CORRUPTION AND SECURITY VOID IN HINCHE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PORT AU PRINCE 001594

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR WHA/EX AND WHA/CAR
S/CRS
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD
STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAR
INR/IAA
WHA/EX PLEASE PASS USOAS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/07/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL HA
SUBJECT: CORRUPTION AND SECURITY VOID IN HINCHE

REF: PORT AU PRINCE 1532

PORT AU PR 00001594 001.2 OF 003


Classified By: AMBASSADOR JANET A. SANDERSON, REASONS 1.4(B) AND (D).


1. (C) Summary. A Poloff visit to Hinche in Center
Department August 28-31 determined that local government
corruption is pervasive and a central concern of local
residents. Local actors blame systematic neglect by the
central government (reftel) as the root cause for the
corruption. Judicial, police, and tax officials, as well as
private citizens, admit that corruption routinely intrudes
into their everyday lives. Residents believe that only a
massive overhaul of local public institutions can clean out
pervasive corruption: firing corrupt public officials,
hiring or appointing new ones, providing technical support
(computers) and training for all public officials -- and most
importantly, providing adequate GoH funding of local
institutions. Residents also lament that as a result of the
security void in their region, many support vigilante justice
and the re-establishment of the Haitian army as a means to
create a minimum of law and order. End of summary.

Corruption as a Way of Life
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2. (C) Poloff met with residents of Hinche, located in the
Center Department of Haiti. All interlocutors claim that
corruption in the Center Department does not approach the
levels found in Port-au-Prince. Nevertheless, they assert
that corruption is embedded into the fabric of every day
life. Residents identify the GoH's neglect of the Center
Department (reftel) and inadequate financing of local
government institutions as the root cause for corruption in
the department.


3. (C) Poloff met with peasant activist Chavanne
Jean-Baptiste on August 30. Jean-Baptiste told Poloff that
Hinche Mayor Andre Renard is unilaterally trying to
appropriate land that belongs to Jean-Baptiste's Peasant
Movement of Papaye (MPP) in order to build a new airport.
Jean-Baptiste asserted -- and MINUSTAH Regional Bureau Chief
for the Center Department, Emilio Castaneda, confirmed during
an August 29 meeting -- that Renard did not have the
authority to relocate the airport or appropriate land.
Renard, in an August 28 meeting with Poloff, insisted he did.
Castenada said that Renard and the local governing body,
Administration of Communal Sections (ASEC),have joint
authority for relocating the airport; however, the newly
elected ASEC was not yet functioning.


4. (C) In addition to losing customs revenues, Mayor Renard
noted that residents do not pay their income and property
taxes. Philippe Charles, Director General for the tax
collection authority in Hinche, told Poloff during an August
29 meeting that residents believe they should not have to pay
taxes because the government provides no services for local
residents. Corrupt tax inspectors and manual record-keeping
make tax evasion easy. When asked how he handled tax
inspectors who accepted bribes, Charles replied, ''I try to
support employees to the best of my ability.'' He declined
to discuss the possibility of sanctions, investigations, or
dismissals.

Justice System Affected
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5. (C) Poloff met with Jean Rene Michel, the government
prosecutor, on August 29 at his office. Michel said that
judges perverted the justice system by accepting bribes.
When asked if he personally is offered bribes, Michel
appeared nervous, looked down at his desk, looked away at the
window, and then finally said that no one offers him bribes.
(Note: We took this to mean that he indeed takes bribes.)
Exsersive Servil, the GoH representative to the Center
Department, told Poloff during an August 30 meeting that he
asked an unspecified person in the GoH to reassign Michel to
another position because Michel and the tribunal judge,
Marie-Juliette Joseph, are engaged in mutual public
accusations of accepting bribes and perverting the course of
justice. Servil added that the feud is in part caused by the

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fact that Joseph was provided with a government vehicle and
Michel was not.


6. (C) In meetings with Poloff, the Citizens' Initiative of
Hinche (August 28),womens' groups' representatives (August
30),and Bishop Louis Kebreau, Catholic bishop of the Hinche
diocese (August 28),all concur that the entire justice
system in the Center Department is corrupt. Jean Edwide
Robert, the HNP's Principal Commissioner in the Center
Department, frankly admitted to Poloff that his own police
force is corrupt, adding that the funds provided by the GoH
barely pay their salaries. Fleurant (last name unknown),a
riot police officer assigned to protect Bishop Kebreau, told
Poloff August 29 that his salary supplement for riot police
duty is regularly months late. Bishop Kebreau claimed that,
on occassion, he gives officer Fleurant food because he does
not receive his salary on time. HNP officer Marie Donald
Kerle-Grand, during our August 30 meeting with the womens'
groups' representatives, emphasized that the Mirebalais
police station -- two hours away from Hinche -- is the only
station in the department with functioning radios. Therefore
HNP officers have no communication capability with central
command in Hinche.

Ex-Army Stepping in to Partially Fill Security Void
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7. (C) Mayor Renard, MINUSTAH's Castaneda, Robert, and
Fleurant note that some towns and villages are under the
control of ex-army (FAdH) members. Ex-army members police
the town or village either as officers of the Haitian
National Police (HNP),as in the case of Cerca Carvajal, or
in a vigilante capacity, as in Los Palis. (Note: Jean Edwide
Robert, the HNP's Principal Commissioner for the Center
Department, is an ex-army captain. End note) Furthermore,
GoH Representative in the Center Department Servil claimed as
one of his accomplishments a security ''understanding'' with
ex-FAdH members: in exchange for the latter curtailing gross
crimes such as kidnapping, the HNP allowed them
''co-existence'' rights and the non-pursuit of their more
petty criminal activity.


8. (C) Servil noted that portions of the annual financial
support the GoH recently allocated to Haitian parents to help
defray the cost of school fees and uniforms was being
diverted by powerful officials for their own purposes. He
hinted that these officials worked within the GoH and in
Parliament. Gladys Dampaix Metellus, a women's group leader
and businesswoman, claimed that local leaders reprogram GoH
funds sent for women's programs after declaring that the
funds are insufficient to cover the designated project. The
leaders of the womens' groups also claim that women rarely
participate in the planning of projects ostensibly designated
for their benefit.


9. (C) Comment. Local officials use the GoH's inadequate
financing of local institutions and the ensuing scramble for
limited resources as a pretext for their own corruption and
dereliction of duty. Lack of financing is indeed one cause
of the dysfunctionality of and corruption within local
government. So are habits of corruption, disdain for law,
and lack of security that have developed over the ages. Yet
it was encouraging to find that all in Hinche recognize the
need for radical change. Local officials, enmeshed in graft
and internecine squabbling, grudgingly recognize the
necessity of a comprehensive and stringent anti-corruption
program by the GOH. While they outwardly tow the
anti-corruption line, these officials know there are no
institutions in place to curb impunity. Residents support
radical GoH action to uproot corruption. GoH neglect in
security matters has led to local reliance on ex-FAdH members
exercising vigilante justice. Local apprehension over lack
of security and support for vigilante justice by ex-FAdH
members is the backdrop for local support for
re-establishment of the army. FAdH's popularity in the
Center Department is not negatively affected by its role in
past political coups. There is a direct link in Hinche
between the central government's laissez-faire approach
toward the behavior of its local functionaries and the level
of corruption that exists.

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SANDERSON