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#3833: Haitian Policemen Hijack Ferry With 100 on Board (fwd)
From:nozier@tradewind.net
WIRE:05/24/2000 11:45:00 ET
Haitian Policemen Hijack Ferry With 100 on Board
MIAMI (Reuters) - Ten Haitian police officers hijacked at gunpoint a
ferry with more than 100 people on board in a bid for political asylum
in the United States but the ship ran out of fuel off the Bahamas,
U.S. agents said on Wednesday. The officers, members of the Haitian
National Police force, commandeered the 120-foot (37-meter) catamaran
"Gonive Enfleche" hours after it left the Haitian capital
Port-au-Prince on May 16 en route to a small island off the coast, FBI
spokesman Terry Nelson said. "A group of 10 individuals in civilian
clothes, later identified as Haitian national policemen, hijacked the
vessel at gunpoint, took the captain and first mate and tied them up,"
he said. The vessel, carrying 121 people, ran out of fuel and
was intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard Tuesday 30 miles south of the
Bahamian island of Andros, about 500 miles northwest of Haiti, the U.S.
Coast Guard said. "The captain told them they didn't have enough fuel
to go to the United States but they said 'we're going anyway,"'
Nelson said.Haitians frequently try to flee their impoverished
Caribbean homeland in small boats to make the 650-mile (1040 km)
journey to the United States. Hundreds have arrived in the Bahamas,
between Haiti and Florida, in recent weeks.The U.S. Coast Guard has
rescued 700 Haitians at sea this year, many packed into barely
seaworthy vessels,compared with 480 last year. Haitian migrants
intercepted at sea or on U.S. shores are generally sent home.
The hijacking was described by witnesses and crew to FBI agents and
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service inspectors who boarded the
stalled vessel off Andros to determined what happened on board,
Nelson said. Two handguns apparently used to take over the vessel
were recovered, he said. "The reason we're investigating is potential
violation of international piracy laws," Nelson said. "We have
jurisdiction on the high seas if it is a U.S. flag vessel or the
victims are U.S. citizens."The FBI was presenting information to the
U.S.Justice Department to determine if the United States has
jurisdiction, he said. If authorities find the United States does not
have jurisdiction and the INS finds no basis for the officers'political
asylum claims, the Haitians would likely be returned to their
homeland. Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas, has struggled to
form a stable democracy following decades of dictatorship and military
rule. It was rocked by violence in recent weeks leading to last
Sunday' legislative and municipal elections, the first national
vote in more than three years.The National Police force was formed just
five years ago as Haiti's first civilian police department after former
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide disbanded the hated army when he was
restored to power by a U.S.-led invasion in 1994. The force, trained by
U.S. and foreign police trainers but staffed by inexperienced officers
who lack equipment, has struggled to maintain peace and has been dogged
by allegations of use of excessive force and involvement in
drug-running in Haiti, a major way station for South American cocaine
cartels. At least 500 officers have been fired from the6,000-member
force for human rights abuses,corruption or drug trafficking in recent
years.