20984: (Chamberlain) U.S. Marines turn police to keep Haiti peace (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Simon Gardner

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 31 (Reuters) - As ghostly silhouettes
shuffle in the flickering light of a candle, heavily armed soldiers stop
dead in their tracks in one of Haiti's most notorious slums.
     M-16s at the ready, a patrol of U.S. Marines scans the ramshackle
surroundings with night-vision lenses as an elderly man caked in filth
emerges from the shadows.
     "Someone tried to rob me. Him have a gun, a small gun," the old man
said, gesturing at the labyrinthine streets wending their way into the La
Saline slum in Port-au-Prince.
     Potshots at a multinational force keeping an uneasy peace after a
bloody rebellion have largely petered out. Troops now spend much of their
time saving the Haitians from themselves.
     "If you have any more problems with this man, you come to us and we'll
protect you," the squad leader reassures the grateful man. The patrol moves
on.
     Each night, Marines carry out the same vigil in Haiti's streets,
paving the way for a U.N. peacekeeping force to oversee the poorest country
in the Americas rebuild itself after yet another cycle of the violence that
has plagued its 200 years of independence.
     Pushing deeper, past garbage piled head-high, eyes twinkle from dark
recesses and the pungent smell of rotting food and excrement is heavy in
the air. Smoke billows from smoldering fires peppering the streets.
     Again the patrol pulls to a halt, this time to question a man shouting
into the night.
     "It's more just like a show of force, like police work," said
21-year-old Cpl. Derek Jervis of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion 8th Marines,
based in Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
     Marines often help Haiti's national police force -- in disarray after
former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in February -- deal with
domestic disputes and violence, he added.
     "During the first three weeks, we got shot at all the time, but it
seems now they've realized we're here to help," said Lance Cpl. Brent Olds,
20.
     As reggae beats and the smell of marijuana wafts over from one dark
corner, a voice sings: "When I see you passing by, I'm so happy." Peals of
laughter follow.
     But in a land where gangs loyal to exiled Aristide and the rebels who
overthrew him command a combined arsenal of tens of thousands of weapons,
troops are taking no chances.
     As the 12-man squad approaches one notoriously violent part of La
Saline, they trace the empty windows of dilapidated buildings with gun
barrels raised.
     "Sometimes it's very quiet. And that's a bit hairy," said Jervis.