16052: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Police Chief 2 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MICHAEL NORTON

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, June 25 (AP) -- Haiti's former police chief, who
resigned and fled his country four days ago, said Wednesday he is in the
United States and lashed out at the government of President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide.
   In in a telephone interview with private Haitian broadcaster Radio
Kiskeya, Jean-Robert Faveur didn't reveal his exact whereabouts.
   "Now I am in the United States," he said. "Democracy is a utopia (but)
in Haiti, our democracy is authoritarian."
   Haiti's opposition has said after Faveur's resignation will make it
difficult for Aristide to keep his pledge of holding credible elections
this year to break the nation's political stalemate.
   The opposition and government of Aristide have been at loggerheads since
flawed May 2000 legislative elections.
   Faveur alleged that under instructions from Aristide, government
officials allegedly ordered him to endorse promotions and transfers of
police officers. His right to sign official checks was also abrogated.
   Both the opposition and civil groups have demanded police reforms, as
well as other security-establishing measures, before they join a
nine-member election board mandated to oversee legislative elections that
Aristide pledged to hold this year.
   The government, meanwhile, on Wednesday accused opposition militants of
killing four sympathizers of Aristide's Lavalas Family party.
   A gang of more than a dozen men threw grenades into the people's homes
on Saturday in Lascahobas, a small town about 30 miles northeast of the
capital. The gang tied their victims and tortured them before killing them,
Interior Minister Jocelerme Privet said.
   Witnesses in the small plateau town said they recognized the men as
being opposition supporters, Privet said.