23589: (Chamberlain) Latortue criticises too few peacekeepers (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MICHELLE FAUL

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Oct 23 (AP) -- Haiti's interim leader castigated the
international community Saturday, saying it has sent too few peacekeepers
to prevent violence that has left some 55 people dead in two weeks.
   Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, during an hourlong interview with The
Associated Press, defended the government's decision to aggressively root
out the street gangs and thugs responsible for the violence.
   Latortue also said that Haiti's next elected government will probably
restore the Haitian army -- an institution responsible for some 30 coups.
   With the U.N. force and Haiti's ineffective police short of troops,
Latortue said he was tempted last week to accept help from the ex-soldiers,
who threatened to descend on the capital to halt the unrest.
   "We did tell them not to go in, but it was a difficult position to
take," Latortue said.
   On Friday, interim President Boniface Alexandre called the gangs
"terrorists" and warned: "They must be treated as what they are." He urged
people in several troubled neighborhoods to cooperate with police and
authorities to "expel these bandits."
   But some Haitians have criticized this combative stance and asked why
the government wants to disarm the gangs while it allows ex-soldiers from
the rebellion to remain armed and in control of much of the countryside.
   The soldiers reneged on an agreement to disarm by Sept. 15, agreeing
instead to a loosely worded accord that would have them surrender their
weapons after a bureau set up this week makes recommendations about their
demands for back pay, pensions and reinstatement of the army.
   The army was disbanded by Aristide in 1994. Human rights lawyer Renan
Hedouville on Friday told the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
that the ex-soldiers again are using rape as a weapon, and told the AP his
organization recorded more than 50 such cases in August alone.
   "The main issue is not whether we should have an army or not, but what
type of army," Latortue insisted, but said his government does not have a
mandate to reinstate the military. "Only an elected government would have
that legitimacy, and the population should be consulted as well."
   Haiti, a country always on the brink of collapse, has been in turmoil
since a three-week rebellion led to the February ouster of Aristide.
   U.S. Marines flew in the day Aristide left and helped oversee the
installation of an interim government led by Latortue, a U.N. bureaucrat
who had been living in exile in the United States.
   Complicating matters further, the country was hit by devastating floods
that left 3,300 missing and dead along the Haitian-Dominican border in May
and another 2,000 dead and missing when Tropical Storm Jeanne ravaged
Gonaives a month ago.
   As a massive international humanitarian effort was begun to help nearly
300,000 people severely affected by Jeanne's floodwaters, street violence
erupted.
   In the capital, Port-au-Prince, the city's sprawling slums, filled with
gangs and ordinary people who support Aristide, turned into war zones.
Police killed two gang leaders while seven officers were killed and several
people were beheaded.
   Relative calm returned to the city only days ago, though World Food
Program officials said the capital's port remains partially paralyzed,
blocking tons of food aid for Gonaives.
   International aid was to start flowing into the country on Sept. 30,
"but Sept. 30 was when the killing started ... and most international
organization said 'Let's wait,'" Latortue said.
   He said Haiti cannot be the rejected son of Latin America and that
violence does not keep aid from flowing to countries like Colombia, Iraq
and Israel.
   The international community has "a tradition of dealing with Haiti as a
lost cause," Latortue said.