21535: Brown: Lavalas Supporter Reveals Palace Involvement in Dominique Murder (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Steve Brown <sbrown8670@earthlink.net>

Lavalas Supporter Reveals Palace Involvement in Dominique Murder

Port-au-Prince Radio Vision 2000 19 Apr 04

[Announcer] Former Lavalas people's organization [OP] leader Robinson Thomas
also known as Labanye has made several revelations about the way the Lavalas
government used various citizens in Cite Soleil to carry out dishonest
activity in the country. In various statements he has made, Labanye accuses
among other people Port-au-Prince [Deputy] Mayor Harold Severe of being the
person who assassinated Radio Haiti Inter Chief Executive Officer Jean
Leopold Dominique. Labanye also accuses Hermione Leonard and Oriel Jean of
have been responsible for the acts of violence that occurred during the
funeral of [Radio] Echo 2000 Journalist Brignol Lindor in Petit-Goave. We
invite you to listen to an excerpt from Thomas's statements:

 [Thomas] My name is Robinson Thomas also known as Labanye. I have gone to
the radio station today to denounce the manipulation of people in Cite
Soleil by the Lavalas government so we could do what we were not supposed to
do. The Lavalas regime has caused me to lose the trust of Cite Soleil
residents. Therefore, I am going to talk about many events that occurred in
the country, like the event that happened in Petit-Goave the day of
journalist Lindor's funeral. Ms. Hermione Leonard, Oriel Jean, President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide's security staff contacted many bases in Cite Soleil
so we could go to Petit-Goave with them in order to disrupt Lindor's
funeral, so we could beat up and torture those who would shout down with
Aristide and then have them shout up with President Aristide. Jean used a
Galil to disrupt Lindor's funeral.

We are going to talk about the Dominique case. Some people have been accused
and some people have even been arrested supposedly for having killed
Dominique. Poor Dominique! The person who killed Dominique works at the
National Palace. It is [Deputy] Mayor Harold Severe, former mayor of
Port-au-Prince. On the day of Dominique's murder, that is, on 3 April
[2000], Severe contacted So Anne [Sister Anne, nickname for Anne Auguste, a
staunch Aristide supporter]; she contacted the ones nicknamed Cadavre, that
is, Franco and Ronald Camille. He told them that they had to do something
for him. He gave them a Daihatsu Charade, beige color, and the Cadavre
brothers contacted the Kosovo gang leader, who was based in Portail Leogane.
His name is (Guy Benson) [also known as] Ti Ponyet. They gave him a Daihatsu
Charade so he could carry out the mission. Then, the Cadavres [Camilles]
promised him that after the mission they would give him $60,000. After the
mission, (Benson) went down the Delmas Road so that he could get the money
from the Cadavres. But they did not even wait for him to say a word. The
Cadavres killed him, so he did not have an opportunity to talk about the
action. To show you that the Lavalas government believes more in injustice
than justice, it even had us go to Piatre. They gave us two Service Plus
buses that we had to fill with people who should go to Piatre so that the
international community would believe that people in Piatre were asking that
[former General Prosper] Avril be sentenced. Oriel Jean gave us $3,000 for
that with the understanding that we should give every unfortunate person
between $50 and $100 to demonstrate in favor of sentencing Avril.

Let us now take the 12 July events. Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert
called me, Labanye, at 407-5413. He told me whether I did not see what was
going to happen in Cite Soleil. I asked: Minister, what is it? He then
replied whether I had heard that the Group of 184 Civil Society
Organizations [G-184] were going to hold a meeting in Cite Soleil and
whether I would allow that to happen. I then asked what I should do. He told
me that no matter what I must find a way to prevent this meeting from taking
place. [words indistinct] At 10:00, he asked me if I would let the G-184
enter Cite Soleil and break up Lavalas on 12 July. I told the minister: What
do you want me to do for you that day? Minister Privert replied by telling
me: No matter what, do not let the G-184 meet inside the premises of Father
Bonem. On 11 July, Hermione Leonard called me at 256 [number as heard] and
asked me: tell me, Labanye, will you allow this insolence to happen in Cite
Soleil? I answered: what insolence? She then told me that she had received
orders from the National Palace to disrupt the meeting that the G-184
planned to hold in Cite Soleil. On 11 July at 10 PM, Leonard called me at
256-5909. She brought T-shirts, spray paint, and posters of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide with $200 so we could put up Aristide's posters. She
told us not to leave anything there that belongs to the G-184. We entered
and broke the walls. We broke all the chairs. We broke everything and then
threw them in the channel. The same day, Fritz Pierre from Saint-Joseph
Church tried to call me at 408-2131 on the G-184 issue. He left a message
asking me to call him back as soon as possible. I never had an opportunity
to call him back. We managed to do everything Lavalas wanted us to do on 12
July because we had to or we would be in big trouble. On the morning of 12
July, at 7 AM, Leonard called me, asking me to gather all the rara bands in
Cite Soleil and have them go out. She even sent Chaba, I don't care---two
Bel-Air-based rara bands--to help us prevent the meeting that the G-184
planned to have.

When the Departmental Director of the West [DDO] police entered Cite Soleil,
they fired a lot of shots to make us believe that [pauses]. They gave us the
signal that they were going to enter so that we could prevent the G-184 from
entering the Cite Soleil area because they had told us to block the streets
by setting up tires so they could not enter. [end recording]

[Announcer] You were listening to an excerpt from the statements made by a
former Lavalas OP leader, Thomas, who is also known as Labanye. He has made
several revelations about the way Lavalas used citizens in Cite Soleil to
carry out dishonest activity in the country. In these statements, Labanye
has accused among other people former Port-au-Prince Deputy Mayor Severe of
being the person who murdered Dominique, the chief executive officer of
Radio Haiti Inter. Labanye has also accused Leonard and Jean of having been
responsible for the acts of violence that occurred at the funeral of Radio
Echo 2000 journalist Lindor in Petit-Goave. He also talked about the issue
regarding the G-184's Caravan of Hope, pointing out that the Lavalas
authorities ordered that this activity be prevented. He also accused Leonard
of having been at the origin of t