Haiti: Powerful Gang Leader Samba Boukman Shot Dead

Friday, 09 March 2012 15:54

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (defend.ht) – A former presidential representative of the Commission for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (CNDDR) under Rene Preval, Samba Boukman, was shot dead in the afternoon of Friday, March 9, 2012 in Delmas 95, by unknown gunmen.

Samba Boukman whose real name is Jean-Baptiste Jean-Philippe Delmas was killed this afternoon by men on a motorcycle, we have learned. He received several bullets while driving his car.

To some, Boukman remained a powerful gang leader in the capital. He was earlier, a member of the former Commission for Disarmament under the administration of President Rene Preval.

Samba Boukman had a disturbing reputation of using rape as a weapon of political combat, according to the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH). He was arrested in 2005 by MINUSTAH for the illegal possession of firearms, he was released without any form of judicial process, after spending one night in MINUSTAH’s base in Tabarre.

In October of 2011, Alix Bien-Aime, the current President of the CNDDR, wrote a letter to President Michel Martelly alleging to have received death threats from Boukman.

Mr. President,
The National Commission for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration presents his compliments and has the advantage of you with a copy of the letter to the Prime Minister seeking his support in connection with the confiscation of vehicles of the Commission, and threats death made against me and against Mr. Emmanuel F. Goutier, the representative of MICT to the Commission, by Jean-Baptiste Jean-Philippe, Commissioner, Representative of the Presidency.Confident that you will make the necessary corrective actions and the Commission please, Mr. President, to receive his highest regards.

sincerely,
Alix Bien-Aime, President
CNDDR

A CEO for Omega Military Consultants, Joel R. Deeb, wrote about Samba Boukman in 2010 saying:

…Boukman relishes the reputation of being the most brutal killer who has ever walked political gutters of Haiti.

Naïve American human rights activists claim he is a wrongly accused community activist.

In 2005, as a gang leader of the Bel-Air area in Port-au-Prince, Samba Boukman was the key initiator of Operation Baghdad, a terror campaign on behalf of a former Haitian president. The violence may never be matched in our turbulent history, although Preval has promised as bad. Operation Baghdad indiscriminately killed men, women, and children from the elite, the middle class and the poor.

There were hundreds of victims.

Deeb also wrote:

During presidential elections of 2006, Samba Boukman was called to action by candidate René Préval. When elections results indicated an unavoidable run-off Samba Boukman summoned the gangs he controlled, to help the Electoral Council resolve this “impasse” in favor of René Préval. The Electoral Council violated its own law to accommodate Boukman and . Préval, invnting a new method of counting blank ballots. This guaranteed a first round victory for Preval, eliminating a troublesome run-off.

To force the issue, and convince MINUSTAH, Samba Boukman took his armed gangs through the streets of Port-au-Prince and Pétion-Ville, chanting “death to Préval’s opponents.” There was a message here, for those who might demand the Democratic Process. As a message to MINUSTAH, General Samba Boukman brought his troops to the Hotel Montana, where high ranking representatives of the United Nations and other international organizations lived. The mob jumped into the swimming pool as and also roamed the hotel’s corridors, knocking on doors and entering rooms.

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