New nominee for PM, Bernard Gousse, a 2004-06 regime rights violator: three articles

Radio is reporting in Haiti that President Michel Martelly will nominate Bernard Gousse as prime minister, following the failed nomination of Daniel Rouzier.

Martelly’s Haiti PM pick had rocky tenure as top cop

By Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald, July 6, 2011
A former justice minister with a “God awful” reputation as Haiti’s top law enforcement official was tapped Wednesday to lead the quake-battered nation as its next prime minister.

Latest news: Haiti law firm files for probe against PM pick

Boston.com, July 13 , 2011--A Haitian law firm is urging the legislature to investigate President Michel Martelly's new pick for prime minister over allegations he committed crimes as a justice minister. The International Bureau of Lawyers says it has filed a petition with lawmakers asking them to investigate nominee Bernard Gousse.

Human rights groups have accused Gousse of persecuting supporters of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. They allege he is guilty of false imprisonment and being an accomplice to murder during his time as justice minister in the interim government that took office after a violent rebellion in 2004 drove Aristide out of Haiti.

The law firm announced its appeal to lawmakers Wednesday.

Bernard Gousse, a 52-year-old lawyer, was named by Haitian President Michel Martelly before Martelly left on a three-day visit to Spain, his fifth foreign trip since his May 14 inauguration. Hours later, in unusual haste, Haitian senators — who must confirm the selection — asked Gousse to submit his documents.

The choice has sparked outrage among some parliamentarians, who repeatedly warned Martelly in meetings this week that Gousse was an unacceptable choice and his nomination would be rejected. Haiti watchers also struggled to understand the selection. Some wondered if it was a tactic to re-appoint caretaker Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, who is opposed by some in Martelly’s camp, or if he’s seeking to use Gousse’s nomination — and possible rejection — to blame parliament for paralyzing the country.

“This is a risky strategy that can easily backfire as Martelly could be portrayed as intransigent and incapable of compromise,’’ said Robert Fatton, a Haiti expert at the University of Virginia. “Moreover, without a functioning government, the country’s reconstruction cannot really begin and this could lead to serious political instability and unpredictable outcomes. Ultimately, this is a dangerous gamble that may generate a crisis of governability.’’

Gousse declined to speculate on his chances, telling The Miami Herald by telephone from Port-au-Prince, “the process has just begun.’’

“We have to wait for the final vote but I will work and meet with every political group,’’ he said. “This is a parliamentary regime so we have to deal.’’

Gousse was appointed minister of justice and public security in 2004 during the interim U.S.-backed government. He resigned a year later amid mounting international pressure over his handling of security and the prolonged imprisonment of former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune. His tenure was viewed as an utter flop, according to cables obtained by WikiLeaks and shared with McClatchy Newspapers. He’s described in them as unable to deal with judicial corruption, most unhelpful and disappointing.

Critics accused him of leading a “witch hunt’’ against supporters of ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Among those who were jailed under his watch and then later released: Miami activist Gerard Jean-Juste, former Aristide interior minister and now Sen. Jocelerme Privert, and Neptune, who led a hunger strike to protest his more than two years detention.

The Neptune case, said one cable, was “not just a judicial matter but also a political one,’’ and posed “grave dangers for the [Interim Government of Haiti] in the event Neptune should die (which would result in international condemnation) or in the event Neptune is freed without a judicial reckoning.”

“Everyone, including his backers in the private sector, agreed that Gousse had been a complete failure both on the security and justice fronts,’’ former U.S. Ambassador James Foley said in a June 3, 2005 cable.

Haiti watchers worry that Gousse’s nomination will open old political wounds. His was among three that had been discussed in recent days. The others are caretaker Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerieve, whom some Martelly supporters object to because he represents continuity, and not the change Martelly has promised; and former president candidate Jean-Henry Ceant.

While some Martelly’s supporters have pushed for him, Ceant also has his shortcomings. He is described in one cable as “Aristide’s notary and personal friend.’’

“Ceant’s wealth (by Haitian standards), combined with his ties to Aristide, raises suspicions about his past dealings,’’ the cable said.

“I fear for Haiti,’’ said Reginald Dumas, a former Trinidad ambassador and long time Haiti watcher. “Gousse’s reputation under [former interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue] was God awful.’’

Dumas said he warned Latortue in 2004 that Gousse “was severely damaging the image of Haiti. He is an ideologically divisive man of the extreme right, and would cause serious problems.’’

