23441: (Chamberlain) Capital shut down on anniversary of Aristide return (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By AMY BRACKEN

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Oct 15 (AP) -- U.N. peacekeepers in armored vehicles
rolled through nearly deserted streets Friday in Haiti's capital, where
shops were closed amid fears of violence on the 10th anniversary of ousted
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's return from his first exile.
   Burning tires smoked in Bel Air, a slum stronghold of Aristide loyalists
who barricaded streets with wooden market stands and debris. Residents said
gunshots rang out occasionally.
   Aristide's backers are demanding his return to the Caribbean country
from his current exile in South Africa as they mark his restoration to
power in 1994 through the intervention of 20,000 U.S. troops who ended
three years of brutal military rule.
   Business leaders called for a "day of protest against terrorism" Friday
following two weeks of shootouts and beheadings that have killed at least
48 people. Many Haitians heeded the call for a shutdown, staying home while
banks, stores and gas stations were locked up. Police stood watch at
intersections.
   U.N. peacekeepers have taken over for the U.S. Marines who arrived Feb.
29, the day Aristide fled a rebellion by former soldiers of 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.
   Just before sunset Thursday, the central neighborhood of Poste Marchand
was besieged by men firing gunshots into the air and burning cars 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, officials reported Aristide militants rampaged in
Delmas neighborhood, firing into the air and threatening people with
machetes.
   The United States urged the departure of all nonessential personnel and
family members working at its embassy in Port-au-Prince, which was shut
Friday. The State Department also upgraded its travel warning for Haiti,
saying police are ineffective and peacekeepers are not fully deployed.
   It warned against "the potential for looting; the presence of
intermittent roadblocks set by armed gangs or by the police; and the
possibility of random violent crime, including kidnapping, carjacking and
assault."
   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 fewer than half 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.
   Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said the force urgently needs
reinforcements. "We have 3,200, and still lack many," he told reporters in
Brasilia on Thursday. Some 200 Spanish sailors are expected to arrive this
month and China is sending 130 police trained in riot control.
   Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue said elections planned for 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 survivors of
Tropical Storm Jeanne in the northwest city of Gonaives. The storm last
month 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 Thursday because peacekeepers
assigned to escort it were busy patrolling the capital.
   Meanwhile, human rights activists criticized the government for jailing
dozens of Aristide supporters, including the Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, who
was detained at Saint Claire Church by a squad including masked officers,
on suspicion he harbored gangsters, officials said.
   Other Aristide allied behind bars include former Prime Minister Yvon
Neptune and two legislators held on suspicion of masterminding violence --
Senate President Yvon Feuille and Roudy Herivaux. They have not been
charged.
   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.