Toussaint Louverture: The Trial of the Slave Trafficking

By Jean Sénat Fleury

Career judge, teacher, and writer Jean Sénat Fleury lived in Haiti, especially in Saint-Marc. His broad knowledge of Haitian law and his great skill in the art of teaching helped him play a role of trainer at the National Police Academy in 1995 and director of studies at the School of Magistrate in Pétion-Ville in 2004. Author of the important book The Trial of Stamps: The Audubon Affair and the book Jean-Jacques Dessalines: Words Beyond the Tomb, Mr. Fleury immigrated to the United States, specifically to Boston, in 2007, where he received two masters at Suffolk University in public administration and political science. In 2014, Fleury founded Caribbean Arts Gallery in Boston and later became director of a charitable organization called Art-For-Change, whose purpose is to coach artists.

Toussaint Louverture: The Trial of the Slave Trafficking is an imaginary narrative supported by moving historical facts and written in a clear and concise romantic style. In this book, the author invents a fictitious trial against Napoléon Bonaparte and several other actors involved in the slave trafficking while focusing on the wrongs of slavery of the time from the fifteenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth century. In the book, the author seeks to make the reader aware of the practice of modern slavery and domesticity. Through the play of fiction, he hides behind the plaintiffs to denounce slavery and the responsibility of leaders around the world to fight this problem.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 23, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984550736

Jean Sénat Fleury

Career judge, teacher, writer, Jean Sénat Fleury was born in Haiti and currently lives in Boston. A former intern at the National School of Magistrates (Paris and Bordeaux), he has held various positions within the Haitian judiciary. He was in turn a trainer at the National Police Academy (1995–1996) and director of studies at the School of Magistrates of Pétion-Ville (2000–2004). Author of the book The Stamp Trial, he wrote several other historical works such as: Jean-Jacques Dessalines: Words from Beyond the Grave, Toussaint Louverture: The Trial of the Slave Trafficking, Adolf Hitler: Trial in Absentia in Nuremberg, The Trial of Osama Bin Laden, Hirohito: Guilty or Innocent: The Trial of the Emperor, and Adolf Hitler and Hirohito: On Trials. Mr. Fleury had emigrated to the United States in 2007. He earned a master’s degree in public administration and a second in political science from Suffolk University. His new book, Japan’s Empire Disaster provides an understanding of the expansionist policy practiced by Japan during the end of the nineteenth and the first period of the twentieth century.

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Copyright © 2018 by Jean Sénat Fleury.

At the cover: The Slave Trafficking painting by Philippe Claude

Library of Congress Control Number:    2018910370

ISBN:                    Hardcover                           978-1-9845-5075-0

                             Softcover                             978-1-9845-5074-3

                             eBook                                    978-1-9845-5073-6

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Rev. date: 08/31/2018

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CONTENTS

FOREWORD

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THE TRIAL

THE FIRST DAY OF HEARING

• The opening of the trial

• The statement of facts by the public accusation

LIST OF THE ACCUSED

• Louis XIV

• Louis XV

• Louis XVI

• Louis XVIII

• Napoléon Bonaparte

• Charles X

• Jean-Baptiste Colbert

• Charles-Maurice of Talleyrand

• Emmanuel Leclerc

• Donatien Rochambeau

• Jean-Baptiste Brunet

THE SECOND DAY OF HEARING: THE WITNESSES

• Jean-Pierre Brissot

• Victor Schœlcher

• Frederick Douglass

• John Brown

THE THIRD DAY OF HEARING: THE WITNESSES

• Harriet Tubman

THE FOURTH DAY OF HEARING: THE WITNESSES

• William Wilberforce

• Maximilian of Robespierre

THE FIFTH DAY OF HEARING: THE WITNESSES

• Abraham Lincoln

• Olaudah Equiano

• Nat Turner

• Rosa Parks

THE HEARING ON MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2016

THE HEARING OF THE COMPLAINANTS

• Marie-Jeanne Lamartiniére

• Cécile Fatiman

• Dutty Boukman

• François Capois

• Alexandre Pétion

• Henri Christophe

• Jean-Jacques Dessalines

THE INTERROGATIONS OF THE ACCUSED

DECISION

PROGRAM

FROM THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC) TO THE PERMANENT PEOPLES’ TRIBUNAL (TPP)

• Open debate on African slave trade

• Open debate on the trafficking of blacks from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century

