Lawmakers: Don't send Haitians back

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Wed, May. 19, 2004

IMMIGRATION
Lawmakers: Don't send Haitians back


A bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers is renewing its call for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to suspend all deportations of Haitian refugees and to grant Temporary Protected Status for the next 18 months to Haitians living in the United States.

U.S. Reps. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, are among those urging Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge to grant the request, first made in February as a string of violent rebellions swept across Haiti.

Lale Mamaux, a spokeswoman for Wexler, said the latest appeal is a follow-up to Homeland Security's refusal to suspend deportations and allow Haitians to temporarily live here until their homeland becomes more stable.
(snip)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/8699304.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two para-military creeps who really should have been sent back to Haiti years ago, to face Aristide's government:

Posted on Wed, May. 19, 2004


ORLANDO


Two Haitians suspected of torture are arrested

Two Haitians linked to human rights violations in the 1990s were arrested in Orlando by immigration agents. They now face deportation back to Haiti.

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
[e-mail]


U.S. immigration officials have arrested two Haitian torture suspects accused of attacking supporters of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide during the military coup that sent Aristide into exile in 1991.

Vital Cesear, 51, and Jones Charles, 33, were arrested at their respective homes in Orlando by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's effort to round up international human rights violators seeking safey in the United States.
(snip)

Cesear, arrested Tuesday, was a member of FRAPH, a paramilitary group linked to numerous human rights violations in Haiti. He was allegedly involved in arresting more than 100 people, some of whom he severely beat, said Nina Pruneda, a spokeswoman for ICE.

''He also participated in and witnessed the killing of Aristide supporters by members of his group,'' Pruneda said.
(snip)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/8699182.htm

[struggle4progress]

1. US behavior has been shameful:

ending back the death squads, armed, and blockading the country so that nobody can get out. Hundreds of deaths.

Temporary Protected Status makes sense, but it only helps those who can escape.

:kick:

<edit: clarity>

[AspenRose]

2. Well we all know Haiti is a hotbed for terra-ist activity....

We can't afford to have more 'brown skinned' people washing up on our shores.

/sarcasm OFF :mad:

[seemslikeadream]

3. Laurelton protestors urge arrest of ex-Haitian leader

Laurelton protestors urge arrest of ex-Haitian leader


04/01/2004



Brooklyn Councilman Charles Barron (far r.) joins protesters marching toward the reputed Laurelton home of Emmanuel "Toto" Constant.

Brooklyn Councilman Charles Barron (far r.) joins protesters marching toward the reputed Laurelton home of Emmanuel "Toto" Constant.
Several dozen protesters attended a march in Laurelton Saturday to demand the arrest of a former Haitian paramilitary leader said to be living in the neighborhood and wanted in his country.

"Toto must go! Toto must go!" they shouted as they walked up 225th Street to the man's reputed residence near 137th Avenue. The protesters carried wanted posters of the man with charges of "murder" and a "rape."


Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, co-founder of the Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress, or FRAPH, is accused of human rights abuses during the early 1990s in Haiti, where he was convicted in absentia in 1994 for a massacre that year.

"Why is it that in the middle of the war on terror we have a known terrorist living in New York?" asked Ron Daniels, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a Manhattan-based group that helped organize the protest.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11223384&BRD=1079&PAG=461&de...

Constant tied to voodoo


BY RON HOWELL
STAFF WRITER

March 31, 2004


Emmanuel Constant, wanted in connection with a massacre in Haiti, apparently has been seeking inner peace in the practice of voodoo, say local Haitians who have seen him at ceremonies.

Several practitioners said Constant was initiated into the voodoo belief system - which combines elements of Catholicism with African-based traditions - about a year ago

But a decade ago, when Constant led an alleged right-wing terror group in Haiti, he had invoked what he referred to as the power of voodoo for political purposes. He threatened to use a magical powder against U.S. soldiers attempting to restore then-exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. The U.S. soldiers eventually came with Aristide and Constant fled to New York.


