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26-465: In 2000, a Haitian court tried fifty-nine people for alleged roles in the massacre, of whom 37, including former coup leader Raoul Cédras , were tried in absentia . Sixteen of those tried in person were convicted, while all 37 of those tried in absentia were convicted and given sentences of life imprisonment. In May 2005, all sentences from the tribunal were overturned by the Supreme Court . Raboteau

52-635: A potential invasion . Jonassaint resigned. Cédras had indicated his desire to remain in Haiti. However, the Americans did not think this was the best solution and convinced the General that in the national interest, he should consider departing for Panama. The United States reportedly gave Cédras $ 1 million and rented three properties as incentive to leave power. After leaving Haiti, Cédras went to Panama , where he remains. Aristide returned to power in Haiti in 1994,

78-584: A deportation order, but it has not been executed. Following the order, Constant filed suit against Janet Reno claiming that the CIA had "collaborated" with him. Constant was eventually freed from U.S. custody with a gag order. In 2006, Constant was ordered by a New York state court to pay $ 19 million in civil damages to three women who had been raped and tortured by the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haïti . The case

104-534: A suit against Dorelien just before his deportation. The suit was brought under the Alien Tort Statute seeking civil damages for the deaths of plaintiff Marie Jean’s husband, who was killed in the Raboteau Massacre, and the arbitrary detainment and torture of labor leader Lexiuste Cajuste. On February 23, 2007, Dorelien was found civilly liable in U.S. Federal Court for torture and extrajudicial killing . He

130-663: Is a Haitian former military officer who was the de facto ruler of Haiti from 1991 to 1994. Cedras was the last military ruler of Haiti. A mulatto , Cédras was educated in the United States at the School of the Americas and was a member of the U.S.-trained Leopard Corps. He also trained with the Spanish military . Cédras was chosen by the US and France to be in charge of security for

156-503: Is a shanty town neighborhood by the sea in Gonaïves in north-west Haiti . Following the 1991 Haitian coup d'état against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide , residents held rallies in support of Aristide and opposing the de facto military dictatorship that replaced him. On April 22, 1994, soldiers and paramilitary forces made a dawn raid on the neighborhood. They went house-to-house, beating and arresting residents, including children and

182-784: The 1990–91 Haitian general election , and subsequently named Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces by Jean-Bertrand Aristide in early 1991. Under Aristide, Cédras "was one important source for the CIA , providing reports critical of President Aristide." Cédras, Lieutenant General in the Forces Armées d'Haïti (FAdH; the Armed Forces of Haiti ) at the time, was responsible for the 1991 Haitian coup d'état which ousted President Aristide on 29 September 1991. Some human rights groups criticized Cédras's rule, alleging that innocent people were killed by

208-585: The Central Intelligence Agency payroll as an informant and spy in early 1992 (according to the Agency, this relationship ended in mid-1994, but the following October the US embassy in Haïti was openly acknowledging that Constant – now a born-again democrat – was on its payroll). According to Constant, shortly after Aristide's ouster, Colonel Patrick Collins, a U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), attache who

234-603: The 1987 Haitian Constitution, Haiti's Parliament appointed Supreme Court Justice Joseph Nérette as provisional President, to fill in until elections could be held. The elections were planned for December 1991, but Nérette resigned and was replaced undemocratically by Supreme Court Justice Émile Jonassaint . Under the delegation of U.S. president Bill Clinton , the former US president Jimmy Carter , accompanied by Sam Nunn and Colin Powell , urged Provisional President Émile Jonassaint to relinquish his control in 1994, in order to avoid

260-533: The 22 defendants in custody guilty of participation in the massacre, acquitting six. Twelve of those found guilty were sentenced to life imprisonment, while the other four were given four- to nine-year sentences. The 37 defendants who were tried in absentia were all convicted and given life sentences of hard labor . The New York Times described the trial as a "landmark" case for Haiti, "a step in bringing to justice an elite tier of military and paramilitary officers and their cohorts for human rights abuses". The trial

286-464: The CIA, by his own admission and that of U.S government sources. In 1996, Secretary of State Warren Christopher submitted an affidavit to the immigration court, advocating Constant's deportation. Secretary Christopher noted the extensive and credible accusations of human rights violations by Constant, and reasoned that a failure to deport Constant would give the appearance that the U.S. government supported Constant's activities. The judge agreed and issued

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312-656: The DIA", aiding in operations directed against "subversive activities". In February 1996, the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) announced that it had obtained thousands of pages of newly declassified U.S. documents, which they claim revealed that the U.S. government recognized the brutal nature of FRAPH but denied it in public. Describing the attitude of US government officials, CCR lawyer Michael Ratner said According to Ratner, U.S. suspicions of Aristide's leftist populism prodded them to seek support from even

338-567: The FAdH military and FRAPH paramilitary units. The US State Department said in 1995 that in the three years following the coup "international observers estimated that more than 3,000 men, women and children were murdered by or with the complicity of Haiti's then-coup regime." While remaining the de facto leader of Haiti as commander of the country's armed forces, Cédras did not retain his position as head of state, preferring to have other politicians as official presidents. As required by Article 149 of

