---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 19 May 1995 10:57:17 -0700 (PDT)
From: Bob Corbett <bcorbett@crl.com>
To: Bob Corbett <bcorbett@crl.com>
Subject: News of Haiti
Once again, thanks so much to Rich Gosser for this news.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 19 May 1995 08:33:00 -0400
From: RGosser@aol.com
Title: U.S.-HAITI: Arrest of FRAPH chief poses questions for U.S.
by Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, May 12 (IPS) - The arrest in New York this week of the
chief of a Haitian paramilitary group which waged a terror
campaign against supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
could create new headaches for the U.S. intelligence community.
Emmanuel Constant, head of the notorious Front for the
Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH), has reportedly enjoyed
close ties to U.S. intelligence agencies which, many analysts
believe, may have helped him escape from Haiti to the United
States last December.
Constant himself has claimed that the Pentagon's Defence
Intelligence Agency (DIA) first recruited him as a paid agent in
1991 -- shortly after Aristide's ouster in a military coup -- and
then encouraged him during the summer of 1993 to form FRAPH as a
''balance (to) the Aristide movement.''
''He knows an awful lot and he loves to talk,'' says Bill
O'Neil, a legal adviser with the National Coalition for Haitian
Refugees in New York. ''It's going to be interesting to hear what
he has to say.''
The debonair Constant, known as ''Toto,'' was arrested by
special agents of the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS)
Wednesday outside his residence in Queens, New York, after the INS
was tipped off by an informer, according to INS spokesman Rudolph
Brewington.
Brewington told IPS Constant was subsequently transferred to a
holding facility at Wicomico, Maryland -- about 100 kms from
Washington -- where he is awaiting deportation proceedings.
The INS was ordered to find Constant at the end of March, two
weeks after the Aristide government -- which was restored to power
by a U.S.-led multinational force last September -- asked for his
extradition. At the time, U.S. officials said they had no idea
where he was.
In a letter to Attorney-General Janet Reno Mar 29, Secretary of
State Warren Christopher revoked Constant's visa to enter the
United States on the grounds that he ''is the founder and
secretary-general of (FRAPH) and, as such, is directly connected
to an organisation whose members have been responsible for
numerous alleged human rights violations.''
Christopher wrote that Constant's ''presence in the United
States could have potentially serious adverse foreign policy
consequences.''
So might what Constant might say about his relationship with
U.S. intelligence, according to recent accounts.
The first disclosure of Constant's ties was published last
October in The Nation magazine. Allan Nairn, a respected
investigative reporter, named Col. Patrick Collins, the DIA's
attache in Haiti until 1992, as Constant's first handler.
Collins is alleged by Constant to have first suggested the
formation of an anti-Aristide ''front'' to do ''intelligence''
work against pro-Aristide forces. So began the military-linked
'attaches' who became FRAPH after the signing of the July, 1993,
Governor's Island Accords by Aristide and then-military chief Gen.
Raoul Cedras.
That agreement, which was mediated by the United States and the
United Nations, was supposed to pave the way for Aristide's return
from exile by the end of October, 1993. But, as October
approached, military repression and terrorist activity by FRAPH
increased sharply.
The climax came in mid-October, when Constant -- who was, at
the time, a paid CIA asset -- orchestrated a noisy demonstration
at the Port-au-Prince harbour to prevent the landing of hundreds
of U.S. and Canadian peacekeeping troops who were supposed to
prepare they way for Aristide's return two weeks later.
Constant's ploy worked, and, to the jubilation of FRAPH and the
military-backed regime, the U.S.S. Harlan Country turned around
and steamed homeward.
Until the eventual arrival of the U.S.-led multinational force
11 months later, FRAPH imposed a reign of terror in which hundreds
of suspected Aristide supporters were beaten, tortured, killed or
raped.
Despite that record, U.S. troops were initially told not to act
against FRAPH. But continued beatings and killings by the group
and their military allies provoked some U.S. units into moving
against the paramilitary group.
