tonton macoute massacre tonton macoute massacre

Premier crasement du Cacoisme, Le Natal, Port-au-Prince, 1981. Several families were entirely wiped out. During this period, the social movements fighting for the establishment of democracy, human rights and the rule of law were persecuted by the military, former macoutes and paramilitary groups called attachs. The military killed political activists and journalists and organized their disappearance. According to Pierre-Charles (2000: 208), more than 1,500 people disappeared between 1986 and 1990, most of them under the rule of General Henri Namphy, between March and October 1987. Many times they put the corpses of their victims on display, often hung in trees for everyone to see and take as warnings against opposition. After a short period of collective hope, political repression resumed. The military ruled until September 19, 1994, when US President Clinton ordered the US marines to intervene and reinstall democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. According to local witnesses before the Truth and Peace Commission in 1995, several dead bodies were thrown into a nearby open mass grave dug on the soldiers orders; several youths were then executed after having dug the grave, and thrown into it; other bodies were allegedly carried away by a truck and were disappeared.. "Uncle Gunnysack." Observers note that the poor were the main target of repression, although many well-known figures from the middle class, such as Aristides Minister of Justice, Guy Malary, and businessman Antoine Izmry, were also murdered by paramilitary groups. The lynching of Vilbrun Sam provided the pretext for the United States to intervene and occupy Haiti until 1934. 4.00. . _ *** (MICIVIH, 1999: 5-6; United Nations, 2000: 15). The most notorious of the camps, Tuol Sleng, is said to have held up to 20,000 prisoners between 1976 and 1978; only seven of those prisoners are known to have survived the camp. 3, Port-au-Prince, CUDHAC, 2003. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}183058N 721706W / 18.516N 72.285W / 18.516; -72.285 Both their allusions to the supernatural and their physical presentations were a tool to instill fear. For a detailed list of the most emblematic individuals responsible for executions and killings committed by macoutesand the military, see Pierre-Charles (2000: 45-49). The Caco rebellion constituted the main armed challenge to the US occupation and had been organized and led by Charlemagne Pralte, who was killed on October 31, 1919 and later became a heroic national figure. The militia was renamed officially in 1971 the Milice de Volontaires de la Scurit Nationale (MVSN). On October 5, the Dominican army closed the border to prevent Haitians from escaping. Danroc, Gilles and Roussire, Daniel, La Rpression au quotidien en Hati (1991-1994), Commission Justice et Paix du diocse des Gonaives (Justice and Peace Commission of the Gonaives diocese), Karthala, , 1995. The background of the event, the persons responsible for it and the perpetrators seem to remain subject to discussion. ", The hunt was indeed on for Duvalier's adversaries, army and civilian alike. In 1991, the Minister of Justice of President Aristides first government accused Frank Romain, who was Mayor of Port-au-Prince at the time, of having organized the killing and hence, requested his extradition from the Dominican Republic, where he was living in exile, but to no avail. They allegedly wanted revenge for the murder of a sergeant from the local barracks earlier that day. Explore Tonton Macoute's discography including top tracks, albums, and reviews. [17], The Tontons Macoute were a ubiquitous presence at the polls in the 1961 presidential referendum, in which Duvalier's official vote count was an "outrageous" and fraudulent 1,320,748 to 0, electing him to another term. Les Tonton Macoute se dplacent dans l'ombre, comme des fantmes. The Tonton Macountes were a staple in the country putting Papa Doc's opponents in their place. [6] Tonton Macoute | Facts, Information, and Mythology Tonton Macoute "Uncle Gunnysack." A bogeyman of Haitian Creole folklore. 