Former officers are sent back to Haiti
They face prison for role in killings
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
In two nightmarish days in April 1994, Haitian soldiers and paramilitary
allies rampaged through a poor seaside neighborhood that was a stronghold
of
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the democratically elected president
overthrown in a 1991 military coup.
When it ended, at least 26 unarmed civilians had been killed,
men, women and children shot or beaten to death. Their bodies were buried
in shallow
graves turned over by pigs and dogs.
Carl Dorelien and Herbert Valmond, two Haitian military officers
accused of orchestrating the massacre, fled to the United States after
Aristide was restored
to power. Valmond settled in Tampa and Dorelien in Port St.
Lucie, where he won $3.2 million in the Florida Lottery .
On Monday, justice finally caught up with them.
The two men, who were convicted in Haiti in absentia for their
roles in the mass killings, were sent home aboard a U.S government aircraft
to begin serving
their punishment for the killings that convulsed Raboteau almost
10 years ago.
Dorelien, a former colonel who was part of the group that ousted
Aristide, and Valmond, a former lieutenant colonel, are the highest ranking
military officers
to be kicked out of the United States because of alleged human
rights violations since the U.S. government began targeting suspected violators
three
years ago.
''The United States is not safe haven,'' said James Goldman,
assistant director of investigations for the Miami district office of the
Immigration and
Naturalization Service.
``You cannot commit crimes and atrocities against humankind somewhere in the world and then live happily ever after in the United States.''
At least 45 foreign government officials and military officers
from several countries have been arrested by immigration agents, most in
Florida, since the
so-called ''persecutor'' program was launched in early 2000.
About 25 of these suspects have been deported to their homelands, said Goldman, who oversees the program in Florida.
Immigration agents escorted the hand-cuffed Dorelien, 53, and
Valmond, 52, aboard the aircraft that left Opa-locka Airport at 1:30 p.m.
and landed 90
minutes later in Port-au-Prince.
There, the two men, who had both been in INS custody, were turned over to Haitian authorities, Goldman said.
Attorneys for Dorelien and Valmond could not be reached for comment
yesterday. But both men have said they played no role in the Raboteau massacre,
which led the Clinton administration to pursue a stronger campaign
to return Aristide to power.
For human rights activists who had long sought the deportation
and prosecution of the two men, the deportations were a vindication of
their aggressive
campaign to train a legal spotlight on people who have left
behind nefarious pasts in their homelands.
''It's great,'' said Richard Krieger, whose Boynton Beach-based
human rights group targets foreign torture suspects living in the United
States. ``It sends
the word out that the United States will no longer tolerate
human rights violators in its midst.''
''It's a positive development,'' added Ira Kurzban, a Miami immigration
lawyer who helped investigate the Raboteau massacre and who represents
the
Haitian government. ``The United States must not harbor human
rights violators.''
Dorelien was arrested by INS agents at his home in Port St. Lucie
in June 2001, while Valmond was picked up in April 2002 at his home in
Tampa. Both were
charged with overstaying their visas, but the INS produced evidence
linking the two men to human rights violations. Dorelien faces a sentence
of hard labor
for life. Valmond's sentence could not be determined. Both can
seek new trials in Haiti.
The two were held in INS custody at county jails until their cases were resolved.
LOST KEY BATTLE
Dorelien lost his last key legal battle on Jan. 13 when the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta lifted a restraining order
that had prohibited
the INS from deporting him.
Dorelien also faces a civil lawsuit filed Friday in Miami federal
court by a human rights group seeking compensation for a family of a victim
of the 1994
massacre. Marie Jeanne Jean asked for unspecified compensation
for the death of her husband, Michel Pierre.The San Francisco-based Center
for Justice &
Accountability sued Dorelien under the same legal theory the
organization used successfully last year to convince a federal jury in
West Palm Beach to
order two former Salvadoran generals to pay $54.6 million to
three torture victims.
Dorelien won $3.2 million in the state lottery on June 28, 1997.
He held one of two winning tickets bought in Fort Pierce that split a jackpot
of $6.3 million,
according to Florida Lottery records. Court records show Dorelien
is to be paid in 20 annual installments of $159,000 and there are no indications
that his
deportation will affect his ability to collect.
Valmond attempted unsuccessfully to stay in Florida by adjusting
his immigration status as husband of a U.S. citizen. According to published
reports,
Valmond came to the United States to be with his wife, Elizabeth,
and their children, who were living in Tampa.
ISSUED WARRANT
In 1998, Haitian authorities issued a warrant for Valmond's arrest for his alleged role in the Raboteau massacre.
Dorelien arrived in the United States in 1995 and sought asylum,
but was refused because he had been implicated in the massacre. Before
Dorelien and
Valmond were deported, the highest profile torture suspect arrested
by INS was Eriberto Mederos, a Cuban-American former nurse who had been
convicted in Miami federal court of charges connected to the
torture of dissidents at a psychiatric hospital in Cuba in the 1970s.
Mederos died shortly after being convicted. Had he been sentenced,
he would have been stripped of his U.S. citizenship and placed in deportation
proceedings.