• Open debate on the practice of slavery in the world

• Open debate on the protection of minors in domestic services

• Open discussion on rape and sexual violence against women and girls

• Open debate on illegal immigration, its causes and consequences

• Open debate on TPI, efficiency and credibility

• Open debate on human rights violations

• Open debate on poverty and debt issues in third-world countries

• Open debate on unemployment and labor law

• The verdict of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal

SOME HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS

• The Black Code

• The decree of May 20, 1802

• The decree of April 27, 1848

• December 18, 1865: the abolition of slavery in the United States

• Slavery: a crime against humanity

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Revisiting history: it is neither the privilege of someone or a negotiable right poorly granted or questioned by the State. It is first of all a necessity. It is also the inescapable current brought by the evolutionary points of view of the successive generations. It is at the same time an indispensable step if one wants to keep alive the memory of the People.

—Jules Roy, The Trial of Marshal Pétain

As for the people I am accusing, I do not know them, I have never seen them, I have no rancor or hatred against them. They are for me only entities, spirits of social malfeasance. And the act I am doing here is only a revolutionary way to hasten the explosion of truth and justice.

I have only one passion, that of light, in the name of humanity that has suffered so much and who has the right to happiness. My fiery protest is only the cry of my soul. So let’s dare translate me into the Assize Court and let the investigation take place! I wait.

—Emile Zola, I accuse!

W ritten at a time when discrimination and racism are the most serious scourge facing modern society today, the book Toussaint Louverture: The Trial of the Slave Trafficking comes at the right moment to awaken the global conscience on the wrongs of slavery and the need to fight this evil that threatens to appear in its ugly form in the sixteenth century. England voted to ban the slave trade in 1807, the United States in 1808, Portugal in 1811, and Holland in 1814. France itself abolished slavery on April 27, 1848, so close to fifty-nine years after adopting the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen of 1789. In Venezuela, it was only on March 24, 1854, that Pres. José Grégoire Monagas decreed the abolition of slavery. In Colombia, slavery was abolished on May 21, 1851, by Pres. José Hilario López after a short civil war that was won by the abolitionist liberals.

In the United States, the abolition of slavery was proclaimed by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. The text signed by Lincoln became the thirteenth amendment of the American Constitution on December 13, 1865. Brazil is the last country in America to abolish slavery. The country voted Lei Ăurea (Golden Law) on May 13, 1888, in the Parliament under the regency of Isabella of Brazil, the daughter of Emperor Peter II.

By placing Toussaint Louverture, who initiated the Haitian Revolution of 1804, as the main hero of this historical novel, the author carries a powerful message in which he affirms that the desire to restore dignity must become a human passion. It is an obligation of the world leaders to refocus on the fundamental priorities of education, housing, work, safety, health, and food; to give hope to the poor in poor countries; and at the same time to eradicate misery on our planet.

—Jean Sénat Fleury

FOREWORD

I have just finished the revision of Jean Sénat Fleury’s book, and to be honest, I cannot wait to attack the next one. Having also participated in the revision of his previous work, Jean-Jacques Dessalines: Words beyond the Grave , I imagined from the outset that I would be delighted again by his writing and the opportunity to increase my knowledge of the history of Haiti, a reality too often obscured by the media and by official historians. And I want to tell you, dear readers, that I am not disappointed.

It is hard for me to imagine the vast amount of research that was needed to tackle this major project. Mr. Fleury has successfully met this challenge to popularize a very elaborate portrait of the reality of the slave trade and slavery, a traffic that persists to this day all in a narrative form in which the past literally joins the present.

There are many elements of this story that both charm me and discourage me. I am charmed by the story, by its style, and by the many truths that came to me while reading. I am discouraged to discover the abominable reality behind some great people and some great institutions. I am discouraged to see how full of half-truths and injustices history is and how it is manipulated to leave out certain facets that must inevitably be known and revealed. What I admire most in this book is the author’s capacity to make us realize this, to lead us to reflect, and to inspire us deeply to move and act. In short, to feel we must do something. It cannot continue like this.

Through the stress and banality of everyday life, between the rat races of the years and the reality that always comes to us, sooner or later, there are those stories that give us the desire to change things. They make us realize, even if we strive not to see it, that atrocities like slavery still exist on our planet. It is so that it disappears and then never again happens. A book like this must be published and must be read by as many people as possible to make us reflect, to make us think, and to make us change things. Becoming aware is already taking a step, and it is often this first step that is the most important.

