14722: HAITI' S ARISTIDE DENIES HIS COUNTRY IS DRUG HAVEN

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Janet Higbie <jhigbie@nytimes.com>
-----------------------


HAITI' S ARISTIDE DENIES HIS COUNTRY IS DRUG HAVEN

By Michael Deibert

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide denied
Wednesday that his country had become a haven for drug traffickers and
charged that the recent suspension of U.S. travel visas for several Haitian
officials was not based on concrete evidence.

U.S. officials announced Friday that Haiti -- along with Myanmar and
Guatemala -- had failed to take sufficient actions to fight drug
trafficking in the past year. It was the second time Haiti had been so
designated in as many years.

"Haiti is not guilty of these charges. We are a poor country and we feel
victimized by these actions," Aristide told reporters after meeting David
Lee, chief of the special mission of the Organization of American States to
Haiti.  "The U.S. Coast Guard patrolling our waters sees boat people, but
they never see boats transporting drugs."

In its annual report on the global drug trade last year, the United States
said Haiti was a major transit stop for South American drug cartels
shipping illegal narcotics to lucrative North American and European markets.

It described the poor Caribbean nation as a "path of minimal resistance"
for narco-traffickers due to weak democratic institutions, corrupt
officials and a fledgling police force.

Following Friday's announcement, Haiti's most widely read paper, Le
Nouvelliste, published a list of officials whose visas were allegedly
revoked by the United States for involvement in drug trafficking. Many of
those named were lawmakers and high-ranking officials in the Haitian
National Police.

Some of those mentioned, including Clifford Larose, director of Haiti's
prisons, have since held news conferences confirming the revocation of
their visas but denying their involvement in the drug trade.

Nawoon Marcellus, a deputy in Haiti's lower house of parliament and a
member of Aristide's Lavalas Family political party, charged that the
revocation of his visa was based on religious rather than criminal grounds.

"This is religious persecution," Marcellus, a member of Haiti's small
Islamic community, said at a press conference on Tuesday. "They took my
visa not because I am a drug trafficker, but because I am a Muslim."

Citing privacy laws, the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince declined to comment
on the specifics of the case.

Aristide was first elected to the presidency in this impoverished Caribbean
nation of 8 million in 1990 but ousted in a coup months later. U.S. troops
helped restore him to power in 1994.

Since his re-election in November 2000, he has been locked in a bitter
dispute with opposition politicians over May 2000 parliamentary elections
that observers said were rigged to favor Aristide's Lavalas Family party.
The conflict has resulted in the suspension of $500 million of
international aid. REUTERS