Learn all about Tonton Macoute on AllMusic. In less than 11 years, the Khmer Rouge and its secret police murdered nearly two million people. A nine-year old child from one of them managed to escape but was later found and then brought to the Presidential Palace, where he was allegedly put to death by Franois Duvalier himself. In power from 1957, Papa Doc made voodoo the country's official religion and claimed to be Baron Samedi, the religion's spirit of death. Tonton Macoute | Facts, Information, and Mythology 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. Military Wiki is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. He came out on to the path and the Tontons Macoute shot him down from a car. _ *** (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. Former journalist Michle Montas still vividly remembers the bullet-ridden bodies lying on the sidewalk near her home on April 26, 1963. Tonton Macoutes byly ozbrojen jednotky, kter zdil haitsk dikttor Franois Duvalier jako svoji soukromou armdu a tajnou policii. So widely feared that the Haitian population referred to its members as a mythological creature, the Tonton Macoute, a sort of ghoul who kidnaps misbehaving children and eats them for breakfast, Haitian dictator Franois 'Papa Doc' Duvaliers secret police force, founded in 1959, the MVSN were highly feared, and extremely brutal. The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ELIZABETH KNOWLES Article created on Monday, March 3, 1997. The total number of victims of this 3-year regime varies from 10,000 to 30,000 people according to different sources. 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). The rationale for the execution remains uncertain. [17], The Tontons Macoute were a ubiquitous presence at the polls in the 1961 presidential referendum, in which Duvalier's official vote count was an "outrageous" and fraudulent 1,320,748 to 0, electing him to another term. _ In addition to the repression of the rebellion, between hundreds and thousands of civilians died or were killed during forced labor operations called corve, mainly the construction of roads throughout the country. The victims of Tonton Macoutes could range from a woman in the poorest of neighborhoods who had the temerity to support an opposing politician to a businessman who refused to "donate" money for public works (which were the source of profit for corrupt officials and even the dictator himself). Tonton Macoutes - Wikipedie Haitians named this force after the Haitian Creole . Romulus, Marc, Les Cachots des Duvalier. The number of their victims remains unknown. Seligman (in Gaillard, 1983), a US journalist who investigated the occupation, asserted that US soldiers practiced bumping off Gooks, (shooting civilians) as if it were a sport or a shooting exercise. Danroc, Gilles and Roussire, Daniel, La Rpression au quotidien en Hati (1991-1994), Commission Justice et Paix du diocse des Gonaives (Justice and Peace Commission of the Gonaives diocese), Karthala, , 1995. "Soldiers and Tonton Macoutes seemed infected with a blood lust and shot anyone who moved or came near the Benoit place," retired Marine Corps officer Charles T. Williamson, in Haiti to help train Duvalier's army, wrote in his 1999 memoir, United States Naval Mission to Haiti, 1959-1963. In 1920, during hearings held by the US Navy, Lavoie was accused of this by other US officers. Diederich, Bernard and Burt, Al, Papa Doc and the Tontons macoutes, Princeton, Markus Wiener Publishers, 2005. Originally published in 1970, this is the story of Haiti under the rule of Dr. Fran ois Duvalier. 7, New York, 1996. At the end of the day, 25 bodies were found but 80 had disappeared and were never found. There should be no statute of limitations on the disappeared.". spring garden apartments shooting; keston park famous residents. After an attempted coup d'tat against him in 1958, Duvalier disbanded the army and all law enforcement agencies in Haiti, and executed all high-ranking generals. Tonton Macoute, an Album by Tonton Macoute. 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. In 1970 the militia was renamed the Volontaires de la Scurit Nationale ( VSN, Volunteers of the National Security). According to press reports, Bal Wouz terrorized the inhabitants of the area with the consent of the local police on that day. During a U.S.