21788: (Hermantin)Palm Beach Post-Armed civilians impede Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Armed civilians impede Haiti

By John Lantigua, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 9, 2004



MIAMI -- Ten weeks after the overthrow of President Jean Bertrand Aristide,
too many people continue to walk around Haiti with guns, and the country's
political and economic life are in the cross hairs.

Former Palm Beach County resident Gerard Latortue, the interim prime
minister of Haiti, has said all along that reducing the firepower on the
streets is the country's most urgent problem. Speaking Saturday in Miami, he
admitted little progress has been made in collecting weapons since he flew
from exile in suburban Boca Raton March 10 and his government was sworn in
March 19.

In fact, Latortue said U.S. troops and other international peacekeepers
posted in the country since Aristide's fall have made little effort to
disarm the anti-Aristide rebels and pro-Aristide street gangs who despise
each other.

"They have had very limited success," said Latortue, 69, toning down his
frustration as he referred to about 3,500 foreign troops -- more than half
are from the United States -- now in Haiti.

He spoke over WLRN radio and also to reporters, after spending days in
Washington looking for emergency economic help from U.S. officials and
international aid organizations. Latortue said he didn't know all the
reasons armed factions are not pursued more aggressively. But he speculated
that the growing number of U.S. troops dying in Iraq in recent months is a
factor.

"They did not want to have the risk of American troops being killed, and
they were very cautious going after those gangs," he said of U.S. military
officials in Haiti. "I can understand that they were not too much
interested."

At least one member of the U.S. force has been wounded by gunfire while
patrolling inner city Port-au-Prince.

Latortue also said the forces of the United States and three other countries
-- France, Canada and Chile -- who are in Haiti were not trained for what he
considers the main task there: disarmament.

"The selection of forces did not correspond to what we needed in Haiti," he
said.

But Latortue continued to stress the importance of taking the guns out of
the hands of civilians. He said he is pinning his hopes on about 8,000
United Nations forces scheduled to arrive in June, when the troops there now
leave. He said he will speak with U.N. officials Monday and request that
they send troops trained in investigation, "like the FBI," and not just
peacekeepers.

"We have to disarm them before election day," he said of the armed rebels
and gang members.

Parliamentary elections have been scheduled tentatively for early months of
2005 and a presidential election for the fall.

Latortue, an economist and former U.N. official, said he will ask the U.N.
to supervise those elections from beginning to end because Haitians have a
history of trying to steal elections from each other.

"I won't take one chance of leaving Haitians alone to manipulate ballots,"
he said.


Strife risks investments

But ensuring nonviolent and honest elections is not the only urgent reason
for disarmament. Speaking on a panel with Latortue, Rep. Phillip Brutus,
D-North Miami, and North Miami City Councilman Jacques Despinosse, both
prominent Haitian-Americans, stressed the need for security in Haiti if
members of the Haitian community in the United States are to visit Haiti and
invest.

"Some of us would like to go help," said Despinosse, "but if I go to Haiti,
I would like to come back here in one piece."

Brutus said, "We don't want to go back and get kidnapped or killed on the
corner."

Latortue said his interim government is making efforts to rebuild the
national police force, which numbered about 4,000 officers under Aristide.
Many of those police fled during the rebel uprising against Aristide, and
their number is now about 1,500 for a nation of 8 million people.

"This is almost an impossible task," Latortue said of the small force.

Despite considerable opposition in Haiti, Latortue said his government has
decided to recruit former members of the Haitian army into the national
police forces. The country needs police "who have the necessary training to
face the armed gangs," he said.


Quest for 'donor nations'

Aristide disbanded the army, which had a history of serious human rights
violations. He had been overthrown in a military coup in 1991 and returned
to power by 21,000 U.S. troops in 1994.

Latortue assured his listeners that only former members of the military who
had no human rights violations or other criminal pasts would be considered
for police posts. He said he hoped to have the force back to full strength
by the end of the year and in time for the elections.

But all of that will take money. The Miami Herald reported Saturday that
Bush administration officials had promised Latortue $40 million in aid this
year, but he refused to confirm that amount Saturday. He did say that he is
expecting a smaller, extra amount just to buy fuel.

Portions of Port-au-Prince receive about four hours of electricity a day,
and Latortue said he hoped that would be up to eight hours a day by the end
of May.

Latortue said he also is to meet with other possible "donor nations,"
including France and Canada, in July.

"We need $20 million per month minimum to run the government," Latortue
said.

He emphasized that he wanted Haiti to supply as much of that as possible and
not depend solely on donations, although he didn't say where that Haitian
portion would come from.

john_lantigua@pbpost.com

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