21284: (Chamberlain) Protecting Haiti's hospitals (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PETER PRENGAMAN

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, April 12 (AP) -- Large coils of new barbed-wire run
along the fence outside Canape Vert hospital, and an armed guard checks
visitors for weapons.
   Hospital security is the biggest challenge for the International
Committee for the Red Cross in Haiti, where patients have been shot or
dragged away by armed gangs during and after the rebellion that ousted
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February.
   "If tomorrow we have a similar crisis, will people respect the hospitals
and see them as a place where the fighting should stop?" asked Felipe
Donoso, head of the ICRC in Haiti.
   "The answer at this point is no. There has been a terrible erosion of
values here."
   The Geneva-based ICRC has spent thousands of dollars upgrading security
at hospitals in the capital Port-au-Prince and the northern city of
Gonaives. The group also is advising smaller hospitals around the country
on how to better protect their facilities, Donoso said.
   In the violent rebellion surrounding Aristide's ouster on Feb. 29,
hundreds of wounded Haitians were brought to hospitals such as Canape Vert.
   But all too often, the fighting between Aristide opponents and
supporters continued inside hospital halls. Gun-toting gangs roamed the
wards, looking to finish off wounded enemies.
   At least one man was killed in Gonaives' public hospital, and robberies
and beatings occurred in hospitals all over the country. Police were just
as likely as gangs to barge into operating rooms looking for enemies,
Donoso said.
   "Aristide supporters and police would rush in here and rough people up,"
said Marys Edmond, a nurse at Canape Vert. "It was not an easy atmosphere
to work in, and there's fear it will be like that again."
   A disarmament campaign by the U.S.-led multinational force of about
3,600 soldiers has barely made headway.
   For a month after Aristide left, French troops guarded Canape Vert and
other hospitals in Port-au-Prince. Now, American, Canadian and Chilean
troops join the French in regularly patrolling them.
   Josette Bijoux, Haiti's interim health minister, said in a radio
interview that she had asked the multinational force to increase hospital
patrols.
   "We are working mainly on security right now," she said.
   Last month, U.S. soldiers burst into Canape Vert with M-16s at the
ready, pursuing a report of an injured American citizen. They later
apologized.
   No hospital attacks have been reported the past two weeks because of the
improved security, Donoso said. But there is a fear of what lies ahead when
foreign troops leave, he said.
   The multinational force will give way to a Brazil-led U.N. peacekeeping
force in June. That force will have a six-month mandate in Haiti.
   The Red Cross has been in Haiti since 1994, when a U.S.-led force
invaded the Caribbean nation to restore Aristide, who had been toppled in a
1991 coup. There are about 30 Red Cross doctors, nurses and administrators
in Haiti.
   The Red Cross is pressing the country's interim, cash-strapped
government to invest in hospital security. It also is urging multinational
forces to train Haiti's discredited police force on the Red Cross' mission
and the rights of patients under the Geneva Conventions.
   In June, the group will launch a radio campaign on codes of conduct in
hospitals and on patients' rights.
   "It's a mentality change that will take two or three years," Donoso
said.
   Making hospitals safe also will require revamping the way Haitian police
operate, Donoso said. The tattered force disbanded in many towns seized and
still controlled by rebels.
   "We've seen how the police act," Donoso said. "It's not just a question
of improving their training, but how they view citizens and approach them."