16030: Karshan: Kurzban and NCHR raise questions regarding Police Chief resignation (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: MKarshan@aol.com

Miami Herald

Posted on Tue, Jun. 24, 2003

Haiti's ex-police chief: Aristide wanted to control me
BY MARIKA LYNCH
mlynch@herald.com

The way Jean-Robert Faveur tells it, the day that he was appointed Haiti's
new police chief, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide laid down a rule: Any changes
in police administrators would have to be approved by the president first.

And that was only one of the ways that Aristide planned to restrict Faveur's
authority and direct the police himself, the chief alleged in his resignation
letter after just two weeks on the job.

Aristide appointed Faveur to satisfy the Organization of American States,
which demanded Haiti take the politics out of the country's police force, accused
of human-rights abuses, summary executions and involvement in the drug trade.

But in a four-page resignation letter to Aristide written Saturday, before he
fled the country, Faveur alleged that the president planned to meddle enough
to make him ineffective.

Faveur said he was forced to promote several officers, including one who
skipped several rank levels.

And even though he was the nation's top law-enforcement officer, he wasn't
allowed to sign department checks, he alleged.

''I have chosen the way of exile instead of letting myself be corrupted and
enslaved,'' Faveur wrote in his letter, obtained by The Herald. ``I had hoped
that with me, you could have foreseen some kind of solution to the country's
problem and crisis. But I see that you do not take this into consideration.''

Haiti's government spokesman refused comment on the letter Monday.

But the country's Miami-based lawyer, Ira Kurzban, said Faveur should not
have expected to have the full powers of a police chief since he had not been
confirmed by the Senate.

''You don't give somebody the kind of authority he was demanding the first 72
hours, without being ratified,'' Kurzban said. ``Either this was all a setup,
or he was so immature and so incapable of leadership he didn't understand
that.''

Dina Paul Parks, executive director of the National Coalition for Haitian
Rights, said the timing of Faveur's resignation was suspect.

Two weeks was a short time to come to such a ''bold'' decision, Parks said,
adding that she wondered if last week's arrest and extradition to Miami of
accused drug dealer Jacques Ketant had made Faveur fearful.

''It seems awfully coincidental. It would be interesting to see if there was
any kind of link,'' Parks said by telephone from New York.

``More needs to be known on both sides.''

Herald staff writer Sidonie Sawyer contributed to this report.