AHP News - August 29, 2005 - English translation (Unofficial)  

 CIVPOL announces measures to screen and better control the PNH 

Port-au-Prince, August 29, 2005 (AHP)- CIVPOL spokesperson Jean François Vézina announced Monday that new measures will be adopted over the next two weeks designed, he said, to provide for screening and improved control of the Haitian National Police (PNH).  

A program of registration and identification of police officers is planned, said, Mr. Vézina, as well as procedures to control the weapons used by the national police.  

Photographic identification and registration of fingerprints of police officers are two important elements of the program, said the CIVPOL spokesperson. The program will also make it possible to ascertain with certainty the number of police officers employed in the force.  

Referring to the recent issuance of checks to police officers who are no longer employed by the PNH, Mr. Vézina anticipated that this program will also address the problem of corruption plaguing the police institution.  

UN Security Council Resolution 1608 provided MINUSTAH with full authority over the Haitian national police.  

The UN Mission as well as other sectors of the international community have recently reacted with a great deal of embarrassment following numerous cases of summary justice perpetrated by "attachés" and in which sectors of the PNH have been accused of involvement.  

However, the investigations announced by the Haitian authorities as well as by MINUSTAH to shed light on the incident last week in which several dozen people were hacked to death in the populist district of Grand'Ravine  on the pretext that they were bandits, have thus far produced no results.