(2020-11) Reversing Post-Raboteau Massacre Trial Impunity: Briefing Paper on Twenty Years of Eroding Commitments to Justice in Haiti

Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) • 2020 • 15 pages

Summary — IJDH briefing paper marking twenty years since the landmark Raboteau Massacre trial, tracing how the 2000 convictions were reversed and dismantled, and urging Haiti to arrest returned in absentia defendants including Emmanuel Toto Constant.

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Key Findings

The November 2000 Raboteau trial convicted 53 men, mostly FADH military and FRAPH paramilitaries, for the April 1994 massacre in Gonaives, with victims awarded 1 billion gourdes (about 43 million US dollars) in damages. The FADH and FRAPH are estimated to have killed between 3,000 and 4,000 Haitians under the 1991-1994 Cedras regime. In 2005 Haiti's highest court reversed the jury convictions in a judgment widely criticized as legally improper and politically motivated. The paper recommends arresting and prosecuting returned in absentia defendants, including Emmanuel Toto Constant, deported to Haiti in 2020.

Full Description

This briefing paper reviews the twentieth anniversary of the Raboteau Massacre trial, which the paper describes as Haiti's most complex successfully prosecuted human rights case. In November 2000, after five years of advocacy, investigation and pretrial proceedings and six weeks of trial using expert testimony and DNA evidence, 53 men, most of them members of the Haitian military (FADH) and the FRAPH paramilitary group, were convicted for the April 1994 attack on the Raboteau neighborhood of Gonaives; a jury convicted 16 of 22 tried in person and 37 were convicted in absentia, with civil parties awarded 1 billion gourdes (approximately 43 million US dollars at the time). The paper recounts the Cedras regime's 1991-1994 repression, estimated at 3,000 to 4,000 killings, the 2005 reversal of the jury convictions by Haiti's highest court, which it characterizes as widely criticized as legally improper, and subsequent failures to detain returned in absentia defendants. It argues the 2020 deportation of Emmanuel Toto Constant to Haiti offers an opportunity to restore accountability and recommends his arrest and prosecution.

Topics

Geography

Time Coverage

1991 — 2020

Keywords

Raboteau massacre, impunity, accountability, FRAPH, FADH, Cedras regime, Emmanuel Toto Constant, justice sector, human rights trial, Gonaives, in absentia convictions

Entities

Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), Emmanuel Toto Constant, Raoul Cedras, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, FRAPH, FADH, National Commission of Truth and Justice, MICAH, Brian Concannon, United States

Notes

IJDH briefing paper, English original (catalog title in French marked [ANG]); document dated July 2020; ayitistats wave B