30464: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Toto's Victims (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By STEVENSON JACOBS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, May 25Haiti (AP) -- Malya Villard was laying in bed when
masked paramilitary soldiers kicked down her door and gang-raped her.
Fifteen years later, Villard is hoping for justice in a New York court,
even if only a token.
   A plea deal in a U.S. fraud case against the paramilitaries' former
leader, Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, would have deported him to Haiti to face
murder and torture charges, but Villard and other victims say they want to
see him tried in the U.S., even if the charges are minor.
   "There's no justice in Haiti, only impunity," said Villard, a widow and
mother of six from Port-au-Prince's rough Martissant slum. "At least in
America, he might be punished."
   The judge in the case on Thursday rejected the plea deal, clearing the
way for Constant to face trial on charges he defrauded lenders out of more
than $1.7 million.
   Human rights groups say Constant's Front for the Advancement and
Progress of Haiti waged a campaign of terror against supporters of ousted
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide during the country's 1991-1994 military
regime.
   After U.S. forces restored Aristide to power in 1994, Constant fled to
the United States. The mortgage fraud charge he now faces carries a maximum
penalty of five to 15 years in prison. Many believe that in Haiti he would
receive less for more serious charges.
   "I would like him to pay for what he did, but if he comes back here,
they'll put him in jail for a little while and then let him out," said
Eramithe Delva, who was raped in 1992 by five paramilitary soldiers who
also severely beat her husband.
   Anne Sosin, director of Haiti Rights Vision, a local human rights group,
said past figures from the regime have walked free.
   "There's little chance of the Haitian justice system being able to try
Toto Constant," she said.
   Still, others are urging President Rene Preval's government to speed
Constant's return.
   "Toto Constant should be tried in Haiti so that the Haitian people can
regain trust in the judicial system," said Pierre Esperance, director of
Haiti's National Human Rights Defense Network.
   But Preval's government has shown little interest.
   "For us it's not one of the biggest priorities. We have so many things
to do in this country that ... it's not a big preoccupation," Haitian
Foreign Affairs Minister Jean Renald Clerisme told The Associated Press on
Thursday.
   Constant claimed he worked for the CIA, but the U.S. intelligence agency
denies any role in antidemocratic actions in Haiti.
   Villard said she is still haunted by her ordeal and wants to see
Constant rot in prison -- an American one.
   "Every time I see his face I relive what happened to me," she said at a
Port-au-Prince outreach center where she counsels other rape victims. "If
he comes back to Haiti, he could rejoin his supporters and the repression
will start all over again."