29638: (News) Chamberlain: Haiti-US-Deportation (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By STEVENSON JACOBS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Dec 8 (AP) -- The U.S. Embassy on Friday denied that
Haiti's government was threatened with the suspension of aid and travel
visas if it tried to block the United States from deporting convicted
Haitian criminals back to their homeland.
   U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Shaila B. Manyam told The Associated Press that
Haitian officials were only informed that U.S. law allows the blocking of
visas for officials from any country that refuses to accept its citizens
after they have been convicted of crimes.
   But Manyam, denying an assertion by Haitian Prime Minister Jacques
Edouard Alexis, said the U.S. did not warn Haitian officials that they
would be subject to the penalty.
   "At no time in these discussions did U.S. officials suggest that U.S.
aid to Haiti was in jeopardy," Manyam said.
   In an appearance Thursday before the Haitian legislature, Alexis
criticized the long-standing U.S. policy of deporting newly released
Haitian convicts, blaming them for killings and kidnappings in the
impoverished Caribbean nation.
   He also said the U.S. planned to increase the number of criminals
deported back to Haiti each month from 25 to 100.
   Alexis told legislators he was warned that Haitians officials who don't
cooperate risked a suspension in U.S. aid and loss of travel privileges to
the United States.
   Haiti and other nations have long complained that convicts deported from
the United States fuel violent crime at home, a claim disputed by
Washington.
   The Haitian government does not track how many crimes are committed by
people who have been deported. More than 720 people have been slain in the
former French colony this year, including 28 Haitian police officers,
according to the Haiti-based National Defense Network for Human Rights.