Lawyers oppose appointment of members to Haiti’s high command

A group of human rights lawyers has called on President Jovenel Moise to reconsider his appointment of several people to the top positions within the Haitian Armed Forces (FAD’H).

In a statement, the Office of International Lawyers (BAI), said it had taken note of the press release naming the officers by President Moise. “The BAI is not surprised that, without regard to the many innocent victims of the bloody coup of September 30, 1991Moise took the responsibility of appointing the high level staff of people with a tainted past including those engaged in torturing and sentenced in absentia at the Raboteau massacre in Gonaïves on 16 November 2000.”

According to the statement, announcing the appointments, Brigade General Sadrac Saintil has been named Chief of General Staff with Colonel Jonas Jean as Inspector General, Colonel Jean-Robert Gabriel and Colonel Derby Guerrier as Assistants Chief of Staff with Colonel Joseph Jacques Thomas as Secretary of the General Staff and Colonel Fontane Beaubien the member of the Staff of the Commander-in-Chief.

But in the statement, the BAI said that the Minister of Defense, Hervé Denis, “cannot pretend ignorance of the judgment and sentence in absentia of Colonel Jean Robert Gabriel, since this judgment was published in the columns of the official journal of the Republic, Le Moniteur of Thursday, November 23, 2000”.

It said that Denis had assured that all members of the General Staff were clean and had all been subject to a vetting.

Regarding BAI’s charges against Colonel Gabriel, the Minister is reported to have indicated that “there is nothing negative against him in the vetting regarding the violation of human rights”.