On the morning of Dec. 4, 2020, the HNP carried out its first major operation under Léon Charles’ new command, intervening in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of God’s Village (Village de Dieu), a bleak, impoverished sea-side community which has been controlled by an armed group known as the Five Seconds Base for years. It has been a police no-go zone.
But heavily armed and armored HNP officers entered with tanks, explosives, and tear-gas. At a press conference later that day, Charles proclaimed the operation a success.
It fit his profile not only to make a show of force in Village de Dieu, just as he did in Belair and Cité Soleil 15 years ago, but also that his account of events would be contradicted by others.
Charles claimed that the HNP had regained control of the neighborhood, but the leader of Five Seconds, known as Izo, immediately took to Facebook to deny the account, saying his group had suffered no casualties and retained control of Village de Dieu.
Wherever the truth lies, the U.S. Embassy was also leery of Charles’ reports 15 years ago, as made clear in
a May 6, 2005 secret cable by Deputy Chief of Mission Douglass Griffiths about police fatally shooting at least five people on Apr. 27, 2005.
“April 27 was the fourth occasion since February where the HNP used deadly force,” Griffiths reported. “Despite repeated requests, we have yet to see any objective written reports from the HNP that sufficiently articulate the grounds for using deadly force. Equally disturbing are HNP first-hand reports from the scene of these events. These are often confusing and irrational and fail to meet minimum police reporting requirements. The HNP continues to suffer from corruption among its ranks, a broken system of justice, substandard command and supervisory control, inadequate levels of training, and scant equipment resources.”
According to Charles’ “version of events” delivered to a high ranking State Department official on Apr. 29, an “unauthorized march left Bel Air around 11:00 a.m. and circled around the Presidential Palace before returning back to the Bel Air area and then proceeding on Delmas toward Bourdon (and the area around UNDP/MINUSTAH headquarters).” Demonstrators don’t need authorization to protest in Haiti but simply must notify police in advance of any planned demonstration.
According to Charles, “as the march neared Bourdon, hundreds of people crowded the streets and brought vehicular traffic to a standstill,” Griffiths continued. There was a mélée, and “police, monitoring the demonstration, heard several shots and witnessed a group of ten young men running in Bourdon near MINUSTAH Headquarters. The police gave chase and opened fire on the fleeing suspects. Several of the suspects were apprehended and two were shot and killed by the pursuing HNP units. Three other suspects were also shot and killed by the HNP, but it was not yet clear if they came from the same group that the police initially encountered. One 9mm pistol was recovered by the HNP not far from the deceased suspects.”
“HNP reports from the scene are often confusing and irrational and fail to meet minimum police reporting requirements.”
Charles told a different story when he spoke to the Embassy 10 days later, on May 9, Griffiths wrote in
his May 13, 2005 secret cable .
“Charles… gave an updated recount of the incident on April 27 during which four people were killed in the vicinity of a pro-Lavalas demonstration near MINUSTAH headquarters… He said that CIMO units were not involved in the shooting. Instead, regular police officers from the Canapé Vert and Port-au-Prince stations were pursuing two groups of bandits in the area. Police exchanged gunfire with one group that had been attacking pedestrians and vehicles near the demonstration, resulting in the deaths of two suspected bandits, while simultaneously another police unit confronted a truck carrying a group that had fired at the Hotel Christopher [which doubled as UN headquarters], killing another two suspects. Charles said that both incidents occurred after the demonstration had already finished. CDA Griffiths stressed that it was important to issue a complete report of the incident. He noted that in the United States police officers were generally moved to desk jobs after being involved in a shooting, pending an investigation.”
Broadcast reports on Radio Solidarité and Radio Ginen, among others, completely contradicted both of Léon Charles’ reports to the U.S. Embassy. According to multiple witnesses, journalists, and even the principal organizer of the march, prominent activist Jean-Baptiste Jean-Philippe, known as “Samba Boukman” (
assassinated in March 2012 ), the Haitian police fired unprovoked on peaceful demonstrators who were demanding the liberation of political prisoners, an end to political persecution, and the physical return of President Aristide to Haiti from exile in South Africa.
Well-known journalist Guyler C. Delva gave an on-the-scene report that “thousands and thousands of demonstrators” were still demonstrating when the police began shooting, killing five, and wounding many others, including several schoolchildren.
“The demonstration had arrived at Bourdon, and, according to witnesses, the police opened fire on the demonstrators,” Delva reported. “I spoke to a policeman who said there had been gunfire [from the demonstrators] and that they found a gun on a demonstrator. But others living in the area and marching in the demonstration said that is not at all true. There were no demonstrators who fired weapons. It was an entirely peaceful demonstration, according to the witnesses I spoke to.”
Delva then played an interview with Dorisma Ronel, 21, who was wounded by the cops. He also denied there had been any shots from the crowd.
Delva then described the men who had been killed. “There were three who all had died in the same place, there was another who fell about five or six meters away from them, and then there was another who was apparently running away and they killed him on the top of a hill. All five bodies are presently in the morgue.”
“It was an entirely peaceful demonstration, according to witnesses.”
Meanwhile, Radio Ginen interviewed two schoolchildren, James Joseph and Clédanor Vania, who were wounded, and a third person, the same Dorisma Ronel, who was not in the protest but returning from the pharmacy when he was shot in the foot.
“We deplore and condemn the massacre the HNP committed against demonstrators on Apr. 27, 2005,” Samba Boukman declared on Radio Ginen. “We see that despite all our efforts to have the population trust the police, that does not prevent the HNP from continuing their summary executions of the population… It was the general direction of the police which ordered it.” Samba Boukman asserted that on Mon., Apr. 25, 2005, his messenger Joseph Roudy was harassed in police headquarters as he gave the letter notifying the police about the Apr. 27, 2005 demonstration.
In short, Samba Boukman and the many witnesses that day gave testimony that differed dramatically from Léon Charles’ account.
