David A Kirby  03/31/2009 03:59:04 PM  From  DB/Inbox:  David A Kirby

Cable 
Text:                                                                                                                                                       
UNCLASSIFIED
TELEGRAM                                           March 31, 2009


To:       SECSTATE WASHDC - PRIORITY

Action:   WHA

From:     AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE (PORT AU PR 347 - PRIORITY)

TAGS:     PGOV, PHUM, PREL, HA

Captions: None

Subject:  HAITIAN CRIMINAL DEPORTEES (PART THREE): AN OVERVIEW OF
           DEPORTEE ASSOCIATIONS AND CONCERNS

Ref:      None
_________________________________________________________________

Additional Addressees:
None

cc:
AMCONSUL QUEBEC
AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
AMEMBASSY PRETORIA
USMISSION USUN N Y
HAITI COLLECTIVE
HQ USSOUTHCOM J2 MIAMI FL

Distribution:

TED3994
ACTION WHA-00   

INFO  LOG-00   AF-00    AID-00   A-00     CIAE-00  INL-00   DODE-00  
      DS-00    EAP-00   DHSE-00  UTED-00  VCI-00   OBO-00   H-00     
      TEDE-00  INR-00   IO-00    LAB-01   MOFM-00  MOF-00   M-00     
      VCIE-00  NSAE-00  NSCE-00  OIC-00   OMB-00   NIMA-00  PA-00    
      PC-01    PER-00   PM-00    GIWI-00  P-00     DOHS-00  SP-00    
      SSO-00   SS-00    NCTC-00  FMP-00   BBG-00   SCRS-00  PMB-00   
      DSCC-00  PRM-00   DRL-00   NFAT-00  SAS-00   FA-00    SWCI-00  
        /002W
                  ------------------4A78FB  311712Z /38    
P 311613Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9793
INFO HAITI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 
AMEMBASSY PRETORIA PRIORITY 
AMCONSUL QUEBEC PRIORITY 
HQ USSOUTHCOM J2 MIAMI FL PRIORITY
USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY

UNCLAS PORT AU PRINCE 000347 
 
 
STATE FOR WHA/EX AND WHA/CAR 
STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAR 
S/CRS 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
INR/IAA 
WHA/EX PLEASE PASS USOAS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM HA
SUBJECT: HAITIAN CRIMINAL DEPORTEES (PART THREE): AN 
OVERVIEW OF DEPORTEE ASSOCIATIONS AND CONCERNS 
 
¶1. (SBU)  Summary: Haitian criminal deportees interviewed by 
Embassy human rights officer report problems with integration 
into Haitian society and describe their self-help efforts to 
organize and improve their public image. Two deportee 
associations assert that corrupt Haitian officials attempt to 
extort money from deportees and their U.S. families. 
Critical of a USG-supported reintegration program, criminal 
deportees express interest in forging their own economic 
opportunities, in part to overcome what they regard as the 
stigma society attaches to them. They advocate early direct 
assistance to help deportees adjust to life in Haiti.  While 
most criminal deportees maintain that the majority of their 
numbers do not participate in further crimes, they 
nevertheless admit that some deportees -- especially those 
with no financial support from U.S. relatives -- find it 
difficult to resist the lure of illegal activity, given 
Haiti's limited economic options. This is the third in a 
series of three cables covering criminal deportees in Haiti. 
End Summary. 
 
ASSOCIATIONS AND MEMBERS 
------------------------ 
 
¶2. (U)  Criminal deportee associations are far more organized 
than previously understood. The associations act as social 
support networks.  With few resources, they help each other 
find beds and food, and provide safe locations where they can 
discuss the issues they face.  Although all the associations 
provide meals and attempt to find beds for homeless 
deportees, each group specializes in different services. 
Some focus primarily on social welfare services and support, 
others intervene with new arrivals to prevent criminal 
recidivism, while still others produce art around deportee 
themes.  All deportee associations offer advice to new 
arrivals about adapting to and -- in many cases -- protecting 
themselves from their Haitian families. 
 
