Haiti Report for June 10, 2005


IN THIS REPORT:
- US Working to Lift Arms Embargo
- Butteur Metayer Died
- Taiwan Issues Travel Alert for Haiti
- Elections
- US Assistant Secretary of State Visits Haiti
- US Marines May Go to Haiti
- Washington Post Editorial: Send Marines to Haiti
- Guy Philippe Turns Politician
- CARICOM Expresses Deep Concern
- Arson Attack at Tet Bef Market in Port-au-Prince
- Lavalas Spokesperson Condemns Attack at Tet Bef Market
- Latortue Criticizes UN Mission
- Violence During Police Raids in Port-au-Prince
- New MINUSTAH Arrangements to Counteract Insecurity

US Working to Lift Arms Embargo:
The United States is working on a plan that will allow Haiti to buy
weapons as escalating violence threatens elections set for this year to
replace ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the U.S. ambassador
said on Wednesday. Ambassador James Foley said the 4,000-strong Haitian
police force was woefully short of weapons and equipment. The
14-year-old arms embargo that the United States imposed on Haiti allows
for exceptions. "Finally, the State Department and the U.S. Congress
are now working on a supervision and training program that would allow
the Haitian government to purchase weapons in the U.S.," Foley said.
"Those weapons are a very important element in the capacity of the
Haitian police to ensure security," Foley said during a ceremony at
which the U.S. Embassy donated 40 four-wheel-drive trucks, 75
motorcycles, two armored cars and police protective gear. The gear is
worth $2.6 million. Some human rights groups, which have accused the
Haitian police of summary executions and other violence against
Aristide supporters, said selling the police weapons might fuel
increased rights violations. They also fear some of the guns could end
up in the hands of gangs blamed for crime and political violence that
has killed more than 700 people since September. (Reuters, 6/8)

Butteur Metayer Died:
A gang leader who started the uprising that led to the ouster of
Haiti's President Jean-Bertrand Aristide died Wednesday of kidney
failure, according to a friend and Haiti's media. Butteur Metayer, 34,
died at his home in the northwestern city of Gonaives surrounded by
family, said Winter Etienne, a former member of Metayer's Cannibal Army
gang, whose rebellion was joined by ex-soldiers and toppled Aristide in
February 2004. Private radio Metropole also reported Metayer's death.
(AP, 6/8)

Taiwan Issues Travel Alert for Haiti:
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) urged the public Wednesday to
refrain from traveling to the Caribbean nation of Haiti for the time
being because of its political instability and deteriorating public
order. MOFA spokesman Michel Lu said the ministry has raised its travel
alert for Haiti from orange, or elevated, to red, or the highest level
on its alert system. For security concerns, Lu said, local citizens
should avoid traveling there at the moment. (Central News Agency,
Taiwan, 6/8)

Elections:
With five months to go before elections are held in Haiti, its
Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) is planning to disenfranchise many
voters by refusing to register residents in poorer neighborhoods.

CEP President Max Mathurin announced that the council will not set up
voter registration offices in the so-called “popular neighborhoods”
through the country — hotbeds of support for the Lavalas Party of
deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide — where much of the population
resides. Mathurin provided no justification for the decision except to
say that it will remain in force “until the situation changes.” Only
56,000 people have been registered so far out of 4.4 million eligible
to vote. The CEP intends to end its voter registration drive July 31.

Brian Concannon Jr. of the Port-au-Prince-based Institute for Justice
and Democracy in Haiti told the World, “The whole point of both the
repression [against Lavalas supporters] and the limited registration
facilities is to prevent the Lavalas Party from campaigning and its
supporters from voting.” He added, “It is important to understand that
the opposition to Lavalas, in electoral terms, has never existed. There
are no parties that have demonstrated an ability to attract any votes
or to effectively compete with Lavalas.”

A human rights monitor based in Haiti, who asked that her name not be
mentioned, agreed with Concannon that the CEP’s unwillingness to
register voters in poor neighborhoods “should be seen as a deliberate
attempt to exclude opponents of the current regime from voting.”
However, “The question is not simply one of whether voting bureaus will
be installed in popular neighborhoods, or of whether on one or two days
voting can happen.

“The climate of insecurity and frequent violations of the rights of
residents of these areas by the interim authorities makes it impossible
for anyone to organize,” she said. “Most people are literally
struggling to live — death from starvation is on the rise in all of the
popular neighborhoods, violence is paralyzing everything, no one can
function. Residents of popular neighborhoods, and the population at
large, cannot begin to discuss elections given the current situation in
the country.”

Anthony Fenton, a Canadian-based journalist and analyst, said, “Many of
the same organizations that helped engineer the sham elections in
Afghanistan and Iraq are hard at work in Haiti. In fact, the very same
organizations that helped destabilize the Lavalas government, such as
the International Republican Institute, and others who receive U.S.
Agency for International Development and Canadian International
Development Agency money, are working with other pioneers of U.S.-led
‘democracy enhancement’ projects to ensure a certain outcome. When you
‘enhance’ a democracy by destabilizing it, it follows logically that
you should oversee ‘free and fair’ elections by excluding the majority
of Haitian voters.”

