VZCZCXRO0232
PP RUEHQU
DE RUEHPU #0848/01 1291514
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 091514Z MAY 07
FM AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6031
INFO RUEHZH/HAITI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 1530
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA PRIORITY 1349
RUEHQU/AMCONSUL QUEBEC PRIORITY 0804
RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J2 MIAMI FL PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 1215

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PORT AU PRINCE 000848 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/EX AND WHA/CAR 
S/CRS 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAR 
INR/IAA (BEN-YEHUDA) 
WHA/EX PLEASE PASS USOAS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KJUS PHUM HA
SUBJECT: MAYETTE RELEASE STOKES CONTROVERSY/DISORDER IN 
GONAIVES 
 
 
PORT AU PR 00000848  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1.  (U)  Summary.  Tension stemming from the release of one 
of the accused in the La Scierie  massacre culminated on May 
7 in Gonaives when demonstrators disrupted the funeral of a 
local judge and threw stones at the government delegation led 
by Prime Minister Alexis.  MINUSTAH and Haitian police forces 
quickly intervened to restore order.  Judge Ramon Guillaume 
on April 26 ordered the release of defendant Amanus Mayette 
after three years in detention pending trial for his alleged 
participation in the massacre of Aristide-regime opponents in 
the La Scierie neighborhood of St. Marc in February 2004. 
Mayette's release has renewed the often violent tensions 
between rival political gangs in the St. Marc/Gonaives area. 
Anti- Fanmi Lavalas (FL) partisans now claim that the 
deceased judge from Gonaives, who just prior to his death on 
April 24 had ruled on an appeal in the La Scierie case, was 
the victim of a plot led by the justice minister to absolve 
Mayette.  Commentators have overwhelmingly criticized the 
decision to release Mayette, a decidedly unsympathetic 
figure, and spun theories on the link between the judge's 
death and Mayette's release, but have ignored the complete 
failure of the Haitian justice system to bring the La Scierie 
case to a conclusion.  End Summary. 
 
Mayette Released 
---------- 
 
¶2. (U) Ramon Guillaume, chief judge of the civil tribunal in 
Gonaives, on April 26 ruled in favor of a habeas corpus 
motion for two of the three defendants remaining in detention 
in the La Scierie case.  The judge ordered the release of 
Amanus Mayette, a former FL deputy for St. Marc and the most 
well-known of the remaining prisoners and Hora Jean Baptiste. 
 La Scierie victims' advocates claim Mayette led pro-FL gangs 
through the neighborhood targeting rebel sympathizers.  The 
judge ruled against the release of Ronald Dauphin ("Black 
Ronald"), who according to MINUSTAH sources is a notorious 
criminal from St. Marc.  Haitian authorities detained only 
six of the 30 defendants in the La Scierie case since first 
filing charges in March, 2004.  Former Interior Minister 
Jocelerme Privert successfully petitioned for his release in 
January 2006, and a judge released former Prime Minister Yvon 
Neptune in July 2006 for medical reasons.  Another defendant 
died of tuberculosis in prison in March.  MINUSTAH human 
rights officials report that Mayette and Jean Baptiste were 
in very poor health as a result of their prolonged detention. 
 
 
Death of a Judge 
---------- 
 
¶3. (U) Chief judge for the court of appeals Hughes St. Pierre 
died in Port-au-Prince on April 24 in a traffic accident. 
According to media reports immediately following the 
accident, St. Pierre,  75 years-old, was getting off a a "tap 
tap" (a small truck converted for public transport) on the 
busy Delmas thoroughfare when another vehicle struck him. 
St. Pierre on April 13 had issued a ruling on a motion to 
dismiss the charges brought by several La Scierie defendants, 
declining to make a final decision and asking the examining 
magistrate in the case to re-examine several witnesses.  The 
ruling came 18 months after the Haitian legal deadline for 
appellate court rulings and the examining magistrate had 
already discounted the testimony of 21 of the 37 witnesses 
cited by Judge St. Pierre, six of whom have since died. 
 
