PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb. 7 (IPS) – Haiti’s ‘Truth Commission’ has called on the U.N. Security Council to establish an international tribunal to investigate, pursue and punish those responsible for serious human rights violations during the three-year military dictatorship.

In a lengthy report sent to outgoing President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the National Commission for Truth and Justice (CNVJ) said that since the Haitian judicial system cannot adequately prosecute coup offenders, the Haitian government should turn to the U.N. body for support.

A copy of the report, obtained by IPS, showed that the Commission prefered to ‘’notify the U.N. Security Council with a view to establishing an international tribunal on the violations of human rights committed in Haiti, including crimes against humanity, during the period (of the de facto regime).’’

Francoise Boucard, the CNVJ president, handed the voluminous report to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide Monday at a symbolic ceremony in front of the old Haitian army headquarters in downtown Port-au-Prince. She said the report aimed to relaunch the judicial system in Haiti and establish a state of law.

A spokesman for President Aristide, and representatives of President-elect Rene Preval who takes office Wednesday, had no immediate comment on the report and could not confirm they would accept the Commission’s recommendations.

The report, which runs to some 1,200 pages, took 10 months to prepare and involved testimony from 5,450 witnesses nationwide. It identified some 8,600 victims and nearly 20,000 human rights violations during the regime of Gen. Raoul Cedras.

Although it has not immediately made public, the copy of the report seen by IPS made some suprise recommendations, including some ‘’non-recommendations’’ that were likely to drew a strong response from human rights groups, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and popular organisations.

At the same time, other recommendations calling for immediate judicial action to end impunity, were destined to raise fears among pro-coup sectors and the international community who have been pushing for reconciliation.

Many of the dozens of recommendations in the main 600-page body of the report involved reforming Haiti’s judicial system.

They included detailed proposals for urgent changes to be made within the judiciary, the prosecutorial system, the police force, and the Haitian legal code.

The Commission also pushed for more simple reforms such as conducting judicial business in Creole, the language of the vast majority of Haitians, instead of French.

The report also called for the creation of a new commission, complete with time frame and composition, to organize reparations for the victims of the military regime. Aristide has stated previously that reparations for coup victims would be based on the Truth Commission’s report.

The Commission made extensive recommendations concerning rape and sexual violence, which, according to the report, both military and para-military forces used as a weapon of political repression during the coup period.

‘’The Commission urges open inquiries on the authors of political rapes and to pursue and to punish them for crimes against humanity,’’ the report said.

It outlined a series of steps to reform Haiti’s rape laws, which the Commision said discriminated against victims and did not even define rape, and called for support services for rape victims and a broad education campaign on violence against women.

Three Haitian and three international commissioners contributed to the report: Ertha Elysee, Freud Jean, and Francoise Boucarde from Haiti; Oliver Jackman of Barbados; Patrick Robinson of Jamaica, and Bacre Waly Ndiaye of Senegal.

Scores of other national and international personnel were drafted in to prepare the report, which also included an annex of some 600 pages naming coup victims and details of the violation suffered.

The joint U.N./OAS International Civilian Mission (ICM) of human rights observers in Haiti, the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP), the U.N.’s Center for Human Rights, the Interamerican Center for Human Rights (CIDH), the International Center for the Rights of Persons and Democratic Development (CIDPDD), and the human rights section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) also worked with the Commission.

The mandate of the Truth Commission, established by President Aristide last March, was to report on and analyze the period between Sept 29, 1991, when Gen. Raoul Cedras led a bloody coup against the Aristide and Oct. 15, 1994, when the Constitutional government was restored to Haiti following a U.S.-led military intervention.

The Haitian government also asked the Commission to provide recommendations without binding the government to action.

The Commission’s report made only one mention of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which paramilitary groups have alleged backed and financed pro-coup elements. Emmanuel Constant, the head of the terror group FRAPH, and almost the entire military leadership, said they were involved with the CIA.

The Commission also recommended against ‘’naming names’’ until judicial proceedings of any alleged criminals were underway.

The most startling section of the report was the recommendation for a U.N. Security Council-sponsored tribunal.

Using the almost total lack of convictions in Haiti over the past year as a warning, the Commission argued that the Haitian legal system could not adequately provide justice to the more than 5,000 people estimated to have died during the military dictatorship.

‘’The Commission wishes to indicate its preference for (a U.N. tribunal).. .in light of sincerest doubts as to the efficacy of any investigative and legal procedures undertaken in the framework of the current system,’’ the report concluded.

‘’This would be magnificent proof of the determination of the government of Haiti to fulfill its international obligations to open inquiries on human rights violations, to pursue and punish the authors, and to render justice to the victims.

‘’Furthermore, one must keep in mind…that certain violations reported by the Commission are, perhaps, international crimes, including crimes against humanity,’’ the Commission’s report said. (END/IPS/dc/mk/96)

Origin: Rome/HAITI/ ----

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