22523: (Chamberlain) Haiti's ex-PM arrested, denounces ``political ... (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

    By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, June 27 (Reuters) - Haiti's former prime
minister, Yvon Neptune, who served under ousted President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, surrendered to police on Sunday to face mass murder charges but
said the case against him was politically motivated.
     Neptune had been in hiding since soon after Aristide was forced into
exile on Feb. 29 by a month-long armed revolt and U.S. and French pressure
to quit. He turned himself in to police and was taken to the National
Penitentiary in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
     Neptune gave himself up after a judge in Saint Marc, 60 miles (95 km)
north of Port-au-Prince, issued an arrest warrant for him as part of an
inquiry into what Aristide opponents have called a a massacre on Feb. 11 in
La Syrie, a village near Saint Marc.
     "I've never participated nor have I ordered any massacre; it is just
political justice in action," Neptune told Reuters in a phone interview
before giving himself up.
    Justice minister Bernard Gousse, a member of the interim government
appointed by a council of prominent Haitians after Aristide left, said the
decision to prosecute Neptune was not politically motivated.
     "Judicial authorities are just doing their job," he said.
     During February's revolt against Aristide, led by an armed gang and
former members of the army and paramilitary groups, clashes between pro and
anti-Aristide gangs were frequent. More than 200 people were killed during
the revolt in the impoverished Caribbean country of 8 million people.
    Aristide opponents said about 50 people were killed in La Syrie on Feb.
11, but journalists and human rights activists who went there 24 hours
after the killings were reported saw five bodies.
     An armed group in Saint Marc called "Ramicos," whose leader has been
named mayor of the town and which said those killed on Feb. 11 were mostly
its members, is among those accusing Neptune of involvement, Neptune said.
     "The members of Ramicos, who killed partisans of Aristide, who burned
police headquarters and who committed other awful crimes in Saint Marc
during the rebellion, are now those used by the authorities to accuse me,"
he said.
     Since Aristide left, Prime Minister Gerard Latortue's interim
government has arrested supporters of the former president or of his
Lavalas Family party, accusing them of corruption, murder and other crimes.
     But little effort has been made to go after human rights abusers from
past military regimes who joined the revolt, prompting human rights groups
to call for a more even-handed approach.
     Neptune called on Sunday for the international community to
independently investigate his case.
    "I cannot trust Haitian judicial authorities. The justice minister,
Bernard Gousse, is part of a political group which hates me," Neptune told
Reuters. He referred to the 184 group, led by powerful businessman Andre
Apaid, which played a prominent role in the political movement to oust
Aristide before the armed revolt in February.
     A U.N. peacekeeping force led by Brazil has just taken over command
from a U.S.-led force that arrived in Haiti hours after Aristide fled to
try to restore order. Aristide, who has repeatedly said that his removal
was unconstitutional, is living in exile in South Africa.