In related news, a Canadian government-funded report by consultant Ron
Gould obtained by the World is critical of the CEP’s performance. Gould
writes, “Overall, there is a fragmented, piecemeal approach to the
carrying out the Haitian election process, a process which only
functions smoothly if it is an integrated continuum.” He concludes,
“The CEP is not an electoral management decision-making body, but a
group of nine individuals, each with separated areas of responsibility
and internal conflicts, which negatively affects effective management
and decision making.”

Haiti’s U.S.-installed government plans to hold local, legislative and
presidential elections in November and December, although the CEP
stated recently that these dates might be changed. Lavalas, the
nation’s largest party, refuses to take part in the elections because
of the continuing state-led repression directed against it. (People’s
Weekly World Newspaper, 6/9)

Despite clear failures by the police and 8,000 United Nations
peacekeepers to make the streets here safe from violent gangs,
Assistant Secretary of State Roger F. Noriega and special envoys from
Canada, France and Brazil expressed confidence during a visit here on
Thursday that Haiti's political transition was on course. They said
they expected national elections to be held in four months, as planned.

"We want to send a strong message," said Ambassador Daniel Parfait of
France. "We want elections in Haiti. And we want them to happen on
time. We know that the elections will not change everything, but
without them, nothing will change."

In recent months, entire neighborhoods and major roads have fallen
under the control of criminal gangs who have unleashed a wave of
killings, kidnappings and robberies. National elections are to begin in
October, but infighting has crippled the Haitian agency charged with
organizing the vote. A United Nations official helping the government
organize the elections said fewer than 100,000 of the 4 million
potential voters had been registered. Fewer than a quarter of the
registration centers needed have been opened. There are no clear
candidates or campaigns. (New York Times, 6/10)

Cogent Systems today announced it has been awarded a $2.5 million
contract for its Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS)
solution to be used by the Provisional Electoral Council of Haiti. The
contract was awarded by the Organization of American States (OAS) as
part of its Special Mission to Strengthen Democracy in Haiti program.
The new order for Cogent's AFIS solution will be utilized in Haiti to
capture voters' fingerprints, create a database and match the
fingerprints to authenticate voters' identities and prevent duplicate
registration. The system is expected to support the enrollment of 4.5
million voters for elections in Haiti that are scheduled to be held in
the fourth quarter of
2005. Cogent will also provide installation and maintenance services
and training to system operators to support ongoing voter enrollment in
Haiti. (Cogent Systems, 5/31)

Elections in Haiti will take place as scheduled later this year, the
troubled country's interim prime minister told the U.N. Security
Council on Tuesday as he renewed an appeal for more peacekeepers.
Gerard Latortue said the council had a "very enthusiastic" response to
his assurances on elections and a request for U.N. reinforcements,
delivered in a closed-door session. But it was unclear whether he won
full council support for a 12-month extension of the U.N. peacekeeping
mission's mandate, due to expire June 24. The mandate's duration "is
still under discussion," Latortue told reporters after the council
meeting. The United Nations sent peacekeepers to Haiti to help prop up
the interim government appointed after Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the
country's last elected president, fled into exile in South Africa in
February 2004 under foreign pressure and in the face of a violent
rebellion. To restore an elected government, local elections are to be
held on Oct. 9 and legislative and presidential elections are scheduled
for Nov. 13, with a run-off set for Dec. 18. But voter registration and
other steps are falling behind schedule. The U.N. mission now numbers
6,200 troops and nearly 1,300 civilian police, and U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended an additional 750 soldiers
and 275 police officers, to help prepare for elections. "What I have
suggested is to have more police if possible," Latortue said. Chinese
Ambassador Wang Guangya has objected to a full-year mandate, preferring
six months. While China has contributed a contingent of riot police to
the Haiti mission, it does not have diplomatic relations with Haiti,
which recognizes the self-governing island of Taiwan. Guangya was
irritated to encounter Taiwanese officials at a government reception
during a recent council visit to Haiti. French Ambassador Jean-Marc de
la Sabliere, the council president for June, said the mandate should
extend beyond the elections to ensure security throughout the
campaign."I am confident this has been understood and that we will have
a good result," he said. (Reuters, 6/7)

Statement from Congresswoman Maxine Waters: “The recent escalation in
violence in Haiti, along with an outrageous decision by the Haitian
Supreme Court, provides further proof that Haiti is not ready for
elections. This past weekend, there were press reports that the Haitian
police raided the neighborhood of Bel Air in Port-au-Prince, killing at
least four people and burning at least twelve homes. Last week,
unknown gunmen shot a French official and stole his car while he was
driving from Cap Haitien to Port-au-Prince. The official, Paul-Henri
Mourral, died at a hospital in Port-au-Prince several hours later on
May 31. At least seven people were killed the same day when armed men
opened fire and started a fire that spread throughout a market in
Port-au-Prince. The latest violence came less than two weeks after the
U.S. ordered all non-emergency U.S. Embassy personnel and their family
members to leave Haiti because of rising crime and the lack of
security. The State Department also issued a travel warning on May 26,
2005, that urges all U.S. citizens to leave Haiti and warned staff
persons who remained to stay in their homes at night. The travel
warning was issued the day after unknown gunmen fired five rounds of
bullets at a U.S. Embassy van traveling in downtown Port-au-Prince&ldots;
 
