The Haiti Democracy Project presented former police chief Jean-Robert Faveur on Friday, June 27 at the Brookings Institution’s Saul Room in his first public appearance since fleeing Haiti. He was accompanied by Judge Claudy Gassant.
The session was attended by a large number of representatives of the State Department, the OAS, the French and Haitian embassies in Washington, and several think tanks and organizations concerned with human rights, economic development and democracy in Haiti. These included the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Washington Office on Latin America, the University of Miami North-South Center, Amnesty International, Inter-American Dialogue, TransAfrica Forum, Creative Associates, Haiti Reborn of the Quixote Center, the World Bank, the Inter-American Bank, the Trinity College Haiti Program, the Haitian-American Skills Share Foundation (HASHAF), and Lijech (Ligue Haitienne Jeunes Cadres d? Outre-mer). Several news agencies, newspapers and other media were also present and reported, including the Associated Press, the Miami Herald, Voice of America, Echo d’ Haiti, The Times of London, Haiti Observateur, Radio Signal FM, and Radio Tropicale Internationale.
Jan Stromsem, former head of the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) of the U.S. Justice Department, and former head of the ICITAP program in Haiti, introduced Mr. Faveur who spoke in French. Judge Gassant was also invited by the Haiti Democracy Project to be a panelist. Ms. Hassiba Hassain served as a translator for the Haitian panelists.
The session went from 12:45 to 2:30 p.m.. Chief Faveur presented evidence of the politicization of the police and gave a well-articulated description of the circumstances surrounding his resignation. Faveur handled very professionally the many questions that came from the audience.
Following the session, Faveur met privately for about one hour and half with representatives of the State Department, the OAS, and the main media organizations that were in attendance.