Congratulations to the author, Mr. Jean Sénat Fleury, for his work and his contribution to the world we live in. Among all the projects developed to make this world a better place for all, it occupies a place of primary importance for me. And to all readers, open your eyes and especially your hearts and minds, and good reading to you!

—Guy Jacques

PREFACE

B oston, April 25, 2018: Less than two months after the writing of the book Jean-Jacques Dessalines: Words beyond the Grave , I take my pen to write another historical novel still based on the history of Santo Domingo time of the French colony but in a much larger dimension. Toussaint Louverture: The Trial of the Slave Trafficking is the title of the book.

At the price of intense research work, I retrace the history of the slave trade to fix responsibilities. Through a fictitious trial, I translate before the International Criminal Court the following accused: Louis XIV, Louis XV, Louis XVI, Louis XVIII, Napoléon Bonaparte, Charles X, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, Emmanuel Leclerc, Donatien Rochambeau, and Jean-Baptiste Brunet. In response to accusations of crimes against humanity made by the plaintiffs, I quote Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Henri Christophe, Alexandre Pétion, André Rigaud, Dutty Boukman, Cécile Fatiman, Charles Belair, Georges Biassou, Jean-François Papillon, Petit-Noël Prieur, François Mackandal, Marie-Jeanne Lamartiniére, Catherine Flon, and Marie Sainte Dédée Bazile. They are all the heroes of the Haitian War of Independence.

The historic approach seems very ambitious and daring because through the debates in this fictitious trial, it is the whole history of the slave trade that is detailed to instruct the reader on the wrongs of slavery from the fifteenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth century and to raise awareness on the practice of modern slavery in the world. Through the play of fiction, I hide behind the plaintiffs to denounce slavery and the responsibility of world leaders to fight this scourge.

According to the studies of Ralph Austin reported by the Senegalese anthropologist and economist Tidiane N’Diaye, Only for the Sahara, more than 9 million African captives have been transported in inhumane conditions of which 2 million perished or remained on the edge of the desert. As for the eastern slave trade, which took place in the regions near the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, the number of victims is estimated at more than 8 million. We arrive at an assessment close to 17 million deaths or deportees, most of whom were survivors castrated by the Arabs.

As Tidiane N’Diaye says in his book, The Veiled Genocide (2008), "To get an idea of the evil, we must know that observers had found that to hunt down and forcibly remove five hundred thousand individuals, it was necessary to perish nearly two million others (resistant or fugitives). Colonial-style slavery appeared in the middle of the fifteenth century, while the Portuguese, under the direction of Henry the Navigator, captured or bought African captives to deport them to the colonies of Madeira and Cape Verde. The Atlantic Treaty began in 1441 with the deportation of African captives to the Iberian Peninsula, which lasted several decades. This traffic was authorized by Pope Nicholas V.

In the sixteenth century, companies of Spanish warriors trafficked the resold Indians in Cuba or Hispaniola. In the Spanish Crown, Catholic Queen Isabel repressed slavery but allowed it when it came to the Taíno Indian anthropophagist. Slavery was accepted as part of a just war. However, it is to the discovery of America that the origin of the black slave trade originated. The Spaniards, led by Christopher Columbus, having exhausted the mines and destroyed the immense population that contained the occupied lands, decided to call foreign hands to cultivate a soil they looted for two centuries for its mineral resources. After the decimation of the indigenous populations, to replace this lost workforce, the conquistadors brought African captives from the Arab slave trade. The slave trade that became widespread following the Valladolid controversy of 1550 and 1551 was soon to be practiced by several European countries. The European nations, especially Portugal, Spain, Denmark, France, Holland, Belgium, and England, embarked on the triangular trade among the ports of Europe, the Gulf of Guinea, and the Americas (Brazil, the West Indies) more than fourteen million black Africans. The first French ship, Espérance, left La Rochelle in 1594 to go to Gabon and then continue to Brazil.

The primary motivation of slavers was economic as blacks were considered merchandise. From the sixteenth century to 1850, 5.5 million Africans were deported to Brazil. English and Dutch began trading in the second half of the 1630s. The year 1674 marked the great turning point for slavery. Until then, for centuries, Africans were essentially taken across the Sahara to the countries of the Arab world, where they became slaves. The triangular trade took off from 1674, the year when the French and the English threw themselves on the market at the same time and disputed with the Dutch the monopoly of the transport of the slaves of the African coast toward the Americas, where two large islands—Jamaica and Santo Domingo—and three small ones—Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Barbados—became the main world slave import area.

