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<b>From:</b> Brianhaiti@aol.com<br>
<b>Date:</b> Tue, 17 Aug 2004 21:47:09 EDT<br><br>
<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=3><b>Institute for Justice and Democracy
in Haiti<br><br>
<br>
</b>August 17, 2004<br><br>
Contact Information:<br>
Brian Concannon Jr., Director<br>
BrianHaiti@aol.com<br>
<a href="http://www.ijdh.org/" eudora="autourl">www.ijdh.org<br>
</a>541-432-0597<br>
541-263-0029<br><br>
<br>
<b>IJDH Human Rights Alert: Haiti Assassination Trial An Affront to
<br>
All Those Who Have Worked and Died for Justice<br><br>
<br><br>
</b>In the early hours of August 17, a sham trial in Port-au-Prince
acquitted notorious Haitian rights abusers Jackson Joanis and Jodel
Chamblain of the 1993 murder of businessman Antoine Izmery.
Neither the judiciary nor the prosecution made even the minimum effort
required by law to pursue this important case. The absence of
effort combined with top Haitian officials' public support for Chamblain
and his colleagues compels the conclusion that Haiti's interim government
staged the trial to deflect criticism of its human rights record without
alienating its military and paramilitary allies. The trial is an
affront to the thousands of people who have worked and sacrificed for
justice in Haiti over the last fifteen years.<br><br>
<b>I. Background<br><br>
</b> <b>Antoine Izmery,</b> a prominent supporter of
President Aristide, was murdered on September 11, 1993, during Haiti's
<i>de facto </i>military dictatorship (1991-1994). Mr. Izmery had
organized a mass at Port-au-Prince's Sacre Coeur church, to commemorate
the anniversary of the 1988 St. Jean Bosco Massacre. Soldiers and
paramilitaries dragged Izmery out of the packed church, in full view
of the Haitian and international media, the diplomatic community in
Haiti, and UN/OAS Human Rights Observers, and shot him on the sidewalk
outside. Both Joanis and Chamblain were convicted, <i>in
absentia</i> for murder at the 1995 trial of the Izmery
killing.<br><br>
Jackson Joanis was a Captain in the Haitian Army, and
head of the Anti-Gang police, the <i>de facto</i> period's most feared
army unit. Joanis fled to the United States, but was deported back
to Haiti in 2001, because of his record of political persecution.
He has also been formally charged in the 1994 assassination of Fr.
Jean-Marie Vincent, and was identified as a major human rights abuser in
reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the United Nations,
the Organization of American States and the U.S. Government. <br><br>
Jodel Chamblain was the co-founder and chief of
operations of FRAPH (<i>Front Révolutionnaire pour l'Avancement et le
Progrès Haïtiens</i>), Haiti's most notorious death squad. He
was also convicted <i>in absentia</i> for murder in the 2000 Raboteau
Massacre trial. After the 1994 return of Haiti's constitutional
government, Chamblain fled to the Dominican Republic, where he trained
with other paramilitaries and former soldiers in exile. He returned
to Haiti in February as a leader of the insurgency that attacked towns in
Haiti's north, killing police officers, destroying prisons and
terrorizing the civilian population. <br><br>
The insurgency helped dislodge
Haiti's constitutional authorities, who were replaced by a U.S.-backed
unconstitutional government. Insurgency gangs still controls large
areas of Haiti, and refuse to disarm. Both the insurgency and the
allied <i>de facto</i> authorities have engaged in widespread attacks
against those perceived to support Haiti's constitutional government,
including hundreds of killings, as well as illegal political arrests and
detentions, and rapes, beatings and other torture. <br><br>
Joanis and Chamblain are the only
two human rights abusers from the <i>de facto</i> regime who have been
pursued by the justice system, even though many others had been
convicted, or escaped. These include a dozen people convicted in
