14177: This Week in Haiti 20:40 12/18/2002 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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                           HAITI PROGRES
              "Le journal qui offre une alternative"

                      * THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

                      December 18 - 24, 2002
                          Vol. 20, No. 40

ATTACK ON PROVINCIAL POLICE POST HIGHLIGHTS WEEK OF VIOLENCE

On the evening of Dec. 10, masked commandos attacked a police station
near the central plateau town of Lascahobas, killing four people. They
freed four prisoners from the post's jail, two of whom were accused in
the Nov. 28 murder of Christophe Lozama, a judge in the nearby town of
Belladères. Two of those killed were members of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas Family party. One was a woman.

"They made off with lots of 12 gauge shotgun ammunition which was in
the station," said police spokesman Jean Dady Siméon. "They were armed
with Galils, Uzis, T65, and 9 millimeter weapons. There was a citizen
of the town who tried to approach them while they were going into the
police station, and they riddled him with bullets. He died in the
hospital."

The gunmen also took 12 rifles from the police station during the
attack, which occurred around 10:30 p.m., police said.

After stealing the sole police vehicle to prevent pursuit, the gunmen
burned it about 5 kilometers out of town on a remote stretch of road,
according to Siméon.

"An investigation has begun to determine their escape route which was
off-road and apparently led them to the Dominican Republic," Siméon
said.

The attack is the third by heavily armed commandos apparently coming
from the Dominican Republic in the past 18 months. On Jul. 28, 2001,
commandos simultaneously assaulted police stations on the central
plateau and in the capital, killing five policemen and wounding 14
(see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 19, No. 20, 8/1/2001). Then on Dec. 17, 2001,
thirty armed men with heavy caliber weapons took over the National
Palace for several hours, shooting it up and killing two policemen
(see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 19, No. 40, 12/19/2001).  Like the previous
attack, they escaped across the Dominican border.

On Dec. 11, Judge Lozama's funeral was held in Belladères. He was
fatally shot in the head by partisans of the Democratic Convergence,
an opposition  front. Courts in 15 jurisdictions were closed that day,
and the School of Justice as well as the National Federation of
Haitian Judges called on judges nationwide to observe a day of
mourning.

Other violence plagued the capital. On Dec. 7 around 2 a.m., masked
men in police jackets kidnaped three young brothers from their home in
the sprawling Carrefour neighborhood. The victims later turned up dead
at the morgue. Angelo Philippe, 22, Andy Philippe, 20, and Vladimir
Sanon, 20, were all students. The motive for the crime is still
unknown.

"They killed three of my sons," cried the boys' mother, Viola Robert,
on Radio Haiti Inter. "My God, why is this happening? Aristide, what
are we going to do with these three bodies?"

Also in Carrefour, on Dec. 9 around 10 p.m., policemen beat and
arrested Paul Voltaire Leblanc, a brother of former Justice Minister
Camille Leblanc. The arrest came after Leblanc had a conflict with a
tenant in a house he owns in the neighborhood. Leblanc's family came
to the police station, had him released from his cell, and took him to
a hospital. He sustained serious injury to his left eye, according to
his brother.

On Dec. 12, there was a bloody confrontation in downtown
Port-au-Prince between the traffic cop and a businessman. The
policeman pulled over Clive Scott, 37, for a traffic infraction. The
cop asked for his license, but Scott refused. An argument ensued and
shortly thereafter gunfire. Scott received two bullets and the
policeman four. Evens Sainturné, the chief of Traffic Service, claimed
that Scott fired first. But Scott's wife and father denied the charge,
saying the businessman was only trying to protect his 1-year-old son
in the car.

After the incident, some 50 cops went to the Canapé Vert Hospital
where Scott was being treated. They arrested several people who had
come to see Scott before Justice Minister Calixte Delatour intervened
to order them away.

Police Director Jean Nesly Lucien said there is an on-going
investigation into the incident. Reynold Georges, Scott's lawyer, said
that his client is going to press charges against the police.

Meanwhile, in the early morning hours of Dec. 8, bandits killed six
young men near Morne Cabrit, a desolate area northeast of the capital.
The victims were leading cattle from Hinche, Thomassique, and Boukan
Kare to sell in the Croix de Bouquet marketplace. The bandits stole
the livestock before killing the herders, one of whom was only 15
years old.


POLICE ANNOUNCE TIGHTER RULES ON DEMONSTRATIONS

With pro- and anti-government demonstrations multiplying in recent
weeks, the Haitian National Police (PNH) announced it will enforce an
often overlooked Constitutional statute which requires demonstrators
give it 72 hours notice before demonstrations.

The move is to enable better police deployment and prevent violence, a
PNH spokesman said.

In an impromptu action on Dec. 11, demonstrators from pro-Lavalas
popular organizations threw rocks and bottles at the Parliament
building to protest their deteriorating living conditions, cursing the
Lavalas legislators they had voted for. Police dispersed the crowd
with shots in the air.

In Trou du Nord, there was a Dec. 9 demonstration to demand repair of
the town's roads, bridge, and other infrastructure. Townspeople
blocked the national highway with barricades of flaming tires.

In Petit Goâve on Dec. 11, demonstrators marched to mark the first
anniversary of the funeral of journalist Brignol Lindor, who was
killed by Lavalas partisans on Dec. 3, 2001. The protestors called for
Aristide's resignation.

Following the police announcement of tougher enforcement of the 72
hour rule, police in the southeaster town of Cayes Jacmel broke up a
demonstration on Dec. 9 which blocked the main road with barricades
and burning tires to denounce the killing of merchant Gérald Khawly
(see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 20, No. 39, 12/11/2002).

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