20192: (Chamberlain) Haiti's love affair with guns threatens disarmament (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Ibon Villelabeitia

    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 10 (Reuters) - U.S. Marines, who stepped
up efforts to disarm Haiti on Wednesday, face the daunting task of breaking
up the poor Caribbean nation's long and turbulent love affair with weapons.
     Haunted by a dark history of coups, military juntas and death squads,
and after decades of slow, but continuous, arms imports, Haitian politics
are often practiced through the barrel of a gun.
     U.S. Marines spearheading an international peace force launched a
radio and newspaper campaign on Wednesday to encourage fighters to turn in
their weapons to the police.
     But with former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide forced to leave for
Africa on Feb. 29 by an armed revolt and international pressure, groups
vying for power are likely to want to keep their guns to ensure they get a
piece of the pie.
     "When we are talking of disarmament, we are talking of a very serious
challenge," said Spyros Demetriou, a United Nations disarmament expert in
Haiti.
     "Weapons have been coming into Haiti for years in small numbers. I
would say they are in the tens of thousands and we are talking of a huge
spectrum of groups who are looking out for their own interest."
     To work, disarmament in Haiti must be voluntary and the public must be
convinced there are alternatives to arms.
     U.S. Marine Col. Mark Gurganus, commander of the U.S. forces in Haiti,
said he hopes the ad campaign will get the disarmament word out, but
experts doubt it.
     "It is wishful thinking. Either group believes that if it turns in its
weapons they will be chased and hunted down. Every group wants to have a
piece of the cake in the future government. Only once they have it they
will begin turning in weapons," one international aid worker said.
     House to house searches for weapons in pro-Aristide slums can be
volatile. Americans have exchanged fire with Haitians at least twice --
killing two -- since they began their mission one week ago.
     The monthlong revolt that pushed out Aristide killed more than 200
people, and shootings, executions and looting are rife despite the arrival
of 2,300 U.S., French, Canadian and Chilean soldiers.
     The United Nations has sent an assessment team to kickstart a
rebuilding plan, seeking to work with the U.S.-led troops in designing a
"comprehensive disarmament program," said U.N. resident coordinator Adama
Guindo, who issued an urgent humanitarian appeal on Tuesday for $35
million.
     As a ragtag band of rebels neared the capital, Aristide and his
Lavalas Family party had handed out thousands of assault rifles and other
weapons to pro-Aristide slum militias, known as "chimeres," or monsters.
     Chimeres were blamed for firing on a demonstration on Sunday in which
six people were killed, including a Spanish journalist.
     Aristide, a former priest and champion of the poor, disbanded the
coup-prone army in 1995 after he returned to office following his ouster by
the military in 1991. Many ex-soldiers kept their weapons.
     The rebels had also imported Soviet-era weapons, mostly from Central
America, as they pushed toward Port-au-Prince.
     On top of that, there are "Creole arms" -- homemade weapons built by
slum-dwellers that can be very powerful.
     Since independence from France 200 years ago, Haiti, the poorest
country in the Americas, has seen 32 coups. Rights groups have blamed
repeated generations of death squads for thousands of killings, torchings
and massacres.
     Many of the rebels and former soldiers who helped topple Aristide had
been implicated in past atrocities.
     Rebel leader Guy Philippe, a former police chief, had said he will lay
down his weapons but warned his men would "protect" the Haitian people if
U.S.-led forces fail to do so.

  (Additional reporting by Joseph Guyler Delva)