tonton macoute massacre. This was the name given to the members of the Volontaires de la Scurit Nationale (National Security Volunteers), Franois and Jean-Claude Duvaliers militia force, created because Papa Doc did not trust the military to guarantee his safety. The government of Boisrond-Canal and General Nord Alexis fought Antnor Firmins rebel troops (Nord Alexis eventually prevailed and governed until 1908). These assassinations were ordered by dictator Papa Doc himself as a part of reprisals against an embryonic anti-Duvalier guerrilla group known as Jeune Haiti that had landed in the region (but none of them were in Jrmie). [6] "1.2. La Droute de lintelligence, Le Natal, Port-au-Prince, 1992. It was notorious for its widespread and brutal . The Tonton Macoute move in shadows, like ghosts. These sentences were seen as a historical victory over the impunity enjoyed by instigators and perpetrators of political crimes in Haiti. Shortly afterwards, peasants from Gervais avenged this by killing the Section Chiefs subordinates. Les Tonton Macoute se dplacent dans l'ombre, comme des fantmes. These children were carried away in his gunnysack, never to be seen again. 4.00. _ *** (Commission Nationale de Vrit et de Justice, 1997 ; ICHR, 1993), 1991 (September 30 and the first few days of October): In the afternoon of September 30, a commando of army soldiers moved into the Lamentin 50 neighborhood, in the vicinity of Port-au-Prince, randomly opened fire on bystanders and private homes, and indiscriminately threw grenades into local houses. Coicous body was decapitated, then thrown into a mass grave. Lemoine, Patrick, Fort-Dimanche, Fort-la-Mort, CIDIHCA, 1996. The Tonton Macoutes were later disbanded, but remnants of the former militia periodically resurfaced and were blamed for numerous incidents of bloodshed. 1969 (April 5): Event known as the massacre de Cazale. In the village of Cazale (sometimes spelled Casale or Casal), North of Port-au-Prince, army soldiers and macouteskilled several dozen peasant families. Bernard Diederich, Al Burt. 1987 (July 1-3): Army soldiers killed 22 workers on strike in the harbor of Port-au-Prince. United Nations, Report of the Independent Expert of the Commission on Human Rights on the Situation of Human Rights in Haiti (AA 55/335), United Nations, New York, 2000. [8], The Mayor of Port-au-Prince at the time, Franck Romain, a former Tonton Macoute leader, was accused of being involved. This massacre occurred a few days after Lieutenant-General Namphy, one of the leaders of the ruling junta at the time, visited the area and publicly supported the Lucas family and their rights to the land they claimed. Though there have been more than ten brutal secret police forces throughout history, the ten on this list are a cross section that highlight different types of political climates, eras and methods, and though the majority are modern, all ultimately carry out a brutal agenda of terror and violence against its citizens. However, most of those responsible for the repression escaped prosecution. Those who spoke out against Duvalier would disappear in the night and were never seen again. State Against Nation. The vast majority of the victims belonged to the social and intellectual elites of the capital. Duvalierism since Duvalier, NCHR/ Americas Watch Committee, October 1986. 53 Tonton Macoutes Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images Archival Browse 53 tonton macoutes stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. There should be no statute of limitations for judgment on that. 1919 (January): 19 Caco prisoners were executed in Hinche on US Captain Lavoies orders. In 1991, the Minister of Justice of President Aristides first government accused Frank Romain, who was Mayor of Port-au-Prince at the time, of having organized the killing and hence, requested his extradition from the Dominican Republic, where he was living in exile, but to no avail. Those condemned included Castra Cnafils, an army captain, and Jean Tatoune, a FRAPH member. Repression continued for two to three weeks and led to a total of 30 to 40 victims. In 1920, the US Navy investigation commission interrogated occupying officers regarding allegations of acts of violence committed by the air force, but the commission did not deliver any condemnations, or even make any formal accusations. Several families were entirely exterminated. 