HAITIAN CRIMINAL DEPORTEES (PART THREE): AN

UNCLAS PORT AU PRINCE 000347 STATE FOR WHA/EX AND WHA/CAR STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAR S/CRS SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD INR/IAA WHA/EX PLEASE PASS USOAS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM HA SUBJECT: HAITIAN CRIMINAL DEPORTEES (PART THREE): AN OVERVIEW OF DEPORTEE ASSOCIATIONS AND CONCERNS ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Haitian criminal deportees interviewed by Embassy human rights officer report problems with integration into Haitian society and describe their self-help efforts to organize and improve their public image. Two deportee associations assert that corrupt Haitian officials attempt to extort money from deportees and their U.S. families. Critical of a USG-supported reintegration program, criminal deportees express interest in forging their own economic opportunities, in part to overcome what they regard as the stigma society attaches to them. They advocate early direct assistance to help deportees adjust to life in Haiti. While most criminal deportees maintain that the majority of their numbers do not participate in further crimes, they nevertheless admit that some deportees -- especially those with no financial support from U.S. relatives -- find it difficult to resist the lure of illegal activity, given Haiti's limited economic options. This is the third in a series of three cables covering criminal deportees in Haiti. End Summary. ASSOCIATIONS AND MEMBERS -------------- ¶2. (U) Criminal deportee associations are far more organized than previously understood. The associations act as social support networks. With few resources, they help each other find beds and food, and provide safe locations where they can discuss the issues they face. Although all the associations provide meals and attempt to find beds for homeless deportees, each group specializes in different services. Some focus primarily on social welfare services and support, others intervene with new arrivals to prevent criminal recidivism, while still others produce art around deportee themes. All deportee associations offer advice to new arrivals about adapting to and -- in many cases -- protecting themselves from their Haitian families. ¶3. (U) The Haitian Foundation for the Families of Repatriates (FONHFARA) was formally founded in 2000 in Carrefour, an impoverished area of Port-au-Prince where criminal gangs are present and active. The president and founder, Samael Jean Joel Auguste, runs the operation without external monetary support. Since its inception, he has primarily relied on the volunteer labor of its more than two thousand members. Working primarily with IOM, FONHFARA helps its members find rooms to rent, gives advice on employment, and helps members with tasks of daily life such as negotiating rents or doing business with local banks. FONHFARA also regularly visits deportees in prolonged pretrial detention after arrests, and tries to intercede on deportees' behalf when no formal charges appear forthcoming. Auguste says that he would one day like to run a shelter for members. IOM often contacts FONHFARA and Koze Kreyol (''speak Creole''),another deportee self-help association, for help with what Auguste calls their ''special cases,'' deportees with no family or resources, since IOM cannot provide significant assistance with living expenses. ¶4. (U) Koze Kreyol, a criminal deportee association -- also a for-profit enterprise -- remarkable for its success and a local partner of IOM, was founded by Emmanuelle Cajuste in ¶2004. Recording bands and artists such as ''Deps Inc.,'' Koze Kreyol and its associates have developed a widely-played genre of music which they call ''DP'' music. This music often explores themes of government corruption, social change for Haiti, police abuse, street violence in poor neighborhoods, and drugs. Cajuste explains: ''I'm Haitian, you know? But I'm American in how I think. I remember what it's like to live with clean streets and where people go to work and to school. That's what I want now for my country.'' For five years, Koze Kreyol has hosted an annual music awards show where they recognize musical achievements and encourage local youth to continue artistic expression, but report that as a deportee enterprise, the association cannot find positive media coverage for their efforts. ¶5. (SBU) Auguste and Cajuste believe the total number of deportees in Haiti (criminal and non-criminal) is far greater than Eric Calpas' estimate of 10,000. They believe Carrefour alone is home to that many deported persons. They also informally estimate the fraction of criminal deportees who participate in crime in Haiti between 30 and 40 percent. They assert that very few deportees participate in violent crimes such as kidnappings, but believe that the overwhelming majority of deportees who do fall into crime are involved in drug trafficking. MONEY AND VULNERABILITY - OFFICIALS, FAMILIES, AND CRIMINALS -------------- -------------- ¶6. (SBU) Embassy Human Rights officer attended a meeting with 25 deportees on February 18, and then met with leaders of FONHFARA and Koze Kreyol on March 4. Emboff heard claims that IOM's reintegration program fails to address deportee needs, suspicions that local IOM employees sneak their friends into grant-gaining positions, and descriptions of deportees' vulnerability to government authorities, their Haitian families, and criminal gangs. 7.