=?x-unknown?q?25817=3A__Laplanche=3A___=28reply=29__Fwd=3A?==?x-unknown?q?_Re=3A_2579=5BISO-8859-1=5D_7=3A_=C2=A0=28news=29?==?x-unknown?q?_=C2=A0Chamberlain=3A=C2=A0Jailed_Haitian_priest_de?==?x-unknown?q?nies_role_in=5BISO-8859-1=5D_=C2=A0killing_=28fwd?==?x-unknown?q?=29?=

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Sheila Laplanche <sheila.laplanche@wanadoo.fr>

TWISTING THE TRUTH ABOUT JACQUES ROCHE
Gerard Jean-Juste and Bill Quigley Caught in a Lie; Marguerite Laurent, Amy
Goodman and John Maxwell Are Accomplices

Once again, the nefarious pro-Aristide forces are conspiring to misinform the
public about the macabre role Reverend Jean-Juste and his kidnapping squads
have played in these past few weeks' horrible events, including the
assassination of journalist Jacques Roche. It is particularly telling that the
pro-Aristide camp, caught in its plot to have Jacques Roche killed simply for
having been associated to the "Groupe des 184", would then unleash a public
relations campaign for the purpose of whitewashing their authorship, moral if
not physical, of the Jacques Roche murder and then bizarrely associating
themselves with Jacques Roche once they realized the magnitude of the gaffe
their goons had committed.

In this respect, the total incompetence of the current provisional authorities
explains why there has been no attempt to discredit this malicious campaign
and why Rev. Jean-Juste is now able to portray himself as a victim once again
for having committed the "crime" of attending his "cousin" Jacques Roche's
funeral. Let us now examine the sequence of events that have led to the arrest
of Jean-Juste and to the flurry of emails from Aristide apologists trying to
deflect the attention away from their involvement in Jacques Roche's murder:

July 14, 2005

The body of journalist Jacques Roche, who had been kidnapped on July 10 is
found in Delmas 4. Jacques Roche had been tortured before being executed: his
arms were broken, his tongue had been ripped out, and his body bore marks of
extreme corporal punishment. He was killed by  several gun shots in the mouth.
[1] [2] Jacques Roche was not simply a dedicated journalist; he was also a
talented poet and a passionate lover of Haiti. He believed in social justice
and had militated for many changes, including the unconditional cancellation
of Haiti's foreign debt and the fight against the free zone established
unilaterally by Aristide in Maribahoux (North East.)

According to press reports, his kidnappers took issue with his role to host a
radio show about civil society, sponsored by the "Groupe des 184." This led to
their decision to assassinate him despite his family having made a partial
payment of $10,000 on the ransom they had requested. [3] He had become, in the
eyes of his kidnappers, an enemy of Jean-Bertrand Aristide and of Lavalas and
therefore had to be eliminated.

July 17, 2005

In one of her signature diatribes, lawyer Marguerite Laurent, a pro-Aristide
apologist and his chief defender in the United States, puts in context the
death of Jacques Roche and explains why it was understandable; she says in
essence that the current wave of kidnappings are in retribution for the
kidnapping of "democracy" when Jean-Bertrand Aristide left power. She writes:
The kidnappings in Haiti for political and economic purposes began with the
kidnapping of Democracy by the powerful Coup Dâ??etat nations of the US,
Canada and France, intent on imposing privatization, neoliberalism in Haiti,
no matter the will of the people, the nation nor its duly
electedrepresentative.

Last Thursday, July 14, 2005, Jacques Roche, a well-known cultural and sport
news reporter for Le Matin, and television host of a show on "civil society"
issues for Group of 184, who had been kidnapped on July 10, 2005, was
founddead. His tortured and bullet ridden body was found still handcuffed,

[...]

Let's begin by questioning WHY Jacques Roche was killed? In sum, Roche's death
is the fruit of a poison tree that must first be uprooted before justice can
ring in Haiti. It's the fruit of an ongoing international crime of kidnapping
democracy begun with the kidnapping of President Aristide from
Haiti.

