23749: (net) radtimes: Haiti Probes Suspected Plot to Kill Aristide Allies (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

Haiti Probes Suspected Plot to Kill Aristide Allies

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=236546

Reuters
Nov 8, 2004 — By Joseph Guyler Delva

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - Several Haitian policemen are under
investigation over a suspected plot to kill jailed supporters of ousted
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, including his prime minister, police
sources said on Monday.

Police authorities declined to officially confirm they were investigating a
plan that sources said involved the assassinations of Aristide's imprisoned
allies, including former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and Aristide's
interior minister, Jocelerme Privert.

"We have several ongoing investigations concerning policemen involved in
wrongdoing, but those are not things we can discuss publicly at this
point," the police general inspector in chief, Frantz Jean-Francois, told
Reuters.

  Another police inspector said on condition of anonymity the authorities
in the impoverished Caribbean country had decided not to publicize the
allegations of a plot in order to avoid damaging the force's reputation.

A different police source said 19 officers were placed under special orders
to appear at the police force's general inspection office daily from 8 a.m.
to 4 p.m. until the allegations had been resolved.

"It is clear there is a plot to kill Neptune," said his lawyer, Mario
Joseph. "It is a good thing that public opinion has been informed about it,
but I don't think it's over."

Neptune has said in the past he believed he was under threat from former
soldiers who led the revolt against Aristide and who have since been
integrated into the police force.

Neptune, Privert and hundreds of other supporters of the former priest
turned president have been held in prison for up to six months, charged
with fomenting violence.

Their lawyers and human rights groups say the charges are baseless and that
the detainees have been targeted for their support of Aristide, once hailed
as a champion of Haiti's poor masses but accused by critics of corruption
and despotism.

The interim government of Prime Minister Gerard Latortue — installed after
Aristide was forced to flee on Feb. 29 after a monthlong armed revolt and
U.S. and French pressure to quit — accuses Aristide of directing from exile
in South Africa a wave of violence that has killed 170 people in the past
two months.

The violence, much of which has taken place between gangs still loyal to
Aristide and others that once supported him but have since switched sides,
threatens the success of a Brazilian-led U.N. peacekeeping mission.

It has also hampered relief efforts in the northwestern city of Gonaives
and northern areas where up to 3,000 people died in massive flooding in
September.

Over the weekend, a street gang in Gonaives that began the revolt against
Aristide attacked police and released prisoners. In a replay of the
February revolt, the gang said it was now responsible for security in the
city of 200,000 people.

.