15775: (Chamberlain) Haiti police chief offers to quit (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, June 4 (Reuters) - The chief of Haiti's beleaguered
national police force has offered his resignation to President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide less than three months after he took the job,
according to a letter made public on Wednesday.
     The resignation came just days before the general assembly meeting of
the Organization of American States, which has pressured Haiti to revamp
its faltering police force to improve security and ease a 3-year-old
political deadlock in the impoverished Caribbean nation.
     "It's time for me to leave and serve the nation elsewhere," Haitian
National Police Chief Jean-Claude Jean-Baptiste said in a letter dated June
3.
     There was no immediate comment from the National Palace as to whether
Aristide would accept the resignation and appoint a new chief.
     Improved security in the nation of 8 million people has been a key
demand of international donor nations, which cut off some $500 million in
aid to Haiti following tainted May 2000 legislative elections.
     The national police force, formed after Aristide disbanded Haiti's
dreaded army in the mid-1990s, has been plagued by corruption. In February
its anti-drug task force chief was arrested after he allegedly had his men
block off a main highway to allow a plane carrying a ton of cocaine to
land.
     Jean-Baptiste, a former regional police commander and longtime
Aristide supporter, took over the force in late March just before a
deadline set by the OAS for Haiti to take steps to quell violence. But his
appointment was criticized by opposition parties, civic groups and the OAS.
     Aristide has said he will hold new elections but has been unable to
complete an electoral council to oversee them because of the running
political dispute with opposition parties over the May 2000 elections.
     Political analysts say there is little hope of Haiti holding elections
this year. The OAS general assembly, meeting in Chile June 8-10, is
expected to discuss possible resolutions to the Haiti crisis.