January 26, 2013
Brian Concannon – (some cynics suggest he is, and has been paid directly, or indirectly by Aristide, for services rendered)– has arrived in Haiti to act “as an adviser” to local lawyers in a witch hunt against Josue Pierre Louis, and through him, President Michel Martelly. Concannon has published what must be described as a “self-serving” article on rape in Haiti with a focus upon the Josue Pierre Louis fiasco. The following is a direct quote from the article in which he discusses the advances of prosecuting rape in Haiti:
Quote “These advances in enforcing the rights of victims of gender-based violence faced a test
as 2012 came to a close, when one of Haiti’s most powerful officials–Josué Pierre-Louis—
was charged with rape against Marie-Danielle Bernardin. Mr. Pierre-Louis is one of Haiti’s
most powerful and experienced officials.
He is currently the President of the national Electoral Council, after having served as the Minister of Justice, General Director of the Ministry of Justice, Chief Prosecutor of the Port-au-Prince trial and appeals courts and Academic Director of the Magistrate’s Academy. He is also a high-profile counselor to President Michel Martelly. Ms.
Bernardin was, until she made the rape accusations in November, employed by the Ministry of the Interior as assistant to Pierre-Louis at the Electoral Council.
I have collaborated with Josué several times over the past dozen years, on the Raboteau Massacre trial and the case against Jean-Claude Duvalier, among others. On a personal level, I was sad to see him involved in this incident. But Ms. Bernardin’s accusations are credible, so on a professional level I am eager to see Haiti’s justice system pursue them fairly and aggressively.” Unquote
http://www.ryot.org/prosecuting-rape-in-haiti-a-system-put-to-the-test/60638
In his self-serving article, Brian Concannon claims a responsibility for the Kangaroo Court, involved with the non-event in Raboteau, during April of 1994. Sitting judges, at the time, refused to hear the case, saying there was no crime. Aristide found someone to pursue the concept with a goal of finding General Cedras, and anyone associated with him, guilty of murder, parking violations and other crimes against society.
Now that Concannon is on the scene, we will dig into our files and revisit the Robateau Fiasco as it really happened (actually didn’t happen) since the entire thing involved nothing more than an Aristide/Lavalas attack on the local PNH Casserne in Gonaives. One injury was reported but representatives, of the American embassy, could never find the lady for an interview.
However, where has Concannon been since the La Scierie Massacre, of 2004, in which Aristide’s personal helicopter, flown by Aristide intimate, and personal pilot, Frantz Gabriel, was used to machine-gun peasants in the St. Marc area, as Aristide terrorists, personally directed by Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert, shot and killed people, on the ground? Homes were set on fire. An elderly couple, in their eighties, by the name of Paultre, were burned to death.
WATCH VIDEO HERE
Perhaps, while he is here “advising people about human rights violations” Concannon can demand action for the people of La Scierie. But, of course, that would be expecting too much. It does not meet with Concannon’s agenda.
He is here to create problems for the Martelly government –and promote Aristide/Lavalas – plain and simple.
Concannon seems to have a selective conscience that sees him act for pro-Lavalas/Aristide factions, while overlooking the realities of real crimes, perpetrated by Lavalas terrorists.
We personally think that Josué Pierre-Louis is an unsavory piece of garbage, and his choice for a position, on the CEP, was a bad one. However, having said that, we believe that Marie-Danielle Bernardin leaves a lot to be desired. There is an old Irish saying… “As God makes them, he matches them…” and this proverb fits Pierre-Louis and Bernardin. They were really meant for each other.
Some Haitian insiders suggest that the lady was paid a large sum for her testimony.
Some say that Concannon is here as a part of the Aristide/ Lavalas campaign to destabilize Democracy so the Aristide’s Lavalas dictatorship can regain power.
In the interests of fairness, and Justice, we would suggest a simple approach to the situation.
WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE CONCANNON AND BERNARDIN
SUBMIT TO A LIE-DETACTOR/POLYGRAPH TEST!!
Simple yes or no questions.
Mr. Concannon, have you been paid an amount of more than $50,000 American dollars by Aristide – directly, or indirectly?
Mr. Concannon is Half Hour for Haiti paid for directly, or indirectly by Aristide?
Mr. Concannon, are you here directly, or indirectly on behalf of Aristide/Lavalas in pursuing the case against Josue Pierre-Louis?
