First of all, this passport was created from a child’s passport since adult passports are given for 10 year periods.

On American passports, country of origin would be HAITI, without the Port-au-Prince.

But Moise Jean-Charles has proved, once and for all, his formidable
stupidity, by submitting a forgery that spells Martelly’s name wrong.
In case Senator Jean-Charles has not noticed, Martelly’s name is
MICHEL not MICHAEL.

This forgery constitutes a Federal Offence within the American legal
system. If the US Government wished to spend the resources, it could
well discover the owner of the originating passport through the serial
numbers, and other recognizable markings.

The creator, or person who knowingly distributes is probably guilty
of several felony crimes and could face jail, loss of visa, loss of residence…etc.

David Bompart, 50, of Columbus, Ohio, died at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he had been airlifted last week. He was shot Jan. 24 outside a bank in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. He was able to walk to the nearby Hospital Bernard Mevs Project Medishare, where he underwent two surgeries before being flown to Florida, his wife had said.

Bompart had helped build the Project Medishare trauma center, managing the warehouse and logistics, after the devastating January 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

“David is a symbol of the thousands of American volunteers who dropped everything with their lives and their families to grab a small bag and get on a plane to Haiti, not knowing what to expect,” said Dr. Barth Green, Project Medishare’s co-founder.

Bompart, known as “Big Dave,” simply showed up at Project Medishare’s field hospital at the Port-au-Prince airport 10 days after the earthquake, Green said.

“He was as big as one of our tents and he said, ‘Can I help?’” Green said. “He had extraordinary organizational and leadership skills, and within a short amount of time he was working for us.”

Bompart worked for Project Medishare through October, when he began an orphanage building project through Eyes Wide Open International, a charity the Bomparts’ started to help widows and orphans.

Robbers sprayed bullets at Bompart at close range as he was picking up money for an orphanage building project, his wife, Nicolle Bompart, 45, said last week.

They stole his camera and passport, but the money for the orphanage remained safe in Bompart’s pants pocket, his wife said.

The suspects have not been arrested.

The Bomparts spent much of the last two years flying between Haiti, Florida and Ohio for their charity work and for medical care for their 14-year-old son, a Haitian boy they adopted after the earthquake. The couple also has a 26-year-old daughter.

Nicolle Bompart said last week that she felt the robbery was the act of people desperate to feed their families. Her husband, who had served in the military in his native Trinidad and Tobago, felt he could handle the risks of working in a city prone to instability and violence, she said.

Each had lost a first spouse to premature death, and her husband was devoted to helping people who suffered similar tragedies, Nicolle Bompart said.

The couple’s charity would continue to work in Haiti and finish the orphanage, Bompart’s family said in a statement.

“It’s what Big Dave would have wanted,” they said.

Meanwhile, hospital security and police were investigating the theft of Nicolle Bompart’s laptop computer at the hospital.

“Jackson has a zero tolerance for any criminal activity and always seeks to provide a safe and supportive place for patients and their loved ones. We sincerely regret this happened during such a trying time,” hospital officials said in a statement.

___

Nicolle Bompart’s updates about her husband: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/davidbompart

42 Members of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate meet at Prime Minister Conille’s private residence. Martelly arrives, uninvited and unannounced. Accuses Conille of organizing some sort of plot. He attacked them verbally, calling the a bunch of Mother Fuckers…which was not diplomatic – but may have been true.

In the immediate past, Martelly has asked for Thierry Mayard-Paul, his Interior Minister, to step down as minister, and head of his cabinet committee. Mayard-Paul says he will divulge many secrets if he is forced out.

Mayard-Paul has stolen enough, and been such a pompous ass, that he should go quietly and not further embarrass himself.

Conille has not taken the advice of those who could help him and has become for too close to what would be known as internationalists, such as the lady who heads UNDP. Her contract is due to end and she is looking to ways she can renew her mandate. The fact that she has had a mental break, a couple of weeks ago, and is about to snap again, should rule her out for any part.

Conille has also failed to pay attention to his duties. Like so many before him, he has lost focus of the Nation’s needs and has found several mulatto mistresses.

When a guy thinks with his penis, the Nation suffers.

Time for a change!!

The Post’s View

UN’S MICHEL FORST CONCERNED ABOUT ALLEGED  STATUTE BARRED DUVALIER  CRIMES WHILE IGNORING THOSE OF ARISTIDE & PREVAL THAT ARE VALID, NON-STATUTE BARRED CRIMES INCLUDING MURDER, KIDNAP, COCAINE TRAFICKING, THEFT OF $BILLIONS.