1902 (August 8): In Petit-Gove, 450 civilians died in a fire which destroyed the town; it had allegedly been lit by the government forces of General Carri to force out the pro-Firmin forces. After 15 more years of bloodshed and oppression, the people finally rose up in 1986 and Baby Doc was forced to flee into exile in France. OpenSubtitles2018.v3. Although the event was investigated by several prominent journalists and the human rights group National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR), its existence remains controversial and supporters of Aristide (who was President at the time), as well as the media in favor of him, deny it ever took place. Gaillard, Roger, Les Blancs dbarquent, V. Hinche mise en croix, Le Natal, Port-au-Prince, 1982. The dreaded Oprichniki, Tsar Ivan the Terribles secret police force tasked to govern the Oprichnina territory of Russia and enforce the Tsars policy of brutal suppression of enemies of the state, were active for a mere seven years, between 1565 and 1572, but their actions remain infamous. Fifteen of them, including some journalists covering the event, were mowed down in hail of bullets by Duvalier loyalists. Trouillot, Michel-Rolph, Haiti. Americas Watch, Human Rights Developments, Washington, D.C., 1994. Hundreds were rounded up or disappeared into the bowels of Fort Dimanche, the notorious dungeon prison where many of Papa Doc's victims lost their lives. In 1970, the militia was officially renamed the Milice de Volontaires de la Scurit Nationale (Militia of National Security Volunteers or MVSN, probably taking name from the homonymous Italian Fascist paramilitary organization). Eight of the eleven victims were unarmed. The assault lasted three hours, during which the attackers faced no opposition from the army, whose barracks were located opposite the church. As of August 2004, the minister of Justice had asked for the United Nations and the OAS participation in carrying out forensic analysis. Former journalist Michle Montas still vividly remembers the bullet-ridden bodies lying on the sidewalk near her home on April 26, 1963. During their reign, an estimated 30,000 to 60,000 men, women, and children were killed. THE TONTON MACOUTES In order to intimidate the Garde, which still had some professional standards, Du-valier organized a "militia" which may num-ber some 8,000 men. The approximate number of civilians and unarmed combatants killed during the civil war remains unknown but, according to historian Roger Gaillard, the peasants paid a heavy price.. 2022 The Progressive Inc. 931 E. Main Street, Suite 10 Madison, Wisconsin 53703 (608) 257-4626, Memories of a Duvalier Massacre, 50 Years Later. 1990 (March 12): Event known as the massacre de Piatre (also pronounced Pitre or Piastre). 1987 (July 23): Event known in collective memory as the Jean-Rabel massacre. In the vicinity of Jean-Rabel (in the Northwest of the country), paramilitary groups led by macoutesand acting upon orders from a local land oligarch, Rmy Lucas, killed at least 139 peasants (300 according to various human rights groups and the OAS, and 1,042 according to Nicol Poitevien, one of the self-proclaimed assassins). [9][11] They began to be called the Tonton Macoute when people started to disappear for no apparent reason. Papa Docs regime, the more brutal of the two, is said to be responsible for 30,000 to 50,000 assassinations and executions. In addition, 82 houses had been looted and torched. Available at:http://www.haiti.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/vrit_justice.pdf, Concannon, Brian, Justice for Haiti; The Raboteau Trial, 2001. Most of the victims had lived in the poor neighborhoods of Bel-Air, La Saline and Saint-Martin. Aristide, Jean-Bertrand (with Christophe Wargny), Tout homme est un homme (Tout moun se moun), , Editions du Seuil, 1992. Second only to Stalins secret police force, Hitlers Gestapo terrorized Nazi Germany for 13 years, acting as the main tool of oppressing dissent against the Nazi regime, as the primary force that initially terrorized and rounded up the Jews and latera leading player in the Holocaust. He would also go on to sell cadavers to medical schools after buying them from Haitian hospitals for $3 per corpse. To this day, no judicial inquiry has been opened on this event. With one in ten under-40s infected with HIV, and millions living in squalor and destitution, thousands try to flee each year to the U.S. by hanging on to anything that will float. [6] Massacres led by paramilitary groups spawned from the Macoutes continued during the following decade. Tontons Macoutes often stoned and burned people alive. However, women and children were systematically excluded from repression (even the families of the leaders of the various rebellions against Alexiss regime). Cuello, Jos Isreal, Documentos del conflicto domnico-haitiano de 1937. (Sleeve) 1971 RCA Limited. The other four were killed by a firing squad as an example, following an order from Laborde Corvoisier. After 40 years, the Stasi disbanded with the fall of East Germany. Family members who tried to remove the bodies for proper burial often disappeared themselves, never to be seen again. Aristide returned to power in 1994 with a bigger U.S. force - only to flee again after threats that he would be hacked to death and eaten. 