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14948: This Week in Haiti 20:50 2/26/2003 (fwd)
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HAITI PROGRES
"Le journal qui offre une alternative"
* THIS WEEK IN HAITI *
February 26 - March 4, 2003
Vol. 20, No. 50
DRUG SCANDALS ROCK HAITIAN POLICE
A dramatic series of arrests and releases of top police officials has
provoked an unprecedented crisis within the Haitian National Police
(PNH), exposing deep hostilities between different factions in the
institution.
On Feb. 6, a small plane from Colombia landed on Route 9 Drouillard
near the capital's Cité Soleil slum and reportedly offloaded about
1000 kilograms of cocaine. According to police Inspector General
Victor Harvel Jean-Baptiste, officers of Haiti's Anti-Drug Trafficking
Brigade (BLTS) sealed off the stretch of highway to allow the bold
drug delivery, a mere three miles north of downtown Port-au-Prince. On
Feb. 14, BLTS head Evans Brilliant and five other policemen were
arrested and put in isolation at the police station in
Croix-des-Bouquets.
Jean-Baptiste also ordered the Feb. 14 arrest of three close advisors
of Police Chief Jean Nesly Lucien. Lochard Jean René, Jean-Louis
Léandre and Georges Déré - known in the PNH as the "Three
Musketeers" - were taken into custody along with Dr. Rothchild Bruno,
who oversees the PNH medical clinic, at Lucien's home in Tabarre. The
four were transferred to the Cafétéria police station's Rue Pavée
outpost in the heart of the capital.
But the next day, a furious Lucien arrived at the station and ordered
the four police officials to be freed. Two days later, the "Three
Musketeers," who are civilians, flew to Miami where they stayed two
days. They then returned to the capital and their posts on Feb. 19.
Bruno also may have tried to leave the country, according to some
reports.
Lucien said that Inspector General Jean-Baptiste had acted "illegally"
and without his consent in arresting members of his personal cabinet.
During a meeting with the Chamber of Deputies' Commission on Police
and Security on Feb. 19, Lucien denied that his advisors' trip to the
U.S. had any connection to their arrest for the Feb. 6 drug drop.
According to him, the counselors had left the country for reasons of
personal safety after rumors circulated that they were part of a
planned coup d'état against President Jean Bertrand Aristide.
On their return, the three advisors sharply condemned the actions of
Inspector General Jean- Baptiste who, according to them, is trying to
undermine Lucien and Aristide. They have all declared themselves
willing to cooperate with any investigation into the Feb. 6 drug
operation, with which they deny any involvement.
Meanwhile, on Feb. 13, over 30 masked officers of the PNH's Research
and Intervention Brigade (BRI) arrested at Top Tires in Pétionville
two alleged drug traffickers, Hector Keitan and Hermane Charles. Under
circumstances which are not yet clear, the two men were then shot to
death later at the home of Keitan's girlfriend in Péguy-ville while in
police custody. According to the woman, there was a fierce argument
preceding the death of the two men.
Radio Kiskeya reported that Keitan was a powerful drug trafficker who
was present at the Feb. 6 drug drop and was paying off many officials.
"It was the police inspector general who gave the order to arrest
Keitan," the radio reported, saying that the alleged trafficker was
riddled with 19 bullets.
PNH chief Lucien denied all responsibility in the shooting. « I did
not authorize this operation," he said. "I am awaiting the report of
the Central Direction of the Judicial Police (DCPJ) which is in charge
of the brigade that undertook the operation.»
However, the head of the DCPJ, Jeannot François, has disappeared since
Feb. 21. According to police sources, François was supposed to take
part in the Feb. 21 meeting at the National Palace between Aristide
and the Police high command, but reportedly had already left the
country heading for Puerto Rico via the Dominican Republic. Other
police sources say that he has sought refuge in an unidentified
embassy in Port-au-Prince.
Jeannot's wife, Marie André François, said that her husband has been
missing since the evening of Feb. 20, when he returned home angry
after a meeting with Inspector General Jean-Baptiste, who, she
implied, was pressuring her husband about his report on the
Keitan/Charles killings.
"Is there in fact a conflict between Police General Director Jean
Nesly Lucien, a former professor of mathematics, literature, English,
and Spanish, and Inspector General Victor Harvelt Jean-Baptiste, a
former diplomat posted in Switzerland, Brazil, and Canada?" asked
Radio Kiskeya.
"There is no problem within the police command ," Lucien asserted on
Feb. 19. "The command still remains unified, but I defend a question
of principle in the way things are done." He noted that there are only
5,000 police for a population of 8 million spread over 24 thousand
square kilometers. "So I commend the police and I commend the Haitian
people, who I think are very civilized," he said.
U.S. authorities lowered their dubious estimates that only 8% of the
illegal drugs reaching the U.S. mainland transited Haiti last year,
down from 15% the year before. Nonetheless, Washington did not
"certify" Haiti as "cooperative" enough in fighting drug trafficking
over the past year.
President Aristide condemned the U.S. State Department's January
report, noting that the U.S. with its sophisticated boats, planes, and
radar seems curiously unable to stem the drug flow. "The U.S. Coast
Guard patrolling our waters sees boat people, but they never see boats
transporting drugs," he said.
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