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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Sep. 28 (IPS) — Human rights groups reacted coolly to the convictions in absentia of top leaders of the 1991 military coup xhis week, calling for a dramatic increase in government efforts to apprehend and convict alleged murderers.

''Nowhere has there been any sign of the willingness of the authorities to actually arrest or extradite those responsible for the crimes (of the coup regime),'' said Father Hugo Triest, the chair of the justice committee of the Conference of Religious Haitians (CHR).

A Haitian judge sentenced former Port-au-Prince police chief Michel Francois, and 16 others, on Sep. 25 to life imprisonment for killing Antoine Izmery, a businessman and active supporter of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Francois, a leader of the Sep. 1991 coup that ousted Haiti's first freely elected president, was given asylum in the Dominican Republic following the U.S.-led military intervention last September that ousted the military regime and restored President Aristide.

Human rights groups blame Francois, his 1,000-strong police force and thousands more civilian ''attaches,'' for leading the terror that killed some 5,000 people.

This week's summary convictions, based on the failure of the accused killers to appear in court, has elicited a mixed reaction from human rights campaigners. But none have enthusiastically embraced the judgment, and many remain sharply critical of the almost complete lack of justice nearly one year after the return of the constitutional government.

''It's better than nothing,'' commented a lacklustre Neckar Dessables, of the Justice and Peace Commission. But he said that the convictions sent the message that Haiti was building a democratic society and a state of law, and that nobody was above the law.

The convictions come in the wake of mounting pressure for justice for the thousands of victims of the military regime and their civilian allies. In recent weeks, Aristide has also increased the volume for justice, attacking impunity and barely mentioning ''reconciliation'' in public speeches.

In a midnight ceremony earlier this month honouring the victims of two brutal attacks carried out by supporters of the Haitian military, Aristide said that, ''We choose to carry out this gesture during the middle of the night because we are still in the night of justice.''

''Nothing, nothing, nothing can prevent Haitian people from crossing the night of injustice,'' he added.

Still, the judicial system remains functionally inaccessible to the vast majority of Haitians, and only one person has been convicted of a coup-related crime.

''The government talks a lot about justice, but that demands a real political will and that doesn't exist,'' said Jean Claude Jean of the Karl Leveque Cultural Institute (ICKL).

''The government doesn't want to take up the battle,'' he said, charging that the government's policy of national reconciliation precludes justice.

The only person actually serving time for a coup-related crime is Gerard Gustave, 38, alias ''Zimbabwe.'' Late last month, was sentenced to a life of hard labour for his role in the murder of Antoine Izmery.

Gunmen pulled Izmery from a church on Sep. 11, 1993, and shot him twice in the head.

Although Gustave played a minor role in the murder, 17 other people were convicted as authors, co-authors or participants in the assasination. They include the co-leader of the terrorist group the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH), Louis Jodel Chamblain, ex-Capt. Joanis Jackson, and ex-Maj. Mark Kernizan.

They have five years in which to return to Haiti and face a new trial. In the meantime, their assets can be seized, a move that is underway, say judicial officials.(END/IPS/DC/JL/95)

Origin: Washington/HAITI/

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[c] 1995, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)

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