tonton macoute massacre

_ *** (Turits, 2002; Turits, 2003: 161-180; Roorda, 1998: 127-139; Saez, 1988, vol I: 60-70; Castor, 1988; Garcia, 1983; Cuello, 1985). Known to torture its victims with methods including electric shock, removal of teeth and finger nails, as well as boiling water treatment, SAVAK spent the majority of its resources weeding out and torturing either the Shia or communist opponents to the Shahs rule. In Haitian Creole mythology, Tonton Macoutes was a bogeyman who kidnapped errant children in the night and stored them in his knapsack. *** (Chassagne, 1999: 235-262; Pierre-Charles, 2000: 94-102). Americas Watch Committee (U.S.), National Coalition for Haitian Refugees, Caribbean Rights (Organization). Though Russia and the Soviet Union have had numerous brutal secret police forces, notably the Cheka and the KGB, the NKVD is most notorious as it was the secret police force in the Soviet Union for the majority of Joseph Stalins reign. Although this killing was not politically motivated, it provoked great concern since it was the first large-scale execution since the return to democracy and suggested that the armys violent tactics against the poor had not ended, even though Aristide had officially abolished it. Tonton Macoute var prsidentens privatmilits i Haiti.Gruppen blev oprettet i 1959 af Franois Duvalier "Papa Doc" to r efter at han blev prsident. The total number of political prisoners who starved to death, were executed, or died under torture in public or private prisons remains unknown. Edwidge Danticat is the best-selling author of Claire of the Sea Light and Brother, I'm Dying. Among many awards and honors, she received the 2017 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. 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]. Tonton Macoute was an English jazz-rock/psych band from Newbury, Berkshire, that released a self-titled album on RCA-subsidiary Neon in 1971, followed by a standalone single under the abbreviated name Tonton in 1972. Filan, Kenaz (2007). Diederich, Bernard and Burt, Al, Papa Doc and the Tontons macoutes, Princeton, Markus Wiener Publishers, 2005. The survivors, hiding in the woods and terrified, wrote to a French priest residing nearby to ask for his protection. Andrew Malone for the Daily Mail Following Stalins death in 1953, the NKVDs atrocities were halted by Nikita Khrushchev, with many living victims absolved of their crimes. This continued until the Tonton Macoute was left on its own when Baby Doc fled the country with an estimated $900m. [citation needed], In 1985 the United States began to shut down funds to Haitian aid, cutting nearly a million dollars from it within a year. Dolo k tomu v roce 1959 po pokusu tradin mulatsk elity a armdnch piek legln zvolenho prezidenta Duvaliera svrhnout. The approximate number of civilians and unarmed combatants killed during the civil war remains unknown but, according to historian Roger Gaillard, the peasants paid a heavy price.. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Soldiers collected several bodies, which were not seen again. While the young have never been told, while so many older Haitians have chosen to forget, while some politicians are now attempting to rewrite history, and while the charges against Jean Claude Duvalier are still pending, I hope that the voices of those saying 'never again' will this time be heard.". The Tonton Macoutes (singular Tonton Macoute referring to a member thereof; or Ton Ton Macoute) was a Haitian militia force under the control of Franois Duvalier. The Tonton Macoutes wore straw hats, blue denim shirts and dark glasses, and were armed with machetes and guns. [1] According to one witness, the police and army provided protection for the attackers, encircling the church. From their methods to their choice of clothes, Vodou always played an important role in their actions. . Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books. It had become the norm, whole families guilty by bloodline, condemned, executed.". The Cambodian Santebal started out as a secret police force under the Khmer Rouge regime and ultimately ended up morphing into essentially an extermination squad. When the Hospital could not supply this, the local funeral homes would be used. My Blog. NE 4; Vinyl LP). They were believed to have been abducted and killed by the MVSN, who were called the "Tontons Macoutes" as a result. Unpaid volunteers who were directly responsible only to Duvalier, they were given virtual license to torture, kill, and extort. Journalists were crushed. These attacks may have been the first ever carried out by air on civilian populations. With such numbers, every aspect of East German life was infiltrated; schools, hospitals and industrial plants all maintained informants, as did every apartment building in East Germany. Released 21 May 1971 on Neon (catalog no. As the Nazi party apparatus expanded, the control of the Gestapo shifted, ultimately landing under Heinrich Himmlers control during World War Two. A Macoute from the Duvalier era. He walked the streets at night, looking for children who stayed out too late. Reconpilacin y notas, Santo Domingo: Editora Taller, 1985. _ None of those responsible for the killings and none of the perpetrators were brought to justice. Tonton Macoute, an Album by Tonton Macoute. "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. Gaillard, Roger, Les Blancs dbarquent, IV. He profited by extortion carried out by his henchmen and by supplying corpses and blood to universities and hospitals in the United States. His work exposes the evil of Duvalier's rule and the tale . 