6128: Open letter of Senator Irvelt Chery (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Stanley Lucas <slucas@iri.org>

Port-au-Prince, November 17, 2000


OPEN LETTER


To All Attorney General of the Republic,
To all the Deans of the Civil Courts
To all Judges and Justice Officials of the Haitian Territory

Ladies, Gentlemen, Officials of the Countries,

I am honored to congratulate you for the endeavors that you undertake within the Judicial Branch in this struggle context against impunity. My letter is nothing else than a formal denunciation before you, the Judicial Branch, of the abuses and biases affecting Haitian men and women conducted by people who are committed to act without care of society and morality.

As an Haitian citizen, I am suffering as well as my fellow countrymen from 
the awful situation of injustice and impunity permitting the present context of a disarticulated  Haitian society. As a Senator of the Republic lawfully elected and representing the Haitian  people in their search for social justice and simply justice,  I am compelled to denounce in front of your jurisdictions the abuses which have traumatized and grieved  the Haitian population during several  years (from January 1995 to nowadays).  Those responsible for this have not been prosecuted by  Justice.  This unfair situation seems definitively to encourage the dynamics of authorized crime in Haiti.

These crimes can be divided into five categories:

1. Assassination followed by the death of men or women

2. Assassination attempts where the victims were spared

3. Cases of massacres where more than three people were killed

4. The financial scandals, embezzlements, and other economic crimes

5. scandals tied to drug trafficking with or without murder


I.- Assassination Followed by the Death of Men or Women

In this crime category, I have to submit for your attention the list of 
assassinated citizens to whom justice was not granted, to them as well to 
their family:

- Lawyer Mireille Durocher Bertin
- Eugène  Baillergeau Junior
- Député Jean Hubert Feuillé
- Pasteur Antoine Leroy
- Jacques Florival
- Me Michel Gonzalez
- Policewoman Marie Christine Jeune
- Benson Joseph
- Eddy Arbrouet

- Général Titi  as they name him
- Général Convington as they name him
- Gary Obas,  Sénateur Méhu Garçon driver
- Congressman Emilio Passe
- Emmanuel Arbrouet
- Police Inspector Berthony Bazile
- Father Jean Pierre-Louis (Father Ti Jan)
- Police Inspector Ricelin Dornéus, killed in Mirebalais
- Dr Jimmy Lalanne
- Senator Jean Yvon Toussaint
- Col. Jean Lamy
- Les Versailles Brothers
- Michel-Ange Philistin or Little Bora
- Mrs. Jean Coulanges
- Jean Léopold Dominique, Radio Haïti Inter Director
- Jean-Claude Louissaint
- Carmen Casséus, Sacrificial Crime
- Ducertain Armand
- Général Max Mayard
- Captain Jacky Myton
- Amos Jeannot, FONKOZE Employee
- Ti Élysée with the "Chuck Noris" nickname
- Representative Erick Lamothe
- Dr Guirand (Killed at ti tanyen)
- Dr Carrénard wounded and left as dead (still at Ti Tanyen)
- M. et Mrs. Pierre Dorsainville
- Ferdinand Dorvil (OPL Gde Rivière du Nord)
- Légitime Athis and His Wife (MDN Petit-Goave)
- Policeman Jean Léonard  Killed at Portail Léogane
- Assassination of Policeman Bidmarck Milssaint, le 27 avril 1997
- Prophète Jean Julien
- Colonel Michel-Ange Herman
- Lieut.  Marc Claude
- Beauville Océan, former Army Member
- Frédéus Désir
- Fabien Joseph
- Gabot Bruno
- Policeman Chéry Berthony
- Emmanuel Louis-Charles, a 14 Year Student Killed in Carrefour.
- Jean Wilner Lalanne, presume killer of Jean L. Dominique, deceased 
because of non clarified reasons and whose corpse was robbed at the Haitian State University Hospital.

I have to remind you, Ladies and Gentlemen, Judicial Officials, that the
individuals who have masterminded or done these crimes move in full 
impunity.  They are well known and were many times denounced by public opinion

II.- Assassination Attempts where the Victims Were Spared

In this crime category,  I have to submit in front of your jurisdictions the 
following cases:

-   Mrs.  Marie-Claude Préval Calvin
-  Congressman Jean Gabriel Fortuné
-  Senator Méhu Garçon
- Dr Carrénard
- Sénator Edgard Leblanc Fils
- Prof. Sauveur Pierre Etienne
- Pierre Lespérance, Director of the National Coalition for Human Refugees 
  Human Rights (NHCR) and Member of the  Platform of Human Rights Haitian Organizations.
- Mrs. Carmel Moïse Bley, editor of "Caribbean Network   Magazine"
- Agronomist Dieugrand Jean-Baptiste et several other people wounded at 
Hinche
- Mr. Roméro Halloun

III.- Crime Cases where more than Three People were killed

In this crime category,  I can name the following cases:

- The shooting case at the Relais Restaurant in Lalue.  In this massacre, 
four people were killed. Among them were the owner and several people were seriously wounded at that  restaurant.
- The discovery of  a six month old ossuaries at Ti Tanyen.  The bones and 
the clothes regaining found  could be those from young people arrested by Haitian National Police agents, young people that its was impossible to trace.
- The case of dead or wounded people in the gang war between Soleil 17 and  Pele.
- The case of a given amount of dead or wounded people in gang war between Solino and Ti Chéry.
- The massacre done at Mahotière, third communal section of 
Marchand-Dessalines
- The massacre which occurred on November 1997 near the Fritz Pierre-Louis School at the Saint-Honoré street where there were one dead and 14 wounded
- The massacre at Carrefour Feuilles where 11 people died.  There was a masquerade of judgment which did not convince anyone
- The October 2, 2000 massacre done in the Delmas 4 zone where four people were dead.  Among them were two policemen.
- The November 3, 2000 shooting at the Nationale No1 and Delmas road intersection known as the Aviation crossroad where seven
people were dead and twenty people wounded.
- The Martissant massacre where more than ten people dies and the terror 
week following the Aviation crossroad events.

