|
 As human rights lawyers assist
the outgoing Haitian
government in preparing a legal
case against former “President for
Life” Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier,
Haiti’s incoming president
revealed this week that he favors
granting the recently returned
dictator an amnesty from prosecution.
In an interview with Montreal’s
French-language daily La Presse, Michel “Sweet Micky”
Martelly said that he “could eventually think of that
(an amnesty) to the extent that those who were hurt in the past
understand the need for reconciliation” and that “I’m
leaning toward the side of amnesty and forgiveness.” Martelly, who was a vocal
supporter of both the 1991 and
2004 coups d’état against former
Haitian President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, cleverly used the same
brush to whitewash Duvalier and
smear Aristide. (Duvalier returned
to Haiti on Jan. 16 after being
chased out by a popular uprising
25 years earlier. Aristide returned
on Mar. 18, having been
kidnapped from his home by U.S.
Special Forces soldiers on Feb.
29, 2004 and flown into exile in
Africa.) “Their cases are not as unique as you might think,” Martelly
said. “They belong here and I welcome them. If they’ve had
problems or acted badly in the past, it’s a matter for the
justice system.” But the former presidents
are politically polar opposites.
The U.S. backed the never-elected
Duvalier for 15 years until his final
days in power, while it twice
helped to overthrow the twice
massively elected Aristide.
“Duvalier has been charged
with many crimes and been found
civilly liable for hundreds of millions
of dollars as a result of his
crimes,” notes lawyer Brian Concannon
of the Institute for Justice
and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH).
“There are no criminal charges
against Aristide, despite millions
of dollars invested by the U.S. in
pursuing him over 15 years.” A large team of Haitian and
international lawyers are helping
the Haitian government to put
together the Duvalier prosecution
and process complaints being
filed by Duvalier era victims living
in Haiti and its diaspora. Groups
helping the prosecution include
the Port-au-Prince-based Office of
International Lawyers (BAI) and
its sister organization, the Boston-
based Institute for Justice and
Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), the International
Center for Transitional
Justice, and, more recently, the
UN High Commission for Human
Rights. Human Rights Watch has
also taken a strong interest and
role in championing the case, issuing
last week a 54 page report
entitled “Haiti’s Rendezvous With
History: The Case of Jean-Claude
Duvalier.” It examines the legal
and practical questions surrounding
the case and concludes that
Haiti has an obligation under international
law to investigate and
prosecute the grave violations of
human rights under Duvalier’s
rule. “The Duvalier trial could be the most important
criminal case in Haitian history,” said Reed Brody, counsel
for Human Rights Watch. “The challenges for Haiti’s weak
justice system to carry out a fair trial are enormous, but
international support can help Haiti meet those challenges.” Meanwhile, many of the
charges of corruption and repression
in the case being formulated
against Duvalier involve crimes
against humanity, which have no
statutes of limitations. “A president
cannot give Duvalier an
amnesty for gross human rights
violations because that would
violate international law and
would be unconstitutional,” explained
the BAI’s lead lawyer Mario
Joseph. “There are no constitutional
provisions which would
allow Martelly to give such an
amnesty.” Among the crimes outlined
in the HRW report are that “hundreds
of political prisoners held
in a network of three prisons
known as the ‘triangle of death’
died from maltreatment or were
victims of extrajudicial killings.”
“Many political prisoners
who entered the triangle of death
were never released, and their
whereabouts remain unknown
to their families,” the report also
charges. “Summary executions
of prisoners are also alleged to
have occurred, including prisoners
at Fort Dimanche on August
7, 1974, seven people executed
on March 25, 1976, and eight
prisoners reportedly executed at
Morne Christophe and Titanyen
on September 21, 1977. Political
killings by security forces also
took place.” The report also details how
“political prisoners often faced
interrogation and savage torture,”
and that “freedoms of association,
assembly, and expression
were severely restricted. The
government repeatedly closed independent
newspapers and radio
stations. Journalists were beaten,
jailed and forced to leave the
country.” To date, some 19 victims of
Duvalier have filed complaints
with the state prosecutor related
to crimes against humanity and
human rights violations.
On Apr. 20, four days late,
Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council
(CEP) is due to announce final
results of the Mar. 20 second
round, which preliminary results,
announced Apr. 4, gave to Martelly
by a margin of two to one.
(He won with only about 16%
of the electorate due to a pointed
abstention rate of over 75% by
Haiti’s 4.3 million voters.) But even before his official
announcement, Martelly has begun
his victory laps and honeymoon
declarations. Journalists
who have interviewed him say
that his political consultants of
Ostos & Sola have been reinforced
with new handlers, who observe
and coach him through interviews
to hone his “message.” On Apr. 19, he traveled
to Washington for three days of
meetings with U.S. and international
financial institution officials
including U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton, World Bank president
Bob Zoellick, International
Monetary Fund president Dominique
Strauss-Kahn, and representatives
of the Inter-American
Development Bank. He also has
interviews planned with media
like CNN, the Washington Post
and Fox News, as well as an address
at Washington’s National
Press Club. After Washington, Martelly
will reportedly visit Brazil, whose
troops head the 13,000-member
United Nations military occupation
of Haiti, known as
MINUSTAH. Despite his pseudo-nationalist
flourishes and plans
to reactivate the Haitian Army
demobilized by Aristide in 1995,
a high-placed diplomatic sources
claims that Martelly has formally
asked the occupation authorities
to have their troops stay on during
his term. On Apr. 15, Martelly met
with lame-duck president René
Préval, who will step down
on May 14. Despite Martelly’s
threats during his campaign that
Préval “must leave Haiti,” the two-hour meeting was cordial, with
Martelly saying “there was not a personal conflict with René
Préval; the important thing is for us to unite our forces to put
the country on the path of progress.” Préval’s party, Unity, has,
by preliminary results which may change, an
absolute majority of 17 senators
in the 30 seat Senate, and a relative
majority – 34 members – in
the 99 seat Chamber of Deputies.
With this knowledge, Préval said
that “I promised Michel to work
with the parliamentarians so
that there is an effective collaboration.” The airwaves are filled with
the expressions of goodwill that
precede every political rumble in
Haiti. Dismay César, a faux-Lavalas
leader of the Together We Are
Strong party (Ansanm Nou Fò)
which has the third largest presence
among Deputies, announced
that his party has “already met
with those close to Martelly” and
“we told them that we would not
be a factor of blockage” in the
Parliament. Meanwhile, former 2004-
coup “rebel” leader Guy Philippe
of the National Reconstruction
Front (FRN) announced that his
party “had supported the candidacy
of Mr. Martelly due to his
promises to break with the current
political system and to provide
free education throughout
the country.” Indeed, Martelly’s promise
of free education for all was one
of his principal selling points but
may prove to be his voters’ first
deception. Already, one campaign
source suggests that the “universal
free education” may be
restricted to primary school children
and not be fully implemented
around Haiti until the end of his
five year term. |
