20531: (Chamberlain) Haiti's new government sworn in (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Michael Christie and Ibon Villelabeitia

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 17 (Reuters) - Haiti's new prime minister
swore in his Cabinet on Wednesday, but allies of ousted President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide were excluded and Aristide supporters and analysts
said this threatened reconciliation efforts in the revolt-torn country.
     Aristide has been back in the region since Monday, on a visit to
nearby Jamaica that has enraged the Caribbean country's U.N.-backed
authorities because of its potential to stir unrest, but which Jamaica said
was a humanitarian gesture made to allow him to see his two daughters.
     Prime Minister Gerard Latortue swore in a new Cabinet at the gleaming
white National Palace in Port-au-Prince that looms over the capital's
squalid slums.
     In a ceremony closely guarded by heavily armed U.S. Marines and
Special Forces sent to Haiti after the former slum priest's flight into
exile on Feb. 29, Latortue gave a speech in which national reconciliation
did not figure prominently. He focused instead on fighting corruption and
good governance.
     The Cabinet includes no members of Aristide's Lavalas Family party,
despite assurances by Latortue that he would create a government of
national reconciliation to end bloodshed after a monthlong rebellion
against Aristide, and warnings by Lavalas that peace would be impossible
unless it, and the poor majority it represents, are given a voice.
     "There is no climate of national reconciliation," said Leslie
Voltaire, Aristide's former minister for Haitians living abroad. "We are
under threat, we can't meet. There is a witch-hunt against Lavalas."
     Voltaire said in an interview that Latortue had insisted on not
including political parties and resisted Lavalas pressure to have a certain
number of ministries assigned to it.
     Given that, Aristide's party had decided not to participate in the new
government. He said the party would regroup to campaign in new elections
expected within a year, he said.
     As 200 onlookers peered through the green gates of the Palace and
Haitian police took positions around a nearby square which has been the
scene of recent bloody protests, Latortue called on all parties to work
with him.
     "The role of political parties isn't just to be asking for jobs in
government. ... But after the goverment has been installed, political
parties have to work with the government and all kinds of organizations to
determine what direction the government shoud take," Latortue said.
     The new government will run the Americas' poorest country, where more
than 200 people have been killed in violence since the anti-Aristide
rebellion flared on Feb. 5, until elections can he held.
     Hours before the ceremony, street gangs loyal to Aristide handed over
dozens of old weapons to the police in the desperately poor slum of Cite
Soleil, the first surrender of arms since last month's popular revolt.
     Political analysts said the composition of the government, which
includes several members of the groups that led anti-government protests in
the months before Aristide's fall, but also "technocrat" ministers with
experience in international organizations, could deepen the gulf between
Aristide's supporters and his foes, and the poor and the rich.
     If those ministers with foreign connections fail to persuade the
international community to quickly provide funds for welfare projects for
the poor -- the base of Aristide's support -- the bitterness of slum
dwellers convinced that Aristide was kidnapped in a U.S.-backed coup
planned by the country's small elite would only deepen.
     "The impression is that there is a concerted attempt to marginalize
Lavalas," said Robert Fatton, chairman of the Woodrow Wilson Department of
Politics at the University of Virginia.
     "Whether they like it or not, he (Aristide) still has support. (But)
... if they get support in terms of financial assistance, it may still
work."
     The new Cabinet also does not directly include representatives of the
armed gangs who launched the revolt against Aristide, who were joined by
ex-soldiers and former death squad leaders.
     Tensions were stoked by Aristide's arrival from the Central African
Republic this week to Jamaica, 115 miles (185 km) from Haiti, where U.S.
Marines are leading a 2,700-troop international force.