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IJDH Human Rights Alert:
Haiti Assassination Trial An Affront to
All Those Who Have Worked and Died for Justice
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.
I. Background
Antoine Izmery, a prominent supporter of President
Aristide, was murdered on September 11, 1993, during Haiti's de facto
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, in absentia for murder at the 1995 trial of
the Izmery killing.
Jackson Joanis was a Captain in the Haitian Army, and head of the
Anti-Gang police, the de facto 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.
Jodel Chamblain was the co-founder and chief of operations of FRAPH
(Front Révolutionnaire pour l'Avancement et le Progrès Haïtiens),
Haiti's most notorious death squad. He was also convicted in absentia
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.
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 de facto 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.
Joanis and Chamblain are the only two human rights abusers from the de
facto 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 de facto High Command convicted in absentia
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.
The justice system itself has been attacked by the insurgents, and
ignored by the de facto 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.
II. Pretrial Proceedings
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.
Following international criticism of the de facto 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."
Haiti's Code of Criminal Procedure required that the cases against
Chamblain and Joanis be assigned to an "Investigating Magistrate" (Juge
D'Instruction) who reviews all relevant evidence, interrogates the
suspects and any potential witnesses, and issues a formal charging
document called the ordonnance. The Prosecutor (Commissaire du
Gouvernement) 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.
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 ordonnance 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.
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.
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.
III. The Trial
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.
Amnesty International referred to the trial as "an insult to justice"
and a "mockery."
IV. The Next Step
Both Chamblain and Joanis remain in prison, awaiting
trials on other charges. Chamblain's lawyer predicted a new trial on his
in absentia 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.
V. The Fight For Justice in Haiti
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
For more information:
WWW.IJDH.ORG
(reports on current human rights conditions in Haiti, legal analyses)
WWW.AMNESTY.ORG
(reports on current human rights conditions in Haiti, including a
press release following Chamblain's March arrest)
BRIAN CONCANNON JR.
August 17, 2004
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