As a friend wrote to me today, "The handcuffs (left on Roches body) already
told us WHO did it. I can't imagine slum dwellers possessing handcuffs, and if
they did, having enough to leave them on a dead body. We are dealing with
really evil people." Moreover, according to an AHP news report "People close
to the cultural journalist condemned his execution and declared that if they
had received support from some sectors they didnâ??t name, to complete the
ransom, the victimâ??s life would have probably been saved....One of his
collaborators, Roudy Sanon, who was involved in the negotiations with the
kidnappers, declared that it was his work colleagues who helped to get the
10.000 dollars given to the kidnappers. He also deplored that the Police
General Direction did not help to get Jacques Rocheâ??s release, despite the
fact that it had enough clues to help, he said. "This authority of the police
is therefore responsible on this level of his death, Roudy Sanon said on a
private radio station of the capital." [4]
In a few paragraphs, Marguerite Laurent manages to mangle the truth, turn the
events of Jacques Roche's death on their head, and turn his employers into the
ones responsible for his death all in one fell swoop:

Lie #1: Slum dwellers do not possess handcuffs.
Marguerite Laurent chooses to ignore that a large number of Cite Soley
criminals were enlisted in the last two Haitian National Police classes under
Aristide (at his request) and were let go after his departure because of their
shameful criminal records. In addition, a number of policemen linked to
Lavalas have been arrested recently for their involvement in kidnappings and
murders. It is not that difficult to figure where the handcuffs might have
come from. And it is possible to buy handcuffs in Haiti today from private
shops. Dany Toussaint, another murderer linked to Lavalas until he split with
Aristide, sold such goodies at his store recently.

Lie #2: Jacques Roche did not receive support from some sectors that might
have saved him.
Jacques Roche's kidnapping was not about ransom. The kidnappers went though
the masquerade to make it appear as such. His political death had been pre-
ordained, and no amount of money would have saved him from his certain
execution. Let's remember one clear point: Jacques Roche was assassinated for
having collaborated with "Groupe des 184", not because his family could not
come up with the ransom. The vast majority of kidnappings in Haiti have been
settled for much less than $10,000. So to pretend that his employers could
have saved him simply by contributing money is a lie.

Lie #3 - The Haitian Police is responsible for his death.
Roudy Sanon, AHP and Marguerite Laurent should hang their heads in shame for
propagating such a lie. The police explained very clearly that they had leads,
but not enough information to quickly react to the murder. [5] This was
confirmed when they arrested Roger Etienne, one of Jacques Roche's murderers,
who explained that he was constantly being moved.

Beyond the obvious lies, Marguerite Laurent's obvious message, though the
words of a "friend", is that only the "murderous" regime of Latortue could
have killed Jacques Roche, but certainly not the "peaceful" gangs that are
terrorizing the slum dwellers she was talking about. Even more ominous is the
message, subsequently picked up by Gerard Jean-Juste, that the "kidnapping" of
Aristide on February 29, 2004, justifies the wave of such crimes in Haiti
today and that only his return will end the wave. If that is the case, then
isn't it a clear acknowledgement of WHO is responsible for the kidnappings?
After all, it is such a poisonous tree ... but who planted it in the first
place?

July 20, 2005
In an interview on Radio Kiskeya, Rev. Jean-Juste picks up on the theme of
Aristide's kidnapping as being the first instance of this crime. His message:
since our leader was the victim of a kidnapping, we Lavalas certainly cannot
be responsible for this type of crime. But he went on to state that the end of
the violence from below depends on the end of the violence from above. [6]

What is then the violence from below that he is referring to? Isn't it the
kidnappings, murders and rapes that the pro-Lavalas gangs have been
perpetrating, not only on Haitian society as a whole but especially on the
residents of the slums in which they have taken residence? We should be under
no illusion that, despite the class warfare message that is being spread by
Marguerite Laurent and Gerard Jean-Juste, the majority of the victims of
violence of any sort in Haiti today are poor. And contrary to what they would
have us believe, the perpetrators for the most part are the pro-Lavalas gangs
that were armed and trained by Aristide and his henchmen, like Paul Raymond,
René Civil, Hermione Leonard, et al from 2001 until his departure.

