23752: (pub) Chamberlain: Haiti probes suspected plot to kill Aristide allies (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Nov 8 (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.