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Haiti Report - February 17, 2007

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Haiti Report for February 17, 2007

The Haiti Report is a compilation and summary of events as described
in Haiti and international media prepared by Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY.
It does not reflect the opinions of any individual or organization.
This service is intended to create a better understanding of the
situation in Haiti by presenting the reader with reports that provide
a variety of perspectives on the situation.

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IN THIS REPORT:

- - Panos and Ministry of Environment Give Seminar to Journalists
- - Trading Guns for Drugs with Jamaica
- - Head of UN Mission Sees Need to Do More to Avoid Civilian Casualties
- - US to Fund Job Creation
- - Haitian American Kidnap Victim Released
- - Demonstrations on February 7
- - Legislators Drafting Bills to Establish a Legal Framework
- - New Raid in Cite Soleil
- - Antibiotic to be Developed with Microbe from Haitian Dirt
- - Lancet Publishes Response to Allegations of Conflict of Interest
- - UN Security Council Unanimously Votes to Extend MINUSTAH
- - Col. Carl Dorelien to be Tried in Miami

Panos and Ministry of Environment Give Seminar to Journalists:
The Ministry for the Environment organized a seminar this Friday,
February 2, together with the Panos Caribbean institute offering
training for journalists regarding protection of the environment.
The event coincided with the International Humid Regions Day. The
director of Panos Haiti, Jean Claude Louis, said the seminar is part
of his organization's mission to work to strengthen the capacity of
Haitian journalists. This event should enable journalists to prouce
better reports on environmental issues, he said. Several experts on
the subject were invited to speak at the seminar. One of them,
oceanographer Ernst Wilson, advocated for adoption of a legal and
political framework for the marine environment. Mr. Wilson said he is
not focusing exclusively on the beauty of the ocean and the sea and
their merits in protecting the ecosystem, but is also seeking to
highlight their contribution to prosperity, mobility and sustainable
development. He asked the Haitian authorities to think about
creating public institutions specialized in issues relating to the
ocean and the sea, as has been done in many other countries. Jean
Claude Louisa announced that additional seminars will be held for
journalists in provincial cities. (AHP, 2/2)

Trading Guns for Drugs with Jamaica:
Jamaican police have carried out a series of arrests and seizures of
firearms that appear to confirm long-held suspicions of the existence
of an extensive criminal network smuggling marijuana and guns between
Jamaica and the nearby nation of Haiti. On February 4th, following a
shoot-out between Jamaican police and an unidentified man in Spanish
Town in the central parish of St Catherine, a gun was recovered from
the man who had been shot dead by the police. The weapon was found to
have originated in Haiti and to have once belonged to a Haitian
police officer. "The firearm was stolen from the Haitian police,"
said Jamaican police inspector, Steve Brown. "We suspect that its a
part of the ongoing guns for drugs trade between Jamaica and Haiti,
and again this raises concerns about the viable trade that is going
on." Jamaican police officials have sought the assistance of
international policing organisation, Interpol, to try and locate the
Haitian police officer to whom the gun was issued, and to determine
how the gun got into the hands of local criminals. "We want to know
how this gun reached our shores," said Assistant Commissioner
Glenmore Hinds, head of Operation Kingfish, the special police unit
formed in October 2004 to counter drug-trafficking and to stem the
rising crime rate and gang violence in Jamaica.

Just a few days earlier, on February 1st, officers from Operation
Kingfish carried out a raid on the Hampton Court area of St Thomas
that netted four illegal handguns, which the lawmen believe had just
arrived from Haiti, and resulted in the arrest of 11 people,
including three Haitians and a Honduran. The arrests were made by
police with the assistance of a Jamaica Defence Force (Army)
helicopter, and those arrested were airlifted from St Thomas to the
Jamaican capital, Kingston. Assistant Commissioner of Police Hinds
said that some of those arrested had been under surveillance for some
time, and indicated that several business interests are believed to
be responsible for the financing of a massive drugs-for-guns
smuggling ring between Jamaica and Haiti. Police sources allege that
a St Elizabeth woman, who is among the detainees, accompanied her
Honduran husband on a recent trip by boat to Haiti, and returned to
Jamaica with the three Haitians. Hinds told the local daily
newspaper, The Gleaner, "Our intelligence has suggested that persons
operating legitimate businesses are now employing people as
fishermen to transport the drugs to Haiti and trade it in for the
guns." According to Hinds, powerful handguns and sub-machine weapons
are being traded in the other direction from Haiti to Jamaica.

Just a week earlier, Jamaican police arrested three Haitians in
connection with two large marijuana busts. In the first operation,
that took place in the community of Orange Hill, in the western
parish of Westmoreland, on January 25th, two Haitians were detained
after authorities discovered a one-acre marijuana field. The
spokesman for Operation Kingfish, Inspector Brown, said a police team
also went to the central parish of Clarendon where a large quantity
of marijuana was seized, and another Haitian arrested. Brown said,
"The fact that these Haitians are getting involved in criminal
activities means we will be asking the authorities to take a serious
look at the status of these Haitians who are in Jamaica. A lot of
them came here under the disguise that they are seeking refuge, but
soon they get involved in the illegal gun and drug trade..."

