20866: Esser: Activists to picket Haitian's house (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

New York Newsday
http://www.nynewsday.com

Activists to picket Haitian's house

March 25, 2004

BY RON HOWELL
Staff Writer

Human rights activists are planning to demonstrate Saturday outside
the Queens home of Emmanuel Constant, demanding his arrest for
alleged human rights violations in Haiti.

Organizers will also be protesting U.S. policies that they say have
created a favorable climate in Haiti for human rights abusers,
including old associates of Constant's.

"Our march on his residence is to shine a light not only on him but
also on his cohorts in Haiti who are once again unleashing a reign of
terror," said Ron Daniels, executive director of the New York-based
Center for Constitutional Rights.

For example, Louis Jodel Chamblain in the early 1990s was a co-leader
with Constant of an alleged right-wing terror group. Since the
U.S.-arranged exile of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Feb. 29,
men like Chamblain have been acting as conquering heroes. Chamblain,
who returned to Haiti from exile in the Dominican Republic, has
literally been holding court in Haiti over the past week, officiating
at trials of petty criminals, according to an Associated Press report.

Saturday's demonstration is planned for 12.30 p.m., with protesters
gathering at 141st Avenue and 225th Street, and then walking to
Constant's home at 225th Street near 137th Avenue in Laurelton,
Daniels said.

Constant came to New York in 1995, fleeing Haiti after the return to
power of Aristide, a former Catholic priest with leftist policies.
Since then, human rights groups have been trying to get the United
States to arrest and deport Constant. U.S. officials have refused,
saying his safety could not be guaranteed in Haiti.

Critics say the United States has been giving Constant special
treatment because he was a self-acknowledged informant of the CIA in
the early 1990s.

Constant's mother, speaking in French and asking not to be further
identified, said in a telephone interview that her son is innocent of
crimes he is accused of, including involvement in the 1994 massacre
of two dozen people in the seaside community of Raboteau.

"He wouldn't do anything like that," she said. "They shouldn't send
him to prison. No, no, no."

Daniels said he agreed with U.S. officials on one point, that it is
not appropriate under the current circumstances to send Constant back
to Haiti. "But we do want him to be detained," Daniels said.

Immigration spokesman Garrison Courtney did not return calls Thursday
seeking comment on the latest call for Constant's arrest.

Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.
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