The United States permits Constant to stay even though he was convicted in Haiti for a 1994 massacre of two dozen Haitians.

Critics say Constant is being allowed to remain because he was once a CIA informant, a relationship Constant has acknowledged.

more

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/newyork/nyc-nytoto313730688mar31,0 ...


Campaign to Deport Constant - Who is Toto Constant?


Emmanuel "Toto" Constant was the founder and head of FRAPH, first the "Revolutionary Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti," later "Armed Revolutionary Front of the Haitian People." FRAPH was Haiti's most prominent paramilitary organization during the de facto regime. Constant was also a close advisor to the dictatorship, and maintained an office in the military headquarters. U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher called FRAPH "a paramilitary organization whose members were responsible for numerous human rights violations in Haiti in 1993 and 1994." A less restrained U.S. Embassy cable called FRAPH a group of "gun carrying crazies", eager to "use violence against all who oppose it." Numerous monitors, including the United Nations, the Organization of American States, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch documented the multitude of atrocities committed by FRAPH.

FRAPH did not target only Haitians. In October, 1993, when the U.S.S. Harlan County arrived in Port-au-Prince with troops ready to implement a U.S.-brokered peace accord, Constant organized a violent FRAPH demonstration. Demonstrators carried guns, sticks and machetes, and some shouted, in English, "Kill whites! Kill whites!" A year later, when U.S. troops returned to finally oust the dictatorship, Constant ordered that "ach FRAPH man must put down one American soldier." When U.S. troops stormed the FRAPH headquarters, Constant threatened journalists with: "Everybody who is reporting the situation bad... by the grace of God, they will end up in the ground."

Despite these atrocities, Mr. Constant has received the continued support and protection of the U.S. Government. Government sources have confirmed Constant's claim that the CIA encouraged him to form FRAPH, and provided him with financial and strategic assistance. U.S. soldiers arriving in Haiti to oust the de facto dictatorship were told that FRAPH was a legitimate political party that needed to be respected and protected. In the intervention's first days the U.S. Embassy arranged a press conference outside the Presidential Palace for Constant to announce his transition to politics. The conference was cut short, because even a cordon of U.S. soldiers could not protect Constant from the enraged crowd (for more information on this and other aspects of the Constant/U.S. relationship, see David Grann "Giving The Devil His Due" included in this packet).

Constant fled to the U.S. in late 1994, when a Haitian judge called him in for questioning. After a public outcry, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service initiated deportation proceedings. A judge ordered Constant deported to Haiti in September, 1995, because "his continued presence in the United States sends the message that the United States actively endorses his position and undermines the United States' mission in Haiti." That order has never been executed. Shortly after it was issued, Constant discussed his relationship with the CIA on CBS' Sixty Minutes, which led to a secret agreement exchanging Constant's continued presence in the U.S. for his silence.

http://haitireborn.org/campaigns/toto-constant /

Feb. 14, 2004. 07:43 PM


Haitian rebels take two towns



GONAIVES, Haiti (AP) — Haitian rebels brought in reinforcements from the neighbouring Dominican Republic, including a former soldier who led death squads in the 1980s and a police chief accused of fomenting a coup, witnesses said Saturday, as police fled two more northern towns.

A 20-man commando arrived from the Dominican Republic, led by Louis Jodel Chamblain, a soldier who headed army death squads in 1987, and Emmanuel Constant, co-leader of a militia known as the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH, which killed and maimed dozens between 1992 and 1994, witnesses in Gonaives said. Chamblain fled to the Dominican Republic after 1994, while Constant went to New York City.

Guy Philippe, a former police chief who fled to the Dominican Republic after being accused by the Haitian government of fomenting a coup in 2002, also arrived in Gonaives to help the rebels prepare for an expected government showdown. It was unclear when the commando arrived.

