18728: (Chamberlain) US-Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   WASHINGTON, Feb 17 (AP) -- Secretary of State Colin Powell on Tuesday
said the United States has "no enthusiasm" for sending military or police
forces to Haiti to help the administration of President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide end a bloody uprising in that country.
   "There is frankly no enthusiasm right now for sending in military or
police forces to put down the violence that we are seeing," Powell told
reporters.
   Powell renewed his appeal for a political solution to the dispute.
   "We cannot buy into the proposition that the elected president must be
forced out of office by thugs and those who do not respect the law," Powell
said.
   He added that some disreputable Haitians also have returned to the
country in recent weeks after having been denied permission to live there
because of their activities. Powell spoke to reporters after a meeting with
Lila Freivalds, the foreign minister of Sweden.
   Powell reaffirmed that the administration is working with the
Organization of American States and other groups to get a dialogue under
way between Aristede and his rivals.
   The rebels are said to be led by Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a former soldier
who once headed the feared paramilitary group FRAPH -- the Front for the
Advancement and Progress of Haiti -- which killed and maimed hundreds of
Aristide supporters under military dictatorship between 1991 and 1994.
   Aristide, a slum priest who preached revolution to Haiti's poor, swept
1990 elections to become the country's first freely elected leader. He was
ousted by a coup in 1991 and restored to power when the United States sent
20,000 troops to Haiti 1994.