ARTICLE - CARIBBEAN - WATCH MARTELLY

CARIBBEAN MUST WATCH HAITI'S MARTELLY
(Trinidad Express) - By Rickey Singh

A Haitian judge's decision last week to exonerate former President Jean-Claude Duvalier from facing trial for mass crimes committed under his dictatorial rule, has revived controversial claims against the current President Michel Martelly's previous links with the rotten political culture of "duvalierism" in that Caribbean Community member state.

Such a political connection had surfaced during Haiti's last presidential election campaign that was won by the 50-year old former popular music pop star.

And late last month, he was to raise new concerns following a report by the news agency Associated Press (AP) that he was favouring a presidential pardon in the interest of national "poitical reconciliation" instead of a court trial for crimes against humanity.

However, when he was interviewed in a radio programme earlier this month during an official visit to Ireland, President Martelly backed away from the idea of a "presidential pardon", claiming that his comment was "misunderstood" by the AP report..

But other media reports did not buy into his expressed sentiment in favour of "reconciliation" instead of a long court trial for Duvalier's claimed crimes against humanity during his 15 years rule that ended with a popular urprising and forced him into exile.

The Los Angeles Times, for one, was to editorialise on February 6 why Duvalier should be prosecuted for atrocities committed during his dictatorial rule. In its argument the Times reflected the thinking of human rights organisations in the world, including those in Haiti, that the ex-dictator should face justice for his crimes against humanity.

Rejecting the Haitian judge's position that the statute of limitations for a court trial on human rights abuses had expired, the Times argued that "there are plenty of victims willing to recount the beatings, arbitrary arrest and prolonged detentions they suffered…

Further, that there is a trove of evidence detailing how Duvalier's "army and shadowy secret police force, the Tontons Macoutes, killed and tortured untold number of civilians…And the fact that there are international conventions, to which Haiti is a signatory, that require it to investigate and prosecute crimes committed by Duvalier and his government…"

Conscious that such an argument would resonate with human rights agencies and organisations regionally and internationally, the Times pointed out that Human Rights Watch, the United Nations as well as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, are on record as having urged Haiti's courts to respect its international obligations that "when it comes to crimes against humanity, there can be no statute of limitations".

The Caricom Secretariat has an obligation to carefully monitor this development given its implications for the rest of our Caribbean Community, and its support for the International Criminal Court (ICC) which continues to deal with crimes against humanity by political tyrants.

Ever since President Martelly had signalled his intention to re-establish a Haitian army and former political thugs in uniforms have been viewed among others training for potential recruitmen for the proposed "new army", there has been growing uneasiness of a likely return to a grim political culture with which the army had been associated.