PORT-AU-PRINCE, Dec. 13 (IPS) — Haitian human rights groups urged the government to take strong action against former military and paramilitary forces, warning that they may launch a terror campaign following next week’s presidential elections and the departure of U.N. forces in February.

The Platform of Haitian Human Rights Organizations said that the failure of the government, and U.S. and U.N. forces to disarm the military-macoute sector — the alliance of the now-defunct army and paramilitary forces that terrorised Haiti for 35 years — could lead to renewed human rights violations.

‘’Today, when we see an intense revival of the activities of the military macoute-sector, all sectors of civil society must remember that, non-disarmament means the non-dismantling of the terror network that soaked the country in blood during the three years of the coup d’tat,’’ said the Platform, a coalition of nine religious, educational and development groups.

‘’(This insecurity) could, at any moment, return if concrete measures are not taken to neutralise actions outside the law,’’ they said in a statement issued this week, exhorting the government to undertake a comprehensive and coherent programme to guarantee safety in the country.

The alarm comes as Haitians prepare to go to the polls Dec. 17 to elect a successor to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Rene Preval, of Aristide’s Lavalas Platform, is expected to win the vote easily and take office on Feb. 7.

At the same time, some 6,000 U.N. forces are packing up and leaving the country. Their mandate ends in February, shortly after a new president takes over.

But the lack of justice or disarmament, which has long been a source of friction between the Haitian government and the international community, has many worried that former military and paramilitary groups might mount a serious challenge to civilian authorities once U.N. troops leave.

U.S. and U.N. military forces report that they’ve retrieved some 30,000 weapons since some 20,000 U.S. troops landed last September to oust Haiti’s military regime and restore President Aristide.

But the government claims that international forces are not doing enough, such as sharing intelligence information with Haitian authorities. In some cases, they say, the international forces are actually blocking disarmament efforts.

On a police raid early last month against former dictator Gen. Prosper Avril, for instance, Haitian officials report that their efforts were impeded by both the U.S. and U.N. officials active at the scene.

In one striking revelation, the U.S. Embassy has admitted that a U.S. official was present at Avril’s house on a ‘’routine’’ visit only hours before the raid. Avril, who escaped arrest, has since fled to the Colombian Embassy, but remains wanted for questioning over the murder of a popular lawmaker.

In its statement, the Platform for Human Rights pointed to the role that international forces have been playing in Haiti. In particular, the Platform expressed its alarm over the almost total lack of justice in the country and Washington’s monopoly over the judicial reform process, including the training of a new 5,000- strong police force.

‘’It is (the U.S.) that fixes the content, the modalities and the limits of this reform while looking to co-opt the numerous interested sectors,’’ said the Platform, noting that under the conditions of what they called a military occupation of the country, justice could not be rendered.

Still, the Platform reserved some of its sharpest criticism for the Haitian government. The groups focused criticism on the lack of access to the judicial system, the incapacity of the new Haitian police to provide security, and Haiti’s Truth Commission, which is due to finish its work later this month.

On the positive side, the Platform noted that massive human rights violations have all but ended in the country since the return of President Aristide last October,

‘’But,’’ they said, ‘’the actions taken up until this point by the government to assure, reinforce and guarantee the effective enjoyment and respect of rights is very limited.’’

The Platform noted that not only is access to the judicial system limited, but the possibility of judicial recourse for the victims of the bloody Sep. 1991 coup that claimed an estimated 5,000 lives are absent.

They also questioned whether the Truth Commission is carrying out its mandate to the full and ‘’place light and the truth’’ on the crimes committed during the military regime.

‘’The concern of the Platform is justified all the more as neither the government nor the commission have bothered to join up in a close way with the people or human rights groups in the steps of justice and in the research of the truth,’’ they said in their statement, which was timed to coincided with the 47th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Platform called on a special commission to handle the complaints of coup victims and demanded government action on four high-profile murders during the dictatorship.

They also renewed their demand that the government allow human rights organisations, and other actors from civil society, to actively participate in the reorganisation of the judicial system.(END/IPS/DC/JL/95)

Origin: Washington/HAITI/ ----

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

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