A former Haitian general who briefly led the military under U.S. occupation is arrested in Orlando on a Haitian warrant linking him to a massacre.

  BY ALFONSO CHARDY

  Jean-Claude Duperval, a former major general who briefly led the Haitian military under U.S. occupation a decade ago, was arrested in Orlando early
  Wednesday in connection with a warrant from Haiti linking him to one of the worst massacres in Haitian history.

  In 1994, soldiers and paramilitary thugs targeted anti-military dissidents in the poor beachfront neighborhood of Raboteau north of Port-au-Prince shooting
  or beating to death at least 26 people.

  Duperval, 56, is the highest ranking former Haitian military officer detained in the United States as a suspected foreign human rights violator. He was given
  command of the Haitian military in October 1994 by former Gen. Raoul Cedras after the United States intervened to restore President Jean-Bertrand
  Aristide to power.

  Duperval, the fifth former Haitian officer detained in the United States in connection with the massacre, is awaiting deportation back to Haiti where he has
  been convicted in absentia of murder.

  If deported, he is likely to be jailed on arrival.

  Duperval, who has been living in the United States for about nine years, had been targeted by the federal human rights violators unit and is one of more
  than 60 foreign torture suspects, many from Haiti, who have been arrested in the United States since the immigration service began tracking foreign
  human rights violators in 2000.

  Barbara Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, confirmed the arrest. Duperval was in detention at an Orange County facility
  awaiting deportation proceedings.

  ''This country will not serve as a safe haven to human rights violators,'' said Steven J. Trent, ICE's Tampa Special Agent in Charge.

  Federal immigration officials were given the green light to nab Duperval after the Board of Immigration Appeals ruled earlier this month that he could be
  deported. The ruling overturned an immigration judge's decision several years ago allowing him to stay.

  ''Duperval is among the more notorious of the Haitian persecutors,'' said Bill West, a former senior immigration service official in Miami who helped launch
  the program to find torture suspects under the former Immigration and Naturalization Service. ``This arrest . . . demonstrates that [immigration], at least
  in Florida, is serious and aggressive in pursuing the human rights persecutor initiative.''

  Brian Concannon Jr., a Haiti-based attorney who investigated the Raboteau killings, said Duperval was tried and convicted in absentia and found guilty of
  murder in connection with the massacre.

  Concannon said investigators never found evidence that Duperval killed anyone or ordered anyone to be killed. He was found culpable as a member of the
  Haitian military high command who knew or should have known about the atrocities and took no action to stop them or punish those involved.

  Over two days in April 1994, Haitian soldiers and paramilitary allies rampaged through Raboteau, a stronghold of Aristide, who was ousted by the military
  in 1991 and restored to office in 1994.

  When the massacre ended, at least 26 unarmed men, women and children had been killed. The massacre was one of the catalysts for the U.S. military
  intervention.

  ''I hope for an army of the people,'' Duperval said 10 years ago at the command-transfer ceremony in Port-au-Prince. ``A united army that respects law,
  discipline and the rights of the individual.''

  Duperval entered the United States in October 1995 as a visitor and settled in Florida along with scores of other Haitian ex-military and paramilitary
  leaders.

  Newsweek found him in the Orlando area and publicized his case in April 2002.

  While in Orlando, Duperval was hired in 1997 by Walt Disney World Resort to operate water ferries and worked there for about three years.

  Disney officials declined to say if Duperval resigned or was fired. They said they were unaware of his background.

  In 2002, Duperval told Newsweek: I want to keep my privacy and don't want to give any declaration. All this is past for me. I have a daughter to educate
  and am no longer in public life.''