22993: Esser: Haiti Trial An Affront to Those Who Have Worked and Died For Justice (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser <torx@joimail.com>

Haiti Trial An Affront to Those Who Have Worked and Died For Justice

Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti

August 17, 2004

Contact Information:
Brian Concannon Jr., Director
BrianHaiti@aol.com
www.ijdh.org
541-432-0597
541-263-0029

IJDH Human Rights Alert:  Haiti Assassination Trial An Affront to All
Those Who Have Worked and Died for Justice


              In the early hours of August 17, a sham trial in
Port-au-Prince
acquitted notorious Haitian rights abusers Jackson Joanis and Jodel
Chamblain of the 1993 murder of businessman Antoine Izmery. Neither
the judiciary nor the prosecution made even the minimum effort
required by law to pursue this important case.  The absence of effort
combined with top Haitian officials' public support for Chamblain and
his colleagues compels the conclusion that Haiti's interim government
staged the trial to deflect criticism of its human rights record
without alienating its military and paramilitary allies.  The trial
is an affront to the thousands of people who have worked and
sacrificed for justice in Haiti over the last fifteen years.

I.  Background

       Antoine Izmery, a prominent supporter of President Aristide,
was murdered on September 11, 1993, during Haiti's de facto military
dictatorship (1991-1994).  Mr. Izmery had organized a mass at
Port-au-Prince's Sacre Coeur church, to commemorate the anniversary
of the 1988 St. Jean Bosco Massacre.  Soldiers and paramilitaries
dragged Izmery out of the packed church, in full view of  the Haitian
and international media, the diplomatic community in Haiti, and
UN/OAS Human Rights Observers, and shot him on the sidewalk outside. 
Both Joanis and Chamblain were convicted, in absentia for murder at
the 1995 trial of the Izmery killing.

       Jackson Joanis was a Captain in the Haitian Army, and head of
the Anti-Gang police, the de facto period's most feared army unit. 
Joanis fled to the United States, but was deported back to Haiti in
2001, because of his record of political persecution.  He has also
been formally charged in the 1994 assassination of Fr. Jean-Marie
Vincent, and was identified as a major human rights abuser in reports
by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the United Nations, the
Organization of American States and the U.S. Government.

       Jodel Chamblain was the co-founder and chief of operations of
FRAPH (Front Révolutionnaire pour l'Avancement et le Progrès
Haïtiens), Haiti's most notorious death squad.   He was also
convicted in absentia for murder in the 2000 Raboteau Massacre
trial.  After the 1994 return of Haiti's constitutional government,
Chamblain fled to the Dominican Republic, where he trained with other
paramilitaries and former soldiers in exile.  He returned to Haiti in
February as a leader of the insurgency that attacked towns in Haiti's
north, killing police officers, destroying prisons and terrorizing
the civilian population.

       The insurgency helped dislodge Haiti's constitutional
authorities, who were replaced by a U.S.-backed unconstitutional
government.  Insurgency gangs still controls large areas of Haiti,
and refuse to disarm.  Both the insurgency and the allied de facto
authorities have engaged in widespread attacks against those
perceived to support Haiti's constitutional government, including
hundreds of killings, as well as illegal political arrests and
detentions, and rapes, beatings and other torture.

       Joanis and Chamblain are the only two human rights abusers
from the de facto regime who have been pursued by the justice system,
even though many others had been convicted, or escaped.  These
include a dozen people convicted in person at the Raboteau Massacre
trial, including FRAPH leader Jean Pierre, alias Tatoune, and Army
Captain Cenafils Castera, as well as three members of the de facto
High Command convicted in absentia for Raboteau and deported from the
U.S.  Other prominent fugitives from justice include former dictator
Prosper Avril, found civilly responsible for torture by a Miami
court, and Henri-Robert Marc-Charles, now a top advisor in the
Ministry of the Interior, both ordered imprisoned pending trial for
the 1990 Piatre peasant massacre.

       The justice system itself has been attacked by the insurgents,
and ignored by the de facto authorities.  In March, the judge who
convicted Chamblain in the Raboteau case was beaten by men claiming
to be retaliating for Chamblain's Raboteau conviction, and
hospitalized.  In April, Chamblain boasted to reporters that he was
acting as a "judge" in Cap Haitian.  On July 1, ANAMAH the Haitian
national judges' association, issued a press release deploring the
increase in the politicization of justice and illegal arrests over
the previous four months.   Later that month, when a judge in Les
Cayes ordered the release of political prisoner Jacques Mathelier,
the authorities transferred the prisoner to Port-au-Prince, where he
remains incarcerated.


II.  Pretrial Proceedings

       Both Joanis and Chamblain had been convicted in absentia for
Izmery's murder in 1995.  Under Haitian law, those convicted in
absentia have the right to a new trial, but they must be arrested
immediately upon entering Haitian territory.  Joanis was arrested
when he arrived from the U.S., but escaped from prison on February
29, when the insurgents attacked the National Penitentiary.  He
turned himself in on August 9 in order to participate in the trial.

       Following international criticism of  the de facto
authorities' alliances with known human rights abusers, Chamblain
publicly turned himself in on April 22.  At the time, Minister of
Justice Bernard Gousse admitted that the surrender had been
negotiated, and declared that Chamblain "had nothing to hide."  This
sent a signal, especially to prosecutors who are appointed by the
Minister, that Mr. Gousse had already decided the outcome.  A month
earlier, Prime Minister Gerard Latortue praised Chamblain and his
colleagues as "Freedom Fighters."