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. The massacre was carried out by unidentified armed men, probably former Tonton Macoute, and took place without resistance by police or army, despite the church being opposite a barracks. Tonton Macoute was a progressive jazz/rock band formed in the UK in 1971 from the remaining 4 musicians of Windmill (2) after the death of lead singer/guitarist Dick Scott in a road accident whilst on tour. The Tonton Macoutes then tie the ropes around the men's biceps to bind them to the poles and keep them upright. [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]. Haiti since Duvalier, Touchstone, 1990. During the trial, the court heard that during the 28 years they ruled Haiti, the Duvaliers. Beyond the Gulags, the NKVD was instrumental in Stalins genocide in the Ukraine where millions perished due to hunger, and the Great Purge of the communist party and the Red Army between 1934 and 1940. 2022 The Progressive Inc. 931 E. Main Street, Suite 10 Madison, Wisconsin 53703 (608) 257-4626, Memories of a Duvalier Massacre, 50 Years Later. _ *** (Castor, 1988: 173-175; Gaillard, 1983: 282; Renda, 2001: 34). Tonton Macoutes byly ozbrojen jednotky, kter zdil haitsk dikttor Franois Duvalier jako svoji soukromou armdu a tajnou policii. Les Violations de droits de lhomme lpoque des Duvaliers, Editions du Cresfed, Port-au-Prince, 2000. 196, 1998. The killings were part of dchoukajagainst macoutes, who were attempting to interrupt the democratic process at the time. Literature. The attempted kidnapping had been orchestrated by Clment Barbot, a macoute and former head of the secret services of Papa Doc, to whom he was close. Luckner Cambronne was a particularly fierce head of the Tonton Macoute throughout the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s. Several of the persons responsible for the killing (prison guards and soldiers) were tried and acquitted in July 1917. He came out on to the path and the Tontons Macoute shot him down from a car. Some victims of Stasi psychological harassment had mental breakdowns, or even committed suicide. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Report on the situation of human rights in Haiti, Portrait of a Folk-Hero: Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide, The More things change-- human rights in Haiti, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=St._Jean_Bosco_massacre&oldid=1136679075, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 31 January 2023, at 15:59. According to press reports, Bal Wouz terrorized the inhabitants of the area with the consent of the local police on that day. This is a secret force of two or three thousand gun-carrying ruffians, wearing no uniforms, a . Several notorious macoutes, such as William Rgala, one of those responsible for the Vpres Jrmiennes, were promoted to political posts. H.J. Several families were entirely wiped out. The regime of terror and assassinations imposed by the macoutesand the military continued but no large-scale killings occurred during this period. [18][19], Some of the most important members of the Tontons Macoute were Vodou leaders. The Tonton Macoute move in shadows, like ghosts. The victims of Tontons Macoutes could range from a woman in the poorest of neighborhoods who had previously supported an opposing politician to a businessman who refused to comply with extortion threats (ostensibly as donations for public works, but which were in fact the source of profit for corrupt officials and even President Duvalier). Following the purge, when war broke out, the NKVD was equally ruthless, committing war crimes, such as the Katyn Massacre, as well. For a detailed list of some of the victims of this regime, two victims and academic organizations web sites based in the United States can be consulted (Frre and Fordi9). "At the conclusion of the three-hour rampage the church was burned down thereby making it impossible to verify the total number of deaths since some remains are believed to have been consumed by the flames." This religious affiliation gave the Tontons Macoute a kind of unearthly authority in the eyes of the public. Natural resources of Haiti include bauxite, copper, calcium carbonate, gold, marble and hydropower. 1916 (June 4): Caco General Mizrael Codio and 10 of his men were executed after they were captured at Fonds-Verrettes (Northeast of Port-au-Prince, by the border with the Dominican Republic) by US Marines. This represented the largest forced disappearance under the Duvaliers. Concannon, Brian, Justice Dodged, Boston Haitian Reporter, June 2005. With Andrea Fantauzzi, Aimee Zannoni, Esteban Dager, Edem Atsu-Swanzy. Roorda, Eric Paul, The Dictator Next Door: the Good Neighbor Policy and the Trujillo Regime in the Dominican Republic, 1930-1945, Duke University Press, North Carolina, 1998. Bernard Diederich, Al Burt. _ *** (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. Based on a similar French agency, which the African OCRB often worked with, many crimes by the police force itself have gone unpunished, and a particularly effective method of torture, Le Caf, where one is beaten with a baton and then forced to walk an excruciating distance, became commonplace in interrogations of suspected bandits. On November 9, 2000, after a highly symbolic trial broadcasted live on the radio and led by the judicial authorities with assistance from international organizations, including the United Nations, 16 individuals out of the 29 tried were sentenced to prison terms. Le Grand fauve, Le Natal, Port-au-Prince 1995. 