A US-led multinational force trying to bring stability to Haiti stepped up its efforts by helping to arrest two top rebel figures in separate raids, officials announced on Friday.
French peacekeepers and Haitian police briefly detained Wilford Ferdinand, a rebel commander who had been accused of kidnapping a Haitian police officer, French military spokesman Major Xavier Pons said.
US and French troops, meanwhile, helped Haitian police arrest Jean Robert, a rebel sympathizer and gang leader accused of terrorizing supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in northeast Haiti.
The arrests this week marked the first time the US-led multinational force acted against leaders in the three-week rebellion that led to Aristide's ouster.
Former government leaders and members of Aristide's Lavalas Family party had accused the US-backed interim government of Prime Minister Gerard Latortue of targeting them and ignoring rebels with criminal records or human rights violations.
On Tuesday, Haitian police arrested Jocelerme Privert, Aristide's former interior minister, on suspicion of orchestrating the killings of several suspected Aristide opponents. Privert was being guarded by US Marines at the national penitentiary in Port-au-Prince.
"All I'll say is that I'm OK," Privert told reporters as he peered from his small cell on Friday. Wearing shorts, a T-shirt and sandals, he declined to comment on his case, saying his lawyers had advised against it.
But Privert's attorney Claude Pean denied the charges.
"Whatever he's accused of, Mr. Privert had nothing to do with it," Pean said. "The accusations are too vague. They could arrest anyone like that."
Jean Robert was arrested on April 3 in Fort Liberte, a remote northern town close to the Dominican border. He was placed on a US military helicopter and flown to the Port-au-Prince penitentiary to await charges, Pons said.
US military spokesman Colonel David Lapan said Robert was in Haitian police custody. Max Isaac, spokesman for the Haitian police, said he couldn't say where Robert was incarcerated.
Isaac said Robert was convicted of bringing stolen cars into Haiti from the Dominican Republic. He escaped when rebels took over a prison. The Dominican government may ask for Jean's extradition as it investigates the February slayings of two Dominican soldiers along the border.
Ferdinand, known as "Ti-Will," was detained on Wednesday at a hotel in the northern city of Gonaives, a rebel stronghold, Pons said. He didn't resist arrest and was released four hours later at the request of police in Port-au-Prince.
Ferdinand claimed he took the unidentified police officer into custody to prevent him from being lynched, Pons said. Troops and police seized 10 weapons during the raid.
The officer's whereabouts weren't immediately known. Ferdinand couldn't immediately be reached in Gonaives for comment.
The arrests marked an increased involvement by some 3,600 troops under the US-led multinational force, which previously had been limited to patrols and trying to disarm dozens of militias.
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