The English Catholic King James II created the Royal Company of Africa in 1674, while Louis XIV founded the company of the Senegal in the same year. Louis XIV dissolves the East India Company of Colbert, one of the first French colonial companies, to which he reproached his inability to import slaves to make his business profitable and thus contributed to the financing of the Palace of Versailles. The triangular trade developed in the late 1680s with the strengthening of the Irish community of Nantes and Jacobite religious refugees who created powerful trading companies, such as the Company d’Angola.

The slave trade continued on for about four centuries. During the Atlantic slave trade, millions and millions of blacks were taken from Africa to go to America. The slave trade was blatantly responsible, and it led to devastating chain effects: political chaos, wars, social disorganization, famines, and epidemics. To repeat the words of Mr. Diop, The Atlantic Treaty then appears as the triggering factor of a civilization collapse comparable to that caused by the Amerindian people’s conquest of the Americas.

Eventually, one after the other, the great colonialist powers abolished slavery. The abolition of the slave trade in the French colonies on April 27, 1848, at the initiative of Victor Schœlcher, was a considerable victory for the abolitionists. However, slavery appears in modern times in a different way. In the Soviet Union and China, there is brutal deportation to forced labor camps (gulag and laogai) where the individual is subjected to inhumane labor and in conditions that crush him or cause death. Sometimes his family suffers the same fate.

During the Second World War, German and Japanese invaders organized mass slavery in countries conquered even partly within their territories with political prisoners from their own population. Nazi Germany has exploited about twelve million people, mostly from Eastern Europe, while Japan has exploited more than eighteen million people in the Far East. This slave system sometimes pushed to the point of extermination has been exercised in labor camps, concentration camps, and also specialized extermination camps.

Several former colonial countries, including Arab countries, maintained slavery until the middle of the twentieth century: Saudi Arabia and Oman, as well as among the Moors of some French colonies, in Mauritania and French Sudan, despite its official suppression. Mauritania did not suppress the slavery of the black Haratin of the Sahara oases until 1980. Slavery to date, however, has not completely disappeared in some countries of the world as in the Arabian Peninsula or the sub-Saharan African continent Indian. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that twenty-five million people currently live in conditions that are tantamount to slavery, hence the term modern slavery. According to the UN, two million people are enslaved every year. Slavery is currently practiced in Sudan. Northern Muslims established Sharia law and forcibly applied it to black Christians and animists in the South who rebelled. For example, government forces have massacred civilian populations in many villages and continue to abduct many children to convert them to Islam and use them as slaves in Khartoum. In 2000, UNICEF estimated that two hundred thousand children were held in slavery in West and Central Africa. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), some two hundred thousand women and children are victims of slavery.

Criminal organizations control human trafficking around the world. Domestic women are beaten, raped, forced to prison, and deprived of food and contact with others. Migrant workers are particularly vulnerable because of their unstable legal status and domestic jobs, which are often a pretext for attracting women and girls abroad by deceiving them about the real nature of the work. This form of slavery, according to the independent expert at the United Nations on contemporary forms of slavery, Gulnara Shahinian, is taking place all over the world.

These modern slaves constitute manpower voiceless, defenseless, and exploitable to thank you. The misery and hope of a better life push minors, children, men, and women into the hands of ruthless criminals who starve, mistreat, rape, and terrorize them. This exploitation of minors, particularly vulnerable ones, is one of the most repugnant forms of slavery. This form of exploitation drives young women into forced sex. In some countries, such as Mauritania, Niger, Sudan, and various Persian Gulf countries, there remains ancestral slavery where individuals are considered enslaved by birth.

The book Toussaint Louverture: The Trial of the Slave Trafficking seeks to give a voice to those left behind, to these tens of millions of people living in despair and servitude. The International Labor Organization estimates that 215 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 work, of whom 53 million under the age of 15 are doing particularly dangerous work. More than 8 million are slaves, either in debt bondage, forced labor, recruited into armed conflict, or prostitution. There are 30 million slaves in the world today. Modern slavery is present everywhere, but most political or religious leaders tolerate it or ignore it. Trafficking in human beings, debt bondage, and forced domestic labor are just some examples of so-called modern slavery.