“Human rights violations occur with impunity in Haiti. Amnesty
International has expressed serious concerns about arbitrary arrests,
ill-treatment in detention centers, and summary executions attributed
to members of the Haitian National Police. It has been estimated that
there are over 700 political prisoners in Haiti, and most of these
prisoners have been detained illegally for months without formal
charges. Several former government officials and prominent supporters
of the Lavalas political party, including former Prime Minister Yvon
Neptune, former Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert, and Haitian singer
Anne Auguste, are among those detained illegally. Yet, instead of
ordering the release of illegally detained prisoners, the Haitian
Supreme Court has resorted to reversing the convictions that resulted
from past human rights violations. It is abundantly clear that free and
fair elections cannot take place in the current atmosphere of
insecurity and violence in Haiti. Candidates will not be able to
campaign safely or even travel from town to town without risking their
lives. Nevertheless, the interim government of Haiti is persisting in
its plans to hold elections in October and November of this year.
 
“If elections are held under the current conditions, they will not be
considered credible in the eyes of the vast majority of Haitians. The
Provisional Electoral Council, which is in charge of organizing the
elections, is widely regarded as biased and does not include any
representatives of the Lavalas party. Furthermore, without a
functioning judicial system, allegations of election fraud cannot be
investigated and are likely to be ignored. If the interim government
does manage to organize elections, they will almost certainly be marred
by violence and only the winners will accept the result. Those who
insist that Haiti should hold elections this year are setting the
country up for a disaster. Free and fair elections cannot occur in any
country without a functioning system of justice and a modicum of
security. The United States Government should use its influence with
the interim government of Haiti to insist that the interim government
immediately releases all political prisoners, establishes an
independent judiciary, and postpones elections until violent gangs and
death squads have been disarmed and security has been restored. Until
all political parties including Lavalas can travel safely, they cannot
be expected to campaign for office, and until the people of Haiti can
walk outside of their houses in peace, they cannot be expected to
vote.” (6/7)

Max Mathurin, provisional President of the provisional Electoral
Council, acknowledged for the first time Thursday that the scheduled
dates set for the elections might not hold. "We can always move back
the date scheduled for the municipal and local elections", declared Mr.
Mathurin in response to questions from a radio station in the capital.
The CEP is not a slave to any date, he said. The CEP's provisional
president also recognized that the voter registration process is not
going along very well because, he said, of the climate of insecurity
that prevails in the country. Only some 56.000 voters have registered
since the start of the process a little over a month ago, with only two
months left to go in the registration period. (AHP, 6/3)

US Assistant Secretary of State Visits Haiti:
The top US envoy for Western hemisphere affairs was due in Haiti this
week for talks on stabilizing the impoverished Caribbean nation torn by
a new wave of violence, US officials said. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice said Roger Noriega would travel to Haiti after
attending the wrapup Tuesday of the Organization of American States
(OAS) General Assembly in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Noriega, an
assistant secretary of state, will have discussions on shoring up
Haiti’s political structure ahead of elections scheduled for later this
year, Rice told a group of Latino journalists Monday."Really, we’ve got
to have some strengthening of the political dialogue among the various
parties so that the elections can go forward," Rice told the reporters
in Fort Lauderdale.

"I think we now really need to focus in on making those elections a
success in security terms and in political terms," she said, adding the
United Nations would play a key role but the United States was looking
to help. State Department officials would not specify which day Noriega
was to travel to Haiti, which has been hit by a new upsurge in violence
that has claimed some 20 lives in recent days. His visit will come amid
speculation whether the United States was considering re-deploying
American troops to help maintain order ahead of the elections in the
violence-torn Caribbean country.

Rice suggested over the weekend increasing the level of foreign forces
in Haiti, where a UN stabilization mission commanded by Brazil
currently has some 6,700 troops. But the chief US diplomat has
sidestepped the question of deploying more US marines, focusing instead
on the need to bolster the UN mission, which goes by the French acronym
MINUSTAH. Rice acknowledged at the press roundtable Monday that the
security situation in Haiti had deteriorated and armed gangs were
causing "multiple problems." She said the United States was discussing
with the United Nations and MINUSTAH how to make the stabilization
force more effective. "I think it’s extremely important that that
mission succeed because it was a real breakthrough for this hemisphere
to have Brazil in the lead and then to have other Western Hemisphere
states actually engaged in peacekeeping. (AFP, 6/7)

US Marines May Go to Haiti:
Haiti would not oppose the inclusion of US Marines in a UN
stabilization force, cabinet chief Michel Brunache told AFP Monday,
without officially requesting the troops. "We have not asked the US
government to send Marines to Haiti, but there is no opposition to
their inclusion within the UN," force, Brunache told AFP. He also said
that a rapid deployment force made up of Haitian police and UN
blue-helmeted troops was ready to counter crime in the capital. (AFP,
6/6)

Washington Post Editorial: Send Marines to Haiti
THE NEW secretary general of the Organization of American States, Jose
Miguel Insulza, has pledged to bring up the subject of Haiti at the OAS
general assembly beginning tomorrow in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. If so, it
won't be a moment too soon. Fifteen months after U.S. forces escorted a
besieged President Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile, Haiti once again
is on the brink of chaos. An international peacekeeping mission
mandated by the United Nations has been a failure; the interim
government has not managed to create the conditions that would allow
for promised elections in October. Another rescue is needed, one that
would benefit from OAS diplomacy but must be founded on the restoration
of order. That probably can't happen without American troops.