The Operation Kingfish discoveries come just weeks after Haitian
President Reni Prival made a working visit to Jamaica during which he
discussed the illegal trade in drugs and guns between the two
countries with Jamaican Prime Minister, Portia Simpson. At a joint
press conference on January 3rd, the two leaders stressed that
security forces in both countries were taking strident moves to
curtail the illegal gun and narcotics trade. Further talks on the
issue are expected at the first Jamaica/Haiti Joint Commission, in
Jamaica, during the second quarter of 2007. Speaking to reporters
following the meeting with President Prival, Prime Minister Simpson
said Jamaicas security forces would be working closely with Haitian
authorities in several areas. "Bringing guns into Jamaica to kill
poor people is something not to be tolerated. It has to be dealt
with....(and) I believe that the people bringing them in - the
traffickers - are to be taken by surprise. Thats the only way we are
going to end this," she said. President Prival said Jamaica stood to
benefit if Haiti was made a more stable democracy, "because if we
continue to be a weak state, weapons will continue to come into the
country to kill Jamaicans."

In a study published in 2005, the Small Arms Survey estimated that as
many as 170,000 small arms are held illegally in Haiti (the total
population is 8.3 million), and later the same year, the UKs Control
Arms Campaign called for a new international Arms Trade Treaty, based
on the principles of international law, to help reduce the human cost
of irresponsible arms transfers. As part of the campaign, Oxfam GB
produced a report entitled, The Call for Tough Arms Control : Voices
from Haiti. This report noted that Haiti produces no firearms
itself except for home-made Creole guns which are usually crude
handguns or rifles made from old ones. Most arms are smuggled into
Haiti from neighbouring countries in the region, including from the
USA.

On his return to from Jamaica to Haiti President Prival made an
annual address to the National Assembly (Parliament) during which he
said Haiti remained a "victim of drug-consuming countries", accusing
the United States in particular of not doing enough to help to fight
the illegal trade. Most of the marijuana smuggled into Haiti from
Jamaica, as well as the cocaine coming in from Colombia and
Venezuela, is destined for the North American market. Renewing a
criticism that he made during his first presidential term
(1996-2001), Prival accused drug-consuming countries of blaming Haiti
for failing to stop drug-trafficking, while doing little to boost the
countrys weak defences. He said, "A lot of crimes happening in the
country are connected to drugs. But everybody knows that Haiti
doesnt produce drugs. Haiti isnt a big consumer of drugs. ... Haiti
is the victim of drug-consuming countries, mainly the United States."

During 2006 there were indications that marijuana from Jamaica was
being smuggled into Haiti en route to the United States in ever-
greater quantities. At the beginning of November, Jamaican police
seized 1,598 pounds of compressed marijuana with an estimated street
value of US$164,000 in separate operations in Kingston and Portland.
Six hundred and thirty pounds were found along the Manchioneal beach
in Portland, waiting to be picked up by a boat," according to Carlton
Wilson, head of the local Narcotics Division. Wilson added, "We
understand that from time to time go-fast boats are used to pick up
drugs in Manchioneal and transport them to Haiti or the Bahamas." On
the same day, police detected a stash of compressed marijuana, packed
in the flooring of a 40-foot container at the terminal in Kingston.
On December 16th, police arrested two men and seized 40 parcels of
compressed marijuana on the beach at Leath in the parish of St
Thomas. The police believed that the men were about to depart by boat
with the marijuana, with the intention of delivering the drugs to
Haiti. (Alterpresse, 2/6)

Head of UN Mission Sees Need to Do More to Avoid Civilian Casualties:
The head of the UN mission to Haiti has publicly acknowledged
international peacekeepers carrying out anti-kidnapping raids into
the poorest parts of the
city have to do more to avoid civilian casualties. His comments come
after a series of raids in the capital, Port-au-Prince, in which
witnesses said a number of innocent bystanders were either killed or
wounded by peacekeepers. "We have to improve, we have to be all the
time learning from this," said Ambassador Edmond Mulet, head of the
United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (Minustah). "We have
learned lessons every time we have [had] these actions." Mr Mulet
denied reports that UN peacekeepers had fired from helicopters,
hindered Red Cross volunteers or used "heavy munitions" in the raids
on December 22, December 28 and January 5. But during his
presentation this week at the Centre for Strategic and International
Studies (CSIS) he admitted: "There has been collateral damage.
Definitely." It is unclear how many people were killed in the
December 22 raid in the densely-populated slum areas of Cite Soleil
when several hundred Brazilian UN soldiers launched a pre-dawn raid
aimed at capturing known gang leaders. Mr Mulet said around 12 or 13
people were killed, of which 10 were known gang members; other
unconfirmed reports have put the death toll higher. A number of
people were also injured.

John Carroll, an Illinois-based doctor who runs a charity that
provides medical aid to Haitian children, said he travelled to Cite
Soleil after the raid and spoke with people who had been injured. He
also visited St Catherine's Hospital, one of the few clinics in Cite
Soleil. "I spoke with the family with holes in their roof. They said
the helicopter fired down on Cite Soleil for 3 hours. I saw the holes
in the roof and the holes in the people," he said. "I went to St.
Catherine's Hospital in Cite Soleil. I did not interview any doctors.
I examined the patients myself and their stories seemed to correspond
with their injuries." Mr Carroll said that in the slum he spoke with
a woman who gave her name as Immacula. She said that three of her
daughters - aged 13, 15 and 17 - received bullet and shrapnel
injuries as a result of the raid. Mr Carroll wrote on his blog:
"Immacula said the bullets from the helicopter came blasting in
through their ceiling. Looking up, I could see a 12 inch hole above
my head letting in the sunlight, and multiple other smaller holes
peppered the roof above me to the left."

