21894: (Chamberlain) France urges Haiti to avoid a 'witch hunt' (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, May 15 (Reuters) - France urged its former
colony Haiti on Saturday to avoid a "witch hunt," a day after the political
party of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide accused the government of
arresting sympathizers.
     On a visit to Haiti to see French soldiers in a U.S.-led peace force,
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier nevertheless praised the government
of interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, which denies it has launched a
campaign of retribution against Aristide's supporters.
     "It is a fundamental requirement of any state of law to always know
how to differentiate between justice and vengeance, and between holding
people accountable and carrying out a witch hunt," Barnier said in a speech
in Port-au-Prince.
     Barnier arrived on Friday in the impoverished Caribbean country which
gained independence from France in 1804. Just before the arrival,
Aristide's Lavalas Family party said at least 12 members -- including
Annette Auguste, one of Aristide's most influential backers -- had been
detained in a new wave of arrests over the previous 10 days.
     "Those people have been arrested arbitrarily, without a warrant and in
violation of their rights," party spokesman Gilvert Angervil said.
     Police Chief Leon Charles said police were seeking other Aristide
allies suspected of being involved in crimes.
     "I have a lot of warrants, we are looking for those people, so that
they may face justice," he told Reuters.
     In recent weeks, the inmate population of the renovated national
penitentiary in Port-au-Prince swelled to just short of 150 people from
about 20, prison guards said.
     It was impossible to verify how many were linked to Lavalas, which has
accused Latortue of a retribution campaign since Aristide fled a month-long
armed revolt on Feb. 29.
     Lavalas supporters have been keeping a low profile. They plan to march
on Tuesday in Port-au-Prince in one of their first opportunities to show
how much support Aristide still commands.
     Latortue was named by a council of prominent Haitians to lead the
country to elections in 2005. He denies targeting Aristide supporters even
as rebels that helped drive the former Roman Catholic priest from power
remain armed and at large.
     Haitian Justice Minister Bernard Gousse told Reuters it was not his
fault if the previous government "based its policies on corruption,
drug-trafficking, on human rights abuses."
     "I have always said that I will not use the constitutional system as
of tool of revenge or lynching," he said.
     The arrest of Auguste, 60, has become a rallying point for Lavalas
supporters, many of whom came from the slums where Aristide was revered as
a champion of the poor.
     Auguste was arrested on Monday when U.S. Marines in a multinational
peacekeeping force burst into her house. The community leader, who had an
operation three months ago, was sleeping.
     A spokesman for the U.S.-led force, Lt. Col. Dave Lapan, said U.S.
troops searched Auguste's home after receiving information about possible
activities that could threaten them. Auguste and 11 relatives were
interrogated for about seven hours before all except Auguste were released.
     "I challenge anybody to prove I have been involved in any criminal
activities," she said from prison. "But I know the regime now in power
considers being close to Aristide an awful crime."