At the moment, any international diplomat who sought to save the
political situation would first have to save himself from the armed
gangs that openly roam much of the capital, Port-au-Prince. One group
of carjackers killed a French diplomat last week. Both France and the
United States have recently warned their citizens to stay out of the
country, and the U.S. Embassy evacuated non-emergency personnel last
month. Haitians have nowhere to run, and more than 700 have been killed
since last September: some by gangs that support Mr. Aristide; some by
their enemies in the former Haitian army; some by the Haitian national
police force that nominally operates under the control of the interim
government; and some by drug traffickers and other common criminals.
 
A year ago the United Nations mandated a 7,400-member international
force led by Brazil to provide security and disarm the gangs. It hasn't
come close to accomplishing its mission. A hodgepodge of Latin American
troops supplemented by soldiers from Jordan, Nepal, Croatia and other
unlikely friends of Haiti, it lacks the cohesion, professionalism or
stomach for taking on the militants. "I insist the problem in Haiti is
more social and economical than military," Brazilian commander Augusto
Heleno Ribeiro Pereira claimed recently. That has been Brazil's
consistent excuse for its commanders' military failing.

Haiti's ills are surely legion -- endemic poverty and malnutrition, an
absence of resources, and a deep divide between a tiny economic elite
and a desperate majority. A paralyzing conflict between Mr. Aristide's
mostly poor supporters and politicians representing the middle and
upper classes has survived his removal; the interim government has
imprisoned senior officials of the former regime without due process,
and Mr. Aristide's party is threatening a boycott of the scheduled
elections. Aggressive outside intervention is needed to address these
problems, by jump-starting long-promised reconstruction projects and
brokering a political accord that would make elections meaningful.

None of that can happen, however, while thugs with automatic weapons
roam Haiti's streets. Many Haitians and international observers in
Port-au-Prince believe a small but focused and determined force -- say,
a few hundred U.S. Marines -- could put a stop to such anarchy. The
U.S. embassy in Haiti has recommended that the administration consider
dispatching such a force, which could work in tandem with the U.N.
mission. This has prompted understandable questions from an overtaxed
Pentagon: What is the mission? When would it end? As it struggles with
too few troops to restore security in Iraq, the U.S. military cannot
easily afford another difficult and open-ended assignment.

Haiti, however, is not Iraq; it is a small country 600 miles from
Florida that has been dependent on the United States for its security
for more than a century. The idea that it could be stabilized without
American help was optimistic a year ago; by now the fallacy is obvious.
If Haiti is to be secured or is to hold a democratic election, it will
need the help of at least a few hundred American fighters. The sooner
they go, the easier their task will be. (Washington Post, 6/5)

Guy Philippe Turns Politician:
Guy Philippe, the 'little rebel', has now exchanged his camouflage
uniform for a smart suit. "Yes, it's a different life now, a civilian
one. I now lead a political party." His life certainly has changed
quite dramatically: in February 2004 his temporary home was a
slum-dwelling in Gonaïves, a coastal town to the north of
Port-au-Prince, which he and his rebel forces had seized. They were
planning to move on the capital to remove President Aristide on their
own, but the Americans got there first. On the morning of 29 February
2004 - Guy Philippe's birthday - US marines ordered the president to go
before a bloodbath took place.

"That was a shame, because if we'd been able to put Aristide on trial,
Haiti would have been much more stable now," is how Guy Philippe sees
it. Supporters of the ousted president are still the cause of much
violence because they want 'their' leader back in power. The interim
government, which is meant to lead the country up to new elections, is
not capable of ending the divisions among the population. Although the
elections - planned for November this year - look as if they will
suffer considerably from the chaos and everyday violence affecting the
country, Guy Philippe believes they must go ahead: "If it's possible in
Afghanistan or Iraq, then it can be here, too."