1908 (March 14): At least 27 political opponents or alleged opponents, most of them from the intellectual and social elites, were arrested and executed in the evening of March 14; some were also mutilated. Menu His wife spent 10,000 a month on flowers and always wore expensive furs indoors - with officials facing death if they forgot to turn on the air-conditioning. Soldiers collected several bodies, which were not seen again. A Decade of Impunity in Haiti, Human Rights Watch, vol. Historians use the term genocide in reference to this event. Other individuals were killed in the street or while driving their car. The total number of victims of this 3-year regime varies from 10,000 to 30,000 people according to different sources. "But we -- the thirty listed in the complaint -- are not the only ones," Montas stresses. Sign-up for our free weekly e-mail newsletter. The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ELIZABETH KNOWLES For tourists on cruise ships plying the Caribbean, Haiti appears a beguiling, mysterious place. Several families were entirely exterminated. 1915-1920: Several thousand civilians were killed by the US occupying forces, along with the Haitian gendarmerie commanded by US officers, who were fighting an insurrection of armed peasants, the Cacos, mainly in the rural areas of the center and Northeast of the country. The Tonton Macoute ( Haitian Creole: Tonton Makout) [1] [2] [3] or simply the Macoute [4] [5] was a special operations unit within the Haitian paramilitary force created in 1959 by dictator Franois "Papa Doc" Duvalier. Beyond the Gulags, the NKVD was instrumental in Stalins genocide in the Ukraine where millions perished due to hunger, and the Great Purge of the communist party and the Red Army between 1934 and 1940. The bloodbath began at the home of Montas's neighbor, Lieutenant Franois Benoit, an elite marksman who had been dismissed from the army. Roadblocks were set up. Updated November 6, 2012 6:40 AM. These figures were contested by interviewed witnesses. The diversity of the victims was also a measure of the "Macoutes'" cruelty. Gaillard, Roger, Les Blancs dbarquent, V. Hinche mise en croix, Le Natal, Port-au-Prince, 1982. The victims of Tonton Macoutes could range from a woman in the poorest of neighborhoods who had the temerity to support an opposing politician to a businessman who refused to "donate" money for public works (which were the source of profit for corrupt officials and even the dictator himself). Tonton Macoute was a Haitian paramilitary force created in 1959 by dictator Franois 'Papa Doc' Duvalier. Unions were crushed. A fresh take on sports: the biggest news and most entertaining lists. The Roots of Haitian Vodou". According to US journalist Harry Frank (in Gaillard, 1981: 208), US pilots did not verify what type of gathering (a Caco camp, an open farmers market, or peasants on their way to church) they were attacking. Gaillard, Roger, La Rpublique Exterminatrice, Troisime Partie. Tonton Macoutes byly ozbrojen jednotky, kter zdil haitsk dikttor Franois Duvalier jako svoji soukromou armdu a tajnou policii. 3, pp. His cruelty earned him the nickname Vampire of the Caribbean. The "Tonton Macoutes" often stoned and burned people alive, regularly following such rites by hanging bodies of their victims in the street as a warning to the population at large. 1994 (night of February 2-3): Killing named Massacre de Carrefour Vincent by the Truth and Justice Commission. 1914-1915. Literature. [1] According to one witness, the police and army provided protection for the attackers, encircling the church. In 1959, his paramilitary force was called the Cagoulards ("Hooded Men"). Pierre-Charles, Grard, Hati Jamais Plus! , updated Saez, Jos Luiz, Los Jesuitas en la Repblica Dominicana, Santo Domingo: Museo Nacional de Historia y Geografa: Archivos Histricos de las Antillas, 1988. spring garden apartments shooting; keston park famous residents. Fuller, Anne, La tuerie de la Scierie, Le Nouvelliste, Port-au-Prince, April 2005. [citation needed] After Duvalier's death, he was ordered into exile by Duvalier's widow Simone, and son, Baby Doc Duvalier. Haitians named this force after the Haitian Creole . *** (Chassagne, 1999: 235-262; Pierre-Charles, 2000: 94-102). The killings were part of Operacion Perijil (perijil, parsley in Spanish, a word that Haitians were allegedly unable to pronounce without betraying their origin; those who failed to do so were killed on the spot). Laraque, Paul and Frank, Hati, la lutte et lespoir, Montreal, CIDIHCA, 2003. 