III. INVESTIGATIONS OF POLICE ABUSE AND DISCIPLINARY MEASURES

Haitian authorities have moved to curb police abuse on several fronts. The government and police authorities are implementing accountability mechanisms set out in the 1987 constitution, the police law, and the police disciplinary and ethics codes. This is nothing short of revolutionary in Haiti, a country where military and police forces have long enjoyed virtually complete impunity. Nonetheless, the government still needs to strengthen laws regulating police behavior and internal police disciplinary measures, which have improved significantly since the appointment of new police leadership in March 1996. Furthermore, Haitian courts have initiated only a handful of criminal investigations of police officers, none of which have resulted in convictions.

Before leaving office, the Aristide government took steps to confront growing public concern over police conduct. The Justice Ministry printed thousands of copies of the legal guidelines on use of force to be distributed to all members of the HNP on October 9, 1995. At the January 20, 1996 graduation of Class 8 from the police academy, then-Prime Minister Claudette Werleigh, then-Justice Minister René Magloire, and then-acting Director General of Police Fourel Celestin, all condemned police abuse, stating that the government would not tolerate such incidents in the force. The Haitian Parliament has energetically executed its oversight role. The Haitian Senate has reviewed appointments to director general of the HNP, rejecting Fourel Celestin, a former army colonel, in January 1996. The Parliament also has called police and Justice Ministry officials to testify on human rights issues.

President René Préval chairs regular meetings on police issues. Reportedly, he personally has insisted on policies to improve accountability and provide information to the public on incidents of abuse. These positions should be codified in police law and regulations to assure that they become standard institutional practice and do not depend upon the inclinations of particular police and government authorities. While Préval demonstrated support for the force by attending the funeral of Marie Christine Jeune, the first HNP officer killed, he also responded promptly to allegations of police abuse. Following March 1996 allegations of a police beating and other incidents in Ouanaminthe, he announced the formation of a special commission of inquiry. To our knowledge, the commissionhas not yet presented any public findings, nor initiated any concrete action against allegedly abusive officers. President Préval also should focus increased attention on advancing judicial sanction of police abuse.

Channels for Presenting Internal Complaints Against the Police

Victims of police abuse may bring complaints to local, regional or national police authorities.49 Under the police law, the HNP must inform the inspector general's office within twelve hours of any complaint of human rights abuse in which a civilian or a police agent has been killed or gravely wounded.50

Several impediments block the effective reporting of police abuses. Many citizens are afraid to bring complaints of police abuses to local or even departmental authorities. Yet, most Haitians lack the means to travel to Port-au-Prince, where the office of the inspector general is located. Alternative external mechanisms must be created for presenting complaints against the police locally. In Grande Rivière du Nord, the February 1996 shooting victims said that due to possible reprisals from the police and local authorities, they had not made a complaint against the two police agents who wounded them. They wished to present a complaint directly to the inspector general, but they had no transportation funds to reach his Port-au-Prince office.

Haitians have reported complaints of police abuse to the international human rights mission, MICIVIH, and to UNSMIH's CivPol. While these missions have no formal authority over the HNP, they have brought certain cases to the attention of the inspector general, who has opened investigations. When UNSMIH departs (on July 31, 1997 under its current mandate), the Haitian public will lose an important external channel for complaints of police abuse.

Many individuals have presented complaints directly to the inspector general's office, perhaps reflecting the preponderance of abuses committed in Port-au-Prince or a lack of confidence in local police officials. Such active citizen engagement on police accountability issues is encouraging, but it threatens to overwhelm this national office. In order to focus the inspector general's limited resources on the most serious issues of accountability, police authorities should reexamine police disciplinary codes which require national-level attention to nearly half of the codified infractions, including minor matters which could be handled more efficiently at the local level.