Michel Forst concerned about the charges against Duvalier
01/02/2012 09:29:46

Arrived yesterday in Haiti, Michel Forst, the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Haiti, said he was particularly concerned about the announcements made by several sources, according to which, the former President Jean-Claude Duvalier could be indicted only for charges of financial crimes and not for the numerous violations of human rights that occurred during the years of his presidency.

“I arrived today in Port-Au-Prince for a mission of 8 days to assess the progress made in the field of human rights in Haiti and the question of the fight against impunity is one of my priorities. If the information concerning Jean-Claude Duvalier are confirmed, this would bring a very serious blow to the credibility of the process of judicial reform in Haiti,” declared Mr. Michel Forst as he stepped off the plane.

“The existence of crimes committed by the Duvalier regime is well established and has been confirmed, on many occasions particular by the annual reports of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights from 1970 to 1986. The families of victims who have complained since the return of Jean-Claude Duvalier in Haiti provided to judicial authorities the information necessary to refer the former president before the Criminal Court for trial [...]“

The Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Haiti recalls that the invocation of provisions of section 466 of the Haitian Criminal Code on the prescription is not an obstacle to prosecution, since international law prohibits amnesty or application of the prescription for those accused of crimes against humanity.

* Rapes, torture and killings documented under his rule, UN says

* No statute of limitations for such crimes under int’l law

* Duvalier alleged to have embezzled up to $800 million

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA, Jan 31 (Reuters) – Former Haitian dictator Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier should be tried for torture, rape and killings committed during his rule, not merely on corruption charges as proposed by a Haitian judge, the United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday.

The judge handling the case, Carves Jean, told Reuters in Port-au-Prince on Monday that Duvalier will face trial for corruption during his 15 years in power, which ended in 1986, but not for human rights abuses.

But the office of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay voiced deep disappointment and called on Haitian authorities to ensure he is prosecuted for international crimes.

“Very serious human rights violations including torture, rape and extrajudicial killings have been extensively documented by Haitian and international human rights organisations to have occurred in Haiti during the regime of Duvalier,” U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing in Geneva.

“Impunity for such serious crimes cannot be allowed to prevail and we urge the relevant authorities to ensure that justice is, albeit belatedly, delivered to the many victims of human rights abuses committed under the government of Mr. Duvalier,” he said.

Pillay’s office had repeatedly reminded judicial authorities in Haiti of their “an absolute obligation” to investigate the violations and prosecute those responsible, he said.

“It is clear under international law that there is no statute of limitations for such crimes,” Colville added.

Judge Jean told Reuters that he did not find enough legal grounds to retain human rights charges and crimes against humanity against Duvalier and that a 20-page ruling had been delivered to the government prosecutor’s office on Monday.

Duvalier is alleged to have embezzled between $300 milllion and $800 million of assets during his rule, stashing some of it in Swiss coffers before fleeing to exile in neighbouring France.

Colville, asked why Duvalier would face corruption charges but not for human rights crimes, replied: “We’re puzzled too, because under international law it is the very serious crimes such as crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide, serious violations like torture which can also be a crime against humanity, these have no statute of limitations.”

“In Haiti, our understanding is that under the constitution, international law is given supremacy so it does seem rather bizarre that financial charges appear to be possible but not international crimes,” he added.

Pillay sent a senior expert to Haiti last March to provide legal and technical advice to Haitian authorities on the issue of prosecuting a former head of state for serious human rights violations, according to Colville.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Giles Elgood)
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

COMMENT: HAITIAN-TRUTH.ORG

Why does everyone carefully avoid the well-documented evidence of  Jean-Bertrand Aristide and Rene Preval’s involvement in murder, kidnap, torture, rape, cocaine-trafficking, and massive theft of billions of dollars from Haiti’s treasury??

This is bias on a flagrant scale!!!

The young female police officer, raped, beaten and beheaded on Aristide’s orders when she would not shake hands with the Army Rouge leader in Cite Soleir.

Mireille Durocher-Bertin, murdered March 28, 1995 under the orders of Aristide/Preval. FBI investigated this one and quit in disgust when Aristide blocked their efforts.

Sylvio Claude and Roger Lafontant, murdered on Aristide’s orders, September 29, 1991.

