21034: Esser: Laurelton protestors urge arrest of ex-Haitian leader (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Times Ledger
http://www.zwire.com

April 1, 2004

Laurelton protestors urge arrest of ex-Haitian leader
By Michael Morton

Brooklyn Councilman Charles Barron joins protesters marching toward
the reputed Laurelton home of Emmanuel "Toto" Constant.
	Several dozen protesters attended a march in Laurelton
Saturday to demand the arrest of a former Haitian paramilitary leader
said to be living in the neighborhood and wanted in his country.

"Toto must go! Toto must go!" they shouted as they walked up 225th
Street to the man's reputed residence near 137th Avenue. The
protesters carried wanted posters of the man with charges of "murder"
and a "rape."

Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, co-founder of the Revolutionary Front for
Haitian Advancement and Progress, or FRAPH, is accused of human
rights abuses during the early 1990s in Haiti, where he was convicted
in absentia in 1994 for a massacre that year.

"Why is it that in the middle of the war on terror we have a known
terrorist living in New York?" asked Ron Daniels, executive director
of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a Manhattan-based group that
helped organize the protest.

Daniels said American leaders could not speak about democracy, human
rights and justice while Constant walks free. "These are the kinds of
contradictions we face in this country," he said.

Human Rights Watch has reported that Constant's group, FRAPH, was
responsible for executions, torture and rape during military rule in
Haiti between 1991 and 1994.

According to the rights organization and news reports, Constant was
convicted in Haiti in 1994 of murder after the military regime was
displaced following U.S. intervention to restore the democratically
elected Jean Bertrand-Aristide to power. Aristide had been deposed in
a coup in 1991.

Constant allegedly fled to the United States with a tourist visa
before he was caught and went into hiding in Queens, reportedly at
the home of an aunt or his mother. In 1995 the U.S. government bowed
to demands from Haitian activists and the press and arrested him, and
an immigration judge ordered him deported to Haiti.

In 1996, however, Constant was released from jail, with Immigration
and Naturalization Services saying that deporting him to Haiti would
place too great a strain on the legal system there.

At the protest Saturday, the organizers said Constant threatened to
go public with details about CIA involvement in Haiti, leading to a
deal. Constant has acknowledged he received payments from the agency,
according to news reports.

"Their intent is to let him melt into the population," Daniels said
of the American government.

A similar protest was held in 2000, and Daniels said current events
in Haiti spurred his group to act.

"The organization he heads has resurfaced in Haiti," Daniels said,
adding that while he once wanted Constant deported, now he wants the
United States to arrest and keep him here.

Former President Aristide resigned on Feb. 29 under pressure from
France and the United States as an armed uprising engulfed a large
swath of Haiti.

The interim government has yet to crack down on former FRAPH members
and others accused of past abuses, said Joanne Mariner, deputy
director of the Americas for Human Rights Watch. She said FRAPH
members were deported from the United States when Aristide was in
power, but most have now escaped Haitian jails.

Mariner said Constant might go free if he, too, were returned to
Haiti and that under American law Constant could be sued by alleged
torture victims but not arrested without being deported.

Daniels said the previous march had drawn more protesters but that
FRAPH members in Queens had filmed the demonstration and then
threatened marchers and their relatives in Haiti. He said some FRAPH
supporters lived in Laurelton, but most Haitians wanted Constant
arrested.

"This community is loaded with Haitians, but people are scared,"
Daniels said.

Across the street from Constant's reputed home, a neighbor who asked
to be called Ms. S., said Constant had moved away after the 2000
protest.

But he continues to be spotted in the area in places such as a realty
firm in Cambria Heights and a Long Island Rail Road platform in
Baldwin, L.I., people at the protest said.

"I don't think anybody realized he was here," the neighbor said about
Constant's time on 225th Street before the previous protest.

Reach reporter Michael Morton by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by
calling 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.

ŠTimes Ledger 2004
.