23522: Holmstead: Haiti: U.S. Lifts 13-Year Arms Embargo (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: John Holmstead <cyberkismet5@yahoo.com>


October 20. 2004 1:05AM


Haiti: U.S. Lifts 13-Year Arms Embargo

By AMY BRACKEN
Associated Press Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Haitian officials said Tuesday
that the United States has lifted a 13-year arms
embargo on the island nation, while U.N. peacekeepers
and police faced sporadic violence in areas dominated
by supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide.

The lifting of the arms embargo could not immediately
be confirmed. The U.S. State Department said Friday it
would consider individual requests from the Haitian
government for weapons purchases and a spokeswoman in
Washington said Tuesday she had no additional comment.

Meanwhile, gunshots rang out in the Bel Air slum as
U.N. troops and police patrolled the narrow streets.
An Associated Press Television News reporter saw a
group of about two dozen men firing into the air as
they walked through the slum, sending residents
scrambling for cover. One 14-year-old boy was
reportedly hit by a stray bullet and taken to the
hospital.

At least 55 people have been killed in street clashes
since Aristide supporters took to the streets Sept. 30
to demand his return. The violence has strained more
than 3,000 U.N. peacekeepers in a Brazilian-led force
that was supposed to have 8,000 members.

The interim government ordered an unspecified number
of weapons for Haiti's 3,000-strong police force after
the United States lifted the arms embargo last week,
Justice Minister Bernard Gousse said. U.S. officials
have refused to comment on the order.

The U.S. State Department said Friday that
"restrictions on arms exports" to Haiti remained in
place but promised to "consider requests from the
interim government."

The United States imposed the embargo in 1991 after a
military coup first ousted Aristide. U.S. troops
restored Aristide - Haiti's first democratically
elected leader - in 1994 but maintained the arms
embargo.

Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue denounced the
embargo in September, saying it was crippling efforts
to restore stability months after the three-week
rebellion that ousted Aristide in February.

The government ordered rebels and Aristide supporters
to disarm by Sept. 15, but did little to enforce the
deadline.

Aristide backers say the police started the recent
bloodshed, while the government blames pro-Aristide
militants. Police reportedly killed two protesters on
Sept. 30 and the bodies of three beheaded police were
found the next day.

Port-au-Prince's General Hospital has received at
least 100 gunshot victims since the clashes erupted,
compared to 114 for all of September, said director
Albert Camille Archange.

Nine more victims, including four police officers,
arrived since Monday, according to hospital records.
Relatives scurried across bloody and muddy floors
carrying bags of saline solution, which they had to
buy at a nearby pharmacy because the hospital was out
of such supplies.

Monteau David carried his injured 12-year-old
neighbor, trying to find a bed or chair to set him
down until he could be treated for a gunshot wound in
his ankle. He claimed police opened fire as they drove
through his downtown neighborhood.

"We all ran, but he wasn't quick enough," David said
of the 12-year-old boy.

Although sporadic violence continued, nearly all
employees at Port-au-Prince's port returned to work
this week, freeing up shipments of food and other aid
to some 200,000 homeless flood victims in the
northwestern city of Gonaives. Most employees had been
too scared to leave home amid the bloodshed.

Some 113 food containers from the World Food Program
were gradually being transported to a warehouse in the
capital, said Anne Poulsen, a spokeswoman for the
organization. Since the violence erupted, the World
Food Program had only been able to get 22 containers
out of the port, she said.

---

Associated Press writer Michael Norton contributed to
this report from Puerto Rico.





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