21173: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Human Rights (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PAISLEY DODDS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, April 7 (AP) -- Amnesty International urged Haiti's
interim government Wednesday to crack down on human rights violators and
stop reprisals against members of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's
government.
   Concluding a two-week fact-finding mission, a delegation from the
London-based rights group said at least four Aristide associates have been
kidnapped and other citizens have been attacked or harassed since he fled
Feb. 29.
   It urged Haiti's U.S.-backed government to distance itself and act
against rebels who have criminal records or are known human rights
violators. Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has called the rebels "freedom
fighters."
   Other concerns include Haiti's weak judiciary, a lack of security, a
climate of impunity and the failure of Haitian police and a U.S.-led
peacekeeping force to disarm militias, Amnesty delegation leader Yvonne
Terlingen said.
   Critics allege Latortue's administration is targeting members of
Aristide's government and the Lavalas political party for arrest. Several
former government leaders are banned from leaving Haiti.
   "By only arresting Lavalas supporters, the government is sending the
wrong message," Terlingen said.
   She added that Latortue's government "has failed in any way to act
against the numbers of human rights violators who have become associated
with it."
   Haitian officials had no immediate comment on Amnesty's findings, which
Terlingen said were based on interviews with more than 100 people,
including several who claimed to have been victimized since Aristide's
ouster.
   Terlingen said her group was denied access to all prisoners at the
national penitentiary and that some detainees were under U.S. Marine guard.
   In recent weeks, at least a dozen former Aristide supporters have been
slain -- most shot execution style with their hands tied behind their back.
   On Tuesday, police arrested former Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert
-- the highest ranking official detained since Aristide's departure on Feb.
29. Privert was accused of planning the killings of government opponents.
   Haiti's new leaders defend their right to detain those suspected of
corruption and other crimes. U.S. officials, however, have pressed Latortue
in recent days not to give government positions to leaders of armed groups
who have criminal backgrounds.
   The popular insurrection against Aristide began Feb. 5 and was led in
part by Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a leader of a paramilitary group accused of
killing more than 2,000 people in the 1990s.
   Jodel-Chamblain was convicted in absentia and sentenced to two life
prison terms for killing Aristide's justice minister and a chief financier.
   The judge in the case, Napela Saintil, said Wednesday he was beaten by a
man who claimed to be acting for Chamblain.
   Chamblain's rebels still hold sway over international peacekeepers and
police in northern Haiti. Peacekeeping troops and Haitian police consult
with him to ensure security.
   Haiti's new justice minister, Bernard Gousse, said Chamblain could be
retried under Haitian law but that the government could also pardon him and
Jean Tatoune, another rebel leader sentenced to life for his role in a
massacre of Aristide supporters.
   A street gang helped Tatoune escape from prison last year.
   "We have to take into consideration that (Chamblain) helped get rid of
two dictators in Haiti -- (Jean-Claude) Duvalier and Aristide," Gousse
said.
   "The contrast between the Haitian government's eagerness to prosecute
former Aristide officials and its indifference to the abusive record of
certain rebel leaders could not be more stark," said Joanne Mariner, deputy
director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch.
   Louis Joinet, Haiti expert for the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, is
in Haiti and is expected to issue an informal report later this week.
   In January, Joinet reported that Aristide's government had failed to
live up to promises to end abuses against opponents. Joinet also criticized
rights violations by anti-Aristide groups.
   Aristide, Haiti's first democratically elected leader, contends the
United States coerced him into leaving. U.S. officials insist Aristide left
Haiti voluntarily as the rebellion threatened to engulf the capital.
   Aristide is now in Jamaica as a guest of the Jamaican government.