22997: Chamberlain: US "deeply concerned" at Chamblain acquittal (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

WASHINGTON, Aug 18 (AFP): The United States on Tuesday expressed its
concern over acquittals in Haiti of a former paramilitary commander and an
ex-officer, both charged with murder.

"The United States is deeply concerned over the August 17, 2004 acquittal
of former paramilitary leader Louis Jodel Chamblain and former police
official Jackson Joanis for their role in the 1993 murder of businessman
Antoine Izmery in Port-au-Prince," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli
said in a statement.

Izmery had close ties to former Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide.

Chamblain was a top leader of armed rebels who played a role in Aristide's
departure on February 29 amid a popular uprising.

The former paramilitary leader surrendered to authorities in mid-April.
Joanis and Chamblain, who face other charges, will remain in jail.

"We deeply regret the haste with which their cases were brought to retrial,
resulting in procedural deficiencies that call into question the integrity
of the process," Ereli said.

He said the United States recognizes that Haiti's interim government, which
came to power after Aristide fled the country, is faced with the challenges
of "rebuilding shattered and corrupted institutions" and of stopping
illegal armed groups.

But, he added, "the United States calls on the interim government to ensure
that trials involving accusations of gross human rights violations and
other such crimes be conducted in a credible manner."

Chamblain, a former army sergeant, was also the second in command of the
Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress (FRAPH), a group
blamed for several human rights violations between 1991 and 1994, during
the dictatorship of Lieutenant General Raoul Cedras.

Cedras overthrew Aristide in 1991 and ruled Haiti until he was forced out
by the United States in 1994.

Joanis and Chamblain, who lived abroad after Aristide was restored to power
in 1994, had been sentenced in absentia to life in prison in September
1995.