24387: (news) Chamberlain: Haitian police under pressure to change (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MICHELLE FAUL

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 1 (AP) -- Outgunned, undermanned and blamed for
some of the country's violence, Haitian police are under pressure to mend
decades of mistrust before elections next fall that many people fear are
destined for bloodshed.
   The United States and United Nations have repeatedly tried and failed to
build an evenhanded police force over the years, and offered help again
last year after rebels ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide during a
three-week revolt.
   But Haitians, who have seen a string of governments use the police as
brutal enforcers, say officers still operate above the law, targeting
opponents and using trigger-happy tactics. Violence has come in waves since
September, with some 400 civilians and 25 police slain, according to the
National Coalition for Haitian Rights and an Associated Press count.
   On Monday, five officers trying to block unarmed protesters escorted by
U.N. peacekeepers fired tear gas, then bullets, into a crowd of hundreds.
When the shooting ended, two men lay dead in the street. "Police could have
hit us by shooting that way," a Brazilian peacekeeper complained.
   This time the victims were Aristide supporters marking the first
anniversary of his flight from Haiti with demands that he return from exile
in South Africa.
   A little more than a year ago, police were shooting at demonstrators
calling for Aristide's downfall. Former soldiers responded by leading a
revolt that ousted Aristide and left dozens of policemen dead or mutilated.
Many officers abandoned their posts and some fled the country.
   U.N. civilian police arrived to find a depleted and demoralized force.
   The U.S.-backed interim government fired 200 corrupt or inexperienced
officers. But the annual U.S. human rights report released Tuesday said
some of the remaining Haitian officers "were implicated in corruption,
kidnapping and narcotics trafficking" and "committed human rights abuses"
in 2004.
   Dan Moskaluk, a spokesman for the U.N. training and support mission run
by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said there are only 2,000 to 3,000
officers in Haiti, an impoverished nation of 8 million people plagued by
lawlessness. By contrast, New York, a city with a similar population but
with far less crime, has about 37,000 officers.
   Haitian police are also outgunned. The officers, armed with new M-16
rifles, sawed-off shotguns and pistols, must patrol slums filled with
Aristide supporters who often have better weapons that were looted during
the uprising.
   Despite numerous telephone calls and a visit to the police headquarters
over more than a week, The Associated Press was unable to get police
commanders to comment on the situation.
   Violence has worsened since police fired on a group of Aristide
supporters in September, killing two people. The next day, the bodies of
three beheaded officers were found in a pro-Aristide slum.
   Civilians blame police for the deaths of at least eight of 19 people
shot to death since Friday in Port-au-Prince, the capital.
   Lt. Gen. Augusto Heleno Ribeiro, the Brazilian commander of the U.N.
peacekeeping mission, confirmed that police killed six people Friday in Bel
Air, a hotspot of Aristide militants where Monday's protest took place.
Residents said police fired indiscriminately while peacekeepers stood by.
Heleno said no U.N. forces were involved in the raid.
   He said police misbehavior had poisoned the atmosphere for peacekeepers.
"We're being received with a completely different attitude," he told AP.
   On Friday, people stoned a U.N. vehicle in Bel Air and fired on
peacekeepers, slightly wounding two. On Saturday, a third was hit by
fragments from a ricocheting bullet.
   Pierre Esperance, head of the National Coalition of Haitian Rights, said
fear of the police is widespread and charged that officers are guilty of
killing people after arrests. "Several arrests have been followed by
disappearances and/or executions," he said.
   In one incident, 10 young people were killed Oct. 26 in what witnesses
said was a police raid in Fort National, a district neighboring Bel Air.
   Luc Francois, the 65-year-old father of one of the dead, said no
authorities had questioned about the incident. Witnesses to the raid also
said they had never been contacted.
   "We're scared to complain. If you complain, your house gets burned down
and you have to flee," Francois said.