In early October, U.S. troops raided FRAPH's headquarters in
Port-au-Prince and arrested 35 members. The next day, however,
Constant, who had reportedly gone underground, turned up at a U.S.
Embassy press conference to urge his followers not to resist the
U.S. occupation.
Shortly afterwards, the Embassy said it asked Constant to
surrender his U.S. visa, but when he didn't show up, the Embassy
apparently dropped the matter. That made it easier for him to slip
into Puerto Rico just before Christmas, after he had failed to
obey a court summons to testify about FRAPH's activities. He later
surfaced briefly in Washington, and then disappeared.
Meanwhile, however, some U.S. Special Forces units reportedly
continued cooperating with FRAPH in rural areas. Echoing Collins,
who returned to Haiti after the intervention, they said they had
been told the group could help ''balance'' Aristide forces in the
countryside.
The Haitian government and activists have long suspected that
Constant's friends in the U.S. intelligence community aided his
entry into the United States. ''I would not be surprised if
specific individuals may have done so on their own,'' one
knowledgeable official told IPS before Constant's capture.
The State Department said Friday Constant will be returned to
Haiti, although it left unclear whether he will be extradited or
deported. ''He would end up in the same place, so I'm not certain
what the material distinction is,'' said spokesman David Johnson.
But what happens to him there is of concern to some analysts,
particularly in light of recent jail breaks there by large numbers
of prisoners.
''If he is returned, he could escape or somebody could kill
him, because he knows too much,'' said O'Neil. In the meantime,
Haitians who have sued FRAPH in U.S. courts for civil damages
arising out of the group's physical attacks against them and their
families are hoping to gain Constant's testimony before he leaves
Washington's custody.(END/IPS/JL/95)
Origin: Washington/U.S.-HAITI/
----
[c] 1994, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)
All rights reserved
CPTNET May 12, 1995
KILLINGS CONTINUE IN HAITI:
by CPT Members in Haiti
We just returned from a trip to the Artibonite valley, Haiti's
bread basket. We took testimony, later independently confirmed,
about a judge in Des Chappelles whose wife was decapitated after
he signed a routine document allowing a local Lavalas (Aristide's
party) candidate to run in the elections. This happened after
the previous judge was removed from the bench because, under
threats from local para-military groups, he was too scared to
sign.
The judge who signed did so under orders from the Haitian Justice
Ministry. He lost his wife for daring--in an act of simple
respect for law and order--to challenge those with guns and money
who are accustomed to usurping his bench. His killers were
those trained by the CIA under the leadership of Emanuel
Constant, whom U.S. rescued from prosecution in Haiti.
According to the May 13 Chicago Tribune Emanuel Constant who had
fled to the U. S. was arrested at the request of Secretary of
State Warren Christopher, who had said that his presence in the
country damaged U.S. interests. Constant faces deportation
hearing. (ed.) Constant was the leader of the feared para-
military force, FRAPH whose armed members are still at large in
Haiti and will continue to have significant influence over the
coming elections June 25.
In a personal appeal for support Christian Peacemaker Team
Members Duane Ediger and Lena Siegers wrote. "We need to
remember and pray for those whose suffering for truth is deep.
But not only that; we must call for fair reporting; we must
denounce our country's financial, political and military schemes
to continue domination. The mainstream media through the
filter of US Army Psychological Operations (Psyops) would have us
believe that threats and violence come primarily from the poor
majority of Haitians--those who have always been left out of
decisions--and that the US is protecting politicians threatened
by their irrational behavior."
The only truth which cannot hide behind the lies in their
presentation is that the US is friends with anti-Aristide
upholders of the status quo in Haiti.
Christian Peacemaker Teams, P. O. Box 6508 Chicago. IL
Tel. FAX 312-455-1199 e-mail cpt@igc.apc.org