The rebels launched a bloody uprising nine days ago from Gonaives, 100 kilometres northwest of the capital Port-au-Prince, and Haiti's fourth-largest city. Some 50 people have been killed.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout ...


AI REPORT 1997: HAITI

In September, police reportedly found an arms cache and evidence of plans to assassinate government officials at the home of Emmanuel Constant, former leader of the paramilitary organization Front pour l'avancement et le progrès d'Haïti (fraph), Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, who had fled to the usa in Decem-ber 1994. Two men were arrested at the scene, including a former army sergeant. By December, some 34 people report-edly remained in detention on suspicion of plotting against the authorities and engaging in other related activities, but had not been brought to trial.


http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aireport/ar97/AMR36.htm




Letter to Attorney General Janet Reno and Secretary Madeleine Albright
Re: Emmanuel "Toto" Constant
New York, December 11, 2000
Dear Attorney General Reno and Secretary Albright:

Our organizations are writing to request that the United States government execute the outstanding final deportation order obtained by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) against Emmanuel "Toto" Constant in December 1995. Constant is wanted by Haitian prosecutors for serious human rights crimes in Haiti.

The Center for Constitutional Rights made this request to Attorney General Reno on August 4 and September 25, 2000, but has yet to receive a reply. Human Rights Watch has similarly written on several occasions to Secretary Albright without response

As you know, Constant was a founder and secretary general of the paramilitary Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH). FRAPH members were responsible for human rights atrocities under the military government that ruled Haiti from 1991 to 1994, including extrajudicial executions, torture, and rape.

In February 1995 Constant's presence in the United States had become public and U.S. officials were pressured to arrest him. On March 29, 1995 Secretary of State Warren Christopher wrote Attorney General Reno an extraordinary letter requesting Constant's "expeditious deportation from the United States." Citing the Immigration and Nationality Act, Secretary Christopher "concluded that the continued presence and activities of Emmanuel Mario Constant ... in the United States ... would . . . cast doubt upon the seriousness of our resolve to combat human rights violations . . . I also request that you take all steps possible to effect his deportation to Haiti." Secretary Christopher understood Constant's role in Haiti's terror:

is officially regarded by the Department of State as an illegitimate paramilitary organization whose members were responsible for numerous human rights violations in Haiti in 1993 and 1994 . . . Mr Constant is one of the co-founders and current President of FRAPH. He was instrumental in sustaining the repression that prevailed in Haiti under the illegal military led regime ...

http://www.hrw.org/press/2000/12/constant1211.htm


How America Determines Friends and Foes

Noam Chomsky
The Toronto Star, March 14, 2004

The arrests were followed by what amounted to a show trial in Miami. The Five were sentenced, three to life sentences (for espionage; and the leader, Gerardo Hernandez, also for conspiracy to murder), after convictions that are now being appealed.

Meanwhile, people regarded by the FBI and Justice Department as dangerous terrorists live happily in the United States and continue to plot and implement crimes.

The list of terrorists-in-residence in the United States also includes Emmanuel Constant from Haiti, known as Toto, a former paramilitary leader from the Duvalier era. Constant is the founder of the FRAPH (Front for Advancement of Progress in Haiti), the paramilitary group that carried out most of the state terror in the early 1990s under the military junta that overthrew president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

At last report, Constant was living in Queens, N.Y.

The United States has refused Haiti's request for extradition. The reason, it is generally assumed, is that Constant might reveal ties between Washington and the military junta that killed 4,000 to 5,000 Haitians, with Constant's paramilitary forces playing the leading role.

