20133: (Chamberlain) UN launches Haiti appeal as turmoil persists (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Michael Christie and Ibon Villelabeitia

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 9 (Reuters) - U.S. Marines reported
killing civilian at a road block and police fired on suspected looters in
new violence in Haiti as the United Nations appealed for aid for the
impoverished people on Tuesday.
     With a 2,300-strong U.S.-led international force on patrol, a Haitian
council reviewed candidates for prime minister in a further tentative step
toward creating a new government after the ousting of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide nine days ago.
     But the outbursts of violence and the desperate conditions for
Haitians after decades of neglect were a grim backdrop for the moves to
restore normalcy after weeks of turmoil in which more than 200 people died
as rebels fought to oust Aristide.
     U.N. resident coordinator Adama Guindo issued an urgent appeal for $35
million in funds to feed and care for 3 million of Haiti's 8 million people
for six months. "The situation in Haiti is one of chronic crisis," Guindo
said.
     Shortly before he spoke, Haitian police killed one man and injured two
others near a Port-au-Prince industrial area that was looted in the days
after Aristide's departure on Feb. 29, witnesses said.
     Marines who saw the incident said the victims were pushing a soda
vehicle. One suffered a graze to the head, but was not badly injured and
another was shot in the back and taken to hospital. Other eye witnesses
said the third man died.
     On Monday night Marines opened fire on a car speeding toward a road
block and killed the driver, said Master Sgt. Jose Ruiz of U.S. Southern
Command in Miami. A second man was wounded and handed over to police, he
said.
     "The Marines fired in self defense," Ruiz said.
     It was the second time since their deployment 10 days ago that U.S.
forces have used deadly force. The international force, also including
French gendarmes and Canadian and Chilean troops, faced continuing angry
protests on Tuesday.
     At a roadblock made of smoldering tires, garbage and an overturned car
chassis near the airport, 500 Aristide supporters rudely gestured at U.S.
Marines and passing French military vehicles, urging them to "go, go, go."
     "We want our president back," said Junior Louis, a 21-year-old clad in
an oversized basketball shirt and shorts.
     Aristide, a champion of democracy when he helped unseat the Duvalier
dictatorship in the 1980s, has said from exile in Africa he remains Haiti's
elected leader and urged supporters to "peacefully" resist what he termed a
U.S. occupation.
     His Miami attorney, Ira Kurzban, asked the U.S. attorney general to
investigate what he called the kidnapping of the president.
     Washington accused Aristide of fueling tensions.
     Aid agencies say Haiti is on the brink, with a third of the population
suffering chronic malnutrition and at least a quarter of a million
dependent on handouts.
     Hundreds of millions of dollars in direct development aid and loans
were suspended after parliamentary elections in 2000, won by Aristide's
Lavalas Family party, were declared flawed.
     An assessment team dispatched by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is
beginning work on a plan to rebuild Haiti, and to replace the U.S.-led
force with multinational peacekeepers.
     "I am convinced that we can make progress but it will take time. It's
not one year or even 10 years -- it will take a lot longer, 10 years or
more, and we have to be patient," Annan told a news conference in the
Canadian capital, Ottawa.
     As part of a plan to build a new government, a panel of "wise men"
including members of both the political opposition and remnants of
Aristide's government, was working to find a replacement for Prime Minister
Yvon Neptune, an Aristide appointee.
     Candidates include Smarck Michel, a businessman who was prime minister
in 1994 and 1995 but fell out with Aristide over economic policy, and
former army Gen. Herard Abraham, regarded as a unique military man in a
country with a history of coups because he once voluntarily handed over
power to a civilian.
     The chief justice, Boniface Alexandre, was installed as president on
Monday in a ceremony in the gleaming white National Palace in the heart of
the capital from which Aristide had ruled.

    (Additional reporting by Joseph Guyler Delva)