Mr Philippe can easily see himself as the new president, but he's never

wanted a seat in the current interim government: "In Haiti, it usually
doesn't end well if you seize power by force. It's the people who need
to elect me." There's also been much criticism from human rights
organisations of his fellow rebels, some of whom were convicted
murderers and drug dealers, but Guy Philippe says: "Were they bad or
did they just want to do something good for their country?" Despite
this remark, he is well aware that such figures could jeopardise his
political career. Therefore, his party ranks now include only a
few 'untainted' rebels, and he says there won't be any jobs waiting for
the others: "I don't think they'd be suitable for a job as minister.
Any way, I am not in politics to do good turns for friends." (Radio
Netherlands, 6/6)

CARICOM Expresses Deep Concern:
Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Foreign Ministers have expressed deep
concern over the deterioration of the situation in Haiti. The
Community's Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR)
pointed out that "the fragility and volatility of the security
environment in Port-au-Prince had increased." This has been
illustrated "by the most grave incidents of violence affecting Haitians
of all walks of life". It is in light of this that they have "viewed
the recommendation of the United Nations General Assembly to increase
the size of MINUSTAH as being of critical importance". The Ministers
noted that respect for human rights, due process and the rule of law
remained abysmal and pointed out that the prolonged detention of former
Prime Minister Yvon Neptune before being charged was symptomatic of
wider due process problems.

They reiterated the importance of adherence to the principles enshrined
in the CARICOM Charter of Civil Society as well as in hemispheric and
international human rights instruments to which Haiti was a signatory.
The Ministers acknowledged that the political challenges in Haiti
remained daunting. They underlined the importance of the process of
national dialogue in reducing polarisation and helping to attain
reconciliation and thereby contributing to an environment conducive to
stability and development.

In this regard, the importance of accelerating the disbursement of
funds pledged by the donor community was emphasised. It was feared that
the slow progress of the voter registration process, organisational and
logistical delays as well as security concerns would jeopardise the
timely preparation of elections. The importance of an inclusive
political and electoral process leading to free, fair and credible
elections was underlined. The Ministers determined that CARICOM should
remain engaged on Haiti and continue to provide assistance to the
people of Haiti through the CARICOM Task Force on Haiti. (Press
Release, CARICOM Secretariat, 6/6)

Arson Attack at Tet Bef Market in Port-au-Prince:
At least eight corpses have been discovered thus far in the rubble of
the Tête Boeuf market that was consumed by fire Tuesday after an arson
attack by unidentified armed individuals in the commercial center of
 Port-au-Prince. The dead are for the most part market vendors and
their customers. A police sub-station, several homes and some motels
were also casualties of the arson attack. The market vendors, who lost
all their merchandise, said they condemned this criminal act and
accused the authorities of demonstrating indifference toward them. Some
of the small shopkeepers accused the head of the interim government of
having incited people to commit acts of violence through its remarks of
September 30, 2004, which they view as thoughtless and provocative.
"They attacked us, we shot back at them and several have fallen"
recalled one market vendor, quoting the remarks of the interim Prime
Minister.

However the mayor of Port-au-Prince said that some measures are
underway that she said would help the nearly 4,000 merchants affected
by the arson attack. (AHP, 6/1)

The charred remains of nine people were removed from the smoldering
wreckage of a downtown marketplace Wednesday, the latest victims of a
surge of violence that has prompted the U.S. Embassy to send some of
its personnel home. Dozens of gunmen stormed the market in central
Port-au-Prince Tuesday around noon, unleashing a torrent of bullets to
scare away police and merchants before setting the two buildings on
fire with Molotov cocktails. Witnesses said the gunmen claimed to be
supporters of former President Jean- Bertrand Aristide, and that police
at a station next door fled the scene when one of them was wounded. The
attack left nine people burned to death and two others shot fatally,
and removed a cornerstone of Haiti's already teetering economy. With
some 2,500 merchants, the Tet Bef (Cow's Head) Market was a critical
hub of commerce where wholesalers hawk everything from underwear to
soap.

Haitian officials depicted the destruction -- as well as the killing of
a French honorary consul in an apparent robbery attempt the same day --
as part of what they have been calling ``a destabilization movement.''
The U.S. State Department last week ordered the departure of
non-essential U.S. Embassy personnel and all family members after an
embassy van was sprayed with bullets downtown. ''The truth is that we
are at war in Haiti today,'' Police Chief Leon Charles said last week.
``It is an urban guerrilla situation.'' Charles and other Haitian
officials repeatedly have blamed the upsurge in violence on partisans
of Aristide, who fled the country during an armed revolt last year.

For some of those directly affected by Tuesday's fire, the blame lies
squarely on the armed pro-Aristide gangs. ''The same guys who come here
to shoot and scare us and call for Aristide to come back are the ones
who did this,'' Rachel Pierre, a soap vendor, told the Herald.
``They'll do whatever it takes to stop the elections.'' Robert Anglade,
general supervisor of the market, said gangs have been making threats
to burn down the place for months. He would not explain the motive
behind the threats, although merchants say that pro-Aristide gunmen
regularly extorted them for cash both before and after his departure.
As Anglade spoke, survivors dug through the ashes looking for anything
they could salvage.

