23018: Esser: Kangaroo Courts in the New Haiti? (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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

Kangaroo Courts in the New Haiti?: Death Squad Leader Jodel Chamblain
Acquitted of Murder Charge

Democracy Now!
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/19/1355204

Thursday, August 19th, 2004


Listen to segment:
http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2004/aug/audio/
dn20040819.ra&proto=rtsp&start=44:22.616
watch 128k stream:
http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2004/aug/video/
dnB20040819a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=44:22.616


• Brian Concannon, director of the Institute for Justice and
Democracy in Haiti. He formerly worked at the International Lawyers
Office in Haiti, where he has spent the last several years
prosecuting crimes committed during the 1991-1994 coup. Among the
cases he has prosecuted are those stemming from the 1994 Raboteau
massacre in Gonaives for which Chamblain is facing charges.

RUSH TRANSCRIPT


JUAN GONZALEZ: We are joined by Brian Concannon, who works for the
International Lawyer's office in Haiti where he spent the last
several years prosecuting crimes committed during the 1991, 1994
coup. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Brian.

BRIAN CONCANNON: Thank you, Juan. It's great to be here. If I may
correct, right now I’m director of the Institute for Justice and
Democracy in Haiti, which is a successor to the B.A.I. Because of the
Haiti's coup, we're not able to do the same type of work, so we
created a new organization.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Your reaction to this shotgun trial that occurred of
Chamblain?

BRIAN CONCANNON: It was a no-show trial. What they did. There was
plenty of evidence, they did not produce it. There were plenty of
witnesses. They did not call those witnesses in. Some of the
witnesses they did call were dead. Several others were out of the
country or didn't really know anything. The investigating judge
didn't do what he was supposed to do under the law. The prosecutors
did not prosecute. It was clear that the intent from the beginning
was that this be-- that there be no risk of conviction. In fact, the
justice minister hedged his bets by saying even if there was a
conviction he might pardon Chamblain, but he also said that when
Chamblain turned himself in back in April, the justice minister said
he had nothing to hide, which was a clear sign to the prosecutor
which the prosecutor obviously got.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Now, the trial started -- there were conflicting
reports, some that was in the middle of the night, then that it
started late in the afternoon and went through late into midmorning
or into the early hours of the morning. Could you talk about that?

BRIAN CONCANNON: Yeah. They started doing some of the procedural
things like picking the jury in the afternoon and it stretched and
they kept going until I think it was a little bit before dawn when it
finally ended. Which was a serious handicap to people who wanted to
monitor the trial. It was also a handicap because they announced it
-- usually these things are announced weeks or months in advance --
they announced it unofficially a few days in advance. So, human
rights groups and journalists did not have the ability to really
mobilize and organize to monitor this trial, and then as it stretched
into the night, a lot of people had to leave because as you know,
Haiti's streets are very dangerous places with political persecution
and kidnapping and murders. And a lot of people said, yeah, I'd like
to monitor the trial to see how safe it is, but I'm not going to put
my life on the line for it.

JUAN GONZALEZ: It's unheard of here in the United States for any
trial, especially a murder trial, to go on through the middle of the
night to reach a verdict in one day.

BRIAN CONCANNON: In Haiti, there's actually some tradition of that,
but it's tradition that we had broken. During the democratic
government when there was a serious trial, they did in fact take a
break, and make sure that everybody was fresh. Because obviously, a
jury, even if it's trying to do a good job, by 4:00 in the morning,
when you have been listening to testimony or watching procedures for
12 or 18 hours, you're obviously not going to have the same powers of
concentration.

JUAN GONZALEZ: I want to thank you very much, Brian Concannon, for
being with us and updating us on the Chamblain trial.
.