19799: Lemieux: Reuters:The government and foreign military forces gained a tentative grip (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

Government, Foreign Troops Get Grip on Haiti
Thu Mar 4, 2004 12:54 PM ET

 3/4/2004

By Alistair Scrutton and Jim Loney
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - The government and
foreign military forces gained a tentative grip on chaotic
Haiti on Thursday as U.S. and French troops stepped up
patrols and armed rebels who helped oust the president
prepared to leave the capital.

U.S. troop carriers and Humvees mounted with machine guns
and missile launchers rumbled through the streets and stood
watch at government ministries and French troops in jeeps
went on patrol. The capital returned its normal chaos, with
traffic jams and shouting vendors.

Banks reopened after two weeks of gunbattles, looting and
barricades forced President Jean-Bertrand Aristide into
exile. The government says a monthlong rebel uprising cost
Haiti about $300 million, roughly equivalent to its yearly
budget.

But many city slums, strongholds of feared pro-Aristide
supporters known as chimeres who are armed with automatic
weapons and machetes, were still too dangerous to enter.
Many feared reprisals and there were reports of several
lynchings of Aristide supporters.

The ragtag band of rebels that helped oust Aristide
appeared to have withdrawn from the streets of the capital.
Haitian National Police were on patrol.

For some Haitians, the foreign intervention came too late.

"The troops don't do anything. People are still killing
each other," said Jacques Monbrun, 64, as he waited outside
the closed Justice Ministry, where he works as a
bookkeeper. "They don't care about us. We will still be
poor."

More than 100 people were killed in the rebel uprising that
began on Feb. 5 when an anti-Aristide armed gang took
control of Gonaives, Haiti's fourth-largest city. The
rebellion spread to other cities and towns in the north.

STATE OF EMERGENCY

Aristide left the country on Sunday and turned up in the
Central African Republic, where he claimed he was kidnapped
by U.S. forces. The U.S. government has denied the
allegation.

Under U.S. pressure, rebel leader Guy Philippe said he
would disarm his army and return to Cap Haitien on Thursday
or on Friday. Haiti's second biggest city was one of his
rebel strongholds.

But gunbattles erupted on Wednesday in the capital after
police and some rebels hunted for Aristide supporters in La
Saline shantytown. Local radio reported three people were
killed.

Prime Minister Yvon Neptune has declared a state of
emergency, allowing the government to suspend some
constitutional rights such as press freedoms and the right
to demonstrate.

Chile sent 130 troops to Haiti overnight, joining more than
1,700 American, French and Canadians troops.

"They should have sent the (foreign) military before
Aristide fled. Now (looters) have burned everything," said
Walter St. Fort, a 31-year-old auto parts dealer, standing
by the smoking ruins of a government building gutted
overnight.

Nearby, French military jeeps mounted with machine guns
patrolled downtown, where streets were ankle deep in sewage
and garbage in places. U.S. light-armored vehicles guarded
the National Palace, once the symbol of Aristide's power.

Hundreds stopped to watch a U.S. military convoy move past.
"The Americans take the country!" an onlooker shouted.

The city streets appeared to be returning to normal. People
tossed buckets of water on smoldering piles of debris and
swept up garbage. Ice cream sellers trundled coolers along
the sidewalks and men pushed carts bearing huge blocks of
ice.

FOOD ARRIVES

Easing a critical shortage, the World Food Program loaded a
truck with food for an orphanage as part of a plan to
distribute goods to 105,000 people at health centers and
schools in the next two weeks.

"But security will have to improve to reach everybody," WFP
official Alejandro Chicheri cautioned.

Outside the American Embassy, a group of several dozen
people clamored for jobs. Some said they had worked for the
United States during its last military intervention in
Haiti.

"I hope the Americans bring jobs in quantity, money for
helping people," Alexandre Pierre, 35, an unemployed
manager.

Further gaining the initiative, the interim president,
Supreme Court Chief Justice Boniface Alexandre, appointed a
new police chief, Leonce Charles, a respected U.S.-trained
former coast guard chief.

The restructuring of Haitian National Police command was a
key demand of Aristide's political foes. The force numbers
about 4,000 poorly trained officers.

Philippe on Tuesday declared himself the "military chief"
of Haiti's security forces, raising fears armed militias
could soon run the country.


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