Mr. Concannon, do you believe that the Robateau Massacre actually happened, or was it a lie, created for Aristide/Lavalas goals?
And for the lady,
Marie-Danielle Bernardin, were you actually raped by Josue Pierre-Louis?
Marie-Danielle Bernardin, how long were you Josue Pierre- Louis’ mistress?
Marie-Danielle Bernardin, were you paid to press charges against your lover Josue Pierre-Louis? If so, how much and by whom.
This simple approach will take this political fiasco and force some honesty into the situation.
If the lady’s answers show she has been paid she should be charged criminally, along with those who paid her.
Perhaps we are wrong, but we believe Concannon’s answers will show that he has been a long-time hired gun for Aristide/Lavalas gang.
I met Concannon when I was with the embassy here. As I recall, he was involved with Guy Malary’s wife in the sordid Robateau trials. She coordinated the prosecution, or should it be detailed as persecution?
I would ask him where his team of frenetic legal consciences were when the Uruguayan sailors raped Johny Jean in Port Salut – Aristide’s home town.
I suppose he was not Lavalas.
Instead, he was just a poor Haitian teenager who has had his life, and that of his family destroyed. The Uruguayan president promised to compensate Johny Jean but soon forgot the subject.
I seem to recall that Brian Concannon filed papers with the American Justice to the effect that he was acting as an agent for Aristide. The Justice Department has requirements that force an American to file a statement detailing their actions on behalf of a foreign element.
A search of Justice records will show the truth of this thought..
Some American attorneys came to help Johny Jean and even accompanied him to Uruguay, at their own expense, for a preliminary hearing.
As an afterthought.
This entire legal process has more to do with politics, than with Justice. Therefore they can toss Concannon out on the basis that he is meddling in the political affairs of the Nation.
The article 56 and I quote “L’’étranger peut être expulsé du territoire de la République lorsqu’il s’immisce dans la vie politique du pays et dans les cas déterminés par la loi”
the lady has received monies and much furniture for her words and has her place in miami improved. she is bad very bad and with no truth.the blan should be made unwelcomed
Quote from a Michael Diebert article on Haiti
http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article4536
The IJDH itself is a curious creature. The Miami attorney Ira Kurzban is listed as ’one of the founders of IJDH’, and ’a member of the Board of Directors’ in a 24th March 2005 letter [3] sent by the IJDH to Santiago A. Canton, Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the OAS. According to US Department of Justice Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filings, [4] Kurzban’s law firm received $3,569,026 from the Aristide government of behalf of its lobbying efforts between 2001 and 2003, and he has been identified as Mr. Aristide’s personal attorney in, among other places, a 16th March 2004 press release from the office of United States Representative Maxine Waters. While employed by the Aristide government, in addition to representing its interests in the United States, Mr. Kurzban was responsible for helping to fund [5] the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) in Haiti, which included on its staff a US attorney, Brian Concannon. Mr. Concannon is now the lead attorney with the IJDH and, though the organisation is ostensibly headquartered in Oregon, where Mr. Concannon resides, donations are directed to be sent to a Florida address, the region where Mr. Kurzban resides. The group’s 2005 annual report [6] lists $53,836 of contributions from undisclosed ’individual supporters’.
IN OTHER WORDS THERE IS A STRON AND DIRECT CONNECTION BETWEEN IRA KURZBAN, ARISTIDE’S PERSONAL ATTORNEY AND BRIAN CONCANNON
BRIAN CONCANNON IS ARISTIDE’S LAWYER
CBS/AP/ February 11, 2009, 8:11 PM
Aristide Plans To Sue U.S., France
Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s legal team is preparing cases accusing authorities in the United States and France of abducting him and forcing him into exile.
Aristide believes he is still president of Haiti and will use the courts during his fight to return home, U.S. lawyer Brian Concannon said Wednesday in Paris after meeting Aristide in exile in Central African Republic.
Meanwhile, U.S. Marines shot and killed at least two Haitians in overnight gun battles, Staff Sgt. Timothy Edwards told The Associated Press on Wednesday, after coming under “hostile fire.”
It was the third fatal shooting incident in three days involving the Marines, who have killed a total of four Haitians since arriving Feb. 29.
Also, Haiti’s advisory council named an interim prime minister to pave the way for elections, and a U.N. food agency appealed for $4 million in aid to buy seeds and tools to help thousands of Haiti’s struggling farmers, whose plight has been worsened by weeks of bloody upheaval.
