12361: Haiti police, seeking guns, set up roadblocks (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, June 19 (Reuters) - Haitian police backed by
armored cars set up roadblocks in the capital Port-au-Prince on Wednesday
in an operation to seize illegal arms.
     The effort was aimed at combating the growing power of street gangs
and kidnapping rings, government officials said.
     Heavily-armed personnel from anti-riot units and police officers
searched through cars and checked identification papers at main
intersections. There was no information on how many weapons had been
seized.
     Public Security Minister Gerard Dubreuil also urged residents to turn
in illegal guns at local police stations.
     Although President Jean-Bertrand Aristide announced a crime crackdown
when he took office in February 2001, it remains at alarming levels in this
impoverished Caribbean nation of 8 million people.
     Though praised by many ordinary Haitians, human rights groups have
criticized the crackdown as giving the police carte blanche to attack
suspected criminals.
     A police action in the Cite Soleil slum last month resulted in the
death of three residents. Police said they returned fire after gang members
attacked them, while residents charged that the dead were shot while
arriving at a meeting with police.
     The killings provoked two days of gunfire exchanges between police and
gangs.
     The disarmament issue is also political as the opposition Democratic
Convergence coalition is demanding that government supporters be disarmed
before it will resume talks with it over disputed legislative elections in
2000.
     Following an apparent coup attempt where armed men stormed the
National Palace this past December, thousands of armed Aristide supporters
took to the streets, torching offices and homes connected to the
Convergence.