person at the Raboteau Massacre trial, including FRAPH leader Jean
Pierre, alias Tatoune, and Army Captain Cenafils Castera, as well as
three members of the <i>de facto</i> High Command convicted <i>in
absentia</i> for Raboteau and deported from the U.S. Other
prominent fugitives from justice include former dictator Prosper Avril,
found civilly responsible for torture by a Miami court, and Henri-Robert
Marc-Charles, now a top advisor in the Ministry of the Interior, both
ordered imprisoned pending trial for the 1990 Piatre peasant
massacre.<br><br>
The justice system itself has been
attacked by the insurgents, and ignored by the <i>de facto</i>
authorities. In March, the judge who convicted Chamblain in the
Raboteau case was beaten by men claiming to be retaliating for
Chamblain's Raboteau conviction, and hospitalized. In April,
Chamblain boasted to reporters that he was acting as a "judge"
in Cap Haitian. On July 1, ANAMAH the Haitian national judges'
association, issued a press release deploring the increase in the
politicization of justice and illegal arrests over the previous four
months. Later that month, when a judge in Les Cayes ordered
the release of political prisoner Jacques Mathelier, the authorities
transferred the prisoner to Port-au-Prince, where he remains
incarcerated.<br><br>
<br>
<b>II. Pretrial Proceedings<br><br>
</b> Both Joanis and Chamblain had
been convicted in absentia for Izmery's murder in 1995. Under
Haitian law, those convicted in absentia have the right to a new trial,
but they must be arrested immediately upon entering Haitian
territory. Joanis was arrested when he arrived from the U.S., but
escaped from prison on February 29, when the insurgents attacked the
National Penitentiary. He turned himself in on August 9 in order to
participate in the trial. <br><br>
Following international criticism
of the <i>de facto</i> authorities' alliances with known human
rights abusers, Chamblain publicly turned himself in on April 22.
At the time, Minister of Justice Bernard Gousse admitted that the
surrender had been negotiated, and declared that Chamblain "had
nothing to hide." This sent a signal, especially to
prosecutors who are appointed by the Minister, that Mr. Gousse had
already decided the outcome. A month earlier, Prime Minister Gerard
Latortue praised Chamblain and his colleagues as "Freedom
Fighters."<br><br>
Haiti's Code of Criminal Procedure
required that the cases against Chamblain and Joanis be assigned to an
"Investigating Magistrate" (<i>Juge D'Instruction</i>) who
reviews all relevant evidence, interrogates the suspects and any
potential witnesses, and issues a formal charging document called the
ordonnance. The Prosecutor (<i>Commissaire du Gouvernement</i>) is
then entrusted with preparing the case and presenting it to the jury,
including contacting witnesses and ensuring their presence at trial, and
presenting all documentary evidence. <br><br>
In this case, no investigating
magistrate questioned Joanis after his surrender, and there is no
indication that Chamblain was questioned either. Officials simply
re-filed the <i>ordonnance</i> from July 1995, without adding information
obtained over the last nine years from interviews with defendants or
other means. They did not add any additional documentary evidence
to the case file, not even the section on the Izmery killing from Haiti's
Truth and Justice Commission report. Haitian and international
human rights groups that are known to possess information relevant to the
case or to have access to witnesses were never contacted for the
investigation.<br><br>
The Prosecutor made almost no effort
to obtain witness testimony. Many witnesses known to have
information were not contacted at all. The prosecutor claims to
have sent witness notices to only eight people, and these were sent on
August 13, the last weekday before trial. The law requires witness
notices to be served at least three business days before trial.