82 no. 1991 (October 2): Thirty civilians were killed by army soldiers in a single day in Cit Soleil, a shantytown of Port-au-Prince known for harboring many supporters of President Aristide, in retaliation for an attack against a local police station. "He inherited a repressive machine from his father," she says, "and continued to use it to stay in power. Tonton Macoutes tntn mkoot [ key] [Haitian Creole,=bogeymen], personal police force of dictator Francois Duvalier (Papa Doc) of Haiti. After the revolution in Iran in 1979, SAVAK was nominally disbanded, and a new Iranian secret police force, SAVAMA, as largely feared as its predecessor, took over. In 1970 the militia was renamed the Volontaires de la Scurit Nationale ( VSN, Volunteers of the National Security). Gaillard, Roger, La Rpublique Exterminatrice, Cinquime Partie. Les Cent jours de Rosalvo Bobo ou une mise mort politique, Presses Nationales, Port-au-Prince, 1973. Massillon Coicou, one of the most prominent Haitian poets of the early 20th century, was the first victim of the killings (his death inspired Le Pote assassin by the French poet Apollinaire.) Since then, despite the presence of an ineffective UN peacekeeping force, gangs have continued to wreak havoc and murder throughout a country where new graves are guarded to prevent bodies being stolen for voodoo rituals. 1991 (January 7): In Port-au-Prince, mobs of civilians supporting President-elect Aristide chased and killed macoutes, alleged macoutes and other supporters and alleged supporters of the Duvalier regime, after a failed coup attempt led by chief macoutes and former government minister Roger Lafontant. 1991 (October 2): The army killed at least 7 individuals in Gonaives, Artibonite, including one child and one adolescent, during a demonstration in support of President Aristide. According to Pierre-Charles (2000), there were several hundred victims during this year alone. [9][11] They began to be called the Tonton Macoute when people started to disappear for no apparent reason. The first six were adolescents. Torture of Cacos or alleged Cacos by the Marines was also common practice; this included the hanging of individuals by their genitals, forced absorption of liquids, and the use of ceps, simultaneous pressure by two guns on both side of the tibia bone. 1937 (October): In the neighboring Dominican Republic, dictator Trujillo ordered the slaughter of 17,000 to 20,000 Haitian migrants and Dominicans of Haitian origin by the Dominican army (the conventional number in the Dominican Republic is 17,000, although Saez (1988: 60) puts it at 20,000 ; Turits (2002: 590) calculated a total of 15,000 killed). Described by one commentator as an 'international crime scene' rather than a country, Haiti became infamous around the world during the reign of Francois 'Papa Doc' Duvalier, a former doctor who murdered 100,000 people and formed a private band of killers called the Tonton Macoutes. Avril, Prospre, From Glory to Disgrace, the Haitian Army, 1804-1994, Universal Publishers, 1999. p. 21. Having returned Aristide briefly to power in 1994, the US military acting in concert with Canadian and French military forces, and in close coordination with former Tonton Macoutes and army . In addition, 82 houses had been looted and torched. Dressed eerily similar to monks and adorned with an emblem consisting of a severed dog's head and a broom, the Oprichniki led brutal campaigns of terror against potential rebellions, either real or imagined, that the Tsar wished to quell. [4] One witness said he saw Romain himself at the massacre, alongside his men;[6] a number of witnesses saw city hall employees among the attackers. Papa Doc's son Jean-Claude Duvalier, also known as Baby Doc, took over the presidency after the death of his father in 1971, maintaining Papa Doc's belief system, until he was ousted in a public revolt in 1986. [8], In 1991, after Aristide had been elected President in the Haitian general election, 19901991, his Minister of Justice accused Romain of responsibility, and sought his extradition from the Dominican Republic, where he was living in exile, without success.[1]. Haiti, April 26, 1963: Some will commemorate this date with religious services, conferences, radio forums, film screenings, and testimonials. [21] Massacres led by paramilitary groups spawned from the Macoutes continued during the following decade. [24], The Tonton Macoute remained active even after the presidency of "Papa Doc" Duvalier's son "Baby Doc" ended in 1986,[25] at the height of the Anti-Duvalier protest movement. Le Grand fauve, Le Natal, Port-au-Prince 1995. The democratically elected President Aristide ruled from 1994 to January 1996, and again from 2001 to 2004. While SAVAMA was a new police force in name, many historians argue that SAVAMA was merely an extension of its predecessor, maintaining the same methods as before. Though there have been more than ten brutal secret police forces throughout history, the ten on this list are a cross section that highlight different types of political climates, eras and methods, and though the majority are modern, all ultimately carry out a brutal agenda of terror and violence against its citizens. Indeed, the devastating earthquake now bringing death and heartbreak is the latest in a long line of tragedies to befall a