United States General Accounting Office

GAO Report to Congressional Requesters

February 1997 HAITI

U.S. Response to

Allegations of an

Assassination Plot

GAO/NSIAD-97-87

GAO United States

General Accounting Office

Washington, D.C. 20548

National Security and

International Affairs Division

B-276242 

February 14, 1997

The Honorable Jesse Helms

Chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations

United States Senate

The Honorable Strom Thurmond

Chairman, Committee on Armed Services

United States Senate

The Honorable Richard Armey

Majority Leader

House of Representatives

The Honorable Benjamin A. Gilman

Chairman, Committee on International Relations

House of Representatives

The Honorable Floyd Spence

Chairman, Committee on National Security

House of Representatives

On March 28, 1995, Mrs. Mireille Durocher Bertin, a prominent attorney

and critic of President Aristide and the government of Haiti, was

assassinated. In response to your request, we are providing information

regarding how the U.S. government handled the allegations it received

regarding a plot to assassinate her. You asked us to respond to the

following questions:

• Who decided that the government of Haiti was responsible for warning

Mrs. Bertin of the assassination plot?

• Were other approaches to handling the assassination plot allegations

considered?

• What information was available to U.S. decisionmakers on the

involvement of Haitian officials in political violence?

• Was Mrs. Bertin warned of the assassination plot?

• Did the Haitian government investigate the assassination plot allegations?

• Are there U.S. laws, regulations, or guidelines governing the notification of

targets of assassination plots?

• Since Mrs. Bertin was assassinated, has the United States warned any

individuals in Haiti of threats against their lives?

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B-276242 

Background On September 30, 1991, 8 months after his inauguration as Haiti’s first

democratically elected president, Jean-Bertand Aristide was overthrown

by a military coup. On September 18, 1994, after 3 years of economic and

diplomatic pressure, including the threat of direct U.S. military

intervention, Haiti’s military regime agreed to relinquish power and allow

Aristide to return to office in October 1994. Among other things, this

agreement allowed for the nonviolent entry of U.S. troops into Haiti on

September 19, 1994. From September 1994 through March 30, 1995, the

U.S.-led multinational force (MNF) of 20,000 U.S. and 4,100 foreign troops

was deployed to Haiti to establish a “safe and secure environment.” On

March 31, 1995, this responsibility was transferred to the U.N. Mission in

Haiti, with 6,900 troops, about half of whom were U.S. troops.

On March 19, 1995, a Haitian national working as a translator for the MNF

informed U.S. troops that he was part of a conspiracy to assassinate 

Mrs. Bertin. The informant alleged that a group of four other Haitians

would be meeting at his home later that day and that they would stake out 

Mrs. Bertin’s house that night. He also said that the Minister of the Interior

was somehow involved. MNF forces acted quickly to detain the informant,

his wife, and the four suspects. Subsequently, on March 28, 1995, Mrs.

Bertin was assassinated in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince while

driving with a client to a meeting.

Results in Brief The U.S. MNF Commander in Haiti decided that the responsibility for

directly warning Mrs. Bertin of the threat against her life lay with the

government of Haiti, and the U.S. Ambassador concurred. As part of the

decision-making process, some U.S. Embassy officials initially argued that

U.S. officials should warn Mrs. Bertin directly to guarantee that she was

adequately alerted of the danger. MNF and U.S. Embassy officials ultimately

decided to inform both President Aristide and Justice Minister Exume of

the evidence they had regarding the plot and to urge them to warn 

Mrs. Bertin and investigate the plot. They did so on March 22, 1995.

Embassy officials believed that notifying both the President and the

Justice Minister would better ensure that Mrs. Bertin was warned, yet

leave the government of Haiti responsible for the warning. According to

MNF officials, U.S. officials told the President and Justice Minister that if

they were not satisfied that Mrs. Bertin had been warned, they would warn

her directly. Both the President and the Justice Minister assured U.S.

officials that Mrs. Bertin would be warned and the allegations investigated

immediately.

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B-276242 

Cables, and other documents, as well as discussions indicate that MNF and

Embassy officials were aware of allegations that high-level Haitian

security officials might be implicated in violent activities. The officials

indicated this did not influence the decision-making process.

It is impossible to determine whether Mrs. Bertin was adequately warned

of the assassination plot, as no one witnessed the conversations between

Mrs. Bertin and Justice Minister Exume. However, statements we obtained

from family members, U.S. officials, Haitian government officials, and a

U.N. representative provide information and perspectives on the events

leading up to the assassination.

Mrs. Bertin’s family members agree that Justice Minister Exume spoke

with Mrs. Bertin twice within a few days of receiving the plot information

from U.S. officials. However, we found no one who heard exactly what

was discussed. None of the family members believe that Justice Minister

Exume warned Mrs. Bertin of a murder plot because (1) she told the

family the Justice Minister said only that she might be arrested, (2) she did

not appear particularly concerned following the conversations, and (3) she

would have taken the Minister’s warning of an assassination conspiracy

seriously and would have taken appropriate precautions. Her father told

us, however, that his daughter was aware that individuals plotting to kill

her were taken into custody by the MNF.