       Haiti's Code of Criminal Procedure required that the cases
against Chamblain and Joanis be assigned to an "Investigating
Magistrate" (Juge D'Instruction) who reviews all relevant evidence,
interrogates the suspects and any potential witnesses, and issues a
formal charging document called the ordonnance.  The Prosecutor
(Commissaire du Gouvernement) is then entrusted with preparing the
case and presenting it to the jury, including contacting witnesses
and ensuring their presence at trial, and presenting all documentary
evidence. 

       In this case, no investigating magistrate questioned Joanis
after his surrender, and there is no indication that Chamblain was
questioned either.  Officials simply re-filed the ordonnance from
July 1995, without adding information obtained over the last nine
years from interviews with defendants or other means.  They did not
add any additional documentary evidence to the case file, not even
the section on the Izmery killing from Haiti's Truth and Justice
Commission report.  Haitian and international human rights groups
that are known to possess information relevant to the case or to have
access to witnesses were never contacted for the investigation.

       The Prosecutor made almost no effort to obtain witness
testimony.  Many witnesses known to have information were not
contacted at all.  The prosecutor claims to have sent witness notices
to only eight people, and these were sent on August 13, the last
weekday before trial.  The law requires witness notices to be served
at least three business days before trial.  Witnesses were not asked
whether they would be willing to testify, or if they still recalled
the events of Izmery's assassination eleven years ago.

       The Izmery trial was informally announced on August 12, three
business days before commencing.  This violated several notice
requirements of the procedural code, and provided the defendants with
a cause for appeal had they been found guilty.   The illegally short
notice also limited the ability of national and international human
rights groups to monitor or criticize the proceedings.

III.  The Trial

       The trial began on Monday, August 16, and ended before dawn on
Tuesday, August 17.  Only one prosecution witness appeared, and he
admitted that he was not, in fact, an eyewitness.   The prosecutor
was obviously unfamiliar with the file, and appeared to be going
through the motions, with no attempt to present a convincing argument
to the jury.  Many observers and journalists left the trial in the
early evening, afraid of venturing out on the capitol's streets after
dark.

       Amnesty International referred to the trial as "an insult to
justice" and a "mockery." 

IV.  The Next Step

       Both Chamblain and Joanis remain in prison, awaiting trials on
other charges.  Chamblain's lawyer predicted a new trial on his in
absentia Raboteau conviction within a month.  The Minister of Justice
predicted that Chamblain may be pardoned, even if he is convicted
again.  Joanis has been formally charged for the 1994 killing of Fr.
Jean-Marie Vincent, but that trial has not been announced.

V.  The Fight For Justice in Haiti

       Haiti's Truth and Justice Commission estimated that 5,000
people were killed along with Antoine Izmery during the 1991-1994
dictatorship, for supporting justice and democracy.  The Director of
the Port-au-Prince morgue reported disposing of over 1,000 bodies in
the month after the departure of Haiti's constitutional government
this year, many of them bearing the signs of torture and execution. 

       During more than nine years of elected governments in Haiti
(1994-2004), thousands of people worked tirelessly for justice. 
Victims who survived and the families of those who did not survive
organized to pressure the justice system.  They marched, protested,
kept vigils, wrote letters, sang songs and told and retold their
stories.  Others, from Haiti and abroad, participated within the
structures: they created, ran and attended the Judicial and Police
Academies that trained a new generation of professionals.  Still
others documented abuses for the Truth and Justice Commission, the
United Nations, the Organization of American States and for human
rights organizatons in Haiti and abroad.  Many put their lives and
reputations on the line, by participating in prominent trials as
witnesses, complainants, judges, prosecutors, lawyers and jurors.

       The dividends from these sacrifices and efforts were less than
most had hoped for.  Progress on prominent cases was frustratingly
slow, and some controversial cases stopped completely.  But justice
was served under the democratic governments: the better trained
prosecutors, judges and police officers did their jobs imperfectly,
but more justly than anyone had before in Haiti.  Two prominent human
rights trials in the year 2000 rose to international standards, and
exceeded any complex trial in Haiti before or since.  Investigations
into peasant massacres and political rapes proceeded slowly, but
proceeded.  Each successful trial built upon its predecessors, and
set a new, higher standard for justice in Haiti.

       Today's trial of Chamblain and Joanis indicates a full return
to Haiti's historical injustice, and the elimination of the
foundations erected with so much sweat and blood.  While political
prisoners with no evidence or accusations in their case files
continue to fill the National Penitenciary, convicted murderers are
acquitted in a charade trial, their files chock full of evidence but
un-opened. 

History shows that Haitians will not accept this return to injustice,
and will keep fighting against it.  But they cannot prevail on their
own, and history shows that the international community is as likely
to acquiesce in the new order as it is to vigorously protest.   It is
therefore incumbent on those of us who can safely advocate for human
rights in Haiti to do so persistently.  Failing to speak out betrays
the sacrifices already made, and encourages future atrocities.

For more information:

WWW.IJDH.ORG (reports on current human rights conditions in Haiti,
legal analyses)

WWW.AMNESTY.ORG (reports on current human rights conditions in Haiti,
including press releases following the trial and Chamblain's March
arrest)

WWW. NCHR.ORG (press releases from Haiti (8/12/04) and New York
(8/13/04) regarding the trial of Chamblain and Joanis).