Minustah say they have been tasked by the Haitian government, headed
by President Rene Preval, to carry out the raids against gang members
believed to be responsible for the kidnappings that in recent months
have again soared in Port-au-Prince. In one notorious incident last
month a group of schoolchildren were taken from the bus and held
hostage. It is predominantly the poor who suffer as a result of the
ongoing insecurity. The December 22 raid in the Bwa Nef district of
Cite Soleil targeted a gang led by a man called Belony. Officials
said a subsequent raid on January 5 led to the arrest of two members
of Belony's gang, including a man called Zachari, who were sought
over the their alleged involvement in the killing of two UN
peacekeepers from Jordan last November. But local people and
campaigners point out that given the densely populated nature of the
slums and the fact that the shanties in which people live offer no
protection against gunfire, such raids routinely result in innocent
people being killed. The UN and the Haitian National Police also
claim that gang members in the slums have shot residents and then
blamed the authorities for these deaths - a claim for which no
evidence has been offered. Since the beginning of January UN forces
have set up round-blocks around Cite Soleil in an effort to dampen
violence. But some activists say such arrangements, along with
disruption to the area's fragile water supply, has only made life
more miserable for the residents. Brian Concannon, who heads the US-
based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, said: "This is
beginning to resemble collective punishment against the residents of
Cite Soleil. There is more to this than just the issue of gangs and
alleged kidnappers." (The Independent, 2/2)

US to Fund Job Creation:
The United States will provide Haiti with $20 million to create more
youth jobs in a gang-ridden slum in the capital that is testing the
government's ability to bring peace to the country. Nicholas Burns,
undersecretary of state for political affairs, made the announcement
Thursday after a meeting of 21 countries and multilateral
institutions that have contributed troops or money to Haiti. Burns
said the group also agreed to ask the United Nations Security Council
to renew the mandate of the 8,400-member blue-helmet peacekeeping
force for an additional year. The decision is expected later this
month. ''Violence in Port-au-Prince is an important and very serious
issue,'' Burns said at a press briefing, with Haitian Foreign
Minister Jean-Raynald Clerisme at his side. "And we understand that
Citi Soleil in particular is a place where there are many challenges
for the Haitian government.'' (Miami Herald, 2/1)

Haitian American Kidnap Victim Released:
Two FBI hostage negotiators were sent to Haiti on Tuesday to help
secure the release of a kidnapped American missionary, officials
said. Nathan Jean-Dieudonne, 58, a U.S. citizen of Haitian descent,
was abducted Sunday afternoon as he and three others drove home from
church in Croix-de-Bouquets, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, U.N. police
spokesman Fred Blaise said. FBI special agent Judy Orihuela said from
Miami that Jean-Dieudonne's family requested help in negotiating with
his captors after the kidnappers contacted them and demanded a ransom
for his release. Authorities have declined to say how much the
kidnappers sought. U.N. police spokesman Fred Blaise said Jean-
Dieudonne, whose hometown in the U.S. and church denomination were
not immediately available, apparently was unharmed and that his
family described him as being "in good spirits." (AP, 2/6)

Demonstrations on February 7:
The streets of the capital were filled with tens of thousands of
members and supporters of Fanmi Lavalas demonstrating peacefully to
mark the 16th anniversary of the first inauguration of Jean-Bertrand
Aristide as president of Haiti. The demonstrators spoke out on a
number of issues, particularly calling for the release of the
remaining political prisoners incarcerated under the Latortue regime,
the departure of the UN force and the return of all who were forced
into exile for political reasons, primarily former president
Aristide, who was forced to depart on February 29, 2004. Wearing t-
shirts depicting Mr. Aristide and carrying placards and branches of
trees, the demonstrators commenced their march outside the Saint-Jean
Bosco Church in La Saline, proceeded down the Delmas highway, paused
outside the headquarters of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP)
and the office of the Prime Minister, before concluding their march
in front of the National Palace. All along their route, they chanted
slogans denouncing the violence and exclusion which they said they
have faced ever since February 29, 2004. In front of the public
square known as "Place Miel" (Honey Square), which was inaugurated by
the former president now in exile, they criticized the Group of 184
(opponents of Aristide) whom they accused of having inflamed emotions
and exacerbated division in Haiti, plunging the country further into
misery, in collaboration with the interim government of Latortue.

