7647: Events in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>


President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has asked the United Nations to send a new
special envoy to Haiti, two months after the UN ended its six-year
political presence in the country because it said it could not operate in a
"climate of political turmoil."
        Pro-government "popular organisations" demonstrated in
Port-au-Prince on 9 April to demand the arrest of Ronald "Cadavre" Camille,
a local gang leader who has seized control of security operations at the
city's port.  Hundreds of other supporters of the ruling Fanmi Lavalas (FL)
party protested in Jacmel against President Aristide's appointment of
former Duvalierists to official posts.  Interior minister Henry-Claude
Ménard said on 8 April that the government would disarm the militias
recruited by the mayors of the capital and of Delmas who he said might be
dismissed.
        At least three people, including an American mechanic, were shot
dead and nearly a dozen people, including a policeman, were wounded in
Port-au-Prince last week by robbers. An American woman working at an
orphanage was shot dead on 23 March as she left a Port-au-Prince bank.  A
leading local US businessman, Marc Ashton, was kidnapped in the street on 5
April but managed to escape a few hours later.
        One of Aristide's hitherto chief supporters, Ben Dupuy, editor of
the weekly Haiti Progrès and leader of the small Parti Populaire National,
has attacked the FL for "betraying" its original ideals of justice,
openness and popular participation.  He called for the arrest of trade
minister Stanley Théard for stealing $4.5 million of government funds in
1983 when he held the same post under the Duvalier regime.
        A total of 12,145 Haitian illegal immigrants were rounded up and
deported to Haiti in March, according to the Dominican army.