As a side note, what is most disingenuous from Marguerite Laurent is her
systematic silence on one of the worst crimes perpetrated by gangs like that
of the late Dred Wilme's: rape. The principal victims of crimes in Site Soley,
Solino, Bel Air, Delmas 2, Grande Ravine, etc. are women (primarily young) and
even in some cases pre-pubescent girls who are preyed upon by depraved gang
members who have turned to a new form of bodily mutilation to inflict further
pain on their rape victims: the incrustation of parts of plastic or metal in
their penises. [7] This was the case, for example, of Dred Wilme's lieutenant
Emmanuel Coriolan (aka "Dom Laj") who underwent "surgery" while in jail to
have his penis augmented with bits of plastic and metal. He had it done to
better torture any female kidnapping victim that his gang would seize.

July 21, 2005

Jacques Roche's funeral

Jacques Roche's funeral is marked by moving tributes from speakers from all
walks of life. But it will also be remembered for Rev. Jean-Juste's audacious
attempt to officiate at the ceremony - when he can be considered as a moral
author of Roche's murder - and the subsequent false statements which have
revealed his talent as a pathological liar and the unethical lapses of a
certain William Quigley, attorney-at-law.

Before the funeral, Jean-Juste had an interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy
Now! where he stated:
So right now, today Iâ??m on my way to attend the funeral of Jacques Roche, a
prominent journalist who had been kidnapped and killed. And I'm going to show
myself because his parents are from my town, and at a certain time, one of his
relatives saved my life. I was being attacked by a mob, and then Mrs. Roche
came out, saw me, and get me off the gangs and sheltered me at her house. So
this is why I feel that I should be there regardless that they keep accusing
Lavalas people of participating in the killings. [8]
What happened at the funeral? Rev. Jean-Juste and his attorney William
Quigley, decided to participate at the ceremony. Notwithstanding the gall of
Jean-Juste, the fact that he came dressed in full priest garb and had every
intention of officiating at the ceremony can only be interpreted as an act of
provocation or sheer folly or both. Soon after his arrival, Jean-Juste is set
upon by a group of incenses students (not 184 people as falsely reported by
Bill Quigley [9]) After a few minutes of mayhem, Jean-Juste and Quigley are
led away by a group of CIVPOL officers and are then picked up by the Haitian
police that take them to the Petionville precinct. Jean-Juste will later be
arrested, but not Quigley.

July 22, 2005
An article written by Bill Quigley and entitled "Haitian Priest Assaulted by
Mob at Funeral and Arrested for Murder " [10] is posted on
www.commondreams.org. Never mind the fact that Bill Quigley is not a
journalist. Never mind the fact that Bill Quigley is Jean-Juste's attorney.
Why this "op-ed" piece, at best, is posted as a news article is beyond me.
However, what is most striking is the number of lies and innuendos that Bill
Quigley manages to inject in such a short article:

1. Jean-Juste was beaten by 184 supporters.
2. Roche deserved to die because he worked with "the people calling themselves
the group of 184, who overthrew by force the democratically elected government
of President Aristide, the leader of the Lavalas party, in February 2004." [11]
3. Jean-Juste is a cousin of Jacques Roche. In Quigley's words:
On Thursday July 21, 2005, Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste went to St. Pierre's Catholic
Church to be one of the priests participating in the funeral of Haitian
journalist Jacques Roche. Fr. Jean-Juste is a cousin of the Roche family and
members of the Roche family protected him from a mob earlier in his life. He
went to express spiritual comfort and reconciliation to the family. [12]
Already, there is an obvious discrepancy between Jean-Juste and his attorney
on the exact relationship of Jean-Juste to Jacques Roche:
a) Jean-Juste: Roche's parents are from my town (Cavaillon)
b) Quigley: Jean-Juste is a cousin of Roche.