-led occupation of the country in the mid-1990s, the government of After Germanys defeat, the subsequent Nuremberg Trials declared the Gestapo a criminal organization and many of its members were executed for war crimes. Many times the corpses were put on display, often hung in trees for everyone to see. The 19 officers may have been suspected or accused of treason by Duvalier, but historians reject this hypothesis and emphasize Duvaliers the terrorist methods: he sometimes had his closest allies killed to ensure even greater submission from the military and the population. Frre, Grard-Alphonse, Liste partielle des victimes de la dictature duvaliriste, 1957-1986, not dated. Haiti Face the Future, EPICA, Washington, DC, 1994. The background of the event, the persons responsible for it and the perpetrators seem to remain subject to discussion. 1994 (night of February 2-3): Killing named Massacre de Carrefour Vincent by the Truth and Justice Commission. Keyboardist/vocalist Paul French reemerged at decade's end with art-rockers Voyager, which issued three albums between 1979 and 1981. Love words? In December 2003, more than 13 years after the event, the investigative magistrate (who was the seventh to work on the case) issued a report indicting 53 suspects, including the various landowners and General Prosper Avril, for nine charges including murder. 1969 (April 14): About 30 young members of the Haitian Communist party, imprisoned in Fort-Dimanche, were executed outside the prison. There have been many brutal regimes in history that have employed a secret police service to carry out everything from intelligence activities against its citizens, to terror and mass executions. Dahomay, Jacky, La Tentation tyrannique hatienne, Chemins Critiques, vol. Tonton Macoute - Tonton Macoute (1971, Vinyl) - Discogs [6] According to an OAS report (ICHR, 1991), which does not provide details on its sources and its methodology, 75 individuals were killed and 150 wounded, all of them (sic) macoutes or persons directly associated with Roger Lafontant. The Tontons Macoutes were an ubiquitous presence in a rigged 1961 election in which Duvalier was unanimously reelected to another term, and once again in 1964 when Duvalier held a rigged referendum that declared him President for Life. Memories of a Duvalier Massacre, 50 Years Later According to witnesses, the FRAPH prevented inhabitants from fleeing their burning houses. "The repression went across all classes, all over the country. Grenades and bombs exploded in the daytime and gunfire crackled at night, resulting in what Bernard Diederich, co-author (with Al Burt) of Papa Doc and the Tonton Macoutes, recently called "a day of mayhem, genocide! _ Contrary to the post-dictatorial periods in Latin America, efforts to record and document the killings and executions with precision were not successful, or were not officially recognized. Biden administration drafts UN resolution for deployment of foreign 2004 (February 11): Event known as the massacre de la scierie. Fifty individuals, members of an anti-Aristide peoples organization known as RAMSICOM (sometimes spelled RAMICOS) were allegedly killed in the Scierie neighborhood of Saint-Marc by chimres(members of an illegal, armed pro-Aristide group) led by an organization known as Bal Wouz, whose leader, Amanus Mayette, was then a member of the Haitian Parliament. _ *** (Michel, 1998: 36-42; Gaillard, 1973: 87-99). A Macoute from the Duvalier era. The NKVD had important rolesin the implementation and execution of the Gulags, as well as during the Second World War. Death squads though roamed freely. His goal, he said, was to prevent "this dark chapter in history from repeating itself.". Also, for the first time in Haitis history, women (Trouillot, 1990: 153 and 167), children and even infants were targeted by the regime. Several dozens of people were also taken to the Fort-Dimanche prison in Port-au-Prince and were later disappeared, a method used afterward by the military regimes in Chile (1973-1989), Argentina (1976-1983) and Brazil (1964-1985). According to Pierre-Charles (1973), the urban lumpenproletariatwas the social background of most macoutes. From their methods to their choice of clothes, vodou always played an important role in their actions. [6] Dupuy, Alex, The Prophet and Power: Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the International Community, and Haiti, Lanham, Maryland, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2007. Leconte, Frantz Antoine, En Grandissant sous Duvalier: lagonie dun Etat-Nation, : LHarmattan, 1999. Cattle was killed or taken away by looting soldiers. Schmidt, Hans, The United States Occupation of Haiti, 1915-1934, Rutgers University Press, New Jersey, 1971. History In 1970, the militia was renamed the Volontaires de la Scurit Nationale (VSN, Volunteers of the National Security). In 1970 the militia was renamed the Volontaires de la Scurit Nationale (VSN, Volunteers of the National Security). One of the largest secret police forces behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, the Romanian Securitate was founded in 1948, with help from the Soviet Union. [8], In 1991, after Aristide had been elected President in the Haitian general election, 19901991, his Minister of Justice accused Romain of responsibility, and sought his extradition from the Dominican Republic, where he was living in exile, without success.