Mark Schneider of the International Crisis Group said both Martelly and parliament need to figure out a way to get a government in place quickly. Martelly is mid-way through his first 100 days in office, and Haiti remains at a standstill. Two weeks ago, parliament rejected Martelly’s first choice, U.S.-educated businessman Daniel Rouzier.

“The question is whether he’s competent, whether he’s honest and whether he can perform the functions of a prime minister,’’ Schneider said. “If parliament says ‘No,’ then the president needs to find someone else.’’

Interim justice minister resigns

Bernard Gousse, Haiti's top law-enforcement official, resigned amid criticism of the detention of the former prime minister, Yvon Neptune.

BY STEVENSON JACOBS, Associated Press, June 16, 2005

 PORT AU PRINCE--Haiti's interim justice minister has submitted his resignation, amid mounting international criticism over the prolonged detention of the former prime minister under ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Bernard Gousse, Haiti's top law enforcement official, did not provide a reason in a resignation letter sent Tuesday to interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue. A copy of the letter was obtained by The Associated Press.

If accepted, Gousse's resignation would mark the first major departure within Haiti's U.S.-backed interim government, appointed last year after Aristide fled Haiti amid a February 2004 uprising.

It was unclear whether Latortue had seen the letter. Calls to both Latortue and Gousse seeking comment went unanswered late Tuesday.

In the letter, Gousse thanked Latortue for ''allowing me to serve my country'' and expressed pride in ``doing my civic duty after a dictatorship.

''However, I am submitting my resignation as minister of justice and public security,'' Gousse wrote.

Gousse has come under fire for the ongoing detention of former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, who was arrested 11 months ago but charged only in May with orchestrating killings of Aristide opponents before the revolt. Neptune denies the charge and has reportedly refused meals to protest his detention.

Gousse also has been accused of ignoring alleged atrocities by police against pro-Aristide slum dwellers.

His possible exit comes as Haitian police and a 7,400-strong U.N. peacekeeping force struggle to curb a rise in killings, kidnappings and other violence that authorities fear could undermine fall elections.

More than 700 people -- including at least 40 police -- have been slain in the capital since September, when Aristide supporters stepped up calls for his return from exile in South Africa.

In a letter sent this month to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, 10 U.S. lawmakers, all Democrats, called Haiti a ''failed state'' and urged Rice to press for Gousse's removal for failing to release Neptune.

''His attitude and his actions have actually increased Haiti's instability and have guaranteed that Haiti will remain volatile even after elections,'' wrote the lawmakers, led by Rep. William Delahunt of Massachusetts.

U.S. Ambassador James Foley insisted Tuesday that the lawmakers' call doesn't reflect the views of the U.S. government. He said Gousse's resignation could become ''a distraction'' as authorities prepare for elections scheduled for October and November.

''This is not the way the U.S. government acts in Haiti,'' Foley told Radio Vision 2000. ''We are not trying to dictate'' to the interim government.

How Haiti's Future May Depend on a Starving Prisoner

By GINGER THOMPSON, New York Times, June 16, 2005

 PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, June 11 - Once again, one man has become the center of a political storm that threatens to foil this country's uphill struggle for stability.

This time, it's not Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the former priest and charismatic slum leader who was deposed last year by an armed uprising and forced into exile. It is the man who rose and fell in Mr. Aristide's shadow, his former prime minister, Yvon Neptune.

The former senator and radio talk show host has been jailed for a year without charges under a new government installed by the United States and is slowly starving himself to death in a minimum-security prison cell.

Last year, Haiti's new government arrested Mr. Neptune, 58, accusing him as the mastermind of a massacre in a small northern town, St.-Marc. Prime Minister G?rard Latortue argued that justice was the best way to heal Haiti's wounds, and promoted the case as proof that no one, no matter how powerful, could stand above the law.

But as the anniversary of Mr. Neptune's arrest approaches, his continued detention has become an embarrassment to the Bush administration and a symbol of the failures of what was supposed to be Haiti's transition to a fully functioning democracy.

From prison, the former prime minister has denounced his case as a "political witch hunt" aimed at seeking vengeance, not justice, against those who supported Mr. Aristide. In February he started a series of hunger strikes to demand that the government try him or set him free.

When a visitor went to the two-story house where Mr. Neptune is being held, the former prime minister could not lift his bony body off a foam mattress on the floor of his cell. He was wearing striped boxer shorts and listening to music on a Walkman. His most striking feature was the lines of his rib cage.

"I feel weak," he said barely above a whisper. "Some days I feel weaker than others. But it was my choice to go on hunger strike."