July 23, 2005
On Saturday, July 23, Jacques Roche's mother breaks her silence on Radio
Kiskeya to comment specifically on her so-called "relationship" to Rev. Jean-
Juste [13]. She refutes any kinship to the Reverend, thereby proving that all
of the comments made by Jean-Juste and Quigley were fabrications. She
specifically states that:

1. She has no relationship to Rev. Jean-Juste
2. She has never met Jean-Juste, neither now nor when he was a child.
2. While her husband was from Cavaillon, she is from Cap-haitien and has never
set foot in Cavaillon.
4. Therefore, she could not possibly have saved Jean-Juste from a mob that
attacked him and then sheltered him at her house when he was a child, since
she never lived in Cavaillon.

July 24, 2005
In his "Common Sense"column entitled "Extremism in defence of freedom ..."
[14] , Jamaican journalist John Maxwell, an unabashed Aristide apologist,
writes the following:
[...]
[Gerard Jean-Juste] was then arrested, charged with something that happened in
Haiti while he was in Miami, released, then beaten up when he attended a
funeral, re-arrested and thrown into prison, this time, allegedly, for the
murder of the journalist whose funeral he was attending.
[...]
In one cute sentence, John Maxwell has managed to take out of context the
meaning and importance of Jean-Juste's presence at the funeral of Jacques
Roche. More importantly, he has now conveyed to his unsuspecting readers the
incredible "injustice" meted out to the good Reverend. John Maxwell, no lawyer
he, conveniently forgets to explain to his readers that there is such a thing
in Haitian law as "accusation par la clameur publique" [15] and that there are
antecedents, given Jean-Juste's involvement with the pro-Lavalas gangs that
have been organizing these deadly kidnappings. At least, Maxwell had the
decency not to write about Jean-Juste's "close family relationship" to Jacques
Roche. And I am sure that his skilled command of the English language (unlike
mine) will carry in any discussion about what he really meant. And I am doubly
sure that the coterie of Aristide friends that have formed the Dessalines-
Boukman Society in Jamaica will no doubt approve of Maxwell's journalistic
(mis)carriage of justice.

One of the problems with all anglophone journalists, and with Marguerite
Laurent despite her Haitian ancestry and her work in Haiti, is that they still
do not have a good understanding (if at all) of the differences between common
law and Haitian law. It is high time they started learning something positive
to better defend their heroes.

Also, contrary to Maxwell's claim, Bill Quigley was not arrested. We must
wonder what Maxwell's sources are and whether he has a reliable network of
informants or whether he has decided to lower his journalistic standards when
it comes to news out of Haiti. If Maxwell did verify independently the news
that he received, he would not have included in his column what is obviously
false information, But then again, the end justifies the means...

In conclusion, the habitual liars and apologists have once again unmasked
themselves in protecting an individual who had no reason to attend the
funeral, nor any decency to stay away from the family of the man to whose
death he contributed, directly or indirectly. It is such a shame that the
Lavalas movement, which stood for justice and transparency, has been overtaken
by overzealous extremist who care not a wit about the Haitian people. But who
can blame them? Il faut bien défendre ses patates ...

Jean-Claude Jasmin
jasminjeanclaude@yahoo.com
July 24, 2005


NOTES AND REFERENCES
[1] http://www.alterpresse.org/article.php3?id_article=2829
[2] http://www.metropolehaiti.com/metropole/archive.phtml?
action=full&keyword=jacques+roche&sid=0&critere=0&id=10315&p=3
[3] http://www.radiokiskeya.com/article.php3?id_article=985
[4] Marguerite Laurent email dated July 17, 2005 entitled "[ezilidanto] Jacque
Roche's death used by "Council of the Wise" to criminalize & bar Lavalas from
elections, Jean-Juste persecution increases, UN Massacre continues, et al....."
[5] http://www.radiokiskeya.com/article.php3?id_article=992
[6] http://www.radiokiskeya.com/article.php3?id_article=1009
[7] http://www.metropolehaiti.com/metropole/full_une_fr.phtml?id=10363
[8] http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?
sid=05/07/21/1332235&mode=thread&tid=25
[9] http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0722-08.htm
[10] http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0722-08.htm
[11] http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0722-08.htm
[12] http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0722-08.htm
[13] http://www.radiokiskeya.com/article.php3?id_article=1024
[14] http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/html/20050723T190000-
0500_84721_OBS__EXTREMISM_IN_DEFENCE_OF_FREEDOM____.asp
[15]  http://ledroitcriminel.free.fr/dictionnaire/lettre_c/lettre_c_ci.htm