[1]. For a detailed list of the most emblematic individuals responsible for executions and killings committed by macoutesand the military, see Pierre-Charles (2000: 45-49). During this period, the social movements fighting for the establishment of democracy, human rights and the rule of law were persecuted by the military, former macoutes and paramilitary groups called attachs. The military killed political activists and journalists and organized their disappearance. According to Pierre-Charles (2000: 208), more than 1,500 people disappeared between 1986 and 1990, most of them under the rule of General Henri Namphy, between March and October 1987. In 1959, his paramilitary force was called the Cagoulards ("Hooded Men"). However, since no material evidence had been brought to the commission, no charges were brought against Lavoie.
[1][4], The church was the parish of future President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, then a liberation theology Roman Catholic priest of the Salesians of Don Bosco order, and had been packed with 1000 people for Sunday mass. These children were carried away in his gunnysack, never to be seen again. [citation needed] After Duvalier's death, he was ordered into exile by Duvalier's widow Simone, and son, Baby Doc Duvalier. Furthermore, on December 5, US air forces bombed the port of the city of Les Cayes, in the South of the country, one day before the December 6 killing, in order to intimidate the population. In the TV series "Two and a Half Men", Season 3 Episode 17: "The Unfortunate Little Schnauzer", Archie Baldwin makes a reference to Tonton Macoute in his UN jingle for orphaned children. From 1919 on, the US airforce in Haiti was composed of at least three planes and used five airports (that it built) throughout the country. Between the fall of the Duvalier regime in 1986 and the December 1990 election, a series of short-lived military governments and coups dEtat punctuated the 5-year inter-regnum. The court of assize immediately sentenced Desyr to death. The dictatorship of the Duvalier family in Haiti - UKEssays.com Hurbon, Laennec, Comprendre Hati, Karthala, , 1987. These figures were contested by interviewed witnesses. 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. [18][19], Some of the most important members of the Tontons Macoute were Vodou leaders. But the torment did not end with the Duvaliers. As the Nazi party apparatus expanded, the control of the Gestapo shifted, ultimately landing under Heinrich Himmlers control during World War Two. Michel, Georges, Le Procs des auteurs du massacre du 27 juillet 1915, Revue de la socit hatienne dhistoire et de gographie no. There should be no statute of limitations for judgment on that. Others will choose to commemorate it privately, without uttering a word. 06:29 EST 14 Jan 2010. Haiti contains relatively small amounts of gold, silver, antimony, tin, lignite Chassagne, Albert, Hati, bain de sang, in Frantz-Antoine Leconte (ed. During the trial, the court heard that during the 28 years they ruled Haiti, the Duvaliers. Mythological and Fantastic Female Communities Breath, Eyes, Memory", "DUVALIER FLEES HAITI TO END FAMILY'S 28 YEARS IN POWER: GENERAL LEADS NEW REGIME; 20 REPORTED DEAD", "Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress (FRAPH) Front Rvolutionnaire pour L'Avancement et le Progress Haitien (FRAPH)", "Muslimgauze.org - Discography - Coup D'Etat", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tonton_Macoute&oldid=1136386311, Several semi-legal paramilitary organizations, The track "Tonton Macoutes" appears on the 1987 album. This regime qualified as a totalitarian one according to Trouilot (1990), who carried out a detailed study of the roots and forms of Duvalierism. helvetia 20 franc gold coin 1947 value; tonton macoute massacre. While hurricanes, floods and earthquakes have all devastated the landscape over the years, the biggest threat has come from humans. 