23438: (Chamberlain) Youths rampage in Port-au-Prince (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By AMY BRACKEN

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Oct 15 (AP) -- Young gangsters rampaged through the
heart of the Haitian capital, torching cars and firing in the air in what
many people feared was a prelude to more violence.
   Friday marked 10 years since ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
returned to the Caribbean country from his first exile. His reinstallment
by 20,000 U.S. troops ended three years of brutal military rule.
   This time, Haiti is being shepherded by U.N. peacekeepers who took over
from U.S. Marines who arrived Feb. 29, the day Aristide fled a revolt by
ex-soldiers from the army that ousted him in 1991 and that he disbanded in
1995.
   Heavily armed ex-soldiers based in Port-au-Prince said Thursday that
reinforcements had been arriving from all over the country to help end two
weeks of shootouts and beheadings in which at least 48 people have been
killed.
   "We are mobilizing, we have started working, carrying out the weapons
inspections ourselves, addressing security problems in the city," former
Maj. Remissainthe Ravix told Associated Press Television News. "We want to
finish right now."
   Just before sunset Thursday, the central neighborhood of Poste Marchard
was besieged by men running through the streets, firing gunshots into the
air and burning cars along the road, as drivers and pedestrians scattered.
   A glassy-eyed man holding a bottle of rum stood across the road from an
incinerated white Jeep: "That was my car," he said, just blocks from the
National Palace guarded by U.N. peacekeepers in armored cars.
   Earlier Thursday Aristide militants rampaged in the Delmas neighborhood,
firing into the air and threatening people with machetes.
   The ex-soldiers and Haiti's business leaders have accused U.N.
peacekeepers sent to stabilize the country in June of being ineffective.
   Haiti's Chamber of Commerce criticized a "flagrant paradox in the
merciless struggle against terrorism of the great powers of the world and
... the surprising inadequacy of how international troops are deployed in
Haiti."
   With only 3,000 of the 8,000 troops promised, the Brazilian-led force is
overstretched in this nation of 8 million, and ex-soldiers continue to hold
sway over much of the countryside.
   Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue said Thursday that elections
planned next year are Haiti's only hope.
   "We call on the citizens to join our movement, our effort to fight
against terrorism, and also to continue our democratic process," Latortue
told a news conference. "The only way we can all win is via elections."
   The violence has disrupted a massive effort to feed storm survivors in
the northwest city of Gonaives, where Tropical Storm Jeanne killed some
1,900 people and left another 900 missing and some 200,000 homeless.
   The U.N. World Food Program's Anne Poulsen said 113 containers of relief
food for Gonaives was blocked at Port-au-Prince port for lack of workers,
and a road convoy was unable to leave Friday because peacekeepers assigned
to escort it were busy patrolling the capital.
   Roman Catholic Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste was detained at Saint Claire
Church by a squad including masked officers on Wednesday, police said.
   He is one of at least eight people missing, including pro-Aristide
Senate President Yvon Feuille and ex-legislator Roudy Herivaux, were being
held on suspicion of masterminding the violence.
   Other Aristide allies behind bars include former Prime Minister Yvon
Neptune, who surrendered in June to face accusations he was linked to
killings of opponents during the February rebellion.
   Haiti's latest crisis erupted when Aristide supporters demonstrated
Sept. 30 to demand his return from exile in South Africa and an end to "the
occupation" by foreign troops. Police reportedly shot and killed two
protesters, and the next day three police were found beheaded.