16050: (Chamberlain) Haiti Police Chief 3 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By HARRY DUNPHY

   WASHINGTON, June 27 (AP) -- Haiti's former police chief said Friday he
fled the country with his family because he feared for his life. He
asserted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was filling police ranks only
with people loyal to him regardless of their qualifications.
   Jean-Robert Faveur denied that Aristide's opponents helped arrange his
departure to make the president look bad, saying he was a civil servant and
not a politician. He said he has not asked for political asylum in the
United States.
   Faveur said he resigned June 22 after two weeks in office and fled to
Miami because of the Haitian government's efforts to undermine the autonomy
of his office.
   "I did not have operational control or financial control," he said at a
news conference sponsored by the Project for Democracy in Haiti, an
advocacy group. "I was a nobody and was not managing the police. All power
was in the hands of the president and the secretary of state" for public
security, Jean-Gerard Dubreuil.
   Haiti's opposition has said Faveur's resignation will make it difficult
for Aristide to keep his pledge to hold credible elections this year to
break the nation's political stalemate. A credible police force is
considered a necessity for a secure campaign and voting.
   Faveur, 37, who graduated from Haiti's police academy, said that after
he took over, Dubreuil, at Aristide's direction, ordered him to sign a list
of promotions and transfers of police officers. He said the people on the
list had neither served long enough in their posts nor passed competitive
examinations for promotion as the law requires.
   He said Dubreuil told him, "This is an order from the president, and his
orders are not to be discussed."
   Eager to keep their jobs in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country
where unemployment has topped more than 50 percent, many police officers
support Aristide. Officers earn about $125 a month.
   The political opposition, human rights groups and the State Department
have accused the 4,000-member police force of helping armed bands of
Aristide supporters to break up opposition protests.
   Faveur also said Dubreuil told him he would not be responsible for
signing checks, the disbursement of money or budget preparation.
   "I was dumbfounded," Faveur said, "I left the office and called and few
friends and relatives. They said my life was in danger, and that I should
get out of the country" with his family. "I followed their advice."
   Later Friday, Dubreuil denied Faveur's allegations, saying the only
complaint he had ever heard from him was that his residence was "too small
for someone in his position."
   "The facts related by Mr. Faveur have nothing to do with the reality or
the functioning of the police," Dubreuil said. "He should be arrested, as
he would be in any democratic country, to answer for his acts and
declarations."
   In a speech to the Permanent Council of the Organization of American
States Thursday, U.S. ambassador Roger Noreiga said the "charges of
political interference" made by Faveur in his letter of resignation were
"very serious and troubling and his move called "into question the good
faith of the Haitian government" to comply with OAS resolutions,
"especially the creation of a climate of security."
   Haitian Foreign Minister Joseph Antonio, though, accused the
international community of leading Faveur astray, saying his abandonment of
his post "enjoyed the complicity of foreign circles, that sometimes use
criminal connections to force Haitians to leave the country."
   "It's part of an international plan to destabilize the government,"
Antonio said.
   ------
   Associated Press correspondent Michael Norton contributed to this report
from Haiti.