U.S. Suspects Aristide Forces in Murders

Under fire from House Republicans, Clinton administration officials acknowledged Thursday that they suspect members of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s security forces were implicated in politically related killings last year.

But the officials, testifying before the House International Relations Committee, insisted that the overall level of violence in Haiti is far below what it was before the U.S. Army ousted Haiti’s military rulers and restored Aristide to power in 1994.

Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) accused James Dobbins, the administration’s senior Haiti policy official, of lying to Burton’s subcommittee when he testified in October that he had not been briefed on the FBI’s aborted investigation into the murder last March of Mireille Durocher a prominent foe of Aristide.

“We know damn well it was a lie,” Burton said. Dobbins said that he had not been fully briefed at the time and that he did not want to give the subcommittee misleading or incomplete information.

Rep. Toby Roth (R-Wis.) asked why the State Department did not tell Congress that “the FBI had evidence that the murders [of Durocher and one of her law clients] were linked to Aristide.”

Deputy Assistant FBI Director William E. Perry said the FBI “experienced significant . . . difficulties” in trying to find out who killed Durocher because it was unable to interview Haitian officials “on terms consistent with an impartial, professional investigation.”

Asked if the Aristide government was responsible for the “difficulties,” Perry responded, “That’s correct.”

Committee Chairman Benjamin A. Gilman (R-N.Y.) also released a Jan. 3 letter from Assistant Secretary of State Wendy R. Sherman that stated: “The reemergence of political violence in Haiti, and the possible implication of senior officials in the Haitian security apparatus, has been and remains at the top of our bilateral agenda with Haiti.”