23654: (pub) Chamberlain: Interim Haitian leader orders probe of killings (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Haiti's interim government
opened an investigation on Thursday into the killings of 13 people, whom
neighbors said were executed by police in a Port-au-Prince slum.
     Residents of the Fort National slum, where ousted President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide enjoyed strong support, said police stormed a house
Tuesday and executed 13 people.
     Late Thursday, Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue said he had
asked Justice Minister Bernard Gousse to open an investigation.
     "We have to determine if there are policemen who participated in the
killings so that appropriate sanctions may be taken immediately," Latortue
told Reuters shortly after attending a reception organized by U.N. Special
Envoy Juan Gabriel Valds to celebrate United Nations day.
     The U.N. special envoy for Haiti had urged officials to conduct an
inquiry into the killings. U.N. forces were brought in to restore order in
the deeply impoverished Caribbean nation after former President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced into exile amid an armed revolt in
February.
     Haitian Police Chief Leon Charles denied police had carried out any
operation in Fort National slum and said the police were investigating.
     Charles suggested a group of former members of the military could be
responsible for the killings.
     Latortue said: "Whether other ill-intentioned people used police black
uniform to perpetrate the crime, we don't know. But the police did not
order any operations there that day."
     He promised his government wouldn't repeat the practices of the past
"when police used to abuse people's rights with guaranteed impunity."
     "This government wants to break completely with old practices of a
repressive police shooting and killing people," he told Reuters.