Pastor Leroy and Florville.

The French Consul, murdered on the orders of Rene Preval…by Amaral Duclona, now held by the French.

The list is endless.

Cocaine trafficking on a massive scale.

Theft of government funds. Pere Samedi once said…”Duvalier sipped Haiti’s funds through a cocktail straw while Aristide gulped them with a bamboo pipe…”  And Samedi was a close Aristide ally, at the time.

Preval’s theft of $198,000,000 from Petro Caribe Fund is just one small example.

NO IMPUNITY. LET US CHARGE ALL THREE AND FIND OUT WHO IS INNOCENT AND WHO IS GUILTY. THESE INTERNATIONAL DO-GOODERS WILL FIND DUVALIER EXONERATED BY ANY BALANCED JURY WHILE THEIR HEROES – ARISTIDE AND PREVAL WILL GET ABOUT 25 CONSECUTIVE LIFE SENTENCES, OR LONGER.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (defend.ht) – Prime Minister Garry Conille rejected the accusations of former First Lady Mirlande Manigat who said that the Haitian government moved the 2012 Carnival to Les Cayes as part of a “vast money-laundering” scheme.

The Office of Communications for the Prime Minister said Conille was shocked to hear the accusations of Mrs. Manigat which according to the Head of Government are “baseless”.

In a press note, the prime minister’s office “vehemently” rejects the allegations that the government would be involved in such practices. Conille’s office says these accusations were made to demean the government and break all the efforts of the new government to provide another image of Haiti.

The note reads that Mirlande H. Manigat is trying to have a boycott of the “beautiful gesture” and promotion of the South department, which hold artistic and landscaping treasures.

The note continues to say that it is “incredible” that a former candidate for the highest seat in the country would speak against decentralization with actions that are in “poor taste”.

The Prime Minister’s Office says the gesture of holding the Carnival in Les Cayes was to give value to the provincial areas of the country and boost culture and tourism throughout the country. The Carnival in Haiti is very popular and is a great forum to expose the beauty of the country, the note concluded.

Over the past weekend the former First Lady was heard on a radio station in capital making the accusations saying:

WASHINGTON, Jan 31, 2012 (IPS) – International and local human rights groups Tuesday strongly denounced the ruling by an investigating judge in Haiti that former dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier should not face charges for massive human rights abuses committed during his 15-year reign, from 1971 to 1986.

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said it was “extremely disappointed” by the ruling. The U.S. State Department, noting that the case could still be appealed to higher courts, urged “the Haitian government to investigate all credible allegations of corruption and human rights abuses regardless of who commits them and to prosecute those found responsible.”

“We’ve said over the years that Duvalier’s regime was one of repression and we sympathise with all those who were victimised during that period and who are seeking accountability and truth on behalf of themselves or their loved ones,” said State Department spokesperson Molly Lynn Westrate.

She added that Washington has offered to the Haitian government technical assistance in any investigation, but that the offer had not been accepted.

Investigating Judge Carves Jean reportedly ruled that the statute of limitations had run on human rights-related charges against Duvalier and that he could be prosecuted only for misappropriation of public funds, a relatively minor offence which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

The judge declined to make the ruling publicly available, but it reportedly followed recommendations by the state prosecutor, a sign that Haiti experts here believe suggests that the one-year-old government of President Michel Martelly, who is believed to have personally consulted on occasion with Duvalier, has no interest in pursuing the case.

“This wrong-headed decision, if upheld on appeal, would entrench Haiti’s culture of impunity by denying justice for Duvalier’s thousands of victims,” said Reed Brody, special counsel for New York- based Human Rights Watch (HRW).

“The handful of victims who have been interviewed had been subjected to intimidation by Duvalier supporters and his lawyers,” noted Javier Zuniga, special adviser on Haiti to Amnesty, who called the investigation a “disgrace”.

“It is clear that the investigating judge left out invaluable evidence and decided not to interview all the victims who filed complaints,” he added. “It is a dark day for Haiti and for justice.”

Local human rights groups were no less outraged. Anthonal Mortimé, who directs the Platform of Haitian Human Rights Organistions (POHDH), called the judgement a “scandal” and vowed to seek its reversal by the attorney general who will review the case under Haitian law.

