This week in Haiti
The Jean Dominique Murder Investigation:
What does Aristide's silence mean?
(First of two parts)
Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide has a lot of problems. The United States and European Union still refuse to give economic assistance they promised long ago. Negotiations with the Democratic Convergence opposition front seem to never end, with every breakthrough in the talks followed by a breakdown. Many of Aristide's supporters and allies have taken a distance since he integrated prominent Duvalierists and 1991-1994 coup collaborators into his cabinet. Poverty and crime are rising, the value of the gourde is sinking, and government inertia and corruption remain unchanged.
But if there is any one issue which could be considered the fuse to the Haitian powder-keg, it is the investigation into the Apr. 3, 2000 assassination of Radio Haiti Inter director Jean Léopold Dominique (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 18 No. 3, 4/5/00).
In the first week of June, after a 13 month investigation, examining magistrate Claudy Gassant finally delivered his report on the killing to the public prosecutors' office. The prosecutor has asked for more information in the form of a "supplemental brief," and the details of the investigation have yet to be made public. But some leaks suggest where things are going.
In a long article published by the the Inter-American Press Association in March, Ana Arana, who got close to the investigation, charged that Dominique "was killed in a political conspiracy apparently planned and conceived over several months by leading political figures tied to Aristide." Among the suspects, she wrote, is "Sen. Dany Toussaint, a Machiavellian figure who commands a lot of power inside Lavalas, and several of his allies who serve in the Aristide government or are members of the Haitian Senate. These officials, the investigation indicates, viewed Dominique's independence and honesty as a threat to their quest for power, and their involvement in corrupt businesses, according to sources close to the investigation."
Up until now, however, Toussaint has not been indicted. But you wouldn't know that from the way he is acting.
On May 30, Toussaint took to the airwaves to denounce a conspiracy to frame him for the Dominique murder and destroy him politically. The clique behind this scheme? Former president René Préval, former justice minister Camille Leblanc, former security secretary of state Bob Manuel, director of the School for Judges Willy Lubin, examining magistrate Sénat Fleury, and... judge Claudy Gassant.
"René Préval ordered Camille Leblanc to arrest Dany Toussaint last June, and Camille Leblanc hatched a plot at the School for Judges, where he met Willy Lubin, director of the school and judge Sénat Fleury, whom he asked to arrest me," Toussaint said. "The plan was to arrest me but judge Fleury could find no motive to hold me, so the case was taken from him and given to judge Claudy Gassant, putting everything at his disposal to arrest Dany Toussaint... Claudy Gassant has but one goal: gather by any means evidence to indict me." Judge Fleury, seasoned with 15 years of experience, was the first examining magistrate on the Dominique case, but he and a second judge both resigned after receiving death threats. Newly minted magistrate Gassant, whom Toussaint called "a little judge without personality," then took up the case.
Toussaint also charged obliquely that "the vehicles" of both Manuel and Préval had "transported drugs," and that he himself had absolutely nothing to do with drug trafficking, as Washington officials have often alleged.
He further questioned why U.S. Embassy spokesman Daniel Whitman had been in touch with one of the Dominique case's arrested suspects, Philippe Markington. "Why did they authorize Daniel Whitman to take contact with Markington who, according to them, is a hired assassin? Toussaint asked with great sarcasm but little precision. "And the judge never summoned Daniel Whitman. We'll drop it for now, but further along we will say more."
In the course of his tirade, Toussaint also accused Préval of illegally freeing Charles Suffrat, national spokesman of the Artibonite-based peasant organization Kozepèp, who was arrested in 1998 for involvement in the murder of another peasant leader, Chenel Gracien.
Both Leblanc and Lubin denied Toussaint's charges, while Préval chose not to reply.
Then, on Jun. 12, just as the public prosecutor's office said they had Gassant's report in hand, Toussaint announced that he had rounded up some lawyers and a justice of the peace, Jean Gabriel Ambroise, who "authorized' him to enter the prison and question the two suspects -- Markington and Jamely "Tilou" Milien -- being held in the case. Toussaint claims they "admitted" to being bribed by Gassant and Lubin with cars, houses, U.S. visas, and $50,000 if they agreed to finger the senator.
At first the public prosecutor Josué Pierre-Louis argued that Toussaint's blatant interference in the investigation was legal and justified. But as outcry grew, Justice Minister Gary Lissade's office backed down and said they were reviewing what action to take against Ambroise.
Meanwhile, Gassant has received constant threats and harrassment. On four separate occassions, the the chief of the police's Traffic division, Evans Saturné, stopped Gassant's motorcade as it sped to his office. Gassant's security detail was progressively peeled away, so he either had no protection, ill-equipped protection, or policemen he did not trust.
For weeks, Gassant and Lissade carried out a debate over the airwaves, with the judge saying he had no security corps while the minister insisted he did.
All of this was too much for Gassant. On Jun. 13 he resigned, saying that he would not return until Lissade truly guaranteed his security and until sanctions were taken against Saturné and Ambroise. He then left the country for the U.S. three days later.
Faced with disgrace, Lissade said he would not accept Gassant's resignation and promised to meet his demands. On Jun. 25, Gassant returned to Haiti, and this week he returned to his post but has not yet agreed to resume the Dominique investigation. «All that I can say is that I had a conversation with the head of the Port-au-Prince civil court, Mme. Lise Pierre-Pierre, who communicated to me the declarations of the Justice Minister who apparently has taken all the appropriate measures for the investigation to proceed," Gassant said. "It could very well be that we will resume the investigation this week."
Lissade did penalize judge Ambroise with a six month dismissal from service, while traffic chief Saturné made a public apology to Gassant but remains in his post. However, the most important element of Gassant's demands, for reliable security, remains a mere promise from a Justice Minister who was a Duvalierist and legal counsel to coup leader Gen. Raoul Cédras. With every passing week, his assurances seem less like incompetence and more like treachery.
(To be continued)
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