The gangsters leading the current coup in Haiti include FRAPH leaders.

http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20040314.htm






U.S. Policy in Haiti


In August 1994 the Clinton administration sent 15,000troops and a high-level negotiating team (Jimmy Carter,Sam Nunn, and Colin Powell) to force the military tostep down. Covert assistance to antidemocratic forcesand U.S. insistence on harsh economic conditionalitymade it clear that the U.S. was out to return a tamedAristide to office. Ultimately, this effort to control thevery essence of Haiti’s burgeoning democracy hasundermined U.S. effectiveness. It has also weakened


Haitian efforts to alleviate poverty and to install a sys-tem of justice that defends the rights of the poor major-ity as well as the wealthy few. Although the presence of U.S. and UN peacekeepershelped restore calm and security, this success was under-mined by their refusal to disarm the disbanded Haitianmilitary and paramilitaries. These forces now lie in wait,threatening the still-fledgling democracy.AID is providing funding and technical assistance tostrengthen Haiti’s judicial system, yet the U.S. hasrefused Haitian government requests to deport FRAPHleader Constant, who was imprisoned in the U.S. andwanted in Haiti on murder charges. Instead, the U.S.Justice Department released him from prison.Furthermore, the Clinton administration refuses to givethe Haitian government uncensored copies of the doc-uments seized from FRAPH headquarters, raising sus-picions that the documents contain incriminatinginformation about CIA and other U.S. collaborationwith Haitian paramilitaries. Documents that wereobtained revealed, for example, that the CIA knew thatConstant was directly implicated in the 1993 murder ofJustice Minister Guy Malory, yet kept him on their pay-roll until the return of Aristide in 1994.The Clinton administration hascontinued to use developmentassistance funds to further open theHaitian economy to foreigninvestors. In late 1995 the newHaitian Parliament, responding tothe vehement popular oppositionto privatization, refused to autho-rize the privatization of state-owned industries as mandated bydonors. This conflict led to the fallof Prime Minister Smarck Micheland the ministers of the parliamen-tary government, which hadnegotiated and supported thedonors’ plan. AID held back dis-bursement of $4.5 million in bal-ance-of-payments support to force movement on priva-tization. This prompted an immediate 20% devaluationin the gourd, throwing the Haitian poor further intocrisis as food and fuel prices shot up over night.In October 1996 President Preval signed structuraladjustment agreements with the IFIs that outlined hisgovernment’s commitment to cut government workers,increase taxes on the poor, provide subsidies to assemblyindustries and export agriculture, decrease tariffs to nearzero (including those which provide some protection todomestic food production), and partially privatize ninestate enterprises. Despite two years of promises andrhetoric about the importance of dialogue and partici-pation with all sectors of civil society, and despite thefact that the SAP will shape the future of Haiti for yearsto come, citizens were never consulted in its formula-

http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:RKmZYH6Q_MYJ:www.fpif.org/pdf/vol ...


Demands for Return to Haiti The Haitian community in New York and its supporters have not taken Constant's presence lying down. On Jul. 29, 1996, a demonstration was held outside the U.S. Federal Building in lower Manhattan, demanding that the U.S. government return Constant to Haiti along with the 160,000 documents which U.S. soldiers stole from the headquarters of the Haitian Army (FADH) and FRAPH in 1994. In 1995, the Haitian government formally asked for both the extradition of Constant back to Haiti as well as return of the documents. To date, the U.S. government has refused both requests, safeguarding both their former employee and the documents which would provide evidence of his crimes. In 1997, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), in conjunction with the Haiti Support Network (HSN) and the Alliance of Haitian Emigres, launched a campaign to return Constant to Haiti. The groups held two demonstrations in front of Constant's house in Queens. They also launched a campaign to lobby legislatures at all levels of government to condemn Constant's asylum in New York, beginning with the New York City Council. Source: "New York City Council Zeroes in on 'Toto' Constant", in "This Week in Haiti", Wed, September 23-29, 1998 * Vol. 16, No. 27 (the English section of HAITI PROGRES newsweekly.) For information on other news in French and Creole, please contact the paper at (tel) 718-434-8100, (fax) 718-434-5551 or email at [e-mail].

