Constant tied to voodoo

[seemslikeadream]

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://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/newyork/nyc-nytoto313730688mar31,0,3426447.story?coll=nyc-homepage-headlines

[seemslikeadream]

1. 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://haitireborn.org/campaigns/toto-constant/

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=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1076800208574&call_pageid=968256289824&col=968705899037


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

[Bridget Burke]

2. So, it scandalous that he's involved in Voodoo,

But that "massacre" stuff is no problem?

There are many practitioners of Voodoo & allied belief systems. But most of them manage not to oversee mass murder.

[DulceDecorum]

5. Cannibals and voodoo

is how the US press has been refering to those who live in the nations that the Us wishes to rule.

This is part of a global public relations programme
(and you were wondering what cHarlotte Beer has been up to lately)
to cause the average American to view the oncoming massacres of black folk in Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, as inevitable and just.

[seemslikeadream]

8. A breath of fresh air

Some one who can read a article and not jump to the conclusion as to what the poster's beliefs or intentions are.

[AP]

6. Don't forget that NPR thought that it was important to do a week

long series on vodoo the week before the Haiti coup.

Vodoo is an important tool the state department uses to make Americans think these people can't rule themselves.

[seemslikeadream]

3. U.S. Policy in Haiti

In August 1994 the Clinton administration sent 15,000troops and a high-level negotiating team (Jimmy Carter,Sam Nunn, and Colin Powell) to force the military tostep down. Covert assistance to antidemocratic forcesand U.S. insistence on harsh economic conditionalitymade it clear that the U.S. was out to return a tamedAristide to office. Ultimately, this effort to control thevery essence of Haiti’s burgeoning democracy hasundermined U.S. effectiveness. It has also weakened


Haitian efforts to alleviate poverty and to install a sys-tem of justice that defends the rights of the poor major-ity as well as the wealthy few. Although the presence of U.S. and UN peacekeepershelped restore calm and security, this success was under-mined by their refusal to disarm the disbanded Haitianmilitary and paramilitaries. These forces now lie in wait,threatening the still-fledgling democracy.AID is providing funding and technical assistance tostrengthen Haiti’s judicial system, yet the U.S. hasrefused Haitian government requests to deport FRAPHleader Constant, who was imprisoned in the U.S. andwanted in Haiti on murder charges. Instead, the U.S.Justice Department released him from prison.Furthermore, the Clinton administration refuses to givethe Haitian government uncensored copies of the doc-uments seized from FRAPH headquarters, raising sus-picions that the documents contain incriminatinginformation about CIA and other U.S. collaborationwith Haitian paramilitaries. Documents that wereobtained revealed, for example, that the CIA knew thatConstant was directly implicated in the 1993 murder ofJustice Minister Guy Malory, yet kept him on their pay-roll until the return of Aristide in 1994.The Clinton administration hascontinued to use developmentassistance funds to further open theHaitian economy to foreigninvestors. In late 1995 the newHaitian Parliament, responding tothe vehement popular oppositionto privatization, refused to autho-rize the privatization of state-owned industries as mandated bydonors. This conflict led to the fallof Prime Minister Smarck Micheland the ministers of the parliamen-tary government, which hadnegotiated and supported thedonors’ plan. AID held back dis-bursement of $4.5 million in bal-ance-of-payments support to force movement on priva-tization. This prompted an immediate 20% devaluationin the gourd, throwing the Haitian poor further intocrisis as food and fuel prices shot up over night.In October 1996 President Preval signed structuraladjustment agreements with the IFIs that outlined hisgovernment’s commitment to cut government workers,increase taxes on the poor, provide subsidies to assemblyindustries and export agriculture, decrease tariffs to nearzero (including those which provide some protection todomestic food production), and partially privatize ninestate enterprises. Despite two years of promises andrhetoric about the importance of dialogue and partici-pation with all sectors of civil society, and despite thefact that the SAP will shape the future of Haiti for yearsto come, citizens were never consulted in its formula-

http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:RKmZYH6Q_MYJ:www.fpif.org/pdf/vol2/03ifhait.pdf+Emmanuel+Constant&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

[orthogonal]

4. Walking the Planck

Did anyone else read the thread title, "Constant tied to voodoo" and think this was a weird story about math or physics?

[Romulus Quirinus]

7. Yep!

You really had to analyze the fine structure of the article to find out otherwise. ^^

[DemBones DemBones]

9. I thought someone might be sticking pins in Schrodinger's cat. . .

Seriously, the title's phrasing gave me pause.

I did not realize there could be so much unfamiliar evil out there. After this, and the article about the brutal dictator of Uzbekistan, I think I've had enough new evil for one day.

Welcome to DU, orthogonal! :hi: It's always nice to see a new quirky mind come aboard.

[Bridget Burke]

10. Ishmael Reed's "Mumbo Jumbo"

Is a novel set during the days of the Harlem Renaissance, while our marines are busy "civilizing" Haiti. (It's happened several times.)

There's quite a bit of Voodoo in the novel--both the original straight from Haiti & the bits of the old practices that managed to survive in the US. What will the forces of All That Is Right do to suppress the upwelling, in Haiti & here? This quotation reminds me of Ashcroft:

"Look at them! Just look at them!
throwing their hips this way, that
way while I, my muscles, stone,
the marrow of my spine, plaster, my
back supported by decorated paper,
stand here as goofy as a Dumb Dora
Lord, if I can't dance, No one shall."

It's one of my favorite books.

[seemslikeadream]

11. kick

[seemslikeadream]

12. kick

[skooooo]

13. That's how I finally achieved inner peace....

Voodoo. Don't knock it til you've tried it.

;-)