U.S. officials said that Justice Minister Exume had personally assured

them on at least two occasions that he had told Mrs. Bertin that she was in

danger and offered her protection, which she rejected. Furthermore,

President Aristide provided a written response to the MNF, which stated

that Mrs. Bertin had been warned. Minister Exume informed us that he

told Mrs. Bertin that the MNF had uncovered a plot to kill her and had

detained the alleged conspirators, but he said he did not discuss who they

were or why they might want to kill her. He also said he told Mrs. Bertin

that she should take necessary precautions and offered her protection,

which she declined. He said he also gave her his private telephone number

in case she felt threatened. He told us that he was very explicit in the

conversation about a threat to her life and did not see how she could have

misinterpreted the call. Nevertheless, he noted that Mrs. Bertin did not

appear to take his warning seriously, saying that the threat was probably

just another ploy to try to force her to leave the country.

A U.N. official told us that during a luncheon meeting she arranged with 

Mrs. Bertin to explore what was happening politically in the country,

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Mrs. Bertin spoke of her conversation with Justice Minister Exume. The

U.N. official said that Mrs. Bertin told her that she had received a

disturbing call from the Justice Minister during which he informed her that

“she was in trouble.” The U.N. official stated that Mrs. Bertin appeared

concerned and commented that it would have to be very serious for a

Minister of the government to warn her and questioned whether the U.N.

official could help her if she were arrested.

In a letter dated March 24, 1995, the President of Haiti advised the MNF

Commander that his initial investigation of the assassination plot did not

indicate that the Haitian Minister of the Interior was involved. The

President indicated that Justice Minister Exume would continue to look

into the matter. However, the Justice Minister told us that he did not have

sufficient time to investigate the accusations before Mrs. Bertin was

assassinated, and he was unaware of what inquiries President Aristide had

made. U.S. officials indicated they were skeptical that a thorough

investigation actually took place. After the assassination, the Federal

Bureau of Investigation took control of the investigation at the request of

the government of Haiti.

While U.S. laws and regulations did not impose any legal responsibility on

U.S. officials to warn Mrs. Bertin directly about the assassination plot, we

did note, that shortly after President Aristide returned to Haiti in October

of 1994, Embassy officials directly contacted two Haitian citizens to

discuss concerns about their safety. Further, after Mrs. Bertin’s

assassination, the Department of State issued guidelines requiring

Embassy officials in Haiti to notify individuals when they have information

that a credible threat exists. Since that time, Embassy officials have

notified nine individuals of threats against their lives, including members

of opposition political parties, former military officers, and members of

the government, including the current and former president. Additionally,

Department of Defense (DOD) officials informed us that U.S. forces also

informed individuals of threats against their safety.

In a separate classified report, we provide supplementary information on

each of your questions and a chronology of events relevant to political

violence in Haiti.

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B-276242 

Agency Comments DOD, the State Department, and the Central Intelligence Agency reviewed a

draft of this report and supplied technical corrections and clarifications,

which we incorporated, as appropriate.

Scope and

Methodology

To determine who made the decision to ask the government of Haiti to

notify Mrs. Bertin and what other approaches were considered to inform

Mrs. Bertin about the murder plot, we met with the U.S. Ambassador, the

MNF Commander and Deputy Commander, and other officials from the

Departments of State and Defense in Haiti and in Washington, D.C., and

officials from the National Security Council. We also reviewed unclassified

and classified cables, memorandums, personal journals and reports, and

submissions to congressional committees from these organizations.

To determine the information that was available to decisionmakers on the

possible involvement of Haitian officials in political violence, we reviewed

classified cables, memorandums, and reports from the State Department,

National Security Council, MNF, and Defense Intelligence Agency. To

attempt to determine whether Mrs. Bertin was actually warned of the plot,

we met with current and former officials from the government of Haiti and

the United Nations, and interviewed members of Mrs. Bertin’s family.

We researched federal statutes and regulations and spoke with or received

information from general counsels from the Department of Justice,

Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration,

Department of State, and DOD to determine whether regulations or

guidelines existed regarding threat warnings. To determine whether the

United States has subsequently warned any individuals in Haiti of threats

against their lives, we met with the U.S. Ambassador and other Embassy

officials and reviewed cables and memorandums.

We did not receive access to staff or information from the Central

Intelligence Agency or Federal Bureau of Investigation interview

summaries. Additionally, former President Aristide did not respond to two

requests: to meet with us or to respond to a set of questions regarding the

assassination. The former Prime Minister declined the U.S. Embassy’s

request that he meet with us. Furthermore, it should be noted that because

individuals’ recollections of dates, conversations, and events that occurred

over a year ago varied, the accounts of events we received were not

entirely consistent.

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B-276242 

We conducted this review from June to November 1996 in accordance

with generally accepted government auditing standards.

We are sending copies of this report to the Secretary of State, the

Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, and appropriate congressional

committees. We will also make copies of this report available to others

upon request.

If you have any questions about this report, please call me on

(202) 512-4128. The major contributors to this report are Jess Ford, Ronald

Kushner, Richard Newbold, Jose Pena, and Joan Slowitsky.

Benjamin F. Nelson

Director, International Relations

 and Trade Issues

(711233) Page 6 GAO/NSIAD-97-87 Haiti
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