Haiti Tribunal & the September 24 March on Washington , DC
by Greg Dunkel  

Even Haitians, who knew the news, were shocked and horrified to see the video of Fredi Romélus, as he sat besides the bodies lying in a pool of blood in his modest home in the sprawling Port-au-Prince slum of Cité Soleil and described how his 22-year old wife Sonia Romélus and their sons, Stanley and Nelson, were killed by UN occupation troops. “They surrounded our house this morning and I out ran thinking my wife and the children were behind me,” he said. “They couldn't get out and the blan [UN] fired into the house." (Cité Soleil is a slum where support for restoring democracy and deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is very strong.)  The same shot that killed Sonia, who was holding Nelson, killed him too. Stanley, who was 4, was killed with a shot to the head.  The UN claimed they only shot “bandits” who fired on their troops first.  This testimony, filmed hours after UN troops gunned down some 60 people in Cité Soleil on July 6, 2005, was part of the evidence entered at the opening session of the International Tribunal on Haiti, held in Washington, September 23, 2005. Other sessions in cities like Miami, New York, Montreal, Boston, where there are significant Haitian communities, are being planned.  

Presiding judge Ben Dupuy explained to the court that the Tribunal has two main purposes. “First, it will investigate reports of human rights violations in Haiti , with particular attention to individual responsibility, for those violations under international law,” he said. “To this end the tribunal will examine current reports of killing, torture, illegal detention and other serious violations if international human rights, as well as the events leading up to the overthrow of Haiti’s elected government in February 2004.  The International Tribunal for Haiti ’s second purpose is to develop a case file that will be referred to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in the Hague .”  The United States does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC, but the countries whose forces comprise the UN troops in Haiti do.

 Ira Kurzban, a Miami-based lawyer who represented Haiti’s constitutional government, testified to the disappearance of the justice system in Haiti.  He pointed out that the United States itself recognizes this "fact" by refusing to deport back to Haiti Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, the leader of the death-squad FRAPH (Front for Advancement and Progres of Haiti), on the grounds that the Haitian justice system cannot guarantee him a fair trial.  Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, coordinator of  the Fondasyon 30 Septanm, testified to the complicity of the United States in the systematic undermining of the democratic process in Haiti by recounting his own personal story of how he escaped from Haiti. Thomas Griffin, a civil rights and immigration lawyer in Philadelphia, who was a federal parole and probation officer for 10 years before he became a lawyer, testified on his civil-rights investigation in Haiti during November of 2004.  He interviewed people suffering from gunshot wounds to the head who were afraid to go to the hospital because people who go to the hospital with gunshot wounds wind up in the morgue.  Griffin said that he investigated the burning of 60 bodies.  He felt that the fact that misprinted Haitian currency was used as fuel pointed to the involvement of the current de facto government because only the government generally has access to such items.  Kevin Pina, a U.S. journalist who has lived in Haiti for over a decade, testified to how he obtained the video of Fredi Romélus and how he was arrested by the police who were attempting to plant weapons in the house of Fr. Gérard Jean-Juste, even though he was only trying to exercise his profession as a journalist.  Jeb Sprague, Yves Engler and Seth Donnelly also testified.  Fresh off a plane from a trip to the Middle East, Ramsey Clark,  an antiwar activist, founder of the International Action Center and former U.S. Attorney General, also addressed the Tribunal. He has agreed to lead a Commission of Inquiry in Haiti, which is tentatively scheduled for the beginning of October. Court-martialed Capt. Lawrence Rockwood, lawyer/investigator Tom Griffin, unionist Dave Welsh, and filmmaker Katharine Kean have agreed to serve on it and some notable figures in U.S. politics have expressed interest. In addition to Ben Dupuy, who is secretary general of the National Popular Party (PPN), the Tribunal’s presiding judges were Lionel Jean-Baptiste, a Haitian lawyer based in Chicago, and Lucie Tondreau, a leader in the Miami popular organization Veye Yo. The Investigating Judge was Brian Concannon, head of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), and the chief prosecutor was Desiree Wayne, a lawyer based in Colorado, assisted by journalist Kim Ives and unionist Ray Laforest.

 

Of the 21 people indicted, the Investigating Judge asked the jury to find three guilty and referred the rest of the cases to the Commission of Inquiry for further investigation.

 

The jury rendeded guilty verdicts for all three: former Haitian National Police Chief Léon Charles, former Minustah military commander Brazilian Lt. General Augusto Heleno Ribiero Pereira, and the Chilean MINUSTAH chief Juan Valdes.

 

In coming months, the Tribunal will convene additional sessions throughout the U.S., and if possible, in Haiti.  All of the sessions will present eyewitness and expert testimony, which will be collected in the case file.

 Four buses with Haitians travelled from Brooklyn, Queens, and Irvington, NJ to Washington, DC to attend the Tribunal. The delegates spent the night in a progressive church. The next morning, the Haitian contingent marched in the September 24 march of 300,000 against the U.S. occupation of Iraq. One of the main calls of the march was an end to the occupation of Haiti and of Palestine, a slogan seen on many signs and placards and raised in speeches.

 When addressing the tens of thousands massed in the Ellipse behind the White House, Ramsey Clark called for "the impeachment of Bush for crimes against peace, and his campaign of shock and awe against civilians in Iraq ." Clark pointed out "the United States spends more on weapons than the rest of the world combined." He accused the United States of being directly responsible for the destruction of democracy in Haiti. If Bush is impeached, Clark said he dreams about Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a honorable, just and upright man, becoming president of the United States of America.  That would certainly change the attitude of the United States. Ben Dupuy, who spoke right after Clark, noted how Bush had to send U.S. Special Forces to Haiti to destroy democracy and expel a democratically elected president. He asked: "Why is the U.S. afraid of Cuba , Venezuela , and Haiti ? It is not because they possess weapons of mass destruction, those so-called WMDs.  It's because they are democratic."  Cindy Sheehan, the mother who led a month-long sit-in in Crawford, Texas -- Bush's vacation home -- demanding a meeting with the president so he could tell her personally why her son had to die in Iraq, shouted, her arms upraised.: "We have to do our jobs as Americans. If nobody else will hold them accountable, we will. We'll be the checks and balances on this out-of-control, criminal government."  Jesse Jackson, the well-known U.S. civil rights figure, spoke after Sheehan. "The response of the Democratic Party has been weak, too weak." Jackson was once upon a time candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. He felt that the antiwar movement in the United States has to raise the occupation of Palestine and Haiti. During the march, a white police officer from the Executive Protection Service, which guards the White House, the U.S. Treasury, and other highly sensitive installations, noticed a white North American marching with the Haitian contingent, carrying a Haitian flag and a sign denouncing the de facto government and calling for the return of Aristide as president.The cop asked the demonstrator: "What do you know about Haiti ?  How can you support a dictator like Aristide?"  The protester responded: "I lived in Haiti for some time. I know Aristide is a democrat, a man of the people. Aba makout! Aba Latortue! Viv Aristide!"  

There were more than a few North American marchers carrying Haitian flags. When asked, they generally responded that the lack of democracy in Haiti because of U.S. intervention was an issue that the antiwar movement had to address.