21505: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Haitian rebel surrenders to face past murder charges (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Fri, Apr. 23, 2004


HAITI


Haitian rebel surrenders to face past murder charges

Louis Jodel Chamblain, who helped lead a revolt against Haitian President
Aristide in February, turns himself in for a new trial on 1990s murder
charges.

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

jcharles@herald.com


PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Convicted killer and rebel leader Louis Jodel Chamblain
surrendered to police Thursday as Haiti's interim government worked to bring
to justice human rights abusers in the previous Aristide governments.

''The Haitian people will see if justice is for real, if we are on a new
route for Haitian justice,'' a tearful Chamblain said before surrendering at
the same police station that his rebels seized the day after former
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide left the country amid a bloody revolt.

A feared paramilitary leader under the 1991-94 military dictatorship that
had toppled Aristide, Chamblain said he wants a new trial to prove his
innocence in the 1994 massacre of dozens of Aristide supporters in the port
city of Gonaives and the 1995 assassination of a well-known Aristide backer.
He was tried and convicted in absentia for both.

He will remain in the police lockup until a judge decides his fate,
authorities said. Under Haitian law, anyone convicted in absentia must be
retried once captured.

SEEKING AID

Chamblain's surrender came as a cash-strapped Haitian government opened a
daylong meeting of international donors. The government, which is seeking
millions of dollars in international aid, has been under mounting foreign
pressure to crack down on Chamblain and other anti-Aristide rebel leaders
accused of human rights abuses.

Jean-Claude Bajeux, a human rights activist heading a government commission
charged with investigating thousands of unsolved murders during Aristide's
rule, said Chamblain's surrender was a key step in reforming Haiti's shaky
justice system and bringing others like him to trial.

''The machine of justice stopped in Haiti 55 years ago,'' said Bajeux, whose
committee hopes to bring 20 to 30 cases to trial over the next 18 months.

As an example, Bajeux said, although his nine-member committee could take
its first case to trial within 15 days -- the murder of Brignol Lindor, a
journalist stoned to death in 2000 after inviting an anti-Aristide leader on
his radio program -- lawyers lack basic equipment to do their job.

Chamblain, who fled to the Dominican Republic to avoid his trials, returned
to Haiti during the February revolt and was the second-ranking leader of a
group of former army soldiers who helped topple Aristide.

ACTION IS `CHARADE'

Brian Concannon, an American who helped the Aristide government prosecute
Chamblain, said his surrender was a ''charade'' and defended his trial as
one of the most open and fair in Haitian history.

''I've never in the world heard of someone taking power through a violent
coup d'état and submitting himself to a justice system,'' said Concannon,
who said he doubts the rebel leader will ever face a new trial. ``I'd be
willing to bet almost anything he's going to get a judge to dismiss the
case, which will be done much more quietly than a full trial.''

Chamblain said he returned from the Dominican Republic to help topple a
president who used armed thugs known as chiméres to repress his opponents,
and urged fugitive members of Aristide's Lavalas Family party to follow him
into surrender.

''I ask for all Haitians in the same situation with me to do the same
gesture I am making now. I ask all the Lavalas who are terrorizing the
Haitian people to do the same gesture and that way the Haitian people will
see who is working for them,'' Chamblain said.

Several police officers and rebel leaders, including alleged coup plotter
and drug trafficker Guy Philippe, accompanied Chamblain to the police
station in Petionville. Some media reported that rebel leader Jean-Pierre
Baptiste, aka Jean Tatoune, also planned to surrender Thursday, but he did
not.

Chamblain remained armed with a pistol even as he made his way in from a
nearby hotel, hailed by scores of Haitians who waved and said they hoped his
surrender would encourage police to go after the pro-Aristide chiméres.

Looking on from the sidelines were three U.S. military officers and Justice
Minister Bernard Gousse, who arranged Chamblain's surrender.

''It's a very good and noble decision on his part that he's ready to face
his destiny in court,'' Gousse said. ``He understood that he had nothing to
hide. He wanted to defend himself and present his case in a jury trial.''

Herald staff writers Marika Lynch and Trenton Daniel contributed to this
report.

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