8120: RE: 8079: Re: 8073: Avril (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Catherine Orenstein <catherineo@earthlink.net>


  Tttnhm@aol.com writes:

> I also seem to remember that Avril was the subject of an arrest
> warrant in 1995 - quite a notorious incident when President Aristide and
US > Embassy staff quarelled on short wave radio about whether the police
> should make the arrest or not. During the delay, Avril 'escaped'.


Without looking through my files, I recall that there was some discussion of
using the 1994 US civil court judgement against General Prosper Avril to
secure an arrest warrant valid in Haiti - I dont recall the status of that,
or whether there are any warrents outstanding. But the incident Charles
refers to (above) took place late on the night of November 7, 1995, when US
troops surrounded the property of Avril and prevented Haitian police from
arresting the former dictator, who was reportedly sitting on an arms cache
and was also suspected of involvement in the murder of a Haitian
parliamentarian (Jean Hubert Feuillé) that day.  In the ensuing exchange
between Haitian and US officials, the US claimed that the US soldiers were
preventing the Haitian police from making an illegal arrest.  Meanwhile
Avril escaped to the Colombian embassy.
- catherine