Monday, April 10, 2006

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP): The United Nations mission in Haiti Friday called on the Haitian government to strengthen law enforcement as a key building block of democracy in the impoverished country.

"Impunity is a structural flaw in Haiti, a cancer that eats away at institutions, the childhood malady of an independent Haiti," Thierry Fagart, a French lawyer who heads the human rights section of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah), told AFP.

Fagart denounced "the blockage" of Haitian justice six years ago in the assassination of celebrity journalist Jean Dominique.

"One is up against a wall of silence, a wall of inaction as if no one wanted the circumstances of the murder of Jean Dominique to come to light," he said.

He also cited the case of former prime minister Yvon Neptune, detained without trial for more than two years.

Recently, Minustah criticized overcrowding in Haitian prisons, where more than 4,000 people are locked up and only 10 percent of them have been convicted of crimes.

Fagart urged the new government, which will soon take office, to undertake reforms to put an end to the lack of punishment and reinforce the judicial system.

The international community is ready to give money to Haiti to enable these reforms but "under the condition that there is a voluntary political desire for real change," he said.

The UN force has 7,500 military troops. Its international police component was boosted to 2,000 officers for the February 7 presidential and legislative elections.

The stabilization mission was deployed after president Jean Bertrand Aristide fled on February 29, 2004 as the country plunged into chaos.

With only 5,000 ill-equipped officers, Haiti's police force is struggling to maintain order in the impoverished and often violent country of 8.5 million.

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