21205: (Chamberlain) Rebel figures arrested (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PETER PRENGAMAN

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, April 9 (AP) -- A U.S.-led multinational force trying to
bring stability to Haiti helped detain two top rebel figures, officials
said Friday, the first time peacekeepers moved against leaders of the
rebellion that drove Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power.
   Wilford Ferdinand, a former rebel commander who had been accused of
kidnapping a Haitian police officer, was detained briefly on Wednesday by
French troops and Haitian police, French military spokesman Maj. Xavier
Pons said.
   Also, U.S. and French forces on April 3 helped Haitian police arrest
Jean Robert, a rebel sympathizer and gang leader accused of terrorizing
supporters of then-president Aristide in northeast Haiti.
   The detentions marked an increased involvement by some 3,600 troops
under the U.S.-led multinational force, which previously was limited to
patrols and trying to disarm dozens of militias.
   Former government leaders and members of Aristide's Lavalas Family party
had accused the U.S.-backed interim government of Prime Minister Gerard
Latortue of targeting them and ignoring rebels with criminal records or
human rights violations.
   Robert was arrested April 3 in Fort Liberte, a remote northern town
close to the Dominican border. He was placed on a U.S. military helicopter
and flown to the Port-au-Prince penitentiary to await charges, Pons said.
   Ferdinand, known as "Ti-Will," was detained at a hotel in the northern
city of Gonaives, a rebel stronghold, Pons said. He didn't resist arrest
and was released four hours later at the request of police in
Port-au-Prince. No reason was given for his release.
   Ferdinand, who had been accused of abducting a Haitian police officer,
claimed he took the unidentified police officer into custody to prevent him
from being lynched, Pons said.Troops and police seized 10 weapons during
the raid.
   Rebels hold sway in many areas outside Port-au-Prince despite the
arrival of French peacekeepers in Gonaives and other northern towns. U.S.
troops patrol the dangerous streets of the capital. Haiti's police force is
outgunned, underfunded and demoralized.
   During the February rebellion, Ferdinand became the rebel-appointed
police chief of Gonaives, where his militia led the uprising that spread to
nearly a dozen cities and towns before Aristide fled Haiti on Feb. 29.