a963: Luigi Einaudi is coming to pave the way for the deployment of the mission that will investigate the 17 December events. (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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

Haiti: Highlights of Radio Metropole news 1145 gmt 27 Feb 02
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Feb 27, 2002


2. OAS Assistant Secretary General Luigi Einaudi is due to arrive in
Port-au-Prince today. He will meet all the protagonists of the crisis.
3. Luigi Einaudi is coming to pave the way for the deployment of the mission
that will investigate the 17 December events. Jean Numa Goudou explains that
this time Einaudi is not coming within the framework of the negotiations.
The Convergence shelved this dossier after the 17 December events, and the
OAS also shelved it following the 15 January resolution. The December
violence that left two dead at the National Palace and two more in Gonaives,
as well as significant damage of opposition property will be investigated by
several international missions. It should be pointed out that in
mid-February, Port-au-Prince Public Prosecutor Josue Pierre-Louis announced
that he had identified the authors of those acts. Examining Judge Bernard
Sainvil announced yesterday that he jailed two suspects, but did not want to
reveal their identities. Incidentally, soon after the 17 December violence
the police presented to the press two suspects, one of whom was former
Colonel Guy Francois. Sainvil said that three others will appear in court
next week. They are Police Superintendent Anthony Nazaire from the National
Palace, Jean Raymond Philippe of the antigang service, and Paul Denis of the
opposition. That is the information that the government has provided
regarding the investigation.
4. The Movement for the Organization of the Country, MOP, a member of the
Democratic Convergence, asks for the resignation of the president of the
Republic. According to MOP Secretary General Franck Adelson, President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide has failed.
5. Parliamentarians yesterday paid their last respects to Deputy Marc Andre
Dirogene who was murdered on 17 February. After the funeral, groups of
people demonstrated against the deputies in front of the Port-au-Prince
Cathedral.
7. Residents of Fort National demonstrated yesterday and gave President
Aristide 72 hours to intervene and satisfy their demands. They denounced the
way the police recruit new police officers. If President Aristide does not
intervene, they said, they will release all the prisoners that are
incarcerated there. The demonstrators also asked for an improvement in their
living conditions. The city delegate said that, according to information,
the police have accepted money from known zenglendos (criminals) to recruit
them to be police officers. This action is a threat to the population, the
city delegate said.
8. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is attempting to make peace between the
people of Raboteau and Descahos in Gonaives. The head of state on 25
February received peoples organization members from those areas that have
been fighting each other for some time following the transfer of detainee
Guy Louis-Jacques. Arrangements have been made for a peace agreement. It
should be noted that President Aristide will be meeting with representatives
of 34 rival groups of Cite Soleil at the National Palace.
9. Deputy Wilnet Content discussed the suspension of activities of the
Haitian Development Bank, BHD. According to the parliamentarian, the bank
has a deficit of tens of thousands of gourdes. Content invites his
colleagues to summon the board of directors of the Central Bank, the Bank of
the Republic of Haiti, BRH, to clarify the situation.
10. The Central Bank confirmed in a press release yesterday that BHD
operations have been suspended. According to the BRH, this measure is aimed
at protecting the interests of the concerned parties.
11. Economist Henry Bazin is pleased with the decision of the BRH to stop
the activities of the BHD, but he thinks that that decision should have been
made a long time ago.
14. Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, leader of the Papaye Peasants Movement, MPP,
speaks out on the BHD. He said that contrary to what Deputy Wilnet Content
said, there are no Struggling People's Organization, OPL, members on the BHD
board of directors.
Source: Radio Metropole, Port-au-Prince, in French 1145 gmt 27 Feb 02
/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.