GUNMEN FIRE THROUGH WINDOWS OF HAITIAN RADIO STATION

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Gunmen fired through the windows of a
Haitian radio station just one week after the radio broke a story
implicating four high-level police officers in drug trafficking, a
radio official told Reuters Saturday.

Vision 2000, a private radio station, was the first media to report on
the detention of four police commissioners last week, one of whom
headed security at the presidential palace, for alleged involvement in
drug trafficking.

The four officers were found at a hotel in the northern city of
Cap-Haitien where local police captured three Colombian drug
traffickers and seized an unspecified quantity of cocaine.

Police spokesman Jean-Dady Simeon was quoted by the radio confirming
the detention of four police commissioners.

Haiti's national police force was created four years ago after the
dissolution of Haiti's repressive army in 1994.

The fledgling force, trained by the United Nations, has been plagued
by drug trafficking and allegations of police brutality.

Vision 2000 received several phone calls from members of the police on
Sept. 17, the day the station aired the story, warning the station not
to continue reporting on the incident, said the radio official, who
spoke on condition of anonymity.

Last week gunmen fired shots in front of the radio station several
nights in a row, according to the station security guard.

Thursday night, unknown individuals sprayed the windows of the radio
news room with bullets and threw rocks through the windows.

In December 1997, Vision 2000 was forced to suspend a popular call-in
radio talk show critical of Haiti's political system, for two months
after the host/news director received death threats.

The program was again suspended for a month in April 1998 when the
news director received new death threats.