Outside the headquarters of the Provisional Electoral Council, they
accused Council president Max Mathurin of having organized massive
fraud at the time of the last elections that they said was designed
to exclude Haiti's majority from governance. Speakers at the march,
such as Lavalas Deputy Jonas Coffi and a former candidate for a seat
in the Lower House, Marc Foreste Cassius, said that the current CEP
is the most deviously mischievous and incompetent of all of the CEPs
in Haiti's history, and remains incapable of publishing the election
results two months after Haitians went to the polls on December 3,
2006. As they approached the Prime Minster's office, the
demonstrators denounced the fact that there are still political
prisoners incarcerated under a constitutional and democratic
government. "Why is it that people who were thrown in prison by an
illegitimate government for political reasons continue to languish
behind bars, while notorious criminals and others who escaped from
prison after they had been locked up because of their participation
in massacres continue to walk the streets freely", they asked,
suggesting that Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis has some
explaining to do.

They also asked the head of the government to clarify the statements
of MINUSTAH officials insisting that every operation conducted by the
UN force in Citi Soleil, which left innocent victims, had the prior
approval of the Haitian government. As they arrived at the MINUSTAH
headquarters in Bourdon, their emotions stirred, the demonstrators
called for the departure of the UN force whose mandate expires in mid-
February. They blamed the UN mission in large part for the violence
committed against the population. "They have always stood by, their
arms crossed, as massacres take place, organized by police officers
together with members of the Timanchht Army in the populist
districts under the interim government", they protested, outraged at
the fact that all of the investigations that were announced have come
to nothing, such as the investigation into the massacre at the
National Penitentiary on December 1, 2004. The coordinator of the
Fondation 30 Septembre (September 30 Foundation), Lovinski Pierre-
Antoine, asserted that MINUSTAH is not worthy of the mission of
stabilization and democracy that it claims to fulfill.

Outside the National Palace, declaring that President Prival is
insensitive to the suffering of the population and of those who
languish behind bars, the demonstrators urged him to demonstrate
prudence toward those the protesters called "opportunists". "Those
who raise their glasses in toast with you today are the same ones who
will be fomenting plots aimed at throwing you into the abyss", they
shouted in the direction of the president, asking him to remain loyal
to his historic base while at the same time being a president who
represents all Haitians. The demonstration, with security provided
by the National Police, proceeded without incident. Demonstrators
rallying by the thousands also gathered in provincial cities, notably
Cap-Haitien, Saint-Marc and Miragobne to commemorate February 7th.
February 7, 2007 also marks the 21st anniversary of the end of the
dictatorship of the Duvaliers and the first anniversary of the second
election of Mr. Prival as President of Haiti. (AHP, 2/7)

Legislators Drafting Bills to Establish a Legal Framework:
Youri Latortue, president of the Justice and Public Security
Commission of the Haitian Senate, said Thursday that the Commission
is presently working on several draft bills intended to establish a
legal framework in Haiti. The draft legislation relates to the
expression of the powers of the judicial branch of government, the
School for Judges, the new role of the Ministry of Justice, and the
possession of firearms, said Mr. Latortue. "Judicial reform must be
genuine in order that judicial independence may be in-depth, both
administratively and jurisdictionally", he said. Youri Latortue said
he feels it is urgent that the Parliament adopt laws that can help
change living conditions for the population, as he recalled the
constitutional and political role of the Senate.

In another development on the judicial front, the deputy spokesperson
for the UN mission in Haiti, Jean Jacques Simon, announced Thursday
that two training seminars will be held next week in Port-au-Prince
and Cap-Haitien, for judges from these two cities. The seminars will
last three days and will be led by officials from the human rights
and justice divisions of MINUSTAH. These events are intended to
assess at what level international norms relating to human rights,
particularly freedom, security, rights to a fair and just trial are
respected under Haitian law. "We will also be trying to ensure
respect for these norms by the Haitian authorities in the
administration of justice", he said.

Reni Magloire, Minister of Justice and Public Security, presented a
guide Thursday to the government prosecutors assigned to the
country's 10 jurisdictions, entitled "Practical Guide for Improved
Handling and Management " of judicial cases. According to Minister
Magloire, this guide will serve as an additional resource for public
prosecutors that will help them to work more efficiently in the
justice arena. Judges are asked to conduct a rapid study of the case
files of detainees in order to try to reduce the prison population as
quickly as possible, said Mr. Magloire. The most recent statistics
available show a total of 5,022 detainees in all of the detention
centers of the country; an intolerable situation, the Minister
deplored. Most of the detainees are generally incarcerated for their
political beliefs, stressed Mr. Magloire. He promised that everything
possible will be done to regularize the situation.

A brochure was also provided to the prosecutors by the Justice
Ministry discussing how they should receive victims of sexual
violence. According to Mr. Magloire, this circular is related to the
draft agreement that provides the context for an easily obtainable
medical certificate in cases of sexual assault and domestic abuse
that was agreed jointly by the Ministry of Justice and Public
Security, the Ministry for Women's Affairs and Women's Rights, and
the Ministry for Public Health and Population. In the circular, all
judges are informed that no legal nor administrative measures may be
implemented that require a victim of violence to provide a medical
certificate that is issued exclusively by the Hospital of the State
University of Haiti or a public hospital facility. Instead, said the
Minister, all that is required as an item of evidence is any medical
certificate issued by a qualified physician licensed to practice
regularly in Haiti. Such a certificate may be utilized to set in
motion a judicial process without need for a secondary expert
opinion. For her part, the Minister for Women's affairs and Women's
Rights, Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lasshgue, welcomed the adoption of
this measure in favor of Haitian women. Those responsible for sexual
violence must be punished according to the law, declared Mme
Lasshgue, who urged the judges and public prosecutors to become more
involved in these cases. (AHP, 2/8)

