As the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country trundles toward total disintegration, the Dominique case illustrates some of the phenomenal challenges facing Aristide: a breakdown in the rule of law and a corrupt political elite, not to mention a moribund private sector, bankrupt public coffers and a political crisis that has led international donors to freeze $500 million in aid the country desperately needs. Hoping to improve Haiti’s sorry state, Dominique had used his bully pulpit to blast high-level corruption. It would be his undoing: he “was so close to power he underestimated the danger,” says Marvel Dandin of Radio Kiskeya, an independent station. “[Those] in power are determined to stay there.”
Sources close to the investigation believe the 69-year-old journalist was killed in retaliation for accusations he made during his popular radio program on Haiti Inter against officials in the ruling Lavalas Family Party. Many of the men are former military officers who joined Aristide’s cause in the 1990s. Dominique was privy to internal information that implicated the officials in shady businesses–from car theft to drug trafficking–according to investigation sources. They say some Lavalas officials also wanted him out of the way because he posed a political challenge. He was prominent in a national “peasant movement,” and Lavalas politicians believed Dominique wanted to challenge Aristide in the November 2000 presidential election, which Aristide won by a landslide. (Dominique’s widow denies this.)
In the most serious accusation against those in power, in late 1999 Dominique suggested that Sen. Dany Toussaint and some of his associates were responsible for several unsolved attacks on Haitian officials, including the murder of Jean Lamy, slated to become chief of police. Toussaint had been interim head of police in 1994 and had wanted the job again, according to a former U.N. investigator. In fact, Dominique often accused Toussaint of being corrupt. Toussaint denies any wrongdoing. He has refused to be questioned by the investigating judge and challenged the investigation after it was leaked to the Haitian press that he was a prime suspect. “I’m ready to defend myself,” he declared recently in the Haitian press. “The Senate can strip me of my immunity… I’m ready for battle.”
Dominique’s widow, Michele Montas, also a journalist, has used her Haitian and international contacts to keep the case alive. But the investigation has progressed slowly. Judge Claudy Gassant, a dapper small man with a quick smile, told NEWSWEEK he would finish his investigation no matter what. He ended up resigning in June and fled Haiti after he learned there was a contract on his life. He returned in July, after international pressure led the government to offer him protection. But the trail is growing cold. Last September the car thief who supplied the getaway vehicles for Dominique’s assassins died unexpectedly after an operation to remove several bullets from his buttocks (inflicted in an unrelated incident). When Gassant went to examine the body, it had disappeared from the morgue.
So far Aristide has shown little interest in getting to the bottom of his friend’s murder. He has bigger worries, like trying to reach a political accord with the opposition over charges that the 2000 parliamentary elections won by Toussaint and other Lavalas politicians was rigged. A two-month effort by the Organization of American States (OAS) almost produced a settlement that called for holding re-elections for 18 Senate seats and the entire lower house. Those efforts were thwarted by a rash of attacks by men in military uniform in late July, directed at several police stations, which left five dead and 15 wounded. The government and the opposition traded accusations over who sponsored the thugs.
So far the Bush administration has steered clear of the Dominique case–and Haiti. George W. Bush sees the island as a Clinton-era military intervention he would just as soon forget. But refugees and an increase in Haitian drug trafficking mean that Washington will have to pay attention sooner or later. The country has become an important transshipment point for Colombian cocaine (though shipments recently dipped, not as a result of tougher Haitian law enforcement but because traffickers grew weary of highway robbers preying on their goods). Dominique believed that Lavalas (which means “cleansing” in Creole) would survive as a movement only if party leaders honored “justice, transparency and fairness.” Getting to the truth about his assassination–with or without U.S. help–won’t end Haiti’s problems, but it might at least put the country closer to that ideal.
title: “Caribbean Haitian Murder Mystery” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-27” author: “Jennifer Fowler”
As the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country trundles toward total disintegration, the Dominique case illustrates some of the phenomenal challenges facing Aristide: a breakdown in the rule of law and a corrupt political elite, not to mention a moribund private sector, bankrupt public coffers and a political crisis that has led international donors to freeze $500 million in aid the country desperately needs. Hoping to improve Haiti’s sorry state, Dominique had used his bully pulpit to blast high-level corruption. It would be his undoing: he “was so close to power he underestimated the danger,” says Marvel Dandin of Radio Kiskeya, an independent station. “[Those] in power are determined to stay there.”
Sources close to the investigation believe the 69-year-old journalist was killed in retaliation for accusations he made during his popular radio program on Haiti Inter against officials in the ruling Lavalas Family Party. Many of the men are former military officers who joined Aristide’s cause in the 1990s. Dominique was privy to internal information that implicated the officials in shady businesses–from car theft to drug trafficking–according to investigation sources. They say some Lavalas officials also wanted him out of the way because he posed a political challenge. He was prominent in a national “peasant movement,” and Lavalas politicians believed Dominique wanted to challenge Aristide in the November 2000 presidential election, which Aristide won by a landslide. (Dominique’s widow denies this.)
In the most serious accusation against those in power, in late 1999 Dominique suggested that Sen. Dany Toussaint and some of his associates were responsible for several unsolved attacks on Haitian officials, including the murder of Jean Lamy, slated to become chief of police. Toussaint had been interim head of police in 1994 and had wanted the job again, according to a former U.N. investigator. In fact, Dominique often accused Toussaint of being corrupt. Toussaint denies any wrongdoing. He has refused to be questioned by the investigating judge and challenged the investigation after it was leaked to the Haitian press that he was a prime suspect. “I’m ready to defend myself,” he declared recently in the Haitian press. “The Senate can strip me of my immunity… I’m ready for battle.”
Dominique’s widow, Michele Montas, also a journalist, has used her Haitian and international contacts to keep the case alive. But the investigation has progressed slowly. Judge Claudy Gassant, a dapper small man with a quick smile, told NEWSWEEK he would finish his investigation no matter what. He ended up resigning in June and fled Haiti after he learned there was a contract on his life. He returned in July, after international pressure led the government to offer him protection. But the trail is growing cold. Last September the car thief who supplied the getaway vehicles for Dominique’s assassins died unexpectedly after an operation to remove several bullets from his buttocks (inflicted in an unrelated incident). When Gassant went to examine the body, it had disappeared from the morgue.
So far Aristide has shown little interest in getting to the bottom of his friend’s murder. He has bigger worries, like trying to reach a political accord with the opposition over charges that the 2000 parliamentary elections won by Toussaint and other Lavalas politicians was rigged. A two-month effort by the Organization of American States (OAS) almost produced a settlement that called for holding re-elections for 18 Senate seats and the entire lower house. Those efforts were thwarted by a rash of attacks by men in military uniform in late July, directed at several police stations, which left five dead and 15 wounded. The government and the opposition traded accusations over who sponsored the thugs.
So far the Bush administration has steered clear of the Dominique case–and Haiti. George W. Bush sees the island as a Clinton-era military intervention he would just as soon forget. But refugees and an increase in Haitian drug trafficking mean that Washington will have to pay attention sooner or later. The country has become an important transshipment point for Colombian cocaine (though shipments recently dipped, not as a result of tougher Haitian law enforcement but because traffickers grew weary of highway robbers preying on their goods). Dominique believed that Lavalas (which means “cleansing” in Creole) would survive as a movement only if party leaders honored “justice, transparency and fairness.” Getting to the truth about his assassination–with or without U.S. help–won’t end Haiti’s problems, but it might at least put the country closer to that ideal.
