20283: (Chamberlain) U.S. troops again under fire in troubled Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Michael Christie and Ibon Villelabeitia

    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 12 (Reuters) - U.S. Marines fought new
gunbattles in Haiti as consternation spread on Friday in the poor,
strife-torn nation over plans by ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to
return to the Caribbean.
     Marine Staff Sgt. Tim Edwards said a patrol came under attack in
Port-au-Prince twice on Thursday evening.
     "Neither the Marines nor the gunmen suffered casualties," Edwards
said.
     A shotgun was found when U.S. soldiers and Haitian police searched the
area of the firefight in the heavily looted industrial zone of Saint Martin
near the airport, but no one was arrested.
     The Marines, leading a 2,550-strong force of French, Canadian and
Chilean troops, have fought at least a half dozen battles since they landed
just under two weeks ago.
     The gunmen are suspected of being Aristide supporters, enraged at the
loss of Haiti's first democratically elected leader in what many of them
fervently believe was a U.S. coup.
     Sent in under a U.N. mandate when Aristide fled on Feb. 29, menaced by
a monthlong revolt by armed gangs and ex-soldiers, and under U.S. pressure,
the international force is tasked with restoring order in this deeply
divided county of 8 million.
     Since Sunday, the Marines have killed four people, including a taxi
driver who failed to stop as he sped toward
  a roadblock.
     Aristide, a former slum priest regarded as a messiah by many of the
poor he championed but accused of despotism and corruption by his enemies,
was expected to arrive in Haiti's Caribbean neighbor, Jamaica, soon for a
visit.
     His proximity a mere 115 miles (180 km) from Haiti's shores could fuel
discontent in the slums where he enjoyed the most support, and which
disarmament experts say are awash with firearms.
     Two people died and at least six were injured on Thursday when police
fired tear gas to break up a pro-Aristide rally by thousands of people, and
militants whipped out guns - including high-powered Uzis - to shoot back at
police.
     "(Jamaican Prime Minister P.J.) Patterson is making a very big
mistake," opposition leader Charles Baker, a wealthy industrialist, said in
an interview.
     "Aristide will inflame passions and give more fuel to his assassins.
If people are killed in Haiti with Aristide in Jamaica, Patterson will have
part of the blood on his hands."
     The Jamaican leader said on Thursday that Aristide's arrival sometime
next week, after almost two weeks of exile in the Central African Republic,
was for personal reasons. He was not expected to ask for political asylum.
     Amid tensions on the streets, Haiti's new prime minister, Gerard
Latortue, continued on Friday to build a new government in this former
French colony that has seen more than 30 coups since independence in 1804.
     Latortue, 69, a former foreign minister and U.N. official, has pledged
to bridge the chasm between Aristide's Lavalas Family party and the
political opposition that led anti-government protests in the months before
Aristide's fall.
     The Prime Minister met in the morning with Lavalas representatives to
discuss the formation of a new Cabinet, and was expected to meet later with
members of the opposition Democratic Platform.
     Meanwhile, The U.N. World Food Program sent its first convoy of
emergency food from Port-au-Prince to the northern city of Cap Haitien
since the revolt broke out on Feb. 5.
     Aid agencies say thousands of people in the barren north of the
poorest country in the Americas are threatened by hunger and disease.
     Haiti's second largest city, with a population of 500,000, Cap Haitien
has been largely cut off since an armed gang took over the northwestern
city of Gonaives more than a month ago, cutting the main road to the north.

   (Additional reporting by Amy Bracken)