22989: Chamberlain: Haiti-Rebel Trial (second later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By AMY BRACKEN

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Aug 18 (AP) -- A jury on Tuesday acquitted a leader of a
paramilitary group blamed for killing some 3,000 people, after a 14-hour
murder trial that angered human rights groups and provoked criticism of the
new U.S.-backed government.
   Louis-Jodel Chamblain was acquitted of the murder of Antoine Izmery, an
importer who bankrolled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's
presidential bid in 1990, the year before he was ousted in a coup. During
the regime that followed, Chamblain led the paramilitary Front for the
Advancement and Progress of the Haitian People, a group blamed for killing
some 3,000 regime opponents from 1991 to 1994.
   Eight witnesses were called by the prosecution, but only one showed, and
that witness said he knew nothing about the case, according to Viles Alizar
of the National Coalition for Haitian Rights. Two defense witnesses showed
up but offered few details, he said.
   The U.S. Embassy said it was concerned with the acquittals but
recognized the challenges faced by the interim government.
   "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," said Adam Ereli, a deputy spokesman for the U.S.
State Department.
   Amnesty International also criticized the trial. "It is shameful, though
not surprising, that this acquittal came without any apparent regard to
fair trial standards," said spokeswoman Wende Gozan in New York.
   But Chamblain defended the outcome, telling The Associated Press at his
jail near Port-au-Prince that "it was a true trial, just and equitable."
   The former army sergeant had returned from exile in the Dominican
Republic this year to lead rebels in a three-week revolt that ended with
Aristide's ouster Feb. 29.
   Chamblain, in several interviews with the AP from February to April,
said he has never killed anyone.
   Jury selection began late Monday morning and journalists were told the
day would likely be devoted to selecting a jury. But the trial began at 4
p.m. and stretched into the evening. A verdict was announced at 6 a.m.
Tuesday.
   Chamblain's co-defendant -- Jackson Joanis, a former Port-au-Prince
police chief -- was also acquitted. Joanis remains jailed on murder charges
for a 1994 killing.
   Chamblain remains jailed on charges he ordered the killings of several
people in an Aristide stronghold in 1994.
   It could be another month before the pair's next trial, defense attorney
Stanley Gaston said.
   In the late 1980s, during the dictatorship of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc"
Duvalier, Chamblain left the Haitian army and allegedly ran death squads
aimed at terrorizing supporters of Aristide's Lavalas Family party.
   Chamblain believes Aristide ordered his henchmen to kill his pregnant
wife in 1991, the same year Aristide was first overthrown.
   When U.S. troops came to the country in 1994 to restore Aristide,
Chamblain fled to the Dominican Republic. In 1995, he was convicted in
absentia and given two life sentences for Izmery's 1993 killing and for the
1994 slaughter of Aristide supporters in the northern town of Gonaives, the
city where February's rebellion began.
   Haitian law allows people judged in their absence to another trial if
they return.
   Chamblain, in the February-to-April interviews with the AP, denied
involvement in the Izmery killing or the 1994 slayings of Aristide
supporters.
   After Chamblain's April surrender, Bernard Gousse -- the interim Justice
Minister under the interim U.S.-backed government -- said it was possible
Chamblain could be pardoned "for his great services to the nation," noting
what he had done to oust Aristide in February.
   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.
   Elifaite Saint-Pierre, spokesman for the Platform of Human Rights
Organizations, a coalition of nine Haitian groups, said the outcome of the
trial was foreseeable.
   "This is what we predicted," he said. "Now it is the ex-military who
make the law."