V. INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE TO THE HAITIAN NATIONAL POLICE

The HNP receives international assistance from the United Nations civilian police (CivPol), which is part of the United Nations Support Mission in Haiti (Mission d'Appui des Nations Unies en Haïti, UNSMIH), from the United States through ICITAP, and from a bilateral Canadian program run by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). There is also a special United Nations support fund for the HNP, to which Japan, Korea, and Luxembourg have made donations. The total assistance from 1994 to this writing, including the cost of international police monitors, likely exceeds US$100 million.

The international community's ongoing training and assistance for the HNP is oriented toward improving institutional development and preparing for specialized police functions that were not incorporated into the massive first phase of selecting and training the HNP. U.S. training and assistance, provided by ICITAP, is the largest bilateral police aid program and should provide US$6 million a year over the next two fiscal years. Canada also has an important ongoing bilateral police assistance program, in addition to RCMP personnel serving in CivPol. Overthe next five years this program, administered by the RCMP, will provide Canadian $12 million in training and technical assistance, primarily for criminal intelligence and executive management.

The HNP's weakness has been at the center of arguments supporting a continued international presence in Haiti. The HNP's poor response to recent incidents such as the grenade thrown near the National Palace, the attack on the parliament, and the killing of two opposition figures in August 1996, spurred the U.N. Secretary General to recommend a further extension of the UNSMIH mandate beyond November 30, 1996. The Security Council approved the extension of the mandate to May 31, 1997, with a possible further two-month extension until July 31, 1997. The U.N. military presence has assured relative security and stability since the return of democratic government. In the north, we were informed that the military presence had been playing a supporting role in crowd control.132 All U.N. troops are now based in the Port-au-Prince area, where they continue to provide back-up to the HNP in emergency situations, such as the attacks on the parliament and palace.

U.S. Assistance and Training

The U.S. ICITAP program was designed in two parts. During phase one, ICITAP assisted the Haitian government with the recruitment, training and deployment of the new police force. Phase one ended in February 1996. Phase two is a five-year plan to support the institutional development of the police. During this period, ICITAP will support the development of specialized capabilities in education, professionalism, and accountability. It also will assist in the creation of specialized criminal investigations unit(s) and full-service forensic facilities.133 ICITAP also has trained specialized anti-narcotics police, VIP protection personnel, airport security, and a coast guard unit. ICITAP continues to provide training for police leadership, the Judicial Police, a SWAT team, and Haitian trainers to take over training at the police academy. ICITAP also is providing equipment and additional vehicles to the HNP.

The ICITAP program has responded to emerging problems and has incorporated human rights concerns into many elements of ongoing training. In response to shootings by members of the first HNP classes deployed in the field, ICITAP increased the number of hours of firearms training at the academy, emphasizing improved judgment and integrating role playing. ICITAP also is providing all HNP agents with an additional week of firearms retraining including human rights, defensive tactics, and use of force exercises. MICIVIH personnel also conducted academy and field training in human rights and use of force issues. ICITAP is providing additional remedial training in the use of firearms, safety, and defensive tactics to all members of the HNP. ICITAP also will train Haitian instructors to take over instruction in use of force and other issues over the long-term.

Responding to crowd control problems, ICITAP trained specialized crowd control units, emphasizing alternatives to the use of lethal force. The Urban Disorder Management Units are based in downtown Port-au-Prince, Delmas, Carrefour, and Pétionville in the Port-au-Prince area, and Cap Haïtien, Gonaïves, St. Marc, Jacmel, Les Cayes, and Jérémie. According to then-CivPol Commander Balladur, the eighty police agents trained in crowd control, who were sent to the Dominican border in March 1996 to respond to problems created by the expulsion of Haitians from the Dominican Republic, did "remarkable" work.134 France provided 300 sets of equipment for these units, including gas masks, shields, and fire-retardant clothing.