Actions in New York City Council Councilman Wendell Foster and Speaker Peter Vallone, the head of the City Council and the Democratic Party nominee for governor of New York State, sponsored Resolution #82 which calls upon "the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service and the United States Department of State to honor the request of the Haitian government for the extradition or deportation of Francois Emmanuel "Toto" Constant to Haiti where he can stand trial for his crimes." Noting that FRAPH committed "crimes against humanity" and "violations of numerous international treaties and conventions," the resolution also says that Constant's presence in Queens "constitutes a potential threat and danger to the citizens of New York City, particularly to Haitians, some of whom were victims of FRAPH." It further states that "the refusal of the Department of State and the Immigration and Naturalization Service to return Francois Constant to Haiti is unconscionable." The first hearing on this resolution was held in New York's City Hall on Sep. 16. Dozens of Haitians turned out to hear people speak out about the terror of the FRAPH and how they did not want Constant in town. "Constant heads the Haitian paramilitary organization which is responsible for the wave of terror which resulted in murder, maiming, rape, and interrogation of countless thousands of Haitians during the coup regime which toppled the democratically elected government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1991," said Ron Daniels, executive director of the CCR, who launched the "Campaign to return Constant to Haiti" after he ran into Constant in his local Queens post office. "Mr. Constant, our city, this state, and indeed the world must know that the laws and policies of the United States are intended to provide protection for people fleeing from persecution and not shield people who are persecutors." Mitchell Cohen of the Green Party of New York also supported the resolution. "Some of my relatives and their friends were killed in concentration camps during World War II in Nazi Germany," Cohen said. "I view the return of Emmanuel Constant to Haiti as similar to the return to Israel of Adolph Eichmann to stand trial for crimes against the people and the murder of innocent people in Nazi Germany." Speaker after speaker emphasized the fear that Haitians feel testifying against Constant. Vivian Stromberg of the human rights group MADRE read an affidavit of a woman who was still afraid to be publicly identified after she was beaten and raped by three FRAPH members in Haiti in 1994. "The people of Haiti have a right to justice. They have the right to make their claims against Constant and the members of the FRAPH in a court of law in Haiti," Stromberg said. "Harboring him not only prevents the victims of the terror from obtaining justice, it allows him to terrorize and terrify Haitians in living in New York and their families at home in Haiti." Source: "New York City Council Zeroes in on 'Toto' Constant", in "This Week in Haiti", Wed, September 23-29, 1998 * Vol. 16, No. 27 (the English section of HAITI PROGRES newsweekly.) For information on other news in French and Creole, please contact the paper at (tel) 718-434-8100, (fax) 718-434-5551 or email at [e-mail].

Bryant revealed that Constant's release was in fact the fruit of a special agreement struck between the death-squad leader and the U.S. Justice Department, not the expiration of a detention order. Bryant says that the U.S. was under no legal obligation to free Constant at this time. "Their position was that the INS was not obligated to release him at the end of the 6-month statutory period because by filing the civil suit , he waived objection to being detained longer than 6 months," Bryant said. "I don't think the government can have it both ways."

The terms of the U.S. government's deal with Constant, however, remain a matter of the utmost secrecy. "One of the terms involved is that we not discuss the underlying specifics," Bryant said. "The reason I am not discussing it is because I can't."

But it does not take much imagination to guess what kind of conditions the U.S. offered Constant for his release. "They tell reporters - off the record - that they didn't want to send him back because they thought that it would destabilize Haiti and that he couldn't be kept secure... In fact, those are the excuses they are using," opined Ratner. "The arrangement is probably some kind of deal that Constant won't talk anymore about his being in the CIA."
http://www.refuseandresist.org/imm/econstant.html

EVERY DEATH CREATES NEW ENEMIES
MORE TERRORITS
MORE DANGER
MORE DEATHS
AND REMEMBER...

HE IS JUST GETTING STARTED...
BUSH'S PLAN OF PEACE
IS THE PEACE OF THE COMMON GRAVE

http://www.bushflash.com/pax.html




The first thing I see every day.


LET AMERICA BE AMERICA AGAIN