19945: (Chamberlain) Haiti police hunt looters, council mulls new govt (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Ibon Villelabeitia

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 6 (Reuters) - Haitian police with rusty shotguns
hunted looters in the garbage-strewn alleys of a teeming Port-au-Prince
slum on Saturday, seeking to reassert control of an area dominated by armed
gangs who back the ousted president.
     U.S. and other international troops in Haiti since President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled to Africa on Sunday want the local police to
fight crime and disarm fighters after a month-long revolt, while they seek
to restore order and support the creation of an interim government.
     The death toll in the revolt is more than 200.
     A council of elders chosen by opposition politicians, members of
Aristide's Lavalas movement and international authorities was working to
pick a new prime minister on Saturday. Authorities said one could be named
within days.
     But in a sign of possible turmoil that threatens to mar a political
solution, furious Aristide supporters vowed daily protests against a "U.S.
occupation" and called for the return of Haiti's first elected president.
     "We are going to burn down the palace with the Americans inside," said
Jean Enzo, a resident of the slums where Aristide built a power base as a
firebrand Roman Catholic priest two decades ago. "We have weapons and we
are ready to fight."
     Impoverished Aristide supporters burst out in the thousands on Friday
to march on the U.S. Embassy and demand his return.
     In the fiercely pro-Aristide slum of La Saline -- scene of looting and
shooting surrounding Aristide's flight -- residents watched the police as
roosters and hogs meandered in the dirt.
     A police commander, a pistol in one hand and hammer in the other, led
his men on a raid of flimsy tin-roofed shacks in search of stolen goods.
After an hour, the police roared away with a truckload of confiscated
televisions, VCRs, office chairs and two crates of champagne.
     A gaunt 16-year-old was arrested and thrown into the back of a pickup
truck.
     There was no sign of the rebels in Port-au-Prince on Saturday as U.S.
Marines and French soldiers stood guard or roared across town on
machine-gun mounted armored vehicles.
     Chile and Canada have also sent troops for the international force,
which now numbers about 2,000.
     Rebel leader Guy Philippe, a former police chief with a questionable
human rights record, wore civilian clothes to hand out humanitarian aid on
Friday after saying his men would lay down their arms.
     Aristide won a second term in office in 2000 -- six years after
U.S.-led troops restored him to power to end a military dictatorship -- but
was pushed out by the rebels and political opponents who accused him of
corruption and rights violations.
     The council of "wise men" helping form a new government includes only
one member of Aristide's Lavalas family movement, which had dominated the
government. Four are from the political opposition and two are from
churches.
     The council appeared to have settled on top candidates to replace
Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, an Aristide ally.
     They included Smarck Michel, a businessman who was prime minister in
1994 and 1995 but ultimately broke with Aristide over differences in
economic policy. Michel's businesses near the Port-au-Prince airport were
looted this week.
     Also mentioned are former Haitian army Gen. Herard Abraham, former
Foreign Minister Gerard Latortue and Axan Abellard of the Center for Free
Enterprise and Democracy.
     The United States opposes rebel plans to re-establish an army --
disbanded in 1995 by Aristide four years after his first ouster -- and
wants Haiti's 4,000 poorly equipped police to control the chaotic country
of 8 million.
     New York City, with about the same number of people, has 37,000
uniformed police officers.

  (Additional reporting by Joseph Guyler Delva)