16041: This Week in Haiti 21:15 6/25/2003 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

"This Week in Haiti" is the English section of HAITI PROGRES
newsweekly. For the complete edition with other news in French
and Creole, please contact the paper at (tel) 718-434-8100,
(fax) 718-434-5551 or e-mail at <editor@haitiprogres.com>.
Also visit our website at <www.haitiprogres.com>.

                           HAITI PROGRES
              "Le journal qui offre une alternative"

                      * THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

                      June 25 - July 1, 2003
                         Vol. 21, No. 15

FUGITIVE POLICE CHIEF: MODEL COP OR PAWN?

Jean Robert Faveur, who just "resigned" as Haiti's interim police chief
after two weeks in the post, portrays himself as a guardian of "honor,
integrity, dignity, and character." But Haiti's Foreign Minister
characterizes him as "a pawn" of unnamed "international sectors" intent on
"destabilizing the government."

In a Jun. 21 letter addressed to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Faveur
claims that government officials tried to put him in a "puppet position" and
to make him bend and break the law.

"I have chosen the road of exile instead of letting myself be corrupted and
enslaved," he pronounced in an impeccably written four-page letter.
Government officials say that the Saturday-dated letter was never delivered
to Aristide or any other government office to which copies were supposedly
sent and which are closed on weekends. In violation of police rules, Faveur
did see that the letter was widely distributed to the press, which made it
public Sunday.

Meanwhile, pretending he was on police business, Faveur drove to the
southeastern border town of Anse-à-Pitre where he crossed into the Dominican
Republic. He has since traveled to Miami, according to some reports.

Faveur was installed as head of the Haitian National Police (PNH) on Jun. 6
after his predecessor Jean Claude Jean-Baptiste resigned following
complaints by the head of the Organization of American States (OAS) Special
Mission to Haiti that Aristide did not "consult" him in making Jean-Baptiste
's appointment (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 21, No. 12, 6/4/2003).

Faveur alleges that on the day of his installation, he met with Aristide,
Jean-Baptiste, and Secretary of State for Public Security Jean Gérard
Dubreuil. Aristide warned him that he alone would make "all nominations and
transfers of departmental directors as well as all assignments in the
metropolitan areas," according to Faveur. He charged that Aristide
threatened him with removal or demotion if he didn't accept being put in
this "very bad position."

Ira Kurzban, the Haitian government's lawyer, called Faveur's account "pure
fabrication."

Faveur also griped that his predecessor had moved one policeman too quickly
up the chain of command into a local police chief post and that the PNH's
check signing procedure was illegal.

Foreign Minister Joseph Philippe Antonio and Justice Minister Calixte
Delatour responded to Faveur's charges and resignation in the government's
regular Tuesday press conference on Jun. 24.

"This is a vast operation apparently planned some time ago," said Antonio,
who as a political prisoner during the Duvalier dictatorship did time in the
infamous Fort Dimanche dungeons. "Presently Faveur has traveled abroad with
the complicity of ... international sectors, and even diplomats."

Antonio noted that, when he was attending the OAS General Assembly in
Santiago, Chile from Jun. 8-10 (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 21, No. 13,
6/11/2003), a rumor was already circulating that Faveur was going to resign.
"After only two days on the job, Faveur had quit, they were saying, and
ironically for exactly the same reasons they are giving today: because he
was prevented from doing his job, he was given no means, etcetera,
 etcetera," Antonio said.

Highly placed sources also charge that Faveur left his office for five hours
on his first day on the job to pay a visit to the U.S. Embassy.

Other government sources say that Faveur was one of the police chief
candidates for whom OAS and U.S. were pushing. "I don't know if they
actually submitted lists," responded Kurzban when asked about the charges,
"but I just know that the U.S. and OAS were happy about this fellow's
nomination."

Antonio evoked the case of Léon Manus, the opposition-aligned former head of
the Provisional Electoral Council who resigned in Jun. 2000, made terrible
accusations against Aristide, and then was spirited out of the country by
U.S. officials (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 18,  No. 14, 6/21/2000).

"This is just like the Manus affair," Antonio said. "Over these last few
months and years, there have been lots of other people under foreign
guidance, who say they are victims and  make all sorts of accusations before
getting a ticket and even an escort to illegally leave the country, and then
they set up in a foreign capital, either in Europe or elsewhere, and make
declarations in very official circles... And ever since Mr. Faveur was
installed... my personal impression was that this guy was a pawn in the
hands of the sectors I just denounced."

The well-crafted nature of Faveur's letter also betrayed some coaching. "The
style and tone of the letter was strikingly similar that of Manus," Kurzban
said. "Also, the way it was not provided to the government but delivered to
the press in advance, there are striking similarities to the events with
Manus which certainly suggest that this was a political set-up, not a real
letter of resignation. And that is consistent with Faveur's behavior. He
never resigned, he just left his post."

A genuine resignation should have been addressed to the High Council of the
National Police (CSPN), the PNH's controlling agency, not the President, who
only names the police chief, noted Ben Dupuy, secretary general of the
National Popular Party (PPN), in a Jun. 24 press conference. "Seeing that he
could not play the political role they had planned for him, Mr. Faveur chose
to make a spectacle of himself," Dupuy said, calling his letter merely a
"political salvo."

Although citing PNH rules in his letter, Faveur flagrantly violated numerous
police regulations, Dupuy pointed out, such as deserting his post and acting
with indiscretion in police business. Ministers Antonio and Delatour also
called Faveur a "deserter."

Delatour, whose Justice Ministry oversees the PNH,  noted that Faveur had
never raised any of his concerns in a general meeting of the police high
command on Jun. 18. "In the course of the meeting all problems were
discussed, and at no point did Mr. Faveur talk about the difficulty he was
encountering in carrying out his mission," Delatour said. Nor did Faveur
make a peep in an amiable telephone conversation he had with Delatour on
Jun. 20, according to the minister.

Not surprisingly, the Haitian opposition has rallied to Faveur. "I would
like to pay homage to him," said Evans Paul, a leader of the
Washington-backed Democratic Convergence opposition front. "He proves that
in spite of our profound moral crisis, the nation can still count on a few
models."

The U.S. Embassy also reacted predictably. "The accusations of political
meddling which Mr. Faveur makes in his resignation letter are very serious,
and if they are proved true, it is totally unacceptable," said a Jun. 24
embassy release with now customary arrogance. "Mr. Faveur also makes known
the attempts by the Haitian government to undermine the autonomy of the
police, while putting in question the good faith of Haitian authorities in
adopting the necessary reforms to resolve the lasting crisis. The
professionalization of the police force and its leadership are the principal
goals of the U.S. administration and of the OAS."

"Professionalization is just a euphemism," Dupuy said. "It means for the
opposition or the so-called international community to have control of the
police... When they say professionalize, they mean remove the chief of state
's prerogative to put who he wants [as police chief], to put someone
'neutral.' Let's be clear. This notion of an apolitical police or army is to
put people to sleep. There is no country on earth with an army or police
which isn't political... It's hypocrisy, pure and simple."

All articles copyrighted Haïti Progrès, Inc. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haïti Progrès.

                               -30-