a796: BBC: The leader of the Convention for Democratic Unity, KID, Evans Paul rejects the accusations that the police brought against his party's militants (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Robert Benodin <r.benodin@worldnet.att.net>

Haiti: Highlights of Radio Metropole news 1145 gmt 14 Feb 02
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Feb 15, 2002


2. The political atmosphere risks being poisoned by the arrests of
opposition militants for alleged involvement in kidnapping cases in the
metropolitan area. The arrest of former Deputy Jean Mandenave and Bruno
Edgar took place on Saturday 9 February in Cine Capitol and Pernier. In a
press conference yesterday, police officials affirmed that the arrests took
place when the militants were in the company of kidnappers or had ties with
those bandits. Police Superintendent Jeannot Francois announces that the
cases will be transferred to judicial authorities. (3 min)
3. The leader of the Convention for Democratic Unity, KID, Evans Paul
rejects the accusations that the police brought against his party's
militants within the framework of the arrests that took place during
Carnival. Paul believes that his militants are being framed for kidnapping.
He says the wave of arrests proves that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
refuses to facilitate the resumption of the negotiations to get the country
out of the impasse. (2 min)
4. The lawyer for the opposition militants rejects the version that the
police give to justify the arrests that took place last weekend. Attorney
Reynold Georges announces that he is going to knock on all doors to obtain
the release of his clients. (3 min)
6. Magik Stereo journalist Gener Morin was arrested during Carnival weekend.
When questioned about Morin's arrest, the judicial police director said he
is unaware of the case. Morin was arrested on Saturday 9 February while
playing cards with friends. (1 min)
7. Magik Stereo Information Director Joachim Exume rejects the accusations
that the police brought against his colleagues, and pleads in favour of
their release. The announcer asked: "//(?In the first accusations) brought
against the detainees, among whom is Gener Morin, they talked about plotting
against state security, and now they talk about kidnapping instead.//" Exume
said, "//It is probably because at Magik Stereo we had denounced the
accusations brought against them. Since the arrests were arbitrary, and
since they could not justify their actions, they then made changes. Anyway,
if the authorities want to capture kidnappers, I think they should go and
look somewhere else, and not at Magik Stereo. We do not deal with
kidnappers.//" (3 min)
8. The government is pleased with the popular success of this year's
Carnival. (4 min)
9. The Haitian National Police, PNH, is pleased with the actions taken to
guarantee security during Carnival. They congratulate the population for
respecting police orders. (5 min)
4. Special Guest of the Day: Evans Paul of the Confederation for Democratic
Unity, KID, on his visit to Washington, the arbitrary arrests of KID
militants, and the obstacles to resuming the negotiations. (15 min)
Source: Radio Metropole, Port-au-Prince, in French 1145 gmt 14 Feb 02
/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.