¶3. (U)  The Haitian Foundation for the Families of 
Repatriates (FONHFARA) was formally founded in 2000 in 
Carrefour, an impoverished area of Port-au-Prince where 
criminal gangs are present and active.  The president and 
founder, Samael Jean Joel Auguste, runs the operation without 
external monetary support.  Since its inception, he has 
primarily relied on the volunteer labor of its more than two 
thousand members.  Working primarily with IOM, FONHFARA helps 
its members find rooms to rent, gives advice on employment, 
and helps members with tasks of daily life such as 
negotiating rents or doing business with local banks. 
FONHFARA also regularly visits deportees in prolonged 
pretrial detention after arrests, and tries to intercede on 
deportees' behalf when no formal charges appear forthcoming. 
Auguste says that he would one day like to run a shelter for 
members.  IOM often contacts FONHFARA and Koze Kreyol 
(''speak Creole''), another deportee self-help association, 
for help with what Auguste calls their ''special cases,'' 
deportees with no family or resources, since IOM cannot 
provide significant assistance with living expenses. 
 
¶4. (U)  Koze Kreyol, a criminal deportee association -- also 
a for-profit enterprise -- remarkable for its success and a 
local partner of IOM, was founded by Emmanuelle Cajuste in 
¶2004.  Recording bands and artists such as ''Deps Inc.,'' 
Koze Kreyol and its associates have developed a widely-played 
genre of music which they call ''DP'' music.  This music 
often explores themes of government corruption, social change 
for Haiti, police abuse, street violence in poor 
neighborhoods, and drugs.  Cajuste explains: ''I'm Haitian, 
you know? But I'm American in how I think.  I remember what 
it's like to live with clean streets and where people go to 
work and to school.  That's what I want now for my country.'' 
 For five years, Koze Kreyol has hosted an annual music 
awards show where they recognize musical achievements and 
encourage local youth to continue artistic expression, but 
report that as a deportee enterprise, the association cannot 
find positive media coverage for their efforts. 
 
¶5. (SBU)  Auguste and Cajuste believe the total number of 
deportees in Haiti (criminal and non-criminal) is far greater 
than Eric Calpas' estimate of 10,000.  They believe Carrefour 
alone is home to that many deported persons.  They also 
informally estimate the fraction of criminal deportees who 
 
 
participate in crime in Haiti between 30 and 40 percent. 
They assert that very few deportees participate in violent 
crimes such as kidnappings, but believe that the overwhelming 
majority of deportees who do fall into crime are involved in 
drug trafficking. 
 
MONEY AND VULNERABILITY - OFFICIALS, FAMILIES, AND CRIMINALS 
--------------------------------------------- --------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU)  Embassy Human Rights officer attended a meeting 
with 25 deportees on February 18, and then met with leaders 
of FONHFARA and Koze Kreyol on March 4. Emboff heard claims 
that IOM's reintegration program fails to address deportee 
needs, suspicions that local IOM employees sneak their 
friends into grant-gaining positions, and descriptions of 
deportees' vulnerability to government authorities, their 
Haitian families, and criminal gangs. 
 
7.(SBU)  All deportees state that during their initial 
detention period, ''oficial-looking'' Haitians who may have 
been lawyrs or government agents approached them for money. 
Some reported that weeks before they left for Hati, 
unidentified persons solicited payments from heir U.S. 
family members, either promising decresed detention time or 
threatening physical harm to the deportee if payment were not 
made.  (Note: Haitian authorities are provided with deportee 
dossiers weeks before a deportee flight.  End note).  Ten of 
nineteen deportees on February 22 claimed that their families 
had paid between USD 2,000 and 18,000 for their release or 
safety. 
 
¶8. (SBU)  A middle-aged deportee told Poloff that when he was 
brought to Haiti on February 18, 2004 he had connections in 
place.  A friend delivered a message, allegedly from a 
security agent for former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, 
to the effect that ''Don't worry, you won't have to pay 
anything. You're just going to have to tell new deportees how 
much it (release) is going to cost them.''  After the 
Aristide government fell nine days later, the man spent 
another five to six months in prison before being released. 
 
¶9. (SBU)  Haitian family members of deportees sometimes 
attempt to extort money from U.S. relatives. Cajuste reported 
that during his initial detention in Haiti, his receiving 
Haitian family called his U.S. family claiming that murderers 
in jail would kill him unless they immediately received five 
thousand dollars (USD). He later learned that no such threat 
existed.  Criminal deportees often face conflict with their 
Haitian families over control of funds sent by U.S. 
relatives.  Antagonisms often develop to the point that the 
local family rejects the newcomer. 
 
