Cablegate: Haiti Post-Quake Inl/Nas Assistance for Minustah, Hnp And

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DE RUEHPU #0068/01 0202302
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R 202302Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0235
INFO RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0044
RUEHPU/AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE

UNCLAS PORT AU PRINCE 000068

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ASEC EFIN PGOV SNAR SOCI KPKO KJUS XL HA
SUBJECT: Haiti Post-Quake INL/NAS Assistance for MINUSTAH, HNP and
Corrections

1. This message is sensitive but unclassified. Please protect
accordingly.

2. (SBU) SUMMARY: NAS Port-au-Prince, in conjunction with DEA, FBI,
and other USG agencies, has stepped up advisory, logistical, and
material support to GOH security institutions since the January 12
earthquake. Although short-staffed due to the departure of the
injured senior Police Advisor and the absence of any FSN staff, NAS
continues to coordinate with key-stakeholders to ensure that
Haitian National Police (HNP) and GOH corrections maintain
organizational and operational effectiveness. Embassy now requests
additional support for the U.S. police contingent of the United
Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), the HNP, and the
Directorate of Prison Administration (DAP). END SUMMARY.

MINUSTAH

3. (U) Port-au-Prince NAS Director met with MINUSTAH Acting Deputy
Police Commissioner for Development Richard Warren on January 17 to
discuss MINUSTAH's needs and to coordinate support to the HNP.
MINUSTAH lost much of its civilian, military and police leadership
in the earthquake. Many of these individuals were in the Hotel
Christophe HQ complex and were killed or injured when the building
collapsed. Additionally, Villa Privee, the MINUSTAH Police
headquarters also collapsed, killing or injuring many others in the
UNPOL leadership. NAS Port-au-Prince immediately liaised with the
U.S. United Nations Police (US UNPOL) contingent to coordinate
rescue activity.

4. (U) MINUSTAH, including the US UNPOL officers, has relocated
operations to the UN Logistics Base (LogBase) in the Tabarre area.
Of the 44 US UNPOLs in the Contingent, 35 are in the Port-au-Prince
operational area and the rest are spread throughout the country.

Roughly half those in Port-au-Prince, 18 US UNPOLs, were left
homeless by the quake. Some are living at LogBase, some at the HNP
Academy, and others at various apartments and guest houses in or
near Petion-ville.

5. (U) MINUSTAH is finding it difficult to provide basic logistical
support, shelter, and food to its personnel. PAE, the contractor
responsible for the logistical needs of the US UNPOLS, has had
operations crippled due to the injury and evacuation of its
management personnel.

6. (U) Richard Warren noted that US UNPOLs in the medium term may
need assistance with an operational base - perhaps on the open
field near to the Embassy - and with semi-permanent shelter. NAS
will monitor that situation and make formal requests as
appropriate.

7. (U) URGENT REQUEST: NAS has a received a request from US
UNPOLs for a minimum of 1,000 MREs and water to sustain personnel
for one-two weeks until the food and water situation in Haiti can
be re-assessed. Embassy asks that INL take appropriate measures to
meet this request soonest.

HNP

8. (U) The HNP is currently operating at about 40% of its personnel
strength. As of January 19, an estimated 1700-1900 of the
4500-person force in Port-au-Prince had returned to work. HNP
headquarters, including Director General Mario Andresol's offices,
were destroyed in the quake as were several commissariats and
support facilities. The HNP high command is operating out of the
HNP SWAT base in the Tabarre area adjacent to the UN Logbase. The
HNP Academy remains largely intact and is usable as a base of
operation. The Haitian Parliament convened its first meeting since
the quake at the Police Academy.

9. (U) Embassy is already providing command and control advice and
mentoring to DG Andresol via DEA Attache Darrel Paskett and FBI
Attache George Quinlan. NAS advisors Joe Tassy and Ludger Kpanou
(himself injured in the quake but now out of hospital) continue to
render managerial, morale, and logistical support to HNP DG and
other key commanders. As of January 17, HNP leadership met and
drafted an action plan giving regional and sectoral taskings to
police units.

10. (U) The HNP, working with MINUSTAH, has prepared a list of
logistical requirements and requests for assistance which was sent
in separate channels. NAS Port-au-Prince will follow up with
MINUSTAH as requests are met, and determine whether to request
reprogramming of funds in order to fill any gaps.

11. (U) Over the past week, NAS Port-au-Prince has provided HNP the
following out of available stocks: solar panel battery charging
stations for police radios; 50 shotguns with ammunition; 10 white
smoke launchers with 50 canisters each for crowd control; 84 HNP
uniform shirts; 906 BDU Trousers; 700 utility caps; 358 pairs of
boots; and 5250 flexicuffs. Embassy also has provided 4800 MREs
and water.

