29315: Sprague (news) Shape of new security force fuels debate (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

<jebsprague@mac.com>





Latin American Weekly Report

October 3, 2006

LENGTH: 551 words

HEADLINE: HAITI: Shape of new security force fuels debate

BODY:


The executive and the legislature could soon be at loggerheads over the 
creation of a new security force to be groomed to take over from Minustah when 
the UN peacekeeping force eventually leaves Haiti. The constitution of the new 
security force is exciting debate between those who want the return of the army 
and those that favour a gendarmerie capable of assisting the national police 
force.

Senator Youri Latortue, president of the Senate commission on justice and 
security, said on 26 September that Haiti needs a force that can protect its 
territorial borders. Latortue, the nephew and former security chief of 
ex-interim Prime Minister Gérard Latortue, did not go into details on the 
formation of the new force, but the media took his call for the application of 
the 1987 constitution regarding public security to be a clear allusion to the 
restoration of the army. Youri sought to allay the fears of the international 
community and human rights groups by stressing that nobody convicted of human 
rights abuses would be permitted to join the new security force.

Youri explained the remit of the new force as territorial defence (principally 
cracking down on drug-trafficking across the Dominican border) and confronting 
the armed gangs and kidnappers. The national police force, he said, would be 
responsible for maintaining order.

Such tightly defined roles are unlikely to be preserved in practice. Domestic 
security problems in the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador 
and Honduras have blurred the distinctions between the army and the police; the 
army is being sent on to the streets with increasing frequency to try and 
combat organised crime. In Haiti, where insecurity poses an even greater 
threat, the same problem would soon arise.

President René Préval has made it very clear where he stands on the vexed 
question of restoring the army, which was disbanded by former president 
Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1995. Shortly after winning the presidential 
elections in March, Préval not only ruled out the restoration of the army but 
also stressed that he would push for a constitutional amendment abolishing the 
army, which he dismissed as costly and useless.

Préval advocates the establishment of a police corps, or gendarmerie, capable 
of intervening in cases of catastrophe, and able to take care of guarding the 
customs and the borders, apart from acting as an auxiliary to the judiciary. He 
wants to keep on Minustah until the Haitian security forces are sufficiently 
well trained to take over its duties.

Funding the new security force

With Haiti dependent on the international community for the funding of some 60% 
of its budget, the government needs to devote some thought to how to fund any 
new security force and how to reequip the national police. Préval is appealing 
to the US to do away with the 15-year old arms embargo that prevents Haiti from 
purchasing US weapons; this even extends to the purchase of bullet-proof 
jackets and tear gas. He should receive some support in the US Congress. On 28 
September several Republican and Democratic congressmen called on the Bush 
administration to increase its assistance to Haiti to prevent it from falling 
under the influence of Venezuela and Cuba. The US has set aside US$198m of 
financial assistance for Haiti in the 2007 budget.