New Raid in Cite Soleil:
Hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers raided Haiti's largest and most violent
slum Friday, seizing a portion of it in a six-hour gunbattle that
left a gang member dead and two soldiers wounded, officials said.
More than 700 heavily armed blue-helmeted troops from seven countries
participated in the pre-dawn raid on Port-au-Prince's sprawling Cite
Soleil slum, entering the mazelike shantytown in armored vehicles and
on foot as U.N. helicopters circled above. The peacekeepers seized
several abandoned buildings in a section known as "Boston" that had
been used by gangs to stage attacks. The raid sparked an intense
firefight within the densely populated slum of 300,000 people. Two
U.N. soldiers -- from Brazil and Bolivia -- were slightly wounded,
one by gunfire and the other in an unspecified incident unrelated to
the fighting, U.N. spokesman Jean-Jacques Simon said. The spokesman
said U.N. troops killed one suspected gang member and wounded four
others.

"There will be no tolerance for the kidnappings, harassment and
terror carried out by criminal gangs," said Maj. Gen. Carlos Alberto
Dos Santos Cruz, the Brazilian commander of the 9,000-strong
international force. "I will continue to cleanse these areas of the
gangs who are robbing the people of their security." Dos Santos,
speaking earlier from Cite Soleil as gunfire still echoed through the
streets, said gang members fired thousands of rounds at
peacekeepers. Peacekeepers returned fire -- and at one point could be
seen using a sniper to fire into the slum from a water tower.
Associated Press journalists saw the blood-spattered body of a young
man in a street. Witnesses said he was walking through the area when
he was hit by gunfire, but it was not clear who shot him and his
identity was unknown. Residents moved the body inside a building.
Later, AP journalists saw slum residents use a wheelbarrow to carry
out a motionless woman bleeding from her chest. The residents said
she was struck by a stray bullet at her home. Her condition was not
immediately known.

Afterward, about 100 Cite Soleil residents staged an impromptu
protest outside the U.N. military base in the slum, waving a white
sheet and chanting "We want peace!" "We want this fighting to stop
so innocent people of Cite Soleil can stop being victims and live as
human beings," protester Damas Augustin said as peacekeepers put up
barriers to keep demonstrators at bay. On Dec. 22, U.N. troops
raided another part of Cite Soleil to break up a kidnapping gang. The
U.N. said six suspected gang members were killed, although slum
dwellers said 10 people died and that all were civilians. Friday's
raid targeted the Boston section of Cite Soleil, which is controlled
by a notorious street gang led by a shadowy figure known only as
"Evens." "We are now in control of the area known as Boston," U.N.
spokesman David Wimhurst said. He said the gang members apparently
fled the area and that no arrests had been made. (AP, 2/9)

For years, street gangs have run Haiti right alongside the
politicians. With a disbanded army and a corrupted wreck of a police
force, successive presidents have either used the gangs against
political rivals or just bought them off. Recently, something
extraordinary has occurred. President Reni Prival decided to take on
the gangs and set the 8,000 United Nations peacekeepers loose on
them, a risky move that will determine the security of the country
and the success of his young government. Were taking back Port-au-
Prince centimeter by centimeter, said Lt. Col. Abdesslam Elamarti, a
peacekeeper from Morocco. Were pressing these gangs so the
population can live in peace.

The offensive by the United Nations forces began in earnest in late
December. One of the fiercest battles took place on the morning of
Jan. 25 with a raid by hundreds of United Nations forces on a gang
hide-out on the periphery of Citi Soleil, this sprawling seaside
capitals largest and most notorious slum. After a fierce firefight
in which gang members fired thousands of shots, United Nations
officials succeeded in taking over the hide-out, a former schoolhouse
that gang members had once used to fire upon peacekeepers and to
demand money from passing motorists. The United Nations said four
gang members had been killed in the battle. Other raids have
followed, and though it is still too early to judge the operation,
gang leaders seem to be on the run, and armored United Nations
vehicles now rumble through the crowded streets of Citi Soleil.

The biggest of the United Nations operations have been aimed at one
of the most wanted and feared of all the gang leaders, an unlikely
and unpredictable power broker in his 20s who goes simply by the name
Evans. Evans and his groups have been linked to a rash of kidnappings
in the capital, and lately his men have been locked in fierce battles
with United Nations peacekeepers. Within the confines of Citi Soleil,
Evanss every whim is enforced with absolute authority. Deeply
superstitious, he recently said he suspected cats of bringing him bad
luck after one appeared during a raid by United Nations troops on one
of his hide-outs, local residents and United Nations officials said.
Evans and the other leaders now hide in the maze of tin-roofed
shanties that are home to some 300,000 of Haitis urban poor.
Meanwhile, the local population debates which is a more effective
strategy for dealing with these young toughs, confronting or
conversing with them.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has a long
tradition of politics mixed with thuggery. In the 1970s and 80s,
Frangois Duvalier and his son Jean-Claude employed the Tontons
Macoute, dreaded paramilitary hoodlums. Mr. Aristide was elected
president in 1990 and again in 2000 with the
support of the poor. Gang leaders, who act as de facto spokesmen for
long-neglected slums, gained entry to the presidential palace and
helped dole out jobs and other spoils to their men. In his initial
months in office, Mr. Prival, who had been Mr. Aristides prime
minister as well as president from 1996 to 2001,
followed a similarly conciliatory tack. He negotiated with gang
leaders, including Evans, inviting them at times to face-to-face
meetings in the presidential palace, officials say. But he has grown
increasingly impatient with the gangs as they resisted surrendering
their guns and continued wreaking havoc on Port-au-Prince. The
kidnapping spree at the end of last year was the last straw. As the
country prepared for Christmas, street thugs began grabbing people
off the street, taking them into the slums and demanding ransoms.
Then the kidnappers began singling out children. In one horrible
episode, a teenage girl was killed and her eyes were gouged out.
Then, a school bus of children was seized by gunmen, prompting many
terrified parents to keep their children hidden at home.