place dubbed the Island of the Damned. A few weeks earlier, several young, light-skinned members of the Communist Party, a political party persecuted by the regime, including Alex Lamaute and Roger Mhu, had taken refuge in this town, assuming that they would blend into a population regarded as generally light-skinned (for having harbored many Polish soldiers after the war of independence). Les Violations de droits de lhomme lpoque des Duvaliers, Editions du Cresfed, Port-au-Prince, 2000. After 40 years, the Stasi disbanded with the fall of East Germany. Women were forced to dance and celebrate with the soldiers who stayed in the village. Those who spoke out against Duvalier would disappear in the night and were never seen again. La Droute de lintelligence, Le Natal, Port-au-Prince, 1992. Tonton Macoute was a special operations unit within the Haitian paramilitary force created in 1959 by dictator Franois "Papa Doc" Duvalier. phoenix 2021 limited worth; najbolje srpske pesme svih vremena. In exuberance of celebration the Tonton Macoute went out into the streets and shot 27 people for the national party. [18][19], Some of the most important members of the Tontons Macoute were Vodou leaders. Leconte, Frantz Antoine, En Grandissant sous Duvalier: lagonie dun Etat-Nation, : LHarmattan, 1999. The Gestapo in a sense became somewhat of a paramilitary force as well during the war. Those with the misfortune to be born in Haiti - part of the island of Hispaniola, shared with the Dominican Republic - have long endured a living hell. According to the National Palace Chief of Police, Jean Tassy, 2,053 individuals were killed from 1957 to 1967, in the police headquarters alone (Pierre-Charles, 1973: 56). The total number of victims, 22, was disputed. The Tonton Macoutes then tie the ropes around the men's biceps to bind them to the poles and keep them upright. 1999 (May 28): In a shantytown above the Carrefour-Feuilles neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian National Police (PNH) killed 11 people at night, during a routine patrol. Hurbon, Laennec, Comprendre Hati, Karthala, , 1987. _ ** (Danroc and Roussire, 1995: 160-162; ICHR, 1991: 470). Dexter (television series) Season 1 Episode 9 (Father Knows Best) references Tonton Macoute, also referring to them as"The Boogymen". Search instead in Creative? National Coalition for Haitian Refugees, Americas Watch, Haiti. The BRAC was disbanded after Batista fled to Spain in 1959 as communist forces moved into Havana. This massacre occurred a few days after Lieutenant-General Namphy, one of the leaders of the ruling junta at the time, visited the area and publicly supported the Lucas family and their rights to the land they claimed. It's likely the most familiar name on the 1971 debut album by British jazz-rockers Tonton Macoute isn't that of any band member or even engineer Martin Rushent (who went on to produce the Buzzcocks, Stranglers and Dr Feelgood among many others). Garcia, Juan Manuel, La Matanza de los haicianos : Genocidio de Trujillo, 1937, Santo Domingo: Alfa y Omega, 1983. Haitis Illegal Prime Minister Arrests the Legal One, in Haiti-Progrs, June 2004. On April 21, 2005, the Cour de Cassation (the highest court in the country) invalidated this judgment; the court based its ruling on a 1928 law that prohibited trial by jury for multiple crimes, although this very law had already been nullified by the 1987 Constitution. From their methods to their choice of clothes, Vodou always played an important role in their actions. The Haitian Vodou Handbook: Protocols for Riding with the Lwa. According to Pierre-Charles (1973), the urban lumpenproletariatwas the social background of most macoutes. In 1918 and 1919, many Caco prisoners were systematically executed once they had been disarmed, following explicit, written orders (in Gaillard, 1981: 32-39, 49, 214, 307). Furthermore, Santebal was a major instrument of the Cambodian genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge. The most feared paramilitary group during the 1990s was the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Hati (FRAPH) which Toronto Star journalist Linda Diebel described as modern Tonton Macoutes and not as the political party they claimed to be.