20932: (Chamberlain) Protest at police station handovers (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PAISLEY DODDS

   CAP-HAITIEN, March 29 (AP) -- Angry civilians protested Monday's rebel
handover of two police stations to officers accused of abuses, underscoring
difficulties facing a new government that has praised the rebels as
liberators but also ordered them to disarm.
   The handovers came as rebel commander Louis-Jodel Chamblain discussed
surrendering power to police in Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second city of 500,000
people, and other northern strongholds.
   "If the police try to get rid of the rebels, we will attack the police
and take back the stations," threatened Joabilien Saint-Fidor, one of about
100 people shouting "Down with the police!"
   Chamblain, whose fighters still control much of northern Haiti, also
vowed to kill ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide if he returns from
exile. Rebels outnumber and are better armed than police.
   A small contingent of Haitian police officers who fled before the
popular rebellion that erupted Feb. 5 have returned, but they lack weapons
looted during the fighting, the trust of the people, and a clear mandate
from the interim government of Prime Minister Gerard Latortue.
   "I don't want to see the police anymore. They are all thieves," said
Renel Descipux, 38.
   Saint-Fidor said people feared police who helped militant Aristide
supporters terrorize the population before the Haitian leader fled Feb. 29.
   At one police station which seven rebels turned over Monday to five
officers armed only with three handguns, one officer admitted they were
afraid of reprisals. "Psychologically the fear is still here, but we have a
job to do," he said.
   Chamblain told The Associated Press that "There's still a trust problem,
so the people will have to identify the police that they don't want."
   Some of the 250 French peacekeepers who have deployed in northern Haiti
patrolled Cap-Haitien in vehicles on Monday, but took no part in the talks
between rebels and police.
   Meanwhile, authorities detained a senior police officer suspected in an
armed attack on protesters that killed seven people, including television
correspondent Ricardo Ortega of Spain's Antena 3 network, a human rights
group said Monday.
   Police Inspector Jean Michel Gaspard was held on Sunday in
Port-au-Prince but no charges have been filed pending an investigation,
Pierre Esperance, director of the Coalition for Haitian Rights, told The
Associated Press.