(SBU) All deportees state that during their initial detention period, ''oficial-looking'' Haitians who may have been lawyrs or government agents approached them for money. Some reported that weeks before they left for Hati, unidentified persons solicited payments from heir U.S. family members, either promising decresed detention time or threatening physical harm to the deportee if payment were not made. (Note: Haitian authorities are provided with deportee dossiers weeks before a deportee flight. End note). Ten of nineteen deportees on February 22 claimed that their families had paid between USD 2,000 and 18,000 for their release or safety. ¶8. (SBU) A middle-aged deportee told Poloff that when he was brought to Haiti on February 18, 2004 he had connections in place. A friend delivered a message, allegedly from a security agent for former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to the effect that ''Don't worry, you won't have to pay anything. You're just going to have to tell new deportees how much it (release) is going to cost them.'' After the Aristide government fell nine days later, the man spent another five to six months in prison before being released. ¶9. (SBU) Haitian family members of deportees sometimes attempt to extort money from U.S. relatives. Cajuste reported that during his initial detention in Haiti, his receiving Haitian family called his U.S. family claiming that murderers in jail would kill him unless they immediately received five thousand dollars (USD). He later learned that no such threat existed. Criminal deportees often face conflict with their Haitian families over control of funds sent by U.S. relatives. Antagonisms often develop to the point that the local family rejects the newcomer. ¶10. (SBU) Embassy human rights officer met an especially down and out deportee, an unsmiling twenty-something Woody Drice (protect),who said that he was deported from the U.S. in 2007 and that distant relatives in Haiti signed for his release. His family in the U.S. is not wealthy and has not sent him remittances. ''At first, they (the Haitian-signing family) were so nice...but when they understood that nothing (money) was coming, they turned on me.'' Two months after his arrival, Drice's local family filed a false kidnapping accusation against him and he was detained by local police. FONHFARA launched a letter-writing campaign which succeeded in securing Drice's release, but with few funds and no job on the horizon, he soon became homeless. IOM, he states, was not helpful. He often goes for days without eating. He does not have medication for the mental illness he was diagnosed with while serving his U.S. sentence. Drice reports that he searches every day for employment, but no one hires him when they learn he is a deportee. ¶11. (SBU) Like Drice, most deportees reported that criminal elements had tried to recruit them, beginning with their initial periods of detention and again after a few months of failing to find employment. Deportees who initially resist later find themselves choosing between joining gangs and starving on the streets. Crime, they report, is one of the few economic arenas where they are welcomed and valued. When they are not involved, one man explained, ''we're blamed anyway, just because we're deportees.'' Auguste and Cajuste state that most deportees who choose crime do so out of fear, desperation, or desire for protection Haitian criminals give them. Deportees are most vulnerable to gang recruitment while they are in holding and resisting the extortion attempts described above. Imprisoned gang members can often have enough power to make bribery requests cease. ¶12. (SBU) Auguste and Cajuste added that some Haitian gang leaders falsely claim they are deportees to enhance their criminal prestige. They attempt to display facility with colloquial U.S. street English to lend credibility to their claim of deportee status. A Cite Soleil gang leader was arrested for kidnapping and widely reported in local media as a criminal deportee until it was proven that he'd never visited the U.S. Auguste and Cajuste maintain that this occurs regularly. THE PROBLEM OF PAPER -------------- ¶13. (SBU) Participation in Haitian society is severely limited without identity papers. Cajuste reports that it took three years before he was able to obtain a passport. Officials sent Cajuste and his cousin to five different offices for confirmation of his identity before telling them that they were probably ''African assassins'' who'd been abandoned in Haiti by their employers and that they could not be issued Haitian passports. With his Amcit sister present to lobby on his behalf, Cajuste finally obtained a passport in December 2007. The Haitian government, however, stamped in the book's front cover, ''This passport valid for travel anywhere except the United States'' and thus effectively highlighted Cajuste's deportee status to anyone who requests his documentation. All deportees who obtain passports have them annotated in this way. DREAMS OF SELF-SUPPORT AND EMPOWERMENT -------------- ¶14. (U) Deportees at both meetings vociferously condemned government programs as inadequate. Association leaders expressed the wish for help with writing grants they could submit on their own behalf. Believing that they have useful skills, deportees envision creating a community center, job-creation enterprises, and a shelter for homeless deportees who might otherwise slip into criminal activity. They also expressed interest in giving media interviews to counteract the negative image caused by deportees engaged in crime and to convince Haitians that they can have a positive impact on society. ¶15. (U) Deportees state that several things may improve their experiences in Haiti and their ability to adapt. Pre-arrival briefings on potential government and family attempts at extortion, and brochures explaining the local situation and providing deportee association contact information would substantially increase their chances of protecting themselves and avoiding criminal gangs. FONHFARA and Koze Kreyol report that new deportees frequently find their associations only after family and government officials have taken advantage of them. ¶16. (SBU) Comment: Criminal deportees face many obstacles shared by all Haitians (primarily poor economic conditions) but encounter others directly arising from their deportee status, including social marginalization and discrimination, false accusations to police, and police abuse. More efforts to help criminal deportees re-integrate into Haitian society would not only benefit this small group of people, but also would likely make Haiti more receptive to greater numbers of deportations. SANDERSON