Moreover, the Haitian government should develop additional avenues for citizens to present complaints against the police at the departmental level and in Port-au-Prince. President Préval named Louis Roy the director of the constitutionally-mandated Office of Citizen Protection (l'Office du Protection du Citoyen, OPC, a human rights ombudsman), but the office has yet to receive a budget or staff. The office should assist citizens seeking remedies for all forms of abuse committed by government officials, including the police. If the government funds the OPC, the constitution provides that it should initiate independent investigations of abuse.51

Legal Powers of the Inspector General

The inspector general's office must ensure that HNP officers comply with police regulations and are held accountable for human rights abuses. Article 48 of the police law states that the inspector general:

is to receive complaints and proceed with investigations of all human rights violations and any other abuse members of the police force may be accused of; must provide a written receipt of all complaints made bya citizen against a member of the National Police; [and should] prepare a report following investigations, which is to be sent simultaneously to the Justice Minister and to the Director General of the National Police.52

The police law also directs the inspector general to ensure that police regulations are followed and that police property and finances are used appropriately. He must prepare reports with recommendations for improvements on the regulation and functioning of the police.

The Performance of the Inspector General's Office

The Office of the Inspector General first started operations in June 1995 under the direction of attorney Luc Eucher Joseph. Reportedly, at first Joseph hesitated to initiate investigations until he received specific instructions from the justice minister. The U.S. Department of Justice's International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) provided some technical assistance and training to the inspector general and his staff, and observers reported improvements in their performance. In November 1995, the justice minister fired Joseph, reportedly because he had initiated investigations into illegal searches and arrests in the disarmament effort that followed the November killing of congressional Deputy Jean Hubert Feuillé.

Joseph's replacement, Pierre André Paul, set back the work of the inspector general's office. During two interviews in January 1996, he was unwilling or unable to provide the number of cases he had under investigation, stating that it was "around twenty." Other than two cases of accidental death, in which he stated that the HNP dismissed the responsible agents, he provided no further information on disciplinary actions.53

In March 1996, HNP Director General Pierre Denizé reappointed Joseph to the position of inspector general. Denizé applauded Joseph's earlier performance, noting that his previous firing had been the result of political pressures due to the competence of Joseph's investigations. At the time that Joseph resumed his post, he found some 120 uninvestigated complaints on file.54 Joseph asserted: "Improper behavior will not be accepted. Indiscipline will not be tolerated. The director general and I are in complete agreement on this. I don't like delinquents, either inside or outside the police."55

Since his reappointment, Joseph has opened numerous internal investigations of police abuses, has disciplined, suspended, or fired officers for wrongdoing, and has forwarded cases to the criminal justice system for legal action. In the Haitian courts, however, no police officer has been convicted of a killing and only four officers have been convicted of police abuse, all in a single beating case. The government has not answered the public demand for reparations for police abuses except with informal action in a few cases.

As of January 1997, Inspector General Joseph reportedly had fired seventy-seven police for serious violations of police conduct, including human rights violations.56 In early November, the HNP publicly released a list of thirty-two HNP agents and five HNP chiefs that had been fired. At least eight of these removals were based on the agents' or officers' commission of a human rights violation.57 The release notes that in all human rights cases, the HNP had forwarded investigative files to the relevant prosecutor.58 At this writing, twenty-four police officers and agents faced prosecution, and thirteen were in jail in Port-au-Prince awaiting trial on murder charges.59 As of mid-May 1996, the inspector general had 186 cases under investigation, ranging from minor disciplinary infractions to serious human rights violations, had suspended forty-six agents with partial or total loss of pay, and placed others in "isolation."60 At that time, the inspector's office had held 4,000 hours of hearings and interviews and closed thirty-six cases in which individual officers were sanctioned with punishments ranging from warnings to firings.

The inspector general assigned significant resources to investigating the worst incident of police abuse to date: the police killings and woundings on March 6, 1996, in Cité Soleil. However, police and Justice Ministry officials have made little information public about the incident and disciplined few officers. The inspector general immediately opened an investigation into the incident with assistance from CivPol and MICIVIH. Following this investigation, HNP authorities suspended or removed Port-au-Prince area commanders Guy Michel Philippe (head of the CSM), HNP Western Department Director Eliazar, HNP Carrefour police chief Ade, and HNP Delmas 33 police chief Lubin (his jurisdiction included Cité Soleil). Reportedly Denizé removed Lubin for his failure to control the police under his command, rather than for the killings per se.61 In September 1996, Inspector General Joseph said that he had forwarded the final report on the Cité Soleil violence to Justice Minister Max Antoine.62 However, as of this writing, neither the report nor any of its recommendations has been made public. We are not aware of any further disciplinary or criminal action in these cases. The HNP has not clarified whether the responsible commanders ultimately were fired or faced prosecution, or if they might have resumed duties at another police post.

