15832: Craig- NYT Article: Haitian Police Reform Efforts Questioned (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig <hoosier@att.net>


Haitian Police Reform Efforts Questioned
June 10, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 10:47 p.m. ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- The appointment of a new
police chief is not enough to prove Haiti's government is
committed to reforming the police force, U.S. Ambassador
Brian Dean Curran said Tuesday.

Five days after former officer Jean-Robert Faveur's
appointment, the ambassador said deeper changes were needed
to ensure security for legislative elections. President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government and the opposition have
yet to agree on a date for the elections.

The international community has demanded "the
professionalization of the police," Curran said, requiring
"not to change the head only, but the entire leadership of
the police."

Faveur was sworn in Friday to replace Jean-Claude
Jean-Baptiste, who resigned April 3 after just two weeks on
the job.

Aristide has been under intense pressure to reform the
4,000-member police force, which has been accused of
criminal activity, human rights abuses and repression of
political dissent.

With the opposition and government at loggerheads since
flawed 2000 elections, the Organization of American States
in September set several resolutions for establishing
security, including disarming partisans and reforming
police.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told the OAS General
Assembly on Tuesday in Santiago, Chile, that the United
States was ``encouraged'' by the appointment of Faveur.

Haiti's government defended its actions.

"We've been working at the problem of reforming the police, but it
cannot be solved overnight," Minister of Culture and
Communication Lilas Desquiron said.

The opposition has accused Aristide of leaning toward
dictatorship and urged him to resign. Aristide has refused
to leave office until his term ends in 2006.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Haiti-US.html?ex=1056325634&ei=1&en=7eee170886cd96d8
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company