22969: Chamberlain: Haiti-Rebel Trial (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By AMY BRACKEN

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Aug 16 (AP) -- Jury selection began Monday for a Haitian
paramilitary leader convicted in absentia of killing a businessman and
ordering a massacre in the early 1990s but is facing the charges again
after returning to lead a revolt against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
   Louis-Jodel Chamblain was a co-leader of the paramilitary Front for the
Advancement and Progress of the Haitian People, a group that was blamed for
the killings of some 3,000 people from 1991 to 1994 during the regime that
followed Aristide's first ouster in 1991.
   When U.S. troops came to the country in 1994 to restore Aristide,
Chamblain fled to the neighboring Dominican Republic. In 1995, he was
convicted in absentia and given two life sentences for his alleged role in
the 1993 assassination of Aristide financier Antoine Izmery and the 1994
slaughter of dozens of Aristide supporters in the northern city of
Gonaives.
   He returned to help lead the rebellion this year that ousted Aristide
for a second time and sent him into exile. Haitian law provides that people
judged in their absence may have a new trial if they return.
   Smiling as he walked into the courtroom, Chamblain watched as 12 jury
members were selected from a pool of more than 200 people. Co-defendant
Jackson Joanis, a former police chief in Port-au-Prince, is also on trial
for alleged involvement in the murder of Izmery.
   Human rights groups have criticized Haiti's U.S.-backed interim
government for forming alliances with people like Chamblain while it
arrests Aristide officials and supporters.
   Chamblain could be pardoned by Haiti's president or the national
assembly "for his great services to the nation," interim Justice Minister
Bernard Gousse has said.
   Chamblain led a band of rebels during a revolt that began Feb. 5 in
Gonaives. After a three-week rebellion, Aristide was pushed from power Feb.
29.
   Fellow rebel leader Guy Philippe said there is no evidence against
Chamblain, who has repeatedly said he was innocent. "We know there is no
proof against him and we just hope that justice prevails," Philippe said.
   Chamblain claims Aristide ordered his henchmen to kill Chamblain's
pregnant wife in 1991.
   Brian Concannon, director of the U.S.-based human rights group Institute
for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, said that he was concerned Chamblain's
trial would not be taken seriously and that Haitian authorities have only
allocated five days for the process.