[1]. Several dozens of people were also taken to the Fort-Dimanche prison in Port-au-Prince and were later disappeared, a method used afterward by the military regimes in Chile (1973-1989), Argentina (1976-1983) and Brazil (1964-1985). ", Montas recalls "the smell of rotting bodies for days, but also the gripping smell of fear. 1986 (April 26): Event known in collective memory as the massacre of Fort-Dimanche. Army soldiers and attachs opened fire on a peaceful demonstration attempting to honor the victims of the Duvalier regime in the Fort-Dimanche prison (the date of April 26th was also in reference to the 1963 killing). The Securitate was also responsible for brutally crushing the dissident movements that attempted to gain footing in Romania starting in the later 1960s under totalitarian ruler Nicolae Ceausescu. Shortly afterwards, peasants from Gervais avenged this by killing the Section Chiefs subordinates. In power from 1957, Papa Doc made voodoo the country's official religion and claimed to be Baron Samedi, the religion's spirit of death. She was seventeen years old. Grenades and bombs exploded in the daytime and gunfire crackled at night, resulting in what Bernard Diederich, co-author (with Al Burt) of Papa Doc and the Tonton Macoutes, recently called "a day of mayhem, genocide! One of the most brutal secret police forces as well, the Securitate was responsible for monitoring and spying on Romanian citizens, as well as their arrests, tortures and executions. sword and fairy 7 how to change language. On April 3, several macoutes arrived in the area, set several houses on fire and raped an unknown number of peasant women. Most of the victims were from the military, social and intellectual elites of the country. _ * (Pierre-Charles, 1973: 38 and 44; Leconte, 1999: 38). The few -- like Montas, who was arrested on Jean Claude Duvalier's orders, on November 28, 1980 -- who have been able to file complaints or testify, represent a small percentage of those who were arrested, jailed, tortured, or killed under the younger's Duvalier regime. The Benot, Edelyn and families were exterminated and their bodies left in full view in front of their houses. Following Stalins death in 1953, the NKVDs atrocities were halted by Nikita Khrushchev, with many living victims absolved of their crimes. But the torment did not end with the Duvaliers. The Tontons Macoutes remained active even after the presidency of Papa Doc Duvalier's son Baby Doc Duvalier ended in 1986. Most of the inhabitants were forced to flee the area and several dead bodies were eaten by dogs and rodents, as family members, fearing for their lives, preferred not to collect the corpses. The killings were part of dchoukajagainst macoutes, who were attempting to interrupt the democratic process at the time. Both their allusions to the supernatural and their physical presentations were used with the intention of instilling fear and respect. _ The websites mentioned above list most of the victims. 1916-1917. _ *** (ICHR, 1988; Wilentz 1990; Pierre-Charles, 2000: 141). "Tonton Macoutes" style death . Several notorious macoutes, such as William Rgala, one of those responsible for the Vpres Jrmiennes, were promoted to political posts. With one out of every 43 Romanians on the Securitates payroll, it was nearly impossible for those opposed to the regime to organize in any meaningful numbers. Coicous body was decapitated, then thrown into a mass grave. Il est sorti et dans le sentier les Tontons Macoute ont tir sur lui d'une voiture. Also, for the first time in Haitis history, women (Trouillot, 1990: 153 and 167), children and even infants were targeted by the regime. [5][7] In 1993 Antoine Izmry was assassinated at a mass commemorating the massacre. Learn all about Tonton Macoute on AllMusic. Americas Watch, Human Rights Developments, Washington, D.C., 1994. Those dead, too, will be remembered on this now-layered anniversary. Many Haitians fled to exile in the United States and Canada, especially French-speaking Quebec. Founded in 1950, the Stasi took many of its cues from the Soviet Unions KGB, and truth be told during the entire Cold War the KGB and Stasis alliances were so close that they shared offices in both Germany and Russia, and had political privileges in each country. Lemoine, Patrick, List of victims of Duvalirism. Unpaid volunteers who were directly responsible only to Duvalier, they were given virtual license to torture, kill, and extort. The total number of victims remains unknown. Tonton Macoutes, a militia force put together in 1959 by President Franois Duvalier, translated, means Uncle Gunnysack, referring to a bogeyman that captures children in a gunnysack and eats them for breakfast. The strikers were part of a broader movement for democracy. The story takes place in New Orleans. I solemnly vowed to keep alive the memory of my departed cellmates." 