UPDATE

Most of the witnesses who testified during the course of the Raboteau trial have been in hiding since November, 2003. Witness Charles Eddy Joseph's house was burned to the ground in December, 2003 and he has left Haiti. Judge Napila Saintil was severely beaten by unknown thugs in March 2003.

In contrast:

On April 21, 2005 the Cour de Cassation, Haiti's highest court, threw out the convictions of sixteen people found guilty by the jury in the Raboteau massacre case.

Former FRAPH member Jean Tatoune, who received a life sentence at the conclusion of the trial, escaped from jail in 2002. Alongside Butteur Metayer, he led the February, 2004 uprisings in Gonaives that demanded the departure of democratically elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide. On February 28, 2004 when the United States removed Aristide from Haiti, the so-called rebels, reached Port-au-Prince and released all prisoners from jail, including everyone who was convicted in the Raboteau trial.

Leaders of rebel forces:

Louis Jodel Chamblain - deputy leader of paramilitary group FRAPH convicted in trials of 1994 Raboteau massacre and 1993 extrajudicial execution of Antoine Izméry. Sentenced in both trials to forced labor for life.

Jean Pierre Baptiste ('Jean Tatoune') - FRAPH member convicted in Raboteau massacre trial. Sentenced to forced labor for life.

Escaped from prison:

Jean-Claude Duperval - deputy commander in chief of the army convicted in Raboteau massacre trial. Sentenced to forced labor for life and returned to Haiti from the USA to serve the sentence.

Hébert Valmond - lieutenant colonel and head of military intelligence convicted in Raboteau massacre trial. Sentenced to forced labor for life and returned to Haiti from the USA to serve the sentence.

Carl Dorelien - Colonel convicted in Raboteau massacre trial. Sentenced to forced labour for life and returned to Haiti from the USA to serve the sentence.

Jackson Joanis - military police captain convicted of the extrajudicial execution of Antoine Izméry, and sentenced to forced labor for life. Returned from the USA to Haiti to serve the sentence. Also indicted in the investigation into the assassination of Father Jean Marie Vincent; case not yet brought to trial.

Castera Cénafils - army captain convicted in Raboteau massacre trial. Sentenced to forced labor for life.

Prosper Avril - General and leader of the 1988 coup d'état, indicted in the investigation into the 1990 Piatre massacre; case not yet brought to trial.

Since the armed uprising that forced President Jean-Bertrand Aristide out of office the situation in Haiti has become more and more unstable. The interim government's failure to restore stability has created a power vacuum allowing armed groups to flourish. Former soldiers, armed so-called Aristide supporters and criminal gangs continue to terrorize Haitians in poor and middle class neighborhoods all over the country. Many continue to die at sea attempting to escape Haiti.

The Film:

In 1998, when Harriet Hirshorn finished The Disappearance of TiSoeur: Haiti after Duvalier, the Haitian people had lived through 10 interim governments, 3 coup d'etats and one free and fair election, since the departure of the Duvalier family in 1987. Haitians talked about “jistis” as a necessary next step in the transition from dictatorship to democracy.

Judicial reform was a critical part of that transition, and three significant Haitian trials took place from 1997 to 2000. While lawyers and the victims began preparing for the Raboteau trial in 1996 we waited for a date to be announced.

Hannah Taylor and Harriet Hirshorn began researching the possibility of producing a documentary in 1998 when it seemed that the trial might happen at the end of that year.

Finally, it was announced that the trial would take place in the autumn of 2000.

After attending the trial and conducting a series of interviews, Chris Cynn became increasingly more engaged in the project and eventually became its co-producer.

We documented the second week of the trial in its entirety with two cameras, the third week with one camera and we returned to Gonaives to videotape the last 10 days of the trial, including the verdict which was delivered at 1am. During those weeks, in addition to videotaping the trial, we also conducted interviews with trial participants, the Minister of Justice and the lawyers as well as Haitian journalists reporting on the trial. After the conclusion of the trial, we interviewed the jury. We also conducted interviews with Michele Montas of Radio Haiti Inter and Michele Pierre-Louis of the Foundation for Knowledge and Liberty (FOKAL).

The video was shot over seven months during five total trips to Haiti and one to France. It took another year and a half to transcribe tapes, edit, do a soundmix, and raise funding. The entire trial was broadcast on Haitian National Television and broadcast on the radio in Haiti. It also received some TV and radio coverage in Canada and some radio coverage in the US.

The Trial:

On 9 November 2000, after a six-week long trial, a jury in the Haitian city of Gonaives convicted 16 of 22 former soldiers and paramilitaries for participation in the April 1994 Raboteau Massacre. Twelve received life sentences at hard labor. A week later, 37 more defendants were convicted in absentia, including the leaders of Haiti's 1991-94 military dictatorship and the heads of the paramilitary FRAPH (Revolutionary Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti).

Thirty-four witnesses testified for the prosecution, including victims, their neighbors, and local officials, as well as scientific and military experts. Dr. Karen Burns, an American forensic anthropologist, was part of a team that exhumed and studied the remains of three presumed victims in 1995, and that conducted interviews with survivors. Dr. Burns explained how the team's observations -- injured bones, clothing, ropes around the skeletons' necks, even a key to the house where the victim had reportedly stayed -- confirmed the witness' accounts. Dr. Michele Harvey-Blankenship, a Canadian geneticist, testified that DNA from two of the bodies matched that of the reported victims' relatives.

Ambassador Colin Granderson told the jury of the broader context of the repression. He explained that it was organized on a national scale and included military and paramilitary elements and that Gonaives, and Raboteau in particular, had been targeted throughout the coup years. He concluded that the attack appeared to have been planned and covered up by national military and civilian leaders. Two military experts from the Centro de Militares para la Democracia (Center of Military for Democracy) in Argentina, Colonels Jose Luis Garcia and Horacio Pantaleon Ballester, explained the legal responsibility of the soldiers, both superiors and subordinates, under Haitian and international military law. The Colonels concluded that the high command was at least aware of the massacre beforehand and did nothing to stop it. They also described the army as "a criminal enterprise" that was organized for repressing civilians rather than for any legitimate military purpose.

Documentary evidence included information from the army archives and reports from experts and human rights organizations. The army documents were particularly useful in describing how the national and local military units were organized. Some defendants claimed they had been transferred before the massacre, but the documents showed they had been transferred after. Other documents established the provision of guns and ammunition for the operation. The prosecutio even obtained the High Command's report on the incident, which demonstrated how it was covered up.

The Raboteau judge had graduated at the top of the first class of Haiti's Ecole de la Magistrature (Magistrature School). Two assistant prosecutors had participated in the Carrefour Feuilles

trial and brought this experience over to Raboteau. One had recently returned from a year at France's Ecole de la Magistrature and was named academic director of Haiti's college. After his performance in the Raboteau case, he was named chief prosecutor in Port-au-Prince.