27063: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Candidate Arrested (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

   By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 2 (AP) -- A Haitian presidential candidate who was a
suspect in the 2000 slaying of a prominent journalist was arrested Monday
for allegedly carrying unregistered weapons in his car, authorities said.
   Dany Toussaint, a former army major and senator running for president on
a pledge to restore order to chaotic Haiti, was arrested at a checkpoint by
United Nations peacekeepers as he drove in a northern town in the
impoverished country, U.N. officials and the country's police chief said.
   Toussaint, 48, was detained after peacekeepers found the unregistered
weapons in his car, Police Chief Mario Andresol told The Associated Press.
   "This is purely a police operation, there is no political undertone,"
Andresol said.
   Toussaint was riding in a car with three other men and the peacekeepers
found two unregistered weapons in the vehicle, said David Wimhurst, the
spokesman for the U.N. mission that was called to Haiti after a rebellion
forced the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
   Toussaint, one of 35 candidates for president in elections that have
been postponed four times, was detained in the northern city of Cap Haitien
and was expected to appear before a judge within the next two days,
Andresol said.
   The detained candidate was a former ally and bodyguard of the ousted
president. Toussaint now runs a private security company in a country
plagued by kidnapping.
   Toussaint received a summons to appear before a judge to be questioned
as a suspect in the 2000 slaying of prominent radio journalist and Aristide
opponent Jean Dominique. He refused, however, to respond to the summons and
the Senate refused to lift his parliamentary immunity.