PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) -- Concern over police brutality in Haiti,
                 long a worry in the impoverished Caribbean nation, has risen sharply amid
                 allegations that officers killed three people in a slum area of the capital
                 earlier this month.

                 A government prosecutor, Josue Pierre-Louis, said on Wednesday authorities were
                 investigating the deaths of three people in Cite Soleil district after local residents and
                 family members filed charges alleging they were killed by police.

                 He said an arrest warrant had been issued for a police inspector who failed to show
                 up for questioning on the issue.

                 The three were buried on Tuesday. The dead included a 16-year-old boy whose
                 body was found on October 12, according to respected local journalist Michele
                 Montas.

                 Further muddying the waters were allegations that police roughed up a local
                 journalist investigating the deaths.

                 Radio station Radio Haiti Inter sent a reporter to crime-infested Cite Soleil on
                 October 13 after reports from residents that police had killed three people during a
                 sweep to clamp down on gangs.

                 In testimony to a judge, reporter Jean Robert Delcine said he was beaten by Police
                 Inspector Yrvens Cesar in the presence of Cite Soleil and Delmas district
                 Commissioner Marcellus Camy after seeing Cesar drag a wounded man out of his
                 house. Delcine also said that Cesar pressed a gun against his stomach and
                 threatened his life.

                 Justice officials did not return calls seeking comment.

                 Delcine's radio station filed charges of physical aggression, death threats and
                 confiscation of work material against the two officers.

                 Government prosecutor Pierre-Louis called in Cesar and Camy for questioning on
                 October 18 and the meeting was interrupted by furious Cite Soleil residents who
                 called for justice for their slain family members and neighbors, carrying tattered
                 cardboard signs that read, "Down with Impunity."

                 Camy appeared for subsequent questioning though Cesar failed to show up and
                 Pierre-Louis said an arrest warrant had been issued for him.

                 The present police force was set up after a U.S. military intervention in 1994 ended
                 rule by the army. It was trained by U.S. and other foreign officers.

                 But Haiti's justice system is still rife with problems, although it made legal headway
                 last year with two landmark trials that convicted military leaders and police officers.

                 In an attempt to curb crime, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide launched a
                 "zero-tolerance" policy in June, which encouraged police to take a tough line on
                 arrests. Since then, crime seems to have subsided but reports of police killings have
                 raised concerns.

                 "The public has welcomed it, initially. There seems to have been a drop in crime,"
                 said Paige Wilhite, a researcher from London-based Amnesty International, during a
                 trip to Haiti.

                 "But it (zero-tolerance) also opens the field for police to execute criminals without
                 trials, without proof."

                 Haiti has sought to establish democratic institutions and the rule of law after
                 decades of brutal dictatorships. Before his ouster in 1986, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc"
                 and his father Francois ruled the country for 29 years with an iron grip.

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