Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

FRAPH • 199FRAPH first gained international notice in October 1993 whenmembers of this group prevented the docking in Port-au-Prince of theUSS Harlan, so helping delay for another year the restoration of PresidentAristide to power in Haiti by U.S. military intervention. When thejunta faced the possibility of U.S. intervention later in 1994, it armedabout 30,000 civilians to form a “volunteer” force to complement the7,000 regular troops of the Haitian armed forces. On 28 August 1994a close friend of Aristide, Rev. Jean-Marie Vincent, was murdered bythese militia members, who were also known as “attachés.”During the period of military rule from 1991 to 1994, about 5,000people were killed, mainly by pro-junta death squads of whichFRAPH was the largest and most powerful. FRAPH used machetes,firebombings, and sometimes grenades to kill individuals or demonstratorsopposing the junta. In early October 1994 FRAPH attackedpro-Aristide crowds, killing demonstrators with impunity in fullview of U.S. warships in the harbor of Port-au-Prince. Following theFRAPH murder of the deputy mayor of Mirebalais on 4 November1994, death squad activity by the group appeared to cease.Debriefing of Haitian refugees who had belonged to FRAPHrevealed systematic use of murder and rape against its victims,which new FRAPH members were expected to watch and later toparticipate in as part of their initiation. Later it was learned that theleader of FRAPH, Emmanuel “Toto” Constant, had actually been aCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) informant who continued on itspayroll until the spring of 1994, long after his group had organizedthe October 1993 demonstrations blocking U.S. naval vessels fromlanding in Port-au-Prince. A review of declassified State Departmentand Defense Department cables revealed that U.S. defenseand intelligence officials had strongly distrusted Aristide and soughtto protect their informants within the FRAPH organization in theevent of Aristide’s return to power. Shortly after U.S. troops landedin Haiti in October 1994, they raided FRAPH headquarters, seizingover 150,000 pages of documents, which were removed to theUnited States and never returned to Haiti despite the demands of theAristide government. Later, Emmanuel Constant, who was foundhiding in Queens, New York, was arrested on 10 May 1995 but notdeported to Haiti. Following extensive revelations of human rightsabuses by FRAPH, the United States eventually declared FRAPH tobe a terrorist organization. Relying on the Alien Tort Claims Act,