At a time when a great debate is trying to invade the collective conscience on the scourge of slavery in the world, the book Toussaint Louverture: The Trial of the Slave Trafficking is an information and training book, a reference book that must be read and used as an educational tool on slavery. Written in a new style, this book offers us a fairly complete documentation on the slave trade practiced throughout the fifteenth to the early nineteenth century. This fictitious trial of slavery and the slave trade before the International Court of Justice is alerting the world’s conscience to the problem of modern slavery in the world. What matters in this imaginary story is the memory of the crimes that were committed on blacks during the crossing of the Atlantic until their arrival in America and then the crimes committed in the colonies on the plantations of sugarcane, coffee, cotton, tobacco, rice, and indigo. In this invented trial, it is not the accused who are the most important. They are only ten, so few compared with the millions of people throughout France, England, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, Denmark, Holland, and the United States who participated in the trade or who have benefited from slavery. On the other hand, the depositions of witnesses and complainants placed in a real context constitute a complete document to understand the slave trade and provide the essential tool to fight against modern slavery.

—Jean Sénat Fleury

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

M y sincere thanks, as well as my gratitude, goes to my wife, Joanna Gleason, who supported me so much in the research; to the corrector, Guy Jacques, who prefaced the book; to Philippe Claude, who accepted that I use his painting The Slave Trafficking to illustrate the cover of the book; to James Boykin for having photographed the painting of Philippe Claude; to Claire Patricia McCarthy, who was kind enough to read the manuscript and make some corrections; to Brian Concannon, Islande Dominique, and Gary Menuau; to the team of Art-For-Change: Nicole Albert, Jennifer Fleury, Medgine Fleury, Jean Junior Fleury, Marie Maud Borgella, Jacqueline L. McRath, Dorothy Théodore, Edna Chéry, Laurie Casimir, Marie Carmelle Jean-Baptiste, Jackson Day, Jonas Exumé, Jack Arnaud Démézier, Rénel Richardson, Jean Ricardo, Joseph Domond, Jean-Patrick, Jean-René, Gino, Eddy Tintin, and Jean-Philippe Claude; and finally, to the staff of Xlibris on whom rests the task of publishing and distributing the book. To all those who have contributed to the success of this book, I renew my sincere thanks.

THE TRIAL

THE FIRST DAY OF HEARING

T his Monday, August 1, 2016, a huge crowd invades the premises of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The crowd, composed of journalists, politicians, representatives of human rights organizations, several former African and Caribbean heads of state, activists, and historians from around the world, hurried to follow the famous "the process of the slave trade. Having ten defendants, including several great personalities in history, gave the case a dimension that no other criminal trial has ever had in world history. Inside, there was the effervescence of the big days. There were police everywhere in the hallway, in uniform or in civilian clothes (with earpieces and handguns clearly visible in the armpit or on the belt), some wearing armored suitcases intended to serve as a shield in the event of an attack. Snipers were placed on the roof of the Movenpick Hotel in front of the court, and huge blocks of stone were placed in front of the white building that houses the tribunal to block the road to all vehicles that wanted to cross. In fact, traffic was prohibited in the surrounding streets to prevent cars from turning on the street Oude Waalsdorperweg 10, 2597 AK Den Haag, Netherlands, the address of the court. The train station nearly named Voorburg was momentarily closed to the public. Faced with the importance of the event, silent cameras were exceptionally allowed to enter the courtyard to film the proceedings.

At the dock were Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte, who led the French Empire from 1804 to 1814 after serving as first consul from November 1799 to May 1804; King Louis XIV, who led France as a monarch for seventy-two years; he had the record of the longest reign in the political history of this country. This king promulgated in March 1685 the first version of the Black Code; King Louis XV, who succeeded his father; he spent fifty-eight years on the throne. This monarch promulgated the second version of the Black Code in March 1724; Louis XVI, who was the last king of the absolute French monarchy and was executed in application of his judgment through killing by beheading pronounced by the deputies of the National Convention, January 21, 1793; Louis XVIII, who was the fourth son of Dauphin Louis and younger brother of Louis XVI; King Charles X, who signed on April 17, 1825, a decree granting Haitian independence against the payment of compensation of 150 million gold francs payable in five years and sent a fleet of fourteen warships in Port-au-Prince Bay to demand ransom; the former minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who was the developer of the Black Code and the forger of the doctrine Colbertism, endowed with almost unlimited power as minister of state of the Sun King; Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, former Prince of Benevento, former diplomat during the reign of Napoléon; Gen. Charles Victoire Emmanuel Leclerc, the brother-in-law of Bonaparte, who commanded the expedition to Santo Domingo in 1801; Gen. Donatien Rochambeau, who replaced Leclerc after his death from yellow fever as commander in chief of the French troops at Saint Domingue; and Gen. Jean-Baptiste Brunet, the author of the arrest of Toussaint Louverture, June 7, 1802, on the Georges housing in the Artibonite.