While most of Haiti has returned to relative peace since Aristide's
ouster, recent violence has plunged the capital deeper and deeper into
a state of panic and paranoia. Kidnappings and carjackings have become
epidemic. Whole swaths of the city are no-go zones. The 7,400 U.N.
peacekeepers in Haiti have been accused of being too passive and
unwilling to confront armed militants. ''There are places you can't go
anymore,'' said Jerry Tardieu, vice president of Haitian Chamber of
Commerce. ``There are no police, there are no businesses open. . . . It
seems impossible that the government has no control over large areas of
the capital.'' (Miami Herald, 6/2)

Lavalas Spokesperson Condemns Attack at Tet Bef Market:
A spokesman for Aristide's Lavalas movement in Haiti's capital, Mr.
Samba
Boukman, condemned an attack and firebombing against a popular market
in Port au Prince this last Wednesday. At least 10 people are reported
to have died in the blaze that was started after unidentified gunman
began shooting in the area. "We condemn this attack against a
marketp?ace of the poor and disassociate ourselves with this violence.
We call on our communities to continue to demonstrate non-violently for
the return of our constitutional president and the release of all
political prisoners in Haiti," Mr. Boukman declared. Haiti's recent
wave of violence and insecurity began after the Haitian police fired on
peaceful marches in the capital demanding the return of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Feb. 28 and April 27. At least 11 unarmed
demonstrators were killed in the two attacks forcing U.N. Secretary
General Kofi Annan to echo recent demands of human rights organizations
for an official investigation. The U.S.-installed government of Gerard
Latortue has dismissed the allegations despite statements made by
Brazilian General Heleno Ribera and video footage taken by a local
television station confirming the unprovoked attacks. (HIP, 6/3)

Latortue Criticizes UN Mission:
Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue called on the United Nations to
re-examine its peacekeepers' mandate after a fresh wave of violence in
Haiti, suggesting their presence was inadequately geared to helping
Haiti's plight. Latortue also hit out at the United States for
deporting criminals to Haiti once they had served sentence in the
United States, saying he plans to ask Washington to suspend
repatriations until the situation in Haiti stabilizes. "We can't have
all these (UN) troops in the country and witness the deterioration of
the situation," Latortue told reporters. "Before the extension of the
mission's mandate (at the end of June) we will go next week to New York
to make contact with the UN secretary general Kofi Annan and the
Security Council," he said. Latortue's comments came amid controversy
at the United Nations over how long an extension of UN peacekeepers may
be granted, with China opposed to a year's extensions, mainly due to
tensions over friendly relations between Haiti and China's rival
Taiwan.

In the Haitian capital, some 2,000 peacekeepers are present, with
backup announced this week of a batallion that has been serving in
Jacmel in the south. At a news conference, Haiti's Justice Minister
Bernard Gousse also called for a "permanent presence of MINUSTAH at
police stations and in troublespots" in the capital. Latortue suggested
Haitians recently repatriated from the United States were among the
culprits for a wave of kidnappings in recent weeks. He called them
"criminals, professional hitmen who become kidnappers" once in Haiti.
(AFP, 6/2)

Violence During Police Raids in Port-au-Prince:
Cinder block and sheet metal houses were still in flames and pools of
blood had not dried around midday on Saturday hours after Haitian
police had led a major operation to root out gang members in the poor
neighborhood of Bel Air in coordination with United Nations
peacekeepers. Residents of Bel Air, a stronghold of support for former
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, said police entered the neighborhood
around 9am, shooting into alleyways, knocking down doors, and dousing
houses with gasoline before setting them on fire. At least six houses
were still burning and smoldering early Saturday afternoon.

“[The police] shoot people, beat people, burn houses,” said Manes
Gustave, a 57-year-old tailor, standing next to a huge pile of sheet
metal and charred wood, which he said had been a neighbor’s home. “They
think everyone in Bel Air is a criminal.” Gustave said he was running
an errand a few blocks from his house when he saw hooded police
officers dressed in black – a uniform commonly used by special Haitian
police units – enter the neighborhood. He hid, and when he returned
home, he found his door broken off its hinges and his neighbor’s home
in flames. Others in Bel Air blamed the UN peacekeepers.

Maggy Dalcy said she fled through a back door when black-clad police
knocked down her front door. “There’s no justice in this country,” said
Dalcy, 24, standing in front of the remains of her house, a tangled
heap of sheet metal and blackened cinder block walls. “The foreigners
don’t do anything. They just sit there while the police kill people and
massacre people.” Commissioner David Beer, a Canadian who heads UN
police force in Haiti, said Brazilian troops provided back-up during
the operation at perimeter positions while two units of Chinese and
Jordanian riot police – some 50 in total – worked “more closely” with
the Haitian police.
Beer said the UN civilian police was investigating the burning of
houses in Bel Air. Repeated phone calls made to police spokeswoman
Gessy Coicou were not returned.
 
  “There are obvious suspicions because there are allegations that they
were done by the HNP,” said Beer, using an acronym that refers to the
Haitian national police. Beer said 32 people were arrested and at least
two civilians were killed during the raid, whose objective was to
arrest gang members.
But a brief visit to Bel Air and interviews with residents suggest the
death toll could have been higher. A pair of red flip-flops lay in a
thick pool of blood that had accumulated at the bottom of a sloping
alleyway, near the corner of Rue Montalais and Rue des Fronts Forts.
The alleyway was covered with blood and several bullet casings from
7.62mm cartridges. Neighbors said three bodies were taken away in a
police ambulance after being shot by police.
 
