23181: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Pastor Killed (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By AMY BRACKEN

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Sept 19 (AP) -- Tens of thousands of people attended the
funeral of a slain evangelical pastor on Sunday, calling on authorities to
do more to combat crime in Haiti.
   The Rev. Jean-Moles Lovinksky Bertomieux, who hosted a popular radio
show of religious songs and prayers, was shot Sept. 13 on his way to work
in the capital of Port-au-Prince. Police said Saturday they have arrested
three suspects, accusing them of shooting the pastor after trying to rob
him.
   Bertomieux's funeral had been postponed Saturday after several people in
the crowd were injured.
   The funeral was held Sunday at an amphitheater near the National Palace.
The 43-year-old pastor's show had been one of the most listened to programs
in the Caribbean country of 8 million people.
   Haitians have complained that little has been done to fight crime since
the violent Feb. 29 ouster of former President Jean Bertrand Aristide.
   "Six months after the installation of an interim government, we do not
see or hear of any disarmament programs in place," the Rev. Edouard
Paultre, secretary general of the Protestant Federation of Haiti, said
during the funeral. "Six months after international forces came in saying
they would help us, bandits are killing across the country."
   Haiti's U.S.-backed interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue took office
after the three-week rebellion that led to Aristide's departure.
   Haiti's police force has been challenged since the rebellion when many
officers fled their posts. The country still suffers from clashes between
Aristide supporters, rebels and former soldiers who helped launch the
rebellion.
   Bertomieux had worked at Radio Caraibes for 20 years and was host of "La
Manne du Matin," or Godsend of the Morning. He had also founded a primary
and secondary school with the same name in Port-au-Prince.
   In 1995, he made an unsuccessful bid for the lower house of Parliament
for the National Congress of Democratic Movements Party, but he was not
overtly political on the radio.