Mr. Prival, who has support among Haitis poor as well as its elite,
found his coalition government under attack as well, with opposition
politicians in the Senate and Chamber of Deputies denouncing him for
allowing the violence. The president changed course, calling off
negotiations with the gangsters and giving the United Nations the go
ahead to go after them. Some local residents say that the raids are
stirring up the gangs and that innocent people are getting caught up
in the cross-fire. David Wimhurst, the spokesman for the United
Nations mission, said that the peacekeepers were careful to single
out only combatants and that gang members had themselves killed
civilians and then blamed the United Nations.

Not everybody agrees that confrontation is the best way of calming
the slums. The gang men can change, insisted Meleus Jean, 45, a
pastor who runs a tiny church in Citi Soleil and who was once almost
hit by a stray bullet while delivering a Sunday morning sermon. I
talk to them and I think they are gang men because they have nothing
else. Fighting them will not change them. One of those who has been
criticized in the past for dealings with gang members has been Wyclef
Jean, the Haitian-American rapper formerly of the Fugees. The
problem is much bigger than the gang leaders, he said in a telephone
interview from New York. Im not saying they are not part of the
problem. When people are killing people, thats a problem. But we
dont have enough conversation.

But United Nations officials say the time for talk is over. If one
of them goes to Prival and says, I want to give up, and waves a
white handkerchief, that is fine, said Edmond Mulet, a Guatemalan
diplomat in charge of the United Nations mission here. Thats the
kind of conversation we want. At the same time, nobody believes that
arresting or killing the gang leaders will be enough to calm Port-au-
Prince. The violence is linked, most say, to the dire poverty. The
United States government recently set aside $20 million to create
jobs for young people in Citi Soleil once the violence is quelled. In
Solino, a neighborhood where the gangsters were chased away, people
are being paid to clean garbage from a clogged drainage ditch. Mr.
Mulet, of the United Nations, said he believed that the gang leaders
were beyond rehabilitation. Theyve been killing people, kidnapping
people, torturing people, raping girls, he told reporters recently
in Washington. It is very difficult to reinsert into society someone
like that. A psychiatric institution would be the best place to place
them in the future after we arrest them. (New York Times, 2/5)

Most U.N. peacekeeping forces usually deploy only after the guns have
fallen silent, but the Haiti mission goes on the offensive almost
every day. Sent in more than two years ago, the 9,000-strong force is
now pushing ever deeper into Cite Soleil, and holding its ground with
bases and checkpoints. Haiti's ruling class welcomes them, and the
veto-wielding governments on the U.N. Security Council are united in
wanting to see an end to the Caribbean country's nearly two decades
of political upheaval. "It's a new experience in U.N. peacekeeping,"
said David Wimhurst, a spokesman for the U.N. mission. "It hasn't
been easy, but we're making headway." The crackdown has led to the
killing or capture of several alleged gangsters. Critics say it has
also taken innocent lives in Cite Soleil, where 300,000 people scrape
out a meager existence on streets lined with ditches of raw sewage.

In a major operation Friday, more than 700 U.N. troops stormed Cite
Soleil to seize a large swath of the slum from gang control. A
firefight lasting several hours left two soldiers injured and at
least one suspected gang member dead. "We're encircling them. It's
like a medieval siege, just trying to put pressure on them," Edmond
Mulet, the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, told reporters at U.N.
headquarters on Jan. 29. Mulet said the force takes fire "every day"
and called gang leaders "psychopaths" who wantonly kidnap and kill
law-abiding Haitians. Alix Fils-Aime, a top security adviser to
Preval, said the gangs win favor in Cite Soleil in part by sharing
their loot with the poor. Robert Argant, president of the Haitian
Chamber of Commerce, says: "These guys are using the money they steal
from people to get others around them to support them."