Duvalier, who inherited power from his more-notorious father, Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, was ousted from power in a popular uprising in 1986. He fled to France, where he lived undisturbed until his surprise return to Haiti one year ago when the Caribbean nation was still struggling to recover from the January 2010 earthquake that devastated the capital, Port-au-Prince, and much of the rest of the country. As many as 300,000 people are believed to have been killed.

Under the 29-year Duvalier dynasty, tens of thousands of Haitians are believed to have been killed, most of them by the dreaded Tonton Macoutes, the family’s personal militia. In addition to the killings that continued during “Baby Doc’s” rule, hundreds of political prisoners were held at any one time in a network of prisons, including the infamous Fort Dimanche in Port-au-Prince, where they died of neglect, torture and mistreatment.

Duvalier, now 60 years old, was initially ordered by the government to remain confined to his residence in the capital while prosecutors investigated charges that he embezzled as much as 800 million dollars and criminal complaints by victims and victims’ families of massive human rights abuses during his presidency.

After Martelly’s inauguration last May, however, Duvalier began travelling around the country, meeting with his old friends and followers. Last month, he spoke at commencement exercises at a law faculty in Gonaives.

On the second anniversary of the earthquake earlier this month, he attended the government’s memorial and even shook hands with former President Bill Clinton, who has played a key role in marshalling U.S. and international support for earthquake relief and reconstruction.

Since taking office last year, Martelly, who also has family ties to Duvalier, has made clear that he was committed to national reconciliation and had little interest in a trial that could provoke renewed divisiveness and instability. During a visit to Europe last week, for example, he suggested that he would pardon Duvalier if the case were pursued, although he subsequently backtracked.

“Inviting Jean-Claude Duvalier to take part in public official ceremonies clearly showed that the government wanted to rehabilitate him instead of holding him to account,” Amnesty’s Zuniga said.

“Given the influence of the executive branch on the judiciary in Haiti, we could expect such an outcome,” said Robert Fatton, a Haiti expert at the University of Virginia, about Tuesday’s ruling.

He also noted that the sons and daughters of many prominent Duvalierists are advising or serving in Martelly’s government.

“But to be absolutely fair, there are issues of stability,” he told IPS. “If there were a trial of Jean-Claude, all of the people opposed to (former President Jean-Bertrand) Aristide will call for a trial for him. You can see the situation really disintegrating.”

“At the same time, I can’t see any kind of reconciliation in Haiti without some sort of trial or truth commission,” he went on. “The idea you can just say it’s finished doesn’t do anything for reconciliation. It can only exacerbate tensions, because people say it’s impunity.”

Ironically, Tuesday’s ruling came less than two weeks after eight police officers, including high-ranking officials, were sentenced to up to 13 years of prison for the 2010 massacre of at least 20 detainees in Les Cayes in what was hailed as a major blow against impunity in Haiti.

In their reactions to the Duvalier ruling, human rights groups argued that international law superseded Haiti’s statute of limitations. They pointed to decisions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights by whose judgements Haiti is legally bound.

The Court has held repeatedly that neither statutes of limitations nor amnesties can be applied to gross human rights violations under the American Convention on Human Rights.

“It is clear under international law that there is no statute of limitations for such crimes…,” Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner, told reporters in Geneva.

The State Department’s Westrate stressed that Washington believes that “a Haitian-led process consistent with Haitian law is the way forward for addressing Duvalier’s actions as president,” and she stressed that the victims “still have recourse at the appellate court and, if necessary, the Haitian supreme court.”

But Fatton was sceptical about Washington’s willingness to press the Martelly government to pursue the case.

“I think the U.S. would be perfectly fine with the status quo,” he said. “Its primary objective in Haiti now is to have a government that functions and that is stable. Anything that would potentially generate some sort of instability would not be welcomed,” he said.

Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue (IAD), agreed.

“The U.S. won’t risk antagonising the Martelli governmentt over this issue,” he said. “One of the big issues now is (Martelly’s proposal to) bring the army (which was abolished under Aristide) back. I think the U.S. is unhappy about that; in fact, the whole international community is unhappy about that, so Duvalier doesn’t seem like the highest priority.”

*Jim Lobe’s blog on U.S. foreign policy can be read at http://www.lobelog.com.

PORT-AU-PRINCE

(Reuters) – Former Haitian dictator Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier will face trial for corruption during his 15-year rule, but not for human rights abuses, the judge handling the case said on Monday.

A 20-page ruling on the charges was delivered to the government prosecutor’s office on Monday, Carves Jean, the judge responsible for investigating the case, told Reuters.