Conspiracy, Outrage, Demonstrations 
---------- 
 
¶4. (U) Mayette's release, coming only two days after St. 
Pierre's death, unleashed a torrent of criticism and 
conspiracy theories from FL opponents.  Many claim that St. 
Pierre's death was a result of a conspiracy led by Justice 
Minister Rene Magloire on behalf of the government to ensure 
that the La Scierie defendants woul go free and not reveal 
the involvement of Presient Preval and other officials in 
crimes committd under Aristide.  According to St. Pierre's 
famly members, the justice minister summond St. Pierre to 
Port-au-Pince to account for his decision in the La Scierie 
appeal.  Sympathetic media claimed days after St. Pierre's 
death that witnesses had come forward to say that St. Pierre 
had been pushed in front of the other vehicle.  Others 
claimed that St. Pierre had arrived at the hospital alive, 
but was denied medical treatment.   Justice Minister Magloire 
publicly denied having called St. Pierre to Port-au-Prince, 
but media sources reported that two other judges from 
Gonaives confirmed that they had also been summoned by the 
justice minister.  Senator Youri Latortue of the Artibonite 
has called for a special commission of inquiry in the Senate 
to summon the minister, St. Pierre's family members, and the 
supposed witnesses to St. Pierre's death.  Latortue has also 
called for the minister's resignation if witnesses confirm 
that he lied about summoning St. Pierre. 
 
¶5.  (U) Disquiet surrounding the events related to Mayette's 
release and St. Pierre's death came to a head during  St. 
Pierre's funeral at the Gonaives cathedral on May 7.  Prime 
Minister Alexis led a government delegation including the 
justice, agriculture, and commerce ministers.  Protesters 
outside the cathedral interrupted the service with catcalls 
and chants aimed at the justice minister.  When the PM led 
the delegation outside to address the crowd after the 
service, protesters reportedly cut his microphone and began 
throwing rocks at the officials, forcing the PM to cancel the 
ceremony.  The rock throwing continued as the delegation's 
motorcade departed Gonaives.  The media estimated the number 
of protesters at 300; MINUSTAH sources reported that they 
quickly brought the situation under control after the PM's 
departure. 
 
Comment 
---------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  The La Scierie case and its aftermath and the 
latest unrest spurred by St. Pierre's funeral are emblematic 
of the worst kind of political manipulation of gangs and gang 
violence in Haiti.  The root cause of gang rivalry in 
Gonvaives and St. Marc in recent years has been the desire of 
political figures to control the ports of those two coastal 
towns and benefit from the accompanying graft.  Gangs 
originally made up of port workers in Gonaives (the "Cannibal 
Army" the most notorious among them) switched allegiance away 
from Aristide to Guy Phillipe and armed rebel forces prior to 
Aristide's departure.  Informed observers report that Youri 
Latortue, himself a former Aristide supporter widely assumed 
to be involved in corruption,  successfully co-opted these 
gangs in building his personal power base and political 
party, Artibonite in Action (LAA).  His flogging of a 
conspiracy theory regarding Judge St. Pierre's death is his 
latest move to raise his profile and exploit anti-FL 
sentiment at the government's expense.  Although the 
accusations against the justice minister appear preposterous 
on their face, they are taken seriously by a significant 
number of Haitians, as is Latortue's call for the justice 
minister's resignation. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Comment Continued. Lost in the hullabaloo is 
reasoned assessment of the La Scierie case.  Even more 
sensible commentators, including human rights advocates 
jumped to criticize Mayette's release as a further example of 
impunity for FL members, rather than examine the 
circumstances of his detention.  The Haitian justice system 
imprisoned only a select few of the accused in the La Scierie 
case and has failed to move beyond the "preliminary 
investigation" phase after over three years.  The appeals 
court over which Judge St. Pierre presided took nearly two 
years to make a decision -- Haitian law requires a decision 
from an appeals court within 30 days -- that further stalls 
the case.  The justice system under both the provisional and 
Preval governments has failed miserably to elucidate the 
facts regarding a terrible incident and thus further obscured 
the the larger context around Gonaives and St. Marc where 
partisans of both sides probably committed numerous 
atrocities.  Therein lies the scandal. 
 
SMITH