III.- The Financial Scandals, Embezzlements, and Economic Crimes
In this crime category, I must mention the following scandals:

1.  The case of false checks which were done against the interests of the 
Economics and Finance Ministry, checks with an amount bypassing the 100.000.000.00 gourdes {Hundred Millions of Gourdes), puzzle never solved.
2.  The case of Taiwan funds embezzlement which amounted to US$20,200.000  for the cleaning and widening of the Carrefour road and the transformation into an Hospital  of the former Simbie Continental Hotel
3.  The scandal of the illegal selling of six planes of the former Haitian 
Armed Forces and the lack of transparency of their utilization
4.  More than 800.000.000.00 gourdes (Eight Hundred Million of Gourdes) from the small projects of the Presidency {Example of projects: Building of the Aristide Foundation for Democracy in  Haiti, Renewal of the former President private house in Tabarre).
5.  The corruption Denounced by the World Bank in the management of a US$50  million project according to the Wall Street Journal in its January 26, 1999 edition.
6.    The violence and rioting days organized by groups tied which caused 
the violation of private property and the destruction of lives and properties during the last four years
7.  The embezzlement of budgetary funds amounting to 60 millions of gourdes and targeted towards the financial compensation of the 30 Sept. 1991 coup victims.
8.  The criminal fires in Jeremie, in December 1999, and more recently at 
Anse-d'Hainault, Port-Salut, Aquin, and Port-au-Prince.


IV.  -  The scandals tied to drug trafficking with or without murders

In this category of crimes, I must name the following cases:

1.  The All People Benefit operation where 11 people would have died in the  Aquin/Cotes de Fer/Miragoane.
2.  The 450 kilos of Cocaine found on the Tabarre road
3.  The "extraordinary bargain or all people benefit No1 operation" at Grand 
Goave where an assistant-mayor died after the May 21, 2000, elections.
4.    The scandal caused by drug load coming from a plane in Leogane which  caused a battle with the local population
5.   Other face to face conflicts with the local population in Port-de Paix 
where Latin Americans supplied a substantial drug shipment which caused the death of a policeman.
6.  The implication of some Police commissars in the recuperation of several 
drug loads delivered in the North of the country which sparked a contestation within the Police where  General Inspector Joseph
Luc Eucher had to abandon his position not to harm the cronies of the 
President.

The list of these cases is not complete, it refers not to some sporadic 
facts but to the actual and durable situation which keeps on threatening the Haitian population in all  aspects and everywhere on the territory

I urge you, Ladies/Gentlemen from the Judicial High Level community to 
consider the intellectual authors, authors, and accomplices of such acts as No1 public enemies and to launch, without  delay or appeal a prosecution against these individuals to prevent them from harming and keeping on in sowing death and  despair.

The most well-known are:

1. René Garcia Préval
2. Jacques Edouard Alexis
3. Fred Joseph
4. Jean-Marie Chérestal
5. Camille Leblanc
6. Pierre Max Antoine
7. René Magloire
8. Jacques Dorcéan
9. Mondésir Beaubrun
10. Ronald Camille dit Ronald Cadavre
11. Jean-Bertand Aristide
12. Franco Camille dit Franco Cadavre
13. Dany Toussaint
14. Yvon Neptune
15. Jean-Marie Fourel Célestin
16. Pierre Denizé
17. Clifford Larose
18. Joseph Luc Eucher
19. Robert Manuel
20. Jean Auguste Brutus
21. Joseph Médard
22. Roldophe Joazil
23. Joachin Samedi
24. Anne Auguste dit So ann
25. Luckner Jean-Baptiste
26. Patrick Norzéus
27. Georges Simon
28. Jose Ulysse
29. René Civil
30. Yvon Massacre
31. Richard Salomon
32. Milien Rommage
33. Gladis Lauture
34. Leslie Voltaire
35. Théobal Pierre-Paul
36. Charles Suffra
37. Alfred Mikanord
38. Serge Calvin
39. Joseph Deras Simon
40. Yvon Feuille
41. Gérald Gilles
42. Lovensky Pierre-Antoine
43. Pierre-Paul Cotin
44. Paul Raymond
45. Mario Viaud
46. Jean Candio
47. Nahum Marcellus



To this list are added all former and present department delegates, 
executors of this policy consisting in destroying lives and
properties. Ladies/Gentlemen from the High Level Judicial Authorities, I dare to hope  that the investigation that you will start will identify all other case and other criminal accomplices that Justice  will quickly condemn.  The plurality of noted cases, their dispersion on the whole territory embraces all the jurisdictions of the  Republic.  I want to believe that you will establish an active collaboration between your respective jurisdictions and will seek, in this sense, the assistance from the International Police (INTERPOL) or from any other  investigative  structure which would have already worked on these files. The Haitian people impatiently awaits your work not to refer to 
international justice.

With my thanks, I would be glad, Ladies and Gentleman from the high level 
Judicial community, that you accept my patriotic salutations.

_______________________
Maurissaint Jean Irvelt Chéry
Sénator of the Republic

P.S. :    A formal denunciation was sent to all the Atorney General
from the 15 judicial jurisdictions of the Republic.