of human rights abuses in their
homelands.

''It's great news for the victims of Raboteau, for the people of Haiti, for
justice in general and for the struggle against impunity,'' said Mario
Joseph, an attorney in Port-au-Prince who represents the widow of a massacre
victim.

FEDERAL LAWSUIT

The widow, Marie Jeanne Jean, has filed a federal lawsuit in Miami against
former Col. Carl Dorelien, one of the Haitian military officers implicated
in the massacre. He was arrested in 2001 in Port St. Lucie and deported to
Haiti earlier this year.

''It's a very positive and very significant development that the United
States has expressed its willingness to cooperate with the government of
Haiti and bring human rights violators to justice,'' said Ira Kurzban, a
well-known Miami immigration attorney who helped investigate the Raboteau
massacre for the Haitian government.

According to Brian Concannon, a Haiti-based attorney who also investigated
the mass killings, Douby provided funds to members of the armed forces in
Gonaves involved in the massacre.

''He was a member of the high command and had command responsibility,''
Concannon said. According to legal theories promoted by human rights
activists, military officers in charge of soldiers should be held
responsible for the actions of subordinates because they know or should have
known about atrocities committed on their watch.

At least two others on the list of 37 people implicated in the Raboteau
massacre are known be in the United States: Jean-Claude Duperval, a former
army major general, and Emmanuel ''Toto'' Constant, a founder of FRAPH, a
paramilitary organization that helped the military overthrow Aristide and
persecuted his supporters.

Duperval is believed to live in the Orlando area and Constant in New York
City.

ACTION PENDING

A federal official familiar with the investigation of foreign nationals
accused of human rights abuses said action against Duperval is pending. The
official said it was possible federal officials may file charges against
Duperval in the United States, rather than move to deport him.

He said the Constant case remained in limbo for now. The official declined
to provide any more details.

Douby arrived in the United States in October 1994 and lived in Hollywood
before moving to Pembroke Pines, according to public records.

''This country will not serve as a safe haven for human rights violators,''
said Barbara Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Immigration and
Customers Enforcement in Miami.