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PRESIDENT ARISTIDE SAYS HAITI'S JUSTICE SYSTEM MIGHT USE FRAPH DOCUMENTS IN PURSUIT OF JUSTICE IN INVESTIGATION OF FRAPH LEADER, LOUIS-JODEL CHAMBLAIN
Port-au-Prince, Feb.16 2004
During a press
conference held at Haiti's National Palace today regarding the humanitarian
crisis caused by recent acts of terrorism, President Aristide revealed that
the Government of Haiti may need to unveil the famous FRAPH documents. These
documents and photos may be helpful in the pursuit of justice with regard
to a criminal investigation underway involving FRAPH commander Louis-Jodel
Chamblain, who emerged Friday as one of the terrorists in Gonaives.
The terrorists are currently holding the approximately 150,000 residents of
Gonaives hostage. Their violence and blocking of roads has cut off food, fuel
and medical supplies to the Northern portion of the country. Today, in discussing
the violence in Gonaives and other towns, Aristide said Haiti's justice system
may need to refer to the FRAPH documents in the pursuit of justice. He added
that the names contained in the FRAPH documents are of persons who were actively
involved in FRAPH, as well as those who supported it. President Aristide suggested
that more than likely many of those same names engaged in the terrorist activities
from that period are also implicated in the recent destablization and violence
being waged today.
The criminal
investigation the President referred to involves the Cite Soleil fire, an
arson committed during the coup d'etat period, in which Chamblain is implicated.
After trials were held on two other matters, Chamblain was earlier convicted
in the Raboteau Massacre, as well as the assassination of businessman and
Aristide supporter, Antoine Izmery. Both of these crimes occurred during the
three-year coup period. Chamblain is also named in the Cite Soleil arson.
FRAPH, (Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress), a paramilitary
organization formed during the second half of the coup d'etat (1991-1994)
has been reported on and denounced by all international human rights groups
for their use of torture, assassination and rape against Aristide supporters
during that time. FRAPH was founded by Emmanuel (Toto) Constant, who later
revealed during a 60 Minutes interview that he met regularly with the CIA
station chief in Haiti at the time, advising him in advance of all upcoming
FRAPH activities and also stated that he received regular funds from the station
chief.
An article by Blum and Nairn (see below) reveals that Constant stated that
after Aristide was ousted from Haiti during the 1991 coup d'etat a US Defense
Intelligence Agency officer, who he named, urged him to set up a front as
a balance to the Aristide movement. This led to the creation of FRAPH in August
1993. Chamblain was the second in command of FRAPH. The FRAPH documents contain
papers and photos seized by the US military during their intervention in 1994
which led to the restoration of democracy and the return of President Aristide
a short time thereafter. FRAPH maintained offices throughout Haiti and they
wallpapered their offices with "trophy photos" of their tortured and maimed
victims.
Human rights organizations vary in their reporting of the numbers of persons
killed during the repression of the coup d'etat with the range being somewhere
between 3,000 to 5,000 victims, a large percentage being attributed to the
FRAPH paramilitary thugs. Immediately following the US intervention in Haiti
in 1994 the US Embassy spokesperson held a press conference in the central
park of Port-au-Prince and attempted to introduce the head of FRAPH, "Toto"
Constant, to the press as a legitimate leader of a legitimate opposition group.
The staged event was quickly derailed by Haitians who had just been liberated
after three years of brutal repression at the hands of Haiti's military and
FRAPH. This attempt to portray FRAPH as a legitimate political organization
was immediately denounced and rejected by human rights groups around the world,
as well as by the press corps who were all too familiar with the mutilated
corpses resulting from FRAPH's repressive maneuvers.
A highly publicized
victim of FRAPH's handiwork was that of the machete attack against Alerte
Belance, who was dragged from her home in the middle of the night because
her husband had been an electoral worker in the 1990 elections which brought
President Aristide to power on February 7, 1991. Belance was attacked by men
who identified themselves as FRAPH and left for dead on the national highway.
After being assisted by a stunned motorist, she underwent surgery to sew her
severed face back together, which had been sliced in half, and her arm had
to be removed. She miraculously survived and underwent years of physical rehabilitation.
Despite requests by the Government of Haiti that Toto Constant be returned
to Haiti to face the justice system, he remains at liberty in Queens, New
York and was granted a permit to work. The US government allowed Constant
to enter the United States in the mid 90s, although he was a known terrorist.
The US ordered
his deportation but never moved to deport him and he remains untouched by
the Justice Department's human rights violator program, which has been aggressively
deporting other such characters. The Government of Haiti formally requested
that the US return the FRAPH documents, arguing that they would be critical
to the work of Haiti's Truth Commission at the time and in the investigation
of criminal acts committed during the coup period. An international mobilization
of individuals, human rights organizations and haiti-interest groups, aggressively
campaigned as well for the return of the documents, however the US refused
to hand over the documents.
In one of President Clinton's last presidential acts, the FRAPH documents
were handed over to the Government of Haiti in early 2000, with the condition
that their use be limited to legitimate criminal investigations, as opposed
to retribution. They have never been used in the investigation and prosecution
of crimes to date.
Please refer
to these excellent articles on FRAPH: David Grann for
The Atlantic Monthly, June 2001 article Giving the Devil his Due
©2003 Copyright Embassy of the Republic of Haiti
