18738: Esser: President Aristide wants to bring FRAPH to justice (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

 From D. Esser torx@joimail.com

REVISED February 17, 2004

Press Release

Contact: Michelle Karshan, Foreign Press Liaison
National Palace, Haiti
Tel: (011509) 228-2058
Fax: (011509) 228-2171

President Aristide says Haiti's justice system might use FRAPH
documents in pursuit of justice in investigation of FRAPH leader,
Louis-Jodel Chamblain

Port-au-Prince - During a press conference held at Haiti's National
Palace today regarding the humanitarian crisis caused by recent acts
of terrorism, President Aristide revealed that the Government of
Haiti may need to unveil the famous FRAPH documents. These documents
and photos may be helpful in the pursuit of justice with regard to a
criminal investigation underway involving FRAPH commander Louis-Jodel
Chamblain, who emerged Friday as one of the terrorists in Gonaives.
The terrorists are currently holding the approximately 150,000
residents of Gonaives hostage. Their violence and blocking of roads
has cut off food, fuel and medical supplies to the Northern portion
of the country.

Today, in discussing the violence in Gonaives and other towns,
Aristide said Haiti's justice system may need to refer to the FRAPH
documents in the pursuit of justice. He added that the names
contained in the FRAPH documents are of persons who were actively
involved in FRAPH, as well as those who supported it. President
Aristide suggested that more than likely many of those same names
engaged in the terrorist activities from that period are also
implicated in the recent destablization and violence being waged
today.

The criminal investigation the President referred to involves the
Cite Soleil fire, an arson committed during the coup d'etat period,
in which Chamblain is implicated. After trials were held on two other
matters, Chamblain was earlier convicted in the Raboteau Massacre, as
well as the assassination of businessman and Aristide supporter,
Antoine Izmery. Both of these crimes occurred during the three-year
coup period. Chamblain is also named in the Cite Soleil arson.

FRAPH, (Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress), a
paramilitary organization formed during the second half of the coup
d'etat (1991-1994) has been reported on and denounced by all
international human rights groups for their use of torture,
assassination and rape against Aristide supporters during that time.

FRAPH was founded by Emmanuel (Toto) Constant, who later revealed
during a 60 Minutes interview that he met regularly with the CIA
station chief in Haiti at the time, advising him in advance of all
upcoming FRAPH activities and also stated that he received regular
funds from the station chief.

An article by Blum and Nairn (see below) reveals that Constant stated
that after Aristide was ousted from Haiti during the 1991 coup d'etat
a US Defense Intelligence Agency officer, who he named, urged him to
set up a front as a balance to the Aristide movement. This led to the
creation of FRAPH in August 1993. Chamblain was the second in command
of FRAPH.

The FRAPH documents contain papers and photos seized by the US
military during their intervention in 1994 which led to the
restoration of democracy and the return of President Aristide a short
time thereafter.

FRAPH maintained offices throughout Haiti and they wallpapered their
offices with "trophy photos" of their tortured and maimed victims.
Human rights organizations vary in their reporting of the numbers of
persons killed during the repression of the coup d'etat with the
range being somewhere between 3,000 to 5,000 victims, a large
percentage being attributed to the FRAPH paramilitary thugs.

Immediately following the US intervention in Haiti in 1994 the US
Embassy spokesperson held a press conference in the central park of
Port-au-Prince and attempted to introduce the head of FRAPH, "Toto"
Constant, to the press as a legitimate leader of a legitimate
opposition group. The staged event was quickly derailed by Haitians
who had just been liberated after three years of brutal repression at
the hands of Haiti's military and FRAPH. This attempt to portray
FRAPH as a legitimate political organization was immediately
denounced and rejected by human rights groups around the world, as
well as by the press corps who were all too familiar with the
mutilated corpses resulting from FRAPH's repressive maneuvers.

A highly publicized victim of FRAPH's handiwork was that of the
machete attack against Alerte Belance, who was dragged from her home
in the middle of the night because her husband had been an electoral
worker in the 1990 elections which brought President Aristide to
power on February 7, 1991.

Belance was attacked by men who identified themselves as FRAPH and
left for dead on the national highway. After being assisted by a
stunned motorist, she underwent surgery to sew her severed face back
together, which had been sliced in half, and her arm had to be
removed. She miraculously survived and underwent years of physical
rehabilitation.

Despite requests by the Government of Haiti that Toto Constant be
returned to Haiti to face the justice system, he remains at liberty
in Queens, New York and was granted a permit to work. The US
government allowed Constant to enter the United States in the mid
90s, although he was a known terrorist. The US ordered his
deportation but never moved to deport him and he remains untouched by
the Justice Department's human rights violator program, which has
been aggressively deporting other such characters.

The Government of Haiti formally requested that the US return the
FRAPH documents, arguing that they would be critical to the work of
Haiti's Truth Commission at the time and in the investigation of
criminal acts committed during the coup period. An international
mobilization of individuals, human rights organizations and
haiti-interest groups, aggressively campaigned as well for the return
of the documents, however the US refused to hand over the documents.

In one of President Clinton's last presidential acts, the FRAPH
documents were handed over to the Government of Haiti in early 2000,
with the condition that their use be limited to legitimate criminal
investigations, as opposed to retribution. They have never been used
in the investigation and prosecution of crimes to date.

Please refer to these excellent articles on FRAPH:

David Grann for The Atlantic Monthly, June 2001 article Giving the
Devil his Due
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/06/grann.htm

Alan Nairn for The Nation in HAITI UNDER CLOAK

Alan Nairn, "Our Man in FRAPH: Behind Haiti's Paramilitaries",. The Nation, 24
October 1994, p. 460, referring to Emannuel Constant,. the head of
FRAPH. 20. ...

FRAPH genesis As described by investigate journalist Alan Nairn and
by William Blum
"FRAPH, actually a front for the army,. . .spread ..."
which is excerpted from the book:  Killing Hope by William Blum
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/Haiti_KH.html

An Interview With Allan Nairn
... in The Nation, Nairn broke the story of the United States
government's role in establishing and funding the brutal Haitian
paramilitary death squad, FRAPH
http://www.zmag.org/ZMag/articles/june95arnove.htm

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