1986 (January 31): Army soldiers led by Colonel Samuel Jrmie killed nearly one hundred people in Logane (Southwest of Port-au-Prince) during a demonstration of peasants who were (prematurely) celebrating the departure into exile of Jean-Claude Duvalier. On November 9, 2000, after a highly symbolic trial broadcasted live on the radio and led by the judicial authorities with assistance from international organizations, including the United Nations, 16 individuals out of the 29 tried were sentenced to prison terms. "The repression went across all classes, all over the country. Dupuy, Alex, The Prophet and Power: Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the International Community, and Haiti, Lanham, Maryland, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2007. The NKVD was responsible for the detention of nearly two million people between 1937 and 1938 alone; of those detained almost 700,000 were executed, a rate of roughly 1,000 per day. Diederich is a journalist who once ran a newspaper in Haiti titled Haiti Sun. ", Montas recalls "the smell of rotting bodies for days, but also the gripping smell of fear. The intimidation became so extreme that the MVSN, who were rightly known as the Tonton Macoutes, began burning people alive, or stoning them to death. 1991 (October 1 and 2): In the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Martissant, during the two days that followed the coup, army soldiers and paramilitary groups terrorized the local population and killed at least seven individuals, including one adolescent. Haiti since Duvalier, Touchstone, 1990. 1937 (October): In the neighboring Dominican Republic, dictator Trujillo ordered the slaughter of 17,000 to 20,000 Haitian migrants and Dominicans of Haitian origin by the Dominican army (the conventional number in the Dominican Republic is 17,000, although Saez (1988: 60) puts it at 20,000 ; Turits (2002: 590) calculated a total of 15,000 killed). Schmidt, Hans, The United States Occupation of Haiti, 1915-1934, Rutgers University Press, New Jersey, 1971. Those dead, too, will be remembered on this now-layered anniversary. Mass Violence and Resistance - Research Network, Asia-Pacific under Japanese occupation during World War II. _ *** (United Nations, 2001: 17-18; Commission Nationale de Vrit et de Justice, 1997: chapter V, section C4; Concannon, 2001; Concannon, 2005). 'I, Too, Want to Be a Big Man': The Making of a Haitian 'Boat People', "The Tonton Macoutes: The Central Nervous System of Haiti's Reign of Terror", "1. The total number of victims, 22, was disputed. Jean-Bertrand Aristide had not been sworn in yet when this event took place, and the interim government was led by Mrs. Trouillot, a civilian. In the northeastern region alone, up to 15,000 individuals were killed, most of them with machetes, between the 2nd and the 8th of October. At least two anti-Aristide youths, Jean-Baptiste Knol and Joseph Leroy, were thrown alive into a burning building. [1] According to one witness, the police and army provided protection for the attackers, encircling the church. He profited by extortion carried out by his henchmen and by supplying corpses and blood to universities and hospitals in the United States. Lemoine, Patrick, List of victims of Duvalirism. Following Stalins death in 1953, the NKVDs atrocities were halted by Nikita Khrushchev, with many living victims absolved of their crimes. Many people were outraged that these individuals could appear on television, without any disguise, confess their participation in these events and threaten future criminal acts with no fear of being arrested by the authorities."[4]. [16], When Franois Duvalier came to power in 1957, Vodou was becoming celebrated for its purely Haitian heritage by intellectuals and the griots after having been let go for years by those with education. Available at:http://www.ijdh.org/2001/06/archive/brian-concannon-justice-for-haiti-the-raboteau-trial/. [21] Massacres led by paramilitary groups spawned from the Macoutes continued during the following decade. The military ruled until September 19, 1994, when US President Clinton ordered the US marines to intervene and reinstall democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. "The Tonton Macoutes" by Bernard Diederich. They were killed in their cells by firing squads. 8 no. The NKVD had important rolesin the implementation and execution of the Gulags, as well as during the Second World War. 1986 (April 26): Event known in collective memory as the massacre of Fort-Dimanche. Army soldiers and attachs opened fire on a peaceful demonstration attempting to honor the victims of the Duvalier regime in the Fort-Dimanche prison (the date of April 26th was also in reference to the 1963 killing).