364-666: The United States as well as Green Beret commanders and internal documents from the U.S. and Haitian armies. Nairn spoke directly with Constant himself, then being held in a Maryland jail, shortly before he was due to be deported to Haïti. According to Constant, he started the group that became FRAPH at the urging of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and that even after the U.S. occupation got under way in September 1994, "other people from [his] organization were working with

390-611: The assistance of a jury, was not competent to rule the case". The reversal was condemned by Amnesty International , which called it "a huge step backwards". Emmanuel “Toto” Constant fled Haiti on foot into the Dominican Republic from which he was able to fly to the United States. He was eventually jailed by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service . As reported by David Grann, in his article in The Atlantic Monthly “Giving ‘The Devil’ His due....” Constant worked with

416-687: The elderly, making some lie in open sewers. People who ran were shot. Soldiers also fired indiscriminately on citizens who were collecting firewood, and commandeered rowboats to attack fishing boats off-shore. The military forbade families from collecting the bodies of the dead, making an exact count impossible. Journalists in Raboteau estimated that at least thirty people were killed, while later court proceedings stated that at least six people were known to have been killed. Human rights lawyers estimated that eight to fifteen people had been killed. In 2000, fifty-nine people were put on trial for their alleged roles in

442-469: The massacre, 37 of whom, including coup leader Raoul Cédras , former Chief of National Police Michel François , and paramilitary leaders Emmanuel Constant and Louis-Jodel Chamblain , were tried in absentia . Prosecutors were aided in preparing the case by Mario Joseph and Brian Concannon of the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux. The trial lasted 6 weeks and ended on November 9, 2000. The jury found 16 of

468-569: The military regime as nothing more than "armed thugs," the administration cooperated with a multinational force and dispatched 15,000 troops sent and a high-level negotiating team ( Jimmy Carter , Sam Nunn , and Colin Powell ) to force the military to step down, restoring Aristide to power in August 1994 after international sanctions and pressure had failed to produce any results. Although the presence of U.S. and UN peacekeepers helped restore calm and security, this success, claims researcher Lisa A. McGowan,

494-469: The restoration of Haiti’s democracy, Dorelien fled to the United States. In 2003, he was deported to Haiti because of his human rights record, and was taken into custody for his absentia conviction. He chose not to exercise his right to a new trial. One year after his return President Aristide was once again ousted in a coup in 2004 and Dorelien escaped prison. He has not been returned to prison as of May 2008. The Center for Justice and Accountability filed

520-417: Was a far-right paramilitary group organized in mid-1993. Its goal was to undermine support for the popular Catholic priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide , who served less than eight months as Haïti's president before being deposed, on 29 September 1991, by a coup . The group received covert support and funding from the United States government. FRAPH was established by Emmanuel "Toto" Constant , who went on

546-632: Was brought by the Center for Justice & Accountability and the Center for Constitutional Rights . In 2008, Constant was convicted of six felony counts related to mortgage fraud and sentenced to 12–37 years in prison. He is currently incarcerated in a maximum security prison in New York. Carl Dorelien, was a colonel in the Haitian military during the 1991–1994 coup, in charge of discipline and personnel matters. Following

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572-638: Was ordered to pay $ 4.3 million in civil damages. In 1997, Dorelien won $ 3 million in the Florida Lottery . His winnings were garnished and placed into escrow . In August 2006, on C.J.A.’s movement, the state court of Florida ruled the Haitian civil judgment against Dorelien was enforceable in the U.S. The assets seized from Col. Dorelien were distributed to the Raboteau victims on May 16, 2008. 19°27′N 72°41′W  /  19.450°N 72.683°W  / 19.450; -72.683 Raoul C%C3%A9dras Joseph Raoul Cédras (born July 9, 1949)

598-500: Was re-elected to the presidency in 2000, and was forced into resigning again in a 2004 coup . Whitney, Kathleen Marie (1996). "Sin, Fraph, and the CIA: U.S. Covert Action in Haiti". Southwestern Journal of Law and Trade in the Americas . 3 (2): 303-332. Front for the Advancement and Progress of Ha%C3%AFti The Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH) ( French : Front pour l'Avancement et le Progrès Haitien )

624-499: Was stationed in Haiti from 1989 to 1992, pressured him to organize a front that could oppose the Aristide movement and do intelligence work against it. During the 1992 U.S. presidential campaign, candidate Bill Clinton had promised to restore democracy to Haiti if elected. Inaugurated in 1993, the administration had to deal with a continuing refugee problem in Florida . Condemning FRAPH and

650-551: Was the subject of a 2003 documentary, Pote Mak Sonje: The Raboteau Trial . By 2005, one of the sixteen imprisoned defendants had died, while the remaining fifteen had reportedly escaped from prison, some in a mass jailbreak in Gonaives in which a bulldozer was driven through the walls of a prison On May 3, 2005, the Supreme Court overturned the sentences, ruling that "the Criminal Tribunal of Gonaïves, having been established with

676-501: Was undermined by their refusal to disarm the disbanded Haitian military and paramilitaries. As McGowan wrote, It subsequently emerged that the US government had in fact played a significant role in establishing and funding FRAPH. The investigative journalist Allan Nairn broke the story in an article published in The Nation in 1994. Nairn based his findings on interviews with military, paramilitary and intelligence officials in Haïti and

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