Pote Mak Sonje (Whoever Bears the Scar Remembers) : The Raboteau Trial explores how a community mobilized against formidable obstacles-a long history of impunity, corruption, lack of infrastructure, extreme poverty, and illiteracy-to bring about the best criminal prosecution ever in Haiti, and one of the most significant human rights trials in the Western hemisphere in the last 20 years. Weaving emotional interviews and extraordinary trial footage with more abstract lyrical images, the documentary shows the significance of the trial for Haiti and for the victims of a massacre who finally confront their attackers.

The victims of the Raboteau Massacre invested $43,000 in a just future for Haiti and now they are challenging you to match their investment. The 97 victims donated 10% of the $430,000 in court-awarded damages that they won last month to their lawyers at the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI).

Alfred Georges, a lMDeader of the Association des Victimes de Raboteau noted, “we give this money so BAI and IJDH can keep fighting for others like they have fought for us.” His colleague Robin Joseph adds “because many poor people in Haiti are victims of injustice, we want Mario and Brian to fight for them too. We challenge people in the United States to invest in justice like we have.”

The Raboteau victims’ generosity is astounding. They live in one of the poorest neighborhoods of a country at the forefront of the global food crisis. They have other important uses for their damage award, but they know that Haiti will never escape its cycle of crises until the country develops an effective justice system that protects the rights of all Haitians. And they know that the BAI and the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) have a proven system for making the Haitian justice system work for poor people like them. So they invested an average of $443 each- what is for many of them a year’s living expenses- to help the BAI fight for justice for other victims of political persecution, for the right of Haiti’s children to attend school and for freedom for political prisoners.

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Haiti
Roboteau Massacre