Suit accuses former Haitian strongman (Constant) of campaign of violence

[Minstrel Boy]

Suit accuses former Haitian strongman of campaign of violence

Jan 15

NEW YORK -- An elusive former paramilitary leader from Haiti has been sued by three women who allege they were gang-raped and beaten by members of his right-wing group.

Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, 48, was served with papers on Friday as he left an appointment with the Immigration and Naturalization Service in lower Manhattan, said Moira Feeney, an attorney with the San Francisco-based Center for Justice and Accountability.

The lawsuit was filed by the anonymous plaintiffs in federal court in Manhattan in September. It had been kept under seal so that Constant _ who has been living underground in Queens _ would not be tipped off and try to dodge service of the papers, Feeney said. It was unclear whether he has an attorney, she added.

The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, alleges that Constant condoned a "systematic campaign of violence against women" by his paramilitary group, the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH. The plaintiffs are Haitian women now living in the United States. Two claim they were repeatedly raped in front of family members in 1994. The third was beaten and left for dead.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state/ny-bc-ny--haitistrongman-la0114jan14,0,4422197.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

Haitian Death Squad Leader, Toto Constant, to be brought to justice for his campaign of rape and murder

Courageous women bring civil suit FOR ABUSES BY FRAPH

Jan 14

New York, NY: Emmanuel "Toto" Constant was served with a lawsuit today that accuses him of responsibility for torture, crimes against humanity and the systematic use of violence against women, including rape, for the purpose of terrorizing the Haitian population during that country's brutal military regime in the early 1990s.

Despite being the outspoken leader of the paramilitary death squad known as FRAPH (Revolutionary Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti), Toto Constant has lived and worked openly in Queens, New York, for the last ten years. The U.S. government tried to deport Constant in 1995, but suspended its efforts and released him from detention after he threatened on the 60 Minutes news program to expose information about the CIA's role in the formation of FRAPH.

...

Following a violent military coup against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1991, the Haitian Armed Forces trained and armed members of FRAPH to maintain control over Haiti's poor masses. After democracy was returned to Haiti in October 1994, the government of President Aristide issued a warrant for Constant's arrest. He fled and came to the United States.

All three plaintiffs in this case are women who were targeted by Constant and FRAPH as part of a systematic campaign of violence against women. Two of the women were gang raped repeatedly by FRAPH members in front of their families. One of the plaintiffs became pregnant and bore a child as a result of the rape she suffered. FRAPH operatives attacked the third plaintiff, leaving her for dead. Due to the fear of reprisals, the plaintiffs in this case have filed their claims anonymously.
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/CJA/1_14_5.html



The CIA and Haiti

New York Times Editorial, 8 December 1995

The performance of the Central Intelligence Agency in Haiti is a cautionary tale about what can happen when a spy organization loses sight of the clear line between providing neutral intelligence estimates and interfering with the execution of American foreign policy.

In an interview with 60 Minutes last Sunday, Emmanuel Constant, the former leader of Fraph, the paramilitary organization that terrorized Haitians in the years of the illegal junta, described his work as a paid informer for the C.I.A. Mr. Constant is now in a Maryland jail, awaiting deportation hearings, and he has a clear self-interest in invoking the agency. But whatever embellishments he may have added about his association, Government officials confirm he was paid by the agency and kept in close touch with it at atime when he was doing his best to prevent the return to Haiti of its ousted President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Mr. Constant's troubling role and other steps the C.I.A. took on Haiti two years ago leave the disturbing impression that the agency, whether deliberately or carelessly, undermined Clinton Administration plans to get Mr. Aristide back in office. The agency denies this. But looking back on the confused fall of 1993, it is abundantly clear that the C.I.A.. did not play a constructive role in Haiti policy.
www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/187.html

[seemslikeadream]

1. Campaign to Deport Constant - Who is Toto Constant?

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://static.highbeam.com/n/newsday/march312004/convictedinmassacreconstanttiedtovoodoo/index.html

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://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:ZQV8hF7O3Y0J:www.quixote.org/hr/campaigns/toto-constant/+Campaign+to+Deport+Constant&hl=en



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... ...