At the local level, police investigations are often inadequate. Local HNP authorities tend to justify police behavior rather than investigate complaints. In the case of a beating in Port-de-Paix, the police investigation concluded that the accused HNP were innocent, although the judicial authorities sentenced some to pay a fine or spend several days in prison.63 In other cases, local police authorities have taken disciplinary measures beyond their authority and without informing the inspector general's office, in an effort to calm local feelings.

Despite the inspector general's investigations and disciplinary actions, the HNP still must overcome significant problems impeding accountability for police abuse. Many Haitians fear reprisals if they present complaints of policeabuses. "Victor," shot in Cité Soleil on March 6, 1996, said: "I did not bring a complaint against them. It can't be done. If I did, they could just shoot me or follow me. I was too scared to go to the hospital because I had heard they shot someone there."64 Other victims of the Cité Soleil incident also told us that they were afraid to file a complaint against the police. The inspector general's increasingly aggressive action and public announcements of actions taken against abusive officers should help improve public confidence. Broader educational campaigns about the police also are needed to improve public understanding of duties and of mechanisms for bringing complaints against abusive police. Improving community-police relations, especially through effective community policing, may also diminish victims' fear of reporting police abuses. The inspector general should make clear that he will severely punish any retaliation against victims of or witnesses to police abuse.

Inspector General Joseph pointed to the unwillingness of witnesses to talk for fear of being identified and facing reprisals as considerable obstacles to investigations. He also noted the difficulty of overcoming the "code of silence" when police officers refuse to provide information about abuses by their colleagues.

HNP agents have in some cases obstructed victims' efforts to bring complaints. Lescelie Jean-Baptiste was shot on March 10, 1996. Her husband said:

I went to the police station and they said it wasn't police from Cité Soleil who were responsible, but I recognized three of the agents. When I asked for their names, they wouldn't tell me, they turned over their identification badges so I couldn't see their names. I went to the police headquarters a few times to meet with the inspector general but they never gave me a meeting. I paid twenty dollars one day to go there with my wife, but they still didn't see us. They haven't given us anything.65

Victims in many cases face undue hardships in reporting cases due to the location of the Office of the Inspector General (in a remote Port-au-Prince neighborhood with limited access to public transportation).

Many victims complained that the HNP had not compensated their medical costs and time lost from work as a consequence of police abuse. Under international human rights law ratified by Haiti, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Haitian government must provide victims of police abuse the opportunity to seek a sufficient remedy through official channels.66 Wilson Pierre, who was shot in the back on January 17, 1996, said:

I have had two operations and spent around H$2,900.67 President Aristide came to the police station after that and he said that when a police officer does something like this, that he will never have the right to be a chief again. They told me the officer was fired but I'm not really sure. The police never told me the officer's name so I could bring a case against him. Aristide knows but he never told us. I can't make a complaint with the police on my back. I have five kids and I haven't been able to work. The police haven't done anything for me. I want reparation.68

Individual agents' informal efforts to provide financial support to police abuse victims, while laudable, are insufficient. Haitian government or HNP authorities must formally assume responsibility for the consequences of police abuses, including medical expenses.

Limited resources have hampered the work of the inspector general's office, although the situation has improved significantly in recent months. Police law mandates that the inspector general's office should have six senior investigators (inspecteurs) and twenty to thirty support staff.69 Joseph said that he would like to have staff in every major town in Haiti, but that this remains a long-term goal. In mid-1996, he was working with only four investigators in two rooms and he had only one vehicle at his disposal. By October 1996, Joseph had seven HNP officers of the rank of sergeant (commissaire) supervising investigations, fifteen investigators, and four support staff. On November 16, 1996, the inspector general's offices moved into new quarters refurbished with ICITAP assistance.70 International advisors, six from CivPol and one from ICITAP, are providing the inspector general's staff training and technical assistance.

Criminal Prosecutions of Police Abuse

Haitian judicial reform is lagging behind police reform and the judicial system remains only partially operational. Yet, severe police abuses demand prompt judicial attention. Impunity for human rights violations committed by the police will encourage further abuses and undermine the effort to establish the rule of law in Haiti. Although the Haitian judicial system has commenced criminal proceedings against some police, at this writing not one officer or agent of the new force has been convicted of any killing.71 The minimal judicial action against police agents and officers has put Haitian police on notice that, more likely than not, they will face no legal sanction for human rights abuses. By remedying the lapses described below, the Haitian police and judicial system could together deliver a new message, that impunity for human rights violations must come to an end.

