ARTICLE - ANDRESOL - PRESSURE TO RESIGN

POLICE CHIEF MARIO ANDRESOL UNDER PRESSURE TO RESIGN
(Haiti Libre) - By Eddy Laguerre

PORT-AU-PRINCE - The Director General of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) Mario Andresol is under strong pressure from the Presidency to submit his resignation.

Le Matin learned from parliamentary sources that the Cabinet of the President of the Republic, Michel Martelly, promises the establishment of a new armed force on November 18 but in the meantime would reorganize the High General Staff of the PNH.

Mario Andrésol is therefore in the spotlight just weeks after the investiture of the installation of the Minister of the Interior, Local Authorities and National Defense; Thierry Mayard-Paul, alongside the Minister of Justice and Public Safety, Joshua Pierre-Louis. Both branches are concerned with the fate and function of the national police.

Both ministers will also use the National Council for Defence and Security (CNDS), as part of the plan to overhaul the army. This structure is placed at the top of the state and chaired by the Head of State, meets with at least five ministers, the new army commander and the director general of the national police resembling a functioning intelligence service.

In this new national security plan, Mario Andresol does not seem to find a place, yet he was praised by the Senate of the Republic in August 2009 after his reappointment was requested by President Rene Preval.

Several observers and even members of parliament, had Mr. Andrésol as an exclusive selection of the international community, including the United States, ... from evidence that the commander of the PNH returned to Haiti in 2005 with the transitional government of Gérard Latortue. Andrésol has been at the head of the institution where he has finished his second three-year term.

The former President of the Senate, Senator Kely Bastien (Nord/Inite), took the lead in denouncing the dealings of the Presidency to obtain the resignation of Mr. Andrésol.

"The Director General of the PNH received a mandate from Parliament, the Presidency must meet this mandate and allow time for the holder to perform it without interruption."

Senator Bastien expressed concern that critics of Mr. Andrésol, themselves, create insecurity by challenging the performance of the Director General of the PNH. Recently there was an open conflict between the Director General of the PNH and Inspector Jean Fritz who had to resign. The arrest and imprisonment of the former police commissioner of Petion-ville, Vanel Lacroix, was the basis of this disagreement within the high command of the PNH. Several other police officers stationed in Petion-ville are now placed in the national penitentiary, as Commissioner Lacroix.

The National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH) recently denounced the presence of several former police officers of dubious reputation in the corridors of the National Palace. Andrésol launched an internal investigation to find such individuals. Several names have already been cited as potential replacements for Andrésol.