a1710: Re: a1705: RE: a1697: Newsweek Exclusive: Duperval inFlorida-Legally---Perhaps an alternative, indeed (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Hyppolite Pierre <hpierre@irsp.org>

Bob Walton's piece got me thinking that perhaps, we could find a way to
"mend those fences". The choice that I am about to suggest however, is a
tough pill to swallow. It is especially so for someone like Kevin Pina who
has so skillfully displayed on films the atrocities of the coup d'état
period. I do think nevertheless that we must think of some other
alternatives.

A couple of months ago, Olivier Nadal on this list attacked the Haitian
government over what he considers its ineptitude. He even suggested that
Aristide is trying to force the hand of the Boulos family to sell them a
basically dead (from my sources) enterprise, the Pharval Pharmaceutical
company.

Every time the Government of Haiti (GOH) seems to be under mounting
pressure, they revive the issues of atrocities of the past and point out to
some, allegedly notable criminal former members of the former military or
paramilitary régimes. Every once in a while, they bring up the issue of
Emmanuel "Toto" Constant. Last year, they've arrested former dictator and
general Prosper Avril who is now back in prison after he was shortly
released by Haiti's Court of Appeals.

In every one of the above-mentioned cases, the true intent appears to be
misplaced, if one listens carefully to the opponents and adversaries of the
régime. This is why.

Olivier Nadal they say, is only paying the price of his perhaps outrageous
accusations against the régime. Since they do not (or cannot) respond or
refute his accusations with solid contradictory evidence, they bring upon
his head the specter of the Piatre massacre. Thus, the GOH loses credibility
on that front.

The issues of Toto Constant and Prosper Avril, and that of numerous past
rights abusers are just a political cloud they say, used by the GOH, to hide
its own problems with human rights abuses. All the while, Haiti is suffering
problems of misappropriated funds, lack of transparency and disclosure.
Worse, the country is suffering a political stalemate that does not seem to
have no end in sight. What then does one do? How does one reconcile the need
for justice, with the deep mistrust towards the Haitian government by so
many different sides?

Perhaps the right approach is once again Economics. When politicians, past
and present, know that there is a price to pay for their misdeeds, they will
think twice prior to committing them.

Under the present circumstances, the GOH should recognize that:

1-Haiti is suffering from some serious economic not crisis, but crises;
2-The poor Haitian tax payer should not be paying to shelter criminals, when
the prison population is already so high. Worse, these former human rights
abusers do have well-oiled machines that can and do present the GOH in the
worse light with their PR machines, every time you have notorious prisoners
at your hand like Avril. By the end, Haiti once again loses because these
problems deepen the current crises.

A better approach perhaps could be to, instead of keeping those guys in
prison, have new laws that specifically relate to those issues. Haitian
human rights violators, past, present, and potential ones should know that
there is a price to pay for their misdeeds.

The State could build a pool of Haitian and perhaps even international
lawyers, who would look into specific cases of past abuses from 1990 to
2000, when someone masterminded the killing of Jean Leopold Dominique. They
could help the victims build their case by accumulating evidence.

Once this is done, they could give carte blanche to any and every Haitian
from that period who wishes to return home to do so. That could be done with
the specific caveat that they may and probably will face civil prosecution
from their past victims. The State could specify the minimum amount that
such former human rights violators would have to pay to each of its victims,
in case they were found guilty by a jury or by a panel of judges.

Using such an approach would perhaps bring closure to Haiti's dirty past and
still extremely difficult present. Everything short of that under the
present circumstances, will only bring or add to resentment, and more
hatred, and more difficult times for Haiti ahead.

After all, if anyone seriously cares about those victims of human rights
abuses, s/he should care as well, and even mostly, about their economic
prospective. How many, mothers are left without a son, or wives without a
husband to bring food and money to them after a hard day's labor? What is
the sense of keeping those people in jail when they could pay some real
money for their misdeeds? Does anyone honestly believe that Avril in jail,
or Toto Constant back in Haiti in a prison cell, will help feed their hungry
victims?

Hyppolite Pierre
IRSP
http://www.irsp.org

____________________________________________________________________________
>
> From: "Walton, Robert" <waltonr@emh1.ftmeade.army.mil>
>
> During the 1994 military operation to restore Haiti's legal government, the
> US and the Cedras "government" reached an agreement that provided guarantees
> for the personal safety of many of its senior scum in exchange for avoiding
> a blood-bath.  Would the Haitian people preferred the alternative?
>
> Bob Walton
>