a1910: Panel of US drug experts in Haiti to help government's anti-drug fight (AP) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: MKarshan@aol.com

Panel of U.S. drug experts in Haiti to help government's anti-drug fight
Mon Apr 29, 4:35 PM ET
By MICHAEL NORTON, Associated Press Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - A six-member panel of U.S. drug experts arrived Monday in Haiti to help this impoverished Caribbean country coordinate its fight against drug trafficking and money laundering.


The United States last year determined Haiti had "failed demonstrably" to meet international drug control standards — for which it normally would halt much of its aid funds.

However, U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) in February took steps to ensure that Haiti be entitled to the full range of U.S. assistance.

Invited by the Haitian government for a two-day fact-finding visit, the panel of drug experts will meet with President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, judicial and police officials and workers at a drug rehabilitation facility, panel Chairman Irwin Stotzky said.

"We hope to help Haitian authorities allocate their limited resources better and attract international funds to supplement them," said Stotzky, the 55-year-old law professor and director of the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Miami University, Florida.

The U.S. State Department has called Haiti one of the major transshipment countries for U.S.-bound cocaine from Colombia. Stotzky estimated that last year Haiti accounted for 5 to 8 percent of the total shipment.

Several follow-up visits will enable the panel to make recommendations to the Haitian government, Stotzky said.

The panel includes Houston, Texas, Mayor Lee Brown, who was U.S. drug czar in the early 90s; New York City Police Chief Ray Kelly; New York City Deputy Police Chief Paul Browne; Edouardo Gamarra, law professor at the International University of Florida; and Bruce Ziegler, former vice president of the Center City, Minnesota-based Hazelden Foundation, the world's largest drug rehabilitation center.

Although Haitian authorities have established an anti-drug task force and seized several large drug shipments, Bush found that Haiti had "failed demonstrably" to fight drug trafficking last year.

This year, U.S. Ambassador Brian Dean Curran criticized Haitian authorities for releasing 26 people arrested last year in connection with a drug clampdown, and also for releasing two Colombians suspected of drug trafficking this year from the National Penitentiary before any trial.

Nevertheless, Haiti was given a national-interest waiver.

U.S. aid to Haiti is funneled through humanitarian agencies. This year, it totaled dlrs 55 million, compared to last year's dlrs 70 million.

After Aristide's Lavalas Family party swept legislative elections in 2000, international organizations demanded the results be revised.

The Inter-American Development Bank is holding up some dlrs 146 million in long-term, low-interest loans, and the European Union (news - web sites) has frozen some dlrs 45 million in grants until the government and opposition reach an agreement on new elections.

(mn-kd/pd)