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. The most notorious of the camps, Tuol Sleng, is said to have held up to 20,000 prisoners between 1976 and 1978; only seven of those prisoners are known to have survived the camp. He often wore a top hat and tails while demanding the skulls of his dead victims were brought to his palace in Port-au-Prince. In 1991, the Minister of Justice of President Aristides first government accused Frank Romain, who was Mayor of Port-au-Prince at the time, of having organized the killing and hence, requested his extradition from the Dominican Republic, where he was living in exile, but to no avail. Indeed, the devastating earthquake now bringing death and heartbreak is the latest in a long line of tragedies to befall a place dubbed the Island of the Damned. 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 . For tourists on cruise ships plying the Caribbean, Haiti appears a beguiling, mysterious place. From their methods to their choice of clothes, vodou always played an important role in their actions. It was that of the sleeve designer. [26] FRAPH extended its reach far outside that of the Haitian state and had offices present in New York, Montreal and Miami until its disarmament and disbandment in 1994.[27]. 53 Tonton Macoutes Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images Archival Browse 53 tonton macoutes stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. Martissant, des Tontons Macoutes aux gangs arms - Le Nouvelliste Women were forced to dance and celebrate with the soldiers who stayed in the village. _ During the entire duration of the dictatorship of Nord Alexis, opponents were subjected to summary executions, usually upon direct orders from Alexis himself. Tonton Macoutes murdered over 60,000 Haitians. Keyboardist/vocalist Paul French reemerged at decade's end with art-rockers Voyager, which issued three albums between 1979 and 1981. The strikers were part of a broader movement for democracy. Article created on Monday, March 3, 1997. Un Ex-prisonnier politique tmoigne, Port-au-Prince, CRESFED, 1995. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (ICHR), Annual Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, 1990-1991, Organization of American States (OAS), General Secretariat, Washington, D.C., 1991. ", The hunt was indeed on for Duvalier's adversaries, army and civilian alike. [21] Massacres led by paramilitary groups spawned from the Macoutes continued during the following decade. On April 5, 500 soldiers and macoutes arrived in the area and started the killing. The names, in Crole, of the US officers who committed acts of violence against civilians, are still present in collective memory in the affected areas: Ouiliyanm (Lieutenant Lee Williams), Linx (Commandant Freeman Lang) and Captain Lavoie (Gaillard, 1981: 27-71). Those who spoke out against Duvalier would disappear in the night and were never seen again. In fact, the killing also had ideological and racial dimensions, as Duvalier relied on a political ideology known as noirisme (Blackism), through which he claimed to promote the black masses against mulatto elites. Hence, the Duvalier dictatorship targeted mulatto sectors of society, seen as prone to political opposition, but also as illegitimate members of the nation. The Stasi was fundamentally an intelligence agency, and it is estimated that there was one Stasi informant per 160 East German citizens. Some civilians who had attempted to flee were killed. 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. p. 21. 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! 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. United Nations, Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Haiti prepared by Mr. Adama Dieng (E/CN.4/2001/106), United Nations, New York, 2004. Macoutes) A member of the Tonton Macoutes in Haiti; by extension, a thug or criminal. The first six were adolescents. The NKVD had important rolesin the implementation and execution of the Gulags, as well as during the Second World War. This regime qualified as a totalitarian one according to Trouilot (1990), who carried out a detailed study of the roots and forms of Duvalierism. [23], The lack of funds coming to the Tonton Macoute was a result of those funds being intercepted by the Duvalier dynasty which was sometimes taking nearly 80 percent of international aid to Haiti, then turning around to pay only 45 percent of the debts the country owed. Posted on June 16, 2022 June 16, 2022 Available at:http://www.haiti.