Witnesses were not asked whether they would be willing to testify, or if
they still recalled the events of Izmery's assassination eleven years
ago.<br><br>
The Izmery trial was informally
announced on August 12, three business days before commencing. This
violated several notice requirements of the procedural code, and provided
the defendants with a cause for appeal had they been found
guilty. The illegally short notice also limited the ability
of national and international human rights groups to monitor or criticize
the proceedings.<br><br>
<b>III. The Trial<br><br>
</b> The trial began on Monday,
August 16, and ended before dawn on Tuesday, August 17. Only one
prosecution witness appeared, and he admitted that he was not, in fact,
an eyewitness. The prosecutor was obviously unfamiliar with
the file, and appeared to be going through the motions, with no attempt
to present a convincing argument to the jury. Many observers and
journalists left the trial in the early evening, afraid of venturing out
on the capitol's streets after dark.<br><br>
Amnesty International referred to
the trial as "an insult to justice" and a
"mockery." <br><br>
<b>IV. The Next Step<br><br>
</b> Both Chamblain and Joanis remain
in prison, awaiting trials on other charges. Chamblain's lawyer
predicted a new trial on his <i>in absentia </i>Raboteau conviction
within a month. The Minister of Justice predicted that Chamblain
may be pardoned, even if he is convicted again. Joanis has been
formally charged for the 1994 killing of Fr. Jean-Marie Vincent, but that
trial has not been announced.<br><br>
<b>V. The Fight For Justice in Haiti<br><br>
</b> Haiti's Truth and Justice
Commission estimated that 5,000 people were killed along with Antoine
Izmery during the 1991-1994 dictatorship, for supporting justice and
democracy. The Director of the Port-au-Prince morgue reported
disposing of over 1,000 bodies in the month after the departure of
Haiti's constitutional government this year, many of them bearing the
signs of torture and execution. <br><br>
During more than nine years of
elected governments in Haiti (1994-2004), thousands of people worked
tirelessly for justice. Victims who survived and the families of
those who did not survive organized to pressure the justice system.
They marched, protested, kept vigils, wrote letters, sang songs and told
and retold their stories. Others, from Haiti and abroad,
participated within the structures: they created, ran and attended the
Judicial and Police Academies that trained a new generation of
professionals. Still others documented abuses for the Truth and
Justice Commission, the United Nations, the Organization of American
States and for human rights organizatons in Haiti and abroad. Many
put their lives and reputations on the line, by participating in
prominent trials as witnesses, complainants, judges, prosecutors, lawyers
and jurors.<br><br>
The dividends from these sacrifices
and efforts were less than most had hoped for. Progress on
prominent cases was frustratingly slow, and some controversial cases
stopped completely. But justice was served under the democratic
governments: the better trained prosecutors, judges and police officers
did their jobs imperfectly, but more justly than anyone had before in
Haiti. Two prominent human rights trials in the year 2000 rose to
international standards, and exceeded any complex trial in Haiti before
or since. Investigations into peasant massacres and political rapes
proceeded slowly, but proceeded. Each successful trial built upon
its predecessors, and set a new, higher standard for justice in
Haiti.<br><br>
Today's trial of Chamblain and
Joanis indicates a full return to Haiti's historical injustice, and the
elimination of the foundations erected with so much sweat and
blood. While political prisoners with no evidence or accusations in
their case files continue to fill the National Penitenciary, convicted
murderers are acquitted in a charade trial, their files chock full of
evidence but un-opened. <br><br>
History shows that Haitians will not accept this return to injustice, and
will keep fighting against it. But they cannot prevail on their
own, and history shows that the international community is as likely to
acquiesce in the new order as it is to vigorously protest. It
is therefore incumbent on those of us who can safely advocate for human
rights in Haiti to do so persistently. Failing to speak out betrays
the sacrifices already made, and encourages future atrocities.<br><br>
<br>
<b>For more information:<br><br>
</b><a href="http://www.ijdh.org/" eudora="autourl">WWW.IJDH.ORG</a>
(reports on current human rights conditions in Haiti, legal
analyses)<br><br>
<a href="http://www.amnesty.org/" eudora="autourl">WWW.AMNESTY.ORG</a>
(reports on current human rights conditions in Haiti, including press releases following the trial and Chamblain's March arrest)<br><br>
WWW. NCHR.ORG (press releases from Haiti (8/12/04) and New York (8/13/04) regarding the trial of Chamblain and Joanis).<br><br>
<br>
Brian Concannon Jr.<br>
Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti<br><br>
<br><br>
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