Police abuse victims can bring complaints directly to judicial authorities, such as prosecutors or investigating judges, or to the police. If a police officer or agent receives an allegation of abuse, he or she should refer the complaint to the inspector general. According to the police disciplinary code, upon determining a likelihood that a police agent or officer committed a criminal act, and upon completing internal disciplinary measures, the inspector general then must refer abuse allegations to the courts for investigation and possible prosecution.72 The Justice Ministry's secretary of state for public security, Robert Manuel, stated that in cases of homicide or attempted homicide, police should notify judicial authorities immediately, rather than awaiting the completion of internal police inquiries. In November 1996, the Superior Council of the National Police (CSPN) decided that, in any case involving human rights violations or criminal acts, the inspector general's office must immediately inform the public prosecutor.73 Press releases from the inspector general's office in late September and November indicate that the HNP is complying with this practice.

Twenty-four police officers and agents now face criminal prosecution in Haiti, thirteen of whom are jailed in Port-au-Prince facing murder charges. To date, however, no HNP agent or officer has been convicted of murder. The cases now being considered by the Haitian courts include the beating deaths at Croix-des-Bouquets and theshooting of Mercilia Dorius.74 Progress on these cases will be an important test of the judicial system's willingness and ability to confront police abuse.

It remains to be seen whether Haiti's judiciary will be capable of conducting effective prosecutions. In the case of a September 1995 police killing of a fleeing robbery suspect in Cap Haïtien, the judge's apparant reluctance to prosecute police has paralyzed the investigation since October 1995.75 Criminal investigations leading to convictions of police officers or agents remain extremely rare in Haiti. Inspector General Joseph noted one case, a civil suit in St. Louis du Nord, that resulted in a decision ordering two police agents to pay damages.76 Then-Inspector General Paul informed us of a case in which a police officer reached an out-of-court settlement with a complainant who had been wounded by the agent in a dispute over a bus fare.

Police Relations with the Judicial System

Poor coordination between the Haitian police and a weak judicial system characterized by corruption, incompetence, and a lack of qualified personnel and basic materials, has impeded accountability for police abuses. Some new police officers and agents lack the willingness to fully cooperate with the judiciary and in the worst cases, police officers and agents are openly defiant of judicial authority. While frustrated with persistent judicial corruption and occasional incompetence, some police wrongly have pointed to these factors as justifications for police abuses of detainees. In disturbing conversations with our organizations, police agents argued that since the judiciary was not likely to punish "criminals" then they had better do so while they had the chance, and before the "delinquents" come back to retaliate against the police.

HNP agents and officers have flaunted their disdain for the judicial system in some cases. Police arrested a young man accused of hitting a child in the south-western community of Dame Marie in February 1996. The police then held their own trial, using agents as prosecutor, defense, judge, and jury. A leader of a nongovernmental organization assessed the motivation for their action:

They did this because the justice system is incompetent. The fifteen HNP based there are very young and highly motivated, but even if they were correct about the court's abilities, they had no understanding of the proper role of the police and the nature of the relationship they should have with the justice system.77

Judges and prosecutors in other areas have complained that police fail to recognize the authority of public prosecutors (commissaires du gouvernement) and investigating judges. Some judicial authorities have reported direct threats from HNP agents.78 Tensions between the police and the judiciary frustrate the judicial process. The police sometimes have refused to carry out warrants they deem to be illegal, instead of informing their superiors or judicial authorities. On one occasion, HNP agents refused to free prisoners on bail as ordered by a judge.79 The lack of police in many rural areas also handicaps the functioning of the judiciary. Judges in some more remote areas have complained that there are no police to assure their security, execute warrants, or conduct investigations.

Under Haitian law, the Judicial Police (Police Judiciaire), a specialized branch of the HNP, should conduct criminal investigations for prosecutors and investigating judges. However, only one dedicated unit of Judicial Police now functions: the thirty-eight agents that comprise the criminal brigade (brigade criminelle, which undertakes investigations for the Special Investigative Unit or SIU).80 At the local level, HNP agents at each station are assigned to Judicial Police duties, and a further twenty-five agents conduct investigations out of the HNP's central office. Specialized training programs for the Judicial Police are in early phases (see Section V below on international assistance).

