20341: (Chamberlain) U.S. Marines kill two gunmen in Haitian shooting (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Ibon Villelabeitia and Michael Christie

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 13 (Reuters) - Washington's top general
visited U.S. Marines leading a foreign peacekeeping force in Haiti on
Saturday, hours after the Marines reported they had killed two more gunmen
after coming under fire in the tense Caribbean nation.
     Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of
Staff, arrived in Port-au-Prince at the end of a Latin American trip,
visiting troops sent to restore order after President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide was exiled last month.
     Myers, spending just a few hours in Haiti, was to take a helicopter
from the heavily-guarded airport to the Marines' base in another part of
the sprawling capital, avoiding roads that pass through some of the slums
that are a stronghold of support for the ousted president.
     The latest shooting took place on Friday night after suspected
supporters of Aristide opened fire on Marines patrolling a slum near the
National Palace in Port-au-Prince.
     The Marines, leading a U.N.-sanctioned 2,550-member international
peace force, have fought half a dozen battles since their landing on Feb.
29, hours after Aristide was pushed out of Haiti by a monthlong revolt and
U.S. pressure to go.
     Friday night's shooting brought to six the number of Haitians U.S.
forces said they have killed since they arrived.
     Haiti's new prime minister, Gerard Latortue, who lambasted nearby
Jamaica for allowing Aristide to visit next week, pursued diplomatic
efforts on Saturday to persuade Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson to
cut short Aristide's stay.
     Latortue, who was sworn in on Friday, told Patterson Aristide's
planned return to the Caribbean had stoked tensions in deeply divided
Haiti. Aristide has insisted from exile in the Central African Republic
that he is still president.
     "I am in permanent contact with Jamaica. Let's have silent diplomacy
do its work," Latortue told Reuters by telephone.
     Aristide, seen as a messiah by many of the poor he championed but
accused of despotism and corruption by his enemies, was expected to arrive
on Tuesday. Jamaica originally said the visit could last up to 10 weeks.
     Latortue also said he was assembling his new Cabinet and hoped to have
it complete by Tuesday or Wednesday, and that he aimed to include members
of Aristide's Lavalas Family party.
     In a battle on Friday night, gunmen fired rifles and light automatic
weapons at U.S. Marines patrolling on foot and in armored vehicles in the
fiercely pro-Aristide slum of Belair.
     "The Marines returned fire and two gunmen were killed. There were no
Marine casualties," said Marine Staff Sgt. Tim Edwards.
     Supporters of Aristide, a former slum priest, were enraged at the
departure of Haiti's first democratically elected leader. Many believe he
was removed in a U.S. coup and want him back in office.
     In Belair, scrap metal barricades blocked roads. Huge craters marked
buildings struck by bullets. Gang members sauntered through rubbish-strewn
streets, some with weapons under their shirts.
     The body of a 23-year-old, identified as Jeanne-Louis Yolette, lay
under a ragged sheet, her hands folded on her chest as if in prayer.
Relatives said she was struck by a bullet fired by U.S. Marines on Friday
but this could not be confirmed.
     Locals said at least another 11 people were injured or killed in the
exchange of fire, which also could not be confirmed. Two pools of blood
covered by swarms of flies were drying outside a church where witnesses
said two boys, aged 12 and 14, were killed.
     "If we carry on in this situation we are all going to die. Look around
you, man, this is the face of the people. We don't look like criminals, we
are survivors," slum-dweller Dread Junior said.
     More than 200 people have been killed since an armed revolt erupted
against Aristide on Feb. 5. The rebellion capped months of tension in the
poorest country in the Americas.