The gang members insist they are soldiers fighting for equality in a
country where about 80 percent of people live on less than $2 a day
and a tiny elite controls the economy. "They call us gangsters, but
everyone in this world is a gangster. When you're hungry, you're mad.
When you're thirsty, you're mad. When somebody is against you, you
have to be mad," said a gang member, who identified himself only as
"Yamoska." Preval, overwhelmingly elected a year ago, has sent
emissaries to the gangs to negotiate a peaceful disarmament, while at
the same time deploying the national police to Cite Soleil for the
first time since Aristide's ouster. The government also encourages
the gangs to trade their weapons for job training and economic aid,
but that effort has only disarmed about 100 men and recovered a small
pile of rusty, antiquated guns.The gang members are no strangers to
struggle. After Haiti's now-disbanded army toppled Aristide in a 1991
coup, paramilitary death squads sprayed Aristide's slum strongholds
with gunfire, killing an untold number of people. Some of today's
gang members were orphaned by the killings, which eased in 1994 when
U.S. troops restored Aristide.

Committed to maintaining support in the slums, Aristide sent the
gangs money, food and -- by many accounts -- weapons. Many gang
members remain loyal to him today and say the U.N. is allied with
their enemies. Several told The Associated Press that they want to
lay down their arms but fear being vulnerable to U.N. raids. In most
of the U.N.'s 15 peacekeeping missions around the world,
international troops are used mainly as police to maintain order in
post-conflict countries. Peacekeepers have clashed with militants in
Congo and Sierra Leone, but only in Haiti do they routinely take on
armed street gangs, the U.N.'s Wimhurst said. "We normally deal with
rebel groups or armed factions who have leaders and have agreed to
disarm or enter into a political agreement. Here, none of that is
true. They're just a bunch of gangs who fight us," he said. (AP, 2/10)

Antibiotic to be Developed with Microbe from Haitian Dirt:
With doctors increasingly worried about "superbugs," deadly
infections that can defeat most known drugs, a small Cambridge
biotechnology firm has won $70 million in venture capital money to
develop a powerful antibiotic from a microbe discovered in Haitian
dirt. Reflecting the renewed importance of antibiotics, once spurned
as low-profit sideline in the drug industry, the venture investment
is the biggest in a New England biotech company in nearly a year, and
one of the largest nationwide. "We're in a very dire situation in the
antibiotic business, where nobody really knows where the next good
antibiotics are going to come from," said Eric Gordon, a venture
capitalist and former antibiotic researcher who helped finance the
Cambridge company, Targanta Therapeutics Inc. Targanta's drug is
still experimental, but it joins a series of new efforts to attack
strains of bacteria that kill thousands of people each year.

The drug was discovered not by Targanta in Cambridge, but by
scientists at Eli Lilly & Co. in Indiana during the 1990s. At the
time, Lilly's department of antibiotic researchers was one of the
most respected in the country. In analyzing bacteria-rich samples of
tropical soil, the researchers noticed one type of bacteria in a
sample from Haiti appeared to be extremely effective at fending off
attacks from rival bacteria. "You've got the Darwinian battle going
on under the ground in Haiti," said Targanta chief executive Mark
Leuchtenberger . "Somehow, this became the don't-mess-with-me
microbe." Following a standard path in antibiotic research, Lilly
researchers isolated the microbe's bacteria-killing chemical and
tweaked it repeatedly, finally creating a new drug more effective
against bacteria and less toxic to patients. Targanta's drug has been
tested on about 1,500 patients with serious skin infections, and has
shown encouraging results. The company sought new investors to help
fund its application for federal approval and to begin testing the
drug against a broader range of diseases. (Boston Globe, 2/9)

Lancet Publishes Response to Allegations of Conflict of Interest:
The Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal, has cleared the
author of a study on Haiti of systemic bias, and reaffirmed the
findings of her report. Athena Kolbe's report concluded that
widespread human-rights violations in Haiti have occurred, despite
the presence of a Canadian-led United Nations police force and
Brazilian-led peacekeeping mission. The Lancet investigation was
launched after a British-based Haiti Support Group complained she
wasn't objective. Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, noted that
Ms. Kolbe had an "undeclared conflict of interest" for failing to
disclose to its readers that she had worked as a volunteer in 1995 at
an orphanage founded by former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and
as a journalist under the name of Lyn Duff. However, Mr. Horton said
there was no evidence of bias in the study's findings, and that much
of the debate in this case was "aimed at exploiting historical
divisions" in Haiti. "That process has obscured the real issue -- the
welfare of civilians in Haiti -- to whom attention should now turn,"
he said. Ms. Kolbe's study, co-authored with Royce Hutson, an
assistant professor at Detroit's Wayne State University, found that
8,000 Haitians have been slain and 35,000 women and girls raped since
the ousting of Mr. Aristide in early 2004. The perpetrators were
Haiti's National Police, members of the disbanded army, common
criminals, armed anti-Lavalas (Mr. Aristide's political party) groups
and in some cases, members of the UN peacekeeping mission. A small
number were Lavalas. Ms. Kolbe said that according to local Haitians,
Canadian peacekeepers made death threats against them during house
raids, and sexual advances against women while they were drunk and
off-duty.