The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization said Wednesday the farming sector, already weakened by years of poverty, has been hard hit by the political violence.
“Many farmers face the risk of being unable to sell their harvest and therefore to get the resources needed to afford essential foodstuffs such as oils, meat and beans,” the U.N. agency said, noting that travel was dangerous and roads have been damaged.
Some 5 million of Haiti’s 8 million people live in rural areas, and the U.N. agency estimated that three million of these are facing serious difficulties.
The new prime minister, Gerard Latortue, a former U.N. official and foreign minister, faces the difficult task of helping to restore peace in this troubled Caribbean nation following a month-long insurgency that helped drive Aristide from power on Feb. 29.
“I can facilitate the national reconciliation,” Latortue, who lives in Florida, told The Miami Herald in an article published Wednesday. “It is the most important thing today in Haiti after all the divisions we had in Aristide.
“It is time for us to forget our differences and come together for the country in this bicentennial year,” added Latortue, who was expected to return to Haiti soon to take up the post.
Aristide fled after rebels had seized control of half the country, sparking a frenzy of looting and violence. More than 400 people have died in the rebellion and reprisal killings.
In the United States, “there are preparations for a kidnapping case against the American authorities,” Concannon said, without providing further details.
Another U.S. lawyer for Aristide, Ira Kurzban, has sent a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft asking the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the circumstances of Aristide’s departure on Feb. 29.
While U.S. authorities say Aristide fled of his own will as his government collapsed and rebels advanced on Port-au-Prince, Aristide’s lawyers claim that U.S. authorities forced him to board a 20-hour flight out of the country.
“He was not free to leave the plane,” Concannon said. “He was not free to decide the plane’s direction. He did not even know where the plane was going.”
Concannon also said that French and U.S. authorities threatened Aristide before he signed a letter of resignation and fled.
“The ambassadors of France and the U.S. told him that he would be killed, his family would be killed and his supporters would be killed if he did not leave right away,” Concannon said.
In France, a lawyer is preparing a complaint for “complicity in abduction” against four people connected with the Foreign Ministry, Concannon said.
He identified them as: Thierry Burkard, France’s ambassador to Haiti; Yves Gaudel, the former ambassador; Regis Debray, president of a commission on French-Haiti relations; and Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin’s sister, Veronique. She and Debray visited Aristide in December to demand his resignation, according to his French lawyer, Gilbert Collard.
Collard said he will file a legal complaint in France as soon as he receives clearance from Aristide. But he would not name the targets of the complaint.
“At the very least, France was an accomplice,” Collard said.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous said he had no comment on the lawyers’ plans. Last week, a ministry spokesman said that officials had no preconceived ideas on how Haiti’s crisis should be resolved until just days before Aristide’s resignation, when the foreign minister himself suggested that Aristide step down.
U.S. officials strongly deny claims that Aristide was abducted. Secretary of State Colin Powell has said they acted at Aristide’s request and probably saved his life.
At least 130 people were killed in the rebellion that ousted Aristide; reprisal killings since his ouster have left at least 300 dead.
“As stated for several days, President Aristide resigned voluntarily, after he initiated discussion of the matter with our rep in Haiti,” a State Department official said this week on customary condition of anonymity. “We consider his resignation final and hope that he will respect the constitutional process under way.”
The ousted leader has been in Bangui, capital of Central African Republic, since March 1 and is housed in a presidential palace apartment.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
BRIAN CONCANNON LONG-TERM ARISTIDE ASSOCIATE |
Aristide’s Lawyers Preparing Complaints Against U.S., France
By Angela Doland
The Associated Press
Wednesday 10 March 2004
ROISSY, France (AP) – Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s legal team is preparing cases accusing the United States and France of abducting him and forcing him into exile, lawyers said Wednesday.
Aristide believes he is still president of Haiti and will use the courts in his fight to return home, American lawyer Brian Concannon said in Paris after meeting Aristide in the Central African Republic.
In the United States, “there are preparations for a kidnapping case against the American authorities,” Concannon said without elaborating.
Another American lawyer for Aristide, Ira Kurzban, wrote to Attorney General John Ashcroft asking the Justice Department to investigate the circumstances of Aristide’s Feb. 29 departure.
kurzban + concannon = aristide/lavalas
You are missing the points.
He refused to leave his wife and marry this person.
There is no thing more malevolent than a lady who has been scorned.
This situation is examples of this old belief.
There were no rape.