This week in HaitiHaïti Progrès
September 20 - 26 2000
Who's Behind the
Attack on FONKOZE?FONKOZE (Fondasyon Kole Zepòl) is an unconventional bank. It is non-profitit, makes loans to the very poor, and is governed and operated by grass-roots organizations.
Founded in 1995, FONKOZE calls itself "Haiti's Alternative Bank for the Organized Poor," meaning peasant organizations, women's collectives, cooperatives, credit unions, Ti Machann (women street vendor) groups, and religious communities. With about 8,000 savings accounts, 16 branches, 120 employees, and $1.6 million in loans out, it "assists grass-roots organizations in making the transition from political to economic activity by providing financial and technical services to its members," according to the bank's web page, and "is dedicated to building a democratic economy in Haiti by strengthening organizations, providing them with the capital and training they need to mount successful income-producing businesses."
Who could be against such a noble mission? Who would kidnap a FONKOZE employee with the sole demand that the bank shut itself down?
On Wed., Sep. 6 at about 2:30 p.m., nine men dressed in police uniforms and one in plainclothes presented themselves at the door of FONKOZE's main office on Ave. Jean Paul II in Port-au-Prince. They told the bank's three armed security guards that they had come inspect gun licenses and wanted to see the person responsible. But on entering the bank, they carried out a holdup.
They made staff and customers lie face down on the floor. Witnesses had noticed that the police uniforms were very new. Too new, they realized in retrospect. Most Haitian police uniforms are rather worn and shabby.
Once they had secured the bank's first floor, they asked an employee to lead them to the second floor to the bank officer in charge, whom they asked for by name. When they entered her office, "she saw that our employee had his hands up," explained Ann Hastings, FONKOZE's director in Haiti. "She thought they were there to arrest one of our employees. But instead they sat down and told her to open the safe."
They asked for the woman in charge of the safe by name as well. Several of them were light-skinned, and they were very professional. They emptied the safe of its contents -- "surely much less than they were expecting," Hastings said -- and went through the purses of some of the people on the floor.
On leaving the bank, the robbers asked by name for Amos Jeannot, a 29-year-old well-trusted bank courier, whom they then abducted, beating him as they loaded him into the large Honda jeep they arrived in.
Two days later, on Fri. Sep. 8, at about 10:30 a.m., the bank received a phone call with a strange ransom demand. "If Ann [Hastings] doesn't close FONKOZE, we won't release Amos." Then the caller hung up.
The demand remains ambiguous to Hastings and others at FONKOZE. "We don't really even understand their demand," Hastings said. "What do they mean close down? For how long? What operations? Do they want us to close down all 16 branches or just some of them? Why do they want us to close down? Our biggest problem is that we need contact with these people so we can find out what they want and negotiate with them." Unfortunately, FONKOZE has not heard from the kidnappers since the demand.
The day after the crime, Hastings, who had been fundraising in New York, flew down to Haiti with FONKOZE Board member Charles Horwitz. On the weekend they met with the assistant police chief. "He was young and polite, but didn't offer us much hope," Horwitz told Haïti Progrès."The police came Wednesday and took all the statements and information from our staff, but when we saw him on Saturday, he didn't seem to know anything. We had sent all kinds of faxes and questions to [Police Chief Pierre] Denizé, but he didn't even seem to have a copy of those. It looked like a Mickey Mouse operation."
Hastings says, however, that on Friday, Sept. 15, she received a visit at FONKOZE from "very high-placed" police investigators. "We were pleased with their professionalism, and the information they took," Hastings said. "But they arrived 9 days after the event! But now I believe they will get down to business." Hasting notes, however, that the police lack many basic investigatory resources, such as vehicles.
Hastings said that they have many good leads in the crime. The bank employees managed to get the license number of the bank-robbers' jeep - C-6262 - and gave it to the police. "All they could verify was that it was not from Port-au-Prince, and not Petionville, but they couldn't tell us where it was from," Hastings said. "What's the point of licensing a car if you can't identify who the owner is?"
Above all, FONKOZE also does not know if Amos is alive. The kidnappers have offered no proof and visits to the morgue have proved fruitless.
Who could be behind this bizarre robbery and kidnapping? "When you have a bank, there are a million people who might want to get you: disgruntled borrowers, disgruntled staff, etc.," Horwitz said. "But when you have ten cops or thieves posing as cops, how can a disgruntled employee arrange that?"
Uniforms, radios, weapons, vehicles: it is clear that the criminals have some capital behind them. This suggests the culprits might even work for one of FONKOZE's "competitors." "It could be one of the banks," Horwitz speculated. "After all, we have more offices in the country than the big banks. And the sole demand that we close down the bank is very weird."
On the morning of Sep. 19, residents from Amos Jeannot's neighborhood of St. Martin threw up burning tire barricades to demand his immediate release.
Meanwhile, a group of his friends and family in coordination with FONKOZE's chapter in Washington have set up the "Fund to Free Amos" which is offering a reward of 50,000 gourdes to anyone who provides information leading to Amos' safe return. The number in Haiti to call is 556-3910.
FONKOZE has also been leading a campaign to have people send letters and faxes to President René Préval and Denizé to demand action on the investigation of this crime. Hastings says the bank has received hundreds of faxes, e-mails, and calls of solidarity from seven different countries.
For more information or to send messages of support contact: Leigh Carter, executive director, Fonkoze USA, 212-667-1277 or fonkozeusa@cs.com or in Haiti, Ann Hastings at (509) 221-7631 or fonkoze@aol.com.