Half a block away, near the Port-au-Prince cathedral, a street corner
was covered in blood although no witnesses could be found. At a
blood-stained sidewalk several blocks uphill into the heart of Bel Air,
Renes Leneus, a 61-year-old tailor said police had executed three young
men earlier that morning on the sidewalk while he was working in a
nearby alleyway. He said at least 10 hooded police dressed in black
entered the alleyway and opened fire in a nearby alleyway, although he
did not know who they were shooting at. Only one small dried pool of
blood could be found on the gravel sidewalk, while there were more than
a dozen bullet casings from 5.56mm cartridges in a nearby alleyway. In
another area at the edge of Bel Air near the Boulevard Dessalines,
vendors at a street corner pointed to a pool of blood that had been
covered with sand and said a man had been shot there. One of them said
he had been shot by police.
 
Workers at the Port-au-Prince morgue said they were under orders not to
say how many bodies had been brought there. (R. Lindsay, 6/5)

As many as 25 people were killed in police raids on Friday and Saturday
in the slums of Haiti's capital after the government said it would get
tougher on gangs, morgue workers and witnesses said. Clerks at the
morgue in the General Hospital said they had taken in 17 bodies on
Saturday and three bodies on Friday after the raids in Bel-Air and
other Port-au-Prince slums, centers of support for ousted President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide. A Reuters journalist also saw five other bodies
in two different areas of Bel-Air. Residents said the dead were shot by
police and accused police of setting slum homes on fire.

Police officials had no immediate comment on the death toll and it was
not clear whether all the victims were killed in the raids, or if some
were shot as gang members returned fire. "The police arrived, they
started shooting. There were other people shooting too, but they
managed to flee," said Ronald Macillon, a Bel-Air resident. "The police
killed a lot of people and set several homes on fire," Macillon said.
Several other witnesses gave similar accounts.

A spokesman for U.N. troops in Bel-Air, Col. Carlos Barcelos, told
Reuters the Brazilian contingent based in that slum did not take part
directly in the raids, but put up checkpoints and secured the outside
perimeter. The Central Director for the Administrative Police, Renan
Etienne, told Reuters he could not say how many people were killed or
comment on allegations police set homes on fire, as he had not yet
received police reports. (Reuters, 6/5)

At least 23 people were killed and more than a dozen homes set on fire
during operations conducted Friday and Saturday by patrols from the
Haitian National Police (PNH) in the populist district of Bel-Air in
Port-au-Prince. At least 17 residents of this district were killed on
Saturday alone. Various officials of the PNH reached by telephone
Saturday refused to comment on the deadly raids. However pro-government
sectors claimed that those who were killed were bandits. Numerous
family members and close friends of the victims declared for their part
that the victims were members of the civilian population, because the
people who are used to exchanging gunfire with the police had time to
flee the area, they said. "The police know full well (who the victims
are) but their objective, in targeting the entire population, is to
empty the populist districts in anticipation of the elections, whose
progress is stalled", said several indignant residents of Bel-Air.

The spokesperson for the Brazilian UN troops, Colonel Carlos Barcelos,
tried Saturday to distance himself from the police raids of the past 48
hours, indicating that "the troops of MINUSTAH did not participate
directly" (in these operations).

Following the arson attack Wednesday at one of the main public markets
in the capital, (the Tête Boeuf market), which left some 10 people dead
and caused substantial property damage, the interim Minister of
Justice, Bernard Gousse announced that the authors of the acts of
violence as well as the places where they are located, would be struck.
 

According to police sources, the interim authorities are aware that
former haitian soldiers, as well as individuals who had been forcibly
deported from U.S. prisons, and groups of civilians who had taken up
arms in February 2004, are still very active. Indeed, former Haitian
soldiers have returned to their base in Pernales (Central Plateau)
along the Haitian-Dominican border, from which they launched attacks in
2004 and held the population hostage under the Aristide government.
(AHP, 6/5)

For Rose-Anne Auguste, who runs a women's health and sex education
center in a poor district in the south of the capital, the only way to
deal with gang violence is to address the extreme socio-economic
situation facing the majority of the population. "Young people growing
up in Carrefour-Feuilles and the neighboring area of Martissant are
good people, creative people, but after five or ten years with no
economic development and no prospect of being able to improve their
lives, they will inevitably become chimères (gangsters)." Since the
beginning of October 2004, nearly 700 people have been killed and
thousands more wounded in political and gang violence. Many of the
deaths are the result of clashes between, on one side, the local police
and the United Nations stabilization mission, known as MINUSTAH, and on
the other, armed gangs, some of them loyal to ousted president,
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

On 20 May, U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, proposed that the
MINUSTAH be increased in size in an effort to control the spiral of
violence ahead of general elections planned for later this year. Annan
is recommending the deployment of an additional 800 troops, bringing
the total to 7,500, and of an additional 275 U.N. policemen to join the
1,622 officers already on the ground. But for Guyler Delva, head of the
Haitian Journalists' Association (AJH), the solution to the violence is
not a military one. He said, "We have to find a way so that those with
weapons don't have a reason to use them anymore. It is not a question
of more troops. You could have 20,000 troops, but there is still no way
they could be present in every corner of this city, let alone the whole
country."

