25365: Arthur (radio) Radio Netherlands interview with Haiti Support Group (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Radio Netherlands - Newsline, Friday, 10th June 2005

Intro: The US says it is considering lifting its 14-year arms embargo on
Haiti. The US ambassador says that the Haitian police force is woefully short of
weapons and equipment to tackle escalating violence which is threatening
elections set for later this year. Washington has also said it is not impressed by
the performance of the US peacekeeping force in Haiti. The US proposal to
supply arms to Haiti again has alarmed many, and one of those is Charles Arthur,
head of the UK-based Haiti Support Group:

"I think what we have to recognise is that the UN mission has been in Haiti
for over a year now. It has 6,700 troops there and a couple of thousand police
officers, yet the situation is going from bad to worse. There is a lot of
violence in many parts of the capital. The US now seems to be suggesting that the
solution is to send more guns to the Haitian police force, and, at the same
time, the UN is saying they think the solution is to send more UN troops. From
what I am hearing from grassroots organisations in Port-au-Prince, they don't
think that this military-style approach to the problem is going to work at all.
The UN troops have been there....there are over 4,000 Haitian police
...nearly 7,000 UN troops, and we are talking about a couple of hundred gangsters. The
idea of sending more troops and more guns seems to many people in
Port-au-Prince quite unreasonable."

Question: You have been in Haiti quite recently. What do you think then is
the best approach to a problem that has been going for quite some time?

"Clearly there is a political issue that needs to be addressed. Many of the
people there still support the ousted president Aristide, and they are not
finding that any of their aspirations are being addressed by this interim
government. This is a political problem that needs to be resolved."

Question: They are talking about having elections in Haiti a little later on
this year. In fact the interim prime minister Gerard Latortue was put in place
to do that. Likewise the UN people who are there as part of the peacekeeping
operation. So isn't that process actually in place, or is it not working?

"It's not working on several levels. First of all there is the problem of the
violence in Port-au-Prince. In the opinion of most people that I spoke to it
will be impossible for a free and fair election process to go ahead while this
kind of violence is going on. Secondly, there is a very big logistical
problem. They have only just started to register the voters. There are 4.4 million
people who are supposed to be registered but they have only registered 1% of
them in one month, and there are only two months to go before the registration
period ends. It is not going to happen."

Question: One gets the impression that the gangs are getting bolder, and a
lot of what they are involved in is criminal as well as politically-motivated,
so therefore doesn't the US idea stand a good chance as one proposal to
effectively address the problem?

"I am afraid not. It is not a question of guns and troops. On the one hand
you've got to bring the Aristide supporters into the political process before
any election can take place. And secondly what has got to be addressed is the
massive economic problem - the vast disparity in wealth between the tiny elite
and the vast majority of the population. This is in fact the breeding ground
for the criminal gangs who are causing so much chaos."

Question: What about the Haitian police force? Its record is not quite
unblemished, and is it in the best interests now to pump more weapons into the
Haitian Police force? There are reports that some of them also have ties to some of
the gang members.

"Many people observing the human rights situation, and many people working
with the grassroots groups in Port-au-Prince are very concerned about this idea
of sending more and more guns to the Haitian police. They have a very bad
human rights record. There are many documented cases of extra-judicial executions,
shooting into crowds of demonstrators, and even the Haitian police
spokesperson herself has admitted that some police officers are involved in the
kidnapping that is causing so much concern at the moment. In this context, where the
police have a lot of dubious members, a lot of doubtful characters within their
ranks, people are thinking, 'is sending them more guns the right thing to
do?', and they are saying 'No'."

That's Charles Arthur from the Haiti Support Group.

Newsline is Radio Netherlands' flagship international current affairs
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