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]. _ ** (Danroc and Roussire, 1995: 160-162; ICHR, 1991: 470). [6], Led by Emmanual Constant, FRAPH differed from the Tonton Macoute in its denial to submit to the will of a single authority and its cooperation with regular military forces. Papa and Baby Doc were long gone, but gangs of Tonton Macoutes roamed the streets in pick-up trucks, randomly shooting anyone they passed. 1991 (January 7): In Port-au-Prince, mobs of civilians supporting President-elect Aristide chased and killed macoutes, alleged macoutes and other supporters and alleged supporters of the Duvalier regime, after a failed coup attempt led by chief macoutes and former government minister Roger Lafontant. Several notorious macoutes, such as William Rgala, one of those responsible for the Vpres Jrmiennes, were promoted to political posts. After the July 1958 Haitian coup d'tat attempt against President Franois Duvalier, he purged the army and law enforcement agencies in Haiti and executed numerous officers as he perceived them as a threat to his regime. [2][5][6] Available at:http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article1374#.XMLOZJMzbUI. [12] This group answered to him only. . Repression of these movements followed, then an armed rebellion erupted in January and February 2004. "He inherited a repressive machine from his father," she says, "and continued to use it to stay in power. "Tonton Macoutes" style death . Those who spoke out against Duvalier would disappear in the night and were never seen again. The Tonton Macoute ( Haitian Creole: Tonton Makout) [1] [2] [3] or simply the Macoute [4] [5] was a special operations unit within the Haitian paramilitary force created in 1959 by dictator Franois "Papa Doc" Duvalier. The Duvalier dynasty ended in 1986, but their legacy remained as Fad'H and former-members of the Tonton Macoutes attempted to suppress voter turnout during the 1987 elections. Premier crasement du Cacoisme, Le Natal, Port-au-Prince, 1981. Fifty years on, the victims of Duvalier pre can only evoke these atrocities ceremonially, while a few of those who suffered similarly under his son were recently able to briefly face him in court. Observers note that the poor were the main target of repression, although many well-known figures from the middle class, such as Aristides Minister of Justice, Guy Malary, and businessman Antoine Izmry, were also murdered by paramilitary groups. A few weeks earlier, several young, light-skinned members of the Communist Party, a political party persecuted by the regime, including Alex Lamaute and Roger Mhu, had taken refuge in this town, assuming that they would blend into a population regarded as generally light-skinned (for having harbored many Polish soldiers after the war of independence). Forces of Change against Forces of Death: The Jean Rabel Massacre in Anthropological Reflections on Religion and Violence", "5. As of August 2004, the minister of Justice had asked for the United Nations and the OAS participation in carrying out forensic analysis. They threatened a 'heap of corpses' at any future mass celebrated by Aristide. The Chief of Police in charge of the raid, Jean Coles Rameau, was extradited from the neighboring Dominican Republic, where he had fled one week after the event. 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. Backed by politician Franois Duvalier, Kebreau proclaimed himself head of the executive branch of government and organized the September 22 elections, later won by Duvalier. Following Stalins death in 1953, the NKVDs atrocities were halted by Nikita Khrushchev, with many living victims absolved of their crimes. An unruly teen survives the night while being hunted by the Haitian Boogieman. 1, 2001. The first independent black state, set up 200 years ago after a rebellion by African slaves against colonial France, the mountainous island is home to exotic birds and animals and mist-shrouded tropical forests. Members of Tt Ansanm hid in the brush - some survived, while others were found and slaughtered by the armed brigades. Tonton Macoute | Military Wiki | Fandom Tontons Macoutes | Haitian paramilitary organization | Britannica In 1918 and 1919, many Caco prisoners were systematically executed once they had been disarmed, following explicit, written orders (in Gaillard, 1981: 32-39, 49, 214, 307). Tonton Macoute Lyrics: Come on to Haiti, you don't need a treaty / Papa Doc will do you OK / Tonton in the sun, he's polishing his gun / You'd better just stay out of his way / If you turn a . Papa Doc Duvalier created the Tontons Macoutes because he perceived the military to be a threat to his power. Concannon, Brian, Justice Dodged, Boston Haitian Reporter, June 2005.