Opposite the accused, on the bench of the civil party, were the generals Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Henry Christophe, Alexandre Pétion, André Rigaud, François Capois, Charles Belair, and several other officers of the Haitian army. While on a second bench, we could see the presence of Dutty Boukman, Cécile Fatiman, Jean-François Papillon, Georges Biassou, François Mackandal, Marie-Jeanne Lamartiniére, Petit-Noël Prieur, Catherine Flon, and Marie Sainte Dédée Bazile, civil party at the trial.

The case in question was of particular interest because it was the first time that the crimes of the slave trade and slavery were tried before the International Criminal Court.

At exactly ten o’clock in the morning, the court entered. At the clerk’s orders, the audience stood. The president of the tribunal, the Malian judge, Mr. Eboe Leity, looking grave, draped in a black dress, declared the hearing open.

Mrs. Malia Bensouda officiated as attorney general. Born on January 31, 1961, in Dakar, Mrs. Bensouda is a Senegalese lawyer who served for twelve years as deputy prosecutor at the ICC. She is assisted by Mr. Robert Stewart, an Australian serving as the deputy prosecutor.

The defense is provided by four lawyers from Paris, presided over by Mr. Georges Savès, while Toussaint Louverture undertook to speak on behalf of the plaintiffs.

The president conducted the interrogation on the identity of the defendants, whom he questioned individually on their surname, first name, profession, and place of birth. They declared,

Napoléon Bonaparte (1769–1821), military, born in Ajaccio, France.

Louis XIV (1638–1715), politician, born at Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France.

Louis XV (1710–1774), politician, born at Palace of Versailles, France.

Louis XVI (1754–1793), politician, born in Versailles, France.

Louis XVIII (1755–1824), politician, born in Versailles, France.

Charles X (1757–1836), politician, born in Versailles, France.

Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619–1683), politician, born in Reims, France.

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand (1754–1838), politician, born in Paris, France.

Charles Emmanuel Victoire Leclerc (1772–1802), military, born in Pontoise, France.

Donatien Rochambeau (1755–1813), military, born in Paris, France.

Jean-Baptiste Brunet (1763–1824), military, born in Reims, France.

Once the presentation of the accused had been completed, the court ordered that the order for reference be read. And speaking to the accused, the president added, Accused, be attentive to what you will hear. Then he turned to the clerk and said, Mrs. Registrar, please read the order for reference to the International Criminal Court.

Clerk Irhanna Arbia, a Congolese national, read the removal order in a tense silence. Serious faces, very attentive, listened to the facts mentioned in the act written by the former attorney general of the ICC, the Colombian jurist Guilmar Ocampo. Born on June 4, 1952, in Bogota, Mr. Ocampo was ICC prosecutor from 2003 to 2012. The order of reference, dated May 18, 2016, indicated that the accused were perpetrators and accomplices of torture, murder, hostage taking, genocide, and war crime and were responsible for these charges before the International Criminal Court.

After the reading of the ordinance, Gen. Toussaint Louverture rose and asked for the floor. Honorable President, on behalf of my brothers-in-arms sitting in the box, and also on behalf of the Haitian people, the Caribbean people, the black American people, and the African people, on behalf of all men of all races, their color, their education, and their religion, victims of racism and discrimination, I am a civil party at the trial.

In turn, Mr. Savès stood and said, "Honorable President, I ask for my constitution for the accused: Louis XIV, Louis XV, Louis XVI, Louis XVIII, Napoléon Bonaparte, Charles X, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Charle-Maurice de Talleyrand, Victoire Emmanuel Leclerc, Donatien Rochambeau, and Jean-Baptiste Brunet.

The president turned to the attorney general and said, Attorney General, your opinion on the defense’s application for a constitution?

Mrs. Bensouda said, No objection.

The president said, The civil party has the floor on the same request.

General Louverture spoke. Honorable President, the civil party has no objection to the defendants being represented by their lawyers. The right of defense is a sacred and fundamental right whose origin dates back to King Solomon nearly three thousand years ago. The right to defense is the basis of all justice. It is written in all the texts. I do not see why the civil party would oppose that Napoléon Bonaparte and others be defended through lawyers.

Toussaint resumed his place under the admiring glance of his brothers-in-arms.

Then the president said, "The preliminary formalities completed, the court opens the particular debates. The attorney general has the floor to explain