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/vrit_justice.pdf, Concannon, Brian, Justice for Haiti; The Raboteau Trial, 2001. It was during this period that the army established the basis for a totalitarian order (Trouillot, 1990: 152). Some of the most important members of the Tonton Macoute were vodou leaders and this religious affiliation gave the Macoutes a sense of unearthly authority in the eyes of the public. Producer - Tonton Macoute Saxophone [Electric] - Dave Knowles (3) ( tracks: B3) Notes Released in a matt gatefold cover. _ * (Hurbon, 1987: 10-11, 155 and 143; NCHR, 1986: 53-59; Interviews with witnesses). Menu 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. The total number of victims was close to a hundred. _ * (For sources on the massacre thesis, see Roc, 2004; NCHR, March 2004; and Fuller, 2005; for sources that deny the very existence of the event, see Haiti-Progrs, 2004). In the northeastern region alone, up to 15,000 individuals were killed, most of them with machetes, between the 2nd and the 8th of October. In addition, 82 houses had been looted and torched. This, coming just a few days before the fiftieth anniversary of April 26, 1963, seems to not only be an attempt at whitewashing the past, but at launching an offensive against those who, on this day, will pause to remember. The lynching of Vilbrun Sam provided the pretext for the United States to intervene and occupy Haiti until 1934. But the torment did not end with the Duvaliers. The democratically elected President Aristide ruled from 1994 to January 1996, and again from 2001 to 2004. Soldiers used machetes rather than firearms to prevent alerting the surrounding Haitian communities, which were exterminated afterward. On April 21, 2005, the Cour de Cassation (the highest court in the country) invalidated this judgment; the court based its ruling on a 1928 law that prohibited trial by jury for multiple crimes, although this very law had already been nullified by the 1987 Constitution. [9][11] They began to be called the Tonton Macoute when people started to disappear for no apparent reason. Alongside the SS, the Gestapo, under Himmler, played a major role in carrying out the Final Solution, from the liquidation of the Ghettos to transportation of prisoners to the concentration camps. According to a diocesian commission (Danroc and Roussire, 1995: 160-162), which photo-documented the event, the perpetrators were an army unit assisted by armed men acting on behalf of a local landowner. _ *** (United Nations, 2000: 9, NCHR, 2004). A four-year child, Stphane Sansericq, was tortured in front of his relatives before being killed. Romulus, Marc, Les Cachots des Duvalier. History In 1970, the militia was renamed the Volontaires de la Scurit Nationale (VSN, Volunteers of the National Security). On July 23, 1999, the Minister of Justice created a judicial commission to supervise the investigation which, to this day (May 2005), has still not been completed. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (ICHR), Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Haiti, Organization of American States (OAS), Washington, D.C., 1988. Laraque, Paul and Frank, Hati, la lutte et lespoir, Montreal, CIDIHCA, 2003. The name was later applied to the Milice de Volontaires de la Scurit Nationale, the paramilitary force of Franois 'Papa Doc' Duvalier, Haiti's "President for Life." 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. Explore Tonton Macoute's discography including top tracks, albums, and reviews. According to local witnesses before the Truth and Peace Commission in 1995, several dead bodies were thrown into a nearby open mass grave dug on the soldiers orders; several youths were then executed after having dug the grave, and thrown into it; other bodies were allegedly carried away by a truck and were disappeared.. According to oral testimony gathered by historian Roger Gaillard (1981b, 1983), these included summary executions, rapes, setting houses on fire after gathering their inhabitants inside them, lynchings, and torching civilians alive; one local public figure was buried alive. 1964 (August): Event known as the massacre des Vpres jrmiennes. In the locality of Jrmie (in the Southwest of the country), army soldiers led by Lt. Abel Jerome, Lt. Sony Borge, Col. Regala and by macoutesSanette Balmir and St. Ange Bomtemps killed 27 individuals (men, women and children); almost all of them belonged to educated mulatto families. The Vieux family lost four of its members. Featured peformers: Dave Knowles (alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet, vocals), Chris Gavin (bass guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar), Paul French (organ, electric . Frre, Grard-Alphonse, Liste partielle des victimes de la dictature duvaliriste, 1957-1986, not dated. The Tonton Macoutes cut out the hearts, eyes and lungs of opponents with machetes, while Papa Doc, who stole almost a billion pounds in foreign aid, insisted that every television and radio programme had to be entirely in praise of his rule. Batistas brutal anti communist apparatus in pre-communist Cuba, the Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities, or BRAC was run by Mariano Faget, a man previously responsible for the discovery and repression of communists, fascists and even Nazi elements in Cuba. _ The websites mentioned above list most of the victims. From the very well known and notorious, to others that may be new to the reader, here are ten of the most vicious, terrifying secret police forces in (mostly) modern history. The background of the event, the persons responsible for it and the perpetrators seem to remain subject to discussion. 