Mireille Durocher Bertin - Haiti Observer Blog

Officials who were investigating the assassination of Mireille Durocher Bertin said, after two weeks of the murder, that they were in complete darkness. Mireille Durocher Bertin was a right-wing critic of the then President of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The murder caused strains with Washington and it was accused that the Interior Ministers of the Aristide administration were involved in the assassination and that the orders of the murder were issued by Aristide himself.

On the day of assassination, Mireille Durocher Bertin was traveling in a white Subaru. The car was blocked in broad daylight and the assassins can riding in red Mitsubishi and shot the front tire (on the side of the driver) of the victim's car and then with automatic weapons, shot from both sides of the Subaru. This killed Mrs. Bertin who was a popular lawyer and a 35-year-old mother of 4.

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Great writers write what they know, and to know one must have experienced. It is perhaps the wealth of experience to be had growing up with the flavorful culture of Haiti, combined with the inherent 'growing up female' narrative to mold them why women Haitian writers number so many and are so excitingly prolific in their works. This undeniably compelling group of ladies has received an honor even greater than the awards recently issued to 8 among their field with this further acknowledgement of the worth of their words.

The setting was the Municipal Palace of Delmas, the day, Monday April 1, 2013, our protagonists, 8 wonderful writers whose dedication to their various forms of writing, as poets, short-story and novel writers, art critics and educators, was honored by the Ministry of Culture in a ceremony alive with music from the Congolese 'Drums of Brazza'. Edith Lataillade, Marilisse Neptune Rouzier, Marianne Lehmann, Marie-Alice Théard, Evelyne Trouillot, Marie-Marthe Balin Paul, Charlotte Barlatier Cadet and Paula Clermont Péan were given plaques of merit honoring their literary contributions that have benefited the literature of Haiti by enriching it and giving voice to the issues faced by women in Haitian society.

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As victime of the time, Mireille Durocher Bertin.

Aside from the death of Minister of Justice Guy Malary, former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's first term in office during the 1990s was shadowed in the assassination of another heroic Haitian personality advocating for change and better governance. This adds to the long list of the Aristide and his supporters' involvement in various extrajudicial killings.

Mireille Durocher Bertin was a popular Haitian lawyer in the 1990s for her human rights advocacies and her active protest against the reinstatement of Aristide as Haiti's President, as pushed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton and the U.S. government. She was a well-known outspoken critic of the former president and his government, being a member of the right wing of the then divided Haitian society.

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