21001: (Chamberlain) Rebels negotiate for role in Haiti's police force (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

By PAISLEY DODDS


CAP HAITIEN, March 31 (AP) - The leader of rebels who helped oust President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide held talks with police Wednesday over how the
commandos could be integrated into Haiti's hapless police force.

French peacekeeping troops observed the closed-door talks between rebel
leader Guy Philippe and Renan Etienne, the new police chief for northern
Haiti, who said afterward that he was willing to accept some rebels into
his force but not without a screening process.

Downstairs in a hotel lobby, a handful of fatigue-clad rebels sat drinking
beer and fingering assault rifles, keeping apart from a dozen stone-faced
police who recently returned to the force.

The talks were aimed at finding a place for rebels until the new interim
government determines whether to restore the army that Aristide disbanded
years after being overthrown in a 1991 army coup, said Philippe, who led
rebels to take this northern city on Feb. 22.

''We gave the list of [1,500] soldiers who have no criminal record and
weren't involved in any wrongdoing to the new interior minister,'' Philippe
said as he left the Hotel Mont Joli, which the rebels have frequented since
taking the city. ``Whether they are integrated into the police or army, the
name doesn't matter as long as they can enforce security.''

Leaders of the United States, other countries and human rights groups have
urged Haiti's U.S.-backed interim government to keep its distance from
Philippe's rebels. Some have criticized interim Prime Minister Gerard
Latortue for hailing the rebels as ``freedom fighters.''

So far, the rebels still control much of the north where police were driven
out during the rebellion in February, and tensions have run high since some
officers have returned.

In New York, U.N. envoy Reginald Dumas, just back from Haiti, said the
international community must make a commitment of at least 20 years to
bring peace to Haiti and raise its living standards.

Dumas told reporters that 10 international missions to Haiti in the last
decade had failed because there was no sustained commitment.

Meanwhile, a lawyer for Aristide, Gilbert Collard, said Wednesday in France
that he filed a legal complaint alleging that French authorities had
threatened Aristide and helped abduct him. The complaint, filed Tuesday,
targets France for ''abduction, illegal detention and threats,'' Collard
said without giving more specifics.

It singles out four people who Aristide's lawyers have suggested in the
past had a role in his departure: Thierry Burkard, France's ambassador to
Haiti; Yves Gaudel, a former ambassador; Regis Debray, president of a
commission on French-Haitian relations; and Foreign Minister Dominique de
Villepin's sister, Veronique Albanel.