Camille Chalmers, director of the Alternative Development Advocacy
Platform, (PAPDA), agrees that sending more soldiers won't resolve
anything. "We don't have a military problem. There is no war in Haiti."
Chalmers goes further, stating that in his opinion the MINUSTAH
presence in the country is unwelcome. "Insecurity is worse today than
it was one year ago (when MINUSTAH was first deployed)." He continues,
"Violence happens with or without MINUSTAH, and sometimes they even
help the police attack people."

Patrick Elie, an activist who in recent years has campaigned for
justice for murdered journalist, Jean Dominique, said, "The police are
not under-armed, they are improperly armed. Most police officers now
carry weapons better adapted to war than to police work." According to
Elie, the U.N. mission should reconsider its current policy of helping
the Haitian police mount raids on the shanty-town strongholds of armed
gangs, because ordinary residents are being caught in the crossfire.
Instead, he says, the MINUSTAH should reinforce its tutoring role,
making sure that the police strictly observe proper procedures and
human rights norms.

PAPDA's Chalmers also thinks that the police force needs a complete
overhaul, but he says that the money currently being spent on the
MINUSTAH should instead pay for the cost of that task. "MINUSTAH costs
US$25million a month. This is money borrowed by the Haitian State, and
must be paid back later by the
Haitian people. Imagine...that money could be used to completely
rebuild the police force in less than ten months." For Chalmers the
lack of disarmament is another serious problem, and he is critical of
the MINUSTAH's failure to implement an effective program. "MINUSTAH
could disarm. It could do it in three months, and then leave."

The AJH's Guy Delva believes that a complex situation cannot be
resolved by using more weapons. "What is needed is a political
approach. The first step is to have a real dialogue. To talk about the
problems experienced by the poor." He rejects the attempt of many of
the country's political leaders and a number of powerful local media
outfits to characterize all the inhabitants of poor areas as gangsters.
"Thousands of people take part in demonstrations against the interim
government, but there are not thousands of gangsters. The people in the
slums feel neglected."

Chalmers is another who is promoting national dialogue as the only
solution to the violence and insecurity, but he rejects the process
recently started by the interim government. "We need a genuine national
dialogue...to look at the country's real problems - the economy and the
political institutions. Unfortunately, the government has closed down
the possibility of a genuine dialogue by prohibiting certain questions
from appearing on the agenda." (Charles Arthur, A version of this
article was published by Hardbeatnews, 30 May 2005;
www.hardbeatnews.com)

New MINUSTAH Arrangements to Counteract Insecurity:
“The Security Council has decided to extend the mandate of MINUSTAH
until June 24, 2005, with the intention of renewing it", declared the
head of the Office of Communication and Public Information of MINUSTAH,
Mr. Toussaint Kongo-Doudou, in his introduction at the briefing. He
added that "the Secretary-General recommends both a reinforcement of
the numbers of MINUSTAH personnel by 800 additional soldiers and 275
additional police officers, as well as a 12 month extension of
MINUSTAH's mandate".

Lieutenant Colonel Philippe Kleb provided the media with information on
the latest operations and security arrangements by the MINUSTAH
military force, indicating that "MINUSTAH has reinforced the sectors of
Cité Militaire and Pelé with Peruvian and Argentine troops following
the increase in criminal activities in this area". In addition, he
said, "MINUSTAH is continuing to enhance security for the Cité Soleil
district and the electoral operations as well as its military actions
in the country". "The Brazilian brigade is continuing to coordinate its
actions with the Haitian National Police (PNH), with respect to the
handling of events", he added.
Among the humanitarian actions by the military force during the past
week, Lieutenant Colonel Kleb said that the public benefited from
"1,000 medical visits and 3,000 meals". "In addition, MINUSTAH
contingents distributed 1,435 pairs of shoes to students in the
Northeast Department", he emphasized. For his part, the spokesperson
of the international civilian police of MINUSTAH, Jean François Vezina,
commenting on the new measures against abductions, announced "the
establishment, jointly with the PNH, of investigation units, whose
duties include collecting information from among the population",
adding that "telephone numbers are also operational at the Central
Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ) for receiving any useful
information".

“MINUSTAH has made progress toward the creation of conditions conducive
to facilitating the political transition, notably with regard to the
electoral process and disarmament, as well as the national dialogue",
Mr. Kongo Doudou said in conclusion. (MINUSTAH, 6/1)

U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti will crack down on violence that threatens
elections this year, a U.N. official said on Thursday after a visit by
a high-level contingent of foreign officials to the troubled Caribbean
nation. Haiti has been plagued by political and gang violence since the
bloody rebellion that ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
last year. "To those who want to foil the electoral process and to
those who believe they can achieve their goals only through violence,
those who want to kill hope, I tell them clearly that they don't have
any chance to succeed," said Juan Gabriel Valdes, the U.N. special
envoy to Haiti, at a news conference following the visit. "The will of
MINUSTAH (the U.N. mission) to confront the violence is there and will
be there until those armed groups that have launched organized violence
have been eliminated," he said. (Reuters, 6/9)