23707: (Pub) Hermantin-Miami-Herald-Kidnapping wave a new torment for Haitians (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Tue, Nov. 02, 2004




HAITI


Posted on Tue, Nov. 02, 2004


HAITI


Kidnapping wave a new torment for Haitians

By SUSANNAH A. NESMITH

snesmith@herald.com


PORT-AU-PRINCE - On Sept. 21, Ronal Marcelin got up early, had breakfast
with his family and went to the port to buy ginger roots to sell to farmers,
a new business venture about which he was excited.

It was the last his family heard from him. For the next week, family members
called his cellphone and got strangers on the other end, called police and
got no help, paid ransoms to gangsters and got only requests for more money.

In a country struggling to right itself after a violent rebellion forced out
the president, where political violence claimed more than 57 lives last
month, where the police are understaffed and outgunned, kidnapping has
become ''an easy way to make money with very little risk,'' a police
official acknowledged.

ESCAPEES A FACTOR?

Officials blame the increase in kidnappings this year on criminals who
escaped from the prisons when the government fell in February, though they
acknowledge that even police officers have been involved.

Marcelin's family went to the local police station, but they say officers
told them it wasn't their job to search for dead bodies. The Marcelins
believed Ronal was alive. They had been receiving calls requesting ransom
money.

After shelling out $1,100 to ransom Ronal -- a small fortune in impoverished
Haiti -- Marcelin's family was told to meet the kidnappers. But no one
showed up at the designated meeting place.

Four days after Ronal disappeared, the family found a police inspector who
was willing to take them to the place where they had heard Ronal was being
held. It turned out to be a dumping ground for bodies on the outskirts of
town.

`IT WAS TOO LATE'

''They were taking us to the place where it happened, but it was too late,''
said Ronal's brother Buteau Marcelin. ``We only recognized his body because
of a pen in his pocket which was a gift. We never found his head or his
arms. We bought a coffin and buried his legs.''

Even after the Marcelins found Ronal, the kidnappers kept calling, demanding
money.

''We're scared to answer the phone now,'' Buteau Marcelin said. ``There's no
one to protect us from them.''

Michael Lucius, chief of the judicial police, said he was unaware of the
Marcelin case but that with the chaos in the national police, the case
wasn't very surprising. Lucius runs a kidnapping task force, but he knows
that some, if not many, of the cases are never reported to him.

Some families refuse to report the crimes because the kidnappers tell them
the hostage will be killed if police become involved. Sometimes local
officers, undertrained and outgunned in the slums, are scared to get
involved. And many Haitians simply don't trust the police.

In June, the police department announced the arrest of an officer who was
leading a large kidnapping gang.

''We will not tolerate police officers using their position, using their
guns against people,'' Lucius said. ``But this will not make people trust
us. We can't force somebody to come to report these crimes to the police.''

He said kidnapping used to be a crime restricted to drug dealers, who used
it in the 1990s to settle disputes. But it began to seep into the general
public in 1999 and by 2001 had become a problem around the country. Police
dismantled several kidnapping rings in 2002 and 2003 and the situation
improved. But the prisons were emptied in February when the government fell.

Kidnapping in Haiti is still a relatively new problem and doesn't approach
the level seen in other countries -- notably Colombia, where thousands are
taken hostage every year. Thirty-one kidnappings have been reported to
police since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted and the jails were
opened on Feb. 29. Though he didn't have the numbers handy, Lucius said that
was much higher than before the rebellion.

Lucius says that aggressive police work is beginning to get the problem
under control. His task force has liberated hostages, made arrests or both
in 24 of the 31 cases.

He proudly pointed to an easel with a manila pad on it where he and his men
map out their cases. One victim was kidnapped at 8:30 a.m. and liberated by
police that afternoon. The task force broke up a large kidnapping ring in
September, arresting a notorious gang leader who escaped from prison in
February.

Unlike other countries where kidnapping is a problem, Haiti has not seen
political kidnappings. Some Haitian Americans have been taken hostage, but
Lucius believes the kidnappers probably didn't even know whom they were
snatching.

''The kidnappers, they do not do it because person X is either Haitian or
American,'' he said. ``They do it because the person's appearance shows they
have money.

''Right now, kidnapping in Haiti is just an easy way to make money with very
little risk,'' he said, wearily. ``We are doing all we can, but it is a
complicated crime, and we have so many things to do.''

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