- Droit positif. La clameur publique, faisant immédiatement suite à un crime
ou à  un délit, fait naître une situation dâ??urgence qui justifie
lâ??ouverture dâ??une Enquête de flagrance* et autorise lâ??Arrestation* de
la personne poursuivie (art. 53 C.pr.pén.).
 Garraud (Traité de lâ??instruction judiciaire) : La clameur publique,
câ??est lâ??accusation jetée au public, lâ??appel qui lui est fait, nâ??y
eût-il que le blessé ou le premier témoin survenu qui poussât le cri.
 Decocq Montreuil et Buisson (Le droit de la police) : La clameur publique est
constituée dâ??un cri (Au voleur, p.ex.), non pas dâ??une rumeur, mais il
nâ??est pas indispensable quâ??elle contienne une accusation précise (le
cri : Arrêtez-le suffit). Le législateur voir en elle un indice suffisant
dâ??une présomption dâ??imputabilité dâ??une infraction flagrante.








> Message du 24/07/05 20:16
> De : "Bob Corbett"
> A : "Bob Corbett's Haiti list"
> Copie à :
> Objet : 25797: (news) Chamberlain: Jailed Haitian priest denies role in
killing (fwd)
> From: Greg Chamberlain
>
> By Joseph Guyler Delva
>
> PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, July 22 (Reuters) - A popular Haitian priest
> arrested on suspicion he was involved in the killing of a journalist,
> denied on Friday he had anything to do with the slaying and accused the
> government of persecuting him.
> The Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, a prominent supporter and close friend of
> ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, said his arrest on Thursday after
> the funeral of Jacques Roche, a journalist with the daily newspaper Le
> Matin who was kidnapped and killed last week, was politically motivated.
> "I was not even in Haiti when Jacques was kidnapped and killed. I was
> in the U.S. I am 100 percent innocent," Jean-Juste said from his jail cell.
> Jean-Juste, a Roman Catholic priest and a leading figure in Aristide's
> Lavalas Family party who was imprisoned for seven weeks last year, was
> jailed on Thursday after he tried to take part in Roche's funeral. At the
> service, a government minister blamed Aristide supporters for the killing.
> "I have a cousin that married one of his (Roche's) relatives,"
> Jean-Juste said from his jail cell. "I wanted to pay tribute to him because
> I was so touched by his assassination."
> Human rights groups have repeatedly criticized Haiti's U.S.-backed
> interim government, installed after Aristide's ouster in February 2004, of
> persecuting Aristide followers.
> Government officials were not immediately available for comment on
> Friday, but interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has denied any political
> persecutions by his government against opponents.
> Roche, the culture and society section chief at Le Matin, was tortured
> and killed last week after being kidnapped on July 10. His battered body
> was found on a street in Port-au-Prince.
> Jean-Juste alleged a pattern of harassment by Haitian authorities,
> saying he was questioned by police when he returned to Haiti last Friday
> but was released because "they did not find anything. They had to let me
> go."
> Three days after his return, a judge issued a summons ordering him to
> answer allegations he was plotting against state security.
> "The judge could not find anything against me, because it was totally
> unfounded," he said.
> Jean-Juste was taken from his church last October while he was feeding
> street children and was jailed for nearly seven weeks. His imprisonment
> rallied to his side human rights groups, including Amnesty International,
> which called on the Haitian government to improve its human rights record.
----- End forwarded message -----