20655: Esser: New Haitian PM Calls Rebels 'Freedom Fighters' (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

VOA News
http://www.voanews.com

21 Mar 2004

New Haitian PM Calls Rebels 'Freedom Fighters'
 
Haiti's new Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has praised insurgents in
the northwestern town of Gonaives who began the uprising that forced
former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power.

Mr. Latortue spoke to a cheering crowd of about 2,000 people
Saturday, after arriving to his hometown aboard a U.S. Army
helicopter. He described rebels in the country's fourth-largest city
as "freedom fighters" against the Aristide regime, dismissing claims
they were "thugs."

Mr. Latortue also met with rebel leaders in the town, who turned over
a handful of weapons in a symbolic gesture. Haitian officials say
they hope to begin disarming groups in coming weeks.

Meantime, military officials with the multi-national peacekeeping
force say a French legionnaire in Gonaives was killed when a gun
accidentally misfired.

Dozens of French peacekeepers have deployed to the town and the
northern port city of Cap-Haitien in an effort to ensure order.

Haiti's political crisis came to a head last month when Mr. Aristide
resigned and fled to the Central African Republic. He later traveled
to Jamaica, where is expected to remain for several weeks.

Mr. Aristide has said the United States forced him to resign - a
charge U.S. officials have strongly denied.


Some information for this report provided by Reuters and AFP.
.