20539: (Chamberlain) French troops move to rebel-held north in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Ibon Villelabeitia and Michael Christie

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 18 (Reuters) - International forces in
Haiti said on Thursday they are deploying troops in the rebel-held north as
security improves in the capital after a monthlong revolt that helped oust
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
     The United Nations made an urgent appeal for humanitarian aid to
arrive in the impoverished Caribbean nation, where a third of the
population suffers from chronic malnutrition.
     Some 150 French troops from a 2,700-strong U.N.-sanctioned force sent
to Haiti after Aristide was ousted on Feb. 29 arrived on Tuesday in the
northern city of Cap Haitien, Haiti's second-largest city, and have secured
the airport, said Lt. Col. Louis Acacio.
     Acacio said the French troops are now patrolling Cap Haitien's
streets, where armed rebels are still in control and there is no Haitian
police presence.
     "The situation is very difficult. There is no police and all the
institutions that represented the government have been destroyed. So far,
the rebels have not been hostile. We are observing them," Acacio said.
     Acacio said a group of 130 French legionnaires is scheduled to arrive
on Friday in the northwestern city of Gonaives, where rebels and
ex-soldiers launched the revolt against Aristide on Feb. 5.
     "Our main goal is to secure the road from Port-au-Prince to Gonaives
and Cap Haitien to provide security for a humanitarian corridor to the
north," he said.
     Human rights groups have reported cases of reprisal killings of
Aristide supporters by rebels in the north.
     Meanwhile, U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Dave Lapan, spokesman for the
international force, said U.S. Marines and Canadian troops will be sent in
coming weeks to the southern part of the country as more international
forces arrive in Port-au-Prince.
     Led by the United States, the international force was sent here to
restore order after Aristide was forced to leave office by an armed revolt
and under U.S. pressure to quit. A new government, installed on Wednesday,
will run the poorest country in the Americas until elections can be held.
     More than 200 people have been killed in the violence.
     As Port-au-Prince was increasingly secure, international aid groups
stepped up efforts to distribute food to the provinces. Eighty percent of
Haitians live in abject poverty.
     Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the United Nations, said Haiti had
received $2 million in cash and $6.2 million in pledges since the U.N.
launched an urgent appeal for $35 million last week to help more than 3
million people.
     "It is absolutely necessary that the pledge turns into cash now," Byrs
said.
     Alejandro Chicheri, spokesman for the World Food Program, said
estimates of people in need of food aid had increased by 140,000 to around
half a million. He said there were 200 metric tons of food at
Port-au-Prince ready to be delivered.
     Aristide, whose visit to neighboring Jamaica raised alarm in the new
Haitian government that the former slum priest could foment dissent among
his supporters, has promised his Jamaican host he would not engage in
political activity.
     "I want peace for Haiti, I want peace for Jamaica, for the Caribbean
and all people everywhere. I want to be part of the process of promoting
peace," Aristide told Jamaica Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, according to a
statement released by Aristide on Thursday.
     Aristide has said he had been kidnapped by U.S. soldiers and forced to
resign, a charged dismissed by Washington.