"Now that The Lancet study has reaffirmed our findings, I hope that
groups criticized for human-rights violations will be investigated
and held accountable," said Ms. Kolbe, who is working on her master's
degree at Wayne State's school of social work. In one alleged
incident, a resident of Delmas, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince,
said Canadian troops raided his house and threatened to kill him if
he didn't give them names of Aristide supporters. In another alleged
incident, a woman said she was grabbed by a drunk, off-duty Canadian
soldier while out with friends near a base in the capital. She claims
he threatened her with sexual attack. The Canadian military briefly
investigated the allegations, but couldn't substantiate them because
respondents were anonymous. Yves Engler, with Haiti Action Montreal,
a solidarity group, said The Lancet's reaffirmation of the study's
findings underscore the massive human-rights violations that occurred
after Mr. Aristide left office. "This study reaffirms the indictment
of Canada's foreign policy in Haiti. Canada helped to overthrow the
government and now the human-rights situation has worsened," he said.
Mr. Aristide was ousted on Feb. 29, 2004, after a rebellion of thugs
and ex-soldiers forced him out. He argues the United States and
France forced him into exile. (Globe and Mail, 2/12)

UN Security Council Unanimously Votes to Extend MINUSTAH:
The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to extend its
peacekeeping mission in Haiti for eight months and ask troops to step
up operations against criminal gangs. Most council members, including
the United States, wanted a one year extension but China argued for a
six-month renewal so the 15-member body could consider drawing down
troops and changing the mandate. The compromise was to renew the
mission for eight months, until Oct. 15. The resolution, drafted by
Peru, requests the peacekeepers increase the "tempo of operations"
against criminal gangs "as deemed necessary to restore security,
notably in Port-au-Prince," the capital. But China's U.N. Ambassador
Wang Guangya told the council the text had the wrong priorities and
concentrated too much on military operations against armed gangs,
which could not "be a long-term strategy." Instead the main challenge
should be to assist the Haitian government in building up civilian
institutions. He said several of his amendments were rejected but he
voted in favor in the interest of consensus for an eight instead of a
six month renewal. Haiti has ties with Taiwan but not with Beijing.
In response, Panama's U.N. Ambassador Ricardo Alberto Arias, speaking
for Latin American nations which play a major role in the U.N.
operation, said the eight-month mandate was too short as the United
Nations would have to remain in Haiti for "12 months and
beyond." (Reuters, 2/15)

Col. Carl Dorelien to be Tried in Miami:
It was never clear exactly how many men, women and children were
killed when Haitian troops and paramilitaries stormed through the
seaside town of Raboteau in April 1994. Some of the bodies were
buried in shallow graves where they were gnawed by animals, while
others were flung into the ocean. At least two dozen people, and
perhaps as many as 100, died. Next week, nearly 13 years after the
incident, a court in Miami will hear a case for damages against a
former Haitian army officer convicted in relation to the killings.
Col Carl Dorilien must be ruing his luck: had he not won millions of
dollars on the Florida lottery after he fled from Haiti, it is
unlikely lawyers would now be on his trail. No one alleges that Col
Dorilien was personally involved in the killings, carried out when
the Caribbean nation was ruled by a military junta which had, with
the assistance of the CIA, ousted the elected president, Jean-
Bertrand Aristide. But Col Dorilien was a member of the army's high
command, and was responsible for discipline and military justice.
Campaigners say that although the junta's rule was marked by a wave
of repression and killing of Mr Aristide's supporters, no members of
the army or paramilitary forces were ever punished. "An estimated
5,000 supporters of the broad movement for progressive political
change were killed during the 1991-94 military regime," said Charles
Arthur of the UK-based Haiti Support Group. When Mr Aristide was
restored to power in late 1994, Col Dorilien and many other members
of the junta fled to Florida. But any chances of keeping a low
profile ended in 1997 when he won $3.2m (#1.6m) in the state lottery.
Col Dorilien was convicted in absentia by a Haitian court in 2000 for
conspiracy and complicity in murder in relation to the Raboteau
killings, and three years later he was deported to Haiti by US
authorities - only to be released from prison a year later. In the
new case, starting on Tuesday, the California-based Centre for
Justice and Accountability (CJA) is seeking to have Col Dorilien's
lottery assets, frozen by a previous court decision, awarded to two
victims of the junta's repression.

The CJA says that the husband of one of the plaintiffs, Marie Jeanne
Jean, was among the victims at Raboteau. The other plaintiff,
Lexiuste Cajuste, was a union leader allegedly tortured by the junta
in 1993. "It's important to go as high up the chain of command as
possible to act as a deterrent," said the CJA's executive director,
Pamela Merchant. "After waiting more than 12 years, our clients will
finally have their day in court, and for the first time one of the
many high-ranking members of the Haitian armed forces, who found
refuge in the US after the restoration of democracy to Haiti, will
have to answer to a US jury for the allegations of widespread and
severe human rights abuses." A lawyer for Col Dorilien, who is still
living in Haiti, insisted that his client was not involved in the
1994 killings and that he was only being pursued because of his
lottery win. "The judgment against Mr Dorilien by the Haitian court
has been set aside," he said. "I don't think they should be bringing
the case here. He was not remotely responsible for anything that
happened in Raboteau. He was a colonel in Haiti's army but he was an
administrator." When fighting his 2003 extradition to Haiti, Col
Dorilien claimed in a letter to the then US Attorney General John
Ashcroft that he had become a "sacrificial lamb". He also said
Haitian troops at Raboteau acted in self-defence after being attacked
by a mob. Mr Aristide was ousted a second time in 2004, again with
the support of elements in Washington. He is now living in South
Africa. (The Independent, 2/17)

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