23346: (Chamberlain) Haitian police, UN troops raid Aristide stronghold (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Haitian police backed by U.N.
peacekeepers raided a slum stronghold of supporters of ousted President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Wednesday and arrested 75 people accused of
violent attacks in the Haitian capital, a police spokeswoman said.
     Some 150 police and 200 peacekeepers carried out the raid in the
Bel-Air slum, where bursts of shooting were heard throughout the day.
     "Our intelligence lead us to believe that gangs in Bel-Air had a plan
to attack the presidential palace," said the police spokeswoman,
commissioner Jessie Coicou. "When we stormed the slum, the bandits
apparently had time to transport the weapons in another slum."
     The raid was the first joint operation against armed gangs conducted
by Haitian police and U.N. troops sent to stabilize the Caribbean nation
after Aristide went into exile amid an armed revolt in February.
     Clashes between police and criminal gangs and violence between the
gangs have killed 45 people in recent days, including seven policemen.
     The military commander of the U.N. troops, Brazilian Gen. Augusto
Heleno Ribeiro Pereira, said Haitian authorities must act, but only on the
basis of credible intelligence.
     "We cannot intervene without good intelligence. Otherwise if we go to
the slums and start shooting on all that moves, it's going to be a
carnage," Heleno said.
     Aristide was overthrown in a military coup during his first term in
1991, and disbanded the army after he was restored to power in 1994. Many
former soldiers joined with rebel leaders to oust Aristide in February and
hundreds have since joined Haiti's police force.
     Members of Aristide's Lavalas Family party have accused interim
authorities of using squads of former soldiers to intimidate, persecute and
slaughter slum residents.
     Government officials accused Aristide loyalists of beheading a former
soldier they believed to be spying on them.
     A leader for the former soldiers, Ravix Remissainthe, gave Haitian
authorities an ultimatum to put gangs loyal to Aristide under control by
Thursday. "Otherwise, we'll launch our own operation to render them
harmless," Ravix said.
     In the city of Mirebalais, former soldiers have launched an operation
to control gangs loyal to Aristide, known as "chimere" after the ghost-like
creatures of mythology.
     "We've held several Lavalas chimere. We learned they have held
meetings in the region. They have to explain to us what is going on," said
Philippe Emmanuel, a commander of the former military in Mirebalais.
     Meanwhile, two Lavalas leaders arrested at a radio station on criminal
violence charges on Saturday have been released. The other two, Senate
President Yvon Feuille and former deputy Rudy Herrivaux, were still behind
bars.
     Human rights groups called the arrests "arbitrary and political," a
characterization Haitian authorities rejected.