21329: (Chamberlain) French minister to visit Haiti on Thursday (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     PARIS, April 14 (Reuters) - French Defence Minister Michele
Alliot-Marie will be in Haiti on Thursday for what officials said would be
the first French ministerial visit to its former colony in the 200 years of
Haiti's independence.
     A spokesman for her ministry said she would meet Prime Minister Gerard
Lartortue and other officials in Port-au-Prince.
     Her visit comes a week after Secretary of State Colin Powell visited
to pledge U.S. support for the interim government, which has been
critisised by rights groups for failing to arrest rebels accused of abuses.
     Alliot-Marie will also visit some of the 1,000 troops France has sent
as part of a United Nations-backed force to restore order following the
rebellion that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
     The French foreign ministry has said that no French government
minister has made an official visit to Haiti since it declared its
independence in 1804 following a slave revolt during France's revolutionary
wars.