12. (U) URGENT REQUEST: HNP has requested 5000 MREs per day for
the next week and SOUTHCOM is prepared to meet this request in
extremis for a day or two. Future allocations, however, will
require funding from INL. Embassy also requests INL assistance with
providing the following: 500 Motorola radios and batteries, radio
repeater and technical support; 2000 gallons diesel fuel for HNP
vehicles; 9,000 uniforms for HNP; medication and first aid kits;
and rubber gloves, masks, body bags; maglite flashlights and D cell
batteries; helmets, shields and other riot gear.

13. (U) In order to promote the rule of law in Haiti, the HNP needs
to project a sense of institutional stability and normalcy, both to
its personnel and to the general population. As top priority, HNP
needs retain those on the job now and to put back to work as many
HNP officers as possible. Embassy's strong view is that HNP must
meet its payroll, estimated at USD 4 million, in January and in
subsequent months. A regular paycheck will draw police officers
back to work, and they in turn will provide a badly-needed security
presence.

14. (U) URGENT REQUEST: Embassy requests that INL explore
appropriate mechanisms for covering the HNP's January payroll out
of NAS program funds. In conjunction with MINUSTAH, we will work
with the GOH to find appropriate solutions to their payroll issue
in the longer-term. Embassy and MINUSTAH will recommend that the
GOH/HNP engage in a public information campaign to ensure that
police officers know they will be paid on time and to urge them to
return to work.

CORRECTIONS

15. (U) NAS-Haiti Director Platt met with Director of Prison
Administration (DAP) Jean-Roland Celestin on January 18. Celestin
oversees some 400 administrative staff and 718 correction officers.
He candidly acknowledged that at the National Penitentiary and at
other facilities, prison guards abandoned their posts during the
earthquake, thus allowing prisoners to escape. Celestin estimated
that about 15% of his corrections staff have returned to work.
Although DAP has yet to take an official count, the vast majority
of Haiti's 8732 inmate population is now out on the streets and
many of them are armed and dangerous. US UNPOL Corrections Advisor
Francois Davos, who works closely with Celestin, reported that in
several cases, prisoners broke into weapons storage areas and
helped themselves to firearms as they fled. Davos is investigating
to determine the number and kinds of weapons that were taken.

16. (U) Aside from his concerns about feeding and hydrating his
400 administrative and 718 correctional staff, DAP Director
Celestin's top priority was a technical engineering team to assess
five sites in and around the Port-au-Prince area. Parts of the
National Penitentiary may be structurally viable and able to hold
several hundred inmates; the "Titanic" cell block, isolation ward
and infirmary appear to have sustained minimal damage but a full
engineering assessment needs to be conducted.

17. (U) URGENT REQUESTS: Embassy requests INL assistance with
providing food and water for 1118 DAP staff for one-two weeks. In
addition, Embassy asks that INL send a small team soonest to
conduct engineering and technical surveys on these sites: Delmas
33, Petion-ville Women's Prison, National Penitentiary, Carrefour
and Archaies. [N.b., given the lack of hotels and housing, and the
hundreds of TDYers living inside the Chancery and on the grounds of
the compound, INL TDY team should come with sleeping bags and
towels, and be prepared to bed down on the floor and to shower in
the gym.] Finally, this disaster also exposes the inadequacies of
the DAP's internal communications systems. DAP is part of the HNP
radio network, but the need to round up and transport larger
numbers of prisoners for the foreseeable future will require a more
robust radio capacity including another repeater - for which the
additional repeater in the HNP request may suffice -- and a
dedicated radio frequency on the HNP network.

18. (U) OTHER REQUESTS: DAP administrative and corrections
personnel will need to be drawn back to work or new ones recruited.
Meanwhile, augmenting the US UNPOL force with Creole speakers who
have corrections experience would help meet tactical operational
needs for officers to detain escaped inmates, and strategic goals
of mentoring and capacity-building. Embassy recommends that INL
use all available means to recruit experienced Creole-speaking
corrections officers to augment the US UNPOL contingent. DAP
Director Celestin also requested the following equipment items for
718 corrections officers: duty belts with belt keepers;
flashlights; flexi-cuffs, and flexi-cuff cutters; handcuffs; police
whistles; and leg shackles. Embassy recommends that, to the extent
possible, INL, provide this equipment through appropriate program
funds.

19. (SBU) Celestin also requested ASP collapsible batons and
pepper spray. Embassy does not believe that these requests should
be filled, given concerns about adequacy of training in use of
these non-lethal weapons and issues with Leahy vetting of GOH
corrections officers.
MERTEN

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