19808: (Chamberlain) Government, foreign troops get grip on Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Alistair Scrutton and Jim Loney

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 4 (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withdrawn from the streets of the capital.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.
     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.
     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.