The hunger strikes have sent Mr. Neptune twice to the hospital in critical condition and brought expressions of concern, even outrage, about the injustices that continue to plague Haiti's justice system. Only about 20 of the more than 1,000 prisoners at the federal penitentiary have been convicted of crimes; many have spent years awaiting trial.

But Jocelyn McCalla, executive director of the National Coalition for Haitian Rights in New York, said much more is at stake than Haiti's justice system.

Rather than a political achievement for Haiti's interim government, he said, it has become a serious liability less than four months from the start of important national elections.

And rather than uniting this violently polarized society, Mr. McCalla said, the case against Mr. Neptune has seemed only to keep old political hostilities festering, raising questions about the crimes of the past government, and about the legitimacy of the current one.

"The Neptune case has raised hard questions about the legitimacy of the United States' intervention in Haiti," Mr. McCalla said. "The intervention was based on the premise that the United States was ousting a criminal despot, namely President Aristide, who had used his powers to subvert democracy, and that the interim government was going to establish rule of law. That has not happened."

It is not easy to tell exactly what happened in St.-Marc. Estimates of the dead range from 5 to 50. But according to rights investigators and reports by the Haitian press, the violence had its roots in the upheaval that ousted President Aristide.

That rebellion began in early February 2004 in Gona?ves, when a rag-tag group of former soldiers attacked police stations and forced officers to abandon their posts. Word spread rapidly to St.-Marc, where Aristide opponents who called themselves Ramicos attacked the police station and set up barricades.

Mr. Neptune arrived there in the presidential helicopter on Feb. 9. Witnesses said he toured the city, summoned police officers back to their stations and vowed in an angry speech that the government would not surrender.

"What we are doing is to make sure that peace is re-established," he was quoted as saying in a Haitian newspaper account. "We are encouraging the police to get together with the population so that the cycle of violence can cease. We ask all the population that wants peace to mobilize against the spiraling violence."

In hindsight, some today see those words as giving the police a license to kill. Others see them as a beleaguered prime minister's striving to give confidence to his constituents.

Two days later, witnesses said, the presidential helicopter returned and circled over the city. Police officers accompanied by pro-Aristide gunmen called Bale Wouze (the Creole phrase describes a cleansing ritual) broke through the barricades around a Ramicos stronghold, setting buildings on fire and throwing people inside to burn alive.

No one claims to have seen Mr. Neptune. In fact, several days passed before anyone dared to enter the area to search for survivors.

Terry Snow, a missionary from Tyler, Tex., who has worked in Haiti since 1986, recalled that the streets were littered with bodies. He was too scared to take photos of them, he said, but he recalled seeing at least seven in one house and three heads in an outhouse. Others told him there were bodies on the hillside, being eaten by hungry pigs and dogs.

"By the time the police started looking for the bodies," he said, "they weren't there anymore."

By then, neither was President Aristide. The growing instability in Haiti brought immense pressure by the United States, and Mr. Aristide fled the country for exile in Africa.

Mr. Neptune, however, refused to flee, and cooperated with the United States by handing over power to Mr. Latortue, whose government repaid the favor with a warrant for Mr. Neptune's arrest.

Three weeks ago, the emaciated prisoner was carried on a stretcher to his first court hearing in St.-Marc and testified for several hours, the latest sign that the interim government had begun to buckle under mounting pressure and was seeking a way to expedite the Neptune case.

Months earlier, the government offered to fly Mr. Neptune for emergency medical treatment to the Dominican Republic, but Mr. Neptune refuses to leave Haiti until his name is cleared of wrongdoing.

[On Tuesday, Justice Minister Bernard Gousse resigned, a move that may clear a final obstacle to Mr. Neptune's release.]

The Haitian government blocked numerous attempts by two reporters from The New York Times to visit Mr. Neptune. Last Thursday, a reporter based in Haiti who works for The Times posed as a family friend and was allowed to visit him for seven minutes.

He was rail thin and could barely speak above a whisper. Still he was clean and well groomed, his hair combed, his fingernails filed and his signature goatee clipped in a neat line around his jaw.

He did not know for sure whether he was going to be released soon, he said. But if he was, he said, he would go to the United States for a while to recover with his wife and daughter. Still, he said he would not leave Haiti for long.

"I will be back," he said. "I made the decision that I am never going to live in exile. I am going to stay here. I think I can be a lot more useful in Haiti than in the United States.

"Haiti needs me more."

Regine Alexandre contributed reporting for this article.