1919 (November): At least two US planes bombed and shot at the civilian population of two villages of Thomazeau, in the southeastern region of the central plateau, and allegedly killed half of their inhabitants. About fifty Ougans and Mambos (priests and priestesses of the Voodoo religion) were killed for their links or alleged links with the Duvalier regime. Available at: http://www.fordi9.com/Pages/Victlist/ListA.htm. EPICA, Voices for Haiti Report, Beyond the Mountains, More Mountains. Gaillard, Roger, Les Blancs dbarquent, III. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}183058N 721706W / 18.516N 72.285W / 18.516; -72.285 06:29 EST 14 Jan 2010. [17] The Tonton Macoute was heavily influenced by Vodou tradition with denim uniforms resembling clothing like Azaka Medeh, the patron of farmers, and the use of the machete in symbolic reference to Ogun, a great general in Vodou tradition. Cuello, Jos Isreal, Documentos del conflicto domnico-haitiano de 1937. Furthermore, Santebal was a major instrument of the Cambodian genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge. 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. In author Shannon Mayers Forty-Proof series, the 4th installment (titled Midlife Ghost Hunter) uses a voodoo zombie army called the Tonton Macoutes as the main villains army. 1908 (March 14): At least 27 political opponents or alleged opponents, most of them from the intellectual and social elites, were arrested and executed in the evening of March 14; some were also mutilated. Seven of its occupants, aged 20 to 30 years, were shot and killed while fleeing the house. The court of assize immediately sentenced Desyr to death. Members: Paul French (keyboards, vocals), [] [6] In 1970 the militia was renamed the Volontaires de la Scurit Nationale ( VSN, Volunteers of the National Security). Renda, Mary, Taking Haiti, Military Occupation and the Culture of US Imperialism, 1915-1940, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2001. [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. Aristide returned to power in 1994 with a bigger U.S. force - only to flee again after threats that he would be hacked to death and eaten. Cambronne did this through his company "Hemocaribian" and shipped five tons of plasma per month to US Labs. 1986 (February 7): Dchouquageof the Duvalier regime. In 1970, the militia was officially renamed the Milice de Volontaires de la Scurit Nationale (Militia of National Security Volunteers or MVSN, probably taking name from the homonymous Italian Fascist paramilitary organization). _ Beyond opponents of the regime, the targeted groups cannot be defined in traditional political terms, which made the Duvalierist violence fundamentally new (Trouillot, 1990: 166-170). Tonton Macoutes, a militia force put together in 1959 by President Franois Duvalier, translated, means Uncle Gunnysack, referring to a bogeyman that captures children in a gunnysack and eats them for breakfast. With one out of every 43 Romanians on the Securitates payroll, it was nearly impossible for those opposed to the regime to organize in any meaningful numbers. He walked the streets at night, looking for children who stayed out too late. A History of Political Violence against the Poor The Blood-Soaked Record of the Duvaliers", "Duvalier, 64, Dies in Haiti; Son, 19, Is New President", "Ogou- Vodou, Voodoo Spirit, Lwa of the Nago Nation", "5. Tonton Macoute day was 29 July 1985, and amongst festivities the group was bestowed new uniforms and was honored by all of Baby Doc's cabinet. Gaillard (1983: 261), adding innocent victims and Cacos killed in combat throughout the occupation, reached the number of 15,000. [6] Haitians named this force after the Haitian mythological bogeyman, Tonton Macoute ("Uncle Gunnysack"), who kidnaps and punishes unruly children by snaring them in a gunny sack (macoute) before carrying them off to be consumed for breakfast.[7][8]. tonton macoute massacre. However, since no material evidence had been brought to the commission, no charges were brought against Lavoie. The meaning of MACOUTE is obsolete variant of macuta. _ *** (Avril, 150-174 ; Pierre-Charles, 2000: 87-90). His house was set on fire, with a seven-month-old baby inside. Since then, despite the presence of an ineffective UN peacekeeping force, gangs have continued to wreak havoc and murder throughout a country where new graves are guarded to prevent bodies being stolen for voodoo rituals. Duvalier created the militia, because he felt threatened by the Haitian army. Under the rule of interim President Ertha Pascale Trouillot, in the rural area of Saint-Marc (in the Artibonite discrict, North of the capital), three dozen army soldiers and armed local civilians killed 11 peasants, in the villages of Piatre, Djean, Dupervil, Ka Jan and Ti Plas, in the context of a land conflict between local peasants and big landowners. The SAVAK was the Shah of Irans secret police force from 1957 until the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Eight of the eleven victims were unarmed. The special operations unit, also known as the Volunteers for National Security, were a group of Duvalier loyalists who acted outside the law to crack down on any opposition. Often, many corpses were displayed in public as a warning to Haitians and as a display of Duvaliers power. 4.00. Roadblocks were set up. Historians use the term genocide in reference to this event.