Raboteau massacre
The Raboteau massacre was the murder of an estimated 20 people in the densely populated slum of Raboteau in the city of Gonaïves in Haiti, 170 kilometers north of Port-au-Prince , on April 24, 1994 . The massacre was carried out by soldiers from the coup regime under Raoul Cédras and paramilitaries such as FRAPH . It was one of the last attempts by ex-interior minister Roger Lafontant to forcibly prevent the democratically elected “poor priest” Jean-Bertrand Aristide from taking office.
background
Raboteau is a poor district, which was known for the active resistance against the military dictatorship ruling Haiti from 1991 to 1994 under Raoul Cédras .
The overthrow of the first democratically elected President of Haiti, Jean Bertrand Aristide , by the military on September 30, 1991 sparked strong protests. In Gonaïves, soldiers shot into the crowd, killing an unknown number of unarmed demonstrators. For the next two and a half years, the residents of Raboteau continued nonviolent resistance. They organized secret meetings, hid refugees, spread pro-democratic literature and organized demonstrations. Although the military and paramilitary units carried out numerous missions in Raboteau during the military dictatorship , during which resistance suspects were beaten, threatened, arrested and tortured, Raboteau was one of the few relatively safe retreats for resistance activists.
The massacre
On April 18, the military and paramilitary units started operation "The Rehearsal", which consisted of driving pickup vehicles through Raboteau, shooting at and pursuing preferably young men. They ransacked a well-known local leader's home, set fire to the facility on the street, and arrested his father and sister. An elderly blind man was beaten in another house and died of the injuries the following day. The military use the following days to organize and to gather troops. The main attack followed on April 22nd, before dawn. Military and paramilitary units attacked from several sides, breaking into houses, kicking down doors and destroying the facilities. Men, women and children of all ages have been threatened, beaten and arrested.
Those who fled in the direction of the port were already awaited there by armed men and were under fire or arrested and tortured.
The exact number of deaths is not known, as some of them were buried by the military or the corpses were eaten by animals. 8 murders and dozens of arrests and tortures have been safely documented.
Legal proceedings against the perpetrators
Haiti
Five months after the Raboteau massacre, a US-led invasion brought President Aristide, who was elected in 1991, back to power. With the help of the French pastor and local Catholic Church's Justice and Peace Commissioner Daniel Roussiere, as well as local, national and international human rights groups, the victims managed to put pressure on the government of Haiti to initiate proceedings. The Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), a government-paid group of lawyers, began work on the Raboteau case in 1996. The government established a special coordination office and set up a special police unit to detain the suspects.
In September 2000, the largest and most complicated case in Haiti's history to date began. The entire judicial process was broadcast live on national radio, and parts of it were also reported on television.
Statements from 34 witnesses, including victims, neighbors and local officials, were used. Many documents could not be used because the US forces removed approximately 160,000 pages from military and paramilitary offices in 1994. Despite repeated calls for the documents to be released to Haiti by the government of Haiti, US congressmen, human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International and many other individuals and organizations from more than 30 countries, the US government refused to release the documents.
On November 10, 2000, the court sentenced 8 military men ( Castera Cenafils , ...) and 4 paramilitaries (Jean Pierre Tatoune, ...) to life imprisonment with hard labor. Four other people received sentences ranging from 4 to 9 years. Each of them continued to be fined US $ 2,275, several times the average salary in Haiti. Six of the 22 defendants in custody were acquitted. The process was accompanied by national and international observers.
A week later, on November 16, 2000, 37 other participants ( Raoul Cédras , Jean-Claude Duperval , Philippe Biamby , Carl Dorélien, Hébert Valmond , Martial Romulus, Franzt Douby, Ernst Prud'homme, Jean Robert Gabriel, Joseph Michel François , Bellony Groshommes, Reynald Timo, Estimé Estimable, Anatin O. Voltaire, Michel-Ange Ménard, Luc Roger Asmath, Ledix Dessources, Walner Phanord, Madsen St-Val, Romeus Walmyr, Tony Fleurival, Carlo Noe, Pierre Piloge Oriol, Emmanuel Constant , Louis-Jodel Chamblain , Armand Sajous (called "Ti Armand"), Wilbert Morisseau, Brutus (given name), Chery (given name), Koukou (given name), Ti Sonson (given name), Pierre Paul Camille, Pierre André Presume, Douze ( Nickname), Raphael Camille, Achou (nickname), Jacob Jean Paul) sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia.
On May 3, 2005, the Haiti Supreme Court (Cour de Cassation) overturned the judgments of 15 former members of the military and the paramilitary organization FRAPH for their involvement in the Raboteau massacre. None of the 15 convicts were in captivity at the time the convictions were rejected, one had died and the others had fled. Amnesty International called the court's arguments to overturn the judgments on the basis of a law of March 29, 1928, as unconstitutional, as they denied the primacy of the Haitian constitution. The verdict does not apply to the 37 people convicted in absentia on November 16, 2000, as they were sentenced without a jury.
United States
Carl Dorélien, who fled to the US, hit the headlines for winning the Florida State Lottery for $ 3.2 million in 1997. He was then recognized and sued on January 24, 2003 by the human rights organization “ Center for Justice and Accountability ” (CJA) on behalf of the family of a victim of the massacre. Dorélien, a colonel in the Haitian Army at the time of the crime, was sentenced in 2007 by a Miami court to pay a total of $ 4.3 million in damages. The $ 580,000 remaining from his lottery win could be withdrawn in 2008 and paid out to the plaintiffs. Dorélien himself was deported to Haiti by the US authorities in 2003 after the immigration authorities found that he had violated human rights.
Several civil suits have also been brought against Emmanuel Constant in the United States.
Movies
- Pote Mak Sonje: The Raboteau Trial , February 2003
Web links
swell
- ^ Amnesty International: Haiti: The Raboteau trial - a chance to strike back against impunity. , October 3, 2000
- ^ A b c Brian Concannon Jr .: Justice in Haiti: The Raboteau Trial . Human Rights Tribune, December 2000, Vol. 7, No. 4th
- ^ Brian Concannon Jr .: Raboteau Trial: The convictions ( Memento of the original from November 14, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Amnesty International: Haiti: Obliterating justice, overturning of sentences for Raboteau massacre by Supreme Court is a huge step backwards. , May 25, 2005
- ↑ a b Chris Thompson: Local Mayor Pursues Exiled Deathmonger. In: East Bay Express. August 30, 2006, accessed August 10, 2017 .
- ↑ Application to the Miami District Court , published by the CJA, at archive.org
- ^ Cases> Haiti: Carl Dorélien press release of the CJA, on archive.org
- ^ Alfonso Chardy: Ex-Haitian Officer Liable for Torture. Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, February 24, 2007, accessed August 10, 2017 .