It does not include charges for the murders, disappearances, torture and other rights abuses allegedly committed during Duvalier’s rule, Jean said.

“I did not find enough legal grounds to keep human rights charges and crimes against humanity against him,” he said. “Now my job is over. The case is no longer in my hands.”

Duvalier would face up to five years in prison if convicted on the corruption charges. No trial date had yet been set.

Duvalier inherited power from his father, Francois ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier in 1971 and ruled Haiti for 15 years until his overthrow in 1986. Under the father-and-son dictatorship, thousands of people were murdered, or were tortured in jails, such as the dreaded Fort Dimanche.

Duvalier, now 60, made a surprise return to his earthquake-stricken homeland in January last year after nearly 25 years exiled in France, opening himself up to possible prosecution.

While the ruling is a setback for human rights victims and advocates, it also marks a victory for those seeking punishment for Duvalier’s alleged crimes who had feared that the judge would drop all charges. It would also appear to squash any hopes of a political comeback by the former dictator – at least for the time being – as his lawyers battle with the legal challenge.

One of his lawyers said Duvalier would appeal the decision to send him to trial.

Duvalier is alleged to have embezzled between $300 million and $800 million of assets during his presidency.

The Swiss government has sought to confiscate assets valued at 5.8 million Swiss francs ($6.7 million). It wants to return the funds to Haiti, which is the poorest country in the Americas and is struggling to recover from a devastating earthquake in 2010 which killed more than 200,000 people.

VICTIMS

Government officials could not be reached to comment on the ruling, but it is likely to be challenged by Duvalier’s alleged victims, of whom at least 19 have filed complaints with the government prosecutor.

Last week, President Michel Martelly was quoted as favouring a pardon for Duvalier though he later retracted his remarks.

Victims of Duvalier’s armed forces and the notorious National Security Volunteer Militia, better known as the Tonton Macoutes, sought to have their claims included in the official case against Duvalier. But the government prosecutor’s office did not include them in its recommendations to the judge as the alleged abuses fell outside the statute of limitations stipulated in Haiti’s constitution, according to a senior judicial official.

The government prosecutor also recommended dropping the corruption charges, the official said, but the judge decided to let them stand.

“Those other human rights charges were not part of the request I sent to the investigative judge,” confirmed Felix Leger, a former prosecutor who prepared the recommendation that was sent to the judge. “We also received other complaints from other people … but those complaints arrived too late.”

Reynold Georges, a lawyer for Duvalier, said the former dictator would appeal any decision to put him on trial for financial crimes, arguing that the Supreme Court has already cleared him of such charges following a previous investigation.

U.N. officials and rights groups have urged Haiti to put Duvalier and senior officials on trial for atrocities committed under his rule, saying that under international law, the statute of limitations does not apply to crimes against humanity.

“The thousands of Haitians who suffered under this regime deserve justice.” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has said.

The judge’s ruling will be challenged by lawyers for the victims, said Mario Joseph, who heads the Bureau of International Lawyers in Haiti. “The judge cannot decide only on the financial crimes committed by Duvalier. He should also be tried and sentenced for rapes, torture, disappearances, assassinations and crimes against humanity his regime has been responsible for,” he said.

Reed Brody, a lawyer with Human Rights Watch who has worked with the victims in the case, said that if they exhaust their appeal options in the Haitian system, they could take the Haitian state to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

The body that refers cases to the Inter-American Court, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, has already issued a statement on the Duvalier case. In a ruling in May last year, it said Haiti must “investigate the serious violations of human rights that were committed in the period from 1971 to 1986, to prosecute and punish those responsible and to make reparations to the victims.”

When Duvalier returned to Haiti on January 16 last year, he was met by a crowd of cheering supporters. He was briefly detained and charged with corruption, theft and abuses of power allegedly committed during his rule and was then freed on the condition he not leave the capital without authorization.

Since then, Duvalier dines frequently in some of the city’s finest restaurants, accompanied by former members of his regime. He has also made unauthorized visits outside the capital.

In January, he even managed a handshake with an unsuspecting former U.S. President Bill Clinton at an event outside the capital to mark the second anniversary of the 2010 earthquake. That earned him a rebuke from the judge who warned him not to violate his court-ordered restriction of movement, or risk being jailed.

(Writing by David Adams; Editing by Kieran Murray)