ARTICLE - HUMAN RIGHTS WARNS MARTELLY

HUMAN RIGHTS WARNS MARTELLY OF QUESTIONABLE PERSONNEL IN ENTOURAGE PRESIDENT MARTELLY AND SECURITY
(Defend Haiti) - By Radio Kiskeya

The National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH) is warning the Head of State, Michel Joseph Martelly of former police officers in his entourage who have "questionable morality."

The RNDDH found in the president's entourage security personnel seeking to re-enter the Police Nationale d'Haiti (PNH) to be in violation of regulations governing the institution.

"Serious doubts are weighed on the concerned, as to the alleged involvement in illicit drug trafficking, the violation of human rights and other reprehensible acts", the RNDDH letter to the President of the Republic reads. The letter was written to the President on June 9 and disclosed to Radio Kiskeya.

Former police commissioners and workers in the institution of the PNH, such as, Alexandre Carel, Noel Goodwork, Jacky Nau, Gilbert Dragon and Will Dimanche were cited in the correspondence.

The organization for the defense of human rights states as justification to its concerns, the judicial inquiry into the events of September 9, 1999 at a hotel in the North plain. At least three former police officers, several executives and officers of the Police Nationale of the West Department and some Colombian and Dominican nationals were all cited as having "strangely met", according to the minutes of observation.

The RNDDH evokes an investigation of the Inspector General of the Police Nationale of Haiti (IGPNH) according to which, the day before, September 8, a meeting was held in Pèlerin 6 with Former Police Commissioner Guy Philippe, and other police officers, those identified in the entourage of the current Head of State.

According to the investigation, quoted by the human rights organization, it was a meeting to prepare for the landing, on September 10 in the North-East of a plane that was to come from Colombia with 450 kilos of cocaine on board.

The investigation of the IGPNH was corroborated later by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) of the United States.

In 2003, visas to enter the United States of several people, including one of the former police officers targeted in the letter to Mr. Martelly, were deleted for alleged involvement in drug trafficking. The RNDDH refers to Le Nouvelliste articles on January 31 and February 2 2003 which published the list of people so affected by the provision.

The case of another of the former police officers concerned is mentioned in the correspondence to the Head of State. An officer that was on multiple times dismissed by the police institution for various breaches of conduct as well is currently the subject of a police investigation for his alleged involvement in the murder of Manoucheka Louis-Jean Brice, wife of the former Director of the PNH, Ouest Department, Ralph Stanley Jean Brice.

The letter concludes that the Head of State, in acquiring these officials for the secret service is in serious violation of the PNH personnel manual (February 6, 1996) and a return to old practices of politicization, subservience and patronage of the police that would represent the possible reintegration of the former police officers in question within the institution.

One of the paragraphs of Article 7 of the police manual stipulates that for the police officer to return he should not have spent more than 5 years out of the institution.

In reference to the desire for change and for the commitment to democracy that the RNDDH advocates to Mr. Martelly, in the conclusion of the letter to the Head of State it requires him to take into account the recommendations for certifying the police, given in 2006 with the assistance of the international community and whose recommendations were not followed concerning the police officers involved in these various files.