You call this justice? War criminal's on trial for mortgage fraud
Tuesday, July 8th 2008, 7:13 PM
Emmanuel (Toto) Constant, a former paramilitary leader from Haiti, went on trial in Brooklyn Tuesday. But despite a brutal legacy of responsibility for massacres, gang rapes and other torture committed under his command from 1993-94, this former death squad honcho is not facing justice for war crimes.
Instead, he's in the dock for mortgage fraud. Something is wrong with this picture.
U.S. government documents obtained in the mid-1990s by the Center for Constitutional Rights confirm Constant's shocking record of human rights abuses - crimes committed when, as head of the paramilitary group FRAPH (Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti), he orchestrated a campaign of terror against supporters of then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Yet remarkably, for more than a decade until 2006, Constant has been living in relative comfort in Queens, thanks in part to intervention by our own federal government. The twists and turns of Constant's road from paramilitary leader to defendant awaiting trial for mortgage fraud tell us volumes about the last decade of Haiti's difficult history - and the twisted U.S. policy toward the poorest country in our hemisphere.
Constant arrived in the United States in December 1994, after the Aristide government issued a warrant for his arrest for human rights violations. In September 1995, Constant was about to be deported from the U.S. - when he revealed his role as a CIA asset. Suddenly, deportation was off the table and he was allowed to stay.
The Aristide government continued to press for Constant's extradition. Haitians, Haitian-Americans and their supporters demonstrated outside of Constant's home. City Council members demanded justice. Members of Congress lodged protests with the State Department. Newspapers like this one joined the chorus of outrage. The U.S. government still would not budge.
In 2000, Constant was convicted in abstentia in Haiti for his role in a 1994 massacre in Raboteau. He was sentenced to prison and ordered to pay damages to the families of the victims.
But yet again, justice was thwarted. On February 29, 2004, a military coup forced judges off the bench and undermined efforts to punish past human rights abusers. In what was known as "the midnight trial" in August 2004, a number of Constant's fellow FRAPH and military leaders, convicted for their role in the Raboteau massacre, were released.
In December 2004, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Center for Justice and Accountability sued Constant in New York on behalf of three women, two of whom had been gang-raped in front of their families. After two years without any response from Constant, the court held a public hearing and found him liable for $19 million in compensatory and punitive damages for the crimes against the women.
But somehow, still, Constant lived comfortably in Queens. And, not only that, he apparently found a new way to victimize innocent people.
In 2006, Constant was indicted for mortgage fraud. According to police, he and co-conspirators would locate a property for sale and generate an artificially high appraisal, ultimately pocketing the profits from the sale.
That led to a final outrage: Constant was set to take a plea bargain in the case - and get off with relative ease - when human rights groups called the court's attention to his terrible crimes. Once again, the U.S. government stepped in on his behalf, with Homeland Security Department lawyers now urging that Constant be immediately deported to Haiti. Given the instability in Haiti today, there is little doubt that if that were to happen, he would evade justice for his crimes.
One day, Emmanuel Constant must be returned to Haiti and stand trial there. First, he must face trial for what he has done to the people of New York.
In the meantime, we must fight to ensure that in the future, our government does not allow our country to be a haven for war criminals.
Glover is an actor and human rights activist.
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