18589: Burnham: U.S. asks Canada to help police chaotic Haiti

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: thor burnham <thorald_mb@hotmail.com>

U.S. asks Canada to help police chaotic Haiti

Graham rejects immediate participation, says risk to officers' lives too
great now

By PAUL KNOX
Friday, February 13, 2004 - Page A17

PORT-AU-PRINCE -- The United States stepped up efforts to defuse Haiti's
political crisis yesterday, asking Canada and Caribbean countries to
consider sending a police mission to help the government seize control of
rebel-held towns.

But Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham ruled out Canadian participation
unless President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his foes reach a deal to end
months of political unrest -- a course that opposition leaders have
rejected.

After a fresh clash between protesters and pro-government crowds shook
Port-au-Prince yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he
intended to sound out Mr. Graham and envoys from Haiti's Caribbean
neighbours about a possible police mission at a meeting in Washington today.

"We will be discussing with the Canadians and with Caricom nations whether
or not they are in a position to provide police support to the government in
order to bring these disturbing situations under control," Mr. Powell told
the Senate foreign-relations committee in Washington.

Canada helped a U.S.-led force restore Mr. Aristide to power in 1994 after
three years of military rule, and sent more than 100 police officers to
train Haiti's national force. But in a telephone interview from Toronto last
night, Mr. Graham said the time isn't right for foreign intervention because
Mr. Aristide's political opponents have not moved from their demand that the
elected President resign.

"I don't think we can ask Canadian police to risk their lives in that
enterprise," Mr. Graham said.

As the diplomatic activity intensified, several towns in north-central Haiti
remained in control of rebel gangs, some of them formerly loyal to Mr.
Aristide.

The rebel takeovers have escalated political unrest that until recently
consisted mainly of protest marches in Port-au-Prince, organized by
students, professors, business people and professionals.

Opposition leaders are demanding Mr. Aristide resign, accusing him of
rampant corruption and instigating political violence since his latest
election in a 2000 vote that was widely denounced as flawed.

They scheduled another march yesterday, but called it off after angry
supporters of Mr. Aristide blocked it with gunfire, rock-throwing and
burning barricades. Later, key opposition figures told reporters that the
incident shows Mr. Aristide is determined to suppress criticism and
political opposition.

They called for foreign governments to step up criticism of Mr. Aristide and
rejected calls for negotiations.

"If they send a clear message to Aristide that he must go, he'll go," said
Charles Baker, a leader of the anti-Aristide Group of 184. "You're dealing
with someone who never keeps his word. Why ask us to negotiate with him?"

But foreign governments have been reluctant to challenge Mr. Aristide's
legitimacy, and Mr. Graham echoed that position yesterday. "I don't think he
should be forced to step down by outside parties . . . or by the
opposition," he said.

Mr. Powell sounded a similar note, saying Washington is not seeking "regime
change" in Haiti even though he has been "disappointed" by Mr. Aristide's
attempts at building democracy in the country.

Witnesses said the first protesters who arrived yesterday at a rendezvous
point in the Canape Vert district were stoned and beaten. Gunshots were
heard before dawn in the nearby suburb of Pétionville.

Later, about 500 government supporters chanted "down with terrorists" and
called for Mr. Aristide to stay until the end of his presidential term in
2006. Several carried baseball bats. At one point, a gun was fired and
youths threw rocks and a pop bottle at a house on the square, apparently
angered because its occupants appeared at the windows.

At a barricade of wrecked cars and smouldering tires, a youth wearing a
black stocking mask ordered the occupants of a sport-utility vehicle to turn
around.

A smartly dressed woman wearing sunglasses emerged from the vehicle and
screamed insults at the youths. Turning to foreign reporters, she shouted:
"We want to go to a march, but we can't go because these thugs of Aristide's
won't let us pass."

A 25-year-old businessman who said he was opposed to Mr. Aristide demanded
that the United States come to the aid of Haitians as he said it did for
Iraq. "They go to all these countries like Baghdad to free all those
people," he said. "We need to be free too."

The Port-au-Prince protesters say they have no links to the rebels in the
north, but Mr. Aristide's supporters make no distinction.

"If those guys get power can you imagine what would happen?" asked
dollar-store owner Harold Geffrard, 37. "They would destroy and destroy and
destroy."

Mr. Geffrard said he and several friends showed up in Canape Vert after
being told the demonstrators planned to seize control of the local police
station. "We wanted to give the police backup," he said.

Asked why the police would need security instead of providing it to
citizens, he replied: "The police are in the minority, and they're not well
armed."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040213/HAITIQUE13/Columnists/Columnist?author=Paul+Knox

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