¶10. (SBU)  Embassy human rights officer met an especially 
down and out deportee, an unsmiling twenty-something Woody 
Drice (protect), who said that he was deported from the U.S. 
in 2007 and that distant relatives in Haiti signed for his 
release.  His family in the U.S. is not wealthy and has not 
sent him remittances.  ''At first, they (the Haitian-signing 
family) were so nice...but when they understood that nothing 
(money) was coming, they turned on me.''  Two months after 
his arrival, Drice's local family filed a false kidnapping 
accusation against him and he was detained by local police. 
FONHFARA launched a letter-writing campaign which succeeded 
in securing Drice's release, but with few funds and no job on 
the horizon, he soon became homeless.  IOM, he states, was 
not helpful.  He often goes for days without eating.  He does 
not have medication for the mental illness he was diagnosed 
with while serving his U.S. sentence.  Drice reports that he 
searches every day for employment, but no one hires him when 
they learn he is a deportee. 
 
¶11. (SBU)  Like Drice, most deportees reported that criminal 
elements had tried to recruit them, beginning with their 
initial periods of detention and again after a few months of 
failing to find employment. Deportees who initially resist 
later find themselves choosing between joining gangs and 
starving on the streets.  Crime, they report, is one of the 
few economic arenas where they are welcomed and valued.  When 
they are not involved, one man explained, ''we're blamed 
anyway, just because we're deportees.'' Auguste and Cajuste 
state that most deportees who choose crime do so out of fear, 
 
 
desperation, or desire for protection Haitian criminals give 
them. Deportees are most vulnerable to gang recruitment while 
they are in holding and resisting the extortion attempts 
described above. Imprisoned gang members can often have 
enough power to make bribery requests cease. 
 
¶12. (SBU)  Auguste and Cajuste added that some Haitian gang 
leaders falsely claim they are deportees to enhance their 
criminal prestige.  They attempt to display facility with 
colloquial U.S. street English to lend credibility to their 
claim of deportee status.  A Cite Soleil gang leader was 
arrested for kidnapping and widely reported in local media as 
a criminal deportee until it was proven that he'd never 
visited the U.S. Auguste and Cajuste maintain that this 
occurs regularly. 
 
THE PROBLEM OF PAPER 
-------------------- 
 
¶13. (SBU)  Participation in Haitian society is severely 
limited without identity papers. Cajuste reports that it took 
three years before he was able to obtain a passport. 
Officials sent Cajuste and his cousin to five different 
offices for confirmation of his identity before telling them 
that they were probably ''African assassins'' who'd been 
abandoned in Haiti by their employers and that they could not 
be issued Haitian passports.  With his Amcit sister present 
to lobby on his behalf, Cajuste finally obtained a passport 
in December 2007. The Haitian government, however, stamped in 
the book's front cover, ''This passport valid for travel 
anywhere except the United States'' and thus effectively 
highlighted Cajuste's deportee status to anyone who requests 
his documentation.  All deportees who obtain passports have 
them annotated in this way. 
 
DREAMS OF SELF-SUPPORT AND EMPOWERMENT 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶14. (U)  Deportees at both meetings vociferously condemned 
government programs as inadequate. Association leaders 
expressed the wish for help with writing grants they could 
submit on their own behalf. Believing that they have useful 
skills, deportees envision creating a community center, 
job-creation enterprises, and a shelter for homeless 
deportees who might otherwise slip into criminal activity. 
They also expressed interest in giving media interviews to 
counteract the negative image caused by deportees engaged in 
crime and to convince Haitians that they can have a positive 
impact on society. 
 
¶15. (U)  Deportees state that several things may improve 
their experiences in Haiti and their ability to adapt. 
Pre-arrival briefings on potential government and family 
attempts at extortion, and brochures explaining the local 
situation and providing deportee association contact 
information would substantially increase their chances of 
protecting themselves and avoiding criminal gangs. FONHFARA 
and Koze Kreyol report that new deportees frequently find 
their associations only after family and government officials 
have taken advantage of them. 
 
¶16. (SBU)  Comment:  Criminal deportees face many obstacles 
shared by all Haitians (primarily poor economic conditions) 
but encounter others directly arising from their deportee 
status, including social marginalization and discrimination, 
false accusations to police, and police abuse.  More efforts 
to help criminal deportees re-integrate into Haitian society 
would not only benefit this small group of people, but also 
would likely make Haiti more receptive to greater numbers of 
deportations. 
SANDERSON