15831: (Chamberlain) Haiti-US (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MICHAEL NORTON

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, June 10 (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.