Toto Constant, Former Death Squad Leader, to be sued
On January 14, [2005] a process server ambushed Emmanuel "Toto"
Constant outside the U.S. Federal Building in lower Manhattan and handed him
papers ordering him to appear in court to answer to a lawsuit filed by three
women who had been raped by members of the death-squad he founded.
Constant's paramilitary group, the Revolutionary Front for the
Advancement and Progress of Haiti or FRAPH, became internationally infamous in
1993 and 1994 for the terror it sowed under the military coup government that
ruled Haiti at that time.
The San Francisco-based Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), with
the support of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), has
filed a lawsuit against Constant in U.S. federal court in the Southern District
of New York on behalf of women who survived savage gang rapes and other forms
of extreme violence, including attempted murder. The legal groups are using the
Alien Tort Claims Act, adopted in 1789, which gives survivors of egregious
human rights abuses, wherever committed, the right to sue persons responsible
for the abuses in U.S. federal court. Since 1980, the law has been used
successfully in cases involving torture (including rape), extrajudicial
killing, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and arbitrary detention.
Since 1996, Constant has lived freely in and around Queens, New York,
enjoying de facto political asylum from Washington. Once a week, he must check
in with U.S. immigration authorities in Manhattan. That was where the CJA's
process server caught him.
"Toto Constant's comfortable lifestyle in Queens has enraged and
offended the Haitian community in this country as well as human rights
activists around the globe," said the CJA's Executive Director Sandra
Coliver. "We are honored to represent these courageous women who are
taking great risks by coming forward. They brought this lawsuit in the name of
the hundreds of women who cannot speak out because of the violence that reigns
today in Haiti."
Unlike the lawsuit that the CCR brought against the FRAPH June 1994, this
action targets Constant personally. "We aim to get a money judgement and
move to get a collection from his assets, whatever those might be,"
explained Moira Feeney, one of he CJA staff attorneys who has been working on
the case from months. "Secondly, we want to get an official judgement of
liability and responsibility for his actions as the leader of FRAPH,"
which committed a host of killings and human rights abuses in addition to
rape.
Constant has 20 days to respond to the lawsuit. If he does not,
"we'll move for a default judgement," Feeney said. In past
default judgements, some judges have let the CJA "bring forth a lot of
important evidence which allowed us to set right the historical record,"
Feeney said. "That would be our hope in this case."
The CJA has obtained favorable verdicts in similar cases. It won a $54
million judgement against two former generals from El Salvador who had come to
live in the U.S., and similar rulings against human rights abusers from Bosnia
and Chile. It presently has a case pending against former Haitian Colonel Carl
Dorélien, who won the Florida State lottery in 1997. Feeney feels that the
case against Constant is "stronger" than all of those.
Nonetheless, Constant may have some powerful friends in the U.S. government,
who may have even tipped him off that the CJA was quietly preparing a lawsuit
against him. "Our process server seemed to think that he was not
surprised" when served with papers, Feeney said.
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 because
they could not find her husband. They left her for dead. Fearing reprisals, the
plaintiffs in this case have filed their claims anonymously as Jane Doe 1, 2
and 3.
"It is important to highlight that this type of violence is occurring
today in Haiti," Feeney said. "With almost the exact same modus
operandi as the FRAPH attackers in 1993 and 1994, heavily armed masked men are
attacking poor women in their homes at night, gang-raping them in front of
their families."
Constant's FRAPH was the principal agent of terror in Haiti in 1993 and
1994. FRAPH held a noisy and aggressive demonstration on the wharf in
Port-au-Prince on October 13, 1993, when the U.S.S. Harlan County was supposed
to offload U.S. and Canadian soldiers to prepare Aristide's scheduled
October 30, 1993 return. In the face of the antics of a few dozen drunken
hooligans, the U.S. troop carrier withdrew. The unwarranted retreat was later
recognized as a Pentagon and CIA-directed act of sabotage of President Bill
Clinton's first attempt to restore President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to
power.
About a year later, after U.S. troops invaded and occupied Haiti on
September 19, 1994, the U.S. Embassy tried to dress up FRAPH as the "loyal
opposition" to Aristide's Lavalas movement. But giant and hostile
crowds surrounded and foiled a U.S. Embassy-organized press conference
attempting to sell Constant to the public, and in December 1994, the Haitian
Justice Ministry issued warrants for Constant's arrest.
Constant quietly slipped out of Haiti and legally entered the U.S. on a
tourist visa. He began openly cavorting around New York, provoking Haitian
community outrage. In February 1995, the U.S. said it was looking to deport
him. Four months later, Immigration agents arrested Constant at his aunt's
home in Queens on May 12, 1995. He spent the next 13 months in U.S. immigration
detention centers, during which time he gave an interview to CBS's "60
Minutes" where he revealed that he had been working as a CIA agent in
Haiti.
On June 19, 1996, HaVti ProgrPs broke the story about "The Secret Deal
to Free Emmanuel Constant," (see HaVti ProgrPs, Vol. 14, No. 13) in which
it outlined how Constant was freed on June 14 through a special deal between
U.S. government agencies, including the CIA.
Since then, Constant has been the target of several Haitian community
protests in Queens. In November 2000, he was convicted in absentia in Haiti for
his role in the notorious "Raboteau Massacre" of April 1994 in
GonaVves. Until now, no court in the U.S. or Haiti has forced him to face trial
in person for the human rights abuses he committed against the people of Haiti.
No one from the ranks of FRAPH or the Haitian Armed Forces has been held
accountable for the hundreds of politically motivated rapes that were committed
and continue to be committed against the women of Haiti.
One of the plaintiffs in the suit against Constant, speaking on behalf of
all of the plaintiffs, said: "We hope that the suit will deter at least
some of the violence [happening today in Haiti], by sending a message that
anyone who commits atrocities will no longer be able to visit or live in the
U.S. with impunity."
For more information on the suit, visit the Center for Justice and
Accountability's website at www.cja.org.
All articles copyrighted Haiti Progres, Inc. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED. Please
credit Haiti Progres.
"This Week in Haiti" is the English section of HAITI PROGRES
newsweekly. For the complete edition with other news in French and Creole,
please contact the paper at (tel) 718-434-8100, (fax) 718-434-5551 or e-mail at
editor@haitiprogres.com . Also
visit our website at http://www.haitiprogres.com
HAITI PROGRES
THIS WEEK IN HAITI
January 19 - 25, 2005
Vol. 22, No. 45