As noted above, the judicial system's weaknesses frustrate the police. Police officers and agents allege that judges frequently accept bribes to release prisoners. In one case where a police agent was killed (see discussion above, at 15), the agent had received threats following his arrest of an alleged drug trafficker who reportedly bribed a judge to obtain his release. Many members of the police force believe that the suspect was responsible for the agent's death a few days later. A shortage of judges has led to long delays in criminal trials. In the city of Gonaïves, judicial authorities did not hold a single criminal court session for five years. The judiciary also has been charged with issuing arrest warrants based on insufficient evidence of criminal action. The government has invoked these failures as justification for unconscionably long periods of pre-trial detention (sometimes exceeding the maximum sentence for the alleged crime).

Judges and police need more joint training on their appropriate roles in the criminal justice system. A judge in Jacmel pointed to a need for better judicial preparation, highlighting that judges did not always understand the police role in serving warrants. A consultant to the Justice Ministry urged that prosecutors needed more training because "they don't understand yet that they are supposed to work with and in some cases supervise police action, especially the Judicial Police."81 A U.S. advisor described a special one-week training session at the Judge's Training Academy (École de la Magistrature), which brings together justices of the peace, prosecutors, investigating judges, and police officers from throughout Haiti. The week-long sessions are designed to break down barriers and misunderstanding or mistrust between the participants. Trainers give participants hypothetical crime scenes and assign roles - police act as judges or prosecutors and judges act as police.82 The Haitian Justice Ministry should reinforce such ongoing training with regular joint meetings to improve coordination mechanisms in the field.

The demands of profoundly reforming both the police and judicial system simultaneously impose great strains on Haiti's limited resources. Currently, the HNP accounts for 10 percent of the national budget, while the police and prison administration (Administration Penitenciaire Nationale, APENA) together account for 87 percent of the Justice Ministry's budget, leaving only 13 percent for all projects on judicial reform. This raises concerns that judicial reform efforts may remain limited, hampering efforts to confront impunity in Haiti. While the United States has a five-year, US$18 million administration of justice program in Haiti, its progress to date has been slow.

Public Information on Police Investigations

Police transparency is central to ending the long history of impunity enjoyed by Haitian security forces. Public disclosure will serve as a crucial deterrent to police, demonstrating that committing abuses is unacceptable and that it will lead to loss of rank, salary, and, in serious cases, firing, criminal proceedings, and a jail term.83

Senior Justice Ministry officials have promised to publicize information about police violations of the law and human rights. Top HNP authorities also said they wished to improve communications and public relations. Since their appointments, Denizé and Joseph have issued press statements and announcements of investigations in a number of incidents involving the police, but they have not done so consistently. Since July 1996, HNP statements have included the allegations, the names of the HNP agents, details of the events, and measures taken.84 The HNP should publicize this information in all cases of police abuse.

The police law directs the inspector general to provide his investigation report and recommendations for action and publicity to the HNP director general and the justice minister. There is no legal requirement that either the initiation or results of internal police inquiries be made public.85 As of this writing, Joseph publicly had released only thirty-two of the over seventy names of police discharged for committing serious crimes.

Joseph expressed some reservations about immediately publishing all the names of police under investigation and details of allegations against them, citing the concern that the public would assume their guilt. He considered this an additional punishment. Joseph also noted security concerns in the wake of attacks on HNP agents.86 However, there is no evidence to suggest any link between assassinations of police agents and specific allegations of abuse by an agent. Greater police transparency and the stringent application of internal police rules and criminal laws against abusive police should heighten public confidence that abusive police will not go unpunished, and give credibility to cases where police are exonerated. Such a demonstration of viable accountability mechanisms should diminish public frustration with police abuses and the likelihood that police would face popular recriminations.

The Haitian press has covered police issues extensively and critically. The HNP will improve its image and efficacy by providing detailed information about police discipline of abusive agents and officers. As Haiti has never had a professional police force, there is profound need for public education on the responsibilities of the police and their relationship with the public. Providing information on general crime statistics and police response also would help to build understanding of the proper functioning of police in ensuring public order and the need for the public to cooperate with the police to prevent and investigate crime.