PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s interior minister was arrested yesterday on suspicion of orchestrating the killings of several people presumed to be Aristide opponents, officials said.
The arrest of Jocelerme Privert — the highest ranking official to be detained since Mr. Aristide’s departure on Feb. 29 — comes as former government leaders and members of Mr. Aristide’s political party complain that Haiti’s interim leaders are targeting them.
Mr. Privert was accused in the mid-February killings of several suspected Aristide opponents in St. Marc, a northern port city where violence flared before the armed rebellion that pushed Mr. Aristide from power, the new government said.
Although Mr. Privert purportedly conspired to kill several people in the town, officials did not say how many people were killed, nor did they provide the names of those slain.
“The procedure is going to follow its normal course,” interim Justice Minister Bernard Gousse said.
Mr. Privert’s arrest comes days after Prime Minister Gerard Latortue’s government announced it would block dozens of former Aristide officials from leaving the country, including former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune.
Mr. Privert was being held at the national penitentiary during an investigation. Law requires that he hear the charges against him within 48 hours.
When asked to visit Mr. Privert at the penitentiary yesterday, Haitian officials told reporters he was under the protection of the U.S. Embassy, which had no immediate comment.
Earlier this year, the United States canceled Mr. Privert’s U.S. tourist visa but did not explain why. The United States has canceled the visas of more than a dozen Aristide government officials in the past year, some because of purported connections to drug trafficking.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said during a one-day visit Monday that U.S. judicial authorities were investigating Mr. Aristide on corruption charges. It was unclear whether the U.S. government was investigating other members of Mr. Aristide’s government.
Armed rebels and members of the disbanded army that toppled Mr. Aristide in a 1991 coup launched a popular uprising on Feb. 5 from the northern city of Gonaives, spreading their revolt to the Aristide stronghold and nearby town of St. Marc.
After sporadic gunbattles, police eventually regained control of St. Marc, but in the days that followed, gangs attacked several presumed Aristide opponents. Dozens of houses were torched and several people were killed, including an Aristide opponent who was decapitated.
A complaint was filed in St. Marc against Mr. Privert, saying he ordered the gangs to quell the unrest by targeting suspected Aristide opponents.
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