21982: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Haitian security force proposed (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


Posted on Thu, May. 20, 2004



Haitian security force proposed

Haiti's government has neither accepted nor rejected an ex-senator's
proposal to gather former soldiers into a new force to maintain security.

BY MICHAEL DEIBERT

Special to The Herald


HAITI

PORT-AU-PRINCE -- A former Haitian senator and army major has proposed a new
force of 1,500 to 2,000 former soldiers to curb the insecurity plaguing the
country since an armed revolt in February.

The ex-senator, Dany Toussaint, said the ''dissuasion'' force, to be
composed of soldiers from the army that was disbanded in 1995 and those who
later fought in the rebel ranks, would respond to civil unrest and other
security threats.

His proposal, presented to Interior Ministry officials, has been criticized
as an attempt to re-create a brutal army, a reward for rebels who toppled a
democratically elected president, and a Toussaint play for power.

The 46-year-old Toussaint has steadfastly denied allegations linking him to
drug trafficking and the murder of a Haitian journalist in 2000. He bolted
from then President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas Family political party
in December and went on to become a government critic.

But the fact that the interim government of Prime Minister Gerard Latortue
has not rejected his plan outright, remaining cautious although not
unwelcoming, underlined its concerns over the country's growing insecurity.

''The primary mission of the army was to defend the country, and now the
threats are totally different,'' Ministry of Interior spokesman Mathias
Laureus said of the proposal.

``But we need to give priority to new institutions to be put in place to
defend the security of the nation, and having a national security force
would be a big step in the right direction.''

Since Aristide left Haiti on Feb. 29, Latortue's government has contended
with a host of problems, including a nearly empty national treasury and
power and water shortages.

GUNS AND VIOLENCE

Among the most vexing has been providing security to a country awash in guns
and where the lines between political and criminal violence have become
increasingly blurred.

Over its three years in power, and especially in its waning days as rebels
neared the capital city of Port-au-Prince, the Aristide government
distributed large quantities of weapons to gangs of loyalists known as
chimres. Also, most National Police members dropped their weapons and fled
the rebels.

After Aristide's flight, most of the chimres and rebels disappeared from
public view while keeping their guns. The glut of weapons has become such
that an Israeli-made Galil assault rifle, once fetching nearly $4,000 on the
black market, now sells for only $500.

Other guns came from the 7,000-member Haitian army, abolished by Aristide in
1995. The military toppled Aristide in 1991, but he returned to power after
a 1994 invasion by 20,000 U.S. troops.

The U.S.-led multinational peacekeeping force of about 3,000 soldiers that
was deployed in Haiti after Aristide's departure has brought a measure of
calm to the country but has done little to take the weapons off the streets.

`A STATE OF INSECURITY'

Even though the former Haitian army had an abysmal human rights record,
Toussaint says that military training and discipline are exactly what the
country's public-security apparatus lacks today.

''We are living in a state of insecurity -- it's a very broad concern,''
Toussaint said as he sat in his office in the police supply store that he
owns in the capital's suburb of Petionville.

''First we had the political insecurity of gangs armed by the government
persecuting people for political reasons,'' he said. ``But right now, it's
social and economic. People are hungry, and there is no work. When Aristide
demobilized the army . . . those same demobilized guys came back with the
same guns and a new name -- call them rebels, whatever. Now we need to have
a durable peace.''

According to his plan, the 1,500-to-2,000-strong unit that he would call the
National Internal Security Force would be placed under the Interior
Ministry, currently headed by former army Gen. Herard Abraham, not under the
Justice Ministry, which supervises the National Police.

The new force ''wouldn't have to patrol the streets,'' Toussaint said.
``They could be put in very strategic positions, because the chimres are
going to come back, one way or another. The guns are still out there.

``If we don't have a permanent force, the international community is going
to have to come back again, because Haiti has a violent tradition.''

Leslie Voltaire, a former member of Aristide's cabinet, disagreed,
especially if the unit is created before a new president and legislature are
chosen in elections expected next year.

''It would be a bad idea,'' Voltaire said. ''It would be like creating a new
army before the constitutional government can even think about it.''
Decrying what he claims has been a wave of repression against Aristide
supporters since Feb. 29, he added, ``It would open the door for more
persecution.''

Several former Aristide officials, including former Minister of Interior
Jocelerme Privert, have been arrested in recent weeks on a host of charges
from misappropriation of public funds to murder.

Toussaint also said he plans to form a political party and run in the 2005
elections, although he declined to specify for which office.

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