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


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=...

Laurelton protestors urge arrest of ex-Haitian leader
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=457478

[Tinoire]

2. High time for this suit!

That THUG needs to be deported immediately and delivered into the 'loving' arms of the people he tormented.

Odds are 99:1 though that the US will continue the asylum they so thoughtfully extended to him.

[bin.dare]

3. over 1000 known foreign torturers and ex-dictators in the US

http://www.antiterroristas.cu/index.php?tpl=noticia/anew¬iciaid=97¬iciafecha=2002-09-11

The third instance of the paradox of injustice in the United States, has to do with providing refuge for notorious torturers. The Center of Justice and Accountability, a lawyers' organization in the US defending victims of torture states that there are over 1000 known foreign torturers and ex-dictators in the US, over 300 in Florida alone. Washington selectively provides a sanctuary for ex-client state terrorists, from all over the world. They include the military official who organized the murder of Archbishop Romero, the Chilean secret police official who assassinated the constitutional General Prats and his wife, the notorious Haitian torturer Emmanuel Constant etc etc.

These terrorists live freely in the US because they worked closely with US intelligence agencies, until they were threatened with prosecution. Washington cannot and will not allow them to be extradited because it would undermine its on-going relationship with torturers and repressive regimes today.

Washington's providing sanctuary for known torturers and terrorists, however, severely weakens the current world-wide campaign against "terrorism". What moral authority does the US have to pursue terrorissts abroad when it shelters them at home? The paradox of injustice ( protecting terrorist clients ) leads to justice ( the unmasking of Washington's anti-terrorist campaign as a subterfuge for global domination).

[bin.dare]

4. Murderers the US won't hunt down

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php4?article_id=3227

GEORGE W Bush tried to justify the search for Osama Bin Laden by saying that the US is committed to hunting down murderers and terrorists across the world. But, as anti-war journalist John Pilger remarked, if the US forces wanted to hunt down terrorists they would be going ashore in Florida.

That state and others in the US are stuffed with brutal killers of civilians. These are the people who did the US's bidding in various parts of the world, particularly during the 1980s and 1990s. They include:

José Guillermo Garcia, former minister of defence and general in the El Salvador army during the 1980s, and Eugenio Vides-Casanova, former director of the El Salvador national guard. They were centrally involved in the mass murders of thousands of women and children, torture, collaboration with "civilian" death squads, and assassinations of members of the opposition.

Leading torturers and killers at the heart of Pinochet's Chilean regime, including Armando Fernandez Larios and Michael Townly. Larios was responsible for the torture and execution of at least 72 political prisoners in the month following the 1973 coup.

Suintong Panjaitan, an Indonesian general responsible for the massacre at Santa Cruz in East Timor in 1991 which took hundreds of lives.

Former Guatemalan minister of defence Hector Gramajo Morales. He is a graduate of the US School of the Americas, which has produced generations of torturers. There is overwhelming evidence of his role of directing the murder of thousands of people during the 1980s. "We provide development for 70 percent in the population while we kill 30 percent," he said.

Luckner Cambronne, General Prosper Avril, Colonel Carl Dorerlien, Emmanuel Constant, Major General Jean Claude Duperval, Ernst Propud'Homme, and many other servants of the murderous Haitian regime under the Duvaliers. Avril is remembered for displaying the bloodied bodies of opposition activists on television.

Key members of the Honduran 3-16 Battalion. This was created by the CIA, and carried out hundreds of murders of opponents of US policy. According to the Baltimore Sun the unit "used shock and suffocation devices in interrogations. Prisoners often were kept naked and, when no longer useful, killed and buried in unmarked graves." Those who came to the US included General Luis Alonson Discua Elvir, the founder and commander of 3-16, and Juan Angel Hernandez Lara.


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