15602: (Chamberlain) Haiti cancels arrest warrant for gang leader (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, May 15 (Reuters) - Haitian justice officials canceled
an arrest warrant on Thursday against Amiot Metayer, a gang leader whose
arrest was demanded by foreign nations as a necessary step toward unlocking
Haiti's political stalemate.
     At the request of prosecutors, Judge Morency Joseph canceled the
warrant issued for Metayer's alleged involvement in violence on May 12,
2002, when dozens of homes in a neighborhood in the coastal city of
Gonaives were allegedly torched by his supporters in a dispute with a rival
gang.
     The Organization of American States, trying to broker a settlement in
Haiti's 3-year-old political deadlock resulting from tainted May 2000
parliamentary elections, told the government of President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide it must arrest Metayer as part of a plan to win back international
support.
     International donors cut off the flow of some $500 million in aid to
the impoverished Caribbean nation of 8 million after elections officials
calculated the results of the May 2000 vote to favor Aristide's Lavalas
Family party.
     A self-described Aristide supporter, Metayer leads a gang called the
"Cannibal Army." Held after the torching, he escaped a prison in Gonaives,
along with more than 150 other inmates, in August 2002 when several dozen
members of his gang attacked the front of the building with a bulldozer.
     Three days of rioting ensued. Aristide sent riot police to the city to
quell the disturbance.
     The OAS has repeatedly criticized the Haitian government for Metayer's
apparent ability to operate with impunity in Gonaives after the jail break.
     Metayer appeared frequently in public in the city and led
demonstrations. The government had said it intended to arrest him but was
taking its time to avoid bloodshed in Gonaives.
     Prosecutors said they met with witnesses and did not have enough
evidence to charge Metayer in connection with the violence last May.