The following article is a birthday gift to myself when thinking of the Duvalier dictatorship of Haiti of which I was a victim. On June 15,1959, 42 years ago, I entered the Mexican Embassy in Haiti as a "politcal exile". A week before, incarcerated in the Haitian dungeon of death at the Fort Dimanche jail, I almost lost my life at the tender age of 27. There is a saying that if one does not have anymore outrage, one has lost his youth. "Bay kou bliye, pote mak sonje" : Those who give the blows forget, those who bear the scars remember.
Well, thank you Creator, at 69 I am going on 39.
All the best, Carl
I received a copy of "Giving the Devil his due" written by David Grann, and forwarded to me by Brian Concannon, an American human rights lawyer who has spent most of the previous five years in Haiti spearheading the trial of Toto Constant.
On September 29, 2000 a Haitian court began trying Constant on charges of murder.Toto was found guilty in absentia in an appropriate Haitian court for the murder of six people in the town of Raboteau in April of 1994. He was sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor. This court, which sentenced him, was, as per human rights lawyer Concannon, the product of a judicial system that had received more than $25 million in American aid for reform. It had slowly and steadily evolved in recent years.
This article published in the June edition 2001 of the " Atlantic Monthly " is a must read for anyone who believes in decency and human rights. However, they are in for a rude awakening. This cold-blooded killer, Toto Constant, is still enjoying refuge in these United States of America. The United States government secretly aided him and later shielded him from justice. He is presently walking the street of Queens, New York a free man.
This article, admirably written by David Grann, is also a tribute to the writer for the thorough research he put into this complex subject with more than a dozen interviews with this killer in our midst, Toto Constant. It reads like a novel.
To quote part of it, in 1996 a Haitian-American, Emile Maceus, is selling his three-bedroom house in Queens Village, N.Y. Having a For Sale sign in the front yard he is approached by a real estate agent who desires to show the home to a client accompanying him, and does it forthwith. At the end of the visit the homeowner realized that the real estate agent who voluntarily identified himself as Constant was the grim reaper who destroyed so many innocent lives in Haiti.
Finally in 1997 the rumors led to a quiet street in Laurelton, Queens, New York near the heart of the Haitian community. "Constant could be seen sitting on the porch of the white-stucco house he shared with his aunt and mother."
For those readers who may not be familiar with the "Atlantic Monthly", a prestigious magazine published in America, this masterpiece of journalism should be published in its entirety in every Haitian newspaper including the "Haitian Times." It should be translated in French, Creole, and every other language like the horrors of the Nazis in Germany in the 30s.
Let us briefly recap. In 1991 since the military coup against Aristide, as one of the new regime's top advisers, Toto Constant occupied an office right next to that of the junta's head, General Raoul Cedras. He became an informer for the CIA and founded an organization which he called "Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti," or FRAPH which means, "to hit" in French. It is well documented that with the blessings of the CIA, in return for being an informer, Mr. Constant participated in thousands of killings of innocent people. He is the founder of a savage paramilitary group that has been held responsible for a prolonged wave of killings and other atrocities.
The United Nations concluded by 1994 that Toto Constant's organization was " the only political movement in Haiti whose members have been linked to assassinations and rapes."
Let's let Toto speak for Toto with writer David Crann. When the USS Harlan County arrived off the coast of Haiti, in 1993. "Each FRAPH man, Constant said, "must put down one American soldier... FRAPH's will is an order. When we ask for something the entire country has to accept it...Never forget that I am from the establishment, I am not just any Joe out there. I am Constant..."
At a typical voodoo ceremony he would lie on the ground, surrounded by skulls and fire. Then as he rose from the flames, the crowd would chant in Creole: Toto for President! Without Toto, Haiti can't have a life...." I have the power of voodoo with me" he would say..."
"I had one-on-ones with the greatest reporters in the world" he recalls today in New York. " All of them. I have met all of them. At one point I was the most interviewed person in the world. I was one of the most important. I had Japanese journalists at my place. It was incredible"....
With the present situation where the political terrain has shifted in both countries Toto Constant says that Haitians from all over were calling, waiting for him to act, to step up.
He claims people have been publishing articles, and they say: " Look at this guy who has been convicted for murder in Haiti and he is getting stronger and stronger every day...A lot of people in Haiti are watching me."
" They have not heard from me. They don't know what's going to happen, but everyone has their eyes on me, and people are sending me their phone numbers from Haiti. People here try to reach me. Political leaders are trying to reach me. There is a perception that if Aristide is on the go, I am the only one that can step in."
He continues: " If I stand up and make a press conference, and even if I don't say anything but I just attack Aristide, that's going to give strength to the former military, that's going to give strength to the former FRAPH members, that's going to give strength to everyone who did not have the guts because they did not see who would take the lead...I have been prepared since young for a mission, and that's why I have stayed alive...I am either going to be President of Haiti" he said, "or I am going to be killed".
Like the Haitians say:" Koukou we lwen, li pa we deye tet li.”: Cuckoo sees far away but he does not see behind his head.
Thank you David Grann (“The Atlantic Monthly", edition June 2001) for a most enlightening piece of writing into the mind of a psychopath.
Published in the Haitian Times, Online Edition June 20 - 26, 2001
