20838: (Chamberlain) France's Villepin to visit Haiti next week (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     PARIS, March 26 (Reuters) - French Foreign Minister Dominique de
Villepin will go to Haiti next week on the first visit by a high-ranking
foreign political leader since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was toppled
in a rebellion.
     A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Villepin would visit the Caribbean
country on April 1 but gave no details of his programme.
     Villepin said earlier this month he would visit the former French
colony after a government of national unity was installed.
     More than 200 people have been killed in violence in Haiti since the
anti-Aristide rebellion flared on February 5.
     Haiti's new prime minister, Gerard Latortue, swore in his cabinet,
which did not include any Aristide allies, on March 17.
     Latortue, picked by a council of prominent Haitians to run the
government until new elections, provoked an outcry from rights groups when
he applauded as "freedom fighters" the rebels who helped push Aristide out
on February 29.
     France has deployed nearly 1,000 soldiers in Haiti as part of a United
Nations-backed international force to restore order to the island. It has
also announced aid of $1.5 million for the U.N. World Food Programme's
Haitian operation.
     Haiti was one of France's wealthiest colonies during the 17th century
before a slave rebellion led to independence in 1804.