26064: Arthur (news) Kidnapping surge grips capital (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

LATINAMERICA PRESS
Vol. 37, No. 17, August 24, 2005

Kidnapping surge grips capital
by Charles Arthur

Political motivation may not be the only cause in recent spike in
kidnappings, some warn.

Residents in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, are trying to come to terms
with a recent surge in kidnappings in the city, where the phenomenon has been
a growing problem in recent months. In April the number of kidnappings
increased sharply. That month, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti
(Minustah) reported at least 130 cases of individuals held for ransom. Since then,
the number of kidnappings has increased steadily, generating a sense of panic
in the city.

The victim usually is forced into a car at gunpoint, blindfolded, and then
driven to an unknown location within the city. There, they are held while the
kidnappers contact relatives by cell phone and demand ransom money. In most
cases, the authorities are not informed, and when the money is handed over, the
victims are released. People from all social classes have been taken hostage,
and the amounts paid vary from as little as 1,000 gourdes (US$25) to as much as
ten million gourdes ($250,000).

However, a number of kidnap victims have been killed. In one of the most
notorious cases, the progressive journalist and poet Jacques Roche was kidnapped
on July 10. His family and friends could only raise part of the $250,000 ransom
demand, and four days later, his corpse was found in a road in downtown
Port-au-Prince. He was tortured and shot to death.

In the wake of Roche's gruesome murder, the interim government - installed
following the collapse of the Lavalas Family government in February 2004 (LP,
March 10, 2004) - was quick to blame gunmen loyal to the ousted president,
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The city has been plagued by violence since Aristide's ouster, and officials
from the interim government led by Prime Minister Gérard Latortue have accused
pro-Aristide gunmen in the capital's slums of using violence to destabilize
the country and destroy plans for elections later this year.

Minister of Culture Magalie Comeau Denis blamed armed gangs loyal to Aristide
for the kidnapping and murder. She told the congregation at Roche's funeral
service on July 21,"They killed Jacques and abandoned his body on the streets
for all of us to see, in order to frighten us. We will never be afraid."

Also on the day of Roche's funeral, David Bazile, the secretary of state for
public security, was interviewed on Radio Metropole, a station closely aligned
with the Group of 184 civil society coalition. He spoke at a time when,
according to a UN official, the number of kidnappings had risen to a daily average
of at least 10. Bazile declared, "The government is ready to put an end to
this crisis that threatens the stability of the country." Bazile, a former army
officer appointed by Latortue last October, threatened the kidnappers: "They
can give themselves up to the police or they can be killed by the forces of
order."

The police force and the Minustah have implemented aggressive tactics aimed
at breaking the kidnap rings, and freeing victims held in slum areas. On Aug.
4, Minustah freed a Dominican national in his twenties who had been held by his
abductors for two weeks, bringing the total to five persons whose release
they have forced in the preceding six weeks.

But, although most commentators are convinced that pro-Aristide gangs are
involved in some of the kidnappings, there are some who believe that there is
more to it than just politics.

In May, the police spokesperson told journalists that a number of police
officers were believed to be involved in kidnappings as a way of making money.
Later that same month, one man who works for a reputable non-governmental
organization but who requested anonymity out of fear for his own safety, said that he
witnessed a kidnapping in the street.

"My first reaction was to reach for my cell phone to call the police," he
said. "But then I thought I could be connected to a policeman involved in the
kidnapping, and he could trace me through my cell phone number." He never made
the call.

Further speculation about who is behind the kidnapping surge following the
June 23 arrest of a man from an upper middle class family after he attempted to
use a credit card recently taken from a kidnap victim. After the arrest, the
Haitian Press Agency (AHP) published an editorial suggesting that the Minustah
had realized that it should not just look for the culprits in the city's slum
areas.

The sense that the kidnapping is criminally rather than politically motivated
is reinforced by reports from some kidnap victims on their release. A number
of them, whose families paid ransom demands, have reported that their captors
knew their precise bank account details. The theory is that bank employees are
passing information to the kidnappers to help them identify wealthy targets.

In early August, Kelly Bastien, a former legislator and one-time head of the
lower house of parliament, was kidnapped in Port-au-Prince. On his release two
days after a ransom of $25,000 was paid, Bastien said he believed his captors
seized him for financial gain rather than for political reasons. He thinks
his captors took him because he was driving an expensive-looking sport utility
vehicle. "I don't think these men were into politics, they were just after the
money," he said.

Other released kidnap victims report that their captors did not speak either
of the local languages, Creole or French, and instead conversed in English.
Such stories lend credence to the allegation that some of the kidnappers are
criminals of Haitian origin recently deported to Haiti by the United States.