ICITAP also has developed a program to train Haitian trainers in basic arrest and defensive tactics skills. Haitian trainers, including HNP from each of Haiti's departments and four from Port-au-Prince, will be rotated back to the police academy for further training in other areas. ICITAP plans four repetitions of this training so that each department has four instructors.135

The United Nations Civilian Police

ICITAP has worked closely with CivPol to develop a field training program for the HNP. CivPol's mandate is to provide training and guidance to the HNP and to instill the principles of community policing.136 CivPol's central role is to provide guidance and training in an effort to professionalize the police. Unfortunately, CivPol monitoring, particularly on human rights issues, has been quite lax. CivPol officers repeatedly defer human rights complaints against the HNP to MICIVIH. Some CivPol officers defended this practice in the name of collegiality with their fellow police. While MICIVIH's mandate includes an explicit focus on human rights concerns, its role should in no way detract from or substitute for CivPol's active monitoring of the HNP's adherence to human rights standards, undoubtedly an integral component of professional police performance.

CivPol provides weekly training, followed by brief examinations on subjects including arrest procedures, administration, security, community relations, traffic, judicial-police issues, and writing reports. Ongoing training emphasizes use of force issues. CivPol report weekly to local Haitian police, judicial, and governmental authorities.

CivPol personnel described an evolving relationship in which the HNP were increasingly confident and independent and wanting less international supervision. Former CivPol Commander Philippe Balladur commented that: "The HNP come to CivPol whenever they have a problem, but now they have much more confidence and experience and don't take so kindly to CivPol comments. So the work gets more challenging as it goes along."137 Some HNP stated that CivPol should leave and stop restricting their ability to deal with detainees as they see fit, presumably including abusing prisoners. Other HNP personnel said they would like increased visits and training from CivPol.

Significant problems with CivPol contingents during 1995 and 1996 include the fact that well over half the CivPol contingents did not speak French and some of the police contingents had extremely limited skills to impart. The quality and extent of field training that CivPol offered HNP officers and agents varied widely. Weaknesses in CivPol's performance may be due to its staff consisting largely of lower-ranking police with meager training experience who are hastily recruited and often receive minimal briefing on their mandate. As one international expert in Haiti observed: "Operationally they are very good, and they can train in basic skills such as driving, but they cannot be expected to resolve issues such as use of force, intimidation, and policing in a democracy." A U.N. official said that U.N. headquarters needs to give greater attention and priority to CivPol recruitment processes. Currently, the recruitment is little more than a "clearinghouse," that fails to recruit police with skills matching the needs of different missions.138

At the time of the March 1996 extension of UNMIH until June 1996, CivPol ranks were reduced, while retaining the French-speaking contigents with most experience. These criteria also guided CivPol selection for the UNSMIH mission, which was authorized by the U.N. Security Council to follow UNMIH in Haiti. CivPol are training 500 HNP officers as trainers in basic police techniques. These HNP trainers will carry out field instruction accompanied by CivPol monitors. CivPol also is working to create police "command centers," first at HNP headquarters and in each department. CivPol also has devoted significant assistance to the inspector general's office, assigning twelve CivPol to work at HNP headquarters. However, in May 1996, then-Commander Balladur noted that he had trouble attracting qualified international police personnel experts for specialized training in accountability, police administration, and command and control. In October 1996, seventeen Haitian Creole-speaking police from the U.S. joined CivPol.139

CivPol's limited presence in the field has reduced its potential effect as a deterrent on police abuses. We are further concerned that CivPol officers repeatedly state that they are not in Haiti to report on human rights abuses, deferring this responsibility to MICIVIH. There is a danger that CivPol silence on incidents of abuse will send a message of tolerance for abuse to Haitian police.

Nonetheless, local organizations and human rights activists generally are supportive of CivPol's role and calling for their greater and more visible engagement in HNP policing activities. In at least one area, CivPol invited local human rights organizations to police training sessions. There is widespread concern that without ongoing CivPol assistance in all areas, beyond expiration of the U.N. mandate, the HNP still will be a chronically weak institution when CivPol departs.