NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/8447

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From: [e-mail] (Rich Winkel)
Subject: HAITI: ARMY, POLICE IMPOSE REIGN OF TERROR IN OUTLYING AREAS
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/** reg.carib: 322.0 **/
** Topic: IPS: Haitian police reign of terror **
** Written  2:30 pm  Nov 12, 1992 by caribdesk in cdp:reg.carib **
From: Bob Thomson <caribdesk>
Subject: IPS: Haitian police reign of terror

/* Written 12:06 am  Nov 12, 1992 by [e-mail] in igc:ips.englibrary */
/* ---------- "HAITI: ARMY, POLICE IMPOSE REIGN OF" ---------- */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Reference: Agriculture
Title: HAITI: ARMY, POLICE IMPOSE REIGN OF TERROR IN OUTLYING AREAS

an inter press service feature

by ives-marie chanel

cap haitien, haiti, nov 9 (ips) -- a host of soldiers and rural
policemen, aided by informers, have imposed a reign of terror in
this provincial town, located 250 km north of the capital, and
other outlying areas.

if, in the capital, the repression which followed the 30 sep.
1991 military coup against president jean-bertrand aristide, is a
little less evident than it was a year ago, in rural haiti it has
continued unabated.

arbitrary detentions, beatings and extortion drive fear into
most of the 100,000 residents of cap haitien, haiti's second most
important town, and especially, the inhabitants of outlying
areas.

the climate of fear and suspicion which obtains throughout
haiti is more palpable in and around cap haitien than in the
capital and the surveillance is much tighter.

''the army has reinforced its espionnage system since the coup
d'etat,'' father luxana vernet, parish priest of pilate, a rural
township some 60 km south of cap haitien, told ips.

only seven soldiers are stationed at pilate, but the area has
over 800 rural policemen and ''assistants'' for a population of
48,000. moreover, hundreds of informers, called ''siveye rapote''
(keep watch and report) serve as the ears and eyes of the
'assistant policemen'.

one source told ips that there were as many as five informers
for each  'assistant policeman'.

the rural police, a force used by previous governments to keep
'order' in areas outside of the capital, had been disbanded by
aristide in mid-1991.

the group resurfaced soon after the coup and now has power of
life and death over those who fall under their jurisdiction.

according to local sources there is approximately one rural
policeman for 60 inhabitants in the villages and townships around
cap haitien. before the group was disbanded by aristide, the
ratio had been about one to 360.

most of the new rural policemen are former members of the
''tonton macoutes,'' the dreaded militia created by dictator
francois duvalier (1957 - 1971).

others are peasants who chose to join up so as to insure
themselves against repression. (more)
----


the frontline targets of repression are grassroots church
communities (ceb's) and members of other groups 'blamed' by the
military for aristide's december 1990 election victory. the army
has banned these groups from holding meetings, vernet said.

members of ceb's and other peasants are often detained,
maltreated or have their goods taken away by rural policemen, who
accuse them of being ''lavalas,'' the term used by the military
to designate aristide supporters.

'lavalas' is the name of the core group from which aristide
selected his cabinet in february 1991.

the repression has forced some former political activists to
live like hunted animals.

''i spend two days here, five days there, in friends' houses.
i have to move around because, like me, my friends have economic
problems,'' said yves, a militant of aristide's national front
for change and democracy (fncd) in limbe, a township close to cap
haitien.

unable to cultivate his small farm since the local rural
police chief and his assistants ''let loose bulls in it and they
destroyed everything,'' yves lives from what his friends can
afford to give him.

to go between his places of refuge in three different areas,
he is ''forced to walk kilometres on foot, cross the mountains at
night.''

''i go to sleep each night wearing two shirts, two pairs of
trousers and my shoes. i have to be ready to flee in case they
come to arrest me at night,'' he told ips.

repression in rural haiti also comes in the form of extorsion.

while the local police chiefs are paid by the army, their
assistants are not.

people arrested by the military and the rural police are
forced to pay huge ransoms, running sometimes into the equivalent
of hundreds of dollars, ips was told.

''the assistants have to live from extortion and deals. for
example, you can arrange an arrest for 25 gourdes (2.50 u.s.
dollars) at plaisance,'' a village outside cap haitien, according
to vernet.

this practice of denouncing one's enemies to the military or
the 'police' and having them arrested, and usually beaten, is not
confined to rural haiti.

a source in carrefour, a low-income neighbourhood in
port-au-prince, told ips that having a dispute with a neighbour
can also lead to arrest in his area. there, the fee for obtaining
the 'cooperation'' of two soldiers is the equivalent of 20 u.s.
dollars, he said. (more)
----


however, it is persons assumed to be aristide supporters who
are most at risk and few people are above suspicion. (more)

representatives of the ''fondasyon lavi miyo'' (foundation for
an improved life), an institution which organizes funds from
local and foreign donor organizations and uses them to subsidize
schools, found out early this year that they, too, were included
in the list of ''subversives''.

soon after, a school the foundation had adopted in a northern
haitian village was completely destroyed by the local police
chieftain, an individual known as ''mato'' (hammer).

some of the foundation's members immediately went into hiding.

in addition to the rural policemen, the coup has enabled other
supporters of late dictator francois duvalier and his son and
successor jean-claude duvalier, who ruled with an iron hand
between 1957 and 1986, to resurface in cap haitien after a
five-year eclipse.

they now occupy and control most of the posts in the public
service and have come together in a ''patriotic action
committee,'' an organization close to the army.

while the committee meets freely, members of groups like the
''catholic action movement,'' a ceb in the northern haitian town
of gros-morne, can only do so in secret and at great risk.

''aristide's return alone will not be enough to resolve the
situation,'' a member of the group told ips.

''the people will have to find their own means to defend
themselves against these deadly forces. if aristide returns
without these pre-conditions, he risks being assassinated,'' he
said. (end/ips/ic-kb/92)
----


** End of text from cdp:reg.carib **