20 November 2000 The United Nations Independent Expert on Haiti, Adama Dieng, said today the Haitian justice system had taken “a huge step forward” with the completion of the trial in relation to the 1994 Raboteau Massacre. According to Mr. Dieng, the case was the longest and most complex in Haiti’s history and was the first to make extensive use of expert testimony and documents from the military’s archives. The trial, which lasted six weeks, ended on 9 November. The jury found 16 of the 22 defendants in custody guilty of participating in the massacre, an attack by military and paramilitary units on pro-democracy activists under Haiti’s 1991-1994 dictatorship. Most of those convicted were found guilty of murder or of being an accomplice to murder. Thirty-seven defendants who failed to appear for trial, including Former Lieutenant General Raoul Cédras, were convicted in absentia by the trial judge on […]