1915 (July 27): Armed supporters of President Vilbrun Sam and General Oscar Etiennes troops slaughtered 167 political prisoners who had been jailed in the National Penitentiary (in Port-au-Prince) during the previous few days. _ * (For sources on the massacre thesis, see Roc, 2004; NCHR, March 2004; and Fuller, 2005; for sources that deny the very existence of the event, see Haiti-Progrs, 2004). He profited by extortion carried out by his henchmen and by supplying corpses and blood to universities and hospitals in the United States. _ ** (Gaillard, 1983: 186-190, 237-241, 259-262; Trouillot, 1990: 102-107; Manigat, 2003: 71-74). His work exposes the evil of Duvalier's rule and the tale . The exact number of victims still remains unknown. A four-year child, Stphane Sansericq, was tortured in front of his relatives before being killed. According to an OAS report (ICRH, 1991), the roots of the killing lie in a land conflict in the village of Terre-Casse, near Gervais, Guyton and Coligny, opposing several peasant families and local small landowners since 1973. Turits, Richard Lee, A World Destroyed, a Nation Imposed: the 1937 Haitian Massacre in the Dominican Republic, Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. In Haiti: Security Security, commonly known as the Tontons Macoutes (a Haitian Creole phrase meaning "bogeymen"); the group was formally disbanded in 1986, but its members continued to terrorize the populace. There have been many brutal regimes in history that have employed a secret police service to carry out everything from intelligence activities against its citizens, to terror and mass executions. Emmanuel was a Vodou Hougan (priest) in Port Au Prince, Haiti, where he lived with his wife and children. In 2001, for the first time in Haitis history, police officers were tried for human rights violations; four of them were convicted and received the minimum sentence for such a crime according to the law, three years imprisonment. In 1920, the US Navy investigation commission interrogated occupying officers regarding allegations of acts of violence committed by the air force, but the commission did not deliver any condemnations, or even make any formal accusations. He once ordered the death of all black dogs in the country after a political enemy was rumoured to have transformed into one. Eloise was the head of the feared "Tonton Macoute", the Haitian secret police. Amanus Mayette was under arrest, though no charges had been brought against him. _ *** (NCHR, 1986: 18-19; Human Rights Watch, 1996). 1957 (June 15-16): The Haitian army killed between several hundred (Leconte, 1999) and three thousand (Pierre-Charles, 1973) supporters of President Fignol -- who was popular among the disenfranchised sectors of the capital city -- after having overthrown him and forced him into exile. Showing Editorial results for tonton macoutes. Carri later refuted the allegation. Dahomay, Jacky, La Tentation tyrannique hatienne, Chemins Critiques, vol. On January 17, the Section Chief (a local official) and his subordinates killed a peasant while executing the Judges arrest order. Following the purge, when war broke out, the NKVD was equally ruthless, committing war crimes, such as the Katyn Massacre, as well. Faced with considerable pressure from human rights groups, the Minister of Justice eventually issued an arrest warrant on September 13, 1995. A few days prior to January 17, a Justice of the Peace had ordered the arrest of 27 peasants from Gervais after the destruction of a storage area belonging to another party to the conflict. The name was later applied to the Milice de Volontaires de la Scurit Nationale, the paramilitary force of Franois 'Papa Doc' Duvalier, Haiti's "President for Life." Tonton Macoute Horror Movie 75 subscribers When teenager Jean-Claude is foolish enough to steal from his grandmother, he is hunted by Tonton Macoute, the Haitian Boogeyman he said he no. It was that of the sleeve designer. Mass Violence and Resistance - Research Network, Asia-Pacific under Japanese occupation during World War II, http://www.haiti.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/vrit_justice.pdf, http://www.ijdh.org/2001/06/archive/brian-concannon-justice-for-haiti-the-raboteau-trial/, http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article1374#.XMLOZJMzbUI. Papa Docs regime, the more brutal of the two, is said to be responsible for 30,000 to 50,000 assassinations and executions. With one in ten under-40s infected with HIV, and millions living in squalor and destitution, thousands try to flee each year to the U.S. by hanging on to anything that will float. The other four were killed by a firing squad as an example, following an order from Laborde Corvoisier. The de-facto regime relied on paramilitary death squads known as FRAPH, which carried out most of the executions and persecution of opponents and alleged opponents.