21137: (Chamberlain) Aristide official arrested (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PAISLEY DODDS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, April 6 (AP) -- Ousted President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide's interior minister was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of
orchestrating the killings of several people presumed to be Aristide
opponents, officials said.
   The arrest of Jocelerme Privert -- the highest ranking official to be
detained since Aristide's departure on Feb. 29 -- comes as former
government leaders and members of Aristide's political party complain that
Haiti's interim leaders are targeting them.
   Privert was accused in the mid-February killings of several suspected
Aristide opponents in St. Marc, a northern port city where violence flared
before the armed rebellion that pushed Aristide from power, the new
government said.
   Although Privert allegedly conspired to kill several people in the town,
officials did not say how many people were killed, nor did they provide
names of those allegedly slain.
   "The procedure is going to follow its normal course," interim Justice
Minister Bernard Gousse told The Associated Press.
   Privert was being held at the national penitentiary during an
investigation. Law requires that he hear the charges against him within 48
hours.
   When asked to visit Privert at the penitentiary on Tuesday, Haitian
officials told reporters he was under the protection of the U.S. Embassy,
which had no immediate comment.
   Earlier this year, the United States canceled Privert's U.S. tourist
visa but did not explain why. The United States has canceled the visas of
more than a dozen Aristide government officials in the past year, some
because of alleged connections to drug trafficking.
   Secretary of State Colin Powell said during a one-day visit on Monday
that U.S. judicial authorities were investigating Aristide on corruption
charges.
   "There are inquiries being made by our judicial authorities in the U.S.
to see if there is any evidence of wrongdoing," Powell said in a news
conference. It was unclear whether the U.S. government was investigating
other members of Aristide's government.
   Armed rebels and members of the disbanded army that toppled Aristide in
a 1991 coup launched a popular uprising on Feb. 5 from the northern city of
Gonaives, spreading their revolt to the Aristide stronghold and nearby town
of St. Marc.
   After sporadic gunbattles, police eventually regained control of St.
Marc but in the days that followed, gangs attacked several presumed
Aristide opponents. Dozens of houses were torched and several people were
killed, including an Aristide opponent who was decapitated.
   A complaint was filed in St. Marc against Privert, alleging that he
ordered the gangs to quell the unrest by targeting suspected Aristide
opponents.
   Pierre Esperance, a human rights activist, said there were reports that
more than 50 people were killed during mid-February in St. Marc. Reporters
who were in the town at the time of the attacks reported seeing less than
five bodies.
   Last year, a former city employee in the Aristide stronghold and seaside
slum of Cite Soleil fled Haiti after claiming Privert had ordered gangs to
kill Aristide opponents in Port-au-Prince.
   Privert denied the allegations at the time.
   Privert's arrest comes days after Latortue's government announced it
would block dozens of former Aristide officials from leaving the country